Words cannot express how excited I was for this show. I know I hyped it up a bit, but nothing I wrote could do justice to how I felt just minutes before the show began. With speculation abound as to who might be appearing, who might be returning, and all the crazy twists and turns that could happen in one night, I prepared myself for a night of epic proportions.
Word to the wise: don't do that.
Have you ever had a friend hype a movie up by telling you it's "the best movie of all-time", then you go and see it and it simply can't live up to the hype? That's exactly what happened with this show for me. I hyped it up too much in my mind, and anything short of all the exciting debuts and returns I pictured in my head was going to be a disappointment. At first, it was.
I came on here about a half an hour after the Royal Rumble ended and proceeded to record a rant of epic proportions stemming from my disdain and disappointment of the show. Playing it back, I realized that I was more than a bit harsh and I should give it a day or two before truly judging this show. So I did.
Here we are two days later, and I think I'm ready to review it with a level head. There were definitely ups and downs to the show and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to get to them all. So without further adeiu, let's Rate the Booking for the 2011 Royal Rumble Pay Per View.
World Heavyweight Championship: Edge(c) vs. Dolph Ziggler - The story here was that Edge couldn't use the Spear, because if he did, the title would change hands. Of course, Edge used the Spear.........and the title did not change hands! I'm very interested to see Smackdown on Friday, because in my opinion, Edge should be stripped of his title. Since the 2000 Rumble when Big Show had video evidence claiming he won over Rock, it's been assumed that video evidence can change the outcome of matches and such. Thus, if Vickie, who is acting GM, wanted to look at the footage from when she was out cold, she would find that Edge did what he wasn't supposed to and deserves to lose his belt. She's a heel and has power. Why wouldn't she do that? If she doesn't, I think this is a major oversight on WWE's part. That said, the match was quite entertaining and I'm really starting to dig Dolph Ziggler as a guy who can go with literally anyone. Still, why did Edge need to do the Spear during the match? It didn't end the match (at least not for certain), and he found another finisher to use anyway. First off, I thought it was great that Edge broke out a submission hold and tried to use that to beat Ziggler. A submission is a great thing to add to his repertoire. It didn't work, but he finished off Ziggler with the Killswitch, a move made famous by his best friend Christian. Why not just end the match that way without the ref and Vickie bump just so he could do a Spear? If anything, have him use the Killswitch for the finish, let him celebrate while Vickie yells, and then have him Spear Ziggler after the match when it doesn't matter. This would have been way more believable and wouldn't bring controversy to the table. Despite the controversy, this was a very solid opening contest though, and one I really enjoyed.
WWE Championship: The Miz(c) vs. Randy Orton - While this match wasn't as good as the Edge/Ziggler affair, it was better than I thought it would be. That says something to me. I remember many complaining that Orton/Sheamus title matches lacked a spark and were ultimately boring to watch. This led to some speculating that Orton couldn't successfully work face at the title level. With Miz, the chemistry seems to be there, and while these still aren't 5 star affairs, I think this match surpassed any non-gimmick match Orton had with Sheamus. As for the booking, I'm totally cool with it. Nexus interferes to give Miz the win. It takes away the whole "Riley always has to help" logic, or even Cole doing the honors. It was a new way for Miz to win and it helped set up a Punk/Orton feud moving forward. I'm very excited for that, and the fact that it seems clear that Miz will go to Wrestlemania as champion is something that I am literally floored by. This guy is realy getting his due and it's very exciting to see. Eighteen months ago, The Miz was taunting Cena, who took him about as seriously as the Yankees take the Royals. Now, Miz is the champion, and Cena is looking up at him! I'm really excited for that program, as well as the Punk/Orton program, and I think that even though this is a "transition" Wrestlemania in the sense that these big matches aren't going to "proven draws", it is a great long term move and one I think that will be very beneficial to the WWE.
Unified Divas Championship: Natalya(c) vs Laycool (handicap match) - We've seen this before so I wasn't excited for it. The ladies came out to the ring and before they even got started, we got an announcement, which led to this:
Unified Divas Championship: Natalya(c) vs. Layla vs. Michelle McCool vs. Eve Torres - When the GM announced that the match would be a Fatal 4 Way for the title, two names popped into my head, Awesome Kong and Beth Phoenix. Kong was rumored to be in the building that night and most felt she would debut in some fashion in this match. If not Kong, surely Beth Phoenix, who is feuding with LayCool on Smackdown, would be the logical addition the match? Apparently not, as Eve Torres was chosen instead. Now, I'm an Eve fan and feel she's one of the most athletic Divas the WWE has ever seen, but in fairness, her execution is not as good as others inside a match. Once she was chosen, I figured Kong would interfere on LayCool's behalf to help one of them win the title, but that didn't happen either! There was no Kong on this night! Even more puzzling was the finish. Michelle McCool was pinning the champ CLEANLY but Eve was also pinning Layla. The ref (who is only one man) only saw Eve and counted her pin, awarding her the title in the process. Quite a swerve, huh? I'm an admitted Eve fan, so I was happy for her, but at the same time I do see a problem in this title change. Natalya was doing quite well with the belt. She did not need to drop it to another babyface at this time. The jury will remain out on Eve the champion part 2, but it was a weird switch to say that least. Of course, I'm still waiting on Awesome Kong to get inolved.............
Forty Man Royal Rumble Match - I've never experienced so many highs and lows in one match before. For two days, I've been trying to figure out if that's a good thing or a bad thing, and here's the conclusion I've come to: I simply hyped this match too much. I had this ideal situation in my head for how it played out, and it didn't go that way so I initially walked away incredibly disappointed. Looking back, here's what I did like:
-John Morrison is not human. He can't be. The things he does are simply unbelievable and without winning or being even close, he was probably the star of the match. The spiderman-esque move he pulled off is one that will grace the highlight reels for years! I'm tempted to say that he may have passed Shawn Michaels for providing the most excitement in the Rumble, but until he has an emotional moment like last year with HBK, that may not be true. Still, he was a human highlight reel and simply phenomenal.
-Booker T got a GREAT reaction and looked great in the ring. Of course, he was elminated in the 90 seconds between guys and took away from Cena's pop who was next, but for a lot of fans, it was worth it SUCKA!
-Kevin Nash returned as Diesel! Black hair, glove, signatures taunts, and all! Again, he didn't do a ton in the rumble, but this was a nice moment and much better than when guys like Piper and Snuka enter who are always doing stuff with WWE. I don't know what his future holds, but it was fun to hear that music!
-Santino almost won! In a weird way, when he emerged I really wanted him to win! It would have been the shock of the century and nobody would have seen it coming. The truth is that Santino is more over than most stars, but he despite great reactions is simply not seen as a main eventer. Too bad, because the cobra in the main event of Wrestlemania would have been a sight to see!
And now, on to the negative:
-CM Punk was #1, which basically gave him no shot at winning. I know people have won from that spot before, but not with 40 men. You knew his story would be a first half story, and it was. He was a threat, but having him out so early essentially made him an afterthought in terms of winning.
-There was a big lull on the middle of the match where Nexus dominated. I like the story, but at the same time, they went about 2 superstars too long with it.
-I'm not really a fan of this Nexus vs. Corre thing. Heel/heel feuds don't work and both groups should have bigger fish to fry than another faction on a different show.
-If Nexus and Punk are moving on to feud with Cena, why not have Orton come out to eliminate them? Why Cena? I know it made him look good, but I basically felt like Orton was an utter waste in this Rumble. He wasn't going to win, and he needed to further his feud with Punk, not just randomly be in the Rumble without Punk. His presence really didn't matter.
-Why was Hornswoggle in the Rumble? I'm not as down on this as others, but was it really necessary? I feel bad for guys like Primo and DH that got bumped for the little man. It's great for most guys to get in the Rumble in some fashion and Horny prevented that. Not col little man, not cool.
-Kane at 40? Really? This is a guy that always comes in and cleans house, eliminating sums of people and finally taken down. He came in at 40 this year and was basically irrelevant in the match. That's a shame, and I think it was done so that HBK can go into the Hall of Fame with his record 39 eliminations in tact. I guess we'll have to wait until next year for Kane to break it.
And now we come to the end. Before I give my thoughts on the winner and how he was booked, I must first admit failure. The day before the show, I posted on fellow FanVsFan writer Alex Aloise's website that this man "didn't have a prayer of winning". Clearly, I was wrong and I accept that. Alex, you got the best of me this time!
With that in mind, I still dont' think it's a good idea for Alberto Del Rio to have won the Rumble. The guy has literally been around for less than 6 months and will now be in co-main event at Wrestlemania. Does that sound wrong to anyone else? The last time this company did that, Yokozuna main evented Wrestlemania, and we all know how that turned out.
I like Alberto Del Rio. I find that he "gets it" in terms of being a wrestling character (as he should since he grew up in the business in Mexico), but he's still a newcomer to American audiences. Since there doesn't seem to be a big celebrity match or a legend performing at the show, the matches actually on the card need to be as big as possible. Somehow, I think putting a man that audiences are just getting used to on top of the card seems wrong. It seems to be a recipe for disaster.
My hope to salvage that match, and I guess it comes from my hope for who would win the Rumble, is for Christian to get involved in the feud and match. He was taken out by Del Rio so he has existing heat with him, and his dynamic with Edge would add something to the match. Plus, adding Christian makes the match instantly sound 100 times better.
As for the booking of his win, I hated it. Not only was I against the win, but it was perhaps the most anti-climactic win in Rumble history. The guy kept talking about destiny (which should have been a surefire sign to have him eliminated since he's a heel and shouldn't get to follow through on promises so soon), so wouldn't a destiny story start earlier in the match? Destiny seems a lot easier to achieve when you come in at 38th out of 40! I kept saying during the match "man, Del Rio still isn't out, he really got the luck of the draw!" If you are going to have him win, at least make him go a distance so he can brag about that. Going barely 10 minutes and not entering the ring for the first 2 does not constitute a huge victory. It feels cheap because it was cheap.
While I'm not sold on ADR being ready to main event in the US, he can undoubtedly go in the ring, so why not let him show off those skills? Then at least his victory would have shown how good he really is and that maybe, just maybe he is actually deserving of this victory.
I sincerely hope that ADR puts in the work to build a successful program for Wrestlemania. As of this moment, I'm not sold on him getting a singles match near the top of the card, but I hope he proves me wrong. As for the Rumble, it's not nearly as bad as I made it out to be in the video I thankfully never posted. There were some nice moments, but I still feel a bit underwhelemed. Perhaps it's due to the excellence of last year's match, but this one just seemed to lack something.
Well, at least we got to see a Spinarooni!
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