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Last night was the 25th annual Royal Rumble. While most years the Rumble is one of the most anticipated and exciting PPVs of the year, the consensus from most fans was the show was a royal dud. We definitely have an early candidate for worst WWE PPV of the year. Sheamus won a Rumble match full of jobbers. This was a swerve from as most thought Jericho or Orton would win the match. Sheamus and Jericho had a good final battle before Sheamus hit the Brogue Kick to knock Jericho off the apron. Based on the picture above, I'm going to be very annoyed just as I was last year with constant camera shots and wrestlers looking up at the WM 28 sign. Here's my quick review of the show:
- Daniel Bryan d The Big Show & Mark Henry to retain the World Heavyweight Title in a Steel Cage Match. - I didn't expect much out of the opener since Henry was injured, but it was still a cage match so maybe they could work some cool spots. Nope, it was a nothing match. At least Bryan retained. They really just need to let Henry take time off because he could barely move in there. The ending spot of Show losing his grasp of Bryan climbing out of the cage seemed very anticlimactic
- Beth Phoenix, Natalya, & The Bella Twins d Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Alicia Fox, & Tamina. - Divas match was better than normal, but still not very good. At least Beth went over. Kelly Kelly managed to not kill anyone with her top rope dive to the outside.
- Zack Ryder showed up backstage in a wheelchair with a back brace on. He said he had to be there to watch Cena's match. Laurinaitis was there to give him his own dressing room. Eve came back and cut some awful dialog yelling at Laurinaitis.
- John Cena and Kane fought to a double countout. It was alright in the ring, but I could never get into the match because of how stupid the storyline has been. We get a double countout which means this is probably going to continue. Kane and Cena fought backstage, and Kane took him out with a steel chair. Then Kane went in Ryder's dressing room, used the claw, brought him out to the ring, and Tombstoned him. Cena came out late for the save, but ended up getting chokeslammed. The crowd was cheering for Kane, laughing at Ryder, and booing Cena. The exact reactions I'm sure WWE wanted..... Then the burial of Ryder continued. Could this guy have looked like anymore of a geek with his back brace? I hope Ryder is off TV for a long time because I'm so sick of his character. I wish Eve would go with him.
- Brodus Clay d Drew McIntyre - My mind was blown when Drew McIntyre got a singles match on the PPV. I know it was just for him to get squashed by Brodus, but hasn't this guy got fired multiple times now?
- CM Punk d Dolph Ziggler to retain the WWE Title. - I was really hoping that Punk and Ziggler could save the show, but that wasn't the case. I knew we wouldn't get a wrestling classic with Laurinaitis involved. I groaned as soon as we got the ref bump. Punk showed his stupidity trying to make covers with no ref which he has done in the past. Plus, Ziggler was basically buried getting beat over and over and over until we finally got the real finish. I have no idea what the point of Laurinaitis coming in to count the cover was. Sure, Ziggler will be back in the main event at Elimination Chamber, just because WWE has such a sorry roster, but they did him no favors last night trying to take him to the next level.
- Sheamus won The Royal Rumble Match entering at #22 and making the final elimination of Chris Jericho. - The Rumble Match did one thing, and that was to expose how pathetically thin WWE's roster is. Until Sheamus entered at 22, there wasn't a legitimate contender in the match (I didn't count Cody or Miz as contenders). It felt like the WrestleMania pre-show battle royal instead of the Royal Rumble. I don't have a problem with Sheamus winning, but if Jericho wasn't going to win The Rumble, then he shouldn't have been in the match. It feels like his entire return is a waste now. He finally spoke and promised the end of the world at the Rumble tonight, and all he did was get eliminated. I don't get it.
- Throw in absolutely awful announcing, constant Twitter mentions (which I hoped were done with after this past Monday's Raw), and commercial after commercial after commercial, it made for an awful show. I was dumbfounded that there was a commercial for tomorrow night's Raw during the PPV. The show gets a HUGE thumbs down from me.
There was never a script to have John Laurinaitis win The Rumble. However, there was a script under consideration of John Cena winning The Rumble. He would then have to decide between a match for the WWE Title or his dream match against The Rock. Thank God they didn't go with this plan. Titles are already worthless in today's WWE, but this would have really flushed their meaning down the toilet.
The big hook for tonight's show is that HHH is returning to give the Interim General Manager of Monday Night Raw, John Laurinaitis, a job review. Real quick, in this story....
- Vince McMahon was the COO of WWE
- The Board of Directors relieved Vince of his duties which Vince was unaware of despite being Head of the Board.
- HHH became the COO of Raw. I didn't realize Raw and WWE were separate companies.
- The roster walked out on HHH because Miz and Truth caused havoc by doing a run-in at a PPV.
- Vince McMahon came back to relieve HHH of his job.
- John Laurinaitis became the Interim Raw General Manager.
- It was then announced that HHH was just relieved of his duties as the Raw General Manager. He was still the COO despite having no role on TV.
- HHH is now returning to give a job review to the man that relieved him of his job but didn't really.
With HHH returning to TV tonight, many people are thinking The Undertaker will also make his return to Raw tonight. I've heard he won't be back for a few more weeks, but anything is possible.
Last week on Raw, Jericho promised "the end of the world as we know it at The Royal Rumble". This morphed into Jericho coming out at #29, lasting for 11 minutes, and getting eliminated by Sheamus to be the runner up in the Rumble. He didn't speak and the Earth is still spinning today. He's promised to speak tonight. I really, really hope they have something big for him, because right now I feel like this past month since his return has been a complete waste.
It was announced on WWE.com today that the main event for the Elimination Chamber PPV is CM Punk (c) vs Dolph Ziggler vs Kofi Kingston vs The Miz vs Chris Jericho vs R-Truth for the WWE Title. Again, it now looks like Jericho is just another guy. And God knows Miz, Truth, and Kofi have done nothing to deserve a shot at the title. While it's not official, it is also being talked about that Cena will take on Kane in a Last Man Standing Match at Elimination Chamber.
Kharma returned in The Rumble last night. We'll see if this gives some juice to the Divas Division. When Kharma left last year, she promised revenge on The Bellas. Hey, I have no problem if it means The Bellas get more TV time.
