The Royal Rumble

[Thomas Young]

Guys, that has to be one of the best Royal Rumbles to date.

Now im going to sleep.

[Nightmare]

Who won?

["Outlaw" Patrick Kidd]

taker eliminated Shawn Micheals to win

[Ravager]

Surprisingly good PPV. The ECW title match ended in a crap manner. Plus, why no ECW representation at the announce table for the Rumble match?

Also, some great spots in the Umaga/Cena match. Umaga running across all the announce tables to splash Cena was awesome!

[Simply Beautiful]

I was very happy with the show except for the ECW title match, but that's to be expected as Extremist is another word for second class citizen.

That was my favorite Rumble match EVER. I hope everyone who saw it realized that Taker and Michaels havent been in the ring together in about 10 years. Wow. It was like a dream come true.

[Nightmare]

That's what I'm talkin' about!

[Ryan Ro [NAPW]]

Hardyz/MNM - ***
Lashley/Test - 1/2
Batista/Kennedy - -*
Cena/Umaga - ***3/4
Rumble Match - **

The Rumble is my favorite event of the year. Last year's was pretty piss-poor (Cena tapping Edge, Rey and Triple H spending the entire match laying around to earn "longevity" praise, Angle/Mark Henry coming after the Rumble match in a terrible match.)

Unfortunately this year's wasn't much better.

The Hardyz and MNM put on a very solid, textbook tag team match using the classic formula. Two big heat segments, first Jeff gets a hot tag, then MNM takes control for Matt to get the hot tag. Memo to WWE: Matt is OVER. Really hot and clever finish. Not sure where they go with MNM from here but obviously Nitro is more of a singles star now.

Test/Lashley: Bullshit finish, boring match, thank you.

Let me explain something about Dave Batista. When he first started to get over huge, he did so as a well-spoken, well-dressed man outside the ring and an animal in it. And he was awesome. Something happened after his face turn. He started playing to the fans, bouncing around like a hyper little kid. I'm so excited to be out here! Yeah! Whoooo I got pyro! Hell yeah! I looooove the fans!

He's THE ANIMAL. The beast unleashed. No he's not. He's a pandering babyface and since he returned from injury, he hasn't had a single memorable match save beating the shit out of Kennedy.

So we get to this match. Here's what happens. THE ANIMAL spends the entire match on his back as Kennedy works on his leg. Then The Animal tries to comeback by no-selling his devastating leg injury. Then he bumps the ref. With the ref down Kennedy gets a VISUAL THREE-COUNT. The ref wakes up, Kenney gets a two count, Batista gets one move to win.

Let me say that again. The HEEL... does not do something nefarious to put the face down after the ref is bumped. The HEEL is the one screwed out of the victory by a ref bump. THE ANIMAL spends the entire match being out-wrestled, out-thought, and out-worked. THE ANIMAL has his title reign saved by a ref bump. And then he wins with one shitty move.

Minus stars.

Cena/Umaga though? Wow. Who would have thought Umaga could bring the goods? This was a fun, creative match with some great spots. I was worried they would have a weak finish, but wow. Umaga running across all the announce tables to splash Cena (Cena moves) was a great spot. The ring step use was tremendous. The false finishes were great. Umaga, though he lost, was made out to be a guy who can only be beaten by like insane lengths. The finish with Estrada loosening the ring ropes and the amazing visual of Cena using the loosened ring ropes to STFU Umaga... great stuff. Match of the Night easily, and Cena for all his detractors is a damn hard working champion.


Now for the Rumble match

It was decently fun. The intervals were short this year, which I always find takes away from the match dynamic. I timed them at between 60-90 seconds depending. Two minute intervals have always led to the best-paced, most interesting rumbles.

Unfortunately despite the talent in the match... not a lot happened. Honestly, think back. Sabu went through a table. Some other stuff happened. A new wrestler would come in, hit three guys, then somebody would hit him and everybody would go back. I thought they were filling up the ring for Kane to make a big, ring-clearing entrance, but that didn't happen. Several eliminations weren't even really caught by the camera, happening in fairly uneventful manners.

Guys like CM Punk and Finlay were in the match for a long time and really didn't do anything. NOTHING HAPPENED. Sabu was chokeslammed out of the match through a table. That was exciting. Sandman got a HUGE pop upon entrance, caned three people and was eliminated right away to a big round of boos. Seriously WTF? Of all the "ECW Originals" Sandman is IN SHAPE, really a solid worker, and totally over. *shrugs*

And then King Booker beats Kane into paste? Look I know Kane isn't as invincible these days as past days, but it should take more than a Booker scissor kick and some punches to put him down. What the hell was that?

Existing rivalries were barely touched upon. Punk/Holly, Benoit/Chavo, even RKO vs Shawn was barely touched until the end.

Then there's Khali, who the announce team was forced to sell as the second coming of Hogan. Or whatever. He comes in and hits a bunch of shitty headbutts and bad fists that the announce team sells as gunshots. The ENTIRE RING falls down for him. He then eliminates a few guys. WHO CAN STOP HIM? NOBODY!

THE UNDERTAKER CAN!

Fortunately Taker came in and showed Khali what it is to be an over, interesting, GOOD big-man. And took the bitch out. Undertaker absolutely should have gotten to eliminate a bunch of the guys Khali did.

The final four of Edge/Randy/Taker/HBK was good and finally the match became fun. Shawn's rapid-fire eliminations of Rated RKO was a bit sudden, but overall it was good.

Taker/HBK, like Andrew said, hasn't happened in years. Heck even Edge spearing Taker, when do they mix it up?

Taker/HBK was great and a good finish. The San Antonio crowd was certainly more behind HBK as the hometown boy, but Taker wins his first Rumble ever.

Hopefully next year a younger wrestler wins the Rumble to get a big push, but it's been good for a few years.



Also hopefully: Next year the Rumble is as good as it could be. I will now later watch Flair's 92 Rumble win to remind myself of an awesome Rumble.

[Chris Casino]

just to touch on something you said Ryan, Batista sucks.

the mere fact that easily half the crowd was chanting kennedy's name should tell you that they're sick of batista.

I also agree with an earlier post, why no ECW announcer during the rumble?

["Sick" Billy Kryenik]

i'm still pretty ticked about all this garbage heat CM Punk is getting. The guy is a gold wrestler. Maybe he's not huge or built like an ox, but the guy has skill. I would have liked to see him eliminate more...

Batista is garbage. Deacon Batista is better then the current one... and that's f'n bad man.

stoked about Taker. He's never lost at wrestlemania. Maybe one more title reign for the Taker before he decided to pack it in.

if he does shoot fights after... ill cry.

[Ryan Ro [NAPW]]

If Taker loses to Batista, I'll cry. He's 42 and injury prone. Not the guy to blow the streak on.

Guaranteed the crowd will turn on Batista in the build to the WM match.

[Prince Darko]

i read a rumor that taker was gonna lose to him.

[Nightmare]

Publicity bullshit, that's all it is.