As a kid the Royal Rumble was the first WWE video I ever rented and I absolutely loved it, it quickly became the favorite show for me and became a frequent rental at the local video store. I'm not sure if anyone else did this, but I would hardly ever watch the undercard matches and would always fast forward to the Rumble match itself. In my mind as a kid I considered Royal Rumble better than WrestleMania and my logic in this was that WrestleMania was just a normal show like you would see on TV every week only spiced up some, but the Royal Rumble had this cool match where you didn't know what was going to happen next. No matter what the Rumble match is always either fun or amusing to watch whether it's good or bad. Needless to say the Royal Rumble shows will have lots of nostalgia for me so in that case please keep in mind these rankings are my opinion only.
Countdown: Royal Rumble
30. Royal Rumble 1995
Oh 1995 what a terrible year for pro wrestling and that year started with this horrendous show. There was nothing on this show that would ever make me want to watch it again if I absolutely didn't have to and even when going back and watching stuff to do write this I still didn't even go back and watch it as I'm going on memory alone (and a bit of help from the wikipedia)
Best Undercard Match: Jeff Jarrett w/ The Roadie def Razor Ramon (c) (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
This match was centered around Razor's knee that he hurt while being thrown to the outside by Jarrett and then chop blocked by The Roadie. At first we get a terrible count out finish as Razor is not able to get back into the ring due to his hurt leg, but then Jarrett challenged Razor to get back in the ring and for the match to continue and because Razor is a dumb babyface he agrees although he would have kept his title on a count out. Razor gets back in and Jarrett locks in his figure four furthering the damage on the knee, Razor gets out of the hold and then tries for a Razor's Edge, but his leg gives out and Jarrett is able to pin him to become the new Intercontinental Champion. This match is decent, but nothing special and I have it as best match on the show, so that lets you know how bad the rest of the show is.
Best Undercard Match: Jeff Jarrett w/ The Roadie def Razor Ramon (c) (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
This match was centered around Razor's knee that he hurt while being thrown to the outside by Jarrett and then chop blocked by The Roadie. At first we get a terrible count out finish as Razor is not able to get back into the ring due to his hurt leg, but then Jarrett challenged Razor to get back in the ring and for the match to continue and because Razor is a dumb babyface he agrees although he would have kept his title on a count out. Razor gets back in and Jarrett locks in his figure four furthering the damage on the knee, Razor gets out of the hold and then tries for a Razor's Edge, but his leg gives out and Jarrett is able to pin him to become the new Intercontinental Champion. This match is decent, but nothing special and I have it as best match on the show, so that lets you know how bad the rest of the show is.
Worst Undercard Match: The Undertaker w/ Paul Bearer def IRS w/ Ted Dibiase
The Undertaker at this point had been in the WWF for a little over 4 years and in those years he never had one memorable or above average match, this was mostly because of the feuds he was in and the people he was up against. Undertaker's feud with the Million Dollar Corporation in 1995 was the absolute worst as the entire group except for Tatanka & Bigelow were the absolute worst (and neither of those were put against Undertaker in this feud). At this Rumble Undertaker would face off against the tax man Irwin R Schyster aka IRS. I have never been a fan of Mike Rotunda as I find him to be one of the most boring people to ever step into a wrestling ring. This match saw Ted Dibiase call out his own druids to attack The Undertaker, but Undertaker would fight them off and chokeslam IRS for the win. After the match Dibiase called King Kong Bundy out to attack Undertaker (more on that lovely feud when I rank the Wrestlemanias) and steal the urn from Paul Bearer. A boring match against a boring opponent leads to the worst match at the 1995 Royal Rumble and most likely a Top 10 candidate for worst match in the entire history of the Royal Rumble.
The Undertaker at this point had been in the WWF for a little over 4 years and in those years he never had one memorable or above average match, this was mostly because of the feuds he was in and the people he was up against. Undertaker's feud with the Million Dollar Corporation in 1995 was the absolute worst as the entire group except for Tatanka & Bigelow were the absolute worst (and neither of those were put against Undertaker in this feud). At this Rumble Undertaker would face off against the tax man Irwin R Schyster aka IRS. I have never been a fan of Mike Rotunda as I find him to be one of the most boring people to ever step into a wrestling ring. This match saw Ted Dibiase call out his own druids to attack The Undertaker, but Undertaker would fight them off and chokeslam IRS for the win. After the match Dibiase called King Kong Bundy out to attack Undertaker (more on that lovely feud when I rank the Wrestlemanias) and steal the urn from Paul Bearer. A boring match against a boring opponent leads to the worst match at the 1995 Royal Rumble and most likely a Top 10 candidate for worst match in the entire history of the Royal Rumble.
Worst Finish: Diesel (c) vs Bret Hart (WWE Championship) - No Contest
Diesel and Bret would have a great match in 1995, but this was definitely not it. In this match Bret would work on Diesel's legs as you would expect him to do for any big man this would include him tying Diesel's legs to the ring post with tape and kicking him, but Diesel would regain the advantage by using his size and power moves to throw Hart around until he eventually hit him with the Jacknife Powerbomb. The referee would go to count the pinfall, but Shawn Michaels would run in out of nowhere and attack Diesel and for some reason the referee allowed this and the match continued. The two would go at it a few more minutes until Bret would put him in the sharpshooter and this would lead to Owen Hart interfering and attacking his older brother Bret, but still for some reason the referee was ok with this (did this match become No DQ and nobody told the audience?). The two brawl some more and Bret rolled Diesel up, but the referee had been knocked out and because of this the two previous intruders as well as Jeff Jarrett, The Roadie, & Bob Backlund came out to attack both men, I'm not too sure why Jarrett & The Roadie were out there, but who cares at this point. The ref would finally wake up from his dreams of refereeing a ECW show since he obviously doesn't like to DQ anyone and would finally call for the bell as he was throwing this match out and calling it a no contest. I'm not sure what the purpose of a finish like this was, I get why Shawn & Backlund interfered as they wanted to heat up the two WrestleMania matches and Owen makes since as he had feuded with Bret all through 1994, but what was the point of letting the match go on after not one, but two run ins just didn't make since.
Diesel and Bret would have a great match in 1995, but this was definitely not it. In this match Bret would work on Diesel's legs as you would expect him to do for any big man this would include him tying Diesel's legs to the ring post with tape and kicking him, but Diesel would regain the advantage by using his size and power moves to throw Hart around until he eventually hit him with the Jacknife Powerbomb. The referee would go to count the pinfall, but Shawn Michaels would run in out of nowhere and attack Diesel and for some reason the referee allowed this and the match continued. The two would go at it a few more minutes until Bret would put him in the sharpshooter and this would lead to Owen Hart interfering and attacking his older brother Bret, but still for some reason the referee was ok with this (did this match become No DQ and nobody told the audience?). The two brawl some more and Bret rolled Diesel up, but the referee had been knocked out and because of this the two previous intruders as well as Jeff Jarrett, The Roadie, & Bob Backlund came out to attack both men, I'm not too sure why Jarrett & The Roadie were out there, but who cares at this point. The ref would finally wake up from his dreams of refereeing a ECW show since he obviously doesn't like to DQ anyone and would finally call for the bell as he was throwing this match out and calling it a no contest. I'm not sure what the purpose of a finish like this was, I get why Shawn & Backlund interfered as they wanted to heat up the two WrestleMania matches and Owen makes since as he had feuded with Bret all through 1994, but what was the point of letting the match go on after not one, but two run ins just didn't make since.
Needless Match: The 1-2-3 Kid & Bob Holly def Tatanka & Bam Bam Bigelow (WWE Tag Team Championship Tournament Final Match)
Even though this was the finals of a tag tournament, I feel the only reason it was placed on the Rumble card is to use it to get LT to heckle Bigelow to set up the WrestleMania match. If it were not for that reason then they could have easily had this match on Raw and gave the Royal Rumble match itself more time and allowed these four men to be in the match which would add a few more stars to the match as it was greatly needed this year. It wasn't like they really wanted Kid & Holly to have the belts that bad as they would lose them the next night anyway, also if this wasn't to set up the main event of WrestleMania then they would have had this match before the WWE Championship. The match was basically Bigelow & Tatanka using their strength to dominate while Kid & Holly would use their speed to outsmart their bigger opponents. The finish came when Tatanka accidentally knocked Bigelow off the top rope as he was attempting a moonsault and this allowed Kid to pin him for the win.
Royal Rumble Match
Every time I hear the WWE or anyone else talk highly of Shawn Michaels's victory in this match I can't help but cringe as there have been people enter after halfway point of the rumble that have stayed in it longer than HBK did coming in at number 1, not only was the length of time he was in the ring a factor, but the quality of competition was piss poor as the majority of the roster for this match was at jobber level, other than Shawn there were only 4 others that you could see potentially winning this match (Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Lex Luger, or Bob Backlund). There are only 6 men in this match that lasted 10 minutes or longer and most were gone in the blink of an eye or a turn of the head. The only positive in this match was the finish where Bulldog thought he had eliminated Shawn, but both of Shawn's feet didn't touch the floor and he came back in to eliminate Bulldog for the win. The prize for winning The Royal Rumble is to go on to WrestleMania to challenge for the title, but you would never know that if this was your first rumble match as this year they felt having Pamela Anderson getting to escort you to the ring at WrestleMania was way more important of a prize than having a match for the WWE Championship. From quick eliminations, 60 second intervals, and the lack of real star power or even people who were over with the fans are the reasons why I consider this the worst Royal Rumble match in history.
Best Undercard Match: CM Punk (c) def Dolph Ziggler (WWE Championship)
This match was more of a feud between CM Punk and John Laurinaitis than it was between CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler. At this time they had Punk being against the Authority of John Laurinaitis trying the best they could to relive the summer of Punk that had happened the previous summer, but it wasn't the same as nobody cared that much about Johnny Ace to make him as big of a heel as Vince McMahon was. Going into this match Johnny Ace made himself the special referee as well as banning both Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger from ringside. This all makes sense and sounds like any other authority figure in the history of WWE, but come time for the match Johnny Ace decides to make himself the outside referee which made zero sense as it would be difficult for him to screw Punk which he had openly said he was going to do. The match itself is really good, but the finish makes the whole story going into the match pointless as after the referee is knocked out Punk hits a GTS on Ziggler and Johnny Ace actually comes in and counts to three giving Punk the win. So if he was going to be completely fair to the babyface and not even try to screw him then what was the point of having him out there to begin with? Good match, but needed a different ending.
Worst Undercard Match: John Cena vs Kane - No Contest
At WrestleMania 28 John Cena was already scheduled to face The Rock in the "Once in a Lifetime" dream match, but until then he needed something to do so out of all people on the roster at this time he goes into a feud with a returning Kane. This wasn't just any version Kane though, this was Kane with a welder's mask who chose to smother his opponents until they were unconscious. Kane's whole reason of going after Cena was that he wanted Cena to embrace the hate within. If this wasn't bizarre enough of a feud for Cena already they decided to attach both Zack Ryder and Eve Torres to this feud. Zack Ryder would all of a sudden become Cena's best friend on the roster and would have to come save his butt every time Kane tried to near kill him. Ryder at the time was having an on screen romance with Eve Torres and blamed Cena every time Kane attacked Ryder. This match wouldn't last long as it would spill to the outside and to the back where Kane would lay Cena out with multiple chair shots and then would go after an already injured Zack Ryder who after being attacked by Kane on the previous Raw was in a neck and back brace as well as in a wheelchair. Kane would roll Ryder to the ring in his wheelchair and then hit a tombstone on Ryder before Cena could come back out and make the save. A terrible feud and an even worse match and the bad part is that the feud didn't end here as they would go into the next ppv and fight in an ambulance match.
Daniel vs Two Goliaths - Daniel Bryan (c) def The Big Show & Mark Henry (World Heavyweight Championship - Steel Cage Match)
The opening match of the night was a steel cage match that saw Daniel Bryan as the underdog against both The Big Show & Mark Henry. This was during Daniel Bryan's first reign as World Heavyweight Champion where he beat The Big Show at TLC by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and capitalizing on a post match attack by Mark Henry. In the weeks following his would be in matches against both Henry & Show and every time he would find a sneaky way to either win the match or get out of it all together whether it was causing Show to run into his then girlfriend AJ Lee hurting her and leading the referee to throwing the match out or it was pissing off all the lumberjacks during a lumberjack match and making them fight each other. Teddy Long had enough of Bryan's antics so he booked a match that he knew it would be hard for Daniel to weasel his way out of a steel cage match. The match consisted of Bryan trying to climb out of the cage any time he had the smallest chance to, but Show and Henry would always stop him. Bryan gets thrown from one side of the cage to the other like a rag doll as Henry & Show take out their revenge on him for making them look like fools in the weeks leading up to this. The finish sees Henry picking up Bryan, but Show hits the WMD on Henry to KO him and take him out of the match. Bryan goes up to try and climb out and just as he is on the outside of the cage Show grabs him by the head only for Bryan to try and punch him off, Bryan slides further down the cage, but Show grabs him by the wrist to try and stop him, but Bryan slips off and lands on the floor to win the match.
Other MatchesOther matches on the card were Drew McIntyre losing to Brodus Clay in a squash match as well as the team of Beth Phoenix, Natalya, & The Bella Twins beating Kell Kelly, Tamina, Alicia Fox, & Eve Torres.
Royal Rumble Match:
For most people this years Rumble match won't stand out as it will probably get lost in the shuffle as most rumble matches after 2008 all seem to run together. I'm not sure where all the top names were at this time, but they were definitely needed in this match as WWE was adding anyone they could to this match in order to get it to 30 participants, but most of them were not even mid card guys. Just like in 1995 the finish is the only great thing in this match that gets you excited on repeated viewings. In the first portion of the match there was a very stretched out comedy segment involving Mick Foley, Ricardo Rodriguez, and Santino Marella that was ok when I watched this live, but after watching it again comes off very childish and not needed in this match. Due to the lack of real top names in this match they had all three of the announcers enter the match at one point (yes even Michael Cole) which was meaningless as none of them stayed in for a long period of time and everyone knew they didn't have a chance of winning. We did have one cool and unexpected surprise as Kharma made her one night return to toss out Michael Cole & Hunico. Other participants that made this Rumble suck were Jinder Mahal, Jim Duggan, & David Otunga. We finally get to the final 2 of Chris Jericho and Sheamus who go back and forth for a while teasing eliminations. The finish comes when Jericho goes for a Codebreaker, but Sheamus counters it by tossing him out, but Jericho's feet don't touch the floor. Jericho stands back up on the apron and is immediately hit with a Brogue kick to be eliminated. Looking back having Sheamus win instead of Jericho was a stupid mistake considering how Sheamus's match at WrestleMania would go as they could have still gotten Sheamus vs Bryan at WrestleMania without Sheamus winning this.
28. Royal Rumble 2006
The 2006 Rumble was the first Rumble in four years that I didn't watch live as I had to get someone to tape it for me, but I remember being excited for the show and then once I watched it I was both shocked and confused as to why the Rumble match wasn't even in the semi-main event let alone the main event, once I watched the show and then finished watching the Rumble match I was like surely the WWE Championship match would be last, but yet again WWE surprised me as it was only the semi-main event. The fact that they put the World Heavyweight Championship match last just so they could do some "spooky"fireworks and ring breaking crap with The Undertaker was such a bad idea, they could have done The Undertaker stuff on an episode of Smackdown. I was actually at the Smackdown before this show and it was pretty lackluster as the main event was a 2-on-1 handicap match with Kurt Angle vs MNM. Even though this show's card order is all messed up it's a decent show overall. In addition to the matches I will also be giving details about the segments where people are picking their Rumble match numbers.
Best Undercard Match: John Cena def Edge (c) (WWE Championship)
It was really hard to choose the best match as there were only two and this was the better of the two, but only by a hair. Early in January Edge had cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Cena after he had just won a hard fought Elimination Chamber match and won the WWE Championship. The next night Edge and Lita would have their Live Sex Celebration until Cena came out and broke it up and hit Lita with an AA. It should be noted that in the weeks Edge was champion there was a rise in the ratings that hadn't been seen in a while.
John Cena for some reason had a special entrance at Royal Rumble that consisted of him coming down from the ceiling on a stage that looked like a space ship and shot confetti. I guess they had two ideas for a special WrestleMania entrance for Cena this year and decided they would do one at Rumble and one at WrestleMania. Edge by the way who is the champion came to the ring like usual.
The finishing sequence is Edge going for a spear, but Cena moves and hits a DDT on Edge and both men are down until an 8 count. Cena hits a few shoulder blocks and clotheslines followed by the spin out powerbomb and the 5 knuckle shuffle. Lita gets on the apron to distract Cena as Edge makes his way back to his feet, Edge runs at Cena, but he moves and Edge crashes into Lita and knocks her off the apron. Cena hits Edge with an AA and then follows it up by locking him in the STF to get the win by submission and end what was becoming a great first reign for Edge, but this is WWE and we aren't allowed to have nice things for very long.
Worst Undercard Match: The Boogeyman def JBL
There are really 3 matches on this card that I could have put as worst match, but this match wasn't needed and JBL should have been another name in the Rumble instead of being involved in this shit. People always knock me when I bring this up, but I will always stick with the opinion that The Boogeyman should have been a heel as The Boogeyman is suppose to be scary not comedic which is what WWE's version of Boogeyman was. I mean if he were a heel he could have had a feud with Undertaker I mean hell it wouldn't be the worst feud Undertaker ever had lol. Leading up to this match we had the legendary segment on Smackdown where The Boogeyman bit off the growth on Jillian Hall's face.
The match starts with JBL shoving Jillian in front of him and getting out of the ring, Boogey mounts Jillian and puts worms on her face and in her mouth. JBL comes from behind and jumps Boogey sending him to the outside, JBL sends Boogey into the steps and off the announce table followed by a big boot. JBL shouts for Jillian and she gets on the apron to distract the referee as JBL chokes Boogey with his wrist tape. Boogey tries for the two handed chokeslam, but gets a poke in the eyes from JBL instead. JBL lands a few right hands before trying for the Clothesline from Hell, but Boogey ducks and JBL goes into the ring post. Boogey then hits JBL with a boot and a pumphandle slam for the win at only 1:54. This was a terrible match as all matches involving The Boogeyman are.
The Saga of Trish & Mickie Continues: Mickie James def Ashley (Special Referee: Trish Stratus)I absolutely love Mickie James and have been a fan of her since the first day she debuted in WWE and I loved the story between Trish & Mickie, but this match is not good at all and it's all Ashley's fault as she was terrible in the ring and never got any better. People want to talk crap about Eva Marie now, but I never remember them talking crap about Ashley back in 2006 and if you ask me Eva Marie has more of that special It factor and charisma in her pinky finger than Ashley had in her entire body. Right before this match started Mickie caught Trish on her way to the ring and told her that she loved her and this stunned Trish.
One thing I did like in this match was how vicious Mickie was to Ashley due to her both wanting to impress Trish as well as get Ashley out of the way as at the time her and Trish were good friends on screen and Ashley was standing in the way of Mickie getting what she wants. I can sum this match up with everything Mickie did was great and everything Ashley did was the shits. The finish comes when Ashley goes for the 10 punches in the corner, but Mickie grabs her and powerbombs her hard to the mat for the win. After the match Mickie hugs Trish and is all excited, but Trish pushes her away. Poor Mickie having to have a match with Ashley.
Vince McMahon is a Dirty Old ManAfter every match we would get backstage segments with various superstars picking their Rumble number. We would also see Vince being a dirty perverted old man as he was joined in these segments by Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, & Victoria otherwise known as Vince's Devils. The first of these segments sees Triple H and Randy Orton coming in, Triple H flirts with the girls asking Torrie to open her box and asking Candice to blow on his ball smh. Triple H is pissed with the number he gets and Orton laughs at him and tells him he will see him out there, or maybe he won't.
The next one shows Vince wanting to see the tattoos of the ladies when Big Show enters and offers to show his tattoos, but Vince suggests he pick his number instead. Show asks one of the girls to pick the number for him since his hand can't fit in the hole of the tumbler, there is also a joke about Show having blue balls. Rey comes in and picks his number and looks at it and laughs and shakes his head and says Eddie got him this time, this was part of the blatant exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death as would be everything having to do with Rey Mysterio around this time.
In the final number picking segment of the night Vince is talking to the ladies and suddenly he feels someone grab him and he looks at the girls but they point to someone off screen as we see Shelton Benjamin's Mama. Shelton Benjamin and his Mama come to pick his number and Shelton promises to eliminate Shawn Michaels from the Rumble match, MNM come in and Shelton is looking Melina over until his Mama gets onto him and tells him to come on. MNM pick their numbers and then they promise to eliminate Shawn Michaels also. Vince and the ladies then sit on the couch to watch the Royal Rumble match.
Cruiserweight Action: Gregory Helms def Kid Kash (c), Funaki, Paul London, Nunzio, & Jamie Noble (WWE Cruiserweight Championship - 6 Way Tornado Match)This was the only other undercard match worth watching this match was fast paced with lots of fun spots, but I wish it was elimination as that's the way I usually like these multi man cruiserweight matches to go. TNA was always really good at these matches with the X-Division my favorite is the one from Slammiversary 2006.
The match finish is Noble hitting the fireman's carry gutbuster on Funaki and then locks in a dragon sleeper. Helms comes in and tries to kick Noble to break the hold, but Noble ducks it so instead Helms just grabs him and throws him out of the ring and then turns around and hits a shining wizard on Funaki for the win.
A Complete Sham of a Main Event: Kurt Angle (c) def Mark Henry (World Heavyweight Championship)Such a lackluster main event to close out one of the worst Rumble shows ever. The finish sees Angle put Henry in the ankle lock, but Henry kicks him off and Angle bumps into the referee. Angle grabs a chair and first lays out Henry's manager Daivari and then tries to hit Henry, but Henry grabs it and throws it away. Angle low blows Henry and grabs the chair and smacks Henry with it twice in the head only for Angle to get a 2 count on him. Angle takes one of the turnbuckle pads off and drop toe holds Henry in it and then rolls him up and with the help of the ropes gets the win. This wasn't the worst match in the world, but it should have never closed the show.
Royal Rumble Match
I feel this Rumble's lineup is one of the most odd as there are some names that you wouldn't expect to see in 2006 as well as names that were of the time and you would never see again outside of 2006.
Triple H was the number one entrant and Rey Mysterio was number two and to further push the exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death he had to come out in one of Eddie's low riders. In the opening part of the match Rey is getting the better of Triple H. Simon Dean would enter at number 3 and he would look to team up with Triple H, but Triple H wasn't having it as he lands a right on Simon and then Rey hits a springboard seated senton and both throw out the fitness guru. Entry number 4 is Psicosis and we get a mini revival of the Rey vs Psicosis feud (that is a feud WWE should have capitalized on while they had Psicosis) Psicosis tries for a crucifix powerbomb, but Rey counters with a hurricanrana to eliminate Psicosis. At number 5 and 6 respectively are Ric Flair & The Big Show who are two men Triple H had been feuding with. Ric gets dumped pretty quickly as he is backdropped over by Triple H. Show comes in and headbutts Triple H and hits a sideslam on him. Jonathan Coachman comes in next and is quickly pie faced out of the match by The Big Show. Show delivers a chokeslam on Triple H as the number 8 entrant Bobby Lashley enters. It's around this time that you notice Rey isn't doing anything, but just laying there which would become a routine for him during this match. Lashley and Show go at it and Lashley runs into a chokeslam, but he gets out of it and hits a knee clip on Show which makes Show cut a flip. Lashley then whips Rey into the corner. Lashley hits a press slam on Triple H and a Dominator on Kane.
We get our number 10 entrant which is Sylvan and he tries to partner up with Lashley, but as soon as Lashley turns his back Sylvan attacks him and this pisses of Lashley and Lashley tosses him over the top with ease. Lashley turns around to a double chokeslam from Kane & Big Show and is then eliminated by the two giants. Then the giants turn on each other, we then get the double choke spot with each looking for a chokeslam on the other, but they choke each other into the ropes and this allows Triple H to sneak up and throw both of them out of the ring. We then get Carlito in at 11 and Chris Benoit in at 12 and neither do anything special. During all of this Rey is still laying around doing nothing. Booker comes in at number 13 and is tossed out quickly due to having a groin injury at the time. Joey Mercury comes in at number 14 and then at 15 we get a surprise return of Tatanka who comes in and gives chops to all. Johnny Nitro comes in at the right time as he saves Mercury from Tatanka. Over half way through the match and we get a near elimination spot from Rey. Trevor Murdoch comes in at 17 and does nothing much. Triple H tries to throw out Rey, but Rey hangs on. Eugene is next and he tries to make nice with Murdoch, but gets gets punched for it which causes Eugene to Hulk up and and put Murdoch in the airplane spin and once finished Rey hits a wheelbarrow bulldog on both men. Road Warrior Animal is next and he double clotheslines MNM and then hits a terrible looking powerslam on Triple H. The ring is pretty full and its hard to tell what all is happening.
RVD makes his long awaited return at number 20 and he brings a new freshness to a match that was really getting boring and stale as he is hitting kicks on everyone and eliminates Animal. We then get Orlando Jordan who does absolutely nothing notable in this match and I actually forgot he was around this long. Chavo comes in at number 22 and gets a good pop, he comes in hits an alley oop on Rey and a head scissors on RVD and then the Three Amigos on Joey Merucry. Chavo goes up top looking for a Frog Splash, but is knocked off the top by Triple H to a big chorus of boos. Poor Chavo was related to Eddie and never got the push from his death like Rey did and couldn't even stay in the rumble match until the next entrant came out. We then get Matt Hardy coming out. MNM hits a Snapshot on Tatanka and throw him out. Shawn Michaels comes in next and dumps Murdoch. Viscera comes in at 26 and faces off with Matt Hardy hitting him with a samoan drop and a splash, he then has Matt in the corner and runs at him, but Matt gets the boots up and tries for a Twsit of Fate, but Viscera lifts him up and tosses him. Benoit eliminates Eugene. We then get the entrances of Shelton Benjamin and Goldust. Orton enters at number 30 and at this time there are 14 people still in the ring.
Here we go everyone is in the ring time to decide the winner, it's not going to be Chris Benoit as he is eliminated by Randy Orton. Chris Masters & Carlito team up to eliminate Viscera and as Masters turns his back to gloat about it Carlito tosses him (and also gives him a wedgie in the process) as this continues the trend of Carlito always outsmarting Masters. RVD hits his spinwheel kick on Goldust which was suppose to eliminate Goldust, but Goldust is too far away from the ropes and ends up having to eliminate himself in a terrible looking botch. Orton tosses Orlando Jordan. MNM tries to hit a snapshot on Shawn, but he pokes Nitro in the eyes and tosses Mercury who hangs on the apron, Shawn sends Nitro into Mercury to eliminate him and then hits a clothesline on Nitro eliminating him and almost eliminating himself, but he skins the cat. Shelton is stalking Shawn and waiting for him to turn around and when he does Shelton hits a dragon kick on him. Shawn tosses Shelton to the apron and then hits Sweet Chin Music to eliminate him. We then hear the music of Vince McMahon who was in a rivalry with Shawn at the time, Vince talks trash to Shawn to distract him and from behind Shane McMahon eliminates Shawn. RVD eliminates Carlito with a mule kick.
We are at the final 4 which are Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Randy Orton, & RVD. RVD & Rey team up and hits a double leg drop and a moonsault rolling thunder combo move. RVD goes up to the top looking for a 5 Star Frog Splash, but Rey runs at Triple H and Triple H catapults Rey into the air and he hits RVD and causes RVD to drop to the floor. Orton & Triple H are now licking their lips as they see Rey is easy prey, they send him into the ropes and he comes back with a DDT counter to both. Rey dropkicks Orton in the 619 position and then goes for it, but Triple H tries to cut him off however Rey headscissors him into position also. Rey hits the 619 on both he then goes for the seated senton on Triple H, but he ducks and Orton gets hit instead. Triple H looks to hit a spinebuster on Rey, but Rey wraps his legs around him and eliminates him for a gigantic pop. Triple H is pissed and sends Rey into the steps and then throws him back into the ring. Orton know he has the match won now as he stalls before trying to pick up Rey and when he does he is dead weight. Orton puts Rey over his shoulder and is looking to throw him out, but Rey counters into a hurricanrana and eliminates Randy Orton to win the 2006 Royal Rumble.
Ok so Rey winning was somewhat exciting at the time, but if you look back and watch his performance in the match and compare it to others who have started early in the match and have won (Flair, Shawn, & Benoit) his performance was poor as he laid around for most of the match where as those names I mentioned were constantly doing something the entire match. It makes you wonder if someone told him to do this and if so then that means Rey's whole World title run was meant to fail all the way back to this match. I have to think they kept the ring full of bodies so people would have lots of other stuff to focus on and won't pay attention to him just laying around.
26. Royal Rumble 1997
As I am writing this we are 9 days away from the 30th annual Royal Rumble which just like in 1997 will be in the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, TX and I hope with everything in me that this year's Rumble is way better than the one in 1997 to me personally is a bit disappointing. I didn't watch this show when it happened, but the thing I always remember about this show is the influx of Lucha Libre talent on this show which was really confusing to me, but now I see that since they were in Texas which is heavily populated by Latin fans that they used the Lucha guys to draw more of those fans to the show, also I'm sure there was a bit of Vince thinking that if WCW can use guys from Mexico and can make them the most exciting part of the their shows then why couldn't the WWE. This show is also known for the homecoming of Shawn Michaels who would be challenging for the WWE Championship in the main event.
Best Undercard Match: Triple H (c) def Goldust (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
I'll be honest picking a best undercard match on this show was really hard as none of the matches were anything to write about, I basically had to choose the lesser of all the evils. It was between this match or the WWE Championship, but I chose this one due to the WWE Championship match not living up to the hype and this match somewhat being better than I would have expected.
This feud was built around Triple H's infatuation with Marlena and Goldust not liking him trying to seduce his woman, Triple H even tried to kidnap Marlena. Yep a Intercontinental Championship match not even centered around the Intercontinental Championship.
Triple H was accompanied to the ring for this match by Mr. Curtis Hughes a partnership that didn't last long at all before Chyna came in as Triple H's bodyguard. This match should have been changed to a hardcore match as most of the match was fought outside the ring and consisted of use of both the steel steps and the guardrail. For some unknown reason they cut to Todd Pettengill who is interviewing country music singer Colin Ray and Colin sings a bit of a song. Was this show so jam packed that they had to cut into a match to do this, when they could have done it in between matches? The finish comes when Mr Hughes throws the IC title in the ring for Triple H to use, but Triple H is too distracted by Marlena to take advantage so Goldust decides to use it instead. As the referee turns around Goldust pins Triple H, but only gets a 2 count as Mr Hughes pulls Triple H from the ring. Goldust fights with Mr Hughes and this distraction allows Triple H to clothesline Goldust and then hit the Pedigree for the win. The only complaint I have about this match is how much they fought on the outside without getting a count out or DQ, if they had planned to do this before hand they should have made a rules change for the match and make it No DQ and No Count Out.
Worst Undercard Match: Ahmed Johnson def Faarooq by DQ
I almost decided to make this a 3 way tie, but decided otherwise as I decided this really was the worst match of the undercard. This whole feud between Ahmed Johnson and The Nation felt like it went on forever and none of it was any good. Just like in the Goldust v.s. Triple H a lot of this match was fought outside and consisted of weapon usage with the referee not disqualifying anyone (you can tell we are entering the Attitude Era). The finish comes when Ahmed hits a spinebuster on Faarooq and the Nation runs in, but Ahmed fights them all off pretty easily, however the interference was enough for the referee to finally call for a DQ. After the match Ahmed stalks Faarooq up the aisle, but gets jumped by a member of The Nation which pisses him off even more and he stalks this poor man all the way back to ringside and sends him through the French announce table with a Pearl River Plunge. A quick match that was pretty boring and the finish sucked as the referee should have called for the bell long before he actually did.
Lucha Trios Match - Hector Garza, Perro Aguayo, & Canek def Jerry Estrada, Heavy Metal, & Fuerza Guerrera
Now when I first watched this show I was excited to watch this match as I thought it was going to be the same as when I would watch WCW and their luchadors flying around, but little did I know these guys in this match were no Eddie Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio Jr, Psicosis, La Parka, etc. Just like back in the 1988 women's tag match where Vince didn't know the names of the Jumping Bomb Angels he also would get confused with all of these men and didn't know any of the moves, but I'm sure we got lots of "What a Maneuver" coming from Vince during this match. The finish comes when all of the men get in the ring and do some dives out of the ring. Canek press slams Heavy Metal and then Perro Aguayo comes off the top rope with a double foot stomp to get the win for this team.
The Deadman vs The Mastadon: Vader def The Undertaker
There was not much of a buildup for this match and really was on the card so they could do the angle at the end with Paul Bearer becoming Vader's manager. The finish comes when Paul Bearer comes down the aisle and Undertaker gets out of the ring and attacks him, then puts him in the ring and tries to chokeslam him, but Vader puts a stop to that. Undertaker clotheslines Vader out of the ring so hard they both go out of the ring. Undertaker tries for a splash on Vader against the guardrail, but Paul Bearer pulls Vader out of the way and Undertaker crashes into the guardrail. Bearer hits Taker with the urn, once they are back in the ring Vader hits the Vaderbomb for the win. Nothing special here we can move on.
The Hometown Boy wins Gold: Shawn Michaels def Sycho Sid (c) (WWE Championship)
I will give Shawn a pass here in this match for not being at his usual showstopper status due to him having the flu. This match was quite short for a WWE Championship match as it's only 13:49. The finishing sequence sees Shawn try for the Sweet Chin Music, but Sid blocks it and sends him out of the ring with a back body drop. Once outside Sid powerbombs Shawn on the floor and goes after Jose Lothario and his son, but thankfully Shawn was there to save them. As the match gets back into the ring the referee goes down and Shawn gets chokeslammed, but no referee to count, another referee runs down, but only gets a 2 count. Sid is frustrated and takes out the new referee, this allows Shawn to hit Sid with the camera twice, but this only gets a 2 count. Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music to win the the WWE Championship in his hometown.
Royal Rumble Match
This Rumble Match is pretty lackluster for the most part. Steve Austin enters at number 5 and dominates everyone that comes into the match at ease. The only memorable spot between from when Steve Austin entered and when Bret Hart entered was when Mil Mascaras eliminated himself by hitting a crossbody off the top rope to the floor on Pierroth. Finally Bret Hart enters at number 21 and that's when the match picks up a bit. The look on Austin's face as Bret's music hits is great as he knows he is in for a fight. The two trade punches and then Hart hits an inverted atomic drop followed by a clothesline and then locks in the sharpshooter just as the clock reaches zero for the next entrant. The next entrant is Jerry Lawler who was at ringside on commentary before he takes his headset off he says "It takes a king... and then he gets in the ring and is immediately punched by Hart and flips back over the ropes and finishes his line ...to know a a king". We get some more basic rumble action until Undertaker enters at number 30 and we get ready for the finishing stretch.
Even though this was the finals of a tag tournament, I feel the only reason it was placed on the Rumble card is to use it to get LT to heckle Bigelow to set up the WrestleMania match. If it were not for that reason then they could have easily had this match on Raw and gave the Royal Rumble match itself more time and allowed these four men to be in the match which would add a few more stars to the match as it was greatly needed this year. It wasn't like they really wanted Kid & Holly to have the belts that bad as they would lose them the next night anyway, also if this wasn't to set up the main event of WrestleMania then they would have had this match before the WWE Championship. The match was basically Bigelow & Tatanka using their strength to dominate while Kid & Holly would use their speed to outsmart their bigger opponents. The finish came when Tatanka accidentally knocked Bigelow off the top rope as he was attempting a moonsault and this allowed Kid to pin him for the win.
Royal Rumble Match
Every time I hear the WWE or anyone else talk highly of Shawn Michaels's victory in this match I can't help but cringe as there have been people enter after halfway point of the rumble that have stayed in it longer than HBK did coming in at number 1, not only was the length of time he was in the ring a factor, but the quality of competition was piss poor as the majority of the roster for this match was at jobber level, other than Shawn there were only 4 others that you could see potentially winning this match (Owen Hart, British Bulldog, Lex Luger, or Bob Backlund). There are only 6 men in this match that lasted 10 minutes or longer and most were gone in the blink of an eye or a turn of the head. The only positive in this match was the finish where Bulldog thought he had eliminated Shawn, but both of Shawn's feet didn't touch the floor and he came back in to eliminate Bulldog for the win. The prize for winning The Royal Rumble is to go on to WrestleMania to challenge for the title, but you would never know that if this was your first rumble match as this year they felt having Pamela Anderson getting to escort you to the ring at WrestleMania was way more important of a prize than having a match for the WWE Championship. From quick eliminations, 60 second intervals, and the lack of real star power or even people who were over with the fans are the reasons why I consider this the worst Royal Rumble match in history.
29. Royal Rumble 2012
This show was really bad and just like in 1995 there was only one match that made this show worth watching and fortunately the best match at the 2012 Rumble was better than the best match at the 1995 Rumble. It was for that reason and for the fact that the back and forth finish of the Rumble match that I was able to place this one spot higher than the 1995 show.Best Undercard Match: CM Punk (c) def Dolph Ziggler (WWE Championship)
This match was more of a feud between CM Punk and John Laurinaitis than it was between CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler. At this time they had Punk being against the Authority of John Laurinaitis trying the best they could to relive the summer of Punk that had happened the previous summer, but it wasn't the same as nobody cared that much about Johnny Ace to make him as big of a heel as Vince McMahon was. Going into this match Johnny Ace made himself the special referee as well as banning both Vickie Guerrero and Jack Swagger from ringside. This all makes sense and sounds like any other authority figure in the history of WWE, but come time for the match Johnny Ace decides to make himself the outside referee which made zero sense as it would be difficult for him to screw Punk which he had openly said he was going to do. The match itself is really good, but the finish makes the whole story going into the match pointless as after the referee is knocked out Punk hits a GTS on Ziggler and Johnny Ace actually comes in and counts to three giving Punk the win. So if he was going to be completely fair to the babyface and not even try to screw him then what was the point of having him out there to begin with? Good match, but needed a different ending.
Worst Undercard Match: John Cena vs Kane - No Contest
At WrestleMania 28 John Cena was already scheduled to face The Rock in the "Once in a Lifetime" dream match, but until then he needed something to do so out of all people on the roster at this time he goes into a feud with a returning Kane. This wasn't just any version Kane though, this was Kane with a welder's mask who chose to smother his opponents until they were unconscious. Kane's whole reason of going after Cena was that he wanted Cena to embrace the hate within. If this wasn't bizarre enough of a feud for Cena already they decided to attach both Zack Ryder and Eve Torres to this feud. Zack Ryder would all of a sudden become Cena's best friend on the roster and would have to come save his butt every time Kane tried to near kill him. Ryder at the time was having an on screen romance with Eve Torres and blamed Cena every time Kane attacked Ryder. This match wouldn't last long as it would spill to the outside and to the back where Kane would lay Cena out with multiple chair shots and then would go after an already injured Zack Ryder who after being attacked by Kane on the previous Raw was in a neck and back brace as well as in a wheelchair. Kane would roll Ryder to the ring in his wheelchair and then hit a tombstone on Ryder before Cena could come back out and make the save. A terrible feud and an even worse match and the bad part is that the feud didn't end here as they would go into the next ppv and fight in an ambulance match.
Daniel vs Two Goliaths - Daniel Bryan (c) def The Big Show & Mark Henry (World Heavyweight Championship - Steel Cage Match)
The opening match of the night was a steel cage match that saw Daniel Bryan as the underdog against both The Big Show & Mark Henry. This was during Daniel Bryan's first reign as World Heavyweight Champion where he beat The Big Show at TLC by cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase and capitalizing on a post match attack by Mark Henry. In the weeks following his would be in matches against both Henry & Show and every time he would find a sneaky way to either win the match or get out of it all together whether it was causing Show to run into his then girlfriend AJ Lee hurting her and leading the referee to throwing the match out or it was pissing off all the lumberjacks during a lumberjack match and making them fight each other. Teddy Long had enough of Bryan's antics so he booked a match that he knew it would be hard for Daniel to weasel his way out of a steel cage match. The match consisted of Bryan trying to climb out of the cage any time he had the smallest chance to, but Show and Henry would always stop him. Bryan gets thrown from one side of the cage to the other like a rag doll as Henry & Show take out their revenge on him for making them look like fools in the weeks leading up to this. The finish sees Henry picking up Bryan, but Show hits the WMD on Henry to KO him and take him out of the match. Bryan goes up to try and climb out and just as he is on the outside of the cage Show grabs him by the head only for Bryan to try and punch him off, Bryan slides further down the cage, but Show grabs him by the wrist to try and stop him, but Bryan slips off and lands on the floor to win the match.
Other MatchesOther matches on the card were Drew McIntyre losing to Brodus Clay in a squash match as well as the team of Beth Phoenix, Natalya, & The Bella Twins beating Kell Kelly, Tamina, Alicia Fox, & Eve Torres.
Royal Rumble Match:
For most people this years Rumble match won't stand out as it will probably get lost in the shuffle as most rumble matches after 2008 all seem to run together. I'm not sure where all the top names were at this time, but they were definitely needed in this match as WWE was adding anyone they could to this match in order to get it to 30 participants, but most of them were not even mid card guys. Just like in 1995 the finish is the only great thing in this match that gets you excited on repeated viewings. In the first portion of the match there was a very stretched out comedy segment involving Mick Foley, Ricardo Rodriguez, and Santino Marella that was ok when I watched this live, but after watching it again comes off very childish and not needed in this match. Due to the lack of real top names in this match they had all three of the announcers enter the match at one point (yes even Michael Cole) which was meaningless as none of them stayed in for a long period of time and everyone knew they didn't have a chance of winning. We did have one cool and unexpected surprise as Kharma made her one night return to toss out Michael Cole & Hunico. Other participants that made this Rumble suck were Jinder Mahal, Jim Duggan, & David Otunga. We finally get to the final 2 of Chris Jericho and Sheamus who go back and forth for a while teasing eliminations. The finish comes when Jericho goes for a Codebreaker, but Sheamus counters it by tossing him out, but Jericho's feet don't touch the floor. Jericho stands back up on the apron and is immediately hit with a Brogue kick to be eliminated. Looking back having Sheamus win instead of Jericho was a stupid mistake considering how Sheamus's match at WrestleMania would go as they could have still gotten Sheamus vs Bryan at WrestleMania without Sheamus winning this.
The 2006 Rumble was the first Rumble in four years that I didn't watch live as I had to get someone to tape it for me, but I remember being excited for the show and then once I watched it I was both shocked and confused as to why the Rumble match wasn't even in the semi-main event let alone the main event, once I watched the show and then finished watching the Rumble match I was like surely the WWE Championship match would be last, but yet again WWE surprised me as it was only the semi-main event. The fact that they put the World Heavyweight Championship match last just so they could do some "spooky"fireworks and ring breaking crap with The Undertaker was such a bad idea, they could have done The Undertaker stuff on an episode of Smackdown. I was actually at the Smackdown before this show and it was pretty lackluster as the main event was a 2-on-1 handicap match with Kurt Angle vs MNM. Even though this show's card order is all messed up it's a decent show overall. In addition to the matches I will also be giving details about the segments where people are picking their Rumble match numbers.
Best Undercard Match: John Cena def Edge (c) (WWE Championship)
It was really hard to choose the best match as there were only two and this was the better of the two, but only by a hair. Early in January Edge had cashed in his Money in the Bank briefcase on Cena after he had just won a hard fought Elimination Chamber match and won the WWE Championship. The next night Edge and Lita would have their Live Sex Celebration until Cena came out and broke it up and hit Lita with an AA. It should be noted that in the weeks Edge was champion there was a rise in the ratings that hadn't been seen in a while.
John Cena for some reason had a special entrance at Royal Rumble that consisted of him coming down from the ceiling on a stage that looked like a space ship and shot confetti. I guess they had two ideas for a special WrestleMania entrance for Cena this year and decided they would do one at Rumble and one at WrestleMania. Edge by the way who is the champion came to the ring like usual.
The finishing sequence is Edge going for a spear, but Cena moves and hits a DDT on Edge and both men are down until an 8 count. Cena hits a few shoulder blocks and clotheslines followed by the spin out powerbomb and the 5 knuckle shuffle. Lita gets on the apron to distract Cena as Edge makes his way back to his feet, Edge runs at Cena, but he moves and Edge crashes into Lita and knocks her off the apron. Cena hits Edge with an AA and then follows it up by locking him in the STF to get the win by submission and end what was becoming a great first reign for Edge, but this is WWE and we aren't allowed to have nice things for very long.
Worst Undercard Match: The Boogeyman def JBL
There are really 3 matches on this card that I could have put as worst match, but this match wasn't needed and JBL should have been another name in the Rumble instead of being involved in this shit. People always knock me when I bring this up, but I will always stick with the opinion that The Boogeyman should have been a heel as The Boogeyman is suppose to be scary not comedic which is what WWE's version of Boogeyman was. I mean if he were a heel he could have had a feud with Undertaker I mean hell it wouldn't be the worst feud Undertaker ever had lol. Leading up to this match we had the legendary segment on Smackdown where The Boogeyman bit off the growth on Jillian Hall's face.
The match starts with JBL shoving Jillian in front of him and getting out of the ring, Boogey mounts Jillian and puts worms on her face and in her mouth. JBL comes from behind and jumps Boogey sending him to the outside, JBL sends Boogey into the steps and off the announce table followed by a big boot. JBL shouts for Jillian and she gets on the apron to distract the referee as JBL chokes Boogey with his wrist tape. Boogey tries for the two handed chokeslam, but gets a poke in the eyes from JBL instead. JBL lands a few right hands before trying for the Clothesline from Hell, but Boogey ducks and JBL goes into the ring post. Boogey then hits JBL with a boot and a pumphandle slam for the win at only 1:54. This was a terrible match as all matches involving The Boogeyman are.
The Saga of Trish & Mickie Continues: Mickie James def Ashley (Special Referee: Trish Stratus)I absolutely love Mickie James and have been a fan of her since the first day she debuted in WWE and I loved the story between Trish & Mickie, but this match is not good at all and it's all Ashley's fault as she was terrible in the ring and never got any better. People want to talk crap about Eva Marie now, but I never remember them talking crap about Ashley back in 2006 and if you ask me Eva Marie has more of that special It factor and charisma in her pinky finger than Ashley had in her entire body. Right before this match started Mickie caught Trish on her way to the ring and told her that she loved her and this stunned Trish.
One thing I did like in this match was how vicious Mickie was to Ashley due to her both wanting to impress Trish as well as get Ashley out of the way as at the time her and Trish were good friends on screen and Ashley was standing in the way of Mickie getting what she wants. I can sum this match up with everything Mickie did was great and everything Ashley did was the shits. The finish comes when Ashley goes for the 10 punches in the corner, but Mickie grabs her and powerbombs her hard to the mat for the win. After the match Mickie hugs Trish and is all excited, but Trish pushes her away. Poor Mickie having to have a match with Ashley.
Vince McMahon is a Dirty Old ManAfter every match we would get backstage segments with various superstars picking their Rumble number. We would also see Vince being a dirty perverted old man as he was joined in these segments by Torrie Wilson, Candice Michelle, & Victoria otherwise known as Vince's Devils. The first of these segments sees Triple H and Randy Orton coming in, Triple H flirts with the girls asking Torrie to open her box and asking Candice to blow on his ball smh. Triple H is pissed with the number he gets and Orton laughs at him and tells him he will see him out there, or maybe he won't.
The next one shows Vince wanting to see the tattoos of the ladies when Big Show enters and offers to show his tattoos, but Vince suggests he pick his number instead. Show asks one of the girls to pick the number for him since his hand can't fit in the hole of the tumbler, there is also a joke about Show having blue balls. Rey comes in and picks his number and looks at it and laughs and shakes his head and says Eddie got him this time, this was part of the blatant exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death as would be everything having to do with Rey Mysterio around this time.
In the final number picking segment of the night Vince is talking to the ladies and suddenly he feels someone grab him and he looks at the girls but they point to someone off screen as we see Shelton Benjamin's Mama. Shelton Benjamin and his Mama come to pick his number and Shelton promises to eliminate Shawn Michaels from the Rumble match, MNM come in and Shelton is looking Melina over until his Mama gets onto him and tells him to come on. MNM pick their numbers and then they promise to eliminate Shawn Michaels also. Vince and the ladies then sit on the couch to watch the Royal Rumble match.
Cruiserweight Action: Gregory Helms def Kid Kash (c), Funaki, Paul London, Nunzio, & Jamie Noble (WWE Cruiserweight Championship - 6 Way Tornado Match)This was the only other undercard match worth watching this match was fast paced with lots of fun spots, but I wish it was elimination as that's the way I usually like these multi man cruiserweight matches to go. TNA was always really good at these matches with the X-Division my favorite is the one from Slammiversary 2006.
The match finish is Noble hitting the fireman's carry gutbuster on Funaki and then locks in a dragon sleeper. Helms comes in and tries to kick Noble to break the hold, but Noble ducks it so instead Helms just grabs him and throws him out of the ring and then turns around and hits a shining wizard on Funaki for the win.
A Complete Sham of a Main Event: Kurt Angle (c) def Mark Henry (World Heavyweight Championship)Such a lackluster main event to close out one of the worst Rumble shows ever. The finish sees Angle put Henry in the ankle lock, but Henry kicks him off and Angle bumps into the referee. Angle grabs a chair and first lays out Henry's manager Daivari and then tries to hit Henry, but Henry grabs it and throws it away. Angle low blows Henry and grabs the chair and smacks Henry with it twice in the head only for Angle to get a 2 count on him. Angle takes one of the turnbuckle pads off and drop toe holds Henry in it and then rolls him up and with the help of the ropes gets the win. This wasn't the worst match in the world, but it should have never closed the show.
Royal Rumble Match
I feel this Rumble's lineup is one of the most odd as there are some names that you wouldn't expect to see in 2006 as well as names that were of the time and you would never see again outside of 2006.
Triple H was the number one entrant and Rey Mysterio was number two and to further push the exploitation of Eddie Guerrero's death he had to come out in one of Eddie's low riders. In the opening part of the match Rey is getting the better of Triple H. Simon Dean would enter at number 3 and he would look to team up with Triple H, but Triple H wasn't having it as he lands a right on Simon and then Rey hits a springboard seated senton and both throw out the fitness guru. Entry number 4 is Psicosis and we get a mini revival of the Rey vs Psicosis feud (that is a feud WWE should have capitalized on while they had Psicosis) Psicosis tries for a crucifix powerbomb, but Rey counters with a hurricanrana to eliminate Psicosis. At number 5 and 6 respectively are Ric Flair & The Big Show who are two men Triple H had been feuding with. Ric gets dumped pretty quickly as he is backdropped over by Triple H. Show comes in and headbutts Triple H and hits a sideslam on him. Jonathan Coachman comes in next and is quickly pie faced out of the match by The Big Show. Show delivers a chokeslam on Triple H as the number 8 entrant Bobby Lashley enters. It's around this time that you notice Rey isn't doing anything, but just laying there which would become a routine for him during this match. Lashley and Show go at it and Lashley runs into a chokeslam, but he gets out of it and hits a knee clip on Show which makes Show cut a flip. Lashley then whips Rey into the corner. Lashley hits a press slam on Triple H and a Dominator on Kane.
We get our number 10 entrant which is Sylvan and he tries to partner up with Lashley, but as soon as Lashley turns his back Sylvan attacks him and this pisses of Lashley and Lashley tosses him over the top with ease. Lashley turns around to a double chokeslam from Kane & Big Show and is then eliminated by the two giants. Then the giants turn on each other, we then get the double choke spot with each looking for a chokeslam on the other, but they choke each other into the ropes and this allows Triple H to sneak up and throw both of them out of the ring. We then get Carlito in at 11 and Chris Benoit in at 12 and neither do anything special. During all of this Rey is still laying around doing nothing. Booker comes in at number 13 and is tossed out quickly due to having a groin injury at the time. Joey Mercury comes in at number 14 and then at 15 we get a surprise return of Tatanka who comes in and gives chops to all. Johnny Nitro comes in at the right time as he saves Mercury from Tatanka. Over half way through the match and we get a near elimination spot from Rey. Trevor Murdoch comes in at 17 and does nothing much. Triple H tries to throw out Rey, but Rey hangs on. Eugene is next and he tries to make nice with Murdoch, but gets gets punched for it which causes Eugene to Hulk up and and put Murdoch in the airplane spin and once finished Rey hits a wheelbarrow bulldog on both men. Road Warrior Animal is next and he double clotheslines MNM and then hits a terrible looking powerslam on Triple H. The ring is pretty full and its hard to tell what all is happening.
RVD makes his long awaited return at number 20 and he brings a new freshness to a match that was really getting boring and stale as he is hitting kicks on everyone and eliminates Animal. We then get Orlando Jordan who does absolutely nothing notable in this match and I actually forgot he was around this long. Chavo comes in at number 22 and gets a good pop, he comes in hits an alley oop on Rey and a head scissors on RVD and then the Three Amigos on Joey Merucry. Chavo goes up top looking for a Frog Splash, but is knocked off the top by Triple H to a big chorus of boos. Poor Chavo was related to Eddie and never got the push from his death like Rey did and couldn't even stay in the rumble match until the next entrant came out. We then get Matt Hardy coming out. MNM hits a Snapshot on Tatanka and throw him out. Shawn Michaels comes in next and dumps Murdoch. Viscera comes in at 26 and faces off with Matt Hardy hitting him with a samoan drop and a splash, he then has Matt in the corner and runs at him, but Matt gets the boots up and tries for a Twsit of Fate, but Viscera lifts him up and tosses him. Benoit eliminates Eugene. We then get the entrances of Shelton Benjamin and Goldust. Orton enters at number 30 and at this time there are 14 people still in the ring.
Here we go everyone is in the ring time to decide the winner, it's not going to be Chris Benoit as he is eliminated by Randy Orton. Chris Masters & Carlito team up to eliminate Viscera and as Masters turns his back to gloat about it Carlito tosses him (and also gives him a wedgie in the process) as this continues the trend of Carlito always outsmarting Masters. RVD hits his spinwheel kick on Goldust which was suppose to eliminate Goldust, but Goldust is too far away from the ropes and ends up having to eliminate himself in a terrible looking botch. Orton tosses Orlando Jordan. MNM tries to hit a snapshot on Shawn, but he pokes Nitro in the eyes and tosses Mercury who hangs on the apron, Shawn sends Nitro into Mercury to eliminate him and then hits a clothesline on Nitro eliminating him and almost eliminating himself, but he skins the cat. Shelton is stalking Shawn and waiting for him to turn around and when he does Shelton hits a dragon kick on him. Shawn tosses Shelton to the apron and then hits Sweet Chin Music to eliminate him. We then hear the music of Vince McMahon who was in a rivalry with Shawn at the time, Vince talks trash to Shawn to distract him and from behind Shane McMahon eliminates Shawn. RVD eliminates Carlito with a mule kick.
We are at the final 4 which are Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Randy Orton, & RVD. RVD & Rey team up and hits a double leg drop and a moonsault rolling thunder combo move. RVD goes up to the top looking for a 5 Star Frog Splash, but Rey runs at Triple H and Triple H catapults Rey into the air and he hits RVD and causes RVD to drop to the floor. Orton & Triple H are now licking their lips as they see Rey is easy prey, they send him into the ropes and he comes back with a DDT counter to both. Rey dropkicks Orton in the 619 position and then goes for it, but Triple H tries to cut him off however Rey headscissors him into position also. Rey hits the 619 on both he then goes for the seated senton on Triple H, but he ducks and Orton gets hit instead. Triple H looks to hit a spinebuster on Rey, but Rey wraps his legs around him and eliminates him for a gigantic pop. Triple H is pissed and sends Rey into the steps and then throws him back into the ring. Orton know he has the match won now as he stalls before trying to pick up Rey and when he does he is dead weight. Orton puts Rey over his shoulder and is looking to throw him out, but Rey counters into a hurricanrana and eliminates Randy Orton to win the 2006 Royal Rumble.
Ok so Rey winning was somewhat exciting at the time, but if you look back and watch his performance in the match and compare it to others who have started early in the match and have won (Flair, Shawn, & Benoit) his performance was poor as he laid around for most of the match where as those names I mentioned were constantly doing something the entire match. It makes you wonder if someone told him to do this and if so then that means Rey's whole World title run was meant to fail all the way back to this match. I have to think they kept the ring full of bodies so people would have lots of other stuff to focus on and won't pay attention to him just laying around.
27. Royal Rumble 2015
The 2015 Rumble had a very poor under card except for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match and as for the Rumble itself it was going great up until it started getting close to the end and then it all went to shit as not only did the one person who nobody wanted win the match, but the fact that all the fan favorites in the match were pretty much taken out by two men that are past their glory days and need to fade into the background. I ranked this above the previous two matches as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match was better than both 28 & 29's best match and the first half of the Rumble is pretty decent.
The 2015 Rumble had a very poor under card except for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match and as for the Rumble itself it was going great up until it started getting close to the end and then it all went to shit as not only did the one person who nobody wanted win the match, but the fact that all the fan favorites in the match were pretty much taken out by two men that are past their glory days and need to fade into the background. I ranked this above the previous two matches as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship match was better than both 28 & 29's best match and the first half of the Rumble is pretty decent.
Best Undercard Match: Brock Lesnar (c) def Seth Rollins & John Cena (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
This match was originally supposed to be Cena vs Lesnar in a singles match as Cena had defeated Orton back at the Hell in a Cell PPV to become #1 contender. In January after Rollins had forced Cena to bring the Authority back after they had been made to leave following a loss at Survivor Series and could only come back if Cena allowed it, Rollins was awarded a spot in the match as a reward. This match was one of the best matches in all of 2015. The math started out with Lesnar dominating both men and suplexing them all over the ring, Lesnar put Cena in the Kimura lock looking for a submission, but it was broken up by Rollins. Cena would hit an AA on Lesnar, but would get thrown out of the ring by Rollins who tried to steal a pin, but only got a 1 count. All three men would hit their finishers on each other, but each pinfall after would get broken up by the third man. The action would to the outside where Cena would hit Lesnar with the steel steps and Rollins would put him through the announcers table with a big elbow off the top rope. Cena and Rollins would go at it and Cena would get him in the STF only for it to be broken up by J& J security, which would result in both of them getting an AA for their troubles. Cena and Rollins would trade finishers for near falls, eventually Lesnar would get back in the match throwing Cena out of the ring. Rollins would hit Lesnar with his Money in the Bank briefcase multiple times before trying for a Curb Stomp onto the briefcase, but Lenar would countered it with an F5 for the win in an amazing match.
Worst Undercard Match: The Ascension def The New Age Outlaws
Thankfully this match was quick and painless. The story of the Ascension is quite a sad one, the team were dominant down in NXT as their reigns as NXT Tag Team Champions was quite a long one, once they debuted on the main roster in December 2014 that domination would come to a stop very quick. They would defeat jobbers and then compare themselves to tag team greats of the past, in January they were attacked by the NWO, the APA, and their Rumble opponents The New Age Outlaws, so after that why was there any reason to care about them. The match as said before was pretty quick as The Ascension dominated majority of the match until Billy Gunn made a comeback and hit a tilt-a-whirl sideslam followed by an attempt at the FameAsser, but Viktor would make a blind tag to Konnor and they would hit The Fall of Man on Billy for the win. Don't think this victory meant the Ascension was going to sky rocket in the division as it has been close to 3 years since this match and they have never done anything remarkable with the tag team that is a cross between The Road Warriors and Demolition.
Other Matches
This year's Rumble under card was tag team mania (oh how Teddy Long would have loved that) as in addition to the Ascension vs New Age Outlaws we also had The Usos defending their WWE Tag Team Championship against the team of The Miz and his stunt double Damien Mizdow as well as The Bella Twins facing off against the team of Paige & Natalya.
This match was originally supposed to be Cena vs Lesnar in a singles match as Cena had defeated Orton back at the Hell in a Cell PPV to become #1 contender. In January after Rollins had forced Cena to bring the Authority back after they had been made to leave following a loss at Survivor Series and could only come back if Cena allowed it, Rollins was awarded a spot in the match as a reward. This match was one of the best matches in all of 2015. The math started out with Lesnar dominating both men and suplexing them all over the ring, Lesnar put Cena in the Kimura lock looking for a submission, but it was broken up by Rollins. Cena would hit an AA on Lesnar, but would get thrown out of the ring by Rollins who tried to steal a pin, but only got a 1 count. All three men would hit their finishers on each other, but each pinfall after would get broken up by the third man. The action would to the outside where Cena would hit Lesnar with the steel steps and Rollins would put him through the announcers table with a big elbow off the top rope. Cena and Rollins would go at it and Cena would get him in the STF only for it to be broken up by J& J security, which would result in both of them getting an AA for their troubles. Cena and Rollins would trade finishers for near falls, eventually Lesnar would get back in the match throwing Cena out of the ring. Rollins would hit Lesnar with his Money in the Bank briefcase multiple times before trying for a Curb Stomp onto the briefcase, but Lenar would countered it with an F5 for the win in an amazing match.
Worst Undercard Match: The Ascension def The New Age Outlaws
Thankfully this match was quick and painless. The story of the Ascension is quite a sad one, the team were dominant down in NXT as their reigns as NXT Tag Team Champions was quite a long one, once they debuted on the main roster in December 2014 that domination would come to a stop very quick. They would defeat jobbers and then compare themselves to tag team greats of the past, in January they were attacked by the NWO, the APA, and their Rumble opponents The New Age Outlaws, so after that why was there any reason to care about them. The match as said before was pretty quick as The Ascension dominated majority of the match until Billy Gunn made a comeback and hit a tilt-a-whirl sideslam followed by an attempt at the FameAsser, but Viktor would make a blind tag to Konnor and they would hit The Fall of Man on Billy for the win. Don't think this victory meant the Ascension was going to sky rocket in the division as it has been close to 3 years since this match and they have never done anything remarkable with the tag team that is a cross between The Road Warriors and Demolition.
Other Matches
This year's Rumble under card was tag team mania (oh how Teddy Long would have loved that) as in addition to the Ascension vs New Age Outlaws we also had The Usos defending their WWE Tag Team Championship against the team of The Miz and his stunt double Damien Mizdow as well as The Bella Twins facing off against the team of Paige & Natalya.
Royal Rumble Match
This was a really fun match at first as Bray Wyatt would dominate most of the match. We had a surprise entrant of a solo Bubba Ray Dudley which was surprising as I was sure D-Von was going to be one of the next few entrants, but sadly not. We had the beginning of AxelMania as Curtis Axel was knocked out by Erick Rowan on his way to the ring as Rowan had issues with Luke Harper that he needed settled and Axel was in his way. We also had an appearance by The Boogeyman which was pretty cool as he and Bray faced off which saw the creepiness of Bray matched by the creepiness of Boogeyman. Bray was easily having his way with everyone that was coming in the ring up until Daniel Bryan entered the ring at number 10. These two had an incredible match the year prior at the Royal Rumble and rekindled the feud back up in this match. DDP came in as a surprise entrant and lasted a few minutes until he was eliminated by Rusev. The first elimination that turned this crowd completely against this match was when Daniel Bryan was eliminated by Bray, the fact that he was eliminated at all would have made this crowd mad, but the fact he was eliminated way quicker than expected made them furious as everyone thought for sure he would make it at least until the last few were in the ring, although looking back it's probably best he was eliminated early as had he been eliminated like some of the other favorites in this match were then there could have been rioting. It was at this point that everyone knew that there wasn't any doubt that Roman Reigns was going to win this match. Roman's entrance in the match is where it all went down hill as the crowd was completely out of the match with the exception of when one of their favorites would enter the ring. Once both Big Show and Kane were in the ring they started taking out everyone with very ease and as each person is eliminated (Bray, Dean, Dolph, & Cesaro) one by one the fan's hope that had already been completely depleted a great deal by the elimination of Daniel Bryan was completely gone. The final 4 would be Roman, Kane, Big Show, & Rusev. Roman would begin to get double teamed by the Authority's giant goons until all of a sudden The Rock (who is the cousin of Roman) would come make the save and helped Roman get the best of Show & Kane allowing Roman to throw them both out. Now you think The Rock coming out would get the fans back in a good mood and it did for a split second for the surprise, but once they realized why The Rock was there they went back to booing and now louder than ever as now Roman has to have help to win the match. Once Show and Kane are eliminated Rusev comes back in the ring and the fans erupt as Rusev is the only thing in the way of stopping Roman, but Rusev would quickly get speared and thrown out to a giant chorus of boos. Great match to start out and was killed dead by a terrible finish and the last person in the world that the fans wanted to win actually won.
This was a really fun match at first as Bray Wyatt would dominate most of the match. We had a surprise entrant of a solo Bubba Ray Dudley which was surprising as I was sure D-Von was going to be one of the next few entrants, but sadly not. We had the beginning of AxelMania as Curtis Axel was knocked out by Erick Rowan on his way to the ring as Rowan had issues with Luke Harper that he needed settled and Axel was in his way. We also had an appearance by The Boogeyman which was pretty cool as he and Bray faced off which saw the creepiness of Bray matched by the creepiness of Boogeyman. Bray was easily having his way with everyone that was coming in the ring up until Daniel Bryan entered the ring at number 10. These two had an incredible match the year prior at the Royal Rumble and rekindled the feud back up in this match. DDP came in as a surprise entrant and lasted a few minutes until he was eliminated by Rusev. The first elimination that turned this crowd completely against this match was when Daniel Bryan was eliminated by Bray, the fact that he was eliminated at all would have made this crowd mad, but the fact he was eliminated way quicker than expected made them furious as everyone thought for sure he would make it at least until the last few were in the ring, although looking back it's probably best he was eliminated early as had he been eliminated like some of the other favorites in this match were then there could have been rioting. It was at this point that everyone knew that there wasn't any doubt that Roman Reigns was going to win this match. Roman's entrance in the match is where it all went down hill as the crowd was completely out of the match with the exception of when one of their favorites would enter the ring. Once both Big Show and Kane were in the ring they started taking out everyone with very ease and as each person is eliminated (Bray, Dean, Dolph, & Cesaro) one by one the fan's hope that had already been completely depleted a great deal by the elimination of Daniel Bryan was completely gone. The final 4 would be Roman, Kane, Big Show, & Rusev. Roman would begin to get double teamed by the Authority's giant goons until all of a sudden The Rock (who is the cousin of Roman) would come make the save and helped Roman get the best of Show & Kane allowing Roman to throw them both out. Now you think The Rock coming out would get the fans back in a good mood and it did for a split second for the surprise, but once they realized why The Rock was there they went back to booing and now louder than ever as now Roman has to have help to win the match. Once Show and Kane are eliminated Rusev comes back in the ring and the fans erupt as Rusev is the only thing in the way of stopping Roman, but Rusev would quickly get speared and thrown out to a giant chorus of boos. Great match to start out and was killed dead by a terrible finish and the last person in the world that the fans wanted to win actually won.
As I am writing this we are 9 days away from the 30th annual Royal Rumble which just like in 1997 will be in the Alamo Dome in San Antonio, TX and I hope with everything in me that this year's Rumble is way better than the one in 1997 to me personally is a bit disappointing. I didn't watch this show when it happened, but the thing I always remember about this show is the influx of Lucha Libre talent on this show which was really confusing to me, but now I see that since they were in Texas which is heavily populated by Latin fans that they used the Lucha guys to draw more of those fans to the show, also I'm sure there was a bit of Vince thinking that if WCW can use guys from Mexico and can make them the most exciting part of the their shows then why couldn't the WWE. This show is also known for the homecoming of Shawn Michaels who would be challenging for the WWE Championship in the main event.
Best Undercard Match: Triple H (c) def Goldust (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
I'll be honest picking a best undercard match on this show was really hard as none of the matches were anything to write about, I basically had to choose the lesser of all the evils. It was between this match or the WWE Championship, but I chose this one due to the WWE Championship match not living up to the hype and this match somewhat being better than I would have expected.
This feud was built around Triple H's infatuation with Marlena and Goldust not liking him trying to seduce his woman, Triple H even tried to kidnap Marlena. Yep a Intercontinental Championship match not even centered around the Intercontinental Championship.
Triple H was accompanied to the ring for this match by Mr. Curtis Hughes a partnership that didn't last long at all before Chyna came in as Triple H's bodyguard. This match should have been changed to a hardcore match as most of the match was fought outside the ring and consisted of use of both the steel steps and the guardrail. For some unknown reason they cut to Todd Pettengill who is interviewing country music singer Colin Ray and Colin sings a bit of a song. Was this show so jam packed that they had to cut into a match to do this, when they could have done it in between matches? The finish comes when Mr Hughes throws the IC title in the ring for Triple H to use, but Triple H is too distracted by Marlena to take advantage so Goldust decides to use it instead. As the referee turns around Goldust pins Triple H, but only gets a 2 count as Mr Hughes pulls Triple H from the ring. Goldust fights with Mr Hughes and this distraction allows Triple H to clothesline Goldust and then hit the Pedigree for the win. The only complaint I have about this match is how much they fought on the outside without getting a count out or DQ, if they had planned to do this before hand they should have made a rules change for the match and make it No DQ and No Count Out.
Worst Undercard Match: Ahmed Johnson def Faarooq by DQ
I almost decided to make this a 3 way tie, but decided otherwise as I decided this really was the worst match of the undercard. This whole feud between Ahmed Johnson and The Nation felt like it went on forever and none of it was any good. Just like in the Goldust v.s. Triple H a lot of this match was fought outside and consisted of weapon usage with the referee not disqualifying anyone (you can tell we are entering the Attitude Era). The finish comes when Ahmed hits a spinebuster on Faarooq and the Nation runs in, but Ahmed fights them all off pretty easily, however the interference was enough for the referee to finally call for a DQ. After the match Ahmed stalks Faarooq up the aisle, but gets jumped by a member of The Nation which pisses him off even more and he stalks this poor man all the way back to ringside and sends him through the French announce table with a Pearl River Plunge. A quick match that was pretty boring and the finish sucked as the referee should have called for the bell long before he actually did.
Lucha Trios Match - Hector Garza, Perro Aguayo, & Canek def Jerry Estrada, Heavy Metal, & Fuerza Guerrera
Now when I first watched this show I was excited to watch this match as I thought it was going to be the same as when I would watch WCW and their luchadors flying around, but little did I know these guys in this match were no Eddie Guerrero, Juventud Guerrera, Rey Mysterio Jr, Psicosis, La Parka, etc. Just like back in the 1988 women's tag match where Vince didn't know the names of the Jumping Bomb Angels he also would get confused with all of these men and didn't know any of the moves, but I'm sure we got lots of "What a Maneuver" coming from Vince during this match. The finish comes when all of the men get in the ring and do some dives out of the ring. Canek press slams Heavy Metal and then Perro Aguayo comes off the top rope with a double foot stomp to get the win for this team.
The Deadman vs The Mastadon: Vader def The Undertaker
There was not much of a buildup for this match and really was on the card so they could do the angle at the end with Paul Bearer becoming Vader's manager. The finish comes when Paul Bearer comes down the aisle and Undertaker gets out of the ring and attacks him, then puts him in the ring and tries to chokeslam him, but Vader puts a stop to that. Undertaker clotheslines Vader out of the ring so hard they both go out of the ring. Undertaker tries for a splash on Vader against the guardrail, but Paul Bearer pulls Vader out of the way and Undertaker crashes into the guardrail. Bearer hits Taker with the urn, once they are back in the ring Vader hits the Vaderbomb for the win. Nothing special here we can move on.
The Hometown Boy wins Gold: Shawn Michaels def Sycho Sid (c) (WWE Championship)
I will give Shawn a pass here in this match for not being at his usual showstopper status due to him having the flu. This match was quite short for a WWE Championship match as it's only 13:49. The finishing sequence sees Shawn try for the Sweet Chin Music, but Sid blocks it and sends him out of the ring with a back body drop. Once outside Sid powerbombs Shawn on the floor and goes after Jose Lothario and his son, but thankfully Shawn was there to save them. As the match gets back into the ring the referee goes down and Shawn gets chokeslammed, but no referee to count, another referee runs down, but only gets a 2 count. Sid is frustrated and takes out the new referee, this allows Shawn to hit Sid with the camera twice, but this only gets a 2 count. Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music to win the the WWE Championship in his hometown.
Royal Rumble Match
This Rumble Match is pretty lackluster for the most part. Steve Austin enters at number 5 and dominates everyone that comes into the match at ease. The only memorable spot between from when Steve Austin entered and when Bret Hart entered was when Mil Mascaras eliminated himself by hitting a crossbody off the top rope to the floor on Pierroth. Finally Bret Hart enters at number 21 and that's when the match picks up a bit. The look on Austin's face as Bret's music hits is great as he knows he is in for a fight. The two trade punches and then Hart hits an inverted atomic drop followed by a clothesline and then locks in the sharpshooter just as the clock reaches zero for the next entrant. The next entrant is Jerry Lawler who was at ringside on commentary before he takes his headset off he says "It takes a king... and then he gets in the ring and is immediately punched by Hart and flips back over the ropes and finishes his line ...to know a a king". We get some more basic rumble action until Undertaker enters at number 30 and we get ready for the finishing stretch.
Undertaker comes in and chokeslams Vader & Austin. Vader eliminates Flash Funk with a fall away slam. Undertaker pushes Henry Godwinn out of the ring by the throat. Mankind uses the Mandible Claw to force Rocky Maivia out of the ring. Mankind hits the Cactus Clothesline on Terry Funk, but both men hang on, Mankind then is successful in getting out the Funker by suplexing him to the outside. Taker eliminates Mankind and then Mankind and Funk start fighting at ringside. Bret throws Austin out, but the referees don't see it as they are trying to prevent Mankind and Terry Funk from killing each other. Austin slides back in and eliminates Undertaker & Vader while at the same time Bret eliminates Fake Diesel and with Bret's back turned Austin comes from behind and dumps Bret over the top rope to win his first of what would become three Royal Rumble matches. This match got decent toward the end, but even that wasn't enough to save this disaster of a match.
25. Royal Rumble 1999
I know most people would put this as the worst or next to it, but if you remember me talking about the Royal Rumble being the first video I ever rented and loving well it was the 1999 Royal Rumble that I was talking about so I had to bump it up a few spots due to it having a special place in my childhood.
Best Undercard Match: The Rock def Mankind (c) (WWE Championship - I Quit Match)
This would be the 4th match since November between The Rock and Mankind, this one however would be their most brutal. This would be the first match since Mankind's historic title win on the January 4th episode of Raw. After Mankind won the title The Rock demanded a rematch and was even willing to face Mankind in a stipulation match of Mankind's choosing. The Rock would suggest multiple types of matches, but Mankind kept turning him down so finally The Rock said he quit trying to get through to Mankind and that's when Mankind spoke up and said yes to the confusion of The Rock as he didn't realize what he had actually said, but Mankind told him that he wanted him in an I Quit match. This match was the definition of brutal and hard hitting as these two would beat the living crap out of each other although for majority of the match it was Mankind taking all the punishment. They would fight around ringside and around the announce tables, they would then go up the ramp and toward the technical area which would lead to The Rock knocking Mankind into the electrical unit causing sparks to fly. Once they got back into the ring the match would take a sick turn as Rock would handcuff Mankind's hands behind his back and would repeatedly hit Mankind with sickening chair shot after sickening chair shot to the head to a defenseless Mankind, despite these shots Mankind wouldn't quit. They would make their way back up the aisle and Rock would continue his assault on Mankind until he collapsed to the floor. Finally after one more time of The Rock asking Mankind finally quit or at least a recording of him said it, this would come into play to further the story between Rock and Mankind even more. This match was highly talked about after the documentary Beyond the Mat was released and showed that Mankind's kids were in the audience during this and were in tears to the point where their mother had to carry them out of the arena.
Worst Undercard Match: Sable (c) def Luna Vachon (WWE Women's Championship - Strap Match)
There was little build up to this match as Sable issued an open challenge on a December episode of Raw where a masked woman accepted the challenge and came to the ring for a match, but it was quickly thrown out as the masked lady started whipping Sable with her belt and then the woman unmasked to reveal herself as Luna Vachon. This match was just like anything else involving Sable absolutely terrible, as she has to be the most overrated woman in the history of pro wrestling. Shane McMahon came out and said that Sable was unable to compete due to previous attacks by Luna, but Sable came out anyway and was ready to fight. Shane would sit in during the match on commentary. The finish came when Luna wrapped the strap around Sable's neck and lifted her onto her own back and went around touching the corners, but at the same time Sable was able to touch them as well, right before Luna could hit the final corner Sable took her off her feet. It was at this time Shane got onto the apron to distract the referee as he feared the match was turning to much in Sable's favor. Just as Luna is about to touch the final corner Tori a crazed Sable fan ran in and attacked Luna which would allow Sable to touch the final corner for the win.
Bad Call Teddy Long: X-Pac (c) def Gangrel (WWE European Championship)
In a match that had absolutely zero build and was just thrown on the card X-Pac would face off against Gangrel in what was a very quick sprint of a match. The main thing that this match is remembered for is the big refereeing botch by Teddy Long, X-Pac would come off the top and hit a crossbody on Gangrel, but the momentum would allow Gangrel to roll through it and pin X-Pac. The botch comes when X-Pac is late to get his shoulder up in what was suppose to be a nearfall, but Teddy counts the three anyway. The match would continue for a couple of minutes until X-Pac would hit a running Gangrel with the X Factor for the win.
Other Matches:
The other matches on the undercard featured two battles in the feud between DX and The Corporation, as The Corporation's Big Boss Man would defeat DX's Road Dogg and in a match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship The Corporation's Ken Shamrock would retain against DX's Billy Gunn after making him tap to the ankle lock.
Royal Rumble Match
The main story going into this year's Rumble match was the feud between Steve Austin and Vince McMahon and prior to the match Vince had put a $100,000 bounty on Austin to guarantee there would be "No Chance in Hell" that Austin had any chance of winning the Rumble three times in a raw and anyone who could eliminate him from the match would be rewarded the money.
I know most people would put this as the worst or next to it, but if you remember me talking about the Royal Rumble being the first video I ever rented and loving well it was the 1999 Royal Rumble that I was talking about so I had to bump it up a few spots due to it having a special place in my childhood.
Best Undercard Match: The Rock def Mankind (c) (WWE Championship - I Quit Match)
This would be the 4th match since November between The Rock and Mankind, this one however would be their most brutal. This would be the first match since Mankind's historic title win on the January 4th episode of Raw. After Mankind won the title The Rock demanded a rematch and was even willing to face Mankind in a stipulation match of Mankind's choosing. The Rock would suggest multiple types of matches, but Mankind kept turning him down so finally The Rock said he quit trying to get through to Mankind and that's when Mankind spoke up and said yes to the confusion of The Rock as he didn't realize what he had actually said, but Mankind told him that he wanted him in an I Quit match. This match was the definition of brutal and hard hitting as these two would beat the living crap out of each other although for majority of the match it was Mankind taking all the punishment. They would fight around ringside and around the announce tables, they would then go up the ramp and toward the technical area which would lead to The Rock knocking Mankind into the electrical unit causing sparks to fly. Once they got back into the ring the match would take a sick turn as Rock would handcuff Mankind's hands behind his back and would repeatedly hit Mankind with sickening chair shot after sickening chair shot to the head to a defenseless Mankind, despite these shots Mankind wouldn't quit. They would make their way back up the aisle and Rock would continue his assault on Mankind until he collapsed to the floor. Finally after one more time of The Rock asking Mankind finally quit or at least a recording of him said it, this would come into play to further the story between Rock and Mankind even more. This match was highly talked about after the documentary Beyond the Mat was released and showed that Mankind's kids were in the audience during this and were in tears to the point where their mother had to carry them out of the arena.
Worst Undercard Match: Sable (c) def Luna Vachon (WWE Women's Championship - Strap Match)
There was little build up to this match as Sable issued an open challenge on a December episode of Raw where a masked woman accepted the challenge and came to the ring for a match, but it was quickly thrown out as the masked lady started whipping Sable with her belt and then the woman unmasked to reveal herself as Luna Vachon. This match was just like anything else involving Sable absolutely terrible, as she has to be the most overrated woman in the history of pro wrestling. Shane McMahon came out and said that Sable was unable to compete due to previous attacks by Luna, but Sable came out anyway and was ready to fight. Shane would sit in during the match on commentary. The finish came when Luna wrapped the strap around Sable's neck and lifted her onto her own back and went around touching the corners, but at the same time Sable was able to touch them as well, right before Luna could hit the final corner Sable took her off her feet. It was at this time Shane got onto the apron to distract the referee as he feared the match was turning to much in Sable's favor. Just as Luna is about to touch the final corner Tori a crazed Sable fan ran in and attacked Luna which would allow Sable to touch the final corner for the win.
Bad Call Teddy Long: X-Pac (c) def Gangrel (WWE European Championship)
In a match that had absolutely zero build and was just thrown on the card X-Pac would face off against Gangrel in what was a very quick sprint of a match. The main thing that this match is remembered for is the big refereeing botch by Teddy Long, X-Pac would come off the top and hit a crossbody on Gangrel, but the momentum would allow Gangrel to roll through it and pin X-Pac. The botch comes when X-Pac is late to get his shoulder up in what was suppose to be a nearfall, but Teddy counts the three anyway. The match would continue for a couple of minutes until X-Pac would hit a running Gangrel with the X Factor for the win.
Other Matches:
The other matches on the undercard featured two battles in the feud between DX and The Corporation, as The Corporation's Big Boss Man would defeat DX's Road Dogg and in a match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship The Corporation's Ken Shamrock would retain against DX's Billy Gunn after making him tap to the ankle lock.
Royal Rumble Match
The main story going into this year's Rumble match was the feud between Steve Austin and Vince McMahon and prior to the match Vince had put a $100,000 bounty on Austin to guarantee there would be "No Chance in Hell" that Austin had any chance of winning the Rumble three times in a raw and anyone who could eliminate him from the match would be rewarded the money.
This would also be the first time a woman would enter the Royal Rumble as Chyna would win a mini Royal Rumble on an episode of Raw between the members of DX and The Corporation to earn the number 30 spot.
The Rumble match would start off with Austin and Vince and Austin would get the best of his tyrannical boss for the first few minutes of the match until the number 3 entrant came out and it was Golga, Austin beats up on Golga and quickly eliminates him, while Austin was distracted Vince uses this as an opportunity to get out of the ring from under the rope and bolt through the crowd and Austin was on the chase. Vince would lure Austin into the women's bathroom where the Corporation was there waiting to attack. Austin would be taken to the ambulance and off the hospital.
While Austin is gone the action would continue in the ring. The next notable point in the match comes when we are suppose to be getting the 11th entrant, but nobody came out at first, we then see footage from backstage showing Mabel attacking Mosh and taking his place in the match. Mabel would eliminate several men from the match until it was only him and Road Dogg in the ring, at this time The Undertaker's music would hit and the lights would go out and when they came back on Mabel was getting attacked by The Undertaker's Ministry as they had eliminated him from the match we then see Undertaker roll his eyes back and talk in tongues to Mabel and then the attack continues as they beat on him all the way to the back.
We would get a few more entrants until Kane would come out at number 18 and just like Mabel would clear the ring in a dominating fashion. Then in the dumbest move of the night he would eliminate himself all because people from the psychiatric house came out and were going to try and take him back to the asylum, so he could eliminate these giant men from a Rumble match, but he couldn't take down a few men in white coats and instead beats up a couple and the rest go running and he chases after them.
In the time between Kane's self elimination and the next entrant Vince would make his way back down to the ring and would join commentary as Ken Shamrock would be the next entrant. Billy Gunn would then come out hopping around as one of his feet was all taped up due to Shamrock injuring it in the match earlier in the night. We would then be shown footage of the back of the arena where the Ministry place Mabel in the back of a hearse and then all of a sudden we hear a siren and see an ambulance speeding into the back lot of the arena and Steve Austin has returned. Austin comes to the ring and immediately eliminates Shamrock. The ring would start to fill up again and everyone was targeting Austin trying to get that bounty, meanwhile Vince was doing a great job on commentary berating Austin and begging for someone to eliminate him and cash in on the bounty. There was a point where Austin would slide out of the ring and come over and splash Vince in the face with water. Chyna would come in as the final entrant and would quickly eliminate Mark Henry who had been giving her trouble the weeks prior, but as she is celebrating this Austin comes up from behind her and as soon as she turns around clotheslines her over the rope. The numbers would lessen as more people would be eliminated until it was finally down to Austin and McMahon. Austin went outside and attacked Vince at the announce table and around ringside until he finally threw Vince back in the ring, Austin would stand over his boss as Vince tried to get to his feet and in an act of desperation Vince hits a low blow on the Texas Rattlesnake. They both get to their feet slowly and Austin hits a stunner on Vince. As it looked like Vince was finished The Rock came to ringside and taunted Austin from the aisle way distracting him, he would get up on the apron and Austin would run and attempt to knock him off of it, but as he did this from behind Vince would throw out Austin to win the 1999 Royal Rumble.
While I know this isn't the best Rumble match its lots of fun especially the Austin and Vince stuff and seeing if anyone would collect on the bounty. Looking back Vince winning is a black mark on the legacy of the Royal Rumble, but at that time it was a great way to advance the storyline between him and Austin and at least they had a plan for the next month to still get the match between The Rock and Steve Austin for WrestleMania.
While I know this isn't the best Rumble match its lots of fun especially the Austin and Vince stuff and seeing if anyone would collect on the bounty. Looking back Vince winning is a black mark on the legacy of the Royal Rumble, but at that time it was a great way to advance the storyline between him and Austin and at least they had a plan for the next month to still get the match between The Rock and Steve Austin for WrestleMania.
24. Royal Rumble 1988
The Royal Rumble was created to counter the NWA Bunkhouse Stampede PPV which would be running the same night, but due to PPV companies vowing there would not be rival wrestling companies scheduled on the same night against each other WWE had to have the show on the USA network instead. While the show's main draw was a contract signing between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant (which would be the first time they would be face to face since their epic showdown at WrestleMania III) for their match at The Main Event which would take place the following month, the show still needed something else special to draw the fans away from watching Bunkhouse Stampede. For quite awhile Vince McMahon's right hand man at the time Pat Patterson had been pitching this idea he had for a match however Vince would always shoot it down, but with Vince looking for something to sway the audience to his show he finally allowed Patterson's idea to come to life and thus the Royal Rumble was born. The first Royal Rumble show was structured more like a Saturday Night's Main Event rather than a PPV as the contract signing between Hogan & Andre which was the big selling point of the show was placed in the middle of the show rather than in the semi or main event position which is what they would do during SNME shows so that they made sure all the fans got to see Hogan or whatever the biggest match or segment of the night was before it got too late at night.
Best Undercard Match: The Jumping Bomb Angels def The Glamour Girls (c) w/ Jimmy Hart (WWE Women's Tag Team Championship - 2/3 Falls Match)
This match for its time was really good and for a women's match in 1988 to get the best match of the night from me is saying something, but there is no way this match would have been anywhere as good if the Jumping Bomb Angels weren't in this match. The JBA (Jumping Bomb Angels) were comprised of Niroyo Tateno & Itsuki Yamazaki or as Vince McMahon would call them pink and red based on their ring attire. The Glamour Girls would win the first fall after Martin hits a move that years later would be called the AlleyOop which is a powerbomb, but instead of falling forward the person would fall back with their opponent crashing face first into the mat. The second fall starts with Yamazaki getting beat up by Martin, but after Martin misses a splash Yamazaki is able to finally tag in Tateno. Tateno comes in a house of fire and taking it to Martin before she tags Yamazuki back in and they perform a double suplex. The Glamour girls try to run the JBA into each other, but they stop and as the Glamour Girls run at them they duck causing the Glamour Girls to crash into each other. Martin is looking for another reverse powerbomb just like how she did in the first fall, but Tateno roll through into a cradle to score a 2nd fall win the the Bomb Angels. The Glamour Girls dominate most of the 3rd fall as they work over Tateno up until she makes a hot tag to Yamazaki, Yamazaki comes in and takes it to both Glamour Girls as she picks Kai high up in the air and drops her down on her butt. Yamazki then tags Tateno back in and she comes off the top with a knee to the gut Kai followed by a bridging butterfly suplex, but only gets 2. Tateno tries for a senton splash off the middle rope, but Kai moves out of the way, she then is able to tag Yamazaki back in who hits a clothesline off the middle rope. The Angels both come off the top rope with dropkicks to Kai and get the win to become the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. A really fun match and the crowd popped huge when the Angels got the win.
Worst Undercard Match: Ricky Steamboat def Rick Rude by DQThe first thing I have to mention before I get into this match is the woman at ringside who decided to bring her own megaphone to the show and for what I believe is the entire match was so distracting and took away from the match, people talk about fans wanting to get themselves over these days hell this woman was trying to get herself over back in 1988.
This match was a bit too long and dragged a bit, the finish comes when Steamboat goes for a crossbody off the top, but Rude pulls the referee in the way and Steamboat hits him instead. Rude puts Steamboat in a canadian backbreaker and the referee calls for the bell, Rude thinks he has won by submission, but the referee actually disqualifies Rude for pushing him in the way of the crossbody. Poor Roode I don't think he would have a decent PPV match for the entirety of 1988 as they always put him in these long matches that at this time he just couldn't pull off.
Lifting Weights & Signing Contracts- Hulk Hogan/Andre Contract Signing & Dino Bravo Weighlifting In addition to the matches on this card we also got two lengthy segments, the first is Dino Bravo trying to break a world record in weight lifting. This segment was good at first, but it started to really drag as every time the crowd would boo him Bravo would walk off, he also didn't even start close to the record so that meant we had to wait for him to work his way up to the record. In the end he breaks the record with the help of Jesse Ventura who was his spotter and put his fingers on the bar. This was a 15 minute segment (felt like 15 hours) that should have been 10 minutes. The only bearable part of this segment was listening to Jesse Ventura trying to get the crowd to shut up.
The other segment was the contract signing between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant for their match at The Main Event which would be the first match between the two since WrestleMania III. Now I could be wrong, but this has to be one of the first if not the first contract signings ever in WWE history, unfortunately it would be far from the last as that is one of the most overdone tropes in WWE. This set the stage for every contract signing having to end in fighting as Andre would slam Hogan's head into the table and then push the table over on him.
Rumble Match wasn't Main Event: The Islanders def The Young Stallions (2/3 Falls Match)
I have to wonder just how much faith Vince McMahon had in the Royal Rumble match concept considering they didn't put it last considering the last match isn't even a title match or anything special, but then again that could be another thing with structuring the show more like a Saturday Night's Main Event rather than a PPV. This was a decent match, but nothing too special.
The first fall came when The Islanders threw Paul Roma out of the ring and injured his leg and he was unable to make it back into the ring before the 10 count so The Islanders win the first fall. Roma was taken to the back selling the injury and during the time between the first and second fall we cut to an interview with Ted Dibiase & Andre the Giant. The second fall consisted on The Islanders working over Jim Powers who had to be in most of the match due to Paul Roma being injured, Jim Powers would finally make a tag to Paul Roma, but it was to not much help as Roma was destroyed by The Islanders and was pinned after Tama jumped off the top rope onto the injured leg.
Royal Rumble Match
The first Rumble match only consisted of 20 participants instead of the usual 30 as it would become to be known for. One thing that is really noticeable in this first rumble is the lack of every man for himself as you see a lot more of the faces teaming up on the heels and vice versa. There isn't that much of notable moments for this match, but with that being said it's a very fun match and good enough to see why this match would become a staple of the WWE for the next 29 years and counting.
21. Royal Rumble 2010
2010 was pretty much a mediocre year for WWE as nothing really stood out for most of the year other than the Nexus angle which would die a pretty quick death. This show as a whole was also pretty mediocre it had a few interesting things happen in the Rumble match, but other than that the rest of the show was meh.
Best Undercard Match: The Undertaker (c) def Rey Mysterio (World Heavyweight Championship)
I don't think anyone plays the role of David in these David vs Goliath matches better than Rey Mysterio, he is the only one who can make those matches feel like the little guy even has a chance. This was one PPV match they had never done before despite both men being on the Smackdown roster together for a good many years. While this was a really good match, the finish was absolutely predictable as everything was leading to a Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels II at WrestleMania 26 and there was no reason for Rey Mysterio to have the title at this time.
This match starts with Undertaker grabbing Mysterio by the throat and tossing him out of the ring which looked awesome, Mysterio tries for a springboard, but Undertaker knocks him down to the floor. Undertaker goes for his apron leg drop, but Rey sees it coming and tries to avoid it however Undertaker puts him back in place and hits it anyway. Taker is looking for a chokeslam, but Rey reverses it with a huricanranna and goes for a 619, Undertaker ends up catching him and looks for a Tombstone, but Rey knees him in the head to get out of it. Rey tries for a springboard crossbody, but eats a boot from Taker. Rey goes to the floor and Taker chases after giving Rey two big boots and then tries for a third, but Rey ducks and Taker goes leg first into the post. Rey goes for another hurricanranna, but this time Undertaker lifts Rey into position for a Last Ride on the outside, Rey is able to slip out of it and land on the apron and hit an Asai moonsault. Rey tries for a baseball slide, but Taker catches him and grabs him by the throat ramming him into the barricade. They finally get back into the ring and Taker gets a 2 count on Mysterio. Taker lands a series of punches in the corner and then hits a side slam for another 2 count. Rey tries to make a comeback out of the corner, but Undertaker catches him only for Rey to counter into a reverse DDT. Rey goes for a cover, but Taker sits up. Rey hits a seated dropkick and a springboard leg drop that only gets a 2 count. Rey runs at Taker, but Taker hits him with a clothesline and then goes for the Last Ride again, but Rey clips his knee sends him into the ropes for a 619 which stuns Taker he then hits a springboard dropkick sending Taker into the ropes on the opposite side of the ring and then hits another 619 and goes for his seated senton, but Taker catches him and finally is successful in hitting the Last Ride for the win. Wow this has to be one of the most overrated overlooked matches in the history of the WWE, much better than many expected and there were times when you thought Rey may just pull it off and beat the Dead Man.
Worst Undercard Match: Sheamus (c) def Randy Orton by DQ (WWE Championship)Dear WWE never book these two in matches against each other as they never have good matches. This match was so slow and boring where the finish was Sheamus going for the High Cross, but Orton gets out of it and clips the knee and sends him to the floor, as Sheamus tries to get into the ring Orton hits the hangman DDT off the ropes for a 2 count. Orton is looking for the punt kick, but Sheamus rolls to the floor and Orton follows hitting a european uppercut, but Sheamus then sends him into the ring post a couple of times. Cody Rhodes comes from behind and attacks Sheamus and the referee runs him off. Orton gets back in and hits the RKO and goes for the pin, but the referee calls for the bell as he rewards Sheamus the match by DQ. There was nothing in this match to get excited for and because they are both heels the fans don't really care and when they did try to get into the match and cheer for Orton he wouldn't play into it. Just a really bad match.
ECW, US, & Women's ChampionshipIn addition to the two World Title matches and the Royal Rumble match we had three other matches on the card.
The first was a decent match between Christian & Ezekiel Jackson for the ECW Championship. This was during the last days of the WWECW brand. The finish of this match saw Christian go for an Unprettier, but Zeke would counter with an attempted back suplex, but Christian flips out of that and applies a sleeper while on the back of Zeke, Zeke powers out and hits a few powerslams until Christian finally slides out of a third and hits an Unprettier for the win. On the last episode of WWECW Ezekiel Jackson would end up winning the WWECW championship.
In a match that wasn't even announced until earlier in the night The Miz would defend his US Championship against MVP. This match wasn't needed at all as it was nothing more than a match you could see on any episode of Raw at the time. MVP goes for the Player's Boot in the corner, but Miz moves and tries for the Skull Crushing Finale, but MVP rolls him up for a 2 and then backslides him for another 2 followed by another roll up for a 2. Miz rolls to the floor begging off, but MVP follows him and throws him back in the ring and as MVP gets back into the ring Miz catches him with a small package for the win. Post match Miz talks trash and gets hit with the Playmaker by MVP.
In the match that had the most despicable and disgusting build Michelle McCool would put the Women's Championship on the line against Mickie James. This was during the whole Piggie James angle which infuriated me to no end, before the match started Layla came out dressed in a fat pig costume mocking Mickie, Mickie ran out and takes Layla out and then hits the Mickie DDT for the win to become the new WWE Women's Champion. Unforutnately she would lose it on the next episode of Smackdown and soon after would be released.
Royal Rumble Match
The main story going into this match was that Shawn Michaels had to win this match in order for him to be able to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania and avenge his loss from the year before. So majority of this match is built around him.
The match started with Dolph Ziggler and Evan Bourne which for most Rumbles I would find this as a bit of an odd pairing for number 1 and 2, but it made sense giving what was going to happen. Number 3 was CM Punk and he makes quick work of Bourne & Ziggler and then gets handed the microphone by Serena and cuts a promo, then he makes short work of JTG and goes back to his promo. The Great Khali is next and Punk tells Khali that he could become even greater if he joins SES and that all he has to do his raise his hand which Khali does, but instead of pledging to SES he hits Punk with a big chop to the head. Khali then puts Punk in the vice until the number 6 entrant enters and it's the second woman to ever compete in a Royal Rumble match "The Glamazon" Beth Phoenix. Khali is confused and picks Beth up and places her gently on the apron and tells her to leave, but instead Beth plants a Kiss on the "Punjabi Giant" and much like Benoit did to The Big Show at the end of the 2004 Rumble Beth uses leverage to pull Khali over the top rope and eliminate him. Beth clotheslines Punk and hits him a few times, but Punk hits her with the GTS and then eliminates her. Punk's dominant reign in the match comes to an end with the entrance of Triple H. Triple H goes for the Pedigree, but Punk counters it into an attempted GTS, but Triple H catches his leg and tosses Punk over the top. Once Punk is gone nothing special would happen in the match for for quite a while.
Shawn Michaels comes in at number 18 and is on fire as he immediately eliminates Carlito with a backdrop, then eliminates both Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase of Legacy followed shortly by John Morrison. Shawn & Triple H double team Drew McIntyre and double clothesline him out of the match. We then get a face to face with HBK & Triple H, but before anything could happen we get the entrance of John Cena at number 19. I have to say Cena was too fired up as he hits the spinout powerbomb that he does on Triple H and it was suppose to be that it kicks Shawn in the head and then he lands Triple H right beside him, but instead Cena recklessly slams Triple H directly on top of the head of Shawn Michaels and I would guess that both Triple H and Shawn might have had some words for him after this match was over. He then goes for the AA on Shawn, but Triple H makes the save and instead Pedigrees Cena. Then out of nowhere Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music on Triple H knocking him out of the ring and eliminating his fellow DX member. In another botch by Cena he goes to clothesline Yoshi Tatsu over the ropes, but instead clotheslines him into the top rope. Big Show comes in at number 22 and Shawn jumps onto him, but Big Show catches him, Shawn then locks in a front facelock and tries to eliminate Show like Benoit did in 2004. Cena tries to help Shawn, but Show kicks him away and then lifts Shawn up and hands him off to Cena who tries for an AA, but Shawn holds onto the ropes and gets out of it, Shawn tries to hit Sweet Chin Music on Cena, but Cena ducks and backdrops Shawn over the rope as Shawn tries to skin the cat The Big Show comes over and grabs him and throws him back across the ring. We then get Mark Henry come out and we get the big man spots with him and Big Show, they do the lean against the ropes and tries to get each other out which has to mean someone has to throw them both over and who would that person be? Shawn? Cena? No R-Truth off all people eliminates both of the big men for a reason completely unknown to me as there was no reason for him to get a spot like this as it wasn't like he was in for a push or anything.
Edge would make his return at number 29 as a complete surprise as he wasn't expected to return until much later. Edge comes in and hits spears on everyone and then throws out Chris Jericho. Batista comes in at number 30 with clotheslines, powerslams, and spinebusters for all. Edge clotheslines Shawn and they both land on the apron, Shawn hits the Sweet Chin Music on Edge sending him back into the ring, but Batista loosens Shawn's fingers from the rope and Shawn falls to the floor grasping at the air trying to grab onto anything he could, but his feet hit the floor and Shawn's dream of facing Undertaker again at WrestleMania would come to an end...for a while at least. Shawn is in disbelief and then gets back in the ring, but Charles Robinson tries to get him to leave this leads to Shawn hitting Sweet Chin Muisc on Robinson before leaving the ring. Batista tries for the Batista Bomb on Cena, but Cena backdrops him and then tries for an AA, but Batista slips out and charges at Cena only for Cena to low bridge the top rope and send Batista out. Edge looks for a spear, but Cena kicks him to counter it and then charges Edge, but Edge moves and sends Cena over the top to win the match. Decent match with the whole story mainly around Shawn Michaels which I remember at the time really getting into as I really wanted to see the rematch as the one the year before was an absolute classic.
Best Undercard Match: The Jumping Bomb Angels def The Glamour Girls (c) w/ Jimmy Hart (WWE Women's Tag Team Championship - 2/3 Falls Match)
This match for its time was really good and for a women's match in 1988 to get the best match of the night from me is saying something, but there is no way this match would have been anywhere as good if the Jumping Bomb Angels weren't in this match. The JBA (Jumping Bomb Angels) were comprised of Niroyo Tateno & Itsuki Yamazaki or as Vince McMahon would call them pink and red based on their ring attire. The Glamour Girls would win the first fall after Martin hits a move that years later would be called the AlleyOop which is a powerbomb, but instead of falling forward the person would fall back with their opponent crashing face first into the mat. The second fall starts with Yamazaki getting beat up by Martin, but after Martin misses a splash Yamazaki is able to finally tag in Tateno. Tateno comes in a house of fire and taking it to Martin before she tags Yamazuki back in and they perform a double suplex. The Glamour girls try to run the JBA into each other, but they stop and as the Glamour Girls run at them they duck causing the Glamour Girls to crash into each other. Martin is looking for another reverse powerbomb just like how she did in the first fall, but Tateno roll through into a cradle to score a 2nd fall win the the Bomb Angels. The Glamour Girls dominate most of the 3rd fall as they work over Tateno up until she makes a hot tag to Yamazaki, Yamazaki comes in and takes it to both Glamour Girls as she picks Kai high up in the air and drops her down on her butt. Yamazki then tags Tateno back in and she comes off the top with a knee to the gut Kai followed by a bridging butterfly suplex, but only gets 2. Tateno tries for a senton splash off the middle rope, but Kai moves out of the way, she then is able to tag Yamazaki back in who hits a clothesline off the middle rope. The Angels both come off the top rope with dropkicks to Kai and get the win to become the new WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. A really fun match and the crowd popped huge when the Angels got the win.
Worst Undercard Match: Ricky Steamboat def Rick Rude by DQThe first thing I have to mention before I get into this match is the woman at ringside who decided to bring her own megaphone to the show and for what I believe is the entire match was so distracting and took away from the match, people talk about fans wanting to get themselves over these days hell this woman was trying to get herself over back in 1988.
This match was a bit too long and dragged a bit, the finish comes when Steamboat goes for a crossbody off the top, but Rude pulls the referee in the way and Steamboat hits him instead. Rude puts Steamboat in a canadian backbreaker and the referee calls for the bell, Rude thinks he has won by submission, but the referee actually disqualifies Rude for pushing him in the way of the crossbody. Poor Roode I don't think he would have a decent PPV match for the entirety of 1988 as they always put him in these long matches that at this time he just couldn't pull off.
Lifting Weights & Signing Contracts- Hulk Hogan/Andre Contract Signing & Dino Bravo Weighlifting In addition to the matches on this card we also got two lengthy segments, the first is Dino Bravo trying to break a world record in weight lifting. This segment was good at first, but it started to really drag as every time the crowd would boo him Bravo would walk off, he also didn't even start close to the record so that meant we had to wait for him to work his way up to the record. In the end he breaks the record with the help of Jesse Ventura who was his spotter and put his fingers on the bar. This was a 15 minute segment (felt like 15 hours) that should have been 10 minutes. The only bearable part of this segment was listening to Jesse Ventura trying to get the crowd to shut up.
The other segment was the contract signing between Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant for their match at The Main Event which would be the first match between the two since WrestleMania III. Now I could be wrong, but this has to be one of the first if not the first contract signings ever in WWE history, unfortunately it would be far from the last as that is one of the most overdone tropes in WWE. This set the stage for every contract signing having to end in fighting as Andre would slam Hogan's head into the table and then push the table over on him.
Rumble Match wasn't Main Event: The Islanders def The Young Stallions (2/3 Falls Match)
I have to wonder just how much faith Vince McMahon had in the Royal Rumble match concept considering they didn't put it last considering the last match isn't even a title match or anything special, but then again that could be another thing with structuring the show more like a Saturday Night's Main Event rather than a PPV. This was a decent match, but nothing too special.
The first fall came when The Islanders threw Paul Roma out of the ring and injured his leg and he was unable to make it back into the ring before the 10 count so The Islanders win the first fall. Roma was taken to the back selling the injury and during the time between the first and second fall we cut to an interview with Ted Dibiase & Andre the Giant. The second fall consisted on The Islanders working over Jim Powers who had to be in most of the match due to Paul Roma being injured, Jim Powers would finally make a tag to Paul Roma, but it was to not much help as Roma was destroyed by The Islanders and was pinned after Tama jumped off the top rope onto the injured leg.
Royal Rumble Match
The first Rumble match only consisted of 20 participants instead of the usual 30 as it would become to be known for. One thing that is really noticeable in this first rumble is the lack of every man for himself as you see a lot more of the faces teaming up on the heels and vice versa. There isn't that much of notable moments for this match, but with that being said it's a very fun match and good enough to see why this match would become a staple of the WWE for the next 29 years and counting.
23. Royal Rumble 1996
I feel like I'm in the minority on this show's Rumble as I really enjoy it, although that could just be because I hate the 1995 one and this is the year after and its much better. The undercard is nothing special, but I like the Rumble match enough to rank the show this high.
Best Undercard Match: The Smokin Gunns (c) def The Bodydonnas (WWE Tag Team Championship)
The finish of this match comes after Billy who had been worked over for a while by the Bodydonnas finally gets the hot tag to Bart who is firing away at both Donnas until Billy is able to come back into the match. Bart dropkicks Zip sending him into a bodyslam by Billy. The Gunns hit their finisher, but Sunny gets on the apron to distract the referee from counting. Skip comes off the top onto Bart and makes a cover, but only gets a 2 count. Zip sends Billy to the floor and hit a double back body drop on Bart. The Donnas look to hit a double suplex on Bart, but Billy is back in and spears Zip and this allows Bart to roll up Skip for the win. This was a really fun tag match
Worst Undercard Match: Goldust def Razor Ramon (c) (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
The story going into this match was Goldust playing mind games with Razor by coming onto him and making sexual gestures towards him. The mind games would continue during the match as every time Goldust gets an advantage early on he would feel Razor up. Razor would get enough of Goldust's antics and would go on offense against him, but Goldust would keep going to the outside and putting Marlena in front of him. Razor would finally move her out of the way, but would get sent into the steps and the apron. Once back in the ring Goldust would hits a bulldog and a back suplex. Marlena would blow golden dust in Razor's eyes and Goldust would connect with a swinging neckbreaker and then would slap on a sleeper. Razor would get out of the sleeper with a low blow and then would hits a chokeslam, fall away slam, & a super back suplex. As Razor is on offense Marlena acts as if she twists her ankle and the referee checks on her, while this is happening The 1-2-3 Kid runs in and hits a spin kick off the top rope and this allows Goldust to make the cover and become Intercontinental Champion. This match needed more action and less trying to get into the head of Razor as that should have stopped or at least been minimized once the match started.
Worst Undercard Match: Goldust def Razor Ramon (c) (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
The story going into this match was Goldust playing mind games with Razor by coming onto him and making sexual gestures towards him. The mind games would continue during the match as every time Goldust gets an advantage early on he would feel Razor up. Razor would get enough of Goldust's antics and would go on offense against him, but Goldust would keep going to the outside and putting Marlena in front of him. Razor would finally move her out of the way, but would get sent into the steps and the apron. Once back in the ring Goldust would hits a bulldog and a back suplex. Marlena would blow golden dust in Razor's eyes and Goldust would connect with a swinging neckbreaker and then would slap on a sleeper. Razor would get out of the sleeper with a low blow and then would hits a chokeslam, fall away slam, & a super back suplex. As Razor is on offense Marlena acts as if she twists her ankle and the referee checks on her, while this is happening The 1-2-3 Kid runs in and hits a spin kick off the top rope and this allows Goldust to make the cover and become Intercontinental Champion. This match needed more action and less trying to get into the head of Razor as that should have stopped or at least been minimized once the match started.
The Beginnings of the Jarrett Guitar Shot: Ahmed Johnson def Jeff Jarrett by DQ
This match was set up after Jarrett had hit Ahmed with a guitar at the December In Your House PPV. For most of this match Ahmed is in control as most of everything Jarrett does Ahmed either reverses or just doesn't sell. Jarrett would come off the top rope right into a bear hug from Ahmed. Ahmed would clothesline and spinebuster Jarrett causing Jarrett to retreat to the outside. Ahmed would jump over the ropes with a plancha onto Jarrett. Jarrett gets back into the ring and tries for a somersault off the top rope, but misses. Jarrett locks in a figure 4 leglock which Ahmed would reverse, Jarrett would stay on the leg even trying for another figure 4, but Ahmed kicks him off. Jarrett is pissed at this point and decides to just grab his trusty six string and comes off the top with a guitar shot on Ahmed to give Ahmed the win by DQ. Not the best match, but at least it was quick.
This match was set up after Jarrett had hit Ahmed with a guitar at the December In Your House PPV. For most of this match Ahmed is in control as most of everything Jarrett does Ahmed either reverses or just doesn't sell. Jarrett would come off the top rope right into a bear hug from Ahmed. Ahmed would clothesline and spinebuster Jarrett causing Jarrett to retreat to the outside. Ahmed would jump over the ropes with a plancha onto Jarrett. Jarrett gets back into the ring and tries for a somersault off the top rope, but misses. Jarrett locks in a figure 4 leglock which Ahmed would reverse, Jarrett would stay on the leg even trying for another figure 4, but Ahmed kicks him off. Jarrett is pissed at this point and decides to just grab his trusty six string and comes off the top with a guitar shot on Ahmed to give Ahmed the win by DQ. Not the best match, but at least it was quick.
The Hitman vs The Deadman: The Undertaker def Bret Hart (c) by DQ (WWE Championship)
The shenanigans that happen even before the bell should have told us how this match was going to end as during the entrance of The Undertaker he is attacked by Diesel who was still all pissy after not winning the Royal Rumble and also for Undertaker being named #1 contender before he was. Undertaker is still wearing his mask for the broken orbital bone due to an attack by Mabel and Yokozuna in 1995. The action goes back and forth early on with both men having the advantage, they would go to the floor and Bret would whip Taker into the steps causing him to injure his leg and for a while Bret would work on the leg. Taker would finally make a comeback and throw Bret out of the ring and throw him into the steps as well as choke him with one of the cords at ringside. Taker would throw Bret into the timekeeper area and hit him with a chair. Taker goes for a big boot, but he misses and this allows Bret to go back to work on the leg and this time he wraps it around the ring post. Taker is able to get out of a leglock and clothesline Bret. Undertaker tries for a Tombstone, but due to his bad leg isn't able to pull it off and Bret escapes to the floor and drops Taker's throat across the top rope. Bret goes through his usual set of moves, but Taker keeps sitting up after all of them. Bret goes to lock in the sharpshooter, but Taker grabs him by the throat as both men get to their feet. Both men run to the ropes and clothesline each other. Bret goes and removes a turnbuckle pad and removes the mask from The Undertaker and rams Taker's face into the exposed corner. Bret goes to crossbody Taker, but he reverses it into a Tombstone and just as the referee is about to count Diesel returns and pulls the referee out and this causes a DQ. What a long very slow match and we had to sit through all of that just for it to end in a DQ is terrible booking.
Royal Rumble Match
The match starts with Triple H (who had lost a match earlier in the night to Duke Droese) and Henry Godwinn (who Triple H had been feuding with) HOG press slams Triple H and looks to eliminate him, but Triple H pokes him in the eye. This also would be the first rumble where all the entrants would get music during their entrance. Entrant #3 is Bob Backlund and #4 is Jerry Lawler. Lawler goes out and gets HOG's slop bucket and looks to dump it on him, but HOG fights off the other heels in the ring and grabs the bucks sending the others to the outside looking for cover, but it wouldn't do any good as HOG would throw the slop from the ring down to the floor onto Lawler. #5 is Bob Holly and #6 is King Mabel, Mabel & Lawler work over HOG while Holly & Triple H battle on the other side. #7 entrant is Jake Roberts who takes out the snake and sends everyone running except Lawler who can't get away fast enough and Jake puts the snake on Lawler as he rolls out of the ring and then gets under it. Eventually everyone gets back in except Lawler who will stay under the ring for a while. Mabel does the Andre the Giant hung in the ropes spot, but is quickly saved by Sir Mo. We then get Dory Funk Jr coming out at #8 and goes after Backlund. The fans are chanting DDT very loudly. Yokozuna is out next and he eliminates Backlund. Mabel and Yoko battle in one corner and behind them is HOG squished up against the turnbuckle and to make it worse Mabel hits a running splash into the corner on Yoko and HOG.
The match starts with Triple H (who had lost a match earlier in the night to Duke Droese) and Henry Godwinn (who Triple H had been feuding with) HOG press slams Triple H and looks to eliminate him, but Triple H pokes him in the eye. This also would be the first rumble where all the entrants would get music during their entrance. Entrant #3 is Bob Backlund and #4 is Jerry Lawler. Lawler goes out and gets HOG's slop bucket and looks to dump it on him, but HOG fights off the other heels in the ring and grabs the bucks sending the others to the outside looking for cover, but it wouldn't do any good as HOG would throw the slop from the ring down to the floor onto Lawler. #5 is Bob Holly and #6 is King Mabel, Mabel & Lawler work over HOG while Holly & Triple H battle on the other side. #7 entrant is Jake Roberts who takes out the snake and sends everyone running except Lawler who can't get away fast enough and Jake puts the snake on Lawler as he rolls out of the ring and then gets under it. Eventually everyone gets back in except Lawler who will stay under the ring for a while. Mabel does the Andre the Giant hung in the ropes spot, but is quickly saved by Sir Mo. We then get Dory Funk Jr coming out at #8 and goes after Backlund. The fans are chanting DDT very loudly. Yokozuna is out next and he eliminates Backlund. Mabel and Yoko battle in one corner and behind them is HOG squished up against the turnbuckle and to make it worse Mabel hits a running splash into the corner on Yoko and HOG.
We are at the #10 entrant and that is The 1-2-3 Kid who is looking behind him as Razor is chasing him, but the officials finally get Razor out of there. It's here that I have to mention despite how big of a role Razor had during the mid 90s he was never in a Rumble match. Jake finally eliminates HOG. At #11 we get Takao Omori and why of all Japanese talent they chose him is a mystery to me. We get Savio Vega at #12 and he would hit a spin kick on Mabel and this would allow Yokozuna to eliminate Mabel. Omori picks up Jake and tries to eliminate him, but Jake holds on and instead Omori goes to the floor. At #13 we get the debut of Vader who comes in and dominates. Savio suplexes Dory over the top to eliminate him. At #14 we get Doug Gilbert and again of all the people from the USWA at the time they chose someone that nobody knows. Yoko & Vader are going at it and at the same time Jake hits the DDT on Savio and tries to hit one on Gilbert, but before he can Vader clotheslines Jake and knocks him over the top to eliminate him. #15 is Squat Team I he and #16 are better known as The Headhunters and have worked all over, but are mostly in Japan & Puerto Rico. After ST I enters he goes after Yokozuna. Vader eliminates Gilbert by a press slam to the outside and then quickly gets rid of ST I. Once ST I is eliminated his brother comes in at #16 and they both come in the ring as the referee don't know which one was just eliminated, but they wouldn't last long as Vader would eliminate one and Yokozuna would eliminate the other. Coming in at #17 is Owen Hart. Yoko & Vader team up on Savio, they both splash him in the corner and then Vader splashes him with Yokozuna following up with a leg drop. Coming in at #18 is Shawn Michaels as Vince McMahon has an orgasm on commentary. Vader finally decides to eliminate Savio after he and Yoko have already killed him. Yokozuna and Vader are now brawling near the ropes and Shawn comes over and throws them both over which considering this was Vader's debut and he was dominating this was a weak way to get him out. Shawn press slams Kid to eliminate him. The #19 entrant is Hakushi. Vader and Yokozuna are brawling at ringside, Vader knocks him down and goes back into the ring and beats the crap out of everyone and throws them over the top, but due to the rule that is never consistent that Vader had already been eliminated those that he threw over didn't count as eliminations. The officials run out and with the help of Jim Cornette talking him down Vader finally leaves the ring.
Everyone would re-enter the ring and Tatanka would enter at #20. Shawn teases elimination a few times. Hakushi tries to spring off the corner, but Owen catches him and eliminates him. We get Aldo Montoya entering the ring at #21. Triple H hits Shawn with a high knee and Shawn goes to floor and while he is down there he looks under the ring and grabs Jerry Lawler by the feet and throws him into the ring. Tatanka eliminates Aldo Montoya & Shawn eliminates Lawler. Diesel makes his way to the ring at #22. Diesel comes in attacking everyone and tosses Tatanka out to eliminate him. Diesel and Shawn go at it as Shawn teases more near eliminations. #23 is Kama & #24 is The Ringmaster (hmm I wonder whatever happened to that guy) he comes in and finally eliminates Bob Holly who had been in the match for 40 minutes. #25 is Barry Horowitz who is instantly attacked by Diesel. Diesel finally eliminates Triple H who had been in since number 1. Fatu comes in at #26 and #26 is Isaac Yankem DDS. Owen backdrops Horowitz to eliminate him. Owen hits Shawn with an enziguri which is notable as that is the move he had done to Shawn on an episode of Raw that knocked Shawn out and it looked to do so again here, but as Owen goes to throw Shawn out he reverses it and out goes Owen. At #28 we get Marty Jannetty and even though it had been three years since the breakup we had to have our Shawn vs Marty battle in the Rumble. #29 is British Bulldog and I have to wonder if he was bizarre like he would be the following year? Bulldog comes in and eliminates Jannetty and Fatu eliminates The Ringmaster (that poor soul how will he ever feed his family now) Yankem eliminates Fatu. Finally we get Duke Droese entering at #30.
Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog fight on the floor, but neither have been eliminated as Owen runs out and the two of them beat up on Shawn. Once back in the ring Shawn dropkicks Yanek over the top and then Diesel & Kama team up to eliminate Droese. This would get us to our final 4 Shawn Michaels, British Bulldog, Diesel, & Kama. Bulldog gets Shawn over the ropes and onto the apron, but Shawn slides through the legs of Bulldog and when he comes back up clotheslines Bulldog out. Then Diesel forces Kama out and as he is turning around Diesel eats a Sweet Chin Music on Diesel to eliminate him and pick up his 2nd Rumble win. I know this isn't the best Rumble match, but it is far from the worst and is really fun to watch.
22. Royal Rumble 2013
This was another one of those post 2008 Rumble shows that somewhat blends together for me as other than the WWE Championship match this show is pretty forgettable. The major thing coming out of this show was The Rock winning his 8th WWE Championship and thus setting up the match that was "Once" oh no wait I'm sorry "Twice in a Lifetime" at WrestleMania 29 against Rumble winner John Cena.
This was another one of those post 2008 Rumble shows that somewhat blends together for me as other than the WWE Championship match this show is pretty forgettable. The major thing coming out of this show was The Rock winning his 8th WWE Championship and thus setting up the match that was "Once" oh no wait I'm sorry "Twice in a Lifetime" at WrestleMania 29 against Rumble winner John Cena.
Best Undercard Match: The Rock def CM Punk (c) w/ Paul Heyman (WWE Championship)
So the seeds for this match were planted in July of 2012 during Raw 1000 when The Rock announced that he was challenging for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble no matter who the champion was, that's right members of the active roster are getting screwed out of being in the main event of one of the big 4 PPVs just so The Rock can get the title and we can have The Rock vs John Cena II. During that same episode of Raw The Rock was attacked by CM Punk. On the Raw before the Rumble The Rock was cutting a promo on CM Punk when he was attacked by The Shield who at the time had helped CM Punk retain his championship on several occasions, this would cause Vince McMahon to make the stipulation that if The Shield interfered in the match at the Rumble that CM Punk would be stripped of his championship.
So the seeds for this match were planted in July of 2012 during Raw 1000 when The Rock announced that he was challenging for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble no matter who the champion was, that's right members of the active roster are getting screwed out of being in the main event of one of the big 4 PPVs just so The Rock can get the title and we can have The Rock vs John Cena II. During that same episode of Raw The Rock was attacked by CM Punk. On the Raw before the Rumble The Rock was cutting a promo on CM Punk when he was attacked by The Shield who at the time had helped CM Punk retain his championship on several occasions, this would cause Vince McMahon to make the stipulation that if The Shield interfered in the match at the Rumble that CM Punk would be stripped of his championship.
The finishing stretch of this match comes when both men are fighting on the announce table and and Punk tries for the GTS, but The Rock reverses it into an attempted Rock Bottom, but the table breaks prematurely, The Rock rolls in the ring to break the referees count before returning to the outside and hits a Rock Bottom on Punk, once they are back in the ring Punk kicks Rock in the head and they are both down as the referee begins his count. They both get up right at the nine count and start trading blows with each other, Punk whips Rock into the ropes and he comes back with a big flying clothesline. Rock then sends Punk into the ropes and hits his spinebuster and is looking for the People's Elbow, but the lights go out and we hear lots of commotion as Cole is screaming about it being The Shield we hear the breaking of a table and as the lights come back on we see Rock laid out in the remains of the announce table. Punk drags Rock back into the ring and gets a 3 count for the win, but wait there's more as Vince McMahon comes out and is going to strip Punk of the title and just as he is about to say the words The Rock stops him and says this match isn't going to end this way and tells Vince to restart the match and that's exactly what Vince does. Punk goes to work on Rock right away, he hits the high knee in the corner followed by the diving elbow drop for a 2 count. Punk is looking for the GTS, but Rock gets out of it and hits his spinebuster followed by the People's Elbow for the win. The match itself was pretty good, but the outcome was what sucked as Punk's reign should have at least lasted all the way to WrestleMania where they could have had a triple threat match so we didn't have to have the exact same match as the year before.
Worst Undercard Match: Alberto Del Rio (c) def The Big Show (World Heavyweight Championship - Last Man Standing Match)
Even though I have this as worst match it's not actually a bad match in itself, but it's the weakest match compared to the other matches on the card, also it didn't help that these two had just had a Last Man Standing match 2 weeks prior to the Rumble.
Even though I have this as worst match it's not actually a bad match in itself, but it's the weakest match compared to the other matches on the card, also it didn't help that these two had just had a Last Man Standing match 2 weeks prior to the Rumble.
The one spot I remember from this match is The Big Show chokeslamming ADR off the entrance structure through a table. The Big Show goes for a spear into the timekeeper area, but ADR moves and Big Show crashes through the barricade, but Show gets up at the count of nine. ADR smashes Big Show with the chair multiple times before putting his arm in between the steps and smashes the steps with a chair. ADR sprays Show with the fire extinguisher to blind him and then locks in his cross-armbreaker, while he has him in the armbreaker Ricardo Rodriguez duct tapes Show's legs to the bottom rope this finally keep him down for the 10 count and gives the win to ADR. I like the use of the tape more in this match than I do in the John Cena vs Batista match from 2010 because Cena and Batista are more equal and Cena should have been able to find a way to use his power and strength to keep Batista down, where ADR is much smaller than Show and knew he couldn't use brute force to keep the big man down so he had to use his brain and find a different way to win this match.
I'm the Tag Team Champions - Team Hell No (c) def The Rhodes Scholars (WWE Tag Team Championship) I never would have thought a team comprised of Daniel Bryan and Kane would have ever worked and at the time if felt like a setback for Bryan, but these two were a perfect match. The anger management skits with Dr Shelby is still some of the best comedy segments the WWE has ever done. It showed the mainstream WWE fans that Daniel Bryan can be both serious and comedic.
This was actually a match that many were looking forward to as at the time both teams were really over, we were suppose to get this match the previous year but Cody Rhodes got injured and it had to be postponed. This was a pretty good match, the finish came when Bryan who had been worked over for a while finally got a hot tag into Kane who comes in with clotheslines in the corner and sideslams. Kane goes up top for his clothesline, but Sandow tries to cut him off but Kane is able to knock him off the apron however this momentary distraction causes Kane to miss the clothesline. Kane recovers and attempts a chokeslam on both Rhodes Scholars, but they break his grip and hit a double suplex while this was happening Bryan had made a blind tag. Sandow tries for a pin off the double suplex, but the referee won't count due to Kane no longer being the legal man, Bryan goes up top and connects with a dropkick on Sandow. Kane chokeslams Cody and Bryan makes Sandow tap out to the Yes Lock. I remember thinking the Scholars were going to win here and Team Hell No were going to break up, but I guess since they were so over they wanted to keep them together for a while longer.
Royal Rumble Match
I feel this match could be compared to the 2012 Rumble as neither will be that memorable in years to come, but I feel this match has more stuff to get invested in and was way more fun to watch and it also had a bit more star power than the 2012 match did.
Right away we get Chris Jericho making a surprise return to humongous pop to face off against the number 1 entrant Dolph Ziggler. Santino was in for a much shorter time this year than he was in 2012 which was a good thing as he was still able to get his stuff in, but not throw off the entire pace of the match. We get the Rhodes brothers facing off during the match which would include a nasty looking bump by Goldust as Cody whipped him into the corner post while Goldust was on the apron. Then we would get the spot of the match where Kofi would get knocked off the apron, but instead of landing on the floor he lands on the back of Tensai who had just been eliminated, Tensai throws him off onto the announce table and now Kofi is stuck there and has to figure out how to get back into the ring because in this case the floor is hot lava, Kofi then has a brilliant plan as he tells JBL to give him his rolling chair and Kofi jumps from the table to the chair and then proceeds to treat the chair as a pogo stick and bounce all the way back to the ring, but unfortunately it would all be for nothing as Cody Rhodes would hit him with a disaster kick and knock him off the apron to eliminate him. I have to wonder who would come up with these near elimination spots for Kofi, I wonder if Kofi came up with this or if this was one of the agents? Kofi at this time wasn't doing anything much at all for the rest of the year, but everyone got excited to see him in the Rumble and see how he was going to avoid being eliminated every year. By this time in the match they had really made both Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler look really good as Cody was racking up a decent amount of eliminations and Ziggler was still hanging on after entering from the number 1 spot. We get a surprise of The Godfather who unfortunately was lacking on the ladies during this appearance as there were only two, but that could be because they didn't care to get that many ladies for a 2 second run in the match. John Cena comes to the ring at #19 and all of the others in the ring stand back and get ready for him as he comes in the ring he gets beat down, but makes a comeback eliminating Cody & Heath Slater. The next notable spot in the match is when Daniel Bryan sneaks up behind Kane and then eliminates him, but right after is sent to the apron by Cesaro and then is knocked off the apron, but lands in the arms of Kane. Bryan begs Kane to put him back in the ring, but instead Kane gets payback on his tag team partner as he lets go and lets Bryan slowly hit the floor. The rookie Bo Dallas would eliminate Wade Barrett only for Barrett to be a bad sport and grabs Bo from the outside and eliminates him before hitting him with a Bull Hammer. Ryback is the last man to enter and starts clearing the ring which was pretty full at this time. After lasting 46 minutes Dolph Ziggler is finally eliminated after getting to the final four. Ryback would duck a Brogue Kick from Sheamus and toss him over the top. John Cena and Ryback are the final 2, the finish comes when Ryback is going for a running powerslam, but Cena slides out the back and tosses Ryback out to win the 2013 Royal Rumble. Not the best Rumble, but it had some high spots and told some interesting stories throughout the match.
Right away we get Chris Jericho making a surprise return to humongous pop to face off against the number 1 entrant Dolph Ziggler. Santino was in for a much shorter time this year than he was in 2012 which was a good thing as he was still able to get his stuff in, but not throw off the entire pace of the match. We get the Rhodes brothers facing off during the match which would include a nasty looking bump by Goldust as Cody whipped him into the corner post while Goldust was on the apron. Then we would get the spot of the match where Kofi would get knocked off the apron, but instead of landing on the floor he lands on the back of Tensai who had just been eliminated, Tensai throws him off onto the announce table and now Kofi is stuck there and has to figure out how to get back into the ring because in this case the floor is hot lava, Kofi then has a brilliant plan as he tells JBL to give him his rolling chair and Kofi jumps from the table to the chair and then proceeds to treat the chair as a pogo stick and bounce all the way back to the ring, but unfortunately it would all be for nothing as Cody Rhodes would hit him with a disaster kick and knock him off the apron to eliminate him. I have to wonder who would come up with these near elimination spots for Kofi, I wonder if Kofi came up with this or if this was one of the agents? Kofi at this time wasn't doing anything much at all for the rest of the year, but everyone got excited to see him in the Rumble and see how he was going to avoid being eliminated every year. By this time in the match they had really made both Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler look really good as Cody was racking up a decent amount of eliminations and Ziggler was still hanging on after entering from the number 1 spot. We get a surprise of The Godfather who unfortunately was lacking on the ladies during this appearance as there were only two, but that could be because they didn't care to get that many ladies for a 2 second run in the match. John Cena comes to the ring at #19 and all of the others in the ring stand back and get ready for him as he comes in the ring he gets beat down, but makes a comeback eliminating Cody & Heath Slater. The next notable spot in the match is when Daniel Bryan sneaks up behind Kane and then eliminates him, but right after is sent to the apron by Cesaro and then is knocked off the apron, but lands in the arms of Kane. Bryan begs Kane to put him back in the ring, but instead Kane gets payback on his tag team partner as he lets go and lets Bryan slowly hit the floor. The rookie Bo Dallas would eliminate Wade Barrett only for Barrett to be a bad sport and grabs Bo from the outside and eliminates him before hitting him with a Bull Hammer. Ryback is the last man to enter and starts clearing the ring which was pretty full at this time. After lasting 46 minutes Dolph Ziggler is finally eliminated after getting to the final four. Ryback would duck a Brogue Kick from Sheamus and toss him over the top. John Cena and Ryback are the final 2, the finish comes when Ryback is going for a running powerslam, but Cena slides out the back and tosses Ryback out to win the 2013 Royal Rumble. Not the best Rumble, but it had some high spots and told some interesting stories throughout the match.
2010 was pretty much a mediocre year for WWE as nothing really stood out for most of the year other than the Nexus angle which would die a pretty quick death. This show as a whole was also pretty mediocre it had a few interesting things happen in the Rumble match, but other than that the rest of the show was meh.
Best Undercard Match: The Undertaker (c) def Rey Mysterio (World Heavyweight Championship)
I don't think anyone plays the role of David in these David vs Goliath matches better than Rey Mysterio, he is the only one who can make those matches feel like the little guy even has a chance. This was one PPV match they had never done before despite both men being on the Smackdown roster together for a good many years. While this was a really good match, the finish was absolutely predictable as everything was leading to a Undertaker vs Shawn Michaels II at WrestleMania 26 and there was no reason for Rey Mysterio to have the title at this time.
This match starts with Undertaker grabbing Mysterio by the throat and tossing him out of the ring which looked awesome, Mysterio tries for a springboard, but Undertaker knocks him down to the floor. Undertaker goes for his apron leg drop, but Rey sees it coming and tries to avoid it however Undertaker puts him back in place and hits it anyway. Taker is looking for a chokeslam, but Rey reverses it with a huricanranna and goes for a 619, Undertaker ends up catching him and looks for a Tombstone, but Rey knees him in the head to get out of it. Rey tries for a springboard crossbody, but eats a boot from Taker. Rey goes to the floor and Taker chases after giving Rey two big boots and then tries for a third, but Rey ducks and Taker goes leg first into the post. Rey goes for another hurricanranna, but this time Undertaker lifts Rey into position for a Last Ride on the outside, Rey is able to slip out of it and land on the apron and hit an Asai moonsault. Rey tries for a baseball slide, but Taker catches him and grabs him by the throat ramming him into the barricade. They finally get back into the ring and Taker gets a 2 count on Mysterio. Taker lands a series of punches in the corner and then hits a side slam for another 2 count. Rey tries to make a comeback out of the corner, but Undertaker catches him only for Rey to counter into a reverse DDT. Rey goes for a cover, but Taker sits up. Rey hits a seated dropkick and a springboard leg drop that only gets a 2 count. Rey runs at Taker, but Taker hits him with a clothesline and then goes for the Last Ride again, but Rey clips his knee sends him into the ropes for a 619 which stuns Taker he then hits a springboard dropkick sending Taker into the ropes on the opposite side of the ring and then hits another 619 and goes for his seated senton, but Taker catches him and finally is successful in hitting the Last Ride for the win. Wow this has to be one of the most overrated overlooked matches in the history of the WWE, much better than many expected and there were times when you thought Rey may just pull it off and beat the Dead Man.
Worst Undercard Match: Sheamus (c) def Randy Orton by DQ (WWE Championship)Dear WWE never book these two in matches against each other as they never have good matches. This match was so slow and boring where the finish was Sheamus going for the High Cross, but Orton gets out of it and clips the knee and sends him to the floor, as Sheamus tries to get into the ring Orton hits the hangman DDT off the ropes for a 2 count. Orton is looking for the punt kick, but Sheamus rolls to the floor and Orton follows hitting a european uppercut, but Sheamus then sends him into the ring post a couple of times. Cody Rhodes comes from behind and attacks Sheamus and the referee runs him off. Orton gets back in and hits the RKO and goes for the pin, but the referee calls for the bell as he rewards Sheamus the match by DQ. There was nothing in this match to get excited for and because they are both heels the fans don't really care and when they did try to get into the match and cheer for Orton he wouldn't play into it. Just a really bad match.
ECW, US, & Women's ChampionshipIn addition to the two World Title matches and the Royal Rumble match we had three other matches on the card.
The first was a decent match between Christian & Ezekiel Jackson for the ECW Championship. This was during the last days of the WWECW brand. The finish of this match saw Christian go for an Unprettier, but Zeke would counter with an attempted back suplex, but Christian flips out of that and applies a sleeper while on the back of Zeke, Zeke powers out and hits a few powerslams until Christian finally slides out of a third and hits an Unprettier for the win. On the last episode of WWECW Ezekiel Jackson would end up winning the WWECW championship.
In a match that wasn't even announced until earlier in the night The Miz would defend his US Championship against MVP. This match wasn't needed at all as it was nothing more than a match you could see on any episode of Raw at the time. MVP goes for the Player's Boot in the corner, but Miz moves and tries for the Skull Crushing Finale, but MVP rolls him up for a 2 and then backslides him for another 2 followed by another roll up for a 2. Miz rolls to the floor begging off, but MVP follows him and throws him back in the ring and as MVP gets back into the ring Miz catches him with a small package for the win. Post match Miz talks trash and gets hit with the Playmaker by MVP.
In the match that had the most despicable and disgusting build Michelle McCool would put the Women's Championship on the line against Mickie James. This was during the whole Piggie James angle which infuriated me to no end, before the match started Layla came out dressed in a fat pig costume mocking Mickie, Mickie ran out and takes Layla out and then hits the Mickie DDT for the win to become the new WWE Women's Champion. Unforutnately she would lose it on the next episode of Smackdown and soon after would be released.
Royal Rumble Match
The main story going into this match was that Shawn Michaels had to win this match in order for him to be able to face The Undertaker at WrestleMania and avenge his loss from the year before. So majority of this match is built around him.
The match started with Dolph Ziggler and Evan Bourne which for most Rumbles I would find this as a bit of an odd pairing for number 1 and 2, but it made sense giving what was going to happen. Number 3 was CM Punk and he makes quick work of Bourne & Ziggler and then gets handed the microphone by Serena and cuts a promo, then he makes short work of JTG and goes back to his promo. The Great Khali is next and Punk tells Khali that he could become even greater if he joins SES and that all he has to do his raise his hand which Khali does, but instead of pledging to SES he hits Punk with a big chop to the head. Khali then puts Punk in the vice until the number 6 entrant enters and it's the second woman to ever compete in a Royal Rumble match "The Glamazon" Beth Phoenix. Khali is confused and picks Beth up and places her gently on the apron and tells her to leave, but instead Beth plants a Kiss on the "Punjabi Giant" and much like Benoit did to The Big Show at the end of the 2004 Rumble Beth uses leverage to pull Khali over the top rope and eliminate him. Beth clotheslines Punk and hits him a few times, but Punk hits her with the GTS and then eliminates her. Punk's dominant reign in the match comes to an end with the entrance of Triple H. Triple H goes for the Pedigree, but Punk counters it into an attempted GTS, but Triple H catches his leg and tosses Punk over the top. Once Punk is gone nothing special would happen in the match for for quite a while.
Shawn Michaels comes in at number 18 and is on fire as he immediately eliminates Carlito with a backdrop, then eliminates both Cody Rhodes & Ted Dibiase of Legacy followed shortly by John Morrison. Shawn & Triple H double team Drew McIntyre and double clothesline him out of the match. We then get a face to face with HBK & Triple H, but before anything could happen we get the entrance of John Cena at number 19. I have to say Cena was too fired up as he hits the spinout powerbomb that he does on Triple H and it was suppose to be that it kicks Shawn in the head and then he lands Triple H right beside him, but instead Cena recklessly slams Triple H directly on top of the head of Shawn Michaels and I would guess that both Triple H and Shawn might have had some words for him after this match was over. He then goes for the AA on Shawn, but Triple H makes the save and instead Pedigrees Cena. Then out of nowhere Shawn hits Sweet Chin Music on Triple H knocking him out of the ring and eliminating his fellow DX member. In another botch by Cena he goes to clothesline Yoshi Tatsu over the ropes, but instead clotheslines him into the top rope. Big Show comes in at number 22 and Shawn jumps onto him, but Big Show catches him, Shawn then locks in a front facelock and tries to eliminate Show like Benoit did in 2004. Cena tries to help Shawn, but Show kicks him away and then lifts Shawn up and hands him off to Cena who tries for an AA, but Shawn holds onto the ropes and gets out of it, Shawn tries to hit Sweet Chin Music on Cena, but Cena ducks and backdrops Shawn over the rope as Shawn tries to skin the cat The Big Show comes over and grabs him and throws him back across the ring. We then get Mark Henry come out and we get the big man spots with him and Big Show, they do the lean against the ropes and tries to get each other out which has to mean someone has to throw them both over and who would that person be? Shawn? Cena? No R-Truth off all people eliminates both of the big men for a reason completely unknown to me as there was no reason for him to get a spot like this as it wasn't like he was in for a push or anything.
Edge would make his return at number 29 as a complete surprise as he wasn't expected to return until much later. Edge comes in and hits spears on everyone and then throws out Chris Jericho. Batista comes in at number 30 with clotheslines, powerslams, and spinebusters for all. Edge clotheslines Shawn and they both land on the apron, Shawn hits the Sweet Chin Music on Edge sending him back into the ring, but Batista loosens Shawn's fingers from the rope and Shawn falls to the floor grasping at the air trying to grab onto anything he could, but his feet hit the floor and Shawn's dream of facing Undertaker again at WrestleMania would come to an end...for a while at least. Shawn is in disbelief and then gets back in the ring, but Charles Robinson tries to get him to leave this leads to Shawn hitting Sweet Chin Muisc on Robinson before leaving the ring. Batista tries for the Batista Bomb on Cena, but Cena backdrops him and then tries for an AA, but Batista slips out and charges at Cena only for Cena to low bridge the top rope and send Batista out. Edge looks for a spear, but Cena kicks him to counter it and then charges Edge, but Edge moves and sends Cena over the top to win the match. Decent match with the whole story mainly around Shawn Michaels which I remember at the time really getting into as I really wanted to see the rematch as the one the year before was an absolute classic.
20. Royal Rumble 2005
This Rumble show is hard to rank as there is nothing on the show that is horrible, but at the same time nothing that is absolutely blow away amazing. This Rumble is probably best remembered more for the commercials leading up to the show more so than the actual show its self. WWE was really wanting to get creative with how they advertised their first two big PPVs of the year as they went completely out of the box. The Royal Rumble commercials were based on the famous musical West Side Story where the members of Raw and Smackdown would face off while wearing wigs and singing. This would be the lead up to the commercials they did to hype WrestleMania 21 where they would parody various scenes from some of the most famous movies off all time. I wish they would do stuff like this now as it makes things feel fresh. They would also play into the West Side Story theme during the show as the set was something you would see in a Broadway play. This would also be the year when they would bring back the segments where superstars would pick their numbers out of the tumbler, this would only last for three years (2005-2007) but they brought about some memorable moments that still are talked about today. I'll go into more detail about the ones on this show a little bit later.
This Rumble show is hard to rank as there is nothing on the show that is horrible, but at the same time nothing that is absolutely blow away amazing. This Rumble is probably best remembered more for the commercials leading up to the show more so than the actual show its self. WWE was really wanting to get creative with how they advertised their first two big PPVs of the year as they went completely out of the box. The Royal Rumble commercials were based on the famous musical West Side Story where the members of Raw and Smackdown would face off while wearing wigs and singing. This would be the lead up to the commercials they did to hype WrestleMania 21 where they would parody various scenes from some of the most famous movies off all time. I wish they would do stuff like this now as it makes things feel fresh. They would also play into the West Side Story theme during the show as the set was something you would see in a Broadway play. This would also be the year when they would bring back the segments where superstars would pick their numbers out of the tumbler, this would only last for three years (2005-2007) but they brought about some memorable moments that still are talked about today. I'll go into more detail about the ones on this show a little bit later.
Best Undercard Match: Edge def Shawn MichaelsThis match came about when at New Year's Revolution 2005 Shawn Michaels was the special guest referee in the Elimination Chamber match and after being confronted by Edge Shawn Michaels would hit him with Sweet Chin Music which would allow Chris Jericho to hit the Lionsault and eliminate him. Edge would blame Shawn for costing him the title and the match was booked for Rumble. This was right at the beginning of the transition of Edge going from a babyface to a heel as well as him going from the midcard to main eventer.
The finishing stretch comes when both men are on the outside and Edge spears Shawn. Shawn is down until the 9 count before he is able to get back into the ring. Edge mocks Shawn and acts like his is tuning up the band before he delivers a spear for a very close 2 count. This nearfall sends Edge into a frenzy as he starts pulling his hair out. Edge looks for a superplex on Shawn, but Shawn chops Edge down to the mat and comes off the top with the flying elbow drop. Shawn then tries for a Sweet Chin Music, but Edge ducks and hits an electric chair drop on Shawn for another very close 2 count. Edge whips Shawn into the ropes and Shawn tries for a sunset flip, but Edge rolls through it and puts him in the Edgecator. Shawn tries desperately to get to the ropes, but just as he is about to Edge pulls him back into the center of the ring, Shawn after a long struggle is able to reach the ropes to break the hold. Edge is looking to lock in the hold again, but Shawn rolls him up in a small package for a 2 count. Shawn goes for another roll up, but Edge counters it and rolls Shawn up and with the assist of the ropes gets the win. Really good match to kick off Edge's 2005 and make him credible as a top heel.
Worst Undercard Match: Triple H (c) def Randy Orton (World Heavyweight Championship)I'm not one who will bash Triple H like a lot of people will do, but this match is absolutely one of the longest and most boring matches ever. When you take Triple H who at this time in his career loved to have unnecessarily long matches and Randy Orton who for most of career has the slowest and most methodical pace in his matches and then you add the rest holds that Orton loves to use and you have the formula for a snore fest. This was also during the time of Orton's terrible babyface run.
This was two matches in one as the first part of the match is Triple H working over the leg of Orton, but once Orton gets the advantage back he forgets about selling the leg. The second part of the match comes when Orton goes for a DDT, but Triple H hooks the top rope and Orton crashes down to the mat right on the back of his head. Orton would roll out of the ring and fake having a concussion (that would never happen in today's WWE) even to the point where he had a really good glazed over look in his eyes. Earl Hebner instead of calling for help from a medical official because a man has a concussion yells at Orton to get back into the ring or he will count him out. Triple H runs into the corner knocking out both Orton and Hebner. Triple H then goes for the sledgehammer and tries to hit Orton with it, but Orton pulls Triple H into the ring post. Orton keeps stumbling around selling the concussion and slowing the match way down. Orton grabs the sledgehammer, but Triple H hits him with a clothesline to take Orton down. Triple H is then looking to hit Orton with the sledgehammer, but he sees the referee coming to and decides not to use it. Triple H hits the Pedigree on Orton for the win. This was slow, boring, and inconsistent as all the work on the leg in the first part of the match was for nothing.
Picking Numbers Segments
Throughout the night after every match we would cut to the back where Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff & Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long were overseeing the drawing of numbers for the Royal Rumble match. We also had Torrie Wilson & Christy Hemme as the official Rumble tumbler girls.
Throughout the night after every match we would cut to the back where Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff & Smackdown General Manager Teddy Long were overseeing the drawing of numbers for the Royal Rumble match. We also had Torrie Wilson & Christy Hemme as the official Rumble tumbler girls.
The first segment show Eddie Guerrero & Ric Flair ready to draw numbers. Eddie wants to go first, but Flair cuts in front of him and Eddie lets him go ahead. Flair looks at this number and is really happy about it and then Eddie grabs his number and doesn't look pleased, they hug each other and Eddie leaves the room. Christy asks Flair what number he got and he shows everybody in the room and Teddy tells him he better look again and as Flair looks at it he is shocked and pats himself down and starts screaming about Eddie stealing his number as he storms off to find him. Teddy catches up with Eddie and tells him to give Flair his number back and Eddie acts like he has no clue and at that time Evolution storms in and finally Eddie gives Flair the number back, but Teddy stops him and tells him to hand it over and once again Eddie plays dumb until he finally pulls out Flair's wallet which Flair didn't even notice was gone and he was outraged. These two segments were really great and were so simple, but entertaining.
The other number drawing segment shows Christian and his problem solver Tomko picking Christian's number and then Cena comes in acting cool with Bischoff, but Christian isn't buying his act and tells him he can freestyle better than Cena can. He freestyles and then Cena does one of his own. I can't remember what the freestyle rap that Christian did was, but it was really funny especially the part where he asks Tomko to give him a beat and Tomko shoots that down immediately. Why did they only do these backstage skits for 3 years when they could make entertaining segments like this every year.
An Olympic Hero, A Giant, & A Wrestling God: JBL (c) v.s. Kurt Angle v.s. The Big Show (WWE Championship)
So the story behind this match was basically every week on Smackdown two of the three participants would team up against the third and it would rotate as to which two were were aligned each week. This match as well as the WWE Championship match in February were all just a hold over until WrestleMania where John Cena could finally end the lengthy title reign of JBL.
So the story behind this match was basically every week on Smackdown two of the three participants would team up against the third and it would rotate as to which two were were aligned each week. This match as well as the WWE Championship match in February were all just a hold over until WrestleMania where John Cena could finally end the lengthy title reign of JBL.
The finishing stretch starts when The Big Show chokeslams JBL, but he gets his foot on the ropes. JBL tries to go to the outside and take a breather, but Big Show spears him through the barricade. JBL's cabinet comes out to check on JBL while Big Show makes his way back in the ring, but he is met with a steel chair to the gut courtesy of Kurt Angle. Angle tries for another, but Big Show hits him with a flapjack instead and goes for a cover (while this is happening JBL is getting checked on my medical), Show isn't even able to get a 1 count and Mark Jindrak pulls the referee out of the ring. Show tries to grab Jindrak, but Luther Reigns comes from behind and dumps Show out of the ring. While Show is trying to fight off Jindrak & Reigns, Orlando Jordan slides JBL back into the ring and he is able to hit a Clothesline From Hell on Angle for to once again retain his WWE Championship. This was a decent match, but nothing special and all the interference at the end hurt it a good bit, but that was how JBL kept the title for as long as he did.
I Really Hate Caskets: The Undertaker def Heidenreich
In the blow off to one of the worst feuds of 2004 we have Heidenreich who is deathly afraid of caskets in case you didn't. I have to talk about the backstage promo before this match where Heidenreich and Snitsky are in this room and Heidenreich is talking about his fear of caskets and they are both breathing very very heavy and it was one of the creepiest yet most laughable things I have ever seen on WWE television.
In the blow off to one of the worst feuds of 2004 we have Heidenreich who is deathly afraid of caskets in case you didn't. I have to talk about the backstage promo before this match where Heidenreich and Snitsky are in this room and Heidenreich is talking about his fear of caskets and they are both breathing very very heavy and it was one of the creepiest yet most laughable things I have ever seen on WWE television.
I've never been the biggest fan of casket matches as they are always built up as this big special gimmick match, but usually once the match is actually happening it falls pretty flat and this one wasn't any different. During the match Snitsky runs and helps Heidenreich beat on Taker, but as they open the casket to put Taker in Kane magically appears in there and fights Snitsky off. The finish comes when Taker chokeslams and tombstones Heidenreich and puts Heidenreich in the casket. Crappy match.
Royal Rumble Match
The first notable part of this match was when Daniel Puder came out and in one of the few times that you can noticeably see a new guy getting punished for his behavior backstage as Puder gets the living shit beat out of him first by Benoit & Guerrero and then Hardcore Holly. I remember watching this at first and being into it, but now watching it back it gets really uncomfortable especially with the stiff chops. Hardcore would toss Puder, but not before giving him an Alabama Slam.
The first notable part of this match was when Daniel Puder came out and in one of the few times that you can noticeably see a new guy getting punished for his behavior backstage as Puder gets the living shit beat out of him first by Benoit & Guerrero and then Hardcore Holly. I remember watching this at first and being into it, but now watching it back it gets really uncomfortable especially with the stiff chops. Hardcore would toss Puder, but not before giving him an Alabama Slam.
The next note from this match is when we get the real life version of the West Side Story as stars from Raw and Smackdown would face off in the ring. Raw was represented by Chris Benoit, Edge, Chris Jericho, & Shelton Benjamin while Smackdown had Rey Mysterio, Booker T, Eddie Guerrero, & Luther Reigns. They would brawl for a few minutes until we got the 13th entrant Muhammad Hassan and when he comes to the ring everyone stops what they are doing and focus on him. As Hassan gets in the ring he does his raising the arms and then everyone in the ring gangs up on him and beat him up and then they allow Mysterio to hit the 619 before pretty much everyone picked him up and tossed him out. Hassan licks his wounds at ringside for a bit until Scotty 2 Hotty comes out and Hassan then attacks him and puts him in the camel clutch.
Shawn Michaels comes out at number 19 and quickly chucks Simon Dean out of the ring. Then at number 20 Kurt Angle enters and gives a few suplexes and then tries for a Angle Slam on Shawn, but Shawn jumps out of it and attempts a Sweet Chin Music, but Angle catches his leg and puts him in the ankle lock, Shawn rolls through it and the momentum tosses Angle into the ropes and then Shawn hits the Sweet Chin Music knocking Angle out of the ring. Angle would comes back in and toss Shawn out and then hits him with the steps and locks in an ankle lock on the steps.
For some reason they took away a spot in this match from an actual wrestler so they could put in Jonathan Coachman which always makes me upset when they screw an actual wrestler out of a spot to put in an announcer (I'm looking at you Michael Cole).
The next part of this match that I always remember is the elimination of Paul London by Gene Snitsky who clotheslines London who is on the apron and makes London turn inside out, that is one of the best eliminations in Royal Rumble history.
Ric Flair comes in as the final entrant and he teams up with Batista to toss some guys out, then as Batista turns his back, Flair grabs the back of Batista's head and looks like he is going to throw him out, but Batista just stops and looks at him with a confused look as this would be another tiny seed in the split of Batista away from Triple H and Ric Flair.
Ric Flair comes in as the final entrant and he teams up with Batista to toss some guys out, then as Batista turns his back, Flair grabs the back of Batista's head and looks like he is going to throw him out, but Batista just stops and looks at him with a confused look as this would be another tiny seed in the split of Batista away from Triple H and Ric Flair.
We finally get to our Final 4 which is Batista, John Cena, Edge, & Rey Mysterio. Edge hits spears on both Cena & Batista and tries for one on Rey, but Rey leapfrogs him and and is able to hit a 619 and then goes for the West Coast Pop, but Edge ducks it and then uses Rey's own momentum to toss him over the rope, but Rey hangs on and is on the apron Edge runs off the rope and hits a spear on Rey to eliminate him. Edge runs toward Cena & Batista who are really close to the ropes and they both back drop him over the top. We are down to Batista & John Cena as the final 2. Batista kicks Cena and hits him with a thrust to the throat, but Cena picks him up in the fireman's carry position and tries to toss him over, but Batista keeps hanging onto the ropes. Batista goes for the Batista Bomb, but the momentum causes him to stumble backwards and they both go over the top rope and both of their feet hit the floor at the same time. The referees don't know what to do as they raise both men's hand and the crowd cheers. Finally Vince comes storming down to the ring all pissed off and slides in the ring and both of his legs hit the apron of the ring and he tears both quads and can't even get to his feet. Vince demands that the match be restarted. The match is restarted and Batista goes for another Batista Bomb, but Cena gets out of it and then Cena goes for the AA and Batista gets out of that. Batista hits a spinebuster on Cena and then grabs him by the neck and tosses him out for the win. A really fun match and I feel this match is better on rewatch than it was when I first watched it.
19. Royal Rumble 2014
This show is universally crapped on because of who won the Rumble and the fact that person wasn't Daniel Bryan, but if you take that away and look at the show in a vacuum its a decent show. We actually got Reigns being the quiet bad ass that he should have been and should still be. We got a tremendous match between Bray Wyatt & Daniel Bryan and we also got a decent match between Randy Orton & John Cena. Its not a bad show if you take the whole Daniel Bryan situation out of it which is easier to do now watching back as we know what would become of him by WrestleMania.
This show is universally crapped on because of who won the Rumble and the fact that person wasn't Daniel Bryan, but if you take that away and look at the show in a vacuum its a decent show. We actually got Reigns being the quiet bad ass that he should have been and should still be. We got a tremendous match between Bray Wyatt & Daniel Bryan and we also got a decent match between Randy Orton & John Cena. Its not a bad show if you take the whole Daniel Bryan situation out of it which is easier to do now watching back as we know what would become of him by WrestleMania.
Best Undercard Match: Bray Wyatt def Daniel Bryan
Bray had debuted in the summer of 2013 and up until this show we hadn't really gotten to see what he could do in the ring since for the most part he served as a manager for Luke Harper & Erick Rowan rather than an actual competitor, so this was a chance to see what he could really do in the ring against a world class great wrestler in Daniel Bryan. Bryan had been feuding with the Wyatt Family since October and even joined them for a short time. In January Bryan would turn on Bray after beating the Usos in a cage match. Bryan would hit Bray with the flying knee and this moment would get a massive pop out of the crowd. This match is often forgotten as it is overshadowed by the match between the Wyatts and the Shield the next month, but I would consider it one of the top 10 best matches in the history of the Royal Rumble.
Shortly after the match starts Harper tries to interfere, but Bryan takes him out with a suicide dive and Rowan tries to attack Bryan, but the referee catches him and throws out both Harper & Rowan. Bryan capitalizes on Bray being distracted from all of this happening and hits him with a cross body off the top to the outside. Bray gets back in the ring and Bryan hits another cross body off the top for a 1 count. Bryan kicks Bray in the corner. Bray reverses a whip from Bryan and charges toward him, but eats the boots from Bryan. Bryan goes up, but gets caught by Bray and gets knocked off the top all the way to the floor. Bray charges at Bryan on the outside, but Bryan moves and causes Bray to hit the steps knee first. Bryan gets back in the ring and waits for Bray and as he comes to get in the ring Bryan hits him with a chopblock, he then hits a dragon screw on Bray followed by a curb stomp. Bray gets up and tries to work over Bryan in the corner, but Bryan starts kicking away at the bad leg of Bray. Bryan wraps Bray's leg around the ropes and hits it with a dropkick and this causes Bray to roll over onto the apron. Both men try to suplex each other either back into the ring or out of it, finally Bray suplexes Bryan onto the apron. Bray grabs the arm of Bryan and drives it into the apron. Back in the ring Bray suplexes Bryan and then slaps on a chinlock. Bryan gets out of the chinlock and tries to make a comeback, but Bray just throws him out of the ring. Bray puts Bryan's head up against the post and hits him with a few forearms and follows that up with a clothesline to Bryan's head neither of which I'm guessing helped prevent the neck problems Bryan would have. Bray hit a senton back splash on Bryan on the outside, Bray rolls Bryan back in the ring for a 2 count. Bray leans Bryan on the bottom rope and grabs his arm and jerks him up causing Bryan's head to bounce off the second rope and this gets another 2 count. Bray locks in another chinlock, but Bryan gets out and tries to make another comeback, but again gets put back down by Bray with a Uranage. Bray does his crab walk and then runs and splashes Bryan in the corner which gets a 2 count. Bray once again applies a chinlock and at this point is showing the definition of insanity and again Bryan fights out of it and this time he gets slammed, Bray goes for an elbow drop, but Bryan moves. Both get back to their feet and Bryan hits a flying elbow strike followed by some kicks. Bray reverses a whip into the corner and as he comes charging Bryan hits him with a drop toe hold into the corner. Bryan hits a top rope frankensteiner on Bray for a 2 count. Bray sends Bryan into the corner, but Bryan does his flip out of it and runs to the ropes only to be hit with a back elbow by Bray taking both men down. Bray tries for a suplex, but Bryan gets out of it and then low bridges a charging Bray causing him to go to the outside. Bryan runs off the apron and hits a Tornado DDT which is something I had never seen before watching this. Bryan hits a dropkick sending Bray into the barricade and then sending him back in the ring only to hit another dropkick off the top rope. Bryan has major momentum now as he lands his kicks to the chest on Bray followed by one to the head for a 2 count. Bryan hits two corner dropkicks and goes for a third only to be turned inside out with a Bray clothesline. Bray tries for Sister Abigail, but Bryan turns it into a roll up for 2. Bryan then locks him in the Yes Lock and the only way Bray gets out of it is by biting the hand of Bryan. Bray sets Bryan up on the top turnbuckle and follows him up there as they exchange headbutts which Bryan gets the best of. Bryan hits a splash off the top and is looking to hit his running knee, but Bray rolls to the outside. Bryan goes for a suicide dive, but in mid air Bray catches him and hits Sister Abigail into the barricade. Bray rolls Bryan back into the ring and hits another Sister Abigail for the 3 count in this amazing unforgettable match.
Worst Undercard Match: Brock Lesnar def The Big Show
I'm really not sure what the point of this was as at the time they were building Brock up to be unstoppable because he is a legit athlete and can hurt people with his hands so why does he need a chair to take down The Big Show. He starts attacking Show with a tackle and then laying in punch after punch before hitting him with a chair to the point where Show has to get out of the ring to try and save himself, back in the ring Lesnar continues the assault and wants the ref to ring the bell, but the refuses until he gets the chair away from Brock which he does, but only for a minute as Heyman throws him another one. Once the bell does ring Lesnar charges at Show, but Show hits him with the KO punch that knocks Lesnar loopy to the point where he has to roll to the outside. Show goes after Lesnar and tosses him around ringside. Show rolls Lesnar back into the ring while also selling the beating. Show hits a body shot on Lesnar and tries for another KO punch, but Lesnar ducks under it and hits an F5 for the win. After the match Lesnar hits Show with chairshot after chairshot until he got tired of beating on Show and walked off. Not much of a match and really not sure why they even bothered using one of Brock's limited dates on this.
First Defense of Unified Championship: Randy Orton (c) def John Cena (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
This is the rematch to the TLC match at TLC 2013 where Cena and Orton fought to unify the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship (funny the whole one belt situation only lasted less than 3 years). I will say that even though these two had wrestled each other 10,000 times before and going into it I wasn't really into watching them again, this match exceeded my expectations and actually made me get into it.
The stipulation going into this match was that it can only be won by pinfall or submission. The crowd is chanting for Bryan even before the match starts and you can tell just like myself they weren't looking forward to this match. The finishing stretch sees Cena go for the AA, but Orton counters it into his backbreaker and that would get a 2 count. Orton tries for his hanging DDT off the ropes, but Cena backdrops Orton over the ropes to the floor. Once Orton comes back in he tries for an RKO only for Cena to reverse it into an STF, but Orton gets to the ropes. Cena hits his spinout powerbomb, 5 knuckle suffle, and AA combo, but Orton blocks the AA by holding on to the ropes, Cena keeps trying to pull Orton off the ropes so he can hit the AA, but in the process Orton's legs hit the referee. Orton slides out of the AA attempt, but gets caught in the STF to which Orton taps out to, but the referee is still down. Cena goes to check on the referee and while he is doing this Orton hits him with the belt and as the referee gets up he counts a 2 count. Cena hits the AA for a 2 count, then Orton hits Cena with an RKO for 2. Orton goes for the Punk Kick, but Cena moves and get him up for the AA, Orton rolls through and locks Cena in an STF. Cena is able to counter the STF into a crossface, but Orton rolls him up for a 2 count and then hits Cena with an AA of his own for 2. Cena then hits his own RKO out of nowhere for a 2 count. Cena puts Orton up top and is looking for a super AA, but Orton gets out of it and is back standing on the mat only to be hit with a tornado DDT by Cena followed by the STF, Orton almost gets to the ropes, but Cena pulls him back into the center of the ring. All of a sudden the lights go out and its the Wyatts and once Cena is distracted by them this gives Orton the opportunity to hit another RKO for the win. What a great back and forth in one of the few matches where you see the competitors use their opponents finishers, really great job by both guys.
Royal Rumble Match
CM Punk is the #1 entrant and Seth Rollins is #2 they go at it for a few minutes until we get #3 entrant Damien Sandow and he comes in and tries to dump Punk, but Punk holds on and then hits a neckbreaker and DDT combo on Sandow & Rollins. Cody Rhodes is #4 and he goes right after Sandow hitting him with the Cross Rhodes. Sandow charges toward Punk, but Punk dumps him out for our first elimination. Corporate Kane is #5 and he hits a corner clothesline followed by a sideslam on Punk. Kane goes for a chokeslam, but Punk kicks him in the head to get out of it and then he dumps Kane in what may be the shortest time Kane has ever spent in the rumble. Rusev is #6 and this was Rusev's first appearance on the main roster. Rusev hits kicks on Rollins and Rhodes and a fall away slam on Punk as we get our #7 entrant Jack Swagger. Swagger hits Swagger Bombs on Rollins & Rhodes and then slugs it out with Rusev, Rollins clips the knee of Rusev and then he gets triple teamed in the corner. Kofi Kingston is #8 and Jimmy Uso is #9 and don't do too much while in there.
#10 is Goldust and he fights everyone and hits a powerslam on Rollins, everyone in the ring then teams up on Rusev and finally eliminate him. Kofi is on the apron and gets knocked off only to be caught by Rusev who puts him on the barricade and knees him in the ribs. Kofi is now stuck on the barricade, but is still in the match. This is the barricade that runs down the aisle and is perpendicular with the ring, Kofi takes a bit of a running start and jumps all the way from the barricade to the ring apron in his big spot of the night. Dean Ambrose is #11 and Dolph Ziggler is #12 and hits a missile dropkick on Ambrose. R-Truth is #13 who comes in and goes after Ambrose, but Rollins comes over to help Ambrose, they beat on Truth and dump him to the apron and then Ambrose hits a big boot to eliminate R-Truth. Jimmy Uso goes up top, but gets caught with an enzuiguri by Rollins and shoved to the floor by Ambrose and that's it for Jimmy Uso. Kevin Nash comes in at #14 and eliminates Swagger with a clothesline. Roman Reigns is #15 and this is when things pick up a bit. Reigns hits a drive by on Punk. Reigns is firing away on everyone and hits a spear on Rhodes. Roman blocks a Trouble in Paradise by Kofi and tosses him out to eliminate him. Roman hits a spear on Ziggler and then eliminates him. Nash then charges at Roman, but Roman low bridges him and out goes Big Sexy Kevin Nash as he is eliminated. Great Khali comes in at #16 and goes after The Shield, but eats a Superman Punch by Roman and The Shield team up to eliminate Khali. Ambrose dumps Rhodes to the apron and Goldust tries to charge at Ambrose, but he moves and Goldust knocks off Rhodes to eliminate him and then Roman eliminates Goldust. Sheamus comes in at #17 and The Shield team up on him, but he fights them off. The Miz is #18 and Fandango is #19 and they try to eliminate each other, but both hold on.
#20 is El Torito and the little guy comes in a house of fire. Fandango looks to press slam Torio out, but Torito turns it into a huricanrana and sends Fandango out to the apron and follows that up with a springboard dropkick to eliminate Fandango. Roman catches Torito off a springboard and tosses him out on top of Fandango. Cesaro is #21 and he gives the big swing to Miz & Rollins. #22 is Luke Harper who lays Punk out with a clothesline. Jey Uso is #23 and JBL is #24. JBL leaves the announce booth and gets in the ring, but then takes his coat off and screams at Michael Cole to take his coat and this distraction allows Roman to dump JBL. Erick Rowan is #25 who dumps Miz to the apron and then Miz is clotheslined off the apron by Harper to be eliminated. Rowan then eliminates Jey Uso. Ryback is #26 and Alberto Del Rio is #27 ADR tries to eliminate Ryback, but he holds on. #28 is Batista who gets booed out of the building. Batista quickly eliminates Erick Rowan. Ryback charges at Batista, but Batista backdrops him to eliminate Ryback. ADR clips the leg of Batista and hits him with a basement superkick and tries to lock on the cross armbreaker, but Batista powers him up and eliminates him. Big E is #29 as he hits belly to belly suplex to Batista and repeated backbreakers on Sheamus. #30 is Rey Mysterio and due to it not being Daniel Bryan this crowd is beyond pissed off. Punk goes for a GTS on Mysterio, but he counters it into a huricanrana sending both men to the apron, but they both hold on. Big E tries to powerslam Sheamus out, but Sheamus slides out the back and clotheslines Big E onto the apron and then another clothesline knocks him out to eliminate him. Rey hits a 619 on Rollins and then charges at him only to be tossed to the apron, Rey tries to springboard back in, but gets caught with a enzuiguri by Rollins to be eliminated. The Shield dump Harper onto the apron and Roman hits him with a Superman Punch to eliminate him. Ambrose then tries to dump Roman, but Roman holds on and the two argue with Rollins trying to calm them down. Cesaro attacks them, but they fight him off and are trying to eliminate him and Roman comes from behind and eliminates Cesaro, Seth Rollins, & Dean Ambrose.
We are down to the final 4 Roman Reigns, Batista, CM Punk, & Sheamus. Batista spears Roman and then gets hit with a Brogue Kick by Sheamus and he turns around and gets hit with a GTS by Punk. Punk counters a spear by Reigns with a kick to the head and hits Reigns with a GTS. Kane pops up out of nowhere and grabs Punk and pulls him over the ropes to eliminate him. Kane would then chokeslam Punk through the announce table and that would be the last image we would see of CM Punk on WWE TV as he quit the next night. At this point the crowd could care less what happens as they are booing everything. Batista is looking for a Batista Bomb on Sheamus, but Sheamus pushes him off and then charges at him and gets dumped over to the apron by Batista and then Roman knocks him off to eliminate him and break Kane's record for most eliminations in a single Rumble match. Batista tries to come from behind and toss Roman, but he hangs on. Batista and Roman go face to face and slug it out with Roman hitting a clothesline on Batista. The crowd now starts to get behind Roman. Roman goes for a Superman Punch, but Batista hits him with a spear. Roman then hits a spear on Batista and looks to toss him out, but Batista reverses it and tosses out Roman to win the 2014 Royal Rumble. I thought this was a fun match especially watching Roman eliminate most of the people back when Roman was actually cheerable and had some really good workers with little to no down time.
Bray had debuted in the summer of 2013 and up until this show we hadn't really gotten to see what he could do in the ring since for the most part he served as a manager for Luke Harper & Erick Rowan rather than an actual competitor, so this was a chance to see what he could really do in the ring against a world class great wrestler in Daniel Bryan. Bryan had been feuding with the Wyatt Family since October and even joined them for a short time. In January Bryan would turn on Bray after beating the Usos in a cage match. Bryan would hit Bray with the flying knee and this moment would get a massive pop out of the crowd. This match is often forgotten as it is overshadowed by the match between the Wyatts and the Shield the next month, but I would consider it one of the top 10 best matches in the history of the Royal Rumble.
Shortly after the match starts Harper tries to interfere, but Bryan takes him out with a suicide dive and Rowan tries to attack Bryan, but the referee catches him and throws out both Harper & Rowan. Bryan capitalizes on Bray being distracted from all of this happening and hits him with a cross body off the top to the outside. Bray gets back in the ring and Bryan hits another cross body off the top for a 1 count. Bryan kicks Bray in the corner. Bray reverses a whip from Bryan and charges toward him, but eats the boots from Bryan. Bryan goes up, but gets caught by Bray and gets knocked off the top all the way to the floor. Bray charges at Bryan on the outside, but Bryan moves and causes Bray to hit the steps knee first. Bryan gets back in the ring and waits for Bray and as he comes to get in the ring Bryan hits him with a chopblock, he then hits a dragon screw on Bray followed by a curb stomp. Bray gets up and tries to work over Bryan in the corner, but Bryan starts kicking away at the bad leg of Bray. Bryan wraps Bray's leg around the ropes and hits it with a dropkick and this causes Bray to roll over onto the apron. Both men try to suplex each other either back into the ring or out of it, finally Bray suplexes Bryan onto the apron. Bray grabs the arm of Bryan and drives it into the apron. Back in the ring Bray suplexes Bryan and then slaps on a chinlock. Bryan gets out of the chinlock and tries to make a comeback, but Bray just throws him out of the ring. Bray puts Bryan's head up against the post and hits him with a few forearms and follows that up with a clothesline to Bryan's head neither of which I'm guessing helped prevent the neck problems Bryan would have. Bray hit a senton back splash on Bryan on the outside, Bray rolls Bryan back in the ring for a 2 count. Bray leans Bryan on the bottom rope and grabs his arm and jerks him up causing Bryan's head to bounce off the second rope and this gets another 2 count. Bray locks in another chinlock, but Bryan gets out and tries to make another comeback, but again gets put back down by Bray with a Uranage. Bray does his crab walk and then runs and splashes Bryan in the corner which gets a 2 count. Bray once again applies a chinlock and at this point is showing the definition of insanity and again Bryan fights out of it and this time he gets slammed, Bray goes for an elbow drop, but Bryan moves. Both get back to their feet and Bryan hits a flying elbow strike followed by some kicks. Bray reverses a whip into the corner and as he comes charging Bryan hits him with a drop toe hold into the corner. Bryan hits a top rope frankensteiner on Bray for a 2 count. Bray sends Bryan into the corner, but Bryan does his flip out of it and runs to the ropes only to be hit with a back elbow by Bray taking both men down. Bray tries for a suplex, but Bryan gets out of it and then low bridges a charging Bray causing him to go to the outside. Bryan runs off the apron and hits a Tornado DDT which is something I had never seen before watching this. Bryan hits a dropkick sending Bray into the barricade and then sending him back in the ring only to hit another dropkick off the top rope. Bryan has major momentum now as he lands his kicks to the chest on Bray followed by one to the head for a 2 count. Bryan hits two corner dropkicks and goes for a third only to be turned inside out with a Bray clothesline. Bray tries for Sister Abigail, but Bryan turns it into a roll up for 2. Bryan then locks him in the Yes Lock and the only way Bray gets out of it is by biting the hand of Bryan. Bray sets Bryan up on the top turnbuckle and follows him up there as they exchange headbutts which Bryan gets the best of. Bryan hits a splash off the top and is looking to hit his running knee, but Bray rolls to the outside. Bryan goes for a suicide dive, but in mid air Bray catches him and hits Sister Abigail into the barricade. Bray rolls Bryan back into the ring and hits another Sister Abigail for the 3 count in this amazing unforgettable match.
Worst Undercard Match: Brock Lesnar def The Big Show
I'm really not sure what the point of this was as at the time they were building Brock up to be unstoppable because he is a legit athlete and can hurt people with his hands so why does he need a chair to take down The Big Show. He starts attacking Show with a tackle and then laying in punch after punch before hitting him with a chair to the point where Show has to get out of the ring to try and save himself, back in the ring Lesnar continues the assault and wants the ref to ring the bell, but the refuses until he gets the chair away from Brock which he does, but only for a minute as Heyman throws him another one. Once the bell does ring Lesnar charges at Show, but Show hits him with the KO punch that knocks Lesnar loopy to the point where he has to roll to the outside. Show goes after Lesnar and tosses him around ringside. Show rolls Lesnar back into the ring while also selling the beating. Show hits a body shot on Lesnar and tries for another KO punch, but Lesnar ducks under it and hits an F5 for the win. After the match Lesnar hits Show with chairshot after chairshot until he got tired of beating on Show and walked off. Not much of a match and really not sure why they even bothered using one of Brock's limited dates on this.
First Defense of Unified Championship: Randy Orton (c) def John Cena (WWE World Heavyweight Championship)
This is the rematch to the TLC match at TLC 2013 where Cena and Orton fought to unify the WWE Championship and the World Heavyweight Championship (funny the whole one belt situation only lasted less than 3 years). I will say that even though these two had wrestled each other 10,000 times before and going into it I wasn't really into watching them again, this match exceeded my expectations and actually made me get into it.
The stipulation going into this match was that it can only be won by pinfall or submission. The crowd is chanting for Bryan even before the match starts and you can tell just like myself they weren't looking forward to this match. The finishing stretch sees Cena go for the AA, but Orton counters it into his backbreaker and that would get a 2 count. Orton tries for his hanging DDT off the ropes, but Cena backdrops Orton over the ropes to the floor. Once Orton comes back in he tries for an RKO only for Cena to reverse it into an STF, but Orton gets to the ropes. Cena hits his spinout powerbomb, 5 knuckle suffle, and AA combo, but Orton blocks the AA by holding on to the ropes, Cena keeps trying to pull Orton off the ropes so he can hit the AA, but in the process Orton's legs hit the referee. Orton slides out of the AA attempt, but gets caught in the STF to which Orton taps out to, but the referee is still down. Cena goes to check on the referee and while he is doing this Orton hits him with the belt and as the referee gets up he counts a 2 count. Cena hits the AA for a 2 count, then Orton hits Cena with an RKO for 2. Orton goes for the Punk Kick, but Cena moves and get him up for the AA, Orton rolls through and locks Cena in an STF. Cena is able to counter the STF into a crossface, but Orton rolls him up for a 2 count and then hits Cena with an AA of his own for 2. Cena then hits his own RKO out of nowhere for a 2 count. Cena puts Orton up top and is looking for a super AA, but Orton gets out of it and is back standing on the mat only to be hit with a tornado DDT by Cena followed by the STF, Orton almost gets to the ropes, but Cena pulls him back into the center of the ring. All of a sudden the lights go out and its the Wyatts and once Cena is distracted by them this gives Orton the opportunity to hit another RKO for the win. What a great back and forth in one of the few matches where you see the competitors use their opponents finishers, really great job by both guys.
Royal Rumble Match
CM Punk is the #1 entrant and Seth Rollins is #2 they go at it for a few minutes until we get #3 entrant Damien Sandow and he comes in and tries to dump Punk, but Punk holds on and then hits a neckbreaker and DDT combo on Sandow & Rollins. Cody Rhodes is #4 and he goes right after Sandow hitting him with the Cross Rhodes. Sandow charges toward Punk, but Punk dumps him out for our first elimination. Corporate Kane is #5 and he hits a corner clothesline followed by a sideslam on Punk. Kane goes for a chokeslam, but Punk kicks him in the head to get out of it and then he dumps Kane in what may be the shortest time Kane has ever spent in the rumble. Rusev is #6 and this was Rusev's first appearance on the main roster. Rusev hits kicks on Rollins and Rhodes and a fall away slam on Punk as we get our #7 entrant Jack Swagger. Swagger hits Swagger Bombs on Rollins & Rhodes and then slugs it out with Rusev, Rollins clips the knee of Rusev and then he gets triple teamed in the corner. Kofi Kingston is #8 and Jimmy Uso is #9 and don't do too much while in there.
#10 is Goldust and he fights everyone and hits a powerslam on Rollins, everyone in the ring then teams up on Rusev and finally eliminate him. Kofi is on the apron and gets knocked off only to be caught by Rusev who puts him on the barricade and knees him in the ribs. Kofi is now stuck on the barricade, but is still in the match. This is the barricade that runs down the aisle and is perpendicular with the ring, Kofi takes a bit of a running start and jumps all the way from the barricade to the ring apron in his big spot of the night. Dean Ambrose is #11 and Dolph Ziggler is #12 and hits a missile dropkick on Ambrose. R-Truth is #13 who comes in and goes after Ambrose, but Rollins comes over to help Ambrose, they beat on Truth and dump him to the apron and then Ambrose hits a big boot to eliminate R-Truth. Jimmy Uso goes up top, but gets caught with an enzuiguri by Rollins and shoved to the floor by Ambrose and that's it for Jimmy Uso. Kevin Nash comes in at #14 and eliminates Swagger with a clothesline. Roman Reigns is #15 and this is when things pick up a bit. Reigns hits a drive by on Punk. Reigns is firing away on everyone and hits a spear on Rhodes. Roman blocks a Trouble in Paradise by Kofi and tosses him out to eliminate him. Roman hits a spear on Ziggler and then eliminates him. Nash then charges at Roman, but Roman low bridges him and out goes Big Sexy Kevin Nash as he is eliminated. Great Khali comes in at #16 and goes after The Shield, but eats a Superman Punch by Roman and The Shield team up to eliminate Khali. Ambrose dumps Rhodes to the apron and Goldust tries to charge at Ambrose, but he moves and Goldust knocks off Rhodes to eliminate him and then Roman eliminates Goldust. Sheamus comes in at #17 and The Shield team up on him, but he fights them off. The Miz is #18 and Fandango is #19 and they try to eliminate each other, but both hold on.
#20 is El Torito and the little guy comes in a house of fire. Fandango looks to press slam Torio out, but Torito turns it into a huricanrana and sends Fandango out to the apron and follows that up with a springboard dropkick to eliminate Fandango. Roman catches Torito off a springboard and tosses him out on top of Fandango. Cesaro is #21 and he gives the big swing to Miz & Rollins. #22 is Luke Harper who lays Punk out with a clothesline. Jey Uso is #23 and JBL is #24. JBL leaves the announce booth and gets in the ring, but then takes his coat off and screams at Michael Cole to take his coat and this distraction allows Roman to dump JBL. Erick Rowan is #25 who dumps Miz to the apron and then Miz is clotheslined off the apron by Harper to be eliminated. Rowan then eliminates Jey Uso. Ryback is #26 and Alberto Del Rio is #27 ADR tries to eliminate Ryback, but he holds on. #28 is Batista who gets booed out of the building. Batista quickly eliminates Erick Rowan. Ryback charges at Batista, but Batista backdrops him to eliminate Ryback. ADR clips the leg of Batista and hits him with a basement superkick and tries to lock on the cross armbreaker, but Batista powers him up and eliminates him. Big E is #29 as he hits belly to belly suplex to Batista and repeated backbreakers on Sheamus. #30 is Rey Mysterio and due to it not being Daniel Bryan this crowd is beyond pissed off. Punk goes for a GTS on Mysterio, but he counters it into a huricanrana sending both men to the apron, but they both hold on. Big E tries to powerslam Sheamus out, but Sheamus slides out the back and clotheslines Big E onto the apron and then another clothesline knocks him out to eliminate him. Rey hits a 619 on Rollins and then charges at him only to be tossed to the apron, Rey tries to springboard back in, but gets caught with a enzuiguri by Rollins to be eliminated. The Shield dump Harper onto the apron and Roman hits him with a Superman Punch to eliminate him. Ambrose then tries to dump Roman, but Roman holds on and the two argue with Rollins trying to calm them down. Cesaro attacks them, but they fight him off and are trying to eliminate him and Roman comes from behind and eliminates Cesaro, Seth Rollins, & Dean Ambrose.
We are down to the final 4 Roman Reigns, Batista, CM Punk, & Sheamus. Batista spears Roman and then gets hit with a Brogue Kick by Sheamus and he turns around and gets hit with a GTS by Punk. Punk counters a spear by Reigns with a kick to the head and hits Reigns with a GTS. Kane pops up out of nowhere and grabs Punk and pulls him over the ropes to eliminate him. Kane would then chokeslam Punk through the announce table and that would be the last image we would see of CM Punk on WWE TV as he quit the next night. At this point the crowd could care less what happens as they are booing everything. Batista is looking for a Batista Bomb on Sheamus, but Sheamus pushes him off and then charges at him and gets dumped over to the apron by Batista and then Roman knocks him off to eliminate him and break Kane's record for most eliminations in a single Rumble match. Batista tries to come from behind and toss Roman, but he hangs on. Batista and Roman go face to face and slug it out with Roman hitting a clothesline on Batista. The crowd now starts to get behind Roman. Roman goes for a Superman Punch, but Batista hits him with a spear. Roman then hits a spear on Batista and looks to toss him out, but Batista reverses it and tosses out Roman to win the 2014 Royal Rumble. I thought this was a fun match especially watching Roman eliminate most of the people back when Roman was actually cheerable and had some really good workers with little to no down time.
18. Royal Rumble 1994
This is the only Royal Rumble where we get two winners as both Lex Luger & Bret Hart topple to the floor at the same time. This Rumble match is another where I feel like I rate it higher than most as its not offensively bad and has a pretty fun roster of guys in the match. The undercard is not the best, but we do get the progression of the feud between Bret & Owen that would lead to their classic at WrestleMania X.
This is the only Royal Rumble where we get two winners as both Lex Luger & Bret Hart topple to the floor at the same time. This Rumble match is another where I feel like I rate it higher than most as its not offensively bad and has a pretty fun roster of guys in the match. The undercard is not the best, but we do get the progression of the feud between Bret & Owen that would lead to their classic at WrestleMania X.
Best Undercard Match: The Quebecers (c) def Bret Hart & Owen Hart (WWE Tag Team Championship)
The story going into this match started at Survivor Series where Owen turned on his brother after being the only Hart brother eliminated from the match and was tired of being in his shadow. In the weeks after Survivor Series it looked like the brothers had worked everything out and were going to set their sights on the tag team championship.
The story going into this match started at Survivor Series where Owen turned on his brother after being the only Hart brother eliminated from the match and was tired of being in his shadow. In the weeks after Survivor Series it looked like the brothers had worked everything out and were going to set their sights on the tag team championship.
The finishing sequence starts as The Quebecers's manager Johnny Polo pulls apart the ropes causing Bret to spill to the outside and injure his leg. The Quebecers work on the leg of Bret on the outside and while this is happening Owen is complaining to the referee which allows the Quebecers to continue their double team assault on Bret. Jacques tells the referee to count Bret out, but Owen goes and rolls him back into the ring. The Quebecers continue the double team in the ring and hit Pierre comes off the middle rope with a leg drop onto the leg. They then try their top rope cannon ball finisher onto the leg, but Bret moves and instead of tagging in the much fresher Owen he decides to try and put the Sharpshooter, but due to the hurt leg he can't as his leg collapses and the referee decides that he is unable to continue and awards the match to The Quebecers. After the match Owen trash talks Bret and kicks his leg out from under him or as Owen would go on to say he kicked his leg out of his leg. Owen accuses Bret of being selfish and instead of tagging him in decided to steal the spotlight. The announcers would question whether Bret would be able to compete in the Rumble later that night.
Worst Undercard Match: Razor Ramon (c) def IRS (WWE Intercontinental Championship)
Why in God's name is the most boring person on the roster IRS getting any kind of title shot in 1994? Of all the people on the roster they chose IRS, I'd rather see Kwang, Virgil, or Mo get a title shot before IRS. The feud leading up to this centered around IRS stealing the gold chains of Razor, see you can't even build an exciting reason for a feud when it comes to IRS.
Why in God's name is the most boring person on the roster IRS getting any kind of title shot in 1994? Of all the people on the roster they chose IRS, I'd rather see Kwang, Virgil, or Mo get a title shot before IRS. The feud leading up to this centered around IRS stealing the gold chains of Razor, see you can't even build an exciting reason for a feud when it comes to IRS.
This match consists of a very long chinlock by IRS, which it's IRS so what else would you expect. Razor finally gets out of the chinlock and punches IRS in the face and then hits him with a fall away slam. IRS reverses a whip attempt by Ramon and sends Razor into the corner and in the process sandwiches the referee between Razor & the turnbuckle. IRS tries to hit Razor with the briefcase, but instead Razor reverses it and hits IRS with it. Razor then hits his super back suplex off the top rope and all of this is happening while the referee is down. Razor goes for the Razor's Edge, but Shawn Michaels shows up and hits Razor with his version of the Intercontinental Championship. IRS crawls over and gets the three on Razor, but senior referee Dave Hebner comes down and tells Joey Marella what happened. While the referees are conversing, IRS is celebrating on the corner and Razor comes over and hits the Razor's Edge for the 3 count (even though there was no signal by the refere to restart the match) to retain his Intercontinental Championship. A boring match with a confusing finish, but once again its a match involving IRS so go figure.
A Mediocre Opener: Tatanka def Bam Bam Bigelow
This was originally suppose to be Tatanka vs Ludvig Borga as Borga had ended the two year undefeated streak of Tatanka. Borga suffered an ankle injury and replaced with Bigelow.
This was originally suppose to be Tatanka vs Ludvig Borga as Borga had ended the two year undefeated streak of Tatanka. Borga suffered an ankle injury and replaced with Bigelow.
The finish comes when both men try for a cross body and collide together. Bigelow sends Tatanka into the corner, but this fires up Tatanka and he does his war dance, but Bigelow cuts that off with a enzuiguri kick to the back of the head of Tatanka. Bigelow goes up top and misses his Bam Bam Sault, this leads to Tatanka going up and hitting a cross body for the win. This was a decent opener and quick enough not to be offensive. I just want to say that I feel bad that both of these men never even got a run as Intercontinental Champion as they both deserved it.
Double Wide, Double Deep Casket - Yokozuna (c) def The Undertaker (WWE Championship - Casket Match)
This feud started back at the Survivor Series when it was The All Americans vs The Foreign Fanatics, during the match Yokozuna unloaded everything he had on Undertaker, but it was to no avail as Undertaker would sit up and be fine. The Undertaker was granted at title match at the Rumble, but Jim Cornette who was Yokozuna's American spokesman put a clause in the contract that if Undertaker lost he wouldn't be granted a rematch. In response to this Paul Bearer added his own clause that the match would be a casket match. We later find out that Yokozuna is afraid of caskets (hey look who knew Yokozuna and Heidenreich had something in common) and Undertaker would use this to gain a psychological advantage over Yokozuna.
This match is pretty slow as you would expect from these two, Yokozuna barely gets any offense on Taker and when he does Taker would no sell it and keep coming at Yokozuna. Taker hits a chokeslam and a running DDT and then gets Yokozuna in the casket and just as he is about to close the lid Crush comes in and starts beating up him up. Taker fights off Crush so Mr Fuji calls down more of his charges as both Tenryu & Kabuki come out, but Taker fights them off also. We then see Bam Bam Bigelow run out, while all of this is happening Yokozuna is still laid out in the casket. Mr Fuji has stolen the urn from Paul Bearer so that he can't make Taker rise. The men roll Taker into the casket, but Bearer steals the urn back and raises it above his head and Taker comes back to life attacking all of the men in the ring. We then see Adam Bomb & Jeff Jarrett run down to try and help, but Taker is fighting them off. Out come the Headshrinkers, but Undertaker is fighting off all 9 men. Diesel then runs out and Taker still fights all of them off. Yokozuna grabs the urn from Bearer and takes off the lid and green smoke bellows out from it and it is only then that Taker starts to fade as some of the men hit their finishers on him and finally roll him into the casket and close the lid to give Yokozuna the win.
If the match itself wasn't insane and crazy enough it's nothing compared to the post match, all the men roll the casket down the aisle and the green smoke is back and this time it's coming out of the casket. A video then appears on the tron of Undertaker inside the casket talking about the spirit cannot be extinguished and won't RIP. We then get some crazy effects with the screen as it explodes. We then see Undertaker levitate from out of the Titan Tron not the casket and ascend up to the rafters. This was one of the most corny, over the top, and most 90s WWE thing you will ever see.
Royal Rumble Match
The match starts with Scott Steiner at #1 and Headshinker Samu at #2, I believe I heard in an interview that this was suppose to be Scott & Rick Steiner starting it out, but the Steiners didn't want to face each other so instead they just sandwiched a guy in between them. Scott hits a butterfly bomb on Samu and then Samu comes back and hits a clothesline as #3 Rick Steiner comes out to help his brother. Rick hits a belly to belly and Scott hits a vertical suplex on Samu and then. Samu misses a dive and his head get stuck in between the ropes, Scott frees him and then eliminates him. #4 is Kwang and Rick tries to catch Kwang right as he enters the ring, but gets an eye full of green mist. Kwang then works over Scott as Rick is unable to help, Scott finally makes a comeback and gets the advantage to the point where he is able to go check on his brother, but Kwang uses this to attack Scott from behind. Owen Hart comes out at #5 and quickly eliminates the blinded Rick Steiner. #6 is Bart Gunn who eats a superkick from Kwang. #7 is Diesel and he cleans house quickly eliminating both Scott Steiner & Owen Hart. Kwang misses a spinning wheel kick and Diesel uses that mistake to eliminate Kwang. Bob Backlund is #8 and tries for a double leg on Diesel, but that doesn't work and he is eliminated very quickly. Billy Gunn is #9 and lasts about 10 seconds before being eliminated. While we wait for entrant #10 we are shown footage from earlier in the night where Tenryu and Kabuki did the bidding of Mr Fuji and took out Lex Luger in what looked liked a high school hallway.
The match starts with Scott Steiner at #1 and Headshinker Samu at #2, I believe I heard in an interview that this was suppose to be Scott & Rick Steiner starting it out, but the Steiners didn't want to face each other so instead they just sandwiched a guy in between them. Scott hits a butterfly bomb on Samu and then Samu comes back and hits a clothesline as #3 Rick Steiner comes out to help his brother. Rick hits a belly to belly and Scott hits a vertical suplex on Samu and then. Samu misses a dive and his head get stuck in between the ropes, Scott frees him and then eliminates him. #4 is Kwang and Rick tries to catch Kwang right as he enters the ring, but gets an eye full of green mist. Kwang then works over Scott as Rick is unable to help, Scott finally makes a comeback and gets the advantage to the point where he is able to go check on his brother, but Kwang uses this to attack Scott from behind. Owen Hart comes out at #5 and quickly eliminates the blinded Rick Steiner. #6 is Bart Gunn who eats a superkick from Kwang. #7 is Diesel and he cleans house quickly eliminating both Scott Steiner & Owen Hart. Kwang misses a spinning wheel kick and Diesel uses that mistake to eliminate Kwang. Bob Backlund is #8 and tries for a double leg on Diesel, but that doesn't work and he is eliminated very quickly. Billy Gunn is #9 and lasts about 10 seconds before being eliminated. While we wait for entrant #10 we are shown footage from earlier in the night where Tenryu and Kabuki did the bidding of Mr Fuji and took out Lex Luger in what looked liked a high school hallway.
#10 is Virgil and he is subbing for Kamala, Virgil doesn't last long before he too is eliminated to the delight of Ted Dibiase who is on commentary. #11 is Randy Savage and finally we get someone who isn't immediately thrown out by Diesel. Savage comes in and fights Diesel in the corner and tries his best to get him out, but the big man is too much for Macho Man. #12 is Jeff Jarrett and he comes in attacking Savage, he throws Savage over the top, but Savage hangs on. Jarrett turns to focus on Diesel, but Savage comes in and knees him in the back to eliminate him. #13 is Crush who is currently in a rivalry with Savage, Savage hits a couple of axehandles off the top onto Crush. Diesel and Crush finally get their wits together and team up on Savage. #14 is Doink the Clown. Crush eliminates Savage. Doink comes in and laughs at Diesel and Crush who are trying to throw each other over the top, they come toward Doink, but he squirts water in their faces and this pisses them off and they beat the crap out of Doink. #15 is Bam Bam Bigelow who is doing double duty (or triple duty if you count his cameo appearance in the WWE Championship match). Bam Bam press slams Doink to eliminate him. There is a lot of beef in the ring right now and its about to get beefier as Mabel is #16. Mabel delivers corner splashes to everyone in different corners. We then get Thurman Sparky Plugg coming in at #17 and this is his debut as he is replacing The 1-2-3 Kid who was injured. #18 is Shawn Michaels and he runs into Diesel which causes him to back up and retreat all the way up to the middle rope so he can be on eye level with him. Everyone gangs up on Diesel and after a long very successful run in his debut Rumble is finally eliminated. Diesel impressed so much that he actually got chanted for on his way to the back. #19 is Mo and he goes to help Mabel who is getting worked over by Crush. Shawn almost goes out, but skins the cat back in.
#20 is Greg Valentine who is still sticking around in 1994, everyone is brawling on the ropes and not too much is happening. #21 is Tatanka and he goes after Shawn. #22 is Great Kabuki and once he gets in everyone teams up on Mabel and eliminates him. #23 is Lex Luger and he goes right after Kabuki for attacking him earlier in the night and eliminates him. #24 is Genichiro Tenryu and he attacks Luger. #25 doesn't come out as it was suppose to make people wonder if that was Bret Hart's spot and he couldn't compete. The ring is full right now as #26 is Rick Martel who goes to work on Mo. #27 is Bret Hart who is limping down to the ring selling the attack from earlier. Tenryu and Crush team up on him and attack the bad leg. #28 is Headshrinker Fatu, Sparky Plugg is stomping away at the injured leg of Bret. Lex Luger finally eliminates Crush. #29 is Marty Jannetty who goes after Shawn and hits him with a superkick. #30 is Adam Bomb and with him in the ring that makes 13 people still in this match.
Bret eliminates Sparky Plugg and then goes to work on Adam Bomb. Rick Martel eliminates Greg Valentine and Tatanka eliminates Rick Martel. Adam Bomb charges at Luger, but Luger ducks down and Adam Bomb goes flying over the ropes to be eliminated. Fatu superkicks Mo to eliminate him and Bigelow eliminates Tatanka. Bam Bam is absolutely exhausted, but has to be one of the MVPs of this year's Rumble show. Bam Bam charges at Luger in the corner, but Luger moves and Bam Bam does the Flair corner bump and is then clotheslined off the apron to be eliminated by Luger. Shawn Michaels then eliminates Marty Jannetty. Bret and Luger send Shawn and Fatu into each other. Bret and Luger team up and eliminate Tenryu.
The final 4 are Bret Hart, Lex Luger, Shawn Michaels, & Fatu. Luger slams Fatu's head into the mat, but he no sells it and hits a superkick on Luger followed by a middle rope headbutt. Shawn & Fatu try to eliminate Luger by suplexing him onto the apron, but he fights them off. Luger & Bret whip Shawn & Fatu into each other, but they do the dosey do and run into opposite corners and when they do both get back dropped out of the ring to be eliminated as we now have Luger & Bret as our final 2. Bret and Luger go at it for a few minutes and then both go out at the same time and both of their feet touch the floor at the same time. We get one referee saying one won and the other says the other one won, so Jack Tunny comes out and thankfully didn't tear his quads like Vince McMahon did when this happened in 2005. Instead of doing the smart thing like Vince did and restarting the match Tunny decides to make both of them winners and for the first and only time we have co-winners of the Royal Rumble. I know a lot might not like this Rumble match, but I've always enjoyed it mainly because of all the big men in the match. Now I don't have a big man fetish like Vince does, but I like lots of big men in my rumble just as I like a lot of athletic and smaller guys in my ladder matches. Thats why I'm looking forward to this year's rumble as it has lots of hosses and lots of star power the two things I look for in my Rumble matches.
17. Royal Rumble 2009
This show is pretty decent with some good undercard matches. Prior to this show on Raw Randy Orton had laid out Vince McMahon with a Punt Kick so Orton was a mega heel at the time and I was a huge fan of his during this era. I feel number 16 is a perfect spot for this show as I like the show, but I'm not going crazy about it so it is right around the middle for me.
This show is pretty decent with some good undercard matches. Prior to this show on Raw Randy Orton had laid out Vince McMahon with a Punt Kick so Orton was a mega heel at the time and I was a huge fan of his during this era. I feel number 16 is a perfect spot for this show as I like the show, but I'm not going crazy about it so it is right around the middle for me.
Best Undercard Match: Edge def Jeff Hardy (c) (WWE Championship - No DQ Match)
The story leading into this was that Jeff Hardy had won the title from Edge back at Armageddon 2008 in a triple threat match also involving Triple H. In the weeks after the win a series of mysterious accidents started happening to Jeff Hardy and it was thought that the one causing all of this to happen was Edge, but come to find out it wasn't. So this feud was based on stuff happening that his opponent didn't even cause, that's a great feud to start a title reign that the people had been longing for.
The story leading into this was that Jeff Hardy had won the title from Edge back at Armageddon 2008 in a triple threat match also involving Triple H. In the weeks after the win a series of mysterious accidents started happening to Jeff Hardy and it was thought that the one causing all of this to happen was Edge, but come to find out it wasn't. So this feud was based on stuff happening that his opponent didn't even cause, that's a great feud to start a title reign that the people had been longing for.
Right before the match starts Vickie Guerrero makes the match a No DQ match. Right as the match starts the crowd starts chanting for Christian who at the time was rumored to be returning and many thought he would be revealed as the one causing all the trouble for Jeff Hardy. The big spot in the match before the finishing stretch came when Jeff Hardy jumped off a ladder and put Chavo Guerrero through a table since Chavo kept getting involved on Edge's behalf. The finish comes when Edge goes for a spear, but Hardy catches him in a Twist of Fate. Jeff goes up for the Swanton, but Vickie comes out and tries to stop him, but Hardy kicks her off and hits the Swanton. The referee goes to count, but gets pulled out of the ring by Vickie. Matt Hardy then comes out with a chair and hands it to Jeff and then grabs another one as they are going to give Edge a con-chair-to, but at the last moment Matt turns and hits Jeff with the chair as he turns on his little brother. Edge is even shocked at this and slowly covers Jeff for the win. A really good match that stepped up once the weapons started being used and the turn at the end was shocking, but would lead to a feud nobody cared about.
Worst Undercard Match: John Cena (c) def JBL (World Heavyweight Championship)
The ridiculous story leading up to this match is that Shawn had lost money in the stock market and has to now work for JBL even though he is making tons of money already working for WWE. Before we go to the match there was a really good backstage segment where JBL tells Shawn not to be conflicted about what he has to do and says that if he wins the match that he will give Shawn all the money he owes him and will guarantee he gets a spot in the Rumble match. As JBL walks off Shawn is still contemplating and is fixing to walk off, but runs into Undertaker who tells him that "Sometimes, it's hell getting to heaven".
Worst Undercard Match: John Cena (c) def JBL (World Heavyweight Championship)
The ridiculous story leading up to this match is that Shawn had lost money in the stock market and has to now work for JBL even though he is making tons of money already working for WWE. Before we go to the match there was a really good backstage segment where JBL tells Shawn not to be conflicted about what he has to do and says that if he wins the match that he will give Shawn all the money he owes him and will guarantee he gets a spot in the Rumble match. As JBL walks off Shawn is still contemplating and is fixing to walk off, but runs into Undertaker who tells him that "Sometimes, it's hell getting to heaven".
I wasn't looking forward to this match as JBL and Cena have only had one great match against each other and even worse I knew that nothing would happen until the end when Shawn did whatever it was he was going to do and up until that time we were just going to fill time. The finish comes when JBL goes for the Clothesline from Hell, but Cena ducks and puts him in the STF, Shawn starts to help JBL, but Cena kicks him away. Cena tries to lock it in again, but JBL kicks him off and he gets sent to the floor next to Shawn. Cena gets back into the ring, but is hit by a Clothesline from Hell that only gets a 2 count. Cena gets up and goes for the AA, but JBL slides out of it and goes to hit a big boot, but Cena ducks and the referee eats a foot. We get a clothesline by both men and they are both down. Shawn gets into the ring and is still contemplating what to do, JBL gets to his feet and is telling Shawn to go after Cena, but Shawn hits him with Sweet Chin Music. Cena then gets to his feet and is happy that Shawn has come to his senses, but Shawn then hits him with Sweet Chin Music. Shawn takes JBL and pulls him on top off Cena and leaves the ring as the referee is still knocked out. Another referee comes out, but due to the lapse in time JBL is only able to get a 2 count. Both men get up to their feet and Cena hits a AA for the win. Pretty boring match as predicted and only got exciting when Shawn got involved.
ECW Championship & WWE Women's Championship:
Other matches on the card were a ECW (WWECW) Championship match and a match for the WWE Women's Championship.
Other matches on the card were a ECW (WWECW) Championship match and a match for the WWE Women's Championship.
The opening match saw Jack Swagger retaining his ECW Championship against Matt Hardy. This would be Swagger's first title defense as he had just won the title from Matt Hardy a few weeks prior on an episode of ECW on Syfy. Jack Swagger worked on the arm of Hardy for most of this match. The finish comes when Hardy tries to hit the Twist of Fate, but Swagger pushes him off. Hardy then tries for a side effect, but Swagger throws him into the post shoulder first on the bad shoulder and then hits his gutwrench powerbomb for the win. A really good opener for the show.
The next match was between champion Beth Phoenix and challenger Melina for the WWE Women's Championship. This was during the Glamarella era where Phoenix was paired with Santino Marella. During the match Beth Phoenix puts Melina in the half crab and pulls her leg back all the way until it touched the back of her own head which gets a big pop. Beth Phoenix charges Melina in the corner, but Melina avoids it and hits a seated senton off the top. Melina goes for her DDT legdrop combo, but Beth counters it and sends her off, but Melina comes back with a surprise roll up for the win to become the new Women's Champion. Above average women's match for the time with some pretty cool power spots by Beth Phoenix.
Royal Rumble MatchThe match starts out with Rey Mysterio as #1 and John Morrison as #2, these two have probably one of the most exciting opening sequences in Rumble history. Mysterio tries for the wheelbarrow bulldog, but Morrison catches him and tries to throw him out, but Mysterio hangs on as Morrison tries to kick his fingers off of the rope so he will fall. Mysterio is able to get back in and hits a springboard cross body and a flying headscissors as he tries to throw out Morrison, but Morrison hangs on. Carlito is #3 and spits an apple at Morrison. Carlito counters a moonsault by Rey with a neckbreaker and is then tossed out to the apron by Morrison, but Carlito hits a double springboard moonsault to come back into the ring. #4 is MVP and he hits a powerslam on Morrison and a belly to belly on Rey followed by his Ballin' elbow drop. Morrison tries to hit a sprinboard kick on MVP, but he ducks and Carlito gets hit instead. MVP hits the drive by on Morrison and is then taken down by Rey with a headscissors. Coming in at #5 is The Great Khali, he no sells any offense from the others in the ring including a top rope dropkick from Rey and a Back Stabber from Carlito. #6 is Vladimir Kozlov and he goes at Khali, Khali tries to put him in the Vice Grip, but Kozlov breaks it and then proceeds to eliminate Khali. Morrison tries for a cross body on Kozlov, but he knocks him down. MVP goes for another Drive By on Kozlov, but Kozlov dodges it and eliminates MVP. Kozlov looks to throw out Carlito, but he hangs on and springboards back into the ring only to be caught in a Kozlov spinebuster and then eliminated. Triple H is out next at #7, he and Kozlov slug it out and Triple H hits him with the face into the knee jawbreaker and then clotheslines Kozlov out to eliminate him. Randy Orton is out next at #8 and he trades punches with Triple H until he hits his Orton backbreaker. Orton is looking for the RKO, but Triple H counters with a Pedigree attempt only to get cut off by a Morrison springboard spinkick. Rey hits a seated senton on Orton and a 619 on Morrison. #9 is JTG who doesn't do anything special while in there.
#10 is Ted Dibiase as he comes to the aid of his Legacy team member Orton who is getting worked over by Triple H. Dibiase tries to clothesline both Morrison & JTG out, but they hold on. Chris Jericho is in at #11 and he has a good exchange with Triple H. #12 is Mike Knox. Orton & Dibiase team up on Morrison and Knox tries to throw out Rey, but Triple H puts a stop to that. #13 is The Miz who hits a Skull Crushing Finale on JTG and then hits his corner clotheslines on Triple H & Rey. Orton hits RKOs on Miz, Morrison, & JTG. Triple H hits a Pedigree on Orton and then eliminates both The Miz & John Morrison. Rey is tossed over the top, but he uses the bodies of Miz & Morrison to step on to get back into the ring to avoid touching the floor. #14 is Finlay who doesn't do much before #15 Cody Rhodes comes in and now all members of Legacy are in the match. They move like a pack of dogs and put the boots to Triple H and then to both Finlay & Knox. Mysterio is hit with an RKO off a springboard. #16 is The Undertaker as everyone in the ring stops and focuses on him and when he enters he lands right hands and clotheslines on everyone before eliminating JTG. Taker hits snake eyes and a big boot on Rhodes. #17 is Goldust and he goes face to face with Cody and smacks him, he tries to eliminate him, but Cody hangs on and Goldust gets hit with an RKO. Orton calls over Cody and tells him to throw Goldust out and he did as he was told. #18 is CM Punk who hits a bulldog on Jericho and then counters a Pedigree attempt by Triple H into a GTS. Mark Henry is #19 and he goes after Taker hitting him with a corner splash. He then hits a headbutt on Punk and tries to toss him, but Punk hangs on.
Shelton Benjamin is #20 and he hits a Pay Dirt on Finlay and a flapjack on Rey. Jericho and Punk are fighting on the top rope and Shelton sees this as an opportunity to leap up there and hit double DDT on both of them in an amazing spot. William Regal is #21 as the ring is slap full of bodies. Regal hits and exploder and a running knee on Punk. Kofi Kingston is in at #22 and hits a few dropkicks and then a Boom Drop on Knox. Shelton is eliminated by The Undertaker. Rey is upside down in the corner as Jericho is trying his best to get him out. #23 is Kane and he hits a sideslam on Dibiase. Kane & Taker look like they are about to face off, but instead hit chokeslams on Kofi & Jericho. Punk headscissors Regal over the ropes to eliminate him. #24 is R-Truth and it's at this point I want to know who in the hell booked this match to have half of the damn participants in the match at the same time, its a Royal Rumble not a Battle Royal. RVD is out at #25 and comes in hitting kicks and clotheslines to everyone, he looks to hit the 5 Star, but Triple H stops him so RVD hits him with a spinwheel kick. #26 is The Brian Kendrick who comes in and eliminates Kofi. Triple H then eliminates Kendrick. Dolph Ziggler comes in at #27 and introduces himself to Kane who grabs his and yanks him out of the ring to eliminate him. #28 is Santino Marella and as soon as he slides in Kane clotheslines him back out as he breaks the record for quickest elimination. #29 is Jim Duggan who hits everyone. Finally at #30 it's The Big Show who goes face to face with Undertaker, but Kane jumps in and those two slug it out until Duggan gets involved and tries to slam Show, but Show elbows him and eliminates Duggan. We have tons of people still in the ring and instead of eliminating people we are getting near elimination teases. Finlay hits a short arm clothesline on R-Truth and then Truth is eliminated by Big Show. Punk is eliminated by Big Show after several attempts of trying to save himself. Finlay & Big Show eliminate both Knox & Rey Mysterio as they were trying to eliminate each other. Kane eliminates Finlay after Hornswoggle comes in and tries to distract Kane. RVD hits the 5 Star on Orton, but as he is trying to recover he gets eliminated by Chris Jericho. Jericho is gloating about eliminating RVD only to be eliminated by The Undertaker. Rhodes & Dibiase team up and eliminate Kane.
We are finally down to Triple H, The Big Show, The Undertaker, & all three members of Legacy. Show chokeslams Triple H as Taker takes down Legacy, as they once again go face to face. Taker gets big booted to the apron and Orton tries for an RKO, but Taker pushes him off and fights off other members of Legacy. We get out double choke spot as both men are now on the apron and out of nowhere Orton hits the RKO on Show causing him to be eliminated. Taker is still on the apron and grabs both Dibiase & Rhodes by the throat, but Show pulls him down from the apron to eliminate him and those two brawl into the crowd. We are down to Triple H against Legacy he gets triple teamed and beaten down, Orton tells Rhodes & Dibiase to pick him up and then slaps him around a bit before trying for an RKO, but Triple H pushes him off into the turnbuckle. Rhodes eats the jawbreaker and a spinebuster from Triple H. Triple H tries for a Pedigree, but Orton charges at him and Triple H backdrops him onto the apron. Triple H hits a Pedigree on Rhodes and Orton slides back in, but Triple H doesn't see this. Triple H then eliminates Rhodes & Dibiase back to back, but as his back is still turned Orton comes from behind and eliminates him to win the 2009 Royal Rumble.
This match was a lot more fun to watch than write about, as it was a lot of stuff happening and I tried to catch all the big stuff. I feel they needed one or two of those stars that came in toward the beginning to be at the end as there was a 4 entrant stretch where all those men got eliminated very quickly.
This match was a lot more fun to watch than write about, as it was a lot of stuff happening and I tried to catch all the big stuff. I feel they needed one or two of those stars that came in toward the beginning to be at the end as there was a 4 entrant stretch where all those men got eliminated very quickly.
16. Royal Rumble 2011
The 2011 Rumble was the biggest Royal Rumble match of all time as they increased the number of participants from 30 to 40 and for someone who absolutely loves the Rumble match I was eating this up. I hope they do another one of these one day as if you look at the current roster they have more than enough to pull it off and I think there could be more star power now than there was in this match. There are some great stories going on during the match and it never felt boring or never made me check to see how long was left and that is sometimes not the easiest thing to do in a match that lasts over an hour.
The 2011 Rumble was the biggest Royal Rumble match of all time as they increased the number of participants from 30 to 40 and for someone who absolutely loves the Rumble match I was eating this up. I hope they do another one of these one day as if you look at the current roster they have more than enough to pull it off and I think there could be more star power now than there was in this match. There are some great stories going on during the match and it never felt boring or never made me check to see how long was left and that is sometimes not the easiest thing to do in a match that lasts over an hour.
Best Undercard Match: Edge (c) def Dolph Ziggler (World Heavyweight Championship)
The story going into this match was that if Edge used the Spear during this match he would lose his World Heavyweight Championship right then.
The story going into this match was that if Edge used the Spear during this match he would lose his World Heavyweight Championship right then.
The finishing stretch of the match starts when Ziggler tries to hit the Zig Zag, but Edge counters it and locks Ziggler in the Edgecator and Dolph struggles before finally reaching the ropes. Edge tries to jump on the back of Ziggler as he is laid out across the middle rope, but Ziggler dodges and hits Edge with the Rocker Dropper for a very close near fall. Ziggles goes to whip Edge into the ropes, but Edge reverses and hits a big boot on Ziggler. Edge starts feeling like he wants to use the spear, but then remembers he can't. Ziggler gets Edge in a sleeper, but he gets out of it and hits Ziggler with the Edge-O-Matic and goes for the cover, but the count is stopped by Vickie Guerrero and as Edge goes to confront her she slaps him. While Edge is distracted Ziggler rolls him up in the O'Connor roll, but again gets a very close nearfall that was even closer than the one before. Vickie slaps Edge a few more times before Kelly Kelly comes out and takes Vickie out. Ziggler hits the Zig Zag and again gets a very close nearfall. Ziggler locks in another sleeper, but Edge tries his best to get out of it and in the process of doing so bumps into the referee. Edge finally gets out of the sleeper with a backpack jawbreaker. Since both Vickie and the referee are down Edge is able to hit the spear and sells being out of it to fool the referee who is now recovering. Edge picks up Ziggler and hits him with the Unprettier for the win to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. Due to the use of the spear Edge would be stripped of the title on the next Smackdown and it would be given to Ziggler, but the returning Teddy Long made a rematch for later that night and Edge won the title back. So Ziggler's first reign as a World Champion only lasted an hour. This was a really great match with lots of back and forth action and a really good finish.
Worst Undercard Match: Eve Torres def Natalya (c), Michelle McCool, & Layla (WWE Divas Championship)
This match was suppose to be a 2-on-1 handicap match with Natalya defending the title against LayCool, but at the last minute the anonymous Raw GM made it a Fatal 4 Way Match and the 4th participants would be Eve Torres.
This match was suppose to be a 2-on-1 handicap match with Natalya defending the title against LayCool, but at the last minute the anonymous Raw GM made it a Fatal 4 Way Match and the 4th participants would be Eve Torres.
This match starts with LayCool double teaming Eve and then sending her to the floor, but Natalya comes in and takes it to both of them as she catapults Layla into Michelle McCool. McCool rolls to the floor and pulls Natalya out and Layla hits her with a clothesline, back in the ring the members of LayCool go face to face in what is suppose to be a big moment, but the crowd could care less. Eve rolls up McCool, but only gets a 2 count. Natalya comes back in and attempts a sharpshooter on Eve, but Layla stops her so Natalya takes her down and then puts the sharpshooter on both of them at the same time, but McCool would quickly break that up with a kick to the face of Natalya. Layla hits the neckbreaker on Eve and then McCool baseball slide kicks her out of the ring. Natalya hits a series of clotheslines on both McCool & Layla and then hits a Michinoku Driver on McCool for a 2 count as Layla breaks it up. Natalya beats on Layla in the corner and hits her with a discus clothesline in the corner. Natalya gets Layla in the powerslam position, but sees McCool coming and lets her down and ducks a boot by McCool and it hits Layla instead. Natalya rolls up McCool for a 2 count and then pushes her out of the ring. Eve comes behind Natalya and tosses her out of the ring. Eve hits a moonsault on Layla for the win to become WWE Divas Champion. Nobody cared about this match as they had already seen the two big title matches and were ready for the Rumble. It wasn't that bad of a match compared to others around this time, but at this time WWE didn't care about the women's division so why would the fans.
An average title match: The Miz (c) def Randy Orton (WWE Championship)
The story going into this was that The Miz had won the title from Randy Orton back in November after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. Orton had to defeat both Sheamus & Wade Barrett in a steel cage match in order to earn an opportunity to get his rematch.
The story going into this was that The Miz had won the title from Randy Orton back in November after cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase. Orton had to defeat both Sheamus & Wade Barrett in a steel cage match in order to earn an opportunity to get his rematch.
Orton is in control for the first part of the match until The Miz's apprentice Alex Riley got involved and this allowed Miz to gain control, oh no wait false alarm as Orton gains control right back after 30 seconds. The Miz finally does get control as Orton misses a charge in the corner after Riley pulls Miz out of the way. Miz puts Orton in some chinlocks as the crowd falls asleep. Orton fights out of it and puts Miz in a sleeper which Miz tries to get out of, but gets cut off by Orton and hit with a back suplex. Both men are down and Miz is up first and hits a big boot on Orton. Miz goes up top, but Orton crotches him and hits a superplex for a 2 count. Orton hits his backbreaker and Miz rolls to the apron and Orton tries for his hanging DDT, but Miz backdrops him over the top to the floor. Miz sends Orton into the barricade a few times and rolls him back in for a 2 count. Miz comes off the top with an axehandle for another 2 count. They go to the outside and Miz catapults Orton into the ring post, but Orton is able to get back in and beat the count. Orton clotheslines and powerslams Miz and then hits him with the Orton stomp, but all of this only gets a 2 count. Orton is then looking for a piledriver, but is distracted by Riley. The distraction allows Miz to hit his backbreaker/neckbreaker combo. Orton tries for an RKO, but Miz counters it for an attempted Skull Crushing Finale, but Orton turns it into an Angle Slam for 2. Miz rolls to the outside and is cut off with a clothesline, back in the ring Miz hits a DDT for a 2. Orton makes a comeback and hits the hanging DDT and is looking for the RKO, but the New Nexus comes out and stands in the aisle so Orton decides to toss Riley on top of them. Miz tries for the Skull Crushing Finale, but Orton counters into the RKO. CM Punk who was the leader of the New Nexus slides in and hits the GTS on Orton and then lays Miz on top of him. The referee who had been distracted by the New Nexus at ringside finally slides in and counts to 3 and Miz retains the WWE Championship. This a complete average match and nothing special which is what I would expect of both men in 2011.
Royal Rumble Match (This is going to be a lot of typing lol)
CM Punk enters at #1 and before the next entrant can enter we get The Corre coming out and they surround Punk (for those that don't know, The Corre was the lesser equivalent of The New Nexus that was on Smackdown) this leads to the rest of Nexus coming down to the help of their leader and we get a giant brawl until the anonymous Raw GM demands everyone go back to the locker room immediately and if they didn't they would be disqualified from the Rumble match (the Rumble match doesn't have DQ's) so everyone leaves and Punk is alone waiting for the real #2 which is Daniel Bryan.
Royal Rumble Match (This is going to be a lot of typing lol)
CM Punk enters at #1 and before the next entrant can enter we get The Corre coming out and they surround Punk (for those that don't know, The Corre was the lesser equivalent of The New Nexus that was on Smackdown) this leads to the rest of Nexus coming down to the help of their leader and we get a giant brawl until the anonymous Raw GM demands everyone go back to the locker room immediately and if they didn't they would be disqualified from the Rumble match (the Rumble match doesn't have DQ's) so everyone leaves and Punk is alone waiting for the real #2 which is Daniel Bryan.
Punk and Bryan go back and forth and Bryan gets the advantage and hits a missile dropkick on Punk. #3 is Justin Gabriel and he goes after Punk as Bryan and Punk clothesline each other down Gabriel goes up for his 450 splash, but there was no water in the pool and this miss is enough to allow Bryan to eliminate Gabriel. Zack Ryder is #4 and he hits the Broski Boot on both Punk & Bryan and a Rough Ryder on Punk, Bryan eliminates Ryder after reversing a hiptoss into one of his own. #5 is William Regal, he gets in some suplexes and knees. Regal & Bryan trade European uppercuts before Bryan takes him down with an enzuigiri. #6 is Ted Dibiase who doesn't do much. Bryan & Regal are still facing off as Bryan hits him with some stiff kicks. #7 is John Morrison and he hits a few dropkicks before Dibiase throws him over the top and he lands on the apron, Regal runs over and knocks him off the apron, but instead of hitting the floor Morrison grabs onto the barricade like it's Velcro and climbs up it and then jumps from the barricade to the steel steps and gets back into the ring in one of the more memorable spots of the night and this is what gave them the idea for Kofi to do the near elimination spot for the next few years to come. While this is happening Regal is in shock and this allows Ryder to eliminate Regal. Yoshi Tatsu is #8 and I'm sure Matt Striker who was on commentary got in his "Poisoned Fist of the Pacific Rim" what on Earth does that even mean? Matt Striker is pretty bad on commentary hear especially later on with the surprise entrants. #9 is Husky Harris and he comes in to help CM Punk. Bryan and Morrison go after Punk, but are taken down by Husky.
#10 is Chavo Guerrero who comes in and almost takes out Punk with the headscissors, but Punk hangs on. Chavo tries for the 3 Amigos on Dibiase, but it gets broke up by Punk, so instead he does them on Punk and then on Morrison. #11 is babyface Mark Henry aka the Mark Henry that sucks. Henry catches Chavo off a top rope dive and eliminates him. Yoshi then tries to take on Henry, but Henry headbutts him and clotheslines him to eliminate him. #12 is JTG & #13 is Michael McGillicutty and he eliminates JTG. Husky & McGillicutty team up on Dibiase and go to double clothesline him, but he ducks and then turns back around and they backdrop him to eliminate him. #14 is Chris Masters who hits a spinebuster on McGillicutty and then puts Punk in the Masterlock and lifts him over the top rope on to the apron and is trying to get him out, but McGillicutty comes from behind and breaks it up. #15 is David Otunga and he helps Punk & Husky eliminate Bryan and then they eliminate Chris Masters. Nexus then goes after John Morrison and tosses him to the apron and he tries his best to hold on, but the numbers are too much as he finally falls to the floor to be eliminated. Then the team up on Mark Henry and Punk tells Husky to splash him in the corner and then all four eliminate Henry. The Nexus are all alone in the ring and they wait for the next entrant which is Tyler Reks who is coming in at #16. Punk hits a high kick on Reks and then they eliminate him. #17 is Vladimir Kozlov & #18 is R-Truth and they both get eliminated after being ganged up on. The Great Khali is #19 and he chops all of them in the head and then eliminates Husky Harris.
#20 is Mason Ryan who comes in as the final New Nexus member, Mason and Khali trade punches and then Khali goes for a clothesline, but Mason ducks and then eliminates Khali. #21 is Booker T who was making his return after being in TNA. When I mentioned earlier about Matt Striker being terrible this is one of the moments as he freaks out and throws professionalism out the door and even uses the term "I'm Marking Out Bro" like dude chill out. Booker hits and axe kick and a side kick and gives the Book End to Otunga & McGillicutty. Booker then does the Spinarooni, but Punk tries to come from behind and toss him out, but Booker reverses it and almost gets Punk out. Mason saves Punk and then tosses Booker out to eliminate him. #22 is John Cena and just as you would expect he eliminates all of the Nexus except Punk and he does it before the next entrant it even able to come out. What I would have done is change the order around a bit to have bigger stars in the spots that immediately got thrown out and let them actually be smart and not just run into the ring just to be eliminated and instead have them wait at ringside until the numbers are even and let that last person who comes out that evens those numbers be Cena. #23 is Hornswoggle and he gets kicked by Punk. Punk puts Cena in a fireman's carry and tries to toss him out, but Cena blocks that and hits an AA to the outside to eliminate Punk. Cena comes to aid Hornswoggle and is cool with him hanging out as #24 comes out and it's Tyson Kidd and Swoggle headbutts him in the gut and then hits him with the headscissors. Cena hits Kidd with an AA and then Swoggle hits him with one also and then Cena eliminates Kidd. #25 is Heath Slater and he gets hit with shoulderblocks by Cena and then Cena goes for the spinout powerbomb, but Slater flips out of it only to be hit with a Stunner by Swoggle and then Cena hits the spinout powerbomb and a 5 Knuckle Shuffle and then Swoggle hits the Tadpole Splash and Cena eliminates Slater. #26 is Kofi Kingston and he and Cena hesitate at going at each other, but they finally do and Kofi hits a few dropkicks on Cena and then hits his mounted punches in the corner. #27 is Jack Swagger and he hits a few Swagger Bombs, he gets distracted by Swoggle and is hit with a top rope cross body by Kofi. Kofi & Swoggle both hits the Boom Drop. #28 is Sheamus and he hits an Irish Curse backbreaker on Cena and then turns his attention to Swoggle as he pie faces him down to the mat. Swoggle hits Sheamus in the shin and this pisses him off as he grabs Swoggle by the neck and sets him on the top rope and hits the Brogue Kick to eliminate Swoggle. Rey Mysterio comes in at #29 and runs down the aisle and slides into the ring in between Sheamus's legs and then gets caught by Swagger as he attempts a gutwrench powerbomb, but Rey hurricanranas out of it and then hits a flying headscissors to Sheamus followed by the wheelbarrow bulldog on Cena. Rey dropkicks Swagger in the back and is looking for a 619, but his cut off by a clothesline courtesy of Sheamus. Kofi hits a Trouble in Paradise on Sheamus and then Swagger charges at Rey who is on the top rope and is gonna try and suplex him, but Rey slides down below Swagger and tosses him and Swagger lands on the apron barely hanging on. Rey hits a 619 on Swagger and knocks him off the apron to eliminate him.
#30 is Wade Barrett and he tries to hit the Wasteland on Kofi, but Rey dropkicks him in the knee. Cena then lands some rights on Barrett, but gets caught in the Winds of Change sideslam. Then Kofi starts stomping on Barrett like he owes him money. #31 is Dolph Ziggler who is pulling double duty and is selling the beating from the match earlier in the night. Ziggler hits a running splash in the corner on Kofi and then a beautiful dropkick on Cena. Barrett is close to being out as he is being teamed up on by Cena, Kofi, & Rey, but Ziggler comes to help him out. Barrett & Ziggler try to get Cena out, but Rey stops that from happening. #32 is Diesel and he gets a massive pop from the crowd as Matt Striker is losing his mind. Barrett attacks Diesel before he can get in the ring, but Diesel fights him off, Diesel hits a big boot on Rey and then a snake eyes on Kofi. Diesel elbows Ziggler in the corner and hits a short arm clothesline on Cena as we are ready for the next entrant. #33 is Drew McIntyre and he teams up with Sheamus to beat down Diesel and lean him up against the middle rope and then Barrett sends Rey in and Rey hits a 619 on Diesel. The UK guys (Mcintyre, Sheamus, & Barrett) are in control of the match at this point. #34 is Alex Riley who is accompanied by The Miz who gets on commentary. As soon as A-Ry gets in the ring Cena knocks the shit out of him and now knowing what I know about the history between those two I look at that completely different. Diesel goes for a big boot on Barrett, but Barrett moves and Diesel has on leg in and one leg out, Barrett then hits a boot of his own and eliminates Diesel and the fans are not happy. #35 is The Big Show and as he comes to the ring Diesel is leaving and they have a staredown in the middle of the aisle that never leads to anything. The UK guys try to team up on Show, but he fights them all off and gives Barrett a chokeslam and then eliminates Ziggler. Cena & Kofi team up and eliminate A-Ry. #36 is Ezekiel Jackson and while he is making his entrance Show eliminates McIntyre. Zeke clips the knee of Show and then dumps him over to eliminate him. #37 is Santino Marella and he comes in and hits Zeke who isnt harmed by it and and Zeke flexes his muscles and scares Santino and Santino turns into a Brogue Kick and rolls under the bottom rope. #38 is Alberto Del Rio and he takes his time getting to the ring as Rey is waiting for him as they were in a rivalry at the time. ADR takes so long to get to the ring that #39 Randy Orton attacks him in the aisle and sends him into the steps and then throws him in the ring. Orton hits RKO's on ADR & Sheamus and then ducks a Trouble in Paradise by Kofi and hits him with an RKO. Orton eliminates both Kofi and Sheamus. We get a face off between Orton & Cena and this is suppose to be this generations Austin vs Rock or Hogan vs Savage and the care don't even bother to get to their feet for this face off. We finally get our #40 entrant which is Kane.
Cena and Orton are waiting for Kane, but Barrett attacks Cena from behind and Kane goes after Orton and then goes after Barrett. Kane hits his corner clothesline and sideslam on Orton. Big Zeke takes Kane down with a clothesline, but then Zeke runs at Kane and Kane lowbridges and Zeke is eliminated. Kane is dominating the match right now as he is hitting everyone. Kane goes charging at Rey in the corner, but gets hit with the boots of Rey. Rey jumps off the middle rope right into a chokeslam, but Rey counters it into a hurricanrana and he eliminates Kane, but Rey is still on the apron and gets a knee to the back and Rey is eliminated.We now have our final 4 Orton, Cena, Barrett, & ADR. We get some elimination teases and then another face off between Cena & Orton and again no crowd reaction. They tease their finshers and then Barrett attacks Cena. Cena hits an AA on ADR and then Alex Riley comes back up on the apron and distracts Cena this allows Miz to come from behind and eliminate Cena. The final 3 stare each other down and then Barrett & ADR team up on Orton. Orton fights them off and hits some clotheslines and powerslams and then the Orton backbreaker on ADR. Orton eliminates Barrett and then ADR comes from behind and eliminates Orton. ADR is the winner of the 2011 Royal Rumble... Santino comes back from under the ring and hits ADR with the Cobra and then goes to toss him, but ADR reverses it and eliminates Santino Marella to officially win the 2011 Royal Rumble.
A really fun match to watch, but it did have some issues like Cena destroying the Nexus single handily, also it sucks that even though ADR won the biggest Rumble in history that he is in the opening match at WrestleMania XXVII.
I hope you enjoy Part 1 of Countdown: Royal Rumble. I was hoping to have the whole thing done by the 30th annual anniversary of the Royal Rumble, but seeing as the show is only 5 days away as I'm writing this that don't look possible, but I figured I would at least release the first half for you guys to enjoy. According to how much I enjoy this weekend's show I will be adding this weekend's show to the countdown and it will be interesting to see how it places in the countdown.
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