Royal Rumble 2012 this Sunday!

Get ya bags packed and start your engine as we set off on the road to Wrestlemania this Sunday starting at the 25^th Anniversary of the Royal Rumble.

Now before I get into the matches for this Sunday let’s have a look at some of the recent happenings in WWE.

Chris Jericho

Now just a few weeks ago after a month of cryptic messages Chris Jericho returned in what was a weird and confusing return that kind of left us with more questions than answers.

After his initial confusing return of Jericho going over the top with the crowd things didn’t stop. The next week Jericho came back for what we thought would be an explanation and finally some answers to the messages but instead he began to “cry” and just left.

Another week on and Jericho is put into a 6 man tag match, before the match he continues with his over the top act with the crowd, during the match fans wanted Jericho in action as they cheer his name, as soon as he is tagged in though he goes over the top with the crowd again to just tag back out and walk away from the match leaving us even more confused.

That brings me to last night with the return of The Highlight Reel.

Jericho came to the ring, went over the top with the crowd again and then showed a short montage showing his Carrera from entering the WWE at the millennium, all the way to his return here in 2012. Then for the first time since his return he spoke to us via the mic.

He simply said, “This Sunday at the Royal Rumble, it’s going to be the end of the world as you know it.”

We already know he will be one of the 30 members of WWE competing in the Royal Rumble but what does all this mean? What exactly is he going to do to change the world as we know it? Because if it’s to just win the Rumble it seems anti climatic and so to speak unrealistic.

On a realistic side there should be a 1 in 30 chance of Jericho winning so for him to win and end the world as we know it would suggest that somehow he will screw the other competitors over and take the win. But really that isn’t big enough to suggest the end of the world so I am hoping we get something bigger and hopefully get some answers.

Kane, John Cena & Zack Ryder

Another big return is Kane, and not just Kane but Masked Kane. His target, the current biggest name in WWE, John Cena.

The story for this is very up down, at times its fine but at other moments its way to over the top. For example Zack Ryder and his “girlfriend” Eve have been caught up in the middle of this and for part of one of the shows we had Kane “haunting” Ryder in very silly back stage promos, it lead to Eve about to have a match against Beth Phoenix when Kane’s music played making her think that she is about to be attacked by the Big Red Machine. Zack came to the rescue and the two ran out to the parking lot when what do you know, the car has a flat tire. Zack then spends the next 15 minutes to half an hour of the show changing it to finally get attacked by Kane. Zack was choke slammed off an edge onto an obvious crash mat, (the guy bounced you couldn’t get more stupid.) when the camera panned round the mat had been removed and Zack was now laying upon some wooden pallets below, lower than we saw him bounce earlier.

The next week followed on to have Zack lose his US Title to Jack Swagger even though John Laurinaitis was told that Zack was not clear to compete.

Last night even with his ribs rapped Zack was cleared for action and was put in a falls count anywhere match against Kane, it was more of a beating though but what else would you expect? This ended with Zack being choke slammed through the staging to the concrete below, or should I say crash mat again?

This lead to more over the top acting from Eve with crying and blaming John Cena.

Later in the show we are told that Zack has suffered a “broken back”. Very over the top don’t you think?

All this is in Kane’s attempt to get John to embrace the hate that the WWE Universe gives him. It is looking like it might be a sort of Star Wars story, think of Kane as the Emperor and John as Ankin or Kane as Darth Vader and John as Luke (and there for Zack is Han Solo, Eve is Princess Lei and Hornswoggle is an Ewok.) However you look at it there may be a John Cena Heel turn on the way.

I think that in the end John will accept the Hate and possibly take Kane as his “Master”, if that turns out to be the case then the Wrestlemania match could be even bigger and better. A new character style could make John Cena a lot more interesting and more diverse, as long as he doesn’t change his in ring style in the process.

An intriguing storyline but needs toning down.

CM Punk, John Laurinaitis & Dolph Ziggler

Over the past weeks CM Punk continues to feud with the Executive Vice President of Talent Relations, and Interim General Manager of Raw, John Laurinaitis. (I thought I would use his full title in case you didn’t know who he is.)

Thanks to John Dolph Ziggler has had a fair few wins against CM Punk and therefore has earned himself a WWE Championship shot for this Sunday with John as Special Guest Referee.

It looked like CM Punk is going to lose and Dolph was going to finally win his first WWE Title but last night the story took a nice twist.

It was revealed that John is now under review for his recent actions by the bored or directors and the person to decide whether John keeps his job is COO Triple H. Unless John calls the match down the middle his time as GM may come to an abrupt end.

Daniel Bryan, Big Show & Mark Henry

Jumping over to Smackdown the main storyline is current World Champion Daniel Bryan and having to deal with the two biggest men in WWE.

It seems that Daniel is doing all he can to avoid a normal match with either men and in the process it is turning Daniel into a Heel.

This story has also gone over the top; a couple weeks ago Daniel was in a match with Big Show and Daniel’s “girlfriend” AJ was at ringside. During the match Daniel is running from Show around the ring, in the process Big Show ploughs through AJ knocking her down. The two men stopped to check on AJ and it lead to loads of paramedics and EMT’s coming down, Big Show crying, and Daniel shouting in anger about the size difference between Show and AJ leaving the match as a no contest.

AJ was wheeled away on a stretcher even though it was obvious she was fine, even the front rows started chanting, “She not hurt” or at least something to that effect.

The next week Bryan told us more about AJ’s injuries pushing it even more over the top as it is highly unlikely that AJ was hurt at all.

That week as well Daniel had to defend the World Title against Mark Henry in a lumber jack match, as you may have guessed the match broke down to give us a preview of the Rumble and Daniel was able to slip out with his Title still in hand, unfortunately this Sunday there will be no running as Daniel will be locked in a Steel cage with both Mark Henry and Big Show. You could say that Daniel is quite literally trapped between a rock and a hard place.

Brodus Clay

In my opinion this is a fail, all this hype for what was originally going to be a monster to get a Funkasasaurus dancing man.

Shockingly though the WWE Universe likes it, and I am now seeing it as quite humorous. Brodus’s in ring skill hasn’t changed and he has now got character, but this won’t get him any higher than being a mid-carder. I think this will be acceptable for his starting run but after a few months maybe even a year he will fade out again to return more like he was before.

Sunday’s Matches

Well I have already covered the 3 main matches for this Sunday not including the Rumble so I will just list them

John Cena vs. Kane

World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage match

Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. Big Show

WWE Championship match

CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler, Special Guest Referee John Laurinaitis

The Royal Rumble

This year’s Rumble is back down to 30 men but this time they are pushing more on the fact that any WWE superstar is eligible to enter, already we have found out that Mick Foley will be one of those men.

As they are pushing highly on that fact we may see some unexpected entries such as legends, Divas, or people out on injury, maybe even announcers such as Booker T and Jerry Lawler might jump in.

At the moment the WWE are focusing on Sheamus, Wade Barrett, Jericho and now entry number 1 The Miz.

I think it will be Jericho to win even though I want more from him than that.

Questions for you.

What are your thoughts on Jericho at the moment?

Do you like the Kane story or is it to OTT?

How would you feel about a Heel Cena?

Brodus clay, Fail or Win?

Who do you think is going to win the Royal Rumble?

That’s all for now Matty.D singing off!