Sheamus Wins Royal Rumble!

Last night we started on the road to Wrestlemania. To kick it into gear we start with the Royal Rumble, a very predictable match this year, other than the result.

Going into this one everyone was thinking Jericho to win as all his cryptic messages and funny actions had to lead to something big. That being the case Jericho came in at 29 and was one of the last two standing in the ring along with Sheamus.

The final minutes were the best part of the whole match as Jericho and Sheamus duked it out in a great battle for the Mania spot and every time one of them was on the ropes we was on the edge of our seats (well at least I was).

Even through all that we were all still thinking, Jericho to win, so imagine our surprise when the Great White Sheamus takes him out and secures his spot for a Championship match at Mania.

So a Surprising result but where does this leave Jericho? What’s left for Jericho to do? Because as far as I can see the World as I know it, has not come to an end, rendering all the messages and actions pointless.

The rest of the match was quite predictable, the match was filled with the usual midcarders for fillers, as I predicted in my last blog all 3 announcers Jerry Lawler, Booker T and Michael Cole jumped in, one Diva appearance from the monstrous Kharma (Awesome Kong), Mick Foley made his appearance and we saw the Cobra vs. Mr Socko in the progress.

Alongside that losers from the title matches made there appearances Dolph coming in mid-way through and Big Show stepping in number 30.

Slightly less predictable but not really surprising or impactful entries were Ricardo Rodriguez, Road Dogg and Hacksaw Jim Duggan.

Overall the match its self didn’t have anything big or surprising, no big returning superstars, no game changers and nothing amazing really happened. It was entertaining so to speak but something we love about the Rumble is unpredictability which this did somewhat lack.

Other than the Rumble itself there were only 3 others main matches as well as 2 small ones.

The evening started with the Steel Cage Triple Threat for the World Title, a Triple Threat though that was more focused on two men as Mark Henry may have sustained an injury this past week on SmackDown.

The match wasn’t amazing and it ended on Daniel Bryan pulling it out of his ass.

Next was an average 8 Divas tag match seeing the team of Beth Phoenix, Natalya and the Bella Twins take on Kelly Kelly, Eve, Alicia Fox and Tamina.

The match was of good length and saw Beth’s Team take the win after a Glam Slam to Kelly Kelly.

Next was Kane vs. John Cena the match was of reasonable standard but ended in a no contest as the two of the fought up the ramp to the backstage area.

This lead to more over the top involvement of the apparent injured Zack Ryder.

Kane smashed his way into the obvious set that was Zack’s Dressing room, hit him a few times then rolled him out to the arena in his wheel chair.

Once in the ring in front of the now crying Eve, who had ran down to the ring, gave Zack a less than brilliant Tomb Stone Pile Driver.

John Cena finally came running back from the backstage area but just received a Choke Slam leaving Kane the only man standing.

Once again very over the top and this time very unrealistic, for a man who has apparently broken his back Zack was able to move quite well other than being in a wheel chair, he didn’t have a neck brace on and the body harness he was wearing looked more like toy body armour for kids going to play paint ball than something that you would wear to support your back. And in all honesty if you broke your back on Monday you would still be in the Hospital today.

Before the WWE Championship match we had another short filler, burring Drew McIntyre further and promoting Brodus Clay with another win.

Before the Rumble one match remained, CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler with John Laurinaitis as Ref, that soon changed though as John changed himself from Ref to an overseer, in other words he would stand outside the ring and watch the action to make sure the Ref in the ring does his job.

The match was a good one, but at the moment any match with Dolph or CM Punk in is a good one.

The match was going well until the Ref was taken out and falls out the ring.

While John checked on him CM Punk makes Dolph tap in the ring to the cobra clutch which goes unseen. Next CM Punk gets a roll up which lasts longer than a 3 count that also goes unseen, followed by a Go To Sleep and a pin that also gets missed.

Dolph almost took it once the Ref was back up with a great looking reversal into the Zig Zag but luckily CM Punk kicked out.

Another GTS later and Punk takes the win.

Will Johnny still have his job as GM though? Find out tomorrow night on Raw when Triple H comes back to our screens.

I rate this PPV, 3 out 5 stars, pretty average and not amazing.

Questions for you.

What did you think? Was this a Rumble to remember?

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

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!

Daniel Bryan is the World Heavyweight Champion!

That’s right last night at the conclusion of Big Show vs. Mark Henry, Bryan cashed in his Money in the Bank and stole the world title away, not from Mark but from Big Show.

Show had finally won the world title for the first time in about 9 years to be knocked out by Mark and then have his gold snatched away by Daniel Bryan.

The event itself was good but it did seem to miss some chaos that we are used to on this sort of PPV.

The event kicked off with Zack Ryder taking on US Champion Dolph Ziggler in what was a great opening contest.

The Long Island Ice Z finally got his shot and finally walked away with the US Title his first singles championship in WWE. Zack’s future is looking bright but let’s hope he doesn’t burn out like John Cena did.

After that match we cut back stage to Booker talking to Alicia Fox and getting attacked by Cody.

Cody obviously trying to avoid the match later in the night or just making sure Booker is not at 100%.

Next was a Tag Team match for the WWE Tag Titles finally seeing AirBoom back in action after Evan’s suspension.

On screen it looks like it would be any normal match but a lot may have been hanging in the balance other than the titles.

As Evan had been recently suspended for failing the drug test WWE may not have wanted to keep him with a title and push him down the cards, this could of lead to the removal of AirBoom and also Kofi suffering as well. If AirBoom were to lose at TLC all of that could have happened. Luckily AirBoom did win and retain the Tag Titles.

With their new T-Shirts and other merchandise the future of AirBoom may be bright.

Their opponents, Primo and Epico also looked to have a future in the Tag division performing well and showing classic style and personality. Rosa Mendez is also a welcome addition to the team. Looks like Hunico or Sin Cara Negro has been dropped from this story and pushed down the cards to Superstars as his main rival is out on injury.

Next was a pretty good Tables match between Wade Barrett and The Viper Randy Orton.

It was a good back and forth contest but it was Randy who took the win with a surprise RKO as Wade jumped from the turnbuckle to slam Randy through a table below him. Randy’s Snake like reflexes came into play as he sprang from the table catching Barrett and coming down in an RKO causing Barrett’s legs to go through table.

Not the most brilliant of endings but acceptable.

Beth Phoenix emerged next to take on former Divas Champ Kelly Kelly.

A much better Divas contest again seeing another longer than usual match up and both Kelly and Beth shone through out.

The ending was a bit messy but Beth came out the victor.

Booker T made his way to the ring next to once again in be jumped by Cody and be taken to the back by trainers. The match looked like it would never happen.

With that match once again on hold we move into the Sledgehammer Ladder match between Triple H and Kevin Nash which was a match that really did show its age.

Kevin Nash being in his early 50s and Triple H being early 40s neither are in their prime, this showed more on Kevin than it did Triple H. If this match was being fought just a few years prior the limits could have been pushed further and I would have found it more entertaining, but it just lacked that buzz that the two men used to bring back in the day.

Triple H was the man to grab the Sledge and use it on Kevin, after a pedigree and another hit from the hammer Triple H took the win.

Earlier in the night Jack and Sheamus had a promo resulting in the next match. It was nothing special but was entertaining, a good way of showcasing both men and put a push on Sheamus further up the ranks as he won with a boot to Jacks face.

Mark Henry went head to head with Big Show next which would be there third encounter.

Big Show “hurt” his hand early on being played out well by the big man and became Marks focus of the match.

The match was short and lacked buzz but Big Show took the win after still being able to knock Mark out with the injured hand.

During celebration Mark attacks Big Show and DDT’s show onto a pile of Chairs. The crowd saw it coming as chants for Daniel Bryan came from the front row. Daniel was down the ramp quick as lighting and cashed in on the downed Big Show, no work needed just a quick pin and Big Show’s title reign came to an end before it even began.

Big Show stayed in the ring stunned but didn’t seem angry, but Bryan may have just put himself between a rock and a hard place a Triple Threat for the World Title maybe in the foreseeable future maybe even a Fatal 4 Way depending on what happens with Kane.

Booker T was then shown backstage saying he will still go ahead with his match. So next up is the young vs. old, Cody vs. Booker T.

Even with the two attacks Bookers character didn’t show much of the effects and Bookers performance was just as good as it has ever been.

Booker did lose to the second generation star but let’s hope he stays in the ring and off the announcers table.

Lastly was an interesting Triple Threat TLC match for the WWE Title. In my opinion it did lack that buzz again but it was a good match that saw some rather unique moments.

During the match Ricardo tried to climb a ladder and retrieve the title on behalf of Alberto Del Rio. He was cut short by CM Punk, after being stopped though Ricardo handcuffed Punk to the Ladder, Alberto then attempted to climb the ladder and CM Punk was forced to break the ladder in a way of escape and stopped Del Rio in the process.

Now free from the ladder Punk spent the rest of the match wearing the handcuff which became a handy weapon.

Later Punk found himself handcuffed to the second turnbuckle of the ring by the Miz, while stuck in his predicament Alberto and Miz attempt to retrieve the Belt. CM Punk’s only way of freeing himself was to remove the turnbuckle altogether, which he did.

As Del Rio and Miz fought atop two ladders Punk undid the turnbuckle as quickly as possible, as soon as it was undone the second rope flopped to the mat and Punk made a dash up the ladders.

He stopped Miz and Alberto sending them back to the mat and then climbed down and gave Miz a GTS.

Quickly back up the ladder and the Title stays with CM Punk.

A great end to this PPV.

Overall I give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars, although it was a solid PPV it still lacked a buzz and chaos that we are used to for this style of PPV.

2012

Now 2012 is just round the corner and the date looms for the return of a Superstar, or someone else.

I have been doing some looking around seeing what people’s theories and predictions are and 3 in particular stand out.

The most obvious one is Chris Jericho, relating to the wording and his original entrance to the WWE as Y2J as 2000 was meant to be the end and everyone was on about Y2K. The (Y)ear 2012 (2)nd of (J)anuary in the video is claimed to be the end of the world as we know it, and he will come back and claim what is his. Other videos mention best in the world which is what he claimed to be. So maybe he will come to claim that name from CM Punk who is the current best in the world as well as the WWE title?

Theory number 2 is Batista. One of the passages read in the one of the clips is from what is called the Leviathan which was one of Batista’s early ring names.

The last theory, and most unlikely is Shane McMahon and the end of the PG era. The little girl that is in the latest video is meant to tell us when this person will arrive, who could that little girl be representing? Signs could point to Stephanie and there for the person being bought back maybe Shane. Claiming what is his could be in regards to him being the true heir to WWE and taking it back from Triple H and/or John Laurinaitis. Bringing the end to the world as we know it may refer to the end to the PG Era.

All of the above is theory and are rumours from across the web and nothing is of course confirmed.

That being said in my opinion I think it will be Chris Jericho as he is the most obvious even though he has said that he is in Hawaii on the date.

Questions for you.

So what did you think of TLC?

What are your theories on the 2012 return?

Well this will be my last blog of the year so I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New (Y)ear, we wait to see what (2)012 will bring and I will see you in (J)anuary.

Matty.D signing off for 2011!