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Archive for the ‘Royal Rumble’ Category

Well, everyone can relax with an e cigarette; the Royal Rumble is over and while old-timer HBK got the biggest rub, eliminating the most opponents of anyone in the match (six), Shawn Michaels made it to the Final Four, but didn’t last beyond that.

Instead, Edge returned to the WWE after a long injury-related absence, as the 29th entrant in the 30-man battle. He rode that momentum to the final three and let John Cena eliminate the freshest man, Batista, who was the final entrant, then eliminated Cena in the aftermath of Batista’s elimination.

So, unexpectedly, Edge will get his choice of belts and opponents to go after, depending on who comes out of the Elimination Chamber PPV in February with the belts still on their waists. Current champs are Smackdown’s Undertaker, who fended off a challenge from Rey Mysterio tonight; Raw’s Sheamus, who won by DQ against Randy Orton in a heel-vs.-heel match; and ECW’s Christian, who wrestled a good program against Ezekiel Jackson.

The most likely scenario currently is for Smackdown-branded Edge to take on Undertaker and his “undefeated at WrestleMania” streak, with ‘Taker as the face. However, stranger things have happened, so don’t rule out a Raw title change at Elimination Chamber, setting up Edge moving over to Raw to take on John Cena, while HBK would then head over to Smackdown to take on ‘Taker.

The appeal of the 30-man, one winner match is still a winner after all these years, and this year’s edition played out quite well. With Randy Orton facing a firing by the McMahon Family, he had his bags packed and seemed resigned to his career ending.

To have Orton be the eighth entrant and the last man standing at the end made storyline sense and set him up well to make his WrestleMania main event more meaningful to him than any match he’s ever wrestled. That will mark him as ultra-motivated going into a match against John Cena wherein the outcome might otherwise seem a no-brainer.

Cena-Orton has long been thought to be the headlining main event of the future; well wake up, Bubba, it’s 2009 and the future is now. Better take those Canon cameras to WrestleMania with you, because this clash between these two at the biggest of all PPVs could become the first of many over the next few years.

Everyone was expecting Christian Cage to return to WWE tonight, and this was the match most folks expected it to occur in. So imagine the surprise when not only did Christian not return during this match, but the backstab a former tag partner move came from an unexpected source. It was a storyline so unexpected that it might require a Chicago accident attorney to clean up the mess.

So, what happened? Well, the match between Hardy and Edge was top-notch, but at the critical point in the match, Matt Hardy, fresh off his defeat at the hands of Jack Swagger, showed up and at first it appeared he would be helping his brother Jeff.

Then? The chairshot heard across the WWE as Matt attacked his own brother to turn heel and give Edge the win. Talk about defying expectations? A Matt-Jeff feud could be a huge draw for several PPVs to come!

When a ring vet like JBL is in against a hot headliner like John Cena, the outcome is usually predictable, which is why the secondary story thread of Shawn Michaels being under the employ of JBL was so critical to getting this match over with the audience.

The storyline advanced as Michaels was able to fulfill the technical terms of the contract, super-kicking Cena and putting JBL on top of Cena for the pin, but by superkicking JBL as well, some long-brewing emotional payback was brought to a boil like a bottle of Leptovox in a hot pot, and everyone knows this won’t be the end of it.

One can sense a JBL-Michaels feud match on the slate for WrestleMania, and so the real question mark here is how tonight’s match served to set the table for Cena’s WrestleMania match. Looks like they’ll have to allow a Raw superstar to win the Rumble.

As an opening match to a major pay-per-view, I’ve seen worse than this. A lot worse. While Matt Hardy has always been the more workmanlike of the two Hardy Boyz, he put on a solid show with a promising young talent in reigning ECW champion Jack Swagger tonight.

Swagger, looking like a fellow in need of some Dwarf Little Gem Magnolia trees rather than a head scissors, he makes a credible heel and Hardy’s ring experience helped carry Swagger through in the areas where he lacks.

When Swagger wanted to slow down and mat-wrestle, Hardy would up his tempo and lead the young Swagger through the pacing of the thing. Given that they were only allowed 10 minutes to tell their in-ring story, that was needed.

Swagger retained the title and looked like he achieved something along the way.

As ProWrestlingViews.com reported Sunday night, John Cena returned to the WWE about seven months earlier than expected, winning the Royal Rumble match. The WWE has been kind enough to share a press release and a photo of Cena’s return with us, so we’re passing it on to you, our readers. Here it is:

STAMFORD, Conn., January 28, 2008 — He was supposed to be injured and out of action for as long as a year, but WWE® Superstar John Cena shocked the wrestling world Sunday night by entering the Royal Rumble Match at No. 30 in front of a sold-out crowd of more than 20,000 fans at Madison Square Garden. Cena won the 2008 Royal Rumble Match by tossing Triple H® over the top rope.

With the victory in the 2008 Royal Rumble Match, Cena earns a World Championship opportunity against the title holder of his choice at WrestleMania XXIV on Sunday, March 30, in Orlando, FL.

Stay tuned to Monday Night RAW at 9 PM ET/PT on USA Network to see which champion John Cena will choose to face at WrestleMania XXIV. To see a replay of John Cena’s triumphant return to the ring, call your local cable provider and order the 2008 Royal Rumble in HD only on pay-per-view.

Additional information on World Wrestling Entertainment Inc. (NYSE: WWE), can be found at wwe.com and corporate.wwe.com. For information on our global activities, go to http://www.wwe.com/worldwide/.

Former WWE champion John Cena, sidelined last fall with a shoulder injury that promised to keep him out beyond WrestleMania, returned to the active roster on Sunday as the 30th entrant in the Royal Rumble and went on to win the match and earn an automatic title shot against the champion of his choice at WrestleMania. It is almost a guarantee that Cena, who was injured by Orton, will focus on regaining his WWE title from the Legend Killer, rather than jump brands to take on Edge on SmackDown or C.M. Punk on ECW.

The Rumble event featured classic wrestlers Rowdy Roddy Piper, Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and Mick Foley, all sporting their retirement luxury watches; Cena’s spot had been teased to be the return of The Big Show, Paul Wight, who did not appear at the Rumble. Instead, Cena returned at least four months ahead of his announced recovery schedule, a turn of events that, while likely planned, has to have Vince McMahon and WWE stockholders sighing in relief.

Unlike previous Rumbles, no one Superstar was given a dominating run; Undertaker, Triple H and Kane all eliminate three or four guys, but only the eventual winner, Cena, had a real dominant stretch leading to the win. Even then, Cena eliminated only four, including Triple H for the win. In previous years, some WWE superstars have been allowed “ring-clearing runs,” eliminating up for six or more superstars to establish their dominance despite not being given a Rumble victory. That didn’t happen this year.

The when and where of Paul “The Big Show” Wight’s return remains a mystery but is still expected to take place, despite being used as a red herring to cover the return of Cena.

Despite an effective storyline that had WWE fans believing in the possibility of a title change so close to WrestleMania, Jeff Hardy failed in his bid to unseat Randy Orton as the WWE champion at the 2008 Royal Rumble on Sunday. They threw everything but Kohler sinks into the title match, but while Hardy and Orton took turns dominating the match, Hardy seemed on the verge of victory, about to deliver a Twist of Fate for the win.

That’s when Orton hit the reversal and an RKO helped him retain the title off a clean victory. The real question now is where the WWE will take the storyline from here. Will they continue to develop the Hardy-Orton storyline that worked so well, or will they switch storylines as the company focuses in on WrestleMania hype?

Given the winner of the Royal Rumble… well, let’s just say it’s looking like back-burner time for Jeff Hardy, through no fault of his own, and unless his character takes a hard heel turn soon, he’ll soon be out of the WWE title picture once again.

Ric Flair earned a victory over MVP as part of the opening match to the 2008 edition of the WWE Royal Rumble PPV. In the ongoing storyline for Flair, the Nature Boy will continue to have a job with WWE until the next time he loses a match. The storyline has led to Flair winning five consecutive matches, including the win Sunday night over MVP.

While Flair wasn’t vamping it up by wearing a bustiers or another other such showman nonsense, his matches since this storyline began did have the feeling of being a retirement / final tour storyline. The PPV event was held at Madison Square Garden. Flair wrestled at the facility for the first time in 1976, do to still be in the ring, winning matches, 32 years later and in his 50s is an achievement worthy of the Verne Gagne era of pro wrestling.

Professional wrestler Paul Wight, better known to WWE fans as The Big Show, has signed an all-new WWE contract and is set to return to television any time now; in fact, he could conceivably end up as a Royal Rumble surprise guest, either in the Rumble or inserted into one of the other championship matches scheduled for that PPV event.

Wight may be hard to recognize when he returns to the WWE ring. During his year-long hiatus, Wight spent 2007 training as a professional boxer. In that time, he dropped 60 pounds to 440, and at a solid seven feet high, may be a bit shorter but is now cutting a figure a bit closer to the physique The Great Khali has achieved. In some online interviews, he has also confessed to giving up a smoking habit, which may help him breathe better and therefore perform better in the ring.

While out of the WWE, Wight wrestled an indy match against Hulk Hogan and adopted the new moniker of Paul “The Great” Wight; however, it is expected that, at least initially, WWE will reintroduce him to their audience as The Big Show. Whether the company will eventually incorporate Wight’s new in-ring persona into his wrestling career remains to be seen; it’s just too early to know.

There are several ways for Wight to make an impact in his return. The most obvious would be to have him be a surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble. With his new, trimmer physique, he could be sold more credibly as an unstoppable threat.

When Wight last appeared in a WWE-owned ring, he was part of the ECW on SciFi franchise and his return could help that broadcast, which is struggling in the ratings as more and more people are tuning out of TV as the writer’s strike has a bigger and bigger impact on audiences with new episodes drying up. Even though WWE broadcasts are unaffected by the strike, and feature new episodes every week of the year, it seems a receding tide lowers all boats and as viewers abandon TV in general, WWE’s broadcast numbers are sinking at a time one might expect them to be gaining.

If handled well, Wight’s return could help reverse this trend. Inserting Wight into the ECW title match at the Royal Rumble would be another way to go; he could be used to cost CM Punk the title and become an immediate title shot threat. Or Wight could be shipped to SmackDown to help that show’s ratings.

About the only place ProWrestlingViews.com doesn’t want to see Wight is the already overstocked with main event talent Raw broadcast. If Wight is placed on the Raw roster, he’ll almost certainly sink to second-tier status, as happened to Chris Jericho, who also recently returned after an extended hiatus from the Fed.

One thing’s for sure: if Wight is as fit as billed, an eventual clash with the Great Khali, if built up correctly, could be a match that would be WrestleMania-worthy. Just be sure to keep the medical supplies on hand at that one!

You don’t need Delta machinery to determine that the main attraction for the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV will be the Royal Rumble match itself. Here’s what we know about the event so far.

We do know, thanks to a Ric Flair “win or retire” match, that Triple H will not be in the Rumble. Thank the L-rd!

We also know that the match will feature both Mick Foley and Hornswoggle, which means there will be at least some retro superstar appeal as well as some comic relief in the match, which is good. Umaga will be there, but will likely be the target of an early “gang up on the big guy” ejection, which is a Royal Rumble tradition.

The next few weeks leading up to the PPV will have a lot of Royal Rumble qualifying matches. Let’s hope WWE makes it a great one!

Finally past the holiday break, expect Raw, ECW and SmackDown to really gear up from here on out, not only for the upcoming Royal Rumble PPV, but for WrestleMania as well. Like a sturdy colon cleanse, this time of year usually sees WWE jettison storylines that aren’t working and concentrating on building toward big ultimate showdowns for each of their brands.

In ECW, the push seems to be putting off too many clashes between John Morrison and CM Punk, so that they can have their biggest clash at WrestleMania. Here’s hoping it will be an ECW Rules match.

Over on Raw, it’s a bit tough to guess where the Fed is going with Randy Orton. Would they risk switching champs at this late date, putting the strap on Jeff Hardy at the Royal Rumble? Could the Rumble winner become the presumptive challenger for the WWE title on Raw, or the World Championship title on SmackDown? There are more players and uncertainty here, considering John Cena’s out of the picture until after WrestleMania, perhaps returning in time for SummerSlam if things go well.

On SmackDown, as usually, things are grim. Batista is the most overpushed superstar on their roster and yet another Undertaker showdown seems inevitable. While Edge is providing some freshness, Finlay is both annoying and boring. The Great Khali might figure into the picture, but the best all-around personality would be the under-utilized MVP.

The next few weeks could determine a lot.