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Posts Tagged ‘Royal Rumble’

The list of wrestlers who will be participating in the Royal Rumble PPV battle royale is taking shape; from ECW, none of the participating wrestlers, believe it or not, use under eye creams! That list includes William Regal, Zack Ryder, Yoshi Tatsu, Shelton Benjamin, and The Hurricane.

The list of Raw-brand wrestlers included so far are Triple H, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Big Show, Jack Swagger, Kofi Kingston, Mark Henry, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, The Miz, MVP, Santino, Evan Bourne and Carlito.

Smackdown wrestlers are expected to be added following Friday’s telecast. And each year, there are a few nostalgia and surprise guests. The best part of the Royal Rumble is that it is an important step to the year’s most prominent PPV; whoever wins is guaranteed a title shot at WrestleMania.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Chris Jericho’s return to the WWE was supposed to be huge, but after a very brief run against champ Randy Orton, he has now been inserted into a feud with JBL. Now, I enjoy JBL; both in his normal life outside of wrestling as a Fox Business/Fox News contributor, and his in-ring character over on SmackDown.

However, while it’s a huge move to use a feud with Jericho to bring JBL back as an active wrestler and onto the Raw roster, it’s definitely a step way down for Jericho, whose mission was supposed to be as the Raw savior, delivering us from the Randy Orton era. While the move is a necessary sidestep, perhaps, to avoid overplaying the Jericho-Orton feud too soon, what may be brewing here is the unexpected, and that’s the dramatic popularity of the Jeff Hardy-Randy Orton feud. Hardy, a former TNA champ as well as a multiple-time tag champ in WWE, had been a terrific performer in his feud with Orton and is earning a lot of respect and momentum in his drive toward his Royal Rumble title match.

Whether it’s in the ring or doing charitable work for victims of cerebral palsy, Hardy’s a sentimental favorite to get a surprise win and ride that wave into the WrestleMania main event for a rematch against Orton. That could leave Jericho hanging in mid-card limbo again, as has often been the case in his pro wrestling career.

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.