Thought I’d write up a review of the Rumble and what I thought to it all so here goes...

Daniel Bryan v Big Show v Mark Henry (steel cage for World Heavyweight Title)

Bit of a funny one to start the show, first it had a classic Youtube moment where Big Show tried to give a 5 year old girl his hat only for her to turn him down, he then delivered the line ‘I know who your daddy is!’ like some big 7ft guy who hangs around playgrounds offering sweets out.
Daniel Bryan I believe has started to win over those who felt he was 2d in personality, the heel turn has been well executed and I can see the logic in pitting him v the 2 behemoths in Henry and Big Show. Personally I’d like to see him being able to demonstrate his actual wrestling ability a bit more as he’s limited in what he can do with 2 guys over twice his weight. I called it immediately but I think the ending was botched, I reckon Big Show was meant to lift DB back up on top of the cage though I believe the winner was always going to be DB. You could tell Henry was carrying an injury as he rarely showed offence and most of the match was based around Show & DB.
Shame the only PPV before Mania is the Elimination Chamber as would have liked to have seen DB defend v Cody Rhodes before Mania.

Rating 3 stars 

John Cena vignette – puts across what a lovely fella he is. Further hints then he’s about to turn heel.

Diva match

Not wasting too much time on this, basically Beth came out of it looking strong and I presume to lead into a feud with a certain person who I’ll mention in a bit.

Rating 1 star

Backstage skit with Ryder, Eve and Laurinaitis. 
Have to say, I’m loving Johnny Ace in the heel boss role, possibly the best since Vince in that role for me. Quite a horror show style plot hook of let’s leave Ryder in a wheelchair in a room all alone where nothing possible could harm him...

John Cena v Kane

Why does Cena always look like he’s poopied he pants when Kane’s pyro hits? 
Not a bad match in all, Kane brings out the best in Cena but I’d have liked to have seen more aggression from Cena, a couple of glimpses of the ‘hate’. Spoilt it when it ended in the double countout, I’d have preferred perhaps Cena getting DQd for snapping on Kane. Goes backstage where Kane finds a conveniently placed chair to take Cena out of action for a while, and even more conveniently it’s right in front of that room where Ryder is all alone!
Kane suffocates Ryder with his glove. 
In less than 10 seconds.
How small are Ryders lungs? Or is Kane’s glove containing chloroform that his brother once fell foul to v Giant Gonzalez, if Kane starts to wear a man-fur suit I’m calling dibs on saying I said it first! Kane torments Ryder for far too long and eventually Cena runs out to make the save. I thought Cena was meant to be Superman? That was ages since he got the chair shot backstage. Quite surprised that Kane got so much of the upperhand over Cena with Cena surely going into the build up for his match with Rock soon. I really cannot see how they can keep Cena face in that feud.

Rating 3 stars

Drew McIntyre v Brodus Clay

I still don’t like the gimmick, yes it’s drawn heavily from Godfather and Rikishi etc, but I didn’t overly like those gimmicks either. People moan about the PG dummying down of WWE yet lap this up? Agree with a few people that Clay really should have been in the Rumble rather than a squash match. Would have been far better for him to have come down mid rumble and clean house then start his brontosaurus dance or whatever it is. I also like McIntyre, yes he’s at least getting better airtime than Superstars but a loss streak rarely helps a wrestler (see MVP, he got released you know!)

Rating 2 stars


WWE Title Match: CM Punk v Dolph Ziggler
My BIG gripe with this match wasn’t the ending (which left everyone scratching their heads) but more that Ziggler for all his plaudits on how wonderful he is in the ring just doesn’t generate heat. In a world title match the heel in the ring should be the person the boos are directed at.
But they weren’t. The hatred was focused entirely on Johnny Ace stood outside the ring, so until he got involved the crowd were flat as a pancake and it was just treading water until the eventual involvement of him. As usual the wrestling between them was top class, lots of near pins and nice spots but I hope they are leading somewhere decent with the reasoning to the end of the match.

Rating 4 stars

The Royal Rumble 

First up is Miz as we all knew sporting a rather Bisto like spray tan and I called Alex Riley to be his opponent, showed how much his stock has fallen (which I presume is down to him sandbagging Swagger a few months ago) when he’s dispatched before number 3 arrives which is R Truth which made the match on Raw to decide who came out on the number 1 spot pretty redundant being as the winner came out only 2 minutes later.
Next out Rhodes and it’s looking a decent mix in the ring with them three, crying out though for JoMo to make a return in at number 4 but instead we get Justin Gabriel who’s one of the making up the numbers guys.
Surprised on how long R-Truth briefly lasts, wonder if that’s still part of the Wellness suspension comeback.
Skimming forward now to Foley, now I’m not a fan of the old guys taking up spots in the Rumble at the expense of the next gen but in Foley I make an exception as he’s a personal fave. He really struggled to even get in the ring though and not lose breath. I do hate though when an oldster chucks out what’s at present one half of the current tag champs in Primo. 
First big surprise returnee then happens when ADR’s music hits, but instead is possibly the funniest moment of the Rumble when Ricardo emerges in a battered car. Crowd really take to it too and a decent Ricardo chant can be heard. Santino next out and it becomes slapstick for a while with Ricardo & Santino going at it followed by Cobra v Socko. Both though quickly are eliminated and business returns to normal.
Next out is Kofi. Kofi gets the spot of the Rumble award for his handstand but thats about it from him.
Lawler in and swiftly out again. Waste of a spot. Zeke, Mahal and Khali appear but don’t really have much impact and its treading water. Booker T gets a pop and then the trio of announcers taking part is complete when Cole is announced. This is probably the low point of the night. Surely WWE must have realised by now that heat he gets isn’t decent heat but simply frustrated fans venting at WWE at a poor product.
It did though bring about the return of the hope for the Diva division when Kong returned, has she had her baby, can we tell? Either way she scared the jeebies of Cole and then proceeded to give what was the number one contender to the WWE title only an hour earlier in Ziggler an Impact Buster! How the mighty have fallen!
Not many spaces left and still quite a number of jobbers are entering the fray which is quite worrying. Sheamus enters as does Swagger. Guest spots of Road Dogg & Jim Duggan show the lack of legends available and again raise questions over the strength of WWE’s roster.
Barrett comes out and then the biggest pop of the night for the hometown boy Orton at number 28 who swiftly is the only guy left standing in the ring as RKOs rein down galore.
Jericho then at 29, business is picking up and everyone is thinking who can top this, who can be number 30???
Big Show.
Seriously why. 
And pretty much immediately he eliminates two of the best heels in Rhodes and Miz who’d survived from the start. I wonder if one day WWE will realise no-one has ever liked Big Show, he’s never put on a decent match and he sucks up any enjoyment from a match with his big clobberin hands? Orton finally dumps out the big fella but then follows straight after and it’s down to two. Sheamus and Jericho
The pair actually save the Rumble.
Often when it’s down to two in the Rumble it’s a quick finisher and over the top for the win but we’re treated to a decent one on one match for some time, both guys have several near falls over the top and Jericho really impressed me that his time out of the ring hasn’t resulted in coming back rusty, he actually looks better than towards the tail end of his last stint when he was challenging Matt Hardy for Moobs of the year. 
Sheamus though upsets the odds and gets the win to end the show posing for fans.

Rating 3 stars

Overall not the best Rumble, not the worst, highlights were Ricardo, Kharma return, Kofi’s spot and Sheamus’s win. Low lights were the clear case of a rather weak depth of roster at present resulting in poor selection of guys being used.

Personally I’d have had Punk lose his title and then appear in the Rumble, he was the highlight of the past 2 years Rumbles and it missed him badly, if he’d have come in early on (5 or 6), cleared house and then continue to chuck guys out whilst Lauriniatus looked on frustrated from ringside it’d have made the Rumble a lot better. Goldust should have been a returning legend, he’s been teased feuding with Cody, so it’d have made sense to have eliminated him. Orton should have returned at the Rumble, I still don’t get the return at SD, the impact at the Rumble in his hometown would have been amazing coming in at 30 akin to when Cena returned a few years ago. Clay too should have been involved, the squash match just wasn’t needed.

Overall rating 3 stars. 
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