Tonight is the 25th Anniversary of The Royal Rumble, the show that begins the Road to WrestleMania. The Rumble is the 2nd biggest WWE show of the year, and many people enjoy it more than WrestleMania. However, like so many recent WWE PPVs, the build for tonight's show has been extremely weak. Due to poor booking, WWE has to hope that the Royal Rumble name will sell the show because they have done very little to get fans interested, or in the case of The Rumble Match, WWE hasn't even told fans who is in the match. Four matches are currently announced, and I would expect at least one more match to be added, likely a Divas or Tag Team match. Let's get into the card.
John Cena vs Kane
We're less than a month into the new year, but I think the Worst Feud of the Year award has already been locked up. This program has been a disaster from the start and has only managed to get worse. Kane made a surprise return to Raw a month ago looking to get revenge on Mark Henry, the man who put him out of action, but Kane then changed his focus and chokeslammed John Cena. The following week Kane explained the reason for the attack was because Cena refused to "Embrace the Hate". Despite fans booing Cena, Cena continued to have his happy-go-lucky attitude, constantly laughing off the negative reactions with big, goofy smiles. Cena's reasoning was that he lives by the motto "Rise Above Hate" (what a coincidence that these are the same words on the shirt WWE's currently selling). Things only got worse from here. After Zack Ryder and Cena won a tag match, Ryder was celebrating in the ring when Kane came through the apron and attempted to "drag Ryder to Hell". Cena made the save, but Ryder and Cena looked on in horror as Kane went back into the hole under the ring and giant flames erupted. Could it get worse, oh yeah.
The next week, Ryder was backstage worried about Kane. Cena came in and told him not to worry about that because..... HE'S NOW THE 5TH MOTH FOLLOWED WWE SUPERSTAR ON TWITTER! And they wonder why people hate Cena. Anyway, Eve (Ryder's kind-of-girlfriend) was scheduled to have a match, but Kane's music hit. Then the worst segment of the the year went down. Eve and Ryder rushed outside. They tried to get away in Ryder's rental car, but the tire was flat. Did they continue to run? Find another car? Try and get a taxi? NO, RYDER GOT OUT A TIRE JACK AND TRIED TO CHANGE THE TIRE. The show went to commercial. They came back, AND RYDER WAS STILL TRYING TO CHANGE THE TIRE. Literally about 10 minutes after all this stupidity started, Kane finally appeared. Kane beat up Cena he who tried to make the save, and then Kane chokeslammed Ryder off the loading dock onto a poorly staged gimmicked landing area.
The next week, despite being injured, Ryder was forced to defend his United States Title against Jack Swagger. Despite being injured and getting basically no offense in the match, for whatever reason, it took Swagger to hit 3 Doctorbombs to beat Ryder clean in the middle of the ring. Cena was furious backstage with John Laurinaitis for putting this match on while Ryder was injured. Laurinaitis made a match for later in the show for Cena to take on Jack Swagger. Swagger, the new United States Champion, was absolutely buried by John Cena in a match that never actually happened. Cena destroyed Swagger outside of the ring, repeatedly ramming him into the ring steps and beating him down. Kane appeared on the Titantron laughing as Cena was finally beginning to "EMBRACE THE HATE".
Finally, things were capped off on this past Monday's go home Raw. Cena came out and demanded a match ON RAW against Kane and then would face him again at The Rumble. Laurinaitis came out and said no. Kane would face Zack Ryder tonight, and if Cena got involved, Ryder would never get another United States Title match. Cena tried to reason with Ryder backstage, but Ryder told him to stay out of his business. What took place next was one of the most boring extended squash matches ever. Kane just destroyed Ryder all over the arena for well over 10 minutes. Things finally concluded when Kane chokeslammed Ryder on the entrance stage on a gimmicked spot that gave way, so Ryder was chokeslammed to the floor through the metal stage (this looked 10x worse than the chokeslam spot off the loading dock from two weeks earlier). Cena and Eve came out and did some horrible acting selling Ryder's injury. Ryder was taking out on a stretcher. Cena tried to get in the ambulance, but Eve told him it was all Cena's fault and to leave them alone. Cena stared into the camera with a comedically bad "hateful" face. Outside of Cena and Kane, WWE has absolutely buried Ryder making him look like a complete coward and geek, and Eve is so unlikable, you would have to think they are going to turn them heel when they return.
So after all of that crap, we have Kane vs John Cena tonight. Cena continues to get worse in the ring, and we all know what to expect from Kane. This is not going to be a good match. I wouldn't be surprised to see them have some outside brawling in this one to fill some time because a straight singles match in the ring will bad. Kane has just been a filler program for Cena until The Rock comes back to build for WrestleMania, but The Rock isn't supposed to be on TV until after the next PPV, Elimination Chamber, later in February. Still, I would be shocked of Cena didn't go over clean tonight. There is no point in having him lose going into one of the biggest matches in WWE history.
Prediction: John Cena
The Big Show vs Daniel Bryan (c) vs Mark Henry - World Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage Match
If you would have told me two months ago that Daniel Bryan playing the heel would have actually worked with a face Big Show and tweener Mark Henry, I would have called you crazy. With the size differences, I would have said Bryan would have to play the lucky, sympathetic babyface against the two monsters, but Bryan has been the most awesome smaller heel we've seen in a while (probably since the heights of Punk's and Jericho's heel runs a few years back). Daniel Bryan plays the overly cocky, extremely arrogant heel and really has the crowds hating him. He's getting bigger reactions than he ever did as a face. WWE has had a strange deal of always trying to make Bryan look like a geek with women... first with Gail Kim, then The Bella Twins, but his latest relationship with AJ is really working great. Bryan has been an over-protective d*ck boyfriend. AJ recently told Bryan that she loved him, and he responded that he appreciated that. Awesome.
Three weeks ago, Bryan was having a match against The Big Show on Smackdown. Show was chasing Bryan outside of the ring when Show accidentally ran into the 95 pound AJ knocking her to the ground injuring her. AJ was stretchered out. Bryan berated Show, screaming at him, saying he injured AJ on purpose and calling him a bastard. Bryan cut a promo on Show the next week saying that saying that Show committed a sin. He said that Show's tears weren't tears of sorrow... they were crocodile tears. Bryan said Show injured AJ because he was bitter that Bryan cashed in MITB causing Show to have the shortest (45 seconds) World Heavyweight Championship run in history. Bryan said that AJ was the first girl that ever told him she loved him, and Bryan said "I have a great admiration for her as well." SO AWESOME. Bryan faced Mark Henry in a lumberjack match that night that turned into a no contest when all of the lumberjacks got involved. This lead to the creation of this match tonight, and making it inside of a steel cage.
Finally, on this past Friday's Smackdown, Show came out to apologize for what had happened to AJ. He said he couldn't control himself because of his size and went to the hospital to apologize to AJ. Bryan came out and said AJ was on so much medication that she didn't even remember Show coming to visit, but Bryan remembered everything that happened. Show snapped and threw Bryan across the ring. I really hope that when AJ returns, she turns heel and joins Bryan because they could be an awesome heel combo. AJ's overly energetic, spunky personality makes her a perfect heel. Anyway, the main event of the show was Big Show and Mark Henry. Bryan was at ringside. Show and Henry wrestled briefly, and then Show hit the Knockout Punch knocking Henry out of the ring. As Show went outside, Bryan attacked him with a steel chair laying him out.
Mark Henry has been working injured for two months now. He has had an injured groin, and this was the reason he dropped the title to The Big Show at TLC, and then Bryan cashed in MITB to win the title that same night. The original plan was for Henry to hold the title all the way through WrestleMania where he would face Randy Orton. Henry has attempted to work through the injury, but in doing so, he has now also injured his knee. Henry has been held off house shows, and while he will wrestle tonight, he may be very limited. I had assumed Henry would win back the title tonight to build to the originally planned match of Henry vs Orton since Henry got so many clean wins over Orton in 2011. However, if the groin and knee injuries are severe enough, it may not make sense to put the title back on Henry. With The Big Show already scheduled to face Shaq at WrestleMania, I think a Daniel Bryan vs Randy Orton program could work really well (assuming they don't treat Bryan the same way they treated Christian last year). With it being a cage match, neither Show or Henry have to lose cleanly, and Bryan came sneak out to get a "lucky" win over the two giants.
Prediction: Daniel Bryan - Retains World Heavyweight Championship
CM Punk (c) vs Dolph Ziggler - WWE Championship Match with John Laurinaitis as Special Guest Referee
This program started when Ziggler earned the right to face Punk on the first Raw of 2012. The two had a back and forth match. The turnbuckle pad came off. Laurinaitis came out. Punk got Ziggler in the Anaconda Vice and Ziggler tapped out, but Laurinaitis had the referee distracted to fix the turnbuckle pad. With Laurinaitis on the ring apron, Ziggler threw Punk at him, but Laurinaitis ducked, and Punk fell over the top rope. For whatever reason, this bump was bad enough for Punk to not be able to answer the 10 count and he was counted out. Ziggler celebrated with the WWE Title despite the title not changing due to a countout. Since Ziggler defeated Punk, Laurinaitis made a rematch at The Royal Rumble with himself as the special guest referee.
The build for this match has been good, but the problem is the main focus has been on Punk and Laurinaitis rather than Punk and Ziggler. Ziggler has repeatedly beaten Punk week after week either with some type of fluke win or in tag matches. It would mean much more if wins and losses actually mattered in WWE, but they have killed the meaning of actual match results so long ago, that even with 4-5 straight victories over Punk, I'm still not sure that anyone takes Ziggler as a real threat to Punk's title.
The real focus has been on Punk's problems with Big Johnny, John Laurinaitis. With Laurinaitis being the special guest referee, the focus was on how would Laurinaitis screw Punk out of the title. This culminated two weeks ago when Punk cut a great promo to close Raw, basically saying Laurinaitis was never anything as a wrestler, so now he's just a business suit suck up bossing people around to try and feel powerful. Laurinaitis finally snapped and said damn right he was going to screw Punk at The Royal Rumble. Traditional, sensible booking would say that this would all lead to Punk vs Laurinaitis on PPV. Well, it did lead to the match, but the problem was it happened this past Monday on Raw with no build. Well, the match never actually happened, but WWE gave away the money spot on free TV with Punk hitting the GTS on Laurinaitis. You can't make this stuff up. After the GTS, Ziggler attacked Punk from behind to end the show.
Plus, prior to getting laid out with the GTS Laurinaitis's main concern was that his job as Interim Raw General Manager was under review. HHH would be returning tomorrow night on Raw to have an in person review of Laurinaitis's performance. I still don't understand HHH's role at all. He was relieved of his duties as on air Raw COO, but he still has power and makes all the decisions. Plus, it was Vince McMahon who relieved HHH of his duties, when it was previously HHH who took Vince's position. I have no idea. Anyway, the go home show of Raw was used to build toward an angle on Raw rather than the match on the PPV. This is straight out of TNA.
The Punk and Ziggler match should be very good. These two have a great chemistry, and this is Ziggler's biggest opportunity to date to really shine. Ziggler should be a major player in WWE by the end of 2012. Of course, we've said that about a lot of young, promising talents, and WWE has proceeded to completely crap the bed with those opportunities. Obviously, Laurinaitis is going to play some role in this match, but I'm hoping it isn't too overbooked. They could go with Laurinaitis screwing Punk and Ziggler winning the title. But I can't see Ziggler in a title match at Mania, so at some point, he would have to drop the title back to Punk in the next month. That doesn't help anyway, so I'm just going to say that somehow Punk retains the title tonight in a very good match.
Prediction: CM Punk - Retains WWE Championship
The Royal Rumble Match
After going to 40 entrants last year, WWE has returned to the traditional 30 entrant format. However, WWE has only bothered to officially announce 10 of the 30 entrants. They are:
The Miz (enters #1)
R-Truth
Sheamus
Wade Barrett
Cody Rhodes
Chris Jericho
Mick Foley
Randy Orton
Jinder Mahal
Santino
I know there is some benefit of having the element of surprise with entrants, but when you have this many unknowns, it takes away from the interest. It is much more fun to announce 25 entrants, and then leave it to fans to guess who the final 5 entrants will be. Granted, we can probably guess who at least another dozen entrants will be from the current WWE roster, and we know that Road Dogg, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, and Eugene are likely surprise entrants (Road Warrior Animal did not come to terms to return), it would still be much better to have more guys officially announced ahead of time. I have been watching some of the old Rumbles, and seeing guys cut promos leading to the match about how important winning the Rumble is, not only does it get the match over, but it also makes you feel like there are a lot of guys with legitimate chances to win. But WWE has chosen not to do that, so we just have to deal with what WWE has presented to us.
WWE has pushed (although not that strongly) that ANYONE on the WWE roster is eligible for The Rumble Match. This is supposed to play a role. Will it mean guys who lost in earlier matches on the show return in The Rumble? I would say that is very possible. Does it mean that non-wrestling characters like John Laurinaitis or Michael Cole are in The Rumble? I wouldn't expect Cole, but there are a lot of rumors going around that WWE believes the Rumble Match may be too predictable this year, and they want to swerve the fans with Laurinaitis winning it. This would be a huge mistake, terrible for business, and just doing a swerve for the sake of swerve, much like Vince Russo would do. I'm praying things don't play out this way. You would think Vince would have learned by now. Just because something is expected doesn't mean it is a bad thing. People expected Rashad Evans and Chael Sonnen to win last night on UFC on Fox. They both did, the show still did a good rating, and now it sets up two huge money matches later this year.
Since WWE hasn't given us the official list of entrants, I'm going to breakdown the entire WWE roster and some potential surprises.
NO CHANCE OF WINNING:
Alex Riley
Booker T
Brodus Clay - He may get the monster role this year with multiple eliminations since there isn't anyone else to fill the spot unless Show, Henry, or Kane work double duty.
Curt Hawkins
David Otunga
Drew McIntyre
Epico
Ezekiel Jackson
Goldust
Heath Slater
Hunico
Jack Swagger
Jey Uso
Jimmy Uso
Jinder Mahal
Johnny Curtis
JTG
Justin Gabriel
Kofi Kingston
Mason Ryan - Reports are WWE may want to push him again, so he may get a run of eliminations as well.
Michael McGillicutty
Primo
R-Truth
Santino Marella
Ted Dibiase
Trent Barreta
Tyler Reks
Tyson Kidd
William Regal
Yoshi Tatsu
Zack Ryder
Wow, it really says something about your roster when this many guys have NO chance of winning, not even an outside shot. WWE has done a terrible job of building stars.
SUPER LONGSHOTS
Alberto Del Rio - Not sure of his injury status, but he may return tonight.
The Big Show - Could work double duty. Still don't see him winning since he has his match with Shaq at Mania.
Christian - He is expected to be a surprise return tonight. Can't see him winning though.
Cody Rhodes - Don't think it is his time yet, but should get a good run.
Dolph Ziggler - If he doesn't win the title against Punk, I'd be very surprised to see him come back and win the Rumble.
Kane - I think he may work double duty tonight. But realistically, Kane's not challenging for a title at Mania.
Mark Henry - I would rank him higher if he wasn't injured. But if he wasn't injured, I would also predict he would win the title tonight.
Vince McMahon - I'll never rule out the possibility.
The Miz - He has been buried worse than anyone in the past 3 months. He's entering #1. I think he'll have a lengthy run, but I don't see him winning.
OUTSIDE CHANCES
Daniel Bryan - If he loses the title earlier in the show, it could make sense for him to come back and win the Rumble.
John Laurinaitis - Like I said, it has been thought about. Hopefully this idea if trashed and better plans are put in place.
Sheamus - He has been pushed as a top babyface recently, but I think it might be a year too early for him to win The Rumble. Of course, with so many other big matches at Mania, a title match is realistically the 4th biggest match on the card, so it could work.
Wade Barrett - He's really coming into his own as a top heel in the company. He has a great presence and is great on the mic. My same reasoning as Sheamus also applies to Barrett.
The Undertaker - I don't think he'll be back tonight, but you never know.
GOOD BETS
CM Punk - If he gets screwed out of the title earlier in the show by Laurinaitis, he could come back in the Rumble, win it, and get back his shot at the title.
John Cena - Hey, he's Superman. He's always a good possibility to win any main event.
HHH - He could win it, and since he's above any of the titles, he could use the win as a reason to challenge The Undertaker at Mania again.
The Rock - If WWE wants a surprise, this could be it. However, it makes no sense storyline-wise, or to have The Rock on PPV without advertising him.
BEST BETS
Randy Orton - Orton has been the penciled in winner for six months now. The show is in his home town of St. Louis. Orton jobbed repeatedly, which by WWE booking methods, this means he's due for a huge push. Plus, it makes sense for a Orton/Henry or Orton/Bryan match at Mania. With Orton coming off the herniated disc in his back, The Rumble is a good match for him to return because he doesn't have to do a whole lot to get the win.
Chris Jericho - Jericho is the chalk pick, but he's my pick to win The Rumble. It just makes sense. Since his return on January 2nd, his presence each week on Raw has been strange to say the least. Jericho has not wrestled, and had not said a word until this past Monday where he said at The Royal Rumble, it would be the end of the world as we know it. What does this mean? Will the creepy vignette videos that lead up to Jericho's return finally begin to make sense? Will we find out who "She" is? There has been a lot of talk of Jericho possibly coming out at #30, and prior to this, everyone will have been eliminated, so Jericho will win by default. I don't see this scenario. I think Jericho does come out at 30, but wins the match in traditional format.
Prediction: Chris Jericho
So there we go. Definitely not a well booked PPV leading into the show, but it is pretty difficult to not get excited for The Royal Rumble. I'm looking forward to the show. Hopefully we're not let down as we begin the Road to WrestleMania.
