So, even though I was initially only considering watching Rock/Punk if I heard enough praise, you guys with the amount of praise the PPV was a whole gotten, have managed to convince me to watch every match. And hey, even the polarizing views on certain matches or on the PPV as a whole gave me even more incentive to watch. Now, since I'm not conceited enough to think my own opinion warrants it's own thread like several other seems to do, I'll just express them here.
For the record, the results did factor into my ratings. I didn't bring any of them up in my review because the only I could have made my feeling on the results leading up to the event any more obvious is if I changed my username to "Rumble Results Suck". Of course I can't do that because just like in real life, I'm broke. Love that this site has a feature to remind me of that by the way.
Royal Rumble Review
World Heavyweight Championship
Over the years of frequenting wrestling boards, I'm currently on three, I began to notice certain differences in me in comparison to the majority on the IWC. One in particular however stands out to me. That is, my first impression of someone, typically is my last impression of someone. It's a rarity than any wrestler manages to change my opinion on them by any significant margin. For example, Mark Henry during his Hall Of Pain push was still just Mark Henry. He didn't suddenly get better in the ring or anything like that, yet a lot of people (I don't know on here) were jumping on his bandwagon due to the fact that WWE started booking him as a threat. WWE doesn't have the much influence over who I like, I guess.
Where am I going with this seemingly random tangent? I've started to notice a lot of people's opinion on Alberto Del Rip start to change after his recent face turn but I have to say I'm not one of them. My original opinion on Del Rio was that he was dull as hell on the mic (almost put me to sleep, not an exaggeration), and incredibly average in the ring with the exception of one move, his enzuigiri. The only thing that's changed is I don't think he's horribly boring on the mic as a face. Wouldn't call him good either.
However his face turn hasn't improved his in-ring work, even with incorporating more high-flying moves. Like the flying seated senton he did on Big Show, only one of his leg landed where it's suppose to and the other landed on his chest. Yeah, it's an incredibly minor botch that doesn't really take much of anything away from the match, but it's stuff like that that keeps my original opinion staying strong. There's more to it than that but I want to actually talk about the match now. It was, okay. There was some really neat spots, the table crash of the set piece was my favorite. Of the entire night. Didn't care for the finish, and honestly as a feud ending (granted Show and Del Rio are guarantees for the Smackdown Chamber) I felt the announce table finish they did on Smackdown would've made more sense, and they could do the tape one on that Smackdown. Show was calling the table finish a travesty, which I didn't buy from logical standpoint but the tape finish certainly would've made his case.
Match Rating: 7/10
Tag Team Titles
Honestly, there's not much to talk about here. The most notably thing was this was the only result that I wasn't one hundred percent convinced was happening. It was an average tag match.
Match Rating: 5/10
The Royal Rumble
I'm going to do this in list form . . .
I. Dolph and Jericho were awesome. Nobody else stood out to me, at least in a positive manner.
II. Kofi Kingston's spot started off pretty good with using Tensai but it quickly turned into drawn out crap. One of the best qualities of Kingston's spot last year and Morrison's the year before was that they took a few seconds, not five minutes.
IV. This is my second viewing of Bo Dallas and this guy is impressive. Not many people can last twenty plus minutes in the Rumble, eliminate the Intercontinental Champion, and still fail to make any kind of impression.
V. Small nitpick but it really irritates me when champions don't bring their belts with them.
VI. The Team Hell No spot was stupid. Slightly enjoyed it just for Kane's reaction after Bryan looked surprised when he dropped me but besides that it was a bit irritating. These guys are starting to lose their appeal for me.
VII. Goldust's return was great, Godfather's sucked but I'm glad it was brief.
VIII. A lot of the match was filled with nothing, but it went by quickly for me and I didn't particularly dislike watching it up until final three.
IX. Sheamus yelled "FELLLAAAA!!!" before going for the Brogue Kick. Is that something he's been doing? Using "fella", as a battle cry? Either way, that is both incredibly stupid and lame.
X. Last year's Rumble was saved by a phenomenal final two between Sheamus & Jericho. This year, calling the final two confrontation sub-par would be stretching it.
Match Rating: 4/10
Punk vs. Rock
Maybe it's just me but there was no big match feel for me. If that kind of atmosphere was created from this match then maybe I'd be more lenient on this but it wasn't a good match. It had good parts though, like Punk countering the Rock Bottom into an crucifix pin was great and a few others but it also had a lot of problems. Botch-wise definitely. The table spot obviously, Rock forgetting to lift his legs when Punk was doing the suplex drop on the barricade, and a few very minor ones that aren't worth bringing up. I have some problems with the psychology of the match. Granted it came from a botch but Punk not targeting Rock's knee once after he clearly hurt it doesn't make the most sense. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Punk continuing to sell the knee injury after Rock stopped focusing on it. He's normally great about that but I think he only sold it for a portion then stopped. Might be wrong because the finish was atrocious.
First of all, I don't care for the whole false finish crap but what I'm talking about is the implications that this will have on the product going forward in concerns to The Shield. The Shield are definitely aligned with Punk/Heyman now. Possibly just Heyman, I actually think if they are aligning Shield with them it be best to eliminate Punk from the equation. I mean, Punk's character seems to be one suffering of delusions of grandeur due to his success, while Heyman is more grounded in reality. Either way, I haven't checked the Raw results yet, but I'm willing to bet that their is some kind of development in that direction.
I guess it really was too much to ask to have The Shield truly be an independent force only listening to each other and their sense of justice which just happens to conflict with the faces all the time. But even ignoring that, this kind of finish just doesn't interest me as it takes up valuable time that could be used for a match and the ending result always comes too quickly after the restart. Also, The People's Elbow is not, and will never be a convincing finisher move in my opinion. It's the equivalent of John Cena finishing someone off with the five star knuckle shuffle, it looks bad, don't do it.
Match Rating: 3.5/10
Show Rating: 4.9/10
World Heavyweight Championship
Over the years of frequenting wrestling boards, I'm currently on three, I began to notice certain differences in me in comparison to the majority on the IWC. One in particular however stands out to me. That is, my first impression of someone, typically is my last impression of someone. It's a rarity than any wrestler manages to change my opinion on them by any significant margin. For example, Mark Henry during his Hall Of Pain push was still just Mark Henry. He didn't suddenly get better in the ring or anything like that, yet a lot of people (I don't know on here) were jumping on his bandwagon due to the fact that WWE started booking him as a threat. WWE doesn't have the much influence over who I like, I guess.
Where am I going with this seemingly random tangent? I've started to notice a lot of people's opinion on Alberto Del Rip start to change after his recent face turn but I have to say I'm not one of them. My original opinion on Del Rio was that he was dull as hell on the mic (almost put me to sleep, not an exaggeration), and incredibly average in the ring with the exception of one move, his enzuigiri. The only thing that's changed is I don't think he's horribly boring on the mic as a face. Wouldn't call him good either.
However his face turn hasn't improved his in-ring work, even with incorporating more high-flying moves. Like the flying seated senton he did on Big Show, only one of his leg landed where it's suppose to and the other landed on his chest. Yeah, it's an incredibly minor botch that doesn't really take much of anything away from the match, but it's stuff like that that keeps my original opinion staying strong. There's more to it than that but I want to actually talk about the match now. It was, okay. There was some really neat spots, the table crash of the set piece was my favorite. Of the entire night. Didn't care for the finish, and honestly as a feud ending (granted Show and Del Rio are guarantees for the Smackdown Chamber) I felt the announce table finish they did on Smackdown would've made more sense, and they could do the tape one on that Smackdown. Show was calling the table finish a travesty, which I didn't buy from logical standpoint but the tape finish certainly would've made his case.
Match Rating: 7/10
Tag Team Titles
Honestly, there's not much to talk about here. The most notably thing was this was the only result that I wasn't one hundred percent convinced was happening. It was an average tag match.
Match Rating: 5/10
The Royal Rumble
I'm going to do this in list form . . .
I. Dolph and Jericho were awesome. Nobody else stood out to me, at least in a positive manner.
II. Kofi Kingston's spot started off pretty good with using Tensai but it quickly turned into drawn out crap. One of the best qualities of Kingston's spot last year and Morrison's the year before was that they took a few seconds, not five minutes.
IV. This is my second viewing of Bo Dallas and this guy is impressive. Not many people can last twenty plus minutes in the Rumble, eliminate the Intercontinental Champion, and still fail to make any kind of impression.
V. Small nitpick but it really irritates me when champions don't bring their belts with them.
VI. The Team Hell No spot was stupid. Slightly enjoyed it just for Kane's reaction after Bryan looked surprised when he dropped me but besides that it was a bit irritating. These guys are starting to lose their appeal for me.
VII. Goldust's return was great, Godfather's sucked but I'm glad it was brief.
VIII. A lot of the match was filled with nothing, but it went by quickly for me and I didn't particularly dislike watching it up until final three.
IX. Sheamus yelled "FELLLAAAA!!!" before going for the Brogue Kick. Is that something he's been doing? Using "fella", as a battle cry? Either way, that is both incredibly stupid and lame.
X. Last year's Rumble was saved by a phenomenal final two between Sheamus & Jericho. This year, calling the final two confrontation sub-par would be stretching it.
Match Rating: 4/10
Punk vs. Rock
Maybe it's just me but there was no big match feel for me. If that kind of atmosphere was created from this match then maybe I'd be more lenient on this but it wasn't a good match. It had good parts though, like Punk countering the Rock Bottom into an crucifix pin was great and a few others but it also had a lot of problems. Botch-wise definitely. The table spot obviously, Rock forgetting to lift his legs when Punk was doing the suplex drop on the barricade, and a few very minor ones that aren't worth bringing up. I have some problems with the psychology of the match. Granted it came from a botch but Punk not targeting Rock's knee once after he clearly hurt it doesn't make the most sense. I could be wrong, but I don't recall Punk continuing to sell the knee injury after Rock stopped focusing on it. He's normally great about that but I think he only sold it for a portion then stopped. Might be wrong because the finish was atrocious.
First of all, I don't care for the whole false finish crap but what I'm talking about is the implications that this will have on the product going forward in concerns to The Shield. The Shield are definitely aligned with Punk/Heyman now. Possibly just Heyman, I actually think if they are aligning Shield with them it be best to eliminate Punk from the equation. I mean, Punk's character seems to be one suffering of delusions of grandeur due to his success, while Heyman is more grounded in reality. Either way, I haven't checked the Raw results yet, but I'm willing to bet that their is some kind of development in that direction.
I guess it really was too much to ask to have The Shield truly be an independent force only listening to each other and their sense of justice which just happens to conflict with the faces all the time. But even ignoring that, this kind of finish just doesn't interest me as it takes up valuable time that could be used for a match and the ending result always comes too quickly after the restart. Also, The People's Elbow is not, and will never be a convincing finisher move in my opinion. It's the equivalent of John Cena finishing someone off with the five star knuckle shuffle, it looks bad, don't do it.
Match Rating: 3.5/10
Show Rating: 4.9/10
For the record, the results did factor into my ratings. I didn't bring any of them up in my review because the only I could have made my feeling on the results leading up to the event any more obvious is if I changed my username to "Rumble Results Suck". Of course I can't do that because just like in real life, I'm broke. Love that this site has a feature to remind me of that by the way.