Rolling Through Royal Rumbles

[Jacob Fox]

I am still working on this. Wrestlemania kind of threw a lot of things on the back burner. Will get a new one up tomorrow. I am definitely going to get every Rumble match ever.. including the TV one and Greatest one

 

[Jacob Fox]

I will keep this going until I get the whole thing done. I just had to watch a shit ton of matches for the Greatest Match of 1990 (which was fucking awesome)

 

[Jacob Fox]

Sorry for the lay off. Been watching a lot of other wrestling for the Best of Year matches. But I am going to go through all of the Rumbles too.

So now we have one of my least favorite Rumbles, the 2009 Royal Rumble. During this time, I really wasn't watching WWE. I was fully into TNA and indies at the time. I don't recall if I watched this one whem it first aired or not. But if I did, I didn't remember it at all.

Winner: 5/10

I am not a Randy Orton fan and I never have been. Everyone sings his praises, but he seems extremely overrated to me. I wasn't thrilled at all to see him when and it felt sort of ho hum to me. I understand that many people like him and that is fine. He is just not my cup of tea and this win meant little to me.

Match:: 4/10

I just found this Rumble to be very boring. I phased out several times during the match. I wasn't entertained like I usually am by the Rumbles. The ring action was very generic and there were very few interesting or surprising spots.

Surprises: 8/10

This was the best part of this Rumble. The surprise entrants were Rob Van Dam and Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Both came in to huge ovations. The crowd was wild over them both. And both of them dominated the ring for a while after they entered.

It was cool to see Duggan dominate when he got into the ring. All of the wreslters sold him well which I think shows the respect they had for him. It was a good moment even though I was never a huge fan.

Other than the surprise entrants, there was not a lot I liked about this Rumble. I am hoping I enjoy 2010 better.

 

[Jacob Fox]

2010 Royal Rumble

This was at a time when I wasn't really watching WWE. I was more into indies at the time and Ring of Honor. I actually think I may have never watched it before.

Okay one of the best things about the 2010 Royal Rumble was of course Beth Phoenix eliminating the Great Khali. That was so fun and I almost want to give them an extra point just for that.

Oh course I liked the early CM Punk dominance. It was interesting though that Punk only oversold HHH's moves. I wonder if that was deliberate.

Match: 6/10

Love the CM Punk dominance and like I mentioned Beth Phoenix. There were some slow parts though after number 10, but that is normal for a Rumble. I have to admit I liked John Cena coming in when it looked like HBK and HHH were going to fight. I have come to appreciate John now more than I did back then.

The Shawn Michaels needing to win to face the Undertaker was a fun story and it really added to the story of this Rumble. This was after I met Michaels and found him to be an insufferable jerk. But his talent as a wrestler is undeniable. I mean, we knew that he would face Taker again despite losing. The referee attacks were a low point for him and I understand they did it to show his frustration, but it probably was a bad idea.

R Truth eliminating Big Show and Mark Henry was great. Truth is so awesome to watch, he has so much charisma.

Still, this match had a lot of slow parts and a lot of unexciting entrants. I wasn't drawn into the whole thing.

Winner: 10/10

Edge being the surprise entrant after his injury and then winning the Rumble to go to Mania... and we all know he won the title and then had to retire. This was the most amazing story of the Rumble and he was the right man to win.

Surprises: 10/10

Edge might have been the only real surprise, but it was the best surprise they could do at the time. The crowd loved it and even I watching it 14 year later loved it. Coming back from a 14 month recovery in 8 months was great.

This might not be a Rumble I watch over and over though. It had great moments but bad ones too.

 

[Jacob Fox]

Royal Rumble 2011

I was trying to avoid this one as much as possible. I hate when they fuck with the format of the Rumble and doing 40 didn't really work here. Strange thing is that it worked for the Greatest Royal Rumble.



Winner:4/10

Alberto Del Rio.. I have never been a fan and I wasn't a fan of him winning the Royal Rumble over a lot more talented and interesting people. And it seems my opinion was shared by the very quiet crowd after he won.



Matcn: 6/10

John Morrison pulls a Kofi Kingston before Kofi began doing his amazing elimination escapes. Morrison did an amazing job. And seeing Bray Wyatt as Huskie Harris was kinda weird. No one knew the legend he would be in just a short time.

Of course the first half of the match was the CM Punk story, with the Nexus ruling the ring. Of course John cena comes in at 22 and eliminates all of Punk's team. I am more of a Punk fan than a Cena fan but I really liked that. I also have to admit the Cena and Hornswoggle team up was enjoyable.

It slowed down a bit but then got better until Del Rio won.


Surprise:10/10

The first is the Great Khali coming back and hurting the dominance of the New Nexus... well at least for a minute. He eliminated Harris but he was immediately replaced.

Booker T comes in as a surprise to face the Nexus was exciting. Too bad he didn't last too long.

Hornswoggle was fun to see. I used to know him when he was Short Stack. I was happy to see him in WWE even though they mostly needed him for comedy.

Kevin Nash returning as Diesel was a big surprise and good to see. It was also weird seeing him return to the gimmick rather than just being Nash but the crowd loved it.

So, CM Punk, John Cena and the surprises were great. But I just don't know why Del Rio was the winner... that and the bad choice of making it 40 entrants hurt this rumble in my opinion.

 

[Jacob Fox]

Ugh. I slacked on this because we have been watching so many matches for the Greatest Match of certain years threads. I will finish it before the next Rumble though!

 

[Jacob Fox]

My original goal was to get through all of these before this years Rumble so I am taking it back up. Watching 2012 now

 

[Jacob Fox]

Royal Rumble 2012

This one is pretty entertaining. There are some cool surprise moments which I really liked. Some of it was pretty dorky too, but it worked as entertainment. I think this was the first Rumble I watched when I soured on TNA and went back to WWE.

Winner: 6/10

Sheamus. My sister would probably kill me for this, but I wasn't very excited by the win. Plus, the following match at Mania was horrible. The followup does sour me a little on the whole thing.

Match: 7/10

Like I mentioned, the match is silly in parts but still enjoyable. Kofi did one of his famous escapes by doing a handstand to get in the ring. That wasn't silly, it was just awesome. If I am not mistaken, this Rumble was when he started doing those things.

Surprises: 10/10

Mick Foley wasn't terribly exciting because he can barely movie anymore. But it was fun to watch him and Santino do some silly things.

However, it was the three commentators entering the ring that was the most enjoyable. I especially liked how Cole talked down on Booker and Lawler for entering the match, only to enter itself right before my favorite female wrestler Kharma comes to the ring and Cole gets taken down by his other commentators. All of that was fun and enjoyable.

I didn't really care about Road Dogg. But still was a little fun

Overall, I regret taking so long to get to this Rumble. The 40 man Rumble turned me off of the Rumbles for a while. But this one is a complete turnaround and was really fun.

 

[Chris]

I don't think this Rumble was the first time it happened but I think it was the first time I realized that with two titles Vince kept booking the wrong rumble winner bc the guy I thought should have won the rumble ended up getting the other world title shot anyway lol which just tells me they could have won and then the other guy could have got his shot the other way

 

[Jacob Fox]

I don't think this Rumble was the first time it happened but I think it was the first time I realized that with two titles Vince kept booking the wrong rumble winner bc the guy I thought should have won the rumble ended up getting the other world title shot anyway lol which just tells me they could have won and then the other guy could have got his shot the other way

Yeah it really had that feeling. I mean, Sheamus going on to have the first Mania match and winning in 18 seconds... They sort of just threw away the whole thing.

Vince probably wanted a babyface win for the Rumble... I dunno. I agree Jericho should have won

 

[Chris]

Yeah it really had that feeling. I mean, Sheamus going on to have the first Mania match and winning in 18 seconds... They sort of just threw away the whole thing.

Vince probably wanted a babyface win for the Rumble... I dunno. I agree Jericho should have won

I think most years I'd have been fine with Sheamus going over, young guy over old guy ya know. But that Jericho angle needed juice and losing the rumble made it worse

 

[Jacob Fox]

I think most years I'd have been fine with Sheamus going over, young guy over old guy ya know. But that Jericho angle needed juice and losing the rumble made it worse

Coming in at 29 didnt help either.