WWE Royal Rumble 2011 Review
Royal Rumble
January 30, 2011
My first event/review since upgrading my Roku 1 to an Amazon Fire Stick. There’s chapter marks on the Fire Stick. CHAPTER MARKS!
Edge © vs Dolph Ziggler w/Vickie Guerrero- World Heavyweight Title
Smackdown GM, Vickie Guerrero, has banned the spear for this match, giving the unfair advantage to her boyfriend, Ziggler. Dolph earned this title shot by winning a four-way over The Big Show, Drew McIntyre, and Cody Rhodes, the same night that he lost his IC Title to Kofi Kingston. Since then, Ziggler has lost to Randy Orton and Rated RKO in a tag match with The Miz. While I applaud the WWE for creating a new PPV Title challenger, couldn’t they have done a better job in building Ziggler up? The main story here is that since Edge can’t use the spear, mentally he’s not all the way there, allowing Ziggler to control the majority of the match. Once Edge gets his head straighten out, he has to resort to using some of his old moves like the Education and Educator submission hold. The commentators failed to pick up on this and I wished Edge would have went further with it, even dusting off the old Downward Spiral. That sort of story would be pretty fresh. I’m not sure why it is, but the crowd gets more and more into the match the longer it goes on. It begins to feel like a major title match rather than what it really is - a filler title program for Edge. For his part, Ziggler did well, performing well enough that he looked as if he belonged out there rather than being kept with the other midcard geeks. I did feel as if the match got a bit out of hand in terms of the Sports Entertainment. Vickie interfered until Kelly Kelly ran out to attack her. I have very vague memories of some sort of issue between the two at the time. There’s a ref bump. Once Edge realizes that both Guerrero and the referee are out, he feels comfortable in hitting the spear successfully. That’s followed up with Christian’s Unprettier to get the pinfall once the referee wakes up. The odd thing is that just a couple of weeks later, Vickie would strip Edge of the WHT after catching him hitting a spear in another match where it’s barred, so why was this usage allowed? Are we supposed to believe Vickie never found out the truth? This entire program between Edge/Ziggler ended up being way overbooked rather than just being designed as a filler feud for Edge and a means for Ziggler to look good, in defeat, against an established main eventer. The match was pretty good considering how one sided it all was, but it does suffer from knowing what happens in the future. *** ¼
The Miz © w/Alex Riley vs Randy Orton - WWE World Title
A rematch from when Miz cashed in his Money in the Bank contract to win his first and only World Title from Orton back in late 2010. Since winning the belt, The Miz retained the title by fluke in a tables match against Orton at TLC 2010 and spent time feuding with color commentator, Jerry Lawler. The fact that John Morrison was being deprived of a proper PPV title match around this time period really sucks. Sadly, this is during the time period where Michael Cole is an insufferable Miz mark. This match went twenty minutes and it’s a whole lot of nothing. Miz killed a lot of time with various rest holds like Orton’s own chin lock. Riley is there to interfere or distract Orton when he can. I’m pretty bored throughout nearly all of the match though. Give it up to the Boston crowd though, they tried reacting as if this match mattered. It’s not until the finishing stretch that I finally care about something. The New Nexus, minus CM Punk, comes out, prompting the referee to go to the outside to prevent them from interfering. Riley jumps into the ring, but before he can attack Orton, Orton spots him and there’s a huge bump with Riley thrown over the top rope and crashing onto the New Nexus. Somehow, there’s a referee bump despite no one actually touching him. Back in the ring, Orton counters a Skull Crushing Finale into a RKO, but CM Punk runs into the ring to lay Orton out with the G2S and pulls Miz on top of Orton to give Miz the easy victory. Just a very unremarkable match that dragged on until the run-in finish. Again, Morrison was robbed out of receiving a PPV Title match here. **
Natalya © vs Michelle McCool vs Layla vs Eve - WWE Divas Title
This was originally announced to be an handicap match with Natalya vs LayCool, but since Smackdown GM, Teddy Long, is AWOL, the Anonymous Raw GM chimed in to change the match to a fatal four-way with Eve. I have absolutely no clue why Eve was inserted into this match. She’s barely wrestled on TV at this point, often losing too. Meanwhile, Beth Phoenix, who teamed with Natalya to beat LayCool at TLC 2010, scored singles pinfalls against Michelle and Layla earlier in the month on Smackdown. Whatever. This wasn’t good, no surprise there. The worst part hands down was when Eve and Natalya were on the outside and there was a long teasing spot between Michelle and Layla. Whether than do...anything, they just stand there, looking at each other. And looking. And looking. Do something! Anything! First, I don’t buy the idea that they wouldn’t be cool with one of them volunteering to lay down for the other. After all, this was the team that cut a title in half so that they could both have a piece. If that’s not an option, how about rush to the outside to throw one of the other women back into the ring to quickly double team her and try to get the victory with the fourth woman is still hurt on the outside? Hell, even fighting was an option. Yet, they did nothing! Even when there is action, it’s not good. At one point, Natalya slapped on a double Sharpshooter on two of the girls, but it looked like shit. The finish sees Eve hitting a moonsault on Layla and covering for the three count while the referee fails to see Michelle rolling Natalya up for a three count of her own. Eve is your NEW WWE Divas Champion and apparently this is her second reign. Frankly, I have zero memory of either title reign.Her heel reign from a couple of years later at least was a bit memorable. Considering the fact that Eve would not even wrestle at Elimination Chamber or Wrestlemania 27 prior to losing the title before Extreme Rules 2011, I don’t understand why she won the belt in the first place. Bad match with even more questionable booking. ¾ *
40 Man Royal Rumble Match
Touted as “The Biggest Royal Rumble in History!” Despite the cute little overhyped name, it’s not a well booked match at all. In fact, I’d argue that unless you’re involved one of the few ideas actually thought up for the match, your presence in the match is going to be entirely forgettable. The signs of a poorly booked Rumble were shown from the very beginning as #1 was revealed to be New Nexus leader, CM Punk, and #2 was apparently a member of the newly created faction, The Corre. Since the Corre all came out, not being so quick to reveal which of them had actually drawn #2, Punk’s New Nexus ran out to make the save for their captain before the Anonymous Raw GM ordered everyone to return to the back except for Punk. It seems as if no one from The Corre had drawn #2, but that distinction instead went to Daniel Bryan. While that did set-up a fun IWC friendly first five, which also included #5 William Regal, the Corre vs New Nexus fight proved to be pretty pointless particularly when Justin Gabriel came out at #3 (Why wasn’t he just given #2?) to fight Punk, but was promptly thrown out after missing a 450 Splash. That tiny little interaction between Punk and Gabriel was all there was for official New Nexus vs Corre fighting in the 2011 Royal Rumble match. We were essentially promised a Royal Rumble 2005-like moment with the Corre and New Nexus battling it out, but it never happened. The rest of the first 15 entrants served the purpose of establishing the dominance of New Nexus after Punk is eventually joined by Husky Harris (#10), Michael McGillicutty (#13), and David Otunga (#15). New Nexus standing tall and eliminating everyone was the best story of the match despite John Morrison being the only one who managed to put in a good performance with his great near elimination as he jumped from the ring apron to the ring barrier, before jumping back to the steel steps, in a spot that’s not only great, but it feels less forced than Kofi Kingston’s later near eliminations in subsequent Royal Rumble matches. The highlight of the New Nexus being in control saw what looked like the beginning of the end as The Great Khali comes out at #19 and eliminates Harris, only for the newest member of the New Nexus, Mason Ryan, to come out next and immediately toss Khali, to bring New Nexus right back to full strength in a great tease.
It’s during the New Nexus’ dominance that we saw the first of two surprise participants in the form of Booker T (#21). Much like the later arrival of Diesel (#32), it feels really pointless as neither man were given much time to do anything. In the case of Diesel, he wasn’t even given the chance to deliver a single Jackknife. Booker T was nothing more than fodder to be quickly eliminated by New Nexus. It’s a waste. The entrance of John Cena (#22) brought on the end of New Nexus as he’d end up quickly eliminating the remaining members of New Nexus, including Punk. There’s two problems with this. First, if you’re going to have a 40 man Rumble, someone needs to be in the match for at least 30+ entrants, otherwise, the 40 number doesn’t mean anything. The eventual winner, Alberto Del Rio (#38), barely had anyone to interact with, causing this Rumble to not feel any different for Del Rio than had the Rumble only had 20, 30, or 40 men. The other problem stemming from Cena’s removal of New Nexus is that we went from one story of dominance immediately to the next story of dominance as Hornswoggle comes out next and strikes up a partnership with Cena. While it did create some fun spots, we literally just witnessed a group finding strength in numbers and now we’re having to see it again. The second half of the match isn’t nearly as good. A lot of the entrants didn’t serve any notable role. In a lot of cases, it’s just midcard geeks coming out like Jack Swagger, Kane, and the remaining members of The Corre, but it’s also part time main eventers like The Big Show, who comes in and don’t last long before they’re eliminated with little fanfare. If you’re not involved in the New Nexus or John Cena stories, there’s a very good chance that you’re going to be sent to the ring without any notable to do. It’s in the second half that we also see one of the bigger botches in Rumble history as Alex Riley falls out of the ring prematurely. Normally, a non-star like Riley wouldn’t matter much if he went out early, but his sole purpose of being in the match is to play a significant role in Cena’s elimination! They’re forced to call an audible to help set-up The Miz leaving the commentator’s table to toss Cena while Cena nailed Riley off of the apron. The final “Three” is extremely dull as it just comes down to Randy Orton, Del Rio, and Wade Barrett. Had there not been the surprise twist at the very end, this would have been one of the more underwhelming finales in Rumble history as Orton dumps Barrett, but Del Rio runs up behind and tosses Orton to apparently win the Rumble. That’s when it’s revealed that Santino is still legally in the match, despite being Brogue Kicked out of the ring, under the bottom rope, earlier. The excitement for Santino prepping the cobra behind Del Rio’s back was crazy. You really wanted to see a massive upset in the Rumble with Santino somehow being the winner. The tease is short lived after Santino hits the cobra and Del Rio counters a throw out attempt by Santino into a successful one himself to crown Del Rio as the winner of “The Biggest Royal Rumble in History!” where he won the epic prize of...losing in the opening match of Wrestlemania. Exciting. While there were a few really fun sequences with the IWC friendly start, New Nexus ruling, Cena/Hornswoggle partnership, and Santino’s tease victory, it’s otherwise a poorly booked match that loses interest in the second half, and some of the big moments (EG. Cena/Kofi stand off/pointing to the WM sign) failed at getting a reaction out of the crowd. If nothing else, Royal Rumble 2011 proves that quality > quantity when it comes to Rumble entrants. ** ½
Overall
The Road to Wrestlemania 27 kicks off with a fairly disappointing Royal Rumble PPV. The booking, in general, at this point in time was really weird and nonsensical at times. The Edge/Ziggler bouts could produce good matches, but at times, including tonight, the booking made it far more convoluted than it needed to be. As I said, it’s a filler feud for Edge as he preps for Alberto Del Rio. Just have some normal matches with Ziggler, letting Dolph look good in defeat, and you’d have a successful program. The WWE Title match was the opposite of what The Miz needed to look credible as a new World Champion. The Miz ended up having a really good Raw match against John Morrison in January 2011, why we didn’t get that match here, I’ll never know. This WWE Title match only served the purpose of kicking off a Punk/Orton program, stemming from Punk being upset that Orton injured him...in 2008. The Divas Title match makes even less booking sense. Eve wasn’t doing anything before this PPV and she still wouldn’t afterward. The Royal Rumble match was all about quantity over quality. The additional ten superstars in the match didn’t help things at all, with very few wrestlers actually contributing anything of value to the entire match. In what was supposed to be the biggest Rumble ever, Del Rio’s win resulted in Del Rio losing in the opening match at Wrestlemania 27. With how poorly the company is being written at this point, I’m left wondering if there’s been some major shakeups creatively around now to account for these poor decisions that often go nowhere. Unless you’re a massive Kevin Nash fan, you can get away with only watching the Ziggler/Edge match.
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Originally Posted by Creeping Death
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