What many consider a legendary title reign is completely over. I am baffled over yesterdays Royal Rumble, especially since Punk was used to set up twice in a lifetime. For fuck sakes WWE could have given Punk a more gracious ending. Yes its cool, The Rock has become champion, he’s very entertaining, but I felt Vince or whoever is in control of the book buried the greatest champion in recent years. Yes I called Punk the greatest champion in recent years. The crappy part is Punk doesn’t sell tickets to the masses, But Punk fans aren’t Punk fans the way Rock sells tickets to his “millions”.
What was the point of 434 days? Was it for Rocky to hold the title for three months then drop it to Cena and leave again? I was in a room full of people and said well Punk’s donzo since Cena won the rumble.
The outcome didn’t piss me off. EVERYONE knew this was going to happen. SO there was no shock Punk lost, all roads lead too “Once” in a Lifetime…TWO.
With Royal Rumble an hour away I wanted to share my favorite/best booked Rumbles of all time. We will never see another Royal Rumble like this ever again. We all know the winner gets a title shot at WrestleMania, but in 1992, things were a bit different. The winner would be crowned champion. The WWF Title was held up and vacant due to controversy from the 1991 Survivor Series between Undertaker, Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.
In my opinion this is the greatest Royal Rumble of all time. For one the roster for this rumble was Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sid Justice, Randy Savage, Sgt.Slaughter, Roddy Pipper, Rick Martel and Kerry Von Eric just to name a few. Heenan and Monsoon were amazing on this commentary, they did a fantastic job putting Flair over. The back and fourth between Gorilla and Bobby was high energy and extremely entertaining for over an hour. The unfair to Flair still makes giggle.
Flair’s performance was remarkable, as he entered the match at number three of thirty and wrestled for an hour. Slick Ric always referred to himself as the 60 minute man. Ric Flair winning the Rumble at number three really says a lot. Flair was the first non-Vince guy to win the WWF championship. How can somebody say this isnt the greatest rumble of all time?
The ending was always awkward but worked. The final four were Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Sid Justice and Randy Savage. Epic I know. Savage gets eliminated first. Hogan gets Flair over the top rope but Sid sneaks up and ELIMINATES Hogan! ShockingSid eliminates Hulk Hogan the cheers when Hogan got dumped out, makes me pop every time, fans finally got tired of his gimmick and tyrannical ”win-everything” behavior. Anyway Flair eliminates Sid Justice with outside assist from Hogan who for being the baby face looked like a sore loser. Bobby Heenan’s head explodes with joy and runs to the back to celebrate with Flair.
After the match a bunch of referees separate Hogan and Sid setting up the very boring main event for WrestleMania VIII. I didn’t like how Hogan spoiled Flairs moment, Flair never had the opportunity to celebrate in the ring. I had Flair as a guest on my radio show and asked about this. Flair said he never really thought about it because he was so over joyed being the WWF champion.
In the back WWF President Jack Tunney presents the WWF title to Ric Flair “Mean” Gene starts the interview and Flair is nothing but magic calling WWF Championship the only title in the world. Theres shit load of WOOOOO’s, Bobby Heenan and Mr. Perfect are money. I never understood why Mean Gene yells out put the cigarette out and has a disgusted look on his face.
Its been a FULL WEEK since Royal Rumble. I watched the pay-per-view a solid 5 times. After 5 viewing I was still think WTF, this sucks. How does a pay-per-view which sets the landscape for WrestleMania not be a home run?
Maybe I was just expecting more. You know what stellar work Money in the Back, SummerSlam and Survivor Series where. Royal Rumble should have been more of the same…Instead it was total shit. Some build up in certain areas, but for most of the PPV it had an Inception type sleep.
World Heavyweight Championship Triple Threat Steel Cage Match Daniel Bryan vs Big Show & Mark Henry: First match of the night is the Triple Threat Steel Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship. Daniel Bryan tried to escape the cage over the top, but Big Show gets a hold of Bryan, holding the entire weight of Bryan with one arm. Big Show finally looses his grip and D-Bryan drops to the floor to retain the World Heavyweight Championship.
I know its a tab early for the WrestleMania rumors but since the Rumble is this weekend Maina talk will be all the rage for the next several weeks.
Contrary to what has been previously reported, it appears that and are the two big matches currently being discussed. , fans have been expecting the tentative plan and while those plans have not been scrapped by any means, officials have discussed a creative shake-up.
Because of the IWC (Internet Wrestling Community) and its conspiracies and assumptions, rumors are circulating that we might see Triple H vs. CM Punk instead Chris Jericho vs. CM Punk at Mania. While is isn’t confirmed or denied the possible match might be scrapped. WWE is hip to the Internet game and as we know the WWE likes to shake shit up. So Chris Jericho vs The Undertaker might be a go.
If this does happen The Undertaker vs. Chris Jericho wouldn’t be a bad watch. Having Taker do a fresh WrestleMania match is way better than seeing the repeats like the last 3 WrestleMania’s.
Ok lets get in to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly of Monday Night RAW.
This is a special time in Wrestling. This time of year makes me turn into the 11 year old wrestling fan I once was. The story lines are actually decent in the World Wrestling Entrainment this time of year. The Royal Rumble starts the Wrestlemaina count down.
Here is one of my favorite moments from the Royal Rumble match it self. It features CM Punk cutting promos in the middle of doing work.
CM Punk’s role in the 2010 Royal Rumble was a genius… To my knowledge cutting a promo after every elimination was never done before. I thought this was brilliant, I wasn’t a CM Punk fan until this moment. Medina 420 & I were watching this saying ok CM Punk is the dude now.
This was when ALL not just wrestling fans but everyone drank the Stone Cold Steve Austin kool-aide. The set up weeks prior was done will.
This Rumble really changed the shape of the company. This was the night of HBK’s back injury against Undertaker in a casket match, that cost him 4 years of his career after his match at Wrestlemania 14. Rock & Austin really started to make there mark as the go to guys.
The Set up
The Finish
STONE COLD, STONE COLD, STONE COLD !!!!!!!! JR sold that shit
My Sunday has consisted of past rumbles. Here is IMO the best Rumble ever, flair made history, Gorilla Monsoon and Heenan might have called the best PPV of there broadcast careers.
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