The Royal Jumble-Pretty much another let down

Heres my take on the Royal Rumble 2008

So i really was looking forward to the royal rumble, i mean i do every year from the random spots that happen within the rumble, to who’s going to eliminate who this year. Will we actually get a suprise this year rather than the obvious winner? Well this year we did, and what a big disapointment that was. John freaking Cena winning the damm rumble! Now the reason i hate Cena is because when he’s around we get him shoved down our throat, whether it be as the unstoppable WWE champion, or the challenger that you knows going to get the title back within a month of losing it, if we and the new champ are lucky. It just gets really bland and boring like Triple H when he dominated everything, Cena is basically the new Triple H except this time the writers are at fault rather than Cena just using politics backstage to get the title like Triple H does. I mean Edge was made to look like crap compared to Cena and Edge is a damm good wrestler and i happen to preferEdge and i think it was really bad that he never got a title reign longer than a month on Raw, yet he goes to Smackdown (the minor league of the WWE) and he gets a title reign of a few months straight away. What does that say about Batista compared to Cena, if Edge can hold the title for months on Smackdown but can struggle to keep it for a month on Raw you know Smackdowns obviously gotts be the minor leagues and that means ECW might aswell be OVW.
Anyway back to the rumble i felt that the overall feel of the ppv was quite rubbish to be honest, i mean the best match to me was Orton vs Hardy, to be fair i like both of these wrestlers and a win either way would have kept me happy. I would ghave slightly prefered Hardy to win, but with Cena back and winning the rumble he wouldn’t have made it to mania with the title especially now Cenas cashed in his match for No Way Out, which is a massive slap in the face to the tradition of winning the Rumble by the way. Ric Flair and MVP was disapointing as i thought it was a title match aswell as a career on the line match, however it turnt out not to be and i suppose that was for the best as i would definatly prefer MVP to be the U.S champ compared to Ric ’saggy boobs’ Flair. JBL vs Jericho should enver ever ever happen, im sorry but this really is wasting Jerichos time, he should be in the main event scene instead of Cena just bursting straight back on to it, but instead hes stuck in a feud with the former smackdown commentator. I really do question the writing of the WWE sometimes, im sure most of us do.
Im really glad Rey mysterio did not beat Edge, although i thought C.M punk would cost Edge the title to seek his revenge. However the writing here saved us the horror of having another Rey Rey title reign so kudos to them for that, but that’s just about all the kudos they’re getting from me! Another blatent show of disrespect to ECw was the fact they never had a title match on the show, they even shoved the champion in the royal rumble the first time a Heavyweight champion has been in the rumble i believe, can the writers show anymore disrespect to ECW, i shouldn’t really ask they’ll find a way won’t they. ECw is pratically OVW but on television really, i had high hopes that it would at least stay partially the same when it started again, those hopes have been dashed and dashed over and over again.
The actual rumble i guess wasn’t so bad, Batista stumbling before trying to eliminate Umage was a really bad bad spot of the rumble. Apart from that Shelton Benjamin should have been in for longer. I really hated the way when Cena came down he basically cleaned the ring, see what i mean about being the unstoppable champion i really hate that. Overall the engatives really did outweigh the positives again at the rumble, so last year we had a really bad Mania and Summerslam and this year we get a really bad Rumble, its really not looknig good for the WWE when they can’t even pull out a decent show at 3 of their top 4 ppvs. As Ron Simmons would say DAMM!

Matt

Royal Disappointment

So going into a deeper look of the Rumble I start off with this, Cena. He’s back and who would thought it? Certainly not me that’s for sure, and I bet I’m not alone there. I knew there were gonna be some surprises with 5 spots being left unconfirmed but this was a surprise I couldn’t believe.

Anyways, let me start from the beginning. I’m very nit picky, and I’ve got to say I really didn’t enjoy Michael Buffer’s ring announcements. But that’s not important what is important, is the rumble! So out come number 1 and 2 and oh would you look at that its Taker and HBK. The final two from last years Rumble, what a coincidence that is aye…but moving on. For me, it was an ok Rumble. I put emphasis on the word ok. There were many spots in the Rumble that really ticked me and made me think what the hell was the point of that!? First was Hornswoggle’s segment, which to me was completely a waste of an entrant and as well as time. I was expecting something entertaining to come out of this as surely placing the tiny Hornswoggle in the greatest match of the year, the Royal Rumble had to serve a purpose right? Wrong! He made his way to ramp looking all pumped up and then hid under the ring. Not for a bit however but for the entire match! Only time he popped out was when he helped eliminate The Miz, and when he got picked up by Mark Henry into the ring. Which leads to something else that bugged me VERY much. With Hornswoggle surrounded by two monsters in Mark Henry and Big Daddy V, who comes in the save the day for the little fella? Finlay, and in doing so gets disqualified from a match that is no DQ. What the hell!? So Finlay jumps his spot to help Hornswoggle, big deal. If I’m correct Finlay is the only person to ever be disqualified from the Royal Rumble match as its taking place. To be honest I spent quite a bit of time being disappointed watching that match. Shelton Benjamin lasted all but 18 seconds despite being pushed on ECW and despite being hands down the most technically gifted wrestler on the WWE roster, why was eliminated so fast? However, as the buzzer sounded and entrant number 23’s music hit I got excited as my pick for the Rumble had arrived. That pick, was Mr Kennedy….Kennedy! However a mere 13 minutes and 32 seconds later my pick was gone. Thrown out like he was nothing by Batista. I was incredibly disappointed as I was hoping that the Rumble was going to be Kennedy’s night with him being screwed out of a title Run earlier last year because of an injury. By this time there were only 3 unconfirmed entrants left in the Rumble the other 2 being the Legendary Jimmy “Superfly” Snuka and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, and to my absolute disgust who would make his way to ring as entrant number 26? None other than ECW World Champion Chavo Guerrero. Why was I disgusted? Because the Royal Rumble is supposed to be a match that grants the winner a title shot at Wrestlemania. This means that the champion isn’t supposed to be in the match, and until this Royal Rumble he hasn’t. To me this just shows how little they think of the ECW Championship and the brand as a whole. And if that wasn’t bad enough he doesn’t even last long. Some champion that’s meant to be.

Finally number 30 and the returning John Cena hits the ring to everyone shock and makes his mark quickly removing Carlito, Chavo and Mark Henry. Finally its down to 2. HHH and John Cena for a chance to face the champion at Wrestlemania. Was I excited? No. Far from it in fact. I want to see new faces making an impact, being given a chance. Not the same guys staying at the top making everything seem so, well…boring. I like both Cena and Hunter its just these are both guys that have had very long title runs in the past and who says it wont happen again? Surely enough Cena get HHH over the top rope to win. A huge surprise, ill give the WWE that. But a good one? Only time will tell. However if time is something to go by, we better start getting used to seeing Cena with that belt once again. Les just hope it wont be as long as last time aye.

Rick