WWE Royal Rumble results and reactions from last night (Jan. 29): Sheamus wins, the Internet cries

I’ve not forked over PPV monies in over 8 years (been stationed overseas) and I was expecting something entertaining… maybe not wholely special but something worth remembering… And what did I get? Even the “Match of the night” was overbooked and the two in the ring were not allowed to tell a special story. I guess that’s the way we should have seen it coming but if Ziggler and Punk are our new measuring stick of awesome… Then I’m sorry, they need to go back and watch some Shawn Michaels tape… Ric Flair tape… shoot British Bulldog can tell a better story than those two in the ring right now. I expected more from them.

Brodus Clay is being overexposed. He is being presented like a sideshow attraction. I would rather it be something special and to be looked forward to rather than an obligation to show off their monster dancing baby… I like the gimmick, it works for me… Just too much of a good thing, is not a good thing.

Cena/Kane… I didn’t have high standards and the only reason this redeemed itself was the tombstone on Ryder (I sense a heel turn for Ryder w/ him vs Cena at some point… especially since Cena cannot embrace the hate, Ryder can (and Eve will help take him there))

The Undercard Royal Rumble. Never in my life have I been so let down by this event. It’s hard to mess up but the WWE did it this year. Hacksaw in there was a shining moment, especially when the announcers reminded us he won the original.. Mandable Claw vs. The Cobra got a chuckle out of me but come on now… Cole, Lawler and Book in the ring? The only one of them who legitimately deserved to be in the ring was Book but they wanted to sell it to us as a farce and get the shock of Cole being number 20… Does the WWE not have talent they want to push. To make relevant in the upcoming run to Wrestlemania? I mean I would have rather seen Golddust eliminate Cody (or at least attempt to) cause then it would have made sense. What about Dibiase Jr. (maybe he’s out because of his wrist but thought he was working through it) Have him in there against the almost relevant Cody Rhodes? What was up w/ R-Truth being dumped and hardly even talked about. I thought we were giving this guy a push… not burying him. Maybe that’s his punishment for the substance abuse crap… But i thought that was what the suspension was for…

Separate thought for Jericho. What is the end of the world as we know it? I’ve been waiting, believing… eating up what you had to sell and then you go into the Rumble and what? Do nothing memorable. You dangled from the ropes twice… Big whoop, Kofi freakin did a hand stand. That was memorable…. IF he was booked not to win (obviously he wasn’t) then he should have walked into the ring, had a target in mind (his next fued), throw him out of the ring and beat the hell out of him to the back…. Maybe have had Punk in there throwing out say… Orton or other people he doesn’t want to face and then Jericho runs in and dumps punk and beats the living hell out of him… At least that… THAT would have been different. But alas, you were the forgotten man. Your story was lost in the shuffle of the unorganized Rumble. The most unentertaining Rumble in sports entertainment.

Sheamus. After months of not caring… After months of him getting pops all over the country for doing nothing more than being really white and smiling like a dorkbox, he gets rewarded w/ a push to the WM main event. I get it, the WWE doesn’t need to sell the World Championship match because it has Rock vs. Cena but… I want to care NOW about WM not in a month when Rock finally comes back into our lives… Daniel Bryan winning, great, it shouldn’t have been any other way… Having Henry (who did his best) look like a toolbag in the ring selling every little thing like he was hit with a ton of bricks… Not good for his character in my eyes. Big Show, not holding on and pulling Bryan back into the ring… Well, what kinda monster 7 foot tall athlete couldn’t hang on and pull him back into the cage… I’ve seen people pulled in by less. It would have been far more entertaining to have seen Bryan get choke slammed or something to the outside or get thrown so hard into the ropes, the door breaks and he falls through that way than to see a weak Big Show drop him to the floor… But I digress, Sheamus. Really WWE? Of all your choices… You’re not even going to repackage him… and guess what I have to look forward to on Raw tonight… Sheamus talking to us… Joy. Hopefully Jericho intervenes and somehow worms his way into the title scene w/ some kinda clause or just pisses them all off enough to get invited in or something… Maybe a number 1 contenders match where the WM spot is on the line at Elimination Chamber… Something, anything to make the title feel remotely important…

This PPV has soured me on the prospect of buying Wrestlemania. That is sad. It should be the beginning of the push, excitement if you will of getting to the biggest event of the Wrestling year… But it failed.

Text sent to my friend at 10:21 PM ET:

The IWC is going to slaughter this entire show

Overall, it was a disappointing show, especially for a premier PPV. The opening triple threat was OK based simply on Bryan retaining. I suppose Henry’s and Big Show’s injuries are mitigating factors as well.

I missed a fair amount of Cena/Kane due to technical difficulties, but I did get to see the spot with Ryder. I joked later in the night while playing WWE12 with friends that I think we’re headed for a 15-minute Raw segment of Kane taking a cab to the hospital to assault Ryder.

Divas match… why not Kharma here? Unless she isn’t ready to return yet, but then why have her appear at all?

Punk/Ziggler was good, but these guys could do so much more, right? I wholeheartedly agree that the GTS reversal spot was a real moment of doubt. Really odd way to go with EVPTR&IRGM John Laurinaitis, but we’ll see where they go with it tonight. Still, it seems like using PPV to set up for TV…

Finally, The Royal Rumble… shrug. OK I guess, but man did it is seem light on talent? Two of the highlights were comedy bits, Foley/Santino — well executed for what it was, but yeah, not exactly a classic moment — and of course, RRRRRRRRRRRRRRicardo RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRodRRRRRRRRRRRRRiguez!!!!!!!!!!! Wasn’t a big fan of the announce team bit; Road Dogg did his job as the nostalgia act; Rhodes had another strong showing, along with a hint of re-building Miz. I think I what left me unfulfilled was the overall approach; it seemed like they kept the number in the ring small while focusing on many pre-booked spots. Maybe that’s how it usually is… I’m not the most analytical fan.

Finally, while the 1v1 part of the ending was well done, it seems an odd direction to take (at this point at least). What of all the Jericho build? Did they go against the grain simply to do so? And Big Show at #30? What, did Nash back out at the last second? I generally like to sit back and see how things play out, but I feel like we simply got new questions without any answers to the old ones.

I don’t really get what the problem is with Sheamus winning, if it wasn’t Orton or Jericho wouldn’t he have been one of the first wrestlers you would say that would win the Rumble? While I have no problem with Sheamus winning if it wasn’t Orton or Jericho I wanted Ziggler since they’ve been putting the loser of the title matches in the rumble the past couple years & I thought it would be cool to see Ziggler win after losing earlier, also I’m a HUGE Ziggler fan.
As for stuff I didn’t like, I’m all for surprises but I think they did a little too many this year. I liked Hacksaw back when I was little but he doesn’t need to be in the Rumble anymore. I was glad Booker was in it, ok with King, & didn’t get why they had Cole in there. Could care less about The Great Khali, & although it was nice to see her back I don’t want divas in my Rumble match

Royal Rumble was the one match they couldn’t mess up. I think they were setting out to prove you wrong. The match had too many jobbers.

except the finish which ruined Jericho forever, as the man on the other side of the bar shouted at the finish “WHY CAN’T WE HAVE NICE THINGS?”

It’s almost like his fans were AWOL.

of the final four who needed this win the most. Big Show, no he just finished a program with the WHC. Randy Orton, no he can easily slide back into the main event picture. Chris Jerico, hell no the man could be in Sibera for 5 years come back and be a main eventer. Which leaves us with Sheamus who of that final four actually needed the win to get back to main eventer status and isn’t that what the rumble should be about, elevating a guy to main event status not just putting the same guys in the main event at Wrestlemania.

At least this year, they can’t possibly make it a dark match. The WWE Universe would riot if they did that to a main title.

That’s pretty cool looking. I almost think the botch happened also.

Ziggler came out bad after all is said and done. He essentially got beat four times in one match, and if it wasn’t already clear that he was just a warm body to be in the match while all the focus was on Punk and Big Johnny, it is now.

Also too many wasted rumble spots. Primo AND Epico? Cole? Lawler? Khali? Jey Uso?

I am not against the idea of Sheamus winning independent of context, but the fact that Jericho did not deliver on his “end of the world” line was a big reason that the Rumble disappointed. A huge problem was that this match needed more legit star power. The absence of Cena, Kane, and Punk really really hurt this match. It was basically a comedy-fest for the first 22 or 23 entrants, and while some of that was entertaining, there was just too much filler and not enough substance. I was very disappointed with Big Show as #30. Also how useless was Wade Barrett in this match? He came in there, tossed out Road Dogg, and then did nothing else until getting RKO’d and tossed out very quickly. This made little sense considering how much TV time they’ve been giving him and all his promos about how he will win the Rumble.

I highly doubt that WWE would go with Bryan/Sheamus at Mania. That match couldn’t even make last year’s card. It isn’t suddenly going to be one of the featured matches a year later. Orton will be in there, unless of course they have decided to give Orton an even bigger match (like with Jericho or Taker). It will either be a 3-way, or it will be Orton vs Sheamus or Orton vs Bryan. The main thing that bothers me with this Sheamus win is that it greatly increased the chances that Bryan drops the title to Orton at the next PPV. I think Vince would be more into a Orton/Sheamus match rather than a Orton/Bryan match. But Bryan’s character is way more interesting than anything those other two guys are doing, so hopefully that will keep him in the mix.

Jericho no longer gets the benefit of the doubt. He has to do something meaningful very soon.

Khali? That’s not the sort of surprise entrant fans want to see.

Kofi and Ricardo were entertaining. I didn’t dig the Foley/Santino stuff as much as everyone else. It was ok, I guess. I was happy to see Booker leap into the match. Lawler and Cole were a waste though.

Too many jobbers in the Rumble. But then again, a good chunk of the roster is filled with jobbers. Job Swagger was probably in the upper echelon of Rumble participants. And he is basically a jobber.

Ziggler lost 4 times to Punk and then got beat up by Kharma. I’m thinking that his main event days are still a long ways away.

Pretty disappointing show overall. But at least we didn’t have to watch Mason Ryan drop anybody on their head.

Geno, I’m pretty sure that Clay’s Jurassic Park themed logo was the first we’ve seen it in the ring. Needless to say, I loved it.