Sheamus won the WWE Royal Rumble just to swerve the Internet
by Keith Harris on Jan 30, 2012 7:50 PM EST
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Our friend Mike Johnson of the pro wrestling site with spyware has confirmed that the main reason Sheamus won the Royal Rumble last night was "in order to throw a curve ball at fans" who expected Chris Jericho to win, their previously pencilled in victor. They had Michael Cole attempt to create doubt in his commentary over which champion Sheamus would choose to face at WrestleMania 28 hoping that would whip fans into a lather about all the unexpected new possibilities. This has largely failed with most people being disappointed at the result.
It's not that Sheamus was a bad choice to win the match per se, as C. J. Bradford's robust defence of the winner attests to, but that WWE creative did not even bother to script a storyline that made you think he was in the running as a possible WrestleMania title contender and thus there wasn't any anticipation at that eventuality. It made his victory come off as completely flat, a bit like Edge's surprise win in 2010 (but not to nearly the same extent) when he rushed back from his Achilles tendon tear, but at least he had a ready made feud with Chris Jericho that was teased at the time he suffered his injury. It's a bad start to the mega push WWE wants to give Sheamus this year, so hopefully they can turn it around. Trying to push Daniel Bryan vs. Sheamus as a credible World title match, if that is indeed the plan, will likely prove to be a hard sell, after their U.S. title match at WrestleMania 27 last year was turned into a dark match due to timing constraints.
So we indeed ended up with a bad surprise ending to the Rumble, but it wasn't the one that Dave Meltzer teased on his radio show the day before the event. Apparently, WWE considered having John Cena win the match, only to have him decide to forego the WrestleMania title opportunity and face The Rock anyway, as has been the plan for the past ten months. That may have been the one considered finish that hardcore supporters would have crapped on more than the one they delivered.
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I honestly don't think I even heard Cole's commentary after Sheamus won
Certainly not enough to remember him trying to create doubt about which champ he’d go after. I was just hysterically laughing at the fact that they actually did it, then reading the pissed off comments in the live thread.
"I'm a little worried about being a slut"
~ Bobby Hill
Also if true this proves the WWE reads the internet too much.
Who cares what the internet expects, don’t rush a finish you didn’t want in the first place to screw with what 1 third of the audience?
If they wanted to go with Sheamus to give him some big push, more power to them. But if they wanted Jericho to win, but scrapped it because the internet expected it…. They = dumb.
"I'm a little worried about being a slut"
~ Bobby Hill
As I mentioned in another post, the problem’s not so much that Sheamus won, it’s that he didn’t do enough during the match to get fans behind him. Nobody thought Rey Mysterio would win his Rumble either, but the WWE wisely had him go the whole way and become the story of the match. If Sheamus enters early, and is the first real star in the match, his win would have seemed more appropriate.
Cena winning and foregoing the title match would have basically killed the Rumble forever. I also thought that maybe they’d have Miz win, only to choose to be in the Rock/Cena match rather then get a title shot (since the Rumble winner is guarenteed to be in the “main event”, and we all know what that’s going to be). He wouldn’t make it (perhaps he and Cena have a match at Elimination Chamber, with the winner getting the Rock at WrestleMania), but it would add a little wrinkle and get some heat back for the Miz. But, again, it would kill the Rumble.
/sigh
Okay, this hurts. I still stand behind everything I said. But if this is true….it’s like defending your girlfriend to all your friends, telling everyone she’s a great girl and no one understands her just to find out she was sleeping with someone else. Yes, my fault for having any type of faith in the E.
That being said, this is what we have now. I still think Sheamus will do a great job with this push, Jericho will do something that makes up for him not winning, and everything else ends up okay.
Still though…..fuck
I'm big, I'm white, I'm Irish, and G*d damnit people like me!
by C. J. Bradford on Jan 30, 2012 8:18 PM EST via iPhone app reply actions
lol, yep
I really was hoping that they had a plan in place for Sheamus by giving him the win and it looks like they’re going to have to find one after the fact. The Rumble is one of the few times that WWE has a long-though out plan in place for who will win and what they’ll do with him. So much for that.
Vince screwed Vince.
Its childish is what it is.
I'd rather not be surprised yet entertained instead of surprised and disappointed.
Now, count up your crimes!
The problem with "throwing the fans off"
is that Sheamus is on the edge of relevancy, therefore some people actually CAN believe that he could win the rumble.
You want to throw the internet a curveball. Let Mason Ryan or Jinder Mahal win. That’s how you throw a 70mph 12-6 curveball. Sheamus winning was a hanging changup.
by djfivenine on Jan 30, 2012 8:55 PM EST reply actions 2 recs
They did this to deliberately throw the internet a curveball.
Since when did Vince McMahon become Vince Russo?
Time to spread a little chaos...
Imagine how the IWC would have reacted if Cena won. Holy Shit I cannot imagine the Hate that would be spewed.
I've got something to say; it better to burn out than to fade away!!!
I'm still waiting for my CM Punk WWE Ice Cream Bar.
Go Chargers (oh yeah I said that)
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It would lead me to believe that @bisping must have pissed off @danawhite something fierce. RT @drjamezkelske: @danhendo just out of curiosity, if the #ufc comes to you and asks you to fight Bisping again how do you respond?" -Dan Henderson
You're an idiot.
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by Luke Thomas on Jan 5, 2012 1:40 PM PST up reply actions
the end of this rumble was far more satisfying than last years
ADR dumping santino over for the win? please. sheamus took out a top star who was expected to win in quite an entertaining last two stand-off. last year ADR did shit. they missed a huge opportunity last year with 40 men. i think that last year they could have had #10 win the rumble and claim that he had done wat only two other men have done, outlast 29 other superstars. but there would doubt to his claim because he was not #1
Decent Surprise
I am a Sheamus fan so it makes sense to me. Sheamus winning isn’t that big of a swerve though. This is going to be a big year for Sheamus.
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