Category Archives: Pro Wrestling

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWECW December to Dismember

ECWdectodismember2006
2006 December to Dismember
Originally Posted on 2/27/2014
December 3, 2006
Augusta, GA

Background: It is quite incredible how badly WWE botched the initial vision of the ECW Brand. Starting with the Rise and Fall of ECW Documentary in 2004, ECW still had an opportunity to make bucketloads of money in professional wrestling. For all intents and purposes, that idea dies with December to Dismember 2006. While ECW on SyFy would actually be a fun show later on, and actually be the show that leads to NXT, at the time, fans thought ECW would be the Touchstone Pictures to WWE’s Disney. From June 2006, the 2nd One Night Stand Pay-Per-View, to December 2006, every former ECW wrestler, except for maybe sorta [b]Rob Van Dam[/b] was pushed to the side for the WWE’s version of “extreme” wrestlers. That will be clear in the main event of the PPV. I remember this one being a bad one, so let’s see if that vision remains.

The main story revolves around Bobby Lashley, as he had moved to ECW to be the new big face of the brand. Lashley would last seven more months in WWE. Big Show had been ECW Champion since late June due to the South Philly Screwjob. To be fair, that was RVD’s fault.

The fact that this show is in August, GA is probably as good as indicator that ECW has missed the mark.

The fact that it is a mere 2 hours and 14 minutes is another bad sign.

The Card

The idea of the Extreme Elimination Chamber…I think is actually pretty good. A lot of hardcore stuff can happen in a Chamber. It usually would happen to Chris Jericho though.

Joey Styles mentions that Augusta was best knows for Golf’s Masters. Sounds Extreme!

He also just said a new ECW Champion will be crowned. How’s that for a spoiler. Unless Show was stripped up the title ahead of time and I don’t remember.

The Hardy Boyz vs. MNM

This was one of two matches advertised beforehand, and none of these men are even in ECW. The Hardyz made an open challenge that was actually answered by the Voodoo Kin Mafia (New Age Outalws) in TNA. MNM reunited to accept.

Melina’s entrance is pretty awesome. Why hasn’t a Diva copied it yet?

Good start with Mercury and Matt Hardy. I don’t know what Mercury’s personal life was like at the time, but it seems like he’s excited to be on Pay-Per-View, like he’s getting a 2nd chance or something.

The fact that Nitro can do a standing Shooting Star Press is ridiculous.

Nitro and Jeff Hardy were trading the IC Title around this time I believe as well, which makes this match make more sense in storyline context.

There are a lot of great double team moves happening here. If MNM got bigger, the Hardyz vs. MNM would have been one of those Dream Matches mentioned somewhere down the line.

I can’t believe Johnny Nitro, John Morrison didn’t become a bigger star than he was. I know he can’t talk, but he literally has everything else from a wrestling standpoint.

Melina just screamed and it was horrifying. Absolutely horrifying.

Nice double vertical suplex reversed into a double neckbreaker by Matt Hardy. It is interesting that these four are having a good tag team match that isn’t involving a lot of high flying stuff.

Awesome heel spot with Mercury setting up the Twist of Fate and Morrison teasing the Swanton, but Matt countered. They did a Poetry in Motion right before as well.

Here comes the high flying stuff! Nitro and Jeff Hardy hit over the top rope dives to the floor onto the others.

Melina needs to stop screaming. It’s distracting to the match.

Surprised WWE Network didn’t block out Melina yelling out “Crack Whore”.

The Hardy Boyz def. MNM when Jeff pinned Nitro at 22:33. The finish is awesome. Nitro accidentally dropkicks Melina off the apron, and Jeff gets a near-fall. MNM hit the Snapshot (a great double team move) on Jeff, but matt just breaks up the count in time. MNM goes for a top rope Snapshot…but Matt breaks it up and hits a double Diamond Cutter to MNM off the rope. Swanton on both MNM members then Jeff pins Nitro for the three. Very good match. Knowing that this PPV ends to early, they shoulda let them go 10 more minutes.

Striker’s Rules Match: Matt Striker vs. Balls Mahoney

I do think the Matt Striker teacher gimmick was pretty solid. It seemed like a take off of Steve Corino.

Striker says this will be an Extreme Enforcement of the Rules match. No top rope moves, no eye goughing, no foul language. I mean, it’s not like Balls Mahoney is coming off the top anyway…

Striker has a picture of his face on his ass. I hope that isn’t the highlight of the match.

Joey Styles and Tazz keep hyping up Balls Mahoney’s amateur background. Look, if the aspect we are selling about Balls Mahoney is his wrestling ability, once again, we’ve missed the point.

I was wrong. Mahoney to the top! Striker shakes the top rope though. This match sucks by the way.

Give the crowd credit. They are behind Balls.

Balls Mahoney def. Matt Striker by pin in 7:12. Balls got the pin after the Ball Breaker (although they don’t call it that). I understand the lack of weapons in the opener. But Balls Mahoney was called the Chair Swingin’ freak for a reason. This match was boring and was not good.

Now for the worst moment of the show I think: Sabu found unresponsive backstage. Fans chant bullshit. Will Sabu make it to the Chamber?!?!

Elijah Burke and Sylvester Terkay vs. Little Guido Maritato and Tony Mamaluke

Burke cuts a promo about the Elijah Experience. I didn’t like Burke at all in his whole WWE run…but I loved his TNA run as the Pope.

I forgot about Trinity!

I hate that Taz is trying to be Jerry Lawler on commentary. He’s not good at it.

Little Guido owns. Always has. He steals Burke’s beanie hat and wears it himself. It’s funnier to see than it is to read here, I promise.

Terkay almost botched throwing Little Guido over the top rope. So much for putting that power on display.

The FBI are the faces here right? I just realized that although the FBI had never been faces. But it surely isn’t Burke and Terkay.

I don’t see why I am supposed to care about anyone in the ring. I care about Little Guido by default. If this match was supposed to put over Burke and Terkay, it isn’t doing a good job.

Elijah Burke and Sylvester Terkay def. The FBI when Burke pinned Mamaluke in 6:41. Burke uses the Elijah Experience, AKA the Stroke or the Skull Crushing Finale for the win. Terkay nails Guido with a Muscle Buster at the end. Take that Samoa Joe! Match was okay at best. No surprise Terkay didn’t last.

Sabu’s heading to the hospital! He might have a broken neck!

Daivari vs. Tommy Dreamer

Here comes Muhammad Hassan! No, it’s just Daivari. I never understood how Hassan had to go but Daivari kept his job doing the same exact gimmick. He also has The Great Khali with him. Khali just debuted back in May and destroyed Undertaker for a bit. Now he’s in Daivari’s corner n the ECW PPV. He’d be World Heavyweight Champ six months later. Wrestling is weird that way.

Poor Tommy Dreamer. Maybe we’ll get a chair shot in this one!

On commentary they are talking about the Sabu deal, and I totally forgot that Paul Heyman was actually a heel here.

Tommy Dreamer clearly sees Khali pull down the top rope but he goes flying over anyway. Ref saw it too and sends Khali to the back.

We get a “fuck’em up Dreamer, fuck’em up” chant. Yeah. I don’t think there will be any fucking up tonight.

Daivari def. Tommy Dreamer by pin at 7:22. Dreamer was gaining some momentum with a tree of woe dropkick. Crowd was behind him. Goes for the DDT, but Daivari escapes and uses a roll up…a fucking roll up with the tights being held to get the win. Dreamer runs after Daivari which leads to Khali meeting Dreamer on the ramp. He does the double choke bomb and Dreamer crashes hard on the ramp. Pretty damn sick move to be fair. Who knew Khali would have the most Extreme moment on the show so far? Match was pretty uneventful. Tommy Dreamer putting over Daivari on an ECW Pay-Per-View isn’t a good decision.

Poor Dreamer.

Heyman inserts [b]Hardcore Holly[/b] to replace Sabu in the Chamber. Fans boo. Hell, I think even WWE fans would didn’t care for ECW would boo. I would boo. And I like Hardcore Holly.

Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly vs. Kevin Thorn and Ariel

Knox’s theme music is the same that they used for a promo video of when Jim Ross kissed Vince McMahon’s ass and Undertaker turned heel.

Kelly Kelly wishes CM Punk good luck in the Chamber, much to the chagrin to Mike Knox. Damn, CM really stands for chick magnet doesn’t it?

Kelly Kelly’s gimmick is an exhibitionist. Boy fans were disappointed by that one.

Is it just me, or is Ariel a lot hotter than Kelly?

Why didn’t WWE keep Ariel? She could wrestle. Had a great look.

Ariel and Kevin Thorn def. Mike Knox and Kelly Kelly when Ariel pinned Kelly in 7:43. Mike Knox heel turn! Crowd chants CM Punk. Knox leaves Kelly and she doesn’t stand a chance against Ariel. To be honest, this was the rare match that would have been better if it was just the women. But it wasn’t terrible.

The Sandman shows up. Gets a good reaction and beats the crap out of Thorn. I assume this was all setting up the New Breed vs. Originals feud in 2007? But it was a solid segment.

Bobby Lashley interview. Crowd boos, of course.

Let me say something about Big Show before the main event. You can tell here that he was hurting and very out of shape. Probably why he took a year off after this. That and he’s in the Chamber for like 3 minutes.

ECW Title Match: Extreme Elimination Chamber: Big Show© vs. Hardcore Holly vs. Test vs. Rob Van Dam vs. CM Punk vs. Bobby Lashley

[b]Paul Heyman[/b] comes out first. He’s about to cut a promo, which apparently he told Big Show backstage before this that he was so upset about the show and how it was going that for the first time ever he didn’t want to come out for it.

Heyman actually calls the six men in the match the six greatest ECW superstars ever. I wonder how sick that line made him.

I believe this is the last time we see Paul Heyman until he comes in to aid Brock Lesnar in 2012.

Once again, I think the match idea is great. This match has loads of potential.

Champ Big Show is here first. He takes the pod with the barbed wire bat.

CM Punk is next. Crowd is clearly on his side. Punk takes the pod with a chair.

Here comes Test. Him and Big Show are on the same side in the story. Test takes the crowbar pod.

Taz mentions he’s wrestled some crowbars. Was that an undercard match on Flair vs. Broomstick?

Bobby Lashley time! And the crowd goes mild! I do think Lashley was fine in everything he did before ECW. He takes the table pod.

That means we start with RVD vs. Hardcore Holly.

Looks like Holly is also on the Show-Test-Heyman team!

RVD does some nice Spiderman spots. Does a springboard press, but misses Holly and catches the chains of the chamber. He misses the 2nd press and hangs himself up on the top rope.

RVD hits a Rolling Thunder over the top rope onto Hardcore Holly and the steel. Holly vs. RVD has been an entertaining five minutes.

CM Punk is in. He does a Sabu throwing chair spot to Hardcore Holly, then a springboard clothesline. RVD gets his revenge, doing a real Sabu throwing chair spot which hits Punk perfectly on the head.

It’s a shame we never got RVD vs. Punk in a major program.

Punk sends RVD into the corner with a chair propped up. This match is getting good!

Holly takes control, gets a superplex on Punk.

Predictably Test is next, and nails Punk with the crowbar and then tries to skin RVD with it (RVD had been busted open). RVD is starting to get chair happy, nailing both Test and Holly before hitting Punk with the skateboard.

Five Star Frog Splash to Punk and Punk is gone. Wrong man to go first, but it was smart to make RVD the one to do it to minimize the boos.

Test nails Holly with a big boot and surprisingly eliminates him.

RVD goes to the rope of Show’s pod, but Show holds RVD’s foot down. Test hits two chair shots then sends RVD crashing to the mat. He puts a chair on RVD’s face, then drops the elbow from the top of the pod. Test eliminates RVD. Great spot. Horrible result, as the two guys who were most over with the crowd are the first two of the first three out. “Where’s my refund” chants start up.

Heyman’s riot guys keep Lashley in his pod when he’s supposed to get out, but Lashley uses the table to break through the chains on the roof (wha?). Lashley beats the crap out of Test, slamming him through one of the pods (which because of the table left in there doesn’t really create the same impact it normally does). Test eventually is gone after a Lashley spear.

We await the Lashley-Big Show confrontation. Lashley is throwing furniture at Big Show’s pod.

When Big Show gets in, he beats on Lashley’s chair with the barbed wire bat. It eventually gets caught in the chains and he loses it. Lashley promptly throws Big Show through a pod.

Bobby Lashley wins the ECW Title and Extreme Elimination Chamber, last defeating Big Show at 24:42.Lashley counters a Show Chokeslam into a DDT. Eventually Lashley hits a spear and gets the pin. There is a small crowd pop there. Then it gets all silent.

Gotta love how the table was just used to break through the pod and nothing else.

The match isn’t awful, but the people and booking decisions surrounding the match made it a lot worse. The crowd did not want to see Bobby Lashley beat up Test before finishing off the Big Show to win the title.

The opener was fun. But then the next four matches are completely whatever. In fact, all of them are matches that belonged on TV and not PPV. Dreamer losing to Daivari served what purpose exactly? Were they really pushing Daivari? Other than the opener and the main event, there were no videos to promote why these matches were happening (although the Mixed Tag had a storyline to it at least).

There are some bright spots though. Opener was very good. Sandman appearance was okay. Extreme Chamber was pretty okay quality wise.

And that’s enough to avoid a flat out F for me.

Note: After I posted this, I learned either through Hardcore Holly’s book or Sabu’s Talk is Jericho…I don’t remember which…that Sabu failed a drug test and that’s why he was taken out of the Chamber. Doesn’t change anything grade wise, but it’s interesting to note.

Final Grade: D

Pro Wrestling

RDT Reviews WWE Royal Rumble 2008

(Note: I began reviewing pro wrestling PPVs on a message board since the advent of the WWE Network. These are not quite structured well, but more of a result of random notetaking).

Royalrumble08

2008 Royal Rumble Review
(Originally Posted on February 24, 2014)
January 27, 2008
New York, NY

Background: The WWE was in a transition period here as 2007 was far from their best year. John Cena, who had been the longest reigning WWE Champion in almost 20 years, suffered an injury that had him vacate the title and had him missing Wrestlemania. Hell, 2007 was basically the year of the injury. On the Smackdown side, Undertaker won his first World Title in 5 years and tore his pectoral, missing most of the year. Edge came in and snatched the title with a Money in the Bank Contract…only to get hurt byKane. This led to a Great Khali title reign best forgotten. On the Raw side, Triple H tore his other quad in January, and he wouldn’t return until Summerslam. I already mentioned Cena. Not injury related, but Rob Van Dam and Booker T also left the company.

We won’t even get into the worst 2007 tragedy, which was the Chris Benoit situation.

The ECW Brand had suffered through 2007 despite being an entertaining show. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t what original ECW fans had in mind.

Overall, WWE just had tons of issues.

Some new stars were coming up though. Mr. Kennedy, MVP, CM Punk, Umaga and John Morrison were making names for themselves. Some old favorites returned, such as Chris Jericho. 2008 looked like a bright year. With New Year’s Revolution gone, the Royal Rumble was the first PPV of 2008.

The Card

Michael Cole tells us that this is the first ever PPV that is in HD. I think that’s a bit crazy that HD was happening six years ago.

I love the tunnel entrance for MSG. Shame we’ll never see that again.

Career Threatening Match
Ric Flair vs. MVP

This was a few weeks after Vince McMahon told Flair that the next time he loses his career was over. This is one of those exceptions to the rule of a match being less interesting when you know who will win. We all know Flair is winning.

I do think this speaks volumes about how MVP was thought of, considering one of Ric Flair’s final matches was against him.

Flair starts out by telling NY how much of an honor it was to wrestle in Madison Square Garden. MVP interrupts.

MVP was pretty damn over as a heel. I’m surprised that he didn’t become a top guy, but I felt the same about Mr. Kennedy at the time too.

I wonder if Charles Robinson did all the late Ric Flair matches.

Ric Flair def. MVP by Submission in 7:48. Flair counters the Playmaker into the Figure Four. Pretty good match. Flair could still go even at 59 years old, and MVP was a good heel here.

We get some Vince and Hornswoggle stuff, as at this point he was still Vince’s son. He’s trying to get Hornswoggle to distrust Finlay.

Oh man Mike Adamle debut. Totally forgot this. He hypes up JBL vs. Jericho, which even today to me is a bit of a mind boggling feud.

Chris Jericho vs. JBL

Jericho had returned back in November as part of the Save.Us campaign, which led to a match with World Champion Randy Orton. Orton threw Jericho into Smackdown commentator JBL, and JBL cost Jericho the title. The angle took an extreme turn quickly, including JBL hanging Jericho at one point. JBL claimed that he was the real savior of WWE, not Jericho. This was also JBL’s return to active competition after retiring back in 2006. I like JBL and I like Jericho, but this feud really didn’t need to happen and I’m still confused on why it did, especially with a hanging angle in there.
The match is rather forgettable until the end, as Jericho goes nuts.

JBL def. Chris Jericho by DQ in 9:23. The match is rather forgettable until the end, as Jericho goes nuts. Wearing the crimson mask, he bashes JBL with a chair and actually hangs JBL back. Once again, this feud really didn’t need to be this violent.

We see Ashley Massaro trying to take to Maria. Santino is funny here. He’s Maria’s boyfriend, and he isn’t happy that Ashley wants Maria to be in Playboy.

World Heavyweight Championship
Edge© vs. Rey Mysterio

Edge had taken over Smackdown as the top guy in 2007, but injuries messed that up. He returned at Survivor Series and beat Undertaker and Batista in a three way match using the Edgeheads (Zack Ryder and Curt Hawkins) as decoys to win the title.

There’s also a love interest with Edge and Vickie Guerrero, which I always thought was weird since he was with Lita two years prior.

Fans were not into Mysterio here, for some reason. Edge was one of the hottest heels the business had seen in quite a while, he was practically what WWE was hoping Randy Orton would eventually become. Edge gets cheered in his introduction. A “Let’s Go Edge” chant breaks out as well.

Mysterio does botch a couple of moves here. I wonder if he was hurting here, as he would do an injury angle at No Way Out and not even be at Wrestlemania.

Mysterio is getting booed out of the building here.

I think Edge tried to bust out a Brock Lock there. Match revolves around Mysterio’s knee.

Mysterio does some things I don’t remember him doing in other matches. A top rope double stomp for example. A sweet slide under the bottom rope into a Tornado DDT was also a great spot.

Edge def. Rey Mysterio by pin to retain the title at 12:34. There is a great finish here. Vickie comes out of her wheelchair to pull the ref out when Mysterio had the title won. Edge goes for a spear, but Mysterio dodges to go for a 619. Mysterio ends up hitting Vickie with the 619 as she was protecting Edge, distracting Rey. Rey goes for a springboard…something…but he’s speared in midair. That spot has been copied, but it was incredible to see for the first time. Good match, crowd though hated Mysterio and I don’t remember why. Maybe because of just how awesome Edge was at this point.

Kennedy is in Flair’s locker room congratulating him. Looks like he’s about to challenge Flair at No Way Out until HBK comes into the picture. HHH and Batista eventually join them, all talking about how the best man will win the Rumble.

Maria comes out to accept the Playboy deal. Somehow we get Big Dick Johnson dancing in Patriots 19-0 body painting. This was right before the Giants-Pats Superbowl. Anyway….

Mike Adamle with the classic Jeff Harvey line. But…it’s fixed! How disappointing.

Anyway, one of my favorite promo vids happen here for Hardy vs. Orton. Unfortunately, the music is different for the Network as well! Original theme was Rooftops by Lost Prophets. I don’t know what this is. Sigh.

WWE Championship
Randy Orton© vs. Jeff Hardy

Jeff had been getting a megapush beginning in November, even beating HHH to get this title shot. Fans were very behind Jeff Hardy here, and I even believed he had a shot to win the title here. Orton was finally reaching his potential as a dick heel with that Viper focus and beginning his best two year run. He injured Matt Hardy in the build-up, and Jeff hit a Swanton off the stage the Raw before this.

Hardy gets a lot of near falls in this and the fans are with him the whole way. Orton is playing a great heel.

Hardy starts hitting some risky stuff, a flying bodypress off the apron comes first.

Orton even gets creative in his restholds. A leg grapevine and a headlock?

Jeff eventually hits a moonsault off the top rope onto the floor, which looked as sick as I remember it.

Randy Orton def. Jeff Hardy by pin to retain the title in 14:03. Orton and Hardy get back into the ring after the moonsault, and a Hardy Twist of Fate attempt turns into a RKO. I remember not being happy at the time, but the finish made sense. It showed Jeff could hang in a World Title match main event, and put over Orton’s RKO is a legit finisher that shouldn’t be kicked out of a billion times. Jeff’s time will come.

The Royal Rumble

We’ve got six commentators for this one.

At the time, the smart money was on HHH winning. Undertaker winning a 2nd in a row was also a popular choice. Mr. Kennedy was the IWC darkhorse that in hindsight didn’t stand a chance.

Also, it was assumed Big Show would return after being gone for a year.

Michael Buffer doing the “Let’s Get Ready to Rumble” bit was great.

#1 and #2 were the last two of the 2007 Royal Rumble…Taker and HBK. Buffer introduces HBK as The Heartbreak Kid and not Shawn Michaels, which is a bit funny. Nonetheless, one of the all-time great starts and one of the little things that made the Taker-HBK rivalry that much better over the last two years of HBK’s career.

#3 is the comedy Santino spot…which had him trying to pretend to be as tough as Taker and HBK. He gets superkicked in 10 seconds and is gone.

#4 is The Great Khali. Gets the “You Can’t Wrestle Chant”. Taker eliminates him before #5. One great thing about this Rumble is HBK is on Taker at all points. Everytime Taker tries to eliminate someone, HBK is right behind him.

#5 is One-Half the Tag Champs, Hardcore Holly. John Morrison, half of the other Tag Champs follows at #6. Tommy Dreamer gets in at #7 to a good response.

Batista comes in pretty early at #8. Early face-off with Undertaker. They had feuded for most of 07. Dreamer tries to get involved, but he gets dumped by Batista for his trouble.

Hornswoggle comes in at #9…and just hides under the ring. People were worried he would be winning after that…

We get Chuck Palumbo at #10, who was doing a biker gimmick. An injured Jamie Noble is #11, who was feuding with Palumbo at the time. Palumbo gets rid of him quickly.

#12 is CM Punk, who a few days earlier lost his ECW World Title to Chavo Guerrero. He gets rid of Palumbo.

The other half of the Tag Champs Cody Rhodes is next at #13. He’s got awful music. This is when he was a meat and potatoes babyface.

#14 is Umaga. Umaga was an awesome monster heel at this point. Holly seemingly stiffs him with chops, but Umaga no sells and Samoan Spikes him over the top rope.

#15 is bald Snitsky. Not nearly as good at the monster heel thing as Umaga was. #16 is Morrison’s tag partner, The Miz. Some faint Miz chants in there.

JR at this time mentions that Morrison reminds him of a young HBK…but isn’t sure about the heart. Interesting. Seemed right on the money.

#17 is Shelton Benjamin, who does some really cool jumping spots, and gets superkicked out by HBK 20 seconds later.

#18 is Superfly Jimmy Snuka. Gets the legends pop. Takes out everyone. Taker does the headbutt spot where he hurts himself. Roddy Piper follows at #19, and gets a massive reaction. Of course, we get Snuka vs. Piper. Piper was recovering from Hodgkin’s Disease here, and it’s amazing he was in the ring at Mania 14 months later.

#20 is Kane, and he dumps Piper and Snuka, to the chagrin of the crowd. Carlito follows at #21. Him spitting the apple at Cody right away was a nice spot. I think at this point we were past Carlito being any more than he was.

#22 is Mick Foley, who gets a great New York response. Huge Foley chants. He looks pretty solid here.

We get Kennedy at #23, and he gets a solid reaction as well. Didn’t remember that Kennedy used that running kick in the corner than Zack Ryder uses.

Takes starts kicking ass at this point. We get Big Daddy V at #24. During that, Taker eliminates Snitsky, but HBK kicks Taker out right afterwards. Kennedy then tosses HBK. Just like that, we were sure HHH was winning. HBK and Taker put in a really good half hour.

#25 is Mark Henry…who at this point still hadn’t been a total badass yet. That transformation would happen this year (2008).

Hornswoggle comes out from under the ring and takes out the Miz, which was hilarious.

#26 is ECW Champion Chavo Guerrero. Shows how low the ECW title had come…as last year the Rumble winner was allowed to challenge for the ECW Title. Kane takes out Morrison. Hornswoggle tries to take out Cody Rhodes…but Mark Henry pulls him in. Finalyis technically #27, but gets DQed for jumping the gun. We lose Hornswoggle and Finlay here. #28 is Elijah Burke. Chavo takes out Punk…which is probably Chavo’s career highlight.

#29 is HHH himself, leaving what probably is the Big Show at #30. Crowd pops for the Game. Seems obvious at this point it was coming to Batista vs. HHH. HHH takes out Rhodes, Big Daddy V and Cody Rhodes. He also sends Foley out…who clotheslines Burke out at the same time. HHH hits a little bit of everyone waiting for #30.

#30 is one of the best surprises WWE has ever done, as a recently injured John Cena comes out. Cena was slated to not be back till April or May. Complete stunner.

Cena takes out Carlito, Henry and Chavo. HHH, Kennedy, Umaga, Cena, Kane, Batista left. HHH and Cena go at it. Batista ends the Kennedy dream, and takes out Umaga as well. Batista and HHH eliminate Kane, leaving Batista, HHH and Cena. All three do their taunts.

Batista dominates early, so much for stamina being a factor. Cena eventually counters a Batista Bomb, and HHH clotheslines Batista out.

I didn’t even realize pointing at the Wrestlemania sign was even a thing at this point. Fans are solidly behind HHH here. Some obvious back and forth here. They both tease finishers and knock the other down. Cena teases the FU (AA) elimination spot, but HHH survives. HHH goes for the elimination, but Cena counters for the FU, to which HHH counters into a pedigree, to which Cena finishes it off with a FU elimination. John Cena wins the Royal Rumble, last eliminating Triple H at 51:26.

Very good Rumble overall. HBK and Taker carried it early on. The Snuka-Piper spots were nice. It lagged a bit between HBK and Taker being gone and HHH showing up. Cena surprise, while I didn’t like it at the time, was one of the best surprises WWE had ever done. HHH and Cena were #29 and #30, and were the last two remaining, which is how it should be storyline wise.

Last Thoughts and Grade

From top to bottom this is a solid Pay-Per-View. MVP vs. Flair was solid. JBL vs. Jericho was okay, but not bad. Edge vs. Rey had some tough moments but made up for it with Rey’s selling (unless he was really hurt, which he might have been) and spectacular finish. Orton vs. Hardy was done well. Rumble was good, surprise was shocking. A lot of good to very good, but I would say nothing great.

Final Grade: B+