WWE brought their first pay-per-view of the year to St. Louis on January 29th as fans got to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Royal Rumble. Sheamus punched his ticket to Miami and Wrestlemania 28 by winning the Royal Rumble match while Daniel Bryan was able to escape a steel cage with his World Heavyweight Championship intact. Elsewhere on the card, CM Punk was able to retain the WWE Title, defeating Dolph Ziggler while Kane left John Cena lying after taking out Zack Ryder.
Check out the WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Photo Gallery
Steel Cage Match for the World Heavyweight Championship: Daniel Bryan (c) defeated Big Show and Mark Henry
Daniel Bryan was able to escape with the World Heavyweight Championship after taking a beating from both big men for the majority of the match. Mark Henry, still limited by injuries, was brutalized by a Big Show knockout punch before Bryan made his big attempt to escape. Bryan struggled to break free as Big Show was literally holding him by one arm while sitting on top of the cage, leaving Bryan dangling in a great visual spot. After breaking free, Bryan did his over-the-top celebration, leaving a dejected Big Show sitting and staring at what could have been.
Daniel Bryan moves on to next month’s Elimination Chamber and if he survives there will in all likelihood be facing off against Royal Rumble winner Sheamus.
Beth Phoenix, Natalya and The Bella Twins defeated Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Tamina and Alicia Fox
There is really nothing to note from this match. The match itself wasn’t advertised and served more as time filler than anything else. Kelly Kelly had an impressive spot in the match, diving from the top rope to the outside onto all of the Divas but when push came to shove, Beth Phoenix hit Kelly with the Glamslam to pick up the win.
With Kharma back in the fold (See the complete list of Royal Rumble entrants and eliminations), one can expect a program between her and Beth Phoenix leading into Wrestlemania, which is something many hardcore fans have been looking forward to.
Kane and John Cena fought to a double count out
While my prediction of Cena finally embracing his hate didn’t come true, my prediction on Twitter regarding the impending disaster for Zack Ryder was right on the money. Prior to this match, Zack Ryder was wheeled into the building into his own private dressing room, courtesy of John Laurinaitis. By the time John Cena and Kane were taking their fight to the backstage area, it was a foregone conclusion that Ryder would be involved.
After Kane took out John Cena with a steel chair, he wheeled Ryder to the ring, hitting the Tombstone Piledriver while Eve Torres watched on in horror. John Cena tried to come to the rescue, only to be taken out with a chokeslam.
It is hard to say where this goes, as Cena wasn’t particularly hateful in the match and with his big Wrestlemania match with The Rock upcoming, there isn’t much time left to do something memorable with this feud. At this point, all signs point to Ryder returning for a grudge match with Kane at Wrestlemania 28.
Brodus Clay defeated Drew McIntyre
The Funkasaurus made his pay-per-view debut tonight and continued his string of dominant comedy matches with a win over McIntyre. While Brodus is fun to watch, at some point he is going to have to have a longer match and show some versatility or this gimmick won’t be long for the business. The fans are reacting to him, but when it is the same thing over and over, it will wear out quick.
Check out the WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Photo Gallery
WWE Title Match: CM Punk (c) defeated Dolph Ziggler
This was certainly, on paper, the match of the night. It delivered, but not as overwhelmingly as most thought it would. By no means is that a knock on the work of the guys in the match. However, the distraction of John Laurinaitis detracted from the match. Prior to the bell, Laurinaitis announced he would officiate from the outside while a WWE official was in the ring. This left many to wait for the inevitable moment the referee got taken out, which happened. Instead of shenanigans at that point, we got Laurinaitis spending ungodly amounts of time trying to revive the referee, with CM Punk seething the entire time.
Again, the in-ring action was well done, even if these two can certainly do better with time. CM Punk picking up the win was the obvious choice, but after the Royal Rumble, Ziggler seems left out in the cold.
Sheamus wins the Royal Rumble
This was not the most entertaining Royal Rumble of all time. Mick Foley and Santino Marella battled in a comedy duel of “Cobra vs. Socko”, which isn’t exactly what I would’ve expected from Foley. Kharma made her return, becoming only the third female to compete in the Royal Rumble. She was able to hit her finishing move on Dolph Ziggler, which really didn’t help his cause. The entrances and eliminations, along with the final four, can be found here. Sheamus was certainly a surprise win, as many had pegged Chris Jericho to pick up the win. However the most surprising thing was the lack of star power in the match. WWE made the statement that for the first time ever every superstar was eligible to be in the Royal Rumble match, which seemed to point to champions and their opponents heading back into battle. However we didn’t really see any stars enter the match outside of the final four and that didn’t cut it for this viewer.
Overall, this was a so-so showing for the WWE in their 2012 pay-per-view debut. The Royal Rumble match itself was a letdown, which is a shame because it is the selling point of the show. The night just didn’t seem to click. One point to mention: at different points of the night, WWE showed brief documentary-style videos of both John Cena and The Rock. WWE is fantastic when it comes to these. Both videos were absolutely amazing and certainly did more to build up both men then their storyline has.
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