Last night was WWE's annual Royal Rumble event. For the un-initiated, the main attraction of the show is the Royal Rumble match, where 30 wrestlers enter one-by-one every minute and a half and eliminate each other by throwing their opponents over the top rope and having both of their feet hit the floor. The last wrestler in the ring wins and gets to challenge for the title of their choosing at WrestleMania in late-March/early-April.
A little background on myself, I was a HUGE wrestling fan in the mid-2000's, probably starting in 2005. Me and my friends bought the SummerSlam PPV in 2006, we would do backyard matches after school on this little piece of grass on the playground that had a wooden fence that looked like ring ropes, me and my friend were a tag team and since I was so much bigger than him we were Batista and Rey Mysterio. I never missed an episode of Friday Night SmackDown (wasn't allowed to watch Monday Night Raw since it was 9 PM on a school night). It was quite a time in the life of your boy. This is all around 3rd or 4th grade. But as will happen, I stopped watching wrestling regularly a few years later, probably 6th grade and the summer going into 7th. I would still check in occasionally since I Liked WWE on Facebook, so when something big happened I'd watch recaps and read about it. Some things that really stand out are CM Punks "Pipe Bomb" and Brock Lesnar returning. Other than that, I never really paid attention.
But two years ago I decided to watch WrestleMania while I was studying for finals. I watched the promo videos for all the matches that WWE put out (I'd seriously recommend checking those out at least for the major PPVs because whether you like wrestling or not, there's no denying that WWE's video production team has some serious skills, arguably the best in any field). My plan was to just sort of have it on as background noise and look up whenever I heard the crowd starting to get louder. I ended up basically tossing all my study materials aside and watching everything on the screen intently. Zack Ryder getting his moment and shockingly winning the Intercontinental Title in a ladder match, Charlotte winning the Women's Title in a Triple Threat over Sasha Banks and Becky Lynch, Shane McMahon's INSANE jump off the top of Hell in a Cell that led to his loss to The Undertaker, it was a great re-introduction for me.
Now, I didn't really start watching again after that, but I was paying closer attention to the results and storylines in the recaps. I also wasn't able to watch WrestleMania 33 last year because I was in London at the time and it was on far too late and I had an early class. But when I got back to the US, I started on a wrestling kick. I'd tune into Raw and Smackdown every so often, listen to podcasts, read rumors, browse the subreddit r/SquaredCircle and all that. But I also started paying attention to non-WWE wrestling. I learned about this faction in New Japan Pro Wrestling called "Bullet Club" and was instantly hooked. I don't need to go through the complete history of Bullet Club because you have Google, but they're extremely cool and its easy to see why I, like many others, were instantly drawn to them. I found Tetsuya Naito and Los Ingobernables de Japon, Kazuchika Okada, obviously Bullet Club and all their talent. There was Ring of Honor and PWG in the States. There was so much more out there than just WWE. Some of my favorites right now aren't WWE products, and maybe my favorite guy out there currently is Bullet Club's Villain Marty Scurll.
All this leads me to last night and the Royal Rumble. The two main matches were the men's and women's Rumbles, the latter off which was the first in history. So given my rekindled love for pro-wrestling, I want to run down my top 5 moments from each.
Women's Match
5. Michelle McCool and Torrie Wilson Return
Two staples of any wrestling fans lives in the early to mid 2000's. Michelle McCool was really around for the wrong generation, she'd kill it if she was in her prime right now with the number of good workers in the company. And Torrie... well, Torrie is Torrie. Both lookers that bring me back to days where my mom would walk in on me watching wrestling as a boy and be horrified by the "Divas" division.
4. Trish Stratus and Mickie James Showdown
Two more staples of the earlier days of women's wrestling, Mickie James returned last year to a full-time schedule while Trish came back for last nights Rumble. These two had one of the best rivalries back in the day and the big pop from the crowd when they faced off showed that people didn't forget. They're two more who look just as good as they did in their heydays.
3. Ember Moon
The NXT Women's Champion showed up still heavily bandaged after the beating she took from the debuting Shayna Baszler at Saturday nights NXT Takeover: Philly. Ember Moon versus Asuka was a great rivalry in NXT and EMber's performances in those matches not only made herself look strong, but made Asuka and her undefeated streak look even stronger. Ember even hit a one-armed Eclipse, her finishing move, in the Rumble. It's one of the best looking moves in wrestling overall in my opinion, like a Stone Cold Stunner on steroids.
2. Asuka Wins
Asuka has no losses in her combined NXT and WWE career, and the Royal Rumble was no exception. I really liked the way she won because of how real it seemed. My favorite Rumble elimination ever was when Rey Mysterio grabbed the rope as Randy Orton went to throw him over for the win, and when Orton took a step back to get a running start, Rey flipped over and threw him out of the ring with a head scissors. Great visually, but not the most realistic scenario. With Asuka, she got knocked down on the apron, saw an opening and delivered a simple kick to knock Nikki Bella off. She was then joined int he ring by Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss and Smackdown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, which I seemingly was leading to Asuka declaring which title she would challenge for as was done with the men's winner (more on that later). But, I got worked when this happened...
1. Ronda Rousey Debuts
A lot of people speculated that Ronda would be entrant #30, but when that spot went to Trish I think everyone sort of resigned to thinking the debut was being pushed to a later day. But then Joan Jett's voice started up and the crowd went wild. It took a few seconds for cameras to cut to the entrance, where, in Hot Rod Roddy Piper font, the words "Ronda Rousey" were displayed. Rousey came out and made her way out to the ring, facing off with the three other women, offering a handshake to Asuka (who hilariously gave Rousey a high five instead) and pointing to the WrestleMania sign. She made her way to Stephanie McMahon at the commentary table and shook her hand before the show went off the air. Just an incredible debut for one of the biggest rumored debutants in recent history. I highly doubted she'd end up in NXT anyway, but this just confirms that Vinny Mac is strapping a rocket to her back. There's also speculation that she didn't appear backstage until something like 10 seconds before she was supposed to go on, and that no one in the company not named Vince McMahon, Stephanie McMahon, Shane McMahon, Triple H or Kevin Dunn (WWE's head producer) knew about it, so the reactions from the three women in the ring were genuine.
Men's Match
5. Annual Kofi Kingston Spot
Kofi Kingston, despite never winning git, has become Mr. Royal Rumble for all of his unique saves over the years. It's become one of the more anticipated moments of the event to see what they'll come up with. This year it was landing on New Day stable-mate Xavier Woods and using a plate of pancakes before being launched back into the fray. Here's a lot at some of his others:
I really hope he wins in the next few years and wins the WWE or Universal Title at Mania, the guy deserves it.
4. Andrade Cien Almas
"El Idolo" Andrade "Cien" Almas had a hell of a weekend. He retained the NXT Championship against Johnny Gargano Saturday night at Takeover in what may end up as the best WWE match of 2018 at the least (and possibly the best match of the year already) and then debuted at #7 in the Royal Rumble 24 hours later. He competed for just over 30 minutes against Gargano and just under 30 minutes in the Rumble. A super strong weekend for Almas, who has made a believer out of me the past few months. He's looking like the next big Hispanic superstar, but the last great one entered at #27...
3. Rey Misterio
12 years after winning the match, Rey Mysterio was back after some time off and looked as good as he ever has. He was trimmed down and moving really well. It brought me back to my youth and I honestly didn't see it coming. Whether he continues on with WWE now, either as a competitor or as a GM for the Cruiserweights, remains to be seen but if nothing else comes of it, this surprise entry was enough for me.
2. Nakamura Wins
Not only did Shinsuke Nakamura win the Royal Rumble, he eliminated both John Cena and Roman Reigns to do so. The final minutes between him and Reigns especially swerved me. I taught Reigns was winning for sure, so while Nakamura was grabbing him and throwing him over the top rope, I was in shocked silence. I did not see this result coming at all. And even better, afterwards he was interviewed in the ring and asked if he would challenge Brock Lesnar for the Universal Title, or AJ Styles for the WWE Title. And much to the delight of all fans out there, Nakamura said, "A... J... STYLES." They have history dating back to NJPW, so this match at WrestleMania should deliver times 10.
Remember all that time ago when I said Marty Scurll is my current favorite wrestler in the business? Well, I lied. He's tied for that title. With this man...
1. ADAM COLE BAY BAY
Speaking of things I didn't expect, WOW. Adam Cole had gone through a hellacious Extreme Rules match with Aleister Black (another guy I love and recommend checking out) at Takeover the night before (hence the taped ribs) but I guess after Ember Moon came out bandaged up I should have seen it form a mile away. Cole is from Lancaster, PA which is a pretty quick ride from Philly and he got the corresponding pop from the crowd. I wish Michael Cole (no relation) let the entrance breathe though so you could really hear the audience. Adam Cole is very much over with WWE fans. Any time he says "Adam Cole Bay Bay", he gets a huge response from the fans...
It's honestly my favorite thing in wrestling right now. I will always go nuts for a good "ADAM COLE BAY BAY". I first found out about Cole through his work with Bullet Club from May 2016 to May 2017 and went back to his catalog from ROH and PWG. The dude oozes charisma and plays the role of a sleazy heel so, so good. The dude is gonna be a star and is still only 28, meaning he really hasn't fully hit his peak as a wrestler yet. I see him challenging for the NXT Title WrestleMania weekend and maybe SummerSlam weekend if the Mania plan doesn't happen. He's money on the mic and in the ring.
So there you have it, some of my favorite moments from the Royal Rumble. I might do these for the Big 4 shows (Rumble, Mania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series), but we'll see.
No comments:
Post a Comment