Before I give you my quick thoughts on the PPV, I just thought I’d make sure to let all of you know that a major piece of news broke out today – Albie Hecht, president of SpikeTV signed his resignation earlier today. The reason being was a move in the network’s goals to shift its programming into more mainstream shows, rather the current unexpected-comedic nature of its programs (such as RAW). This definitely leaves the question of what will happen to RAW, whose contract expires this fall. The search for a new network might definitely get more intense over the next few months. I did a post on this earlier. For more information, click here.
The Royal Rumble PPV this year was a solid effort from everyone who participated, and definitely came out as a solid show, compared to the previous several PPVs the company has put out. Although the New Year’s Revolution program was a strong show, it was a one-match event, whereas the Rumble seemed to be stronger all-around.
I didn’t see the Heat match, but from what I heard Maven vs. Rhyno was not good. I wouldn’t expect it to be such, either. Doesn’t it suck that the fans on the West Coast get shafted (unless they have satelite) when it comes to Sunday Night Heat and there’s a PPV?
The opener was a very solid bout. I think, however, there might be people who were disappoitned with it, simply because they expected a whole lot out of Edge and HBK. From the perspective of someone who just wanted to see Edge come out victorious in a good wrestling match, I got everything that I asked for. I didn’t really expect HBK to make Edge “a star,” but I certainly wanted him to make Edge look strong, and for the victory to mean something. Although Edge had to rely on cheating to get the win, the match was well-paced, booked the right way, and delivered overall. I feel that cheating wasn’t too bad an ending since it fits Edge’s slimy heel character.
The Casket Match was what it was. Seeing as they could have had interference in all four bouts other than the Rumble, I’m glad they picked this one to do it in. They kept it not-so-long, which helped. If they didn’t botch the couple of spots towards the ending, this actually wouldn’t have been that bad. They added two crowd-pop spots (Taker hitting the steps knee-first, Foley style, and then the legdrop on the casket) that helped the fans stay awake. I just really expected this to be bad, and it wasn’t “that bad” after all.
I thought the Triple Threat came off much better than it could have ended up being. It was booked well, in my opinion, and although it was more of a spot fiesta, that’s the type of thing you need to do considering the participants. We shouldn’t have known who the winner is ahead of time! Horrible move by WWE.
H and Orton had a solid match, but I’m not sure I bought into the “concussion” storyline. It seemed like a “way out so we don’t have to do another interference” type of deal. Whatever works, I guess. No interference from Evolution was both good and bad, because there was no further interference (good), but it leaves Orton very dry. (bad)
This year’s Rumble was a good effort, but nothing memorable. How about the no-explanation we got from Nunzio as to how he got into the Rumble? Ugh, or the way Angle got his spot? That was some bad TV there. I think that the RAW vs. SD spot, the Angle/HBK confrontation, and Batista and Cena’s entrances (crazy pops) were the bright spots here. Although I enjoyed everyone teaming up on Hassan, it didn’t make much sense to me. This wasn’t the best Rumble ever, but it was good for what it was.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens on RAW tomorrow.
Eddie
