People have been asking me to give some sort of grade or rating for my matches, rather than just reviewing them. I don’t particularly like doing it as it’s so final, rigid and disputable; but that’s what the readers want! I couldn’t decide which system to use but have gone for the good old number ratings system. If you guys would prefer me to use a letter system (i.e., F-A) then I am more than happy to change; just let me know. On with the review!Ric Flair d. MVP
I can’t say that this opener impressed me all that much to be honest and it was distinctly average. I would have thought this was a decent choice of opener, with the fans getting behind Flair to keep him alive, but it really just didn’t work. MVP looked solid enough but Flair wasn’t his rejuvenated self this time. Even the big false finish in the middle of the match seemed tacked on and poorly done. The two athletes never really seemed to click with each other either, and so their moves seemed to just be a linear set of attacks rather than a nice wrestling match.
Rating - 5/10
JBL d. Chris Jericho (By DQ)
This match was much better than the previous. I was not a fan of the build up and felt that it had been rushed way too much, but it all worked out rather well on the night. There was some real emotion plated out here and the psychology was evident for all to see. I was a little surprised at the pacing of the match, being quite so slow, given the preceding bout, but this was probably to help JBL. One glaring botch dragged this one down, as JBL took to the mat despite Jericho missing the face plant, but Jericho did really well to pull the crowd back in with his blood-laden revenge on the Texan - leading to the untimely finish as Jericho ends up disqualified for a chair shot. Thankfully, the assault continued after the match as Jericho mirrored his own earlier beat down, and it looks certain that this one will continue.
Rating - 7/10
Edge d. Rey Mysterio
This was an interesting one. It started out fine and then slowed down a lot (again, a surprise given the previous matches pacing) right until the excellent finish. Both me looked good in the ring and the psychology was there, with Rey avoiding those on the outside and trying to come up with decent offence that didn’t involve his legs, and with Edge trying to take out the frail knee of his opponent. They both played their parts but the match needed to be a bit quicker to work really well. The finish showed how the match could have gone and I was really pleased with it, but it would have been nice to see that style appear much more commonly throughout the rest of the match.
Rating - 7/10
Randy Orton d. Jeff Hardy
I hope this isn’t too out-spoken an opinion, but I thought this match really struggled to captivate both me and the live audience (not they seemed really involved in anything, to this point, other than Jericho’s comeback). Nothing seemed to pick the match up and it all seemed to have been pieced together wrongly until the finish. Jeff having to drag Orton into the ring to avoid the count out, only to be shocked by the RKO out of nowhere, was the right finish for me and I thought it worked brilliantly - but a finish alone cannot make a match and what came before it was disappointing. I don’t know if this was down to either man being hurt in some of the earlier bumps, but either way, the match just didn’t work as well as it should have, or has done in the past. At least Jeff still looked pretty strong by the end.
Rating - 6.5/10
John Cena wins The Royal Rumble
The one thing I did not want to see from the start here was either Triple H or Undertaker entering first. Both went into this match as joint favourites and I was happy for either man to win - but, I am sick of the Rumble being centred on the first or second man being able to survive until the end. I know that it is the whole point, but it would be nice for it to not be a favourite to start out. So I was not pleased to see the dead man head out first, nor was I happy to see Shawn out after him. Some people will find the irony of last year’s final two exciting, but I would have much preferred to see them both a little later on.
The main portion of the Rumble match is always hard to rate and it is mostly about your opinion on whether it was entertaining or not - rather than the specific quality. This year’s main portion looked good. There was a lot going on all the time but the number in the ring never seemed to get too out of hand. Besides the starting two, I was more than happy with the order of entrants and no eliminations stood out as being wrongly timed. I wasn’t too happy to see Shelton go out the way he did - but it was done well. I just wish it had been someone like Hardcore Holly or Snitsky. My only other real gripe was with the disqualification of Finley - who came up with that one!?
What is usually most well remembered about a Rumble is the countdown to the end (when everyone has entered), the final four, and the finishing sequence. This year we got a decent 10 minutes in the ring after the last man had entered, but it was certainly about the final three, and then the last two here. And what a finale it was. I was genuinely shocked at John Cena entering at number 30, not just that the WWE had managed to keep this one quiet, but also that he was physically able to compete both at this event and in a WrestleMania main event. Once I got over the shock, I thought that this might just be a one-off deal and he would be quickly eliminated or maybe even “re-injured” but obviously this was not the case and both Cean and Triple H gave us a solid finale to the evening.
Rating - 8/10
Well if anyone had predicted John Cena to be winning the Rumble here, I would be absolutely amazed. Other than that shock factor, the Rumble itself was pretty damn good with the rest of the card ranging from distinctly average to enjoyable - but never quite reaching anything along the lines of great. Too many slowly paced matches hurt this card but the Rumble itself did the overall enjoyment a hell of a boost.
Overall Rating - 67%
So the build up to WrestleMania 24 has begun and we now have an idea of what the card will look like. We know that John Cena will be challenging for one of the major titles so we either have a main event of Cena vs. Orton over on Raw or Cena vs. Edge on Smackdown (unless either champion loses his belt, which could of course happen and I wouldn’t at all be surprised to now see the Elimination Chamber at No Way Out be a title match - with Triple H taking the belt) and we know that Ric Flair is likely to be still going come the end of March. Other hints we may have seen are with JBL/Jericho and Chavo/Punk continuing their feud, as well as a couple of possible feuds emanating from Rumble eliminations, such as Taker-HBK, Kennedy-HBK, and perhaps even Triple H-Batista.
Thanks once again for taking the time to read my thoughts, I hope you have enjoyed it even if you didn’t agree with it all. Feel free to give me your own views, thoughts and comments (batista666@hotmail.com) - I will endeavour to reply to them all.