Friday, 7 February 2014

Royal Rumble 2014 Review

The 2014 Royal Rumble took place at the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh on Sunday 26th January. Who win the Royal Rumble match and go on to main event Wrestlemania for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship? Let's take a look.

The Kick Off match was for the Tag Team Championship as The New Age Outlaws challenge Cody Rhodes and Goldust. The match goes back and forth for a little while the Outlaws wear down their opponents. The end comes when Rhodes hits the disaster kick on Road Dogg. Gunn, who did a blind tag, comes in and hits Rhodes with the fameasser to get the win and become the new Tag Team Champions. I don't really get why they won this match. Hopefully, it's to lead to Rhodes and Goldust focusing on singles matches.
Winners: New Age Outlaws
Predictions: 0 for 1

The event starts with Bray Wyatt taking on Daniel Bryan. I have to say, the crowd was really into this match, cheering “Yes” every time he hits an offensive move. Bryan hits a suicide dive on Luke Harper and when Erick Rowan tries to attack Bryan, referee John Cone see it and sends them to the back. Wyatt reassures them that he doesn't need them and when they leave, Wyatt walks into a crossbody from Bryan. There was a brutal bit when Wyatt goes flying into the steel steps and flips over, hurting his left leg. Bryan focuses on the leg before Wyatt injures Bryan's shoulder then focuses on the head as well. Bryan makes his comeback and hits a flying tornado DDT to the outside and later on, Bryan hits 2 flying kicks to the corner and when he goes for a third he gets turned inside out by a brutal clothesline. Bryan goes for the LeBell Yes No lock but stops that from being locked in by biting the hand. The end comes when Wyatt goes to the outside and when Bryan tries a suicide dive, Wyatt catches and hits a sister Abigail, sending Bryan's head crashing into the barrier. Wyatt then puts Bryan back into the ring and hits another sister Abigail to get the victory. I really enjoyed the match but I don't really get why Wyatt would get the win. It looked obvious that Bryan would win this match and it does seem weird that he lost. Despite that, it was a match that really showed how good Wyatt can be. I have heard good things about his wrestling ability while he was in NXT but he has never really shown it while he has been on the main roster until now. I hope they continue with that.
Winner: Bray Wyatt
Predictions: 0 for 2

The next match is between Big Show and Brock Lesnar. Lesnar decides to beat the fuck out of Show with a chair before the match even starts. The referee manages to get some order and rings the bell. When Lesnar goes for Show with a chair, Show hits the WMD to knock Lesnar down. Show unfortunately, can't take advantage and his attack on Lesnar is quite slow. Show goes for another WMD but Lesnar ducks and hits the F-5 to get the win. Afterwards, Lesnar proceeds to once again, beat the crap out of Show with a chair. When referee Mike Choida tries to stop him, Lesnar pushes him into the barrier and continues hitting Show with a chair. This was an interesting match to watch. I thought it would get into a brutal encounter but not in this way.
Winner: Brock Lesnar
Precdictions: 1 for 3

We now get the match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship as John Cena faces Randy Orton in what's being billed as the most anticipated rematch in WWE history. It's not as they're having a normal match after a TLC match, but anyway. The crowd didn't seem to be into this match as they started with chants for Daniel Bryan. Cena early on goes for the Boston crab but Orton powers out of it and later on, Cena goes for AA but it's countered into a DDT. Cena keeps trying to get some momentum but it's cut off by Orton. Orton goes for the RKO but Cena dodges it and goes for the STF. The referee Charles Robinson gets knocked down when Orton kicks him trying to get out of the AA. Orton takes advantage and hits Cena with one of the World Championship belts but it only gets 2. Cena hits the AA for a 2 count and later on, Orton hits a RKO for 2. They both go for submission finishers and Orton hits the AA for 2. Then Cena hits the RKO for 2. Cena hits a reverse tornado DDT and applies the STF. It looks like Orton was about to tap out but a distraction by the Wyatt Family gives him the chance to hit the RKO to get the victory. Afterwards, the Wyatt Family beat the crap out of Cena ending in a Sister Abigail by Bray Wyatt.

The match was actually not bad but the crowd have seen it a billion times. It did get the crowd into it near the end when they started doing each other finishers and the ending involving the Wyatts were unexpected. I'm not sure whether I want to see a Cena/Wyatt feud but Cena needs something else that is new and keeps him out of the title picture for a little while and Bray Wyatt may be that answer.
Winner: Randy Orton
Predictions: 2 for 4

We now get the Royal Rumble match with Punk entering at number 1 and Seth Rollins at number 2. We get a couple of surprises early on as Kane enters at number 5 wearing suit trousers and he is eliminated by Punk. Then Alexander Rusev from NXT coming in at number 6 and he gets eliminated by almost everyone. Kofi Kingston, who came in number 8, gets sent flying over by Punk and is caught by Rusev who puts on the barricade by the entrance way. Kofi gets up, runs along the barricade and jumps onto the apron, which was a pretty cool spot. Seth Rollins get some help when Dean Ambrose comes in at number 11. We get another surprise when Kevin Nash comes in number 14 with the NWO music. Roman Reigns comes in at number 15 and immediately dropkicks Punk who was trying to eliminate Rollins. He then eliminates Kofi, Dolph Ziggler and Kevin Nash. Goldust eliminates Rhodes, which was revenge because he had been eliminated by Rhodes in the last 2 Rumbles. However, his joy doesn't last long as he is immediately eliminated by Reigns. We get another surprise entrant as Sheamus makes his return at number 17, who then proceeds to tear apart the Shield. Our next surprise entrant is El Torito, who has a fun bit with Punk when he reverses an elimination by a hurracarrana. El Torito eliminates Fandango who then gets eliminated by Reigns. Antonio Cesaro comes in at number 21 and does the giant swing to Miz, Punk then Rollins. Cesaro tries to eliminate Rollins but that's stopped thanks to a spear by Reigns. JBL then comes in number 24 who proceeds to give his coat to Michael Cole and is immediately eliminated by Reigns. Batista, a lot of people's favourite, comes in at number 28; Big E Langston isi in at number 29 and Rey Mysterio is number 30.

After a few minutes, Reigns eliminates Luke Harper with a superman punch and Ambrose tries to eliminate Reigns. Rollins stops him and goes “What the fuck are you doing?” Cesaro, Ambrose and Rollins get into a scuffle by the ropes and this gives Reigns the chance to send them all over the top rope. That leaves the final four to be CM Punk, Roman Reigns, Sheamus and Batista. Punk gets eliminated by Kane who had come in through the crowd earlier. Kane then chokeslams him through the Spanish announcers table. Sheamus gets eliminated when Batista sends him over to the apron and Reigns spears him off it. Batista spears Reigns but he spears him back. Reigns goes to throw him out but Batista reverses it to eliminate him and win the Royal Rumble match for the second time.

I thought that was a good Rumble match and there were some enjoyable moments. I enjoyed the entrances with the Real Americans when Zeb Colter came out with signs about illegals crossing the border; and Kofi efforts in trying to save himself from elimination. I was once again impressed with Roman Reigns who had broken Kane's record of 11 eliminations with 12. It looks like the Shield might be breaking up and Reigns could have a feud with Dean Ambrose over the United States Championship.

I wasn't that bothered about Batista winning. However, the crowd wanted Bryan to be in the Rumble and he wasn't. Early reports after the PPV indicated that the crowd were very unhappy about that. The WWE look to have rectified that by putting him in the elimination chamber match next month. However, I still don't understand what they are doing with Bryan. First of all, him losing to Bray Wyatt earlier on seemed a bit bizarre to me and they then don't enter him in the Rumble. Bryan is the most over person in the company right now but the WWE don't seem to be acting on it the way that I thought that they would. There's a chance that the Wrestlemania main event will be between Randy Orton and Batista and I get WWE want to use Batista because he will be starting in a big summer blockbuster. However, that means that the last 3 Wrestlemania main events have featured someone who is not here long term. That may be great for the casual fans that the WWE are trying to get but not for the ones who watch the shows every week and regularly buy their merchandise.
Winner: Batista
Predictions: 2 for 5


I quite enjoyed the event, although I didn't get a couple of decisions that they made. Wrestlemania XXX has the potential to be a great event. I'm not sure, however, if Batista vs Orton is the way to go.

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