2011 Royal Rumble Thoughts

   Despite very positive praise about the 2011 Royal Rumble event, I thought it was decent but certainly not as great as some claimed.  I had my doubts about the Rumble match due to this year featuring 40 men, as opposed to the usual 30.  The pace kept up nicely, there were some great surprises, and John Morrison performed the best Rumble spot in history up to that point.  The only problem I had was that there weren't enough big names to take a 40 man Rumble as seriously and I'm not a fan of Del Rio winning it.  The matches were fine but nothing to write home about.

Pre-Show Match - R-Truth vs. Curt Hawkins

   I couldn't find any information on this match other than the fact that R-Truth won.  If I'm not mistaken, this might have been around the time that Curt Hawkins was teaming with Tyler Reks so it's possible he could have been in Hawkins' corner.  This was just before arguably R-Truth's most entertaining time.  

World Title - Edge vs, Dolph Ziggler

   Edge and Vickie Guerrero were broken up by this point and Vickie had gotten herself a new man in Dolph Ziggler.  Both men had chemistry in the ring and Ziggler was just coming into his own as a top notch performer. Ziggler was actually the perfect foil until what would end up being Edge's last match ever with the Royal Rumble winner at WrestleMania.  I enjoyed the stipulation for this match that if Edge used the Spear, he would lose the Title.  It made the match that much more intriguing because Edge had to figure out another way to win.  In what I thought would have been the perfect foreshadowing, Edge won with Christian's move, the Killswitch.

WWE Title - The Miz vs. Randy Orton

   I abssolutely hated The Miz at this point in time and it wasn't until two years ago that I came around.  In fact, he's one of my favorites these days.  With that being said, in my opinion, he shouldn't have been anywhere near the WWE Title during this time.  He just wasn't ready yet to be in main event feuds or to be the Champion. He won it after cashing in his "Money In the Bank" on Randy Orton, which led to this match. The Miz had his 2nd season NXT rookie Alex Riley in his corner, and it was an entertaining pair.  Orton was feuding with the CM Punk-led Nexus at this point and they cost him the match.  The match was fine but I took points off just because The Miz was Champion and I couldn't fathom him in the main event of WrestleMania. Conversely, if won he nowadays, I'd be thrilled.

Diva's Title - Natalya vs. Layla vs. Michelle McCool vs. Eve Torres

   It's hard to give this a high rating as the women's division was piss poor at the time.  Natalya was the only one in this match worth a damn.  It's a shame it took another six years before Natalya would win another Women's Championship.  The best part of the match was when Natalya had the Sharpshooter on both Eve and Layla at the same time.  Eve won the Title when she pinned Layla.  These other ladies were mediocre, not great, but not quite as awful as some others were.

Royal Rumble Match

   I coudln't have chosen two better wrestlers to start the Royal Rumble than CM Punk and Daniel Bryan.  It's amazing that in just over a year, these two would have a series of fantastic matches together.  One such match was at Over the Edge 2012, which I personally attended.  Punk took over as leader of the Nexus from Wade Barrett.  Meanwhile, Barrett was able to take Nexus members Justin Gabriel and Heath Slater with him.  Along with Ezekial Jackson, they formed the forgettable faction, the Corre!  However, one of the intriguing things about this Rumble was the chance of the Nexus and Corre fighting it out.

   After a few more participants, entered, John Morrison came out as number seven.  Morrison was responsible for the spot of the night here.  During the match, Morrison was knocked from the apron to the guardrail.  He was now really far from the ring, but hadn't been eliminated yet.  In one of the most incredible moments in Rumble history, he leapt from the guardrail to the steps at ringside and got back in the ring.  In recent years, this kind of spot was taken over by Kofi Kingston.  It always adds to the entertainment of the Rumble.

   Meanwhile, CM Punk was dominating the Rumble, as he elimiated several superstars.  The ring filled up again with the likes of Chavo Guerrero, Mark Henry, and the Great Khali.  We were in for a surprise for entrant number 21 when Booker T came out.  By the way, I should point out the awesomeness of Matt Striker's commentary for this match, as it seemed he did not know Booker was going to be there and sounded genuinely excited.  Booker of course, performed a Spineroonie or two to the delight of the crowd.

   The Rumble picked up again as John Cena was out next.  Following him were wrestlers such as Sheamus, Rey Misterio, and Wade Barrett. If you liked Striker's commentary for Booker T, wait until you get a load of entrant number 32!  It was none other than Diesel, which resulted in an extremely excited and bleeped out "holy shit" from Striker.  Diesel appeared at the top of the ramp, tightened his leather glove, and made his way to the ring.  The looks on the Rumble participants' faces were priceless.  No one was safe, as he manhandled everyone in his path.

   Cena was battling Alex Riley and eliminated him.  Just then, WWE Champion The Miz came from behind and dumped Cena out, high tailing it out of there with Riley in tow.  The Miz clearly did not want to defend his Title against Cena, which incidentally, he ended up doing anyway. Kane had lucky number 30!  Towards the end, it looked like the only ones left were Wade Barrett, Alberto Del Rio, and Randy Orton.  Del Rio eliminated the others but just as he was about to celebrate, Santino Marella reentered the ring, as he had not yet been eliminated but was completely forgotten about.  Santino almost had Del Rio's number but in the end, the Mexican Aristocrat won the biggest Royal Rumble in history.  Although I wouldn't have went with Del Rio as the winner, him being introduced as the winner by his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez was worth the price of admission.

   The matches were a mixed bag.  I enjoyed the work of Edge and Ziggler, the women's match was what it was, and although Miz/Orton was fine, the fact that Miz was WWE Champion made it seem less important.  The Rumble itself I was pleasantly surprised by.  I thought because there were 40 men, it would be filled with a bunch of nobodies.  Between Punk's performance, Morrison's athleticism, and the surprise returns of Booker T and Diesel, it turned out to be a pretty good Rumble match.  I still would have entered Christian into the match and had him win, leading to a match between him and best friend again, Edge, at WrestleMania.  Either way, it was to be Edge's last match but what better way to go out than to drop the Title and pass the torch to your best friend?  

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