Alberto Del Rio wins the WWE Royal Rumble Match:
Nick: From an overall standpoint, this was a solid rumble match, but not the best. I don’t understand why WWE didn’t promote the fact that the losers of the previous title matches would compete in the Rumble. It would have added to the mystery of who’d win the big match. Additionally, no one stood out as a real highlight in the match with the exception of maybe CM Punk and Wade Barrett. Although Del Rio won the bout, he wasn’t necessarily impressive, and aside from John Morrison’s INCREDIBLE spot early on, he had very little success in the match itself. The Cena/Hornswoggle bit was absurd and anti-climactic, and had no business being in the Rumble. Additionally, why would WWE spend the time on Raw introducing us to the "new Nexus" only to have Cena, once again, and with as much ease as possible, eliminate them ALL during the Rumble? WWE did a great job of establishing the group as a serious threat prior to Cena’s Rumble entrance, only to bury it by having Cena easily clean house.
On a positive note, however, I will say that the Rumble match did a great job of setting up the impending Corre vs Nexus feud, as well as Cena/Miz and Orton/Punk. Although some will argue that it might have been too soon to put Alberto Del Rio over as the Rumble winner, I actually thought it was very refreshing to see a new face win the big bout. The surprise entrances of Nash and Booker T were well executed and fun, and both looked genuinely excited to be a part of the match. And on that note I’ll say that WWE is very wise in pushing new talent such as Sheamus, Miz, Del Rio and Barrett heading into WrestleMania, because if a returning Diesel gets a bigger and more consistent pop than a stare down between Orton and Cena, WWE should be making some changes to freshen things up.
Chris: I agree that it was refreshing to see Del Rio win the match. I had him as one of my top three picks to potentially win, so that was an added bonus for me as well! However, they better put him over huge in the following weeks or the biggest event of wrestling’s calendar year is going to have the same lackluster feel going into it as last night’s show. Edge versus Alberto Del Rio and Miz versus John Cena simply don’t have the means to headline WrestleMania. Even with Orton/Punk, a returning Triple H and the always-popular Money In The Bank match to back it up. I think the few weeks to come are going to be very important for the Miz specifically because we still have the Elimination Chamber pay per view and it’s not a guarantee that Vince won’t decide to go with a more promising matchup if he doesn’t feel Miz is ready by then.
I LOVED the way Punk and the new Nexus were dominating the match and I HATED the way they ruined it with John Cena cleaning house. I fully expected Cena to be the first wrestler who could hang in there with the dominant group, but was hoping he would just buy some time until maybe members of the Corre could start filtering in to assist. I don’t think the chemistry between the new Nexus and the Corre even had a chance since NO members of the Raw faction were even left in the match – with the exception of Punk – by the time the Corre members made it to the Rumble.
I was okay with the Cena/Hornswoggle bit since it didn’t last too long, but I could have definitely done without it. The "surprise" entrants of Diesel and Booker T (not much of a surprise to WrestleZone.com readers – cheap plug) were great. Nash and King Bookah are true veterans who can help WWE in their new direction of building young talent into future stars. We’ll see if last night was a one-shot deal for those two, but given the pops for both, I would seriously doubt Vince will ignore their potential.
Nick, how would you rank last night’s Rumble compared to some of those in the past?
Nick: On the whole I would say this was a better Rumble match than others in terms of its outcome in that WWE finally went with a fresh face winner as opposed to a predictable finish like having an injured top guy enter at #30 and win the bout. But what took away from the match was the lack of presence that most of the talent had. Aside from a couple guys, no one stood out to me as a real contender in this year’s Rumble.
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