[2013-01-27-WWE-Royal Rumble] Royal Rumble

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

Ziggler was given the choice by Vicki to pick between the 1^st or 2^nd position. Jericho out second and gets a really good crowd response. These You Still Got It chances are amusing as Jericho gets one just a minute in without really do much. Santino tosses four guys over the ropes but of course they all land on the apron. He promptly gets eliminated and becomes the first guy out. Quiet until Goldust shows up and faces off with Cody. Third of the way in and not much going on. None of these guys are legit shots to win.

Sheamus takes out a few guys but the ring fills up quickly after. Mysterio does a drop toe hold on Jericho but they are nowhere near ropes to set up the 619. Bo Dallas is an entrant! Do not remember that. Kofi does one of his false elimination spots this time using JBL’s chair to go from the announce table to the ring. These are silly but they do follow the rules about both feet having to touch the floor and the crowd enjoys it. Kingston gets eliminated for good about five seconds after later which makes his whole effort seem worthless. Godfather out with two ladies who are dressed very PG. And there he goes and just walks to the back with his ladies.

Cena is number 19 as everyone in the ring stops what they are doing and goes after him. Time to weed out some guys. Slater and Cody are gone. Mysterio too. Jericho and Ziggler are still around. Bryan and Cesaro enter back to back. A year too early for us to consider them likely threats to win. Khali followed by Kane and the ring is getting full again. Well, there goes Khali and Kane. Cute spot where Bryan gets thrown over the rope on to Kane below. Kane could have saved him but just drops him on the floor.

Bo Dallas has a respectful showing lasting over 20 minutes and getting rid of Barrett. Ryback is number 30. He quickly tosses three guys so we are left with Ryback, Jericho , Ziggler, Orton, Cena and Sheamus. Ziggler lasts to the final four at just under 50 minutes. Probably your MVP of the match along with Jericho . Best stretch of match was when there were six guys left. Just more room to move around in the ring and things immediately went into another gear. At times there was just too many guys in the ring. Kind of flat when it came down to just Cena and Ryback and the finish wasn’t very smooth. Middle of the pack Rumble overall. Seen this before and legit felt like I was watching it for the first time as did not remember much of anything from before.

[supersonic]

Excellent Rumble match, one of the best ever. This just had so much going for it to make it a classic. Most important is that the match was NEVER dull. That should be so easy to do for this gimmick match, but we've seen so many times that doesn't turn out to be the case (1999, I'm looking at you.) Chris Jericho's return after being fired several months before was a truly amazing moment, and probably the last time he could ever come back to a huge ovation.

 

Jericho and Dolph Ziggler as the starting entrants were excellent lasting to almost the very end, but there were of course other splendid moments as well. Godfather was a great nostalgia entrant, walking down as the master pimp, stepping in the ring, and immediately being eliminated, landing safely on his feet and receiving a standing ovation as he departed from ringside. Not a bad way to cash them checks. There was also the surprise appearance of Goldust, which of course drew the attention of his brother Cody Rhodes (they were still not friendly at the time of this match.) In a nice piece of storytelling, Cody did the Goldust get-on-your-back-and-throw-an-uppercut to Ziggler, sending a message that only HE could bully his brother.

 

What also made this match work so well is that the stars were spread out. Jericho to start the match, Sheamus about 10 entrants later, Cena about 10 after that, with other big names such as Rey Mysterio, Ryback, and Randy Orton spread out as well. In addition, Kofi Kingston had a cute spot when he jumped on Tensai's back and ended up on the Spanish announce table to avoid elimination. He then used JBL's chair as a pogo stick to get to the apron. However, being the nitpicker than I am, why didn't Kingston just use ONE foot to move the chair (which had rolling wheels on its legs) to the apron and then he could simply step back into the ring?

 

The last six were quite stacked for its time, although over a year later, wouldn't be quite so epic right now. Jericho, Ziggler, Sheamus, Ryback, Cena, Orton. And when the finale became Cena vs. Ryback, it was fantastic storytelling, even with the winner being obvious. It was simply best for business for Cena to go on to headline WrestleMania XXIX. A genuine MOTYC. ****1/2