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Best Royal Rumble of all time?


goodhelmet

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The Chris Benoit RR match was probably the best as an actual match, believable in that it went on for several minuts after the last entrant and built up some proper tension. The ending was extremely euphoric and cathartic at the time also - people are spoiled these days in terms of undersized internet/critical/workrate favorites getting WWE pushes.

 

IIRC Meltz found out Benoit was winning the Rumble and eventually the title at mania in Nov./Dec. 2003 but sat on the news. Can't remember if it was at the request of the company or that he didn't want to ruin it for smart fans. It was a wild time on the net

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The Chris Benoit RR match was probably the best as an actual match, believable in that it went on for several minuts after the last entrant and built up some proper tension. The ending was extremely euphoric and cathartic at the time also - people are spoiled these days in terms of undersized internet/critical/workrate favorites getting WWE pushes.

IIRC Meltz found out Benoit was winning the Rumble and eventually the title at mania in Nov./Dec. 2003 but sat on the news. Can't remember if it was at the request of the company or that he didn't want to ruin it for smart fans. It was a wild time on the net

Well heck, shame we just had a "Dave Meltzer's journalistic credibility" discussion last month.

 

Imagine a beat reporter finding out Phil Jackson is coming out of retirement to coach the Knicks next year, but sitting on it because it would make Knicks fans so happy if the press conference was a surprise. And imagine him having that luxury because nobody else is on his beat.

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The Chris Benoit RR match was probably the best as an actual match, believable in that it went on for several minuts after the last entrant and built up some proper tension. The ending was extremely euphoric and cathartic at the time also - people are spoiled these days in terms of undersized internet/critical/workrate favorites getting WWE pushes.

IIRC Meltz found out Benoit was winning the Rumble and eventually the title at mania in Nov./Dec. 2003 but sat on the news. Can't remember if it was at the request of the company or that he didn't want to ruin it for smart fans. It was a wild time on the net

Well heck, shame we just had a "Dave Meltzer's journalistic credibility" discussion last month.

 

Imagine a beat reporter finding out Phil Jackson is coming out of retirement to coach the Knicks next year, but sitting on it because it would make Knicks fans so happy if the press conference was a surprise. And imagine him having that luxury because nobody else is on his beat.

 

Surely if he had gone public with it the plan would have been changed?

 

And Meltzer knew this.

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Meltzer wrote in a November Observer something to the effect of "Expect Benoit to get a major push in the beginning of next year", so clearly he knew some aspects of it, but maybe, like most fans at the time, with Benoit it was very much a case where you don't believe they'll go all the way until they actually do perhaps?

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Edit: Do people shit on this HHH/HBK LMS Match? Cause if anyone does they're simple . This is just as awesome on TV as it was live. What a great bloodbath of a match. I remember people hating the finish , but it worked given the ongoing nature if the story. The finish pissed off the crowd cause the match was so awesome and it really seemed like HBK was gonna win. But looking back it's just a fucking great match that was as bloody as the cover of a random issue of The Wrestler from 1979.

 

Call me simple then, because that match was awful. Awful finish, not much going on and two guys trying to do an epic match and failing miserably. The match on RAW a month prior was much better.

 

Holly v. Brock sucks too since no one took Holly seriously. Eddy v. Chavo is just odd

 

 

This. Pretty sure it must be misguided revisionism that these matches are considered any good - they were slaughtered at the time and Hardcore Holly getting a title shot was widely derided as he was previously a borderline comedy jobber and was considered no threat to Brock.

 

Indiciative of how far the day to day product has fallen if these are considered awesome matches. They didn't stand out at all at the time, not for any good reasons anyway. HHH/HBK was half an hour of overblown lying around if I remember. Eddie/Chavo was a massive disappointment.

 

The match was nothing special but I thought the build for Holly/Lesnar was solid and did a good job making Holly come off somewhat credible even if he wasn't a threat necessarily. The build made for some fun TV on Smackdown that month.

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Dave reported that Benoit would be jumping to RAW to feud with HHH long before it actually happened. He didn't sit on that story at all. Dave doesn't make a habit of reporting match finishes in advance. He does sometimes, but not very often.

Hmm, could have sworn he left out major points of the story as to not ruin it. Maybe I was thinking of another story or different reporter/situation. Pretty sure it was reported almost after Benoit won that Orton was going to get it at Summerslam

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