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The Ryan Devlin Era - The Royal Rumble!

The Road to Wrestlemania has well and truly begun, the WWE’s annual Royal Rumble extravaganza kicked off the long and winding road to the biggest date on the wrestling calendar and did so in tremendous fashion and pulling together to make the start of WWE’s 2010, a one that we will remember for a very long time to come. We saw the best and most stable performance from The Undertaker for a very long time, Orton and Legacy have split, or have they, and the Rated R Superstar returned 3 months early to win his ticket to headline Wrestlemania this coming April.

Now in this week’s column I’ll basically be combining the Ryan Devlin Era with my Rumble review, purely because if I wrote two separate ones, they would just be a genesis of each other and would get very samey very quickly, so let us begin with the ECW Title match that kicked us off as usual. I thought this was a strange match booked, as just on WWE’s last PPV outing at Tables, Ladders and Chairs, the ECW title bout was one of the finest matches of the night, if not the finest. When Christian took on Shelton Benjamin [whom always shines when put on PPV] in a ladder match. Now just two months later [i] Christian is defending his belt in just your everyday standard match against Ezekiel Jackson. However though, this match was solid, and I never thought that before this match got going I’d be admitting that, it was hard hitting, quite exciting and during the most part of the contest, there was no way in hell of judging who’d walk out with the lightest belt in the WWE universe. That’s what made this match, and the rest of the card special, there was no way of judging who’d walk out victorious, and again, well done to WWE for playing the right deck of cards for once in a while.

It had to end sometime and Christian did walk out victorious and his “extremely” successful ECW title reign continues, albeit it doing nothing for his career or were Captain Charisma should actually be sitting in the WWE roster, which is at the very top.

The most pointless match of the night was immediately following this, and a hilarious sing-along of Pants on the Ground from Teddy Long too Cryme Time, the last minute addition to the card, a singles match for the United States title, The Miz defending against MVP. Ok, it was not only the worst match of the night, but it cluttered up the card, felt rushed and there was no room or need to actually add it to the card. Not that either The Miz or MVP was ever going to successfully win the Royal Rumble later in the night, but seeing them once is enough. Instead of leaving this match to the Elimination Chamber PPV next month or even show it on Raw sometime in the coming weeks, but it made the PPV bland and shaded a dark cloud over the rest of the PPV. Like many I’m sure I would have much preferred not to see this match on this PPV, but rather on the next PPV event were matches like this will be few and far between. But thankfully The Miz successfully defeated MVP and is still the US champion, now with one of the best personas on the roster and amazing entrance music, this guy is heading to the top, but god knows how long it will be until we see The Miz headline Wrestlemania if ever.

Again next was yet another solid match between Randy Orton and the WWE Champion Sheamus with the gold on the line. Not surprising that the sold out crowd warmed to Orton as the baby face in this feud, and got a very big pop from the crowd, and I tell you this, when Orton breaks his heel persona and turns face, he’ll be the biggest merchandise machine in the whole of the WWE and one of the biggest names in the world of wrestling. Now the past few weeks I have made and heard many complaints about how WWE are booking their world champion, the Jamie Noble killer, and cruiserweight destroyer, it really is disgraceful, but for once tonight, WWE book him correctly, sort of. In a bloody good wrestling match that was cut short thanks too, you guessed it, interference by Legacy member Cody Rhodes. The end of Legacy? I think so, it wouldn’t have looked so bad if Rhodes hadn’t attacked the Irish Born champ from behind clear blank in front of the ref. I must say I loved the drama of this segment and it made me sit back and really watch, especially when Orton was beating down Rhodes, I did expect Ted DiBiase to come down and really take out Orton but that never happened sadly.

Now this wouldn’t be the Ryan Devlin era without throwing in my guest booker stance at this time, as I think I would have booked this one a little differently. I would have had Sheamus win on his own accord, but with Legacy member Rhodes outside, distracting Orton for Sheamus to hit the big boot for the clean win. Having got the win, Orton just like he was, gets pissed and attacks Rhodes, but is saved by DiBiase whom hits an RKO to Orton and leaves with partner Cody Rhodes on top of their mentor. This would have made the young stars look strong over the viper rather than the scarred little pussy cats they were made to look, and best of all, Orton would turn face, DiBiase and Rhodes could carry out their cocky heel gimmick, which would eventually turn into a successful tag team title reign, because to be fair, they deserve a run with the belts over DX anyway. That would be my take on the situation.

But on with the rest of the PPV, and up next was the most pleasant surprise WWE could have delivered to me on a Sunday night. Mickie James making a fool of both Layla and Michelle McCool in the shortest but no doubt one of the finest moments WWE creative pulled off. However it wouldn’t have been so had McCool and Layla not embarrassed Mickie that little bit extra before the match, but when Mickie’s music hit, and the crowd went wild, she immediately took out Layla and destroyed McCool with one quick DDT for the win.

But that wasn’t all; the likeable Diva’s came to the ring with a giant cake and smashed it into the sickened faces of the most hated divas in the company, a great moment worthy for the PPV. But I can’t help but feel that in years to come, Mickie will tell the truth about this angle, and how it’s turned into something far worse than just sports entertainment. But thank heavens that disastrous angle is now dead and buried, thank the lord. I could have used so many quirky puns to go with the finish of this angle, so I think I’ll just go with this one, it looks like Michelle McCool finally got her just deserts.

And finally in the under card of this event, the best match of the night bar the Rumble of course, The Undertaker vs. Rey Mysterio with the dead man’s World Heavyweight Title on the line. I can safely say that this was the best match the Undertaker has put on since his epic encounter with Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania. Not that it was any comparison in the slightest but this was still a great match, and a lot better paced than some of his other matches with the title, in which he basically looked crocked and weak. Many including myself thought Mysterio would be a bad opponent for him with his fast paced style, but it couldn’t have been more different. Yes, Taker was struggling to keep up a little, but he put down an excellent effort and finished with a thunderous Last Ride to finish of the little big man. Taker definitely showed why he is still one of the best at what he does, even with the age, and the lighter work rate.

But what can be said about this years Royal Rumble, always the top attraction to the PPV, and probably the most entertaining matches to watch on the wrestling calendar, who’d have thought putting 30 men throwing each other over the top rope would such a hit? Whether it be the unstoppable CM punk taking out everyone in his path, and delivering some kick ass hilarious promo’s whilst doing so, or Triple H being eliminated by his DX partner with a huge super kick throwing the Game over the top rope, or could it be the demise of HBK’s dream of challenging The Undertaker at Wrestlemania [which I might add, I was very happy to see get knocked on the head]. That’s one match that should be left in the history books as one of the best, not over sold to us again the year after, we know Taker will never lose at Mania, and we know it will do last years match no justice.

But for me personally, the top attraction of the night was the return of the Rated R superstar, Edge, returning earlier than scheduled [no surprise there] and winning the Royal Rumble. Had this not been leaked onto the internet a few days prior to the PPV, I would have been shaking at the concept of Edge coming back, let’s just hope Jericho captures one of the belts at the Elimination Chamber so the two can finally go one on one at Mania, and give the return of Edge the hype it deserves.

It was an excellent surprise win, however during the course of the most unpredictable Royal Rumble in years; it did turn out to be, in retrospect, very predictable.

Ryan Devlin.
Submitted by TNAryan

Posted by Marek on Thursday 04 February 2010 - 05:40:50 | |