Originally posted by JustinShapiroI don't think you can debut rookies cold in the Royal Rumble. But with all the empty spots it would've been cool, if incredibly unlikely, if Titus, Bateman, DYoung, and Curtis had competed for a Rumble spot and quick elimination.
(edited by JustinShapiro on 30.1.12 1653)
Oops. I thought he meant go with legends and give them airtime and story lines because of the lack of roster depth. My comment was call up some guys from FCW to breathe life into the mid card, but I didn't mean toss them in the Rumble. I think just tossing those guys in the Rumble would have been a really bad idea. I do feel bad for a guy like Tyson Kidd losing out of a spot in the Rumble to shitty announcers and Jim Duggan.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroShould be fantastic. Del Rio going to be out for a while longer I guess?
I vaguely remember when the injury originally happened that Del Rio was supposedly week-to-week. Just how bad is this injury? It sounds like it's worse than anybody thought.
One last note on the Rumble participants. I can see why the E decided to steer for nostalgia with Foley, Duggan, and Road Dogg. But how disheartening does it have to be for Slater, Hawkins, Reks, McIntyre, McGillicutty, Tatsu, JTG, Tyson Kidd, and Mason Ryan that they aren't allowed to compete in a Rumble match that has had nearly a dozen spots open up due to injury, suspension, or general booking stupidity? Am I really supposed to believe that none of these guys were good enough to replace TED DiBIASE?
Originally posted by JustinShapiroI don't think you can debut rookies cold in the Royal Rumble. But with all the empty spots it would've been cool, if incredibly unlikely, if Titus, Bateman, DYoung, and Curtis had competed for a Rumble spot and quick elimination.
(edited by JustinShapiro on 30.1.12 1653)
Oops. I thought he meant go with legends and give them airtime and storylines because of the lack of roster depth. My comment was call up some guys from FCW to breathe life into the midcard, but I didn't mean toss them in the Rumble. I think just tossing those guys in the Rumble would have been a bad idea. I do feel bad for a guy like Tyson Kidd losing out of a spot in the Rumble to shitty announcers and Jim Duggan.
Yeah I can understand not using some of the very bottom guys who people legitimately hardly know (like Barretta or Hawkins), but I would rather see Kidd and Tatsu, who are great and have been in Rumbles before, get in and fill some time with hard work and action than the idea that every lull had to be carried by a comedy cameo bit.
Originally posted by JustinShapiro Oh WWE.com has the Raw Chamber match.
CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho vs. The Miz vs. R-Truth vs. Dolph Ziggler vs. Kofi Kingston
Should be fantastic.
Wow. Is that the most reasonably and competitively sized Elimination Chamber match ever? No super heavyweights or jacked muscle dudes. I don't think anyone in there is even 250 lbs. And they can all wrestle.
(edited by John Orquiola on 30.1.12 1426) @BackoftheHead
Originally posted by JustinShapiroYeah I can understand not using some of the very bottom guys who people legitimately hardly know (like Barretta or Hawkins), but I would rather see Kidd and Tatsu, who are great and have been in Rumbles before, get in and fill some time with hard work and action than the idea that every lull had to be carried by a comedy cameo bit.
I read that the dark match for the live crowd was Yoshi Tatsu vs. Heath Slater, so they did...something last night at least.
This really could have been a whole lot better. I actually enjoyed the World Title match and it made sense to keep it brief. Of course Bryan would look to get out of there as soon as possible. They do need to just let Henry heal up because it's been pretty self-defeating by pretending like everything is fine.
The bonus matches were rubbish, even if it was nice to see Beth again. Brodus is fun and he's really making the most of it, but how is sending him out there to repeat his same 30 second match that he's already had a few times benefiting anyone? It be nice to see him add 2-3 more moves (thereby doubling his arsenal).
Cena/Kane was about as interesting to me as the divas match, minus the benefit of 16 boobs.
I absolutely do not buy Ziggler as a WWE champ or main eventer. He seems awfully excited to be there, though, but if that's the cause of him being sloppy and again nearly killing Punk, he needs to knock it off. I didn't enjoy this as much as others here seemed to. Punk did squash him and that reversal into the Fameasser was blatantly telegraphed. Punk never sets up the GTS for the right knee.
The Rumble was pretty mystifying. Really odd booking decisions and inclusions. Foley was ridiculously slow. I really wish if he was going to do in-ring action he'd at least get into some kind of shape that is less embarrassing. Ricardo got a crazy pop and deservedly so. They should give him some kind of run on his own.
I was never a fan of Duggan so I could do without his nostalgia pop. Especially when they could have gone with Goldust instead and serve a purpose with it. None of the surprise entrants were around long enough to really matter, rendering them a novelty and nothing more. Kharma should have been given more time to establish herself as a serious threat to the men. Her implant buster on Ziggler was pretty great, though. She just needed to be able to do more of that before being dumped. Instead Khali gets a stupid amount of time to stagger around the ring, dropping everyone with those ridiculous chops.
I really was surprised that after everything, they really went down the least interesting road possible for Jericho. Amazing that he gets into the Chamber title match despite having wrestled once since his return and not winning a match in what, 2 years? I don't find Sheamus appealing at all (to me, his babyface persona quite stale already), but I guess they needed to give someone different a shot (but even he is a pretty safe choice).
So it had its entertaining moments, but on a whole, a fairly uninteresting event that had it's embarrassing moments that were barely watchable (Kane/Ryder, the pointless surprise entrants, etc). I do wonder if the writers gather up all the really great ideas and dismiss them immediately in order to come up with less satisfying stories and results just to frustrate the fanbase.
I don't think it does young guys any good to debut in the Rumble. They won't get a pop because the fans don't know them, and since they are losing, they just look like cannon fodder.
Originally posted by ScottyflamingoI don't think it does young guys any good to debut in the Rumble. They won't get a pop because the fans don't know them, and since they are losing, they just look like cannon fodder.
Yes, I agree it would be dumb. I never suggested that should have happened though. I figured you meant that the WWE should bring in oid legends and push them due to the lack of depth on the roster and I think they should bring up some guys like Black and Moxley from FCW to add to the midcard and create new stars.
Originally posted by ScottyflamingoI don't think it does young guys any good to debut in the Rumble. They won't get a pop because the fans don't know them, and since they are losing, they just look like cannon fodder.
Yes, I agree it would be dumb. I never suggested that should have happened though. I figured you meant that the WWE should bring in oid legends and push them due to the lack of depth on the roster and I think they should bring up some guys like Black and Moxley from FCW to add to the midcard and create new stars.
(edited by graves9 on 30.1.12 1854)
No, not push. Just use them for cannon fodder. Duggan's role was perfect. He came in, got the crowd happy, then got heat on Cody for eliminating him. Duggan gets a nice moment, young guy gets heat, everybody wins.
Originally posted by JustinShapiroShould be fantastic. Del Rio going to be out for a while longer I guess?
I vaguely remember when the injury originally happened that Del Rio was supposedly week-to-week. Just how bad is this injury? It sounds like it's worse than anybody thought.
the 01/02 cover date WON had this:
Del Rio looks to be out four to six weeks with a torn groin suffered on the 12/19 Raw show in Philadelphia during the six-man tag match. He will be undergoing minor surgery. Based on that time line he’s out of the Rumble and should be back in time for the Elimination Chamber.
3 weeks later
No word on Del Rio for the Rumble. The last we heard it was more likely he wouldn’t be back in time.
6 weeks would mean a return tonight, but then he's not in that elimination chamber and that's the obvious place for him.
Del Rio being out isn't the worst thing for him. His character was stale and I think most would agree that it was getting boring. Of course if he comes back with doing the exact same thing and the same old destiny garbage then the layoff isn't going to do much good anyways. He doesn't need a complete overhaul. Putting him back on Smackdown would be a start, other than that I don't really have any ideas for him other than giving him a small crew of some kind.
One good thing to come out of the Rumble is that they didn't try and give us the Mason Ryan is a beast push again which is sort of surprising to me.
I think they need to keep Goldberg at least long enough to have a match with Steve Austin. If they paid him all that money to be around for only a year, and to never have him face Austin is just bad business.