The Piledriver Report 01.27.11: Royal Rumble Preview

This Sunday, the WWE presents the 2011 Royal Rumble from Boston, MA. While the WWE wants you to believe that the Royal Rumble originated on a cold day in Copps Coliseum, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada on January 24th 1988 when “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan won the “first” Royal Rumble, this was not the case.

THE BEGINNINGS

The very first Royal Rumble took place at a house show in St. Louis, MO on October 4, 1987. Despite being advertised locally, the event drew a disappointing 1,976 fans. During this build up, the WWF announced that the winner of the Rumble would fight Hulk Hogan for the WWF World title when the return to town in November. In an unusual drop the ball move for the WWF, midway through the Royal Rumble house show card, the WWF announced that the One Man Gang would face Hulk Hogan the next time the WWF returns to St. Louis. There was just one problem with this. The Royal Rumble match had not taken place yet. When the match did take place later in the show, and the One Man Gang won the battle royal, the crowd booed the victory, and chanted “Bullshit!” at the WWF giving away the results more than an hour earlier.

A few months later, the WWF aired the show they consider the real inaugural Royal Rumble show on the USA Network. The show drew an 8.2 rating, which still ranks as the highest rated pro wrestling show in the history of cable television. The reason for airing the Royal Rumble was to compete with Jim Crockett. Less than two months earlier, the WWF debuted the Survivor Series pay per view on Thanksgiving night to try to sabotage Crockett’s first pay per view event, Starrcade 1987. When Vince McMahon threatened to pull WrestleMania IV from the cable companies who aired Starrcade, all but a handful fell for McMahon’s pay per view blackmail. This practically buried Jim Crockett Jr.’s company. To try and get even, Crockett decided that he would take his next shot at pay per view in January 1988. To show Vince that he wouldn’t give up without a fight, Crockett held this pay per view in the WWF’s backyard, New York. The event was titled the “Bunkhouse Stampede,” and was held at the Nassau Coliseum in Long Island, New York.

The concept of the Bunkhouse Stampede was extremely unique. Throughout the month of December, Crockett held several Bunkhouse Battle Royals. The winner of each battle royal would advance to the finals at the pay per view. What is a Bunkhouse Stampede Battle Royal? For those who do not know, it was a “come as you are” battle royal, where wrestlers would wear blue jeans, cowboy boys, and would bring weapons such as chains, straps, and garbage can lids into the ring to use as a weapon. Regular battle royal rules would then apply. The Bunkhouse Stampede battle royal final would be held inside of a steel cage, with the winner being the last man left in the cage.

Despite the show only drawing 6,000 fans to the arena, and having very little success on pay per view, Vince McMahon had to squash Crockett’s latest attempt at a pay per view show. He teamed with the USA Network to run the Royal Rumble show at the same time as Crockett presented his Bunkhouse Stampede show. It was no coincidence that the show the WWF chose to air happen to feature their own unique battle royal. After a successful showing on the USA Network, the WWF presented their first Royal Rumble on pay per view in January 1989. The rest, as they say, is history. What started out as a failed house show event has become the WWE’s greatest gimmick match, and second most popular yearly show in the company’s history.

This year’s show, at the time of this writing, features three title matches, as well as the Royal Rumble match itself. Natalya defends the Diva’s title in a handicapped match against Layla and Michelle McCool. Edge puts his World Heavyweight Championship on the line against Dolph Ziggler. The WWE World Champion The Miz wrestles Randy Orton for the title.

DIVAS: NATALYA vs. LAY-COOL

The best female worker on RAW, Natalya, battles the best female duo in wrestling in Lay-Cool. Picking this match is difficult. Natalya has held the belt since the Survivor Series when she also beat Lay-Cool in a handicapped match. I think the winner of this match depends on the latest rumors regarding Awesome Kong. It has been rumored that Kong will debut on the pay per view. If that is the case, whose side will she be on? Is she coming in as Lay-Cool’s new enforcer, or will she come in to destroy Lay-Cool for their constant harassment of “plus sized” Divas. I believe it will be the former case, and we will be celebrating new Diva co-champions. WINNER: Lay-Cool

WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT: EDGE vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER

From a political standpoint, this is probably the most important match on the entire show. If Dolph Ziggler puts on a good show, and has the fans in the arena believing that he belongs on the same stage as Edge, Ziggler’s star will continue to rise. 2011 could become Dolph’s breakout year. If the crowd is dead throughout the match, I fear that Ziggler will be victim of another start-stop push. I look at this match like the Batista/Ken Kennedy World title match at the Royal Rumble a few years ago. They had no plans to put the belt on Kennedy that night. However, after that match, he proved that he belonged in the main event scene. He went on to win that year’s Money in the Bank, and if not for a misdiagnosed injury, he would have been given the World title when the Undertaker went down due to injury himself.

Like Kennedy at that Rumble, I don’t see Dolph Ziggler winning the title. However, I do believe that the crowd will put him over, and Edge will do everything in his power to make Ziggler look good. A new main eventer will be born in this match. A fresh face at the top of SmackDown! may mean a Money in the Bank victory later this year, and a possible World title run could be in Ziggler’s future. If that is the case, we will look back at the 2011 Royal Rumble as the day his rise began. WINNER: Dolph Ziggler

WWE WORLD: THE MIZ vs. RANDY ORTON

The Miz captured the WWE World title just over two months ago. Where it feels like Natalya has been holding the Divas title for an eternity, The Miz’s initial reign as WWE champion still feels fresh and new. The WWE finally has a fresh face at the top that, not only will take the ball and run with it, but he will do every piece of promotion necessary to give himself and the company as much publicity as he can in order to build the brand. Now is not the time to kill the momentum that The Miz and the WWE has created by putting their top title in his possession. While Randy Orton had been the most “protected’ guy in the WWE after John Cena, a loss to The Miz will not hurt his aura. Win or lose, Randy Orton will still be involved in a major match at WrestleMania. He will still be one of the top main eventers in the company. A clean loss to The Miz will allow the WWE to have two future storylines. The first would be the obvious Miz/Cena WWE title clash that seems to be destined for WrestleMania. The second is that when the WWE eventually goes back to an Orton/Miz feud, even months or years later, one of the main angles could be how Orton has been a legend killer, and beaten current stars like Triple H and John Cena, but is yet to defeat The Miz. That storyline is worthy at least one pay per view. For all of the reasons above, I can’t see the WWE choosing any other outcome. WINNER: The Miz

THE ROYAL RUMBLE

This year’s Royal Rumble is being billed as the “biggest Royal Rumble in history.” While it’s a nice pay day for the entire WWE roster to be able to participate in the WWE’s #2 pay per view of the year, the extra ten wrestlers do not add any more intrigue into the match. Take a look at the names that have been announced thus far. Alberto Del Rio, CM Punk, “Dashing” Cody Rhodes, Daniel Bryan, Darren Young, David Hart Smith, David Otunga, Drew McIntyre, Ezekiel Jackson, Heath Slater, Husky Harris, Jack Swagger, John Cena, John Morrison, Justin Gabriel, Mark Henry, Mason Ryan, Michael McGillicutty, Primo, R-Truth, Rey Mysterio, Sheamus, Ted DiBiase, Tyson Kidd, Wade Barrett, William Regal, Yoshi Tatsu, and Zack Ryder. This isn’t even the whole list, yet how many of these performers actually have a shot to win the match? By my count, I would narrow the field down to four men, John Cena, CM Punk, Alberto Del Rio and Sheamus. John Cena is rumored to face The Miz at WrestleMania. CM Punk I in the middle of a feud with Cena. However, a slow build has yet to put these men together in the ring for a serious, big time match. Having CM Punk win the Rumble, with John Cena winning the title at the Elimination Chamber, or vice versa, and then squaring off is another route the WWE could realistically take. With Triple H ready to return at any moment, I can see Sheamus winning the Rumble, and then Triple H winning the chamber match to set up their match at WrestleMania. More realistically though, I think Triple H will interfere in this battle royal to cost Sheamus his shot to main event at WrestleMania. However, I think SmackDown’s Albert Del Rio will win the Rumble to take on Edge at WrestleMania for the World title. Since arriving into the WWE, Del Rio has been the best new character the WWE has brought in for some time. From his experience in Mexico, Del Rio isn’t some green talent who is getting pushed on potential. He knows how to work, and is now showing the charisma that he was lacking while working in Mexico under a match. An Edge/Del Rio World title match at WrestleMania doesn’t look out of place. I can see it happening, and think it will. WINNER: Albert Del Rio