The Piledriver Report 01.19.12: Royal Rumble Preview

Posted by Ronny Sarnecky on 01.19.2012

With two tickets to the Super Bowl on the line this weekend for four NFL football teams, Ronny Sarnecky takes a look at the event where thirty competitor fight for one ticket to headline WrestleMania: the 2012 Royal Rumble.

This week professional wrestling is taking a backseat to the National Football League's Conference Championship games. In the AFC, the Baltimore Ravens battle the top seeded New England Patriots. In the NFC, the New York Giants travel to San Francisco to take on the 49ers. The winners of these two games will meet in two weeks in Super Bowl XLVI in Indianapolis, IN.

A week before the Super Bowl takes place, the WWE will hold its own version of a Conference title game. On Sunday, January 29th, the WWE holds their 25th Anniversary edition of the Royal Rumble. On the line that night is a shot at challenging for one of the WWE's World singles titles at the WWE's version of the Super Bowl, WrestleMania.

As of press time, the WWE has only announced three matches for the pay per view card. John Cena will face Kane in a singles contest. In a match for the World Wrestling Entertainment Heavyweight Championship, Dolph Ziggler will challenge the champion CM Punk for the WWE World title with John Laurinaitis as the special referee. In the main event, thirty wrestlers will battle inside the ring in the Royal Rumble match.

THE SMACKDOWN! THREE



With over a week left before the pay per view, there is still time of the WWE to add another match or two on the show. What match or matches will the WWE insert before the opening bell? I think it is safe to say that Daniel Bryan should be defending his World Heavyweight Championship on the show. The big question should be who will face Bryan for the title? Currently, Daniel Bryan has a dual rivalry going on with The Big Show and Mark Henry. Neither feud has ended with a concrete winner. Add into the mix that The Big Show and Mark Henry have been feuding for the past few months, and I think it is pretty clear that Mark Henry, The Big Show, and Daniel Bryan are destined to face each other in a Triple Threat match at the Royal Rumble.

When the WWE first put the World Heavyweight title on Mark Henry last year, I was very interested to see how his reign would be handled. After all, Mark Henry has been a career midcard wrestler throughout his run in the business. I loved that they put the big gold belt on him. However, I wasn't sure if I would be alone my happiness. Once having the World title around his waist, something remarkable happened to Mark Henry. He started performing better than he had at any point in his 15+ year career. It's like the added responsibility of being the brand's top title holder lit a fire in his ass and Mark Henry became a legitimate main event performer.

Speaking of main event performers, ever since Daniel Bryan captured the Money in the Bank briefcase, the "American Dragon," has been pushed as anything but a main event wrestler. That all changed on December 18th. At the TLC pay per view, following The Big Show's World title victory over Mark Henry, Daniel Bryan cashed in his briefcase to capture the World title from the new champion. After seeing how the WWE failed to push Daniel Bryan leading up to his World title victory, I feared that the WWE would give Daniel Bryan the Rey Mysterio World title reign, where the champion seems insignificant compared to the other main event players on the roster.

For the past month, the WWE has been doing a slow heel turn with Daniel Bryan. The slow turn has been working. Daniel Bryan has been giving his best performances since coming into the company. Watching Bryan lambast The Big Show after the giant injured Bryan's girlfriend AJ was fantastic. Hearing Daniel utter the line "she's 95 lbs. You're 500lbs. You're a bastard!" That was priceless. I can't wait for the day that Bryan turns to the official and declares, "I have til five!" following an illegal act. That will be a mark out moment for Ring of Honor fans.

I think the Royal Rumble will be the night that Daniel Bryan officially turns heel. Remember the backstage segment that Daniel Bryan had with AJ before his match with The Big Show? When AJ told Bryan that she loved him, he asked what she would do for him. I believe her "accident" in the match was a set up, and we will find out at the Royal Rumble that AJ's "injury" was a fake used to help Daniel in his rivalry with The Big Show. Whether the World Heavyweight title match features Daniel Bryan defending against The Big Show, Mark Henry, or both, I like Bryan to successfully defend his championship.

EMBRACE THE HATE



As great as SmackDown's! main feud has been between Bryan, Henry, and Show, the same cannot be said regarding Monday Night RAW's feud that features John Cena and Kane. When their program first started, there was some great potential between the two performers. First, Kane was coming back as the mask wearing "Big Red Machine." When the initial promos began hyping Kane's return, you saw the old school Kane mask. However, when Kane made his return, he was wearing a mask that wasn't exactly the old school Kane mask that we all knew. Instead, we got an ugly version of the mask. Not a good way to start off.

Second, when their feud started it reminded me of the Jake Roberts/Ultimate Warrior feud in the nineties. To set up the feud, Jake Roberts was going to show the Ultimate Warrior how to channel his dark path in his feud with Papa Shango. Eventually, Roberts turned on the Warrior. Fast forward to 2012, and Kane is playing the role of Roberts. Kane was trying to convince Cena to embrace the hate. I thought that this may be the WWE's way of dipping Cena's toe in the heel waters. Cena even wrestled more aggressively on RAW last week. Unfortunately, the storyline is looking more like Return of the Jedi where the Emporer wants Luke to embrace the dark side of the Force. I think we are in for the same results, John Cena, like Luke before him, will decide to stay on the side of good. Yuck!

Kane and John Cena will battle each other at the Royal Rumble. With Cena about to wrestle The Rock at WrestleMania, I can't see a long drawn out feud with Kane. With that being the case, I think John Cena will be the "Big Red Machine."

THAT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH



The top singles match on the card will feature CM Punk defending the WWE World title against Dolph Ziggler. I am really looking forward to this match. Dolph Ziggler always seems to have the best matches on the card lately. As much as I think that Punk and Ziggler can steal the show, a part of me was hoping to see them wrestle on the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania.

With the rumored Chris Jericho/CM Punk match possibly taking place at WrestleMania, you would think that CM Punk will successfully retain his title against Ziggler at the Rumble. That would be 100% true, except for one little monkey wrench that was thrown into the deal. The WWE's VP of Talent Relations, John Laurinaitis will be the special referee for the match. This match has title change written all over it. Dolph Ziggler can easily capture the WWE World title at the Royal Rumble, and then drop it back to Punk at the Elimination Chamber pay per view. While I can see this happening, I sure hope that the WWE does not do this. When Ziggler gets his first WWE World title reign, I would like to see him get a Miz length title reign, and not the transitional championship reign. Ziggler is too talented to be a transitional champion. What I think will happen is that somehow Mick Foley will get involved and he, not Laurinaitis, will count the pinfall. Thus, allowing CM Punk to retain the WWE World title.

ROYAL RUMBLING



The main event of the night is the Royal Rumble battle royal. It's one of my favorite matches each year. One match. Thirty competitors. Nearly sixty minutes of action with a WrestleMania World title shot on the line. What more could you ask for? Every year, there seems to be about four possible contenders who could win this match. However, this year, it seems like there are only two possibilities. Randy Orton and Chris Jericho.

This year's show is in St. Louis, which is Randy Orton's home town. The Randy Orton/Rumble winner rumors have been circulating for six months already. I remember, during the summer, reading that WWE wrestlers were joking that Randy Orton would win the Royal Rumble until Vince realizes that it takes place in Orton's home town, and then he would change his mind.

Leading up to the show, it doesn't appear that Vince was changing his mind. Instead, fate would step in. A few weeks ago, Randy Orton injured his back putting his Royal Rumble appearance in jeopardy. With Orton possibly on the shelf, it may be time for Plan B. If the rumors are true, and Chris Jericho will be fighting for the WWE World title at WrestleMania, then he would be the WWE's best secondary option if Orton cannot wrestle. Jericho is also probably Vince's "unexpected" choice. What I mean by that is if Vince thinks to many people know who the winner of a particular match is, he will switch things up as a surprise. The problem here is that if Vince goes from Orton to Jericho, nobody will be surprised. Most people expect one or the other.

Both men are very logical choices based on current storylines and/or future WrestleMania plans. I am going with the predictable route this year. If Randy Orton is healthy, I expect him to win the match

The Royal Rumble is considered the true Road to WrestleMania. With the main event to the show having been set for almost a year, it's time to see how the rest of the card starts to shape up. That all begins on Sunday, January 29th. Let's get ready to rumble!