Wrestling’s 4R’s PPV Edition 1.31.12: WWE Royal Rumble 2012

Posted by Larry Csonka on 01.31.2012

CM Punk and Daniel Bryan retained their titles, while Sheamus won the Royal Rumble match! But how was the show? Wrestling's 4R's breaks down the Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous of the WWE Royal Rumble PPV!



How the 4R's of wRestling Work!
Here is a quick explanation of the 4R's. The column will run TWO times a week. We will group our feelings on the shows in various categories: The Right, the wRong and the Ridiculous. The Right is stuff that worked very well: a great promo, a great match and so on. PuRgatoRy is a section between the right and wrong. It shows equal traits from both sides that cannot be ignored and needs discussed. It is not a bad place per say, as things can get remedied or go the wrong way the very next week. The wRong is what it sounds like: bad matches, bad or boring promos and so on. The Ridiculous is stuff that had no right on TV: Stupid angles and so on. And there is always a possibility of a 5th R, which is as bad as they come, unless you are TNA. They have a special R all of their own, the 6th R; the Russo-FN-Riffic~! Of course, that may not happen much any more due to him not having as much power as he used to. This column is supposed to be analytical, and at the right time very critical of the shows, it was the whole reason it was created. This is not a "mark" column, nor a "smark" column, our goal is to analyze the show from many different fronts, reward the good and call out the bad. We will not apologize for our opinions, they are as they are, whether positive or negative.

---

Let's rock…


WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 2012:



By: LARRY CSONKA
QUICK RESULTS:
* World Title Cage Match: Daniel Bryan © defeated the Big Show & Mark Henry via Escape @ [**½] @ 9:00
* Beth, Natalya and The Bellas defeated Kelly, Eve, Alicia and Tamina @ 5:30 via pin [*½]
* Kane vs. John Cena went to a Countout @ 10:00 [**]
* The Funakasaurus defeated Drew McIntyre @ 1:00 via pin [NR]
* WWE Title Match: CM Punk © defeated Dolph Ziggler @ 14:30 via pin [***]
* Royal Rumble Match: Sheamus won the Royal Rumble @ 55:00 [***]

THE RIGHT:
World Title Cage Match: The opening match for the Rumble was the World Title Cage Match, featuring Champion Daniel Bryan defending against Big Show and Mark Henry. The feud has been built well, and was actually the best part of Friday's Smackdown so I was excited about the match. Broken record time, but as I like to mention, I always feel that the opening match is just as important as the main event for many reasons, and this delivered. All three men worked hard, and much credit to Mark Henry, who continues to work through injuries. The story was simple, the big guys pinballed Bryan around the cage and gave the illusion that he was going to lose, while Bryan continually tried to escape at all costs. The end saw Bryan trying to escape again, while Show climbed after him. he looked to have him stopped, but the champion kept fighting, as Show held him by an arm, but Bryan eventually dropped to retain. Show looked disgusted that he lost, while YOUR World Champion celebrated as if he had won the main event of WrestleMania. Things are clicking well with Bryan right now, the writing is good and he has worked well with both Show and Henry throughout the angle. While not a classic, this was a fine way to kick off the PPV.

The Royal Rumble Match: First of all I will say that the Rumble "just" made it into the right. I feel that the inclusion of the three announcers along with key elements being gone from the match, like Kane who had his streak ended, hurt the match and showed how thin the current WWE roster is as far as star power. That being said, I loved that Sheamus won the match. The ending with Jericho really elevated the bout in my opinion, and a good final two can do that. They worked hard, they had some creative stuff laid out, and I loved that Sheamus won. I freely admit that I figured this was Orton or Jericho's to win, but Sheamus getting the victory was a great move. Wm is stacked this year on top with Cena vs. Rock, and the rumored Triple H vs. Taker rematch as well as the rumored Shaq vs. Big Show bout. This is the perfect time to give a guy like Sheamus the chance to shine in one of the main matches, and I hope he gets the chance against Daniel Bryan. Miz and Cody had good runs in the match, Foley's short time was fun, including the comedy battle with Santino and Kharma was obviously the biggest surprise. Kayfabe is not dead in that house apparently, because not only did her appearance not get leaked, but also the fact that she already gave birth didn't make it out either. That's hard to do in 2012. Again, this was far from a perfect rumble, and it was not a great Rumble, there were issues. But I liked the choice of winner, the match had its moments, and it obviously could have been worse. Although I do have to laugh at the Sheamus backlash coming from his victory. I love when people do not get what they expect and then show such rage. To close out, possibly the funniest part of the Rumble match last night. God bless Ricardo…

PURGATORY:
The Funakasaurus defeated Drew McIntyre: Ok, the good news is that the Funkasarus got on PPV and got a victory, that is the good thing. Sure we have seen the same thing numerous times, but it was fun, and the crowd needed some fun after the horrible shit that was Kane and Cena, along with the death of Zack Ryder. But again, and I will sound repetitive if you read the regular Rs for Smackdown, but here we go. People ask me why fans do not care about stipulation matches, this is exactly it. You cannot constantly do stipulations (Drew being fired) and then basically pretend that they do not mean anything. I still contend that the losing streak gimmick will do him no good; all he looks like is a whiny loser week in and week out. I like Drew McIntyre, I think he has a lot of potential, unfortunately this booking will not help him at all, and that is a shame.

Punk vs. Ziggler: Wasted Opportunity: The WWE Title mach between CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler was one I was very much looking forward too. Punk is great, Dolph has been great, and it had the makings of a really strong title match. Unfortunately this did not come off as well as I had hoped. Ziggler came off as a complete afterthought in the match, as they made it all about Johnny Ace. They worked hard and the match was good for what it was, but the overbooking and the fact that Ziggler visibly lost like four times did him no favors. I felt that this really hurt the overall match. They had a big opportunity here to let these guys have a great 20-minute match, which would have helped Ziggler a ton, instead, as I said, he was an afterthought. I will say that there was some good here, as they did good stuff with Johnny and Punk. They did continue their feud, but they also did more work for Johnny's character. Again, I have stated that one of the best parts of his character is that he seemingly "tries" to do the right thing, and "looked" to do the same here, because of the job evaluation. From tossing Vickie to helping count the pin and then handing in the belt, they were little things that I liked. Some good and some bad here, but at the end of the day, I feel a wasted opportunity.

THE WRONG:
Eight Diva's Tag Team Match: As expected, the WWE added an unannounced bout to the PPV, in the form of an eight diva's tag team match featuring Beth, Natalya and The Bellas battling Kelly, Eve, Alicia and Tamina. Overall it was short and didn't offend as far as the ring work goes, which ids a positive, but I feel that there are way too many negatives. First of all, the crowd largely did not care. That isn't the fault of the performers, instead, that is WWE's fault for not booking them in a manner to make us care. We haven't seen Beth in a while, Natalya is farting on Smackdown and Kelly is writing for Perez Hilton or some shit. And then there is the general problem of the unannounced match. That further goes to prove that WWE has issues effectively building PPV on TV. Between the booking and the fact that the bout was simply tossed on PPV, why should we care? Exactly.

THE RIDICULOUS:
Kane vs. Cena: Zack Ryder is Fucked: I have been a critic of the John Cena vs. Kane angle for some time, I do not hide that. I get what they are wanting to do with it, but I just feel that it has come off poorly on TV. Unfortunately that continued here. They had their match, which was not horrible, but also not great. I guess the best thing that I can say about the bout is the fact that the crowd was very into it, because they love to play the "we hate Cena" game. The match as most I think expected did not have a finish, which in this feud and this instance, a mid-card feud, is fine. I do not prefer it, and I HATE it in the main event, but it was ok here. So they brawled backstage, Kane beat the shit out of Cena and then, then it was time for Zack Ryder to die. What you say? Zack Ryder? Yes, you see they brought his back, in a wheelchair and a back brace, and he had his own locker room. Kane entered, smothered him and then wheeled him to the ring. This came off poorly, as he had issues wheeling him to the ring, and he should have picked him up or something. So Kane gets him to the ring, Eve begs off, Cena tries to make a save, eats a choke slam, Kane tombstones Ryder, which gets a pop from the crowd and that is the whole thing. This feud MUST continue, and I hate to think of seeing more of this on my regular TV, let alone PPV. Add on top of that the fact that this feud is doing Ryder NO favors, I mean come on, they popped for him eating the tombstone, he is guilty by association with Cena. Sorry to say that this was a huge down point of the PPV.

The 411
At the end of the day the Road to WrestleMania got off to a rough start. The show was not horrible, but it left a lot desired considering that this is one of the BIG PPVs. The Rumble match was good, had some fun spots and gave us a surprise winner, which is a nice thing. But overall the show didn't have a great focus, and didn't do as much as usual, in my opinion, to really get the Road to WrestleMania off to a great start. We had filler, we had the horrible Kane vs. Cena angle continue and what I feel was a wasted opportunity with Ziggler. Ad din the "please love John Cena" video packages, and I just didn't like much of the show. As someone that paid his hard earned money for the show, I came away rather disappointed. I know some people, especially friends that went to the event had a great time and that is awesome. But as for watching it as I did, and how I view things, this was not a strong event. The glory of opinion. Thanks for reading.

SHOW RATING: 5.0

As a reminder, I will be going by the 411 scale..

0 - 0.9: Torture
1 - 1.9: Extremely Horrendous
2 - 2.9: Very Bad
3 - 3.9: Bad
4 - 4.9: Poor
5 - 5.9: Not So Good
6 - 6.9: Average
7 - 7.9: Good
8 - 8.9: Very Good
9 - 9.9: Amazing
10: Virtually Perfect

YEAR IN REVIEW (PPV):
TOP PPVs:
* TNA Genesis – 5.0
* WWE Royal Rumble - 5.0

TOP PPV MATCHES:
* From TNA Genesis - Monster's Ball Match: Abyss defeated Bully Ray @ 15:28 via pin [***½]

---

Check out the latest edition of the 411 on Wrestling Podcast. On the show, Larry Csonka and Greg DeMarco break down the WWE Royal Rumble PPV, take your calls and questions and more!.

You can download the show at this link. or you can listen on the player below…

Listen to internet radio with Larry Csonka on Blog Talk Radio

TWITTER

Your heart is free. Have the courage to follow it…TO CSONKA'S TWITTER!

http://www.twitter.com/411wrestling
http://www.twitter.com/411moviestv
http://www.twitter.com/411music
http://www.twitter.com/411games
http://www.twitter.com/411mma

The 641st edition is over, now go away as great men speak…