The Best Of The Rest 1.23.08: Volume 29 - Rumble Preview, ROH Weekend Shows and More

Posted by Alex Mattis on 01.23.2008

"The Best Of The Rest!" Debuting this week in HD!!!

Welcome back one and all to "The Best Of The Rest." We are just several days away from the Royal Rumble and the anticipation continues to build. The E is having quite a hot week with this PPV, and their debut on HD, but they are not alone. ROH has a huge weekend in store for their fans upcoming and coming off the heels of UFC 80 the MMA community has Ultimate Fight Night and UFC 81 to look forward to in the weeks to come.


The Royal Rumble
For those who read last week's column, you know that I already went in depth with the importance and history of the Rumble, so this week we're going to dive straight into this year's event.

Ric Flair Vs. MVP:
Anyone think Flair is going to lose? Yeah, thought so. I don't see a title win though.

JBL Vs. Chris Jericho:
It'll be interesting to see which direction the E takes with this match. Logic would say that Jericho will go over, using his quickness and taking advantage of JBL's ring rust. But to hell with logic! This is the WWE! What is most likely to happen is JBL wins via heel tactics of doom. I have really enjoyed the build of this match and really hope it delivers, but two men with clashing styles and two men who have spent a lot time away from ring meeting in such a high profile match could disappoint. I'm not counting either out. I do expect a strong effort from both, and hopefully more ridiculous amounts of pyro.

Edge vs. Rey Mysterio:
Alex Mattis breaking this match down would be about as fair as Kimbo Slice Vs. my mother. Odd reference I know, but point being I cannot stand the sheer sight of either of these two so I would probably bury the match to an unnecessary extent. I try hard to not pay attention to anything these two do these days. Win - Edge via help from his posse.

Randy Orton Vs. Jeff Hardy:
As much as I don't care for him, no one can argue the fact that Jeff Hardy has been stepping up his game lately and this Sunday should be the culmination. This possibly the biggest match in Hardy's career and I don't expect him to blow off this huge opportunity. There is no question that Jeff will bring his A game, and if Orton brings his this should be a great match. When Orton is on, I don't think there is anyone in the E who is like him and a solid match with Hardy would be an excellent pre-cursor to a 'Mania title match. Hardy nearly kills himself to win but Orton eventually gets the W, clean. After the match Hardy gets the traditional standing O' for effort.

The Rumble Match:
Well... until Monday night I really thought this had potential. Now with HHHitler back in the mix, this Rumble seems to be more predictable than the ending of Titanic. I'm all up for being shocked though. And if Triple H doesn't win this match I will be in a legit state of shock. No matter what, like I expressed last week, the Rumble is always an exciting hour and this year should be no exception. There are enough solid characters and wrestlers in this match for it to be a very entertaining Rumble.

ROH-mble Weekend
Ring Of Honor returns to Dayton and Chi-Town this weekend with two big cards, that could really shake up the title picture within the company.

1/25 - Dayton:
The first night of this weekend will see the ROH world champ Nigel McGuinness defend his title against arguably the greatest professional wrestler in the history of mankind, Chris Hero. Tack on to that the fact that this is a steel cage match, and you've got the making for a hell of a showdown. ROH has teased the potential of having Hero as their champion, but I'm not sure if this is the time. Nigel's title reign has gone less than stellar thus far so great matches and convincing wins are crucial to get things back on track for McGuinness. In another title match of the evening, the FIP champ Erick Stevens will defend his strap against Davey Richards in what should be a very stiff battle. Expect Stevens to leave the same way he came in. In a first time tag match, The Briscoes will face The Vulture Squad of Jack Evans and Ruckus. This should be a fun, spotty, flip-filled match. I'm actually thinking that the underdogs may win this one, with Evans & Ruckus pulling off a big upset. I could see this as a setback for Jay & Mark on their way back to regaining their titles. Bryan Danielson will take on Tyler Black in what should be a interesting match. Blending two unique styles. Elsewhere Brent Albright and BJ Whitmer will face the always fantastic duo of Delirious & El Generico in what should be a hot tag match, faction warfare will ensue as the Age of the Fall will battle the No Remorse Corps, and in what should be a solid singles match Austin Aries and Jigsaw will go at it. This show should set up a pretty interesting show for the following night.

1/26 - Chicago:
ROH is known for their Chicago shows, as it seems to be the town where they pull out the most stops. Well the main event for this show isn't set, but either way we should be in for quite a title match. If Nigel retains he will face Roderick Strong, if Hero wins he will face Strong in a cage match. Either way, we're good. Whoever the champ is going into Chicago, will leave as champ. In an attempt to settle the score between the two, Delirious will face Adam Pearce in a good ole' fashion Dog Collar Match. Pearce works old school matches like this excellently, so this should be entertaining. I'm picking Pearce via Hagadorn interference. The tag titles will be defended in an Ultimate Endurance match. I expect the AOTF to hold onto those belts for some time. A rematch from The Race To The Top as Generico looks to avenge his loss to Claudio. Also Larry Sweeney has said that Chris Hero and Sara Del Rey will defend the most prestigious, valued titles in the game, the Intergender Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Of The World. I think we'll see what kind of a course ROH is going to set for us in '08 this weekend.

The Stoppage:
Could I have been more off with my UFC 80 predictions? I think not. Putting the bruise to my ego aside, I really enjoyed this PPV. A solid event with some good fights and some highlight reel action. We started off the night with a very surprising KO victory for Jorge Rivera over Kendall Grove. Jorge came out, tested the waters, and when he saw that Kendall had nothing to offer back... he started T'n off. A complete destruction. This is one of those cases of "it'll be interesting to see where both of these fighters go from here." The second fight of the night was one of the best example of the "one punch can change a fight" in recent memory. This wasn't a Serra-GSP case where a big punch led to a TKO, this was one punch...DONE. Jason Lambert was mauling Wilson Gouveia and maybe even had a 10-8 first round. He was constantly putting pressure on Wilson but didn't look to finish. Well he decided to trade blows and got put to sleep by an monstrous left hook. Lambert has some serious potential and hopefully this fight will be a good learning experience for him, and in the future he should always be looking to finish. And Gouveia put some folks on notice, showing to be careful 'cause this fool got some power. On to the next KO of the night. G' Night Jess Liaudin. Marcus Davis looks better and better each time we see him, and this looked easy for him. He hit a gorgeous body kick that hurt Jess, then hit a solid punch right behind Liaudin's ear that stiffened him out and knocked him out. I'd like to see Davis to be matched up with more of a challenge. Kos? Fitch? Karo? Well they're all taken for the time being, but you catch my drift. How wrong I was about the Werdum-Gonzaga fight. Gabe had me all ready and fired up with "Mother" by Danzig blaring on his way down to the octagon. I was ready to see him walk right through Werdum. Well that didn't happen. Gonzaga was working some sick leg kicks that were doing some serious damage but he just couldn't put Fabricio away. Come the 2nd round Gonzaga got caught with knee and from there was pinned up against the cage and pounded until the ref stepped in and stopped it. A disappointing loss for Gabriel, but a huge victory for Werdum that may erase the memory of his dreadful UFC debut. On to the main event... how can you not give it up for Joe Stevenson? He put everything he had into this fight. He was clearly outclassed but kept coming. Even when he had a horrendous cut that would freak out most fighters he kept coming forward and pressing the action. BJ is just a better fighter than Joe, but Stevenson put forth an effort that he can be proud of. BJ Vs. Sherk looks like it has the making to be a big grudge match for the UFC to cash in on come May.

Well we're approaching the big debut Brock Lesnar, and next week I'll have a full preview of UFC 81. But until then I will leave you with my...

Ultimate Fight Night Picks:
Mike Swick Vs. Josh Burkman
Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries
Alvin Robinson Vs. Nate Diaz
Michihiro Omigawa Vs. Thiago Tavares
Alberto Crane Vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Dennis Siver Vs. Gray Maynard
Jeremy Stephens Vs. Cole Miller
Joe Veres Vs. Corey Hill
Justin Buchholz Vs. Matt Wiman

Well Hollywood through us one of its curve balls this week as Heath Ledger passed away. So to end this week's column let's send an RIP out to Heath, and look at his final project.
*This Week's YouTube Sendoff*


Feedback, as always, is welcome at [e-mail] or directly below with the comment back.

-Alex