Brooklyn Brawlin' 01.28.09: The Bumps on the Road to WrestleMania

Posted by Dan Torkel on 01.28.2009

Remember when winning the Rumble was the second biggest highlight of the year aside from winning the main event at Wrestlemania. Now we have the winner opening Raw talking about lawsuits and feuding with McMahons. I guess it's time to party like it's 1999... again!

With the Royal Rumble over and done with, this is normally the time to begin discussion of the Road to Wrestlemania. Therein lays the problem. As much as I love and have loved the Rumble for many years, its usefulness as a story builder and the glory of winning it, has almost all been lost. Many have argued for years that there is over saturation in the ppv market. Now there is talk of every ppv getting a theme. The Rumble, Wrestlemania, Summerslam, and Survivor Series are classic events and the first and last ones have gimmicks in place. Now we have the No Way Out Elimination Chambers, One Night Stand's "Extreme Rules", a potential KOTR ppv return, Unforgiven's Scramble matches, and Cyber Sunday's "Fan's Choice." With every ppv getting a theme, or gimmick, the WWE is seriously running the risk of devaluing the 4 top shows, and even more so, making the product stale and redundant. The Road to Wrestlemania ALWAYS started at the Royal Rumble. It was a perfect way to jump-start the big Mania push. Two months of building feuds to be blown off at the biggest event of the year. No Way Out, the WWE's annual February ppv since 1998 (1999 was St. Valentine's Day Massacre), has been used to reinforce or further set up Mania angles. In recent years however, Rumble has lost the luster it once had, as more titles get added, more people can "main event" and the "Road" that once led to Wrestlemania, seems more like the "Road" to No Way Out.
Let's examine this year Rumble, which was the first ppv I ordered since last year's Wrestlemania.

- Match 1 – Jack Swagger defeats Matt Hardy to retain the ECW Title – This was a fine match to open the show (**1/2), but Swagger is so relatively new to most WWE fans that the crowd barely popped, even for Matt's big comebacks. My friends, many of which are not die-hard fans were shocked at the lack of crowd response to a "title" match on a major show.

- Match 2 - Melina defeated Beth Phoenix to win the Women's Title – Now I do not get this one bit. They spend literally one month of television time introducing Rosa Mendez as Beth's psychotic fan who routinely attacked Melina, and then she is NOWHERE to be seen as Melina gets a fluke title win. Early candidate for Spot of the Year; Beth Phoenix stretching Melina so far backwards as to make her kick HERSELF in the head! Awesome! (**1/2)

- Match 3 – Cena defeats JBL to retain the World Title – This was the most disappointing match of the show for me. I was really digging the angle with Shawn Michaels. The match however, could have started at the 13-minute mark with the ref getting bumped and JBL and Cena have a double KO. Because seriously the entire match was the usual boring, heatless match between these two until the bump when everyone knew Shawn was going to do something. Then after the match, we get ZERO payoff. No angry JBL rant backstage, no Shawn entering the Rumble on JBL's behalf, nothing. They tease a Taker/HBK showdown and give us again nothing further to work with. (**)

- Match 4 – Edge defeats Jeff Hardy to win the WWE Title – SO the WWE Title is now the World Title as "Hot Potato" belt changing hands at each of the previous 3 ppvs after being with Triple H for over 7 months. Matt turned heel, no big shock as with everyone predicting Christian it made sense to go the other route. Plus Edge as Champion is always more fun. Jeff got his little run and may get another later this year if he stays under control. (***)

- Match 5 – Randy Orton wins the Royal Rumble – This reminded me exactly of the 2003 Rumble where everyone going in knew Brock was winning. They had a good Rumble match and even allowed people to question it for a while, but as it whittled down it was clear only one man could win. I predicted the exact ending of this year's match about 30 minutes in and was not happy to be proven right. A lot of people are praising this Rumble, but it was way too obvious for me. Aside from RVD's "one shot deal" there were absolutely no surprises. The last 5 – 6 entrants were all wastes of time as we got 30 second comedy spots from Kendrick, Santino, and Duggan before capping it off with Big Show at #30. The final 6 was paint by numbers booking and unlike the last two years (HBK/Taker and Triple H/Cena) they did not give us a good build to an ending as it was Rhodes, Dibiase, Triple H, Bing Bang Boom! (***) Spot of the match was Rey walking over MNM to get back in.

So where does this leave us on the Road to Wrestlemania? Nowhere yet. Orton's big win serves not to promote a title match with an old enemy in John Cena, but pushes his feud with the McMahons. Based on Raw, he will likely face Shane McMahon in a "hardcore" match at NWO. Speaking of No Way Out, who cares about winning the Rumble any more, when you can win the Elimination Chambers? Think about Kofi Kingston for a second. In the old days, the announcers would discuss what winning the Rumble would and could do for Kofi's career. Now, one day after losing in the Rumble, he beats Kane to go to the Chamber and now has another shot at main eventing Wrestlemania. So where is the incentive in the Rumble anymore? Rey and Jericho also won entrance into the Chamber last night on Raw. They need 2 more wrestlers for Raw, as well as 5 for Smackdown since they are also having a Chamber match. Last year was the perfect example of the Rumble's lost luster. First Cena destroys kayfabe by returning at #30 and winning, and then he cashes in his title shot… AT NO WAY OUT! Cena supposedly grew up wanting to be a WWE Superstar. Cena is all about the history right; so why not get another WM main event? I know he got in eventually, but he blew his Rumble title shot in February instead of Wrestlemania. Orton is seemingly waiting this year, but only to deal with the McMahon angle. After losing the World Title match last night, JBL was all excited to get another chance had Shawn won the match with Cena. There are too many chances nowadays.

I also have issue with the Chambers being title matches. Last year they were at least #1 Contender's matches. Now we have the champs defending against a combined 10 men the month before Wrestlemania. If they survive 5 men each, why should we suspend disbelief to think they will lose to one guy in Houston? Cena so far has Kofi, Rey, and Jericho in there. With Jericho apparently facing (I cannot believe I am typing this) Mickey Rourke at Wrestlemania XXV that rules him out. Looking at Smackdown's main event scene we can assume some of the participants in their match. Taker, Triple H, Show, Kozlov, Jeff, Matt, Umaga, Kennedy, MVP, etc all have shots to make it in. It leaves just over month to build to the biggest event of the year, but what can they build after this stacked an event at No Way Out.

How I would have booked the Rumble –

After the World Title match, have JBL threaten to fire Shawn backstage. Shawn pleads his case and JBL says that Shawn was supposed to get him to Wrestlemania in his home state, and he still can. He says to Shawn to get ready, he is going in the Royal Rumble match. Later on we find Hacksaw Jim Duggan knocked out backstage. Midway through the Rumble, Shawn enters, we'll say #19. Stephanie comes out and announces that anyone who eliminates Randy Orton will get a "substantial monetary bonus." The ring immediately turns and collectively dumps Orton and the Legacy. Orton chases Stephanie to the back. That leaves the final 4 of Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Chris Jericho, and Undertaker. Shawn goes for Sweet Chin Music on Taker but he counters to a chokeslam. Jericho jumps him with the Codebreaker and Triple H clotheslines Taker out. Triple H tries the Pedigree on Jericho but gets back dropped to the apron. When Shawn tries a superkick Jericho ducks and Triple H takes it and is gone. That leaves the immortal feud between Jericho and HBK. This time after a few minutes of battling, Shawn is able to counter the Codebreaker and sit Jericho on the top and Sweet Chin Music him to the floor.

This would set up both No Way Out and Wrestlemania as Shawn would refuse to surrender his shot to JBL leading to their match at NWO. After Shawn wins, he would get a title shot against Cena with the story being that he has beaten Cena twice but those were on Raw whereas Cena's victory happened at WM XXIII when it counted. Shawn would have a Ric Flair moment at Wrestlemania in his home state and win the World Title one last time. On Smackdown they could either do Edge vs. Triple H, or Triple H vs. Undertaker for their main event.

My Wrestlemania Card –

World Title – © John Cena vs. Shawn Michaels (Rumble winner)
WWE Title – © Triple H (wins Elimination Chamber) vs. Undertaker
MITB V: 4-Corners Match – Jeff Hardy vs. Matt Hardy vs. Edge vs. Christian
ECW Title – © Finlay vs. UMAGA
Randy Orton & The Legacy vs. Vince & Shane McMahon & STONE COLD STEVE AUSTIN
World Tag Titles – © Miz & Morrison vs. Rey Mysterio & Evan Bourne
Chris Jericho vs. Mickey Rourke (I cannot believe I am typing that)
IC Title vs. US Title – © CM Punk vs. Shelton Benjamin
Women's Title – © Beth Phoenix vs. Gail Kim

Where does the Road lead us? Vince will figure it out I suppose. They teased HBK/Taker having words at the Rumble, but will that lead anywhere? Will the re-debut Christian to get involved with the SD storylines? Will they actually have the Rumble winner in Orton get the WM title shot? Questions to be answered soon hopefully… till then have a great week and as always, have fun storming the castle!