If you want to pick up this DVD click here: Royal Rumble 2009
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Joe Louis Arena, Detroit, Michigan; January 25, 2009
Commentators: Raw, Michael Cole and Jerry “The King” Lawler SmackDown, Jim Ross and Tazz ECW, Todd Grisham and Matt Striker
ECW World Championship Jack Swagger vs. Matt Hardy: Swagger was still undefeated and very early on in his career. Matt punches away. To the floor Matt continues the punchy-punchy. Swagger runs away from the fists to regroup. Swagger takes Hardy down with an armlock but Matt reverses so Swagger counters immediately into a takedown. Swagger works the arm; Matt escapes and drops a corner basement dropkick followed by a bulldog. Matt goes to the second rope and Swagger pushes him off banging his arm on the apron. Swagger begins to dominate and works the arm with an overhead keylock. Matt fights out but Swagger traps his arm in the rope and drops off into the ring on it. Matt tries a clothesline but uses the bad arm so it hurts him; Swagger big boots him. Swagger returns to the keylock. Swagger wrings the arm until Matt clotheslines him with the other arm. Matt comes back with a series of clotheslines (with the good arm) and a neckbreaker drop for two. Corner clothesline followed by another bulldog; second-rope elbow for two. Swagger counters the Twist of Fate with a belly-to-belly suplex for two; they fight over a vertical suplex and Swagger drops into a single-arm DDT for another nearfall. Swagger tries a backdrop superplex but Matt pushes him off and Hardy lands a moonsault… for two! Swagger counters the Side Effect posting Matt Hardy’s shoulder; partially knocking him out, gutwrench powerbomb follows for three. 6.5/10 This was a good match between two pros; Swagger provided the arm work and Matt sold the shoulder well using one arm on his comebacks. The arm work also figured into the finish as well.
They show Randy Orton arriving as all the WWE superstars are aghast at what he did. I’m sorry, but did we COMPLETELY forget 1998-2005?
WWE Woman’s Championship Beth Phoenix (w/Santino Marella) vs. Melina: Beth shoves Melina on her face then Beth powers out of a side headlock and bearhugs her like Chyna used to do. Melina hits a tilt-a-whirl head scissors into a Fujiwara armbar. Beth just stands up and deposits Melina into the corner. Melina tries a reverse head scissors; Beth just pushes her off backwards, like Road Warrior Animal. Beth applies a reverse single-leg crab. Beth actually cranks Melina’s own leg over and forces Melina’s own foot to stomp her own head. Melina tries something like a rope assisted head scissors but Beth counters into a side suplex. Beth presses Melina she slips off and misses something so she improvises into a jawjacker. Beth backdrops Melina but she holds on into a sunset flip for two. Melina traps Beth in the 619 position and drives two knees into her back; she hits a screaming hair-assisted bulldog and gets two. Beth pushes Melina into the corner but she counters with a boot and hits a second-rope seated senton. Beth counters the Sunset Split; Beth blocks a wheelbarrow bulldog so Melina turns it into a roll up for three. 3.5/10 Sloppy as hell but the finishing sequence of reversals saved it from totally sucking.
In the back Shawn Michaels does not know what he is going to do. JBL arrives to remind him once he is champion tonight he will pay Shawn all the money he needs and will no longer be his employee and will be in the Royal Rumble as well. JBL leaves and Shawn turns into the Undertaker who tells him “sometimes its hell getting into heaven”.
World Heavyweight Championship John Cena vs. John “Bradshaw” Layfield (w/Shawn Michaels): The story here is Shawn Michaels is in financial ruin so he became JBL’s “employee” to help him get to WrestleMania as the champion; so HBK reluctantly is in JBL’s corner. They lock up and Cena headlocks him down. JBL reverses and takes Cena down into a side headlock. They run the ropes, including a John Cena leapfrog, JBL runs into an elbow. JBL retreats to confer with Shawn but he stares at him stoically. Bradshaw gets a brief advantage but Cena counters into a one-handed bulldog. Layfield goes to the floor again; Cena gives chase and almost runs into HBK on the floor allowing JBL to take over. Bradshaw drops about ten elbows back in the ring and gets a nearfall; JBL applies a side headlock. Sidewalk slam from Bradshaw gets two again; Bradshaw sends him to the floor where he tosses Cena through the steel steps. Back in the ring, JBL punches away in the corner. The fans are practically silent; these two do not work well in the ring together. Layfield’s offense is boring and a little too… non-devastating to be dominating Cena this much. Cena pushes Layfield off the ropes and drops a top-rope Off-ramp. Cena counters the Clothesline from Hell and begins to fire up with shoulderblocks, Proto-bomb into the Five-Knuckle Shuffle. The AA is countered via a Bradshaw elbow; Cena forces him down into the STF. JBL is facing Shawn who puts his hands on the ropes; Cena releases the hold to swat at Shawn. He goes for the move again but JBL kicks him to the floor. Cena reenters… right into the Clothesline from Hell for two! JBL and HBK share a stare. Cena powers into the AA; JBL pushes him off and Layfield accidently boots referee Mike Chioda to the floor. NOW, the storyline can kick in… as Shawn Michaels enters the ring. Both men slowly get vertical as Shawn superkicks… JBL… then he superkicks John Cena… and puts JBL on top of Cena and walks off. A new referee runs down and counts two; a JBL short-clothesline countered into the AA for three. 2/10 The whole match was set up for Shawn’s decision that he really did not even make; as for the match itself, it was… very boring.
WWE Champion Jeff Hardy has had a string of bad luck as champion; got attacked in a stairwell causing him to miss a the Survivor Series WWE title match, pyro malfunction, someone almost ran him off the road. Jeff Hardy thinks it is Edge.
WWE Heavyweight Championship Jeff Hardy vs. Edge (w/Chavo Guerrero) no DQ: Jeff’s facepaint makes him look like Sting; Vickie Guerrero arrives and makes the match no DQ. Jeff starts off on fire as the fans chant “we want Christian”, who had not re-debuted on television yet. Jeff grabs a chair but Edge boots him reentering the ring. Jeff floats over in the corner and hits a clothesline; headlock takeover into a basement dropkick gets two. Jeff slams Edge and boots away. Edge slams Jeff into the buckle and the take turns sliding out of the ring; Jeff baseball slides Edge then fakes him out on a pescato and then diving clotheslines him off the apron. Chavo grabs Jeff’s leg allowing Edge to boot him in the face on his slingshot attempt. Edge baseball slides Jeff to the floor; Edge whips him into the security wall upside down. To the announce table they go; Edge rams Jeff’s face into all three of them. Back in the ring Edge gets two. Edge spears Jeff in the corner; surprise sunset flip get two for Hardy so Edge clotheslines him aggressively and applies a grounded reverse bearhug. Jeff powers out and climbs to the top; Edge catches him, but Jeff pushes him off. Jeff jumps… right into a dropkick for two. Edge retrieves two chairs, but just like before, Jeff stops him and spears through the ropes into Edge. Jeff finally lands that pescato. Jeff kills Edge with a Twist of Fate on the apron; Jeff dismantles the Raw announce table and grabs a ladder. Edge is set up on the table but Chavo runs up the other side and Jeff pushes him off. Jeff crossbodys him and sets Chavo on the table and splashes him through off the ladder. Jeff almost slipped off the top of the ladder to begin his decent. Jeff now turns his attentions back to Edge and crossbodys him off the top. Edge removes a turnbuckle pad but Jeff nails a Whisper in the Wind for two. Edge spins through the Twist of Fate into the Impaler DDT for two. Edge to the second rope and… catches Jeff’s blocking feet but Jeff flings him off into a small package cradle to two. Edge rolls out of the way on a Swanton Bomb attempt; Jeff notices him jumps to his feet and kicks Edge into the other corner. Edge counters the corner gunshot dropkick bouncing Jeff’s face off the exposed buckle. Edge lines up for a spear but Jeff counters into the Twist of Fate; Jeff limps up to the top but Vickie Guerrero returns and tries to stop him but he lands the Swanton Bomb… Vickie pulls the referee out. Matt Hardy shows up with a chair he gives it to Jeff but Matt retrieves another chair for a con-chair-to but Matt CLOBBERS JEFF WITH THE CHAIR! Matt stares at him blankly as Edge (hesitantly) crawls into the cover for three and the title. Matt leaves as Edge and Vickie celebrate. 7/10 That was a good back and forth match, involving a lot of counter wrestling and high flying; the heel turn was actually shocking. Everyone and their mother thought that Christian was the one causing all of the trouble but it was Matt all along. Apparently it WAS supposed to be Christian but the reason it was not was because all of the fans (regular and Internet) knew Christian was returning and the WWE rebooked it.
In the back Randy Orton says he is in the Rumble; Chris Jericho approaches him and sympathizes with Orton. Jericho blathers on about Vince McMahon being a shell of himself; then warns Orton that we will probably be fired after the Rumble.
The Randy Orton storyline here is... on Monday Night Raw the week prior to the Royal Rumble Orton lost control during a promo segment involving Vince McMahon. Orton eventually gave Vince the punt kick to the head and send McMahon to the hospital so Orton believes he will be fired for his actions on the next Raw; however the Rumble PPV is between the two Raws so if Orton wins the Royal Rumble he cannot be fired, can he? He also has Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes the other two members of Legacy in the Rumble to help him out.
The Royal Rumble: #1 Rey Mysterio and #2 John Morrison start off this year; another entertaining starting two. They trade kicks and Morrison almost eliminates Rey on a wheelbarrow bulldog counter. Mysterio springboard splashes back in and lands a spinning body tilt-a-whirl head scissors. Morrison dangles, nearly eliminated as #3 Carlito, who was one half of the tag team champions, runs down. Carlito attacks Rey and then spits his apple at Morrison. Rey springboard moonsaults onto Carlito who counters and drops him into the Spin-doctor. Morrison puts Carlito onto the apron but he saves off elimination and double rope-jump springboard moonsaults onto Morrison. Carlito and Morrison battle until #4 M.V.P. runs down just after his long losing streak turning him face. MVP goes for the Ballin’ elbow on Morrison; Rey tries to interfere but he eats a powerslam, then MVP completes the elbow drop. Carlito attacks from behind. MVP ducks the Flash Kick and Carlito takes it; MVP Drive By kick finds Morrison. Rey tries a head scissors but MVP catches him and places him on the apron where he jumps back into the head scissors. #5 Great Khali comes down, as a face now, this should end the mini-lucha match. Khali attacks everyone in sight and none of them can hurt him. Rey springboards into him and bounces off; head chop to Mysterio. Carlito tries the Backstabber but falls off of Khali and eats a Tree Slam. Here is #6 Vladimir Kozlov during his invincible heel push. Kozlov breaks the Khali Vice and boot Khali over the top rope, ELIMINATING him. Now Kozlov dominates the ring; MVP gives it a go and misses the Drive By and Khali eliminates him. Kozlov tosses Carlito over the top but he lands on the apron; Carlito tries to springboard but lands into a Kozlov spinebuster. Vladimir ELIMINATES Carlito on the other side of the ring. #7 Triple H heads out as Kozlov readies for the battle. They battle and Kozlov head-butt battering rams HHH but drops his head allowing a facebuster to stun him; Triple H ELIMINATES Kozlov. John Morrison fights with the game as #8 Randy Orton heads out everyone in the ring stares at him; he goes right for HHH and lands the stretch backbreaker. Triple H pushes off the RKO and tries a Pedigree; Morrison breaks it up with a Flash Kick. Rey springboards into a seated senton on Orton then nails the 619 on Morrison. #9 JTG wins a double-sided coin flip for the right to battle in the Rumble; Shad Gaspard is a little frustrated but smiling. JTG attacks Orton and then HHH. Triple H knocks noggins to JTG and Morrison while Orton has Mysterio almost out.
Here is #10 Ted Dibiase arrives to attack all the lightweights. Triple H almost has Orton out and Dibiase does not help him instead tossing both JTG and Morrison over the top (but not out). Morrison and JTG have a chicken fight in the skin-the-cat position with neither man’s feet touching. Mysterio hurracanranas Dibiase over but neither of them touches the floor either. There are a lot of near eliminations in this Rumble. Rey sets Dibiase up in the corner and basement dropkicks his balls. Triple H and Orton are still locked in battle in the corner as #11 Chris Jericho heads out and dropkicks Dibiase and heads for Randy Orton. Jericho lands the one-handed bulldog on HHH; he tries for the Lionsault, misses, but Jericho lands on his feet. Triple H goes for the Pedigree but Jericho, too fresh, reverses into the Walls of Jericho; Triple H spins him out. Triple H and Mysterio try to force Jericho off the apron but he hangs on. #12 Mike Knox and his beard heads out. Knox attacks Mysterio, Morrison and JTG. Dibiase and Orton begin to work as a team and they attack JTG. Everyone else Rumble brawls as lucky #13 The Miz, Morrison’s tag partner, heads out. Miz lands a Skull-Crushing Finale to JTG, during its infancy stage (meaning it was not a finisher and not quite perfected yet). Jericho tries to suplex Mysterio out. Miz lands his corner clothesline on Rey. Miz and Morrison work over Randy Orton. Rey and Morrison do a complicated wheelbarrow bulldog attempt that sees Morrison eat an RKO. Miz tries to sneak up and gets an RKO as well. There’s an RKO to JTG; Triple H puts that fire out with a Pedigree and tosses Morrison into the Miz and both world tag team champions go over the top, ELIMINATED. #14 Finlay comes out as the greatest save-off elimination occurs. HHH tosses Rey over and Mysterio lands on Morrison’s back then hops onto Miz’s back then onto the ring steps back into the ring never touching the floor once. Impressive. Finlay inverted atomic drops everyone in sight. Finlay seated presses HHH then he and Mysterio try to toss Jericho. Finlay goes for Legacy’s Ted Dibiase and tries to toss him as the other Legacy member #15 Cody Rhodes runs down. Legacy attack JTG and then they triple-team Triple H and Finlay. They beat on Knox but Rey springboards… right into an RKO. Death. Orton finds new ways to apply an RKO every day. The other morning my alarm clock went off and as I was getting up Orton slid out from under my bed and delivered RKO to me right in my bedroom. The ring is pretty full for #16 Undertaker, perfect timing, everyone in the ring stops to prep for getting their asses kicked. Everyone attacks and he knocks them all down. He ELIMINATES Cryme Tyme’s JTG. Taker delivers snake eyes into a big boot to Rhodes as his half-brother #17 Goldust walks out. He attacks Dibiase but Cody pulls him off and the Rhodes’ stare at each other. Goldust punches Cody and deposits him on the apron; he reenters into the Goldust drop-down uppercut. Orton is watching this all unfold from a distance. Goldust handles Legacy pretty well until he turns into an RKO; Randy calls Cody over and tells him to toss his brother. Cody obliges and ELIMINATES Goldust for #18 CM Punk to head out, who just won the Intercontinental championship. Punk attacks everyone in sight, kicks Dibiase’s head off and corner knee strike/bulldogs Jericho. HE counters a Pedigree into a Go2Sleep and attacks the Undertaker who boots him. ECW’s #19 Mark Henry heads down and head-butts Undertaker down and stands on the chest of Punk. Triple H eats a World’s Strongest Slam. Boy, HHH has been taking a lot of finishers tonight.
Here is #20 Shelton Benjamin, the current US Champion, running out. Shelton hits Paydirt on Finlay. Jericho and Punk fight on the top rope so Benjamin drops both of them with a pair of top-rope Paydirts. Dragon whip to Henry from Benjamin as Triple H tosses Punk over the top. Here comes #21 William Regal running to the ring. He goes for Punk whom was involved in an Intercontinental battle with over the past few Raws. In fact they had a couple of really good matches during that time. Mysterio low bridges Mark Henry, ELIMINATING him; Regal hits an exploder suplex on Punk. Now #22 Kofi Kingston jogs down making his Rumble debut. Kofi springs around and dropkicks everyone in sight. He drops Knox in that side-Russian leg sweep roll through he does and follows up with the Boom Drop. Jericho cools his fire and chokes him under the bottom rope. Shelton tries to hit Paydirt on Undertaker but he counters into a spinebuster and ELIMINATES Benjamin. #23 Kane heads out as Rey is upside down on the ringpost. Kane, as per the usual, dominates everyone until he runs into Undertaker. They double chokeslam Ted Dibiase; then Kane chokeslams Kofi as Undertaker posts Jericho. There are a ton of guys in there; CM Punk finally gets the best of Regal (again) and ELIMINATES him. Knox breaks up an Undertaker chokeslam on Mysterio as #24 R-Truth heads out. Truth lands the Lie Detector on Triple H (another finisher). A crew almost eliminates Kane. Now #25 Rob Van Dam heads out setting off a 411mania.com wrestling meme for months. Everyone in the ring stares at him as he comes off the top onto Kane with a spin kick. RVD kicks everyone in the ring and jumps into another spin kick on Mike Knox. Triple H breaks up a Five-Star Frogsplash. Here is #26 The Brian Kendrick bouncing to the ring. Kingston mounts the buckle, not smart; The Brian Kendrick pushes him out and ELIMINATES him. Triple H spoils the party ELIMINATING The Brian Kendrick. RVD sends Punk over (but not out) at the same time Finlay sends Mysterio over (but not out). Symmetry. #27 Dolph Ziggler slides in and attacks a few people and introduces himself to Kane… and gets ELIMINATED. Dibiase and Rey almost go out. This is the first Rumble where it was clearly apparent the Superstars were trying to one-up each other on near eliminations. #28 Santino Marella appears and gets immediately tossed officially breaking the Warlord’s record from the 1989 Royal Rumble (full review, click here) lasting a second and a half. That should settle the shortness record for good. Everyone in this incredibly full ring battle; Mysterio has been in there for a long time. #29 “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan “hoooos!” his way out; Jim Ross notes that he won the first Royal Rumble (full review, click here) back in '88. Duggan attacks the Undertaker and actually knocks him down; Duggan and Finlay brawl. There must be fifteen guys in there for #30 Big Show, everyone in the ring stops brawling and awaits him.
As Big Show gets into the ring, Undertaker tells everyone in the ring “hang on, I got this”. Kane sucker punches Show as he and Taker were staring each other down. Duggan tries to lift Big Show that does not work and Duggan is ELIMINATED. Jericho tries a sleeper but Show turns it into a side suplex. Big Show press-slams R-Truth out, ELIMINATING him. Big Show tosses CM Punk to the apron a few times, he gets frustrates with his insolence and punches him out while he is on the apron, ELIMINATING him. Big Show lumbers over to a whole bunch of guys brawling and lifts Knox and Mysterio out, ELIMINATING both of them. Rey was in there for almost fifty minutes. Hornswoggle appears, for some reason, and attacks Kane; Finlay comes to his rescue but gets ELIMINATED by Kane in the chaos. Undertaker stacks up Legacy in the corner and beats on them. Jericho lands the Codebreaker on Kane. RVD springboard spin kicks Big Show; Orton drops HHH in the hangman’s DDT. Undertaker and Big Show find each other again and brawl in the center of the ring. Jericho attacks Big Show as RVD drops the Five-Star Frogsplash onto Randy Orton. While RVD is stumbling around selling the impact of the frogsplash Jericho ELIMINATES him. Jericho laughs at him but turns right into the Undertaker. Jericho manages a Codebreaker on him but that sends Taker against the ropes; Jericho charges but is ELIMINATED. Legacy triple team Kane and ELIMINATE him. It is down to six men; Triple H, Big Show, Undertaker and Legacy. Big Show, for some reason, attacks HHH allowing Legacy to triple team the Undertaker. Triple H eats another finisher, Big Show’s chokeslam. Taker comes back and chokeslams all three Legacy members and walks into the Big Show. They box each other for a while until Taker runs the ropes and clotheslines him. Taker boots Big Show over the top rope but even he hangs on and saves off elimination. Impressive. They battle each other, Orton tries an RKO but gets shoves off, Big Show pulls Undertaker over the top onto the apron with him; they double goozle each other. Orton RKOs Big Show off the apron, ELIMINATING him; he tries Undertaker but fails, of course. Legacy try to push Undertaker off but he double goozles them; Big Show trips him up and ELIMINATES Undertaker. Big Show and Undertaker fight on the floor into the crowd and disappear. The final four for the 2009 Royal Rumble are; Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, Ted Dibiase and Triple H. Legacy surrounds him; Triple H tries to fight but they swarm him as Orton “directs traffic”. Triple H tries an RKO but he pushes him off. Triple H fires up on Legacy he backdrops Orton to the apron. Triple H Pedigrees Cody and ELIMINATES a charging Ted Dibiase. Triple H scrapes Cody off the apron and ELIMINATES him. Randy Orton sneaks up and ELIMINATES Triple H to win the 2009 Royal Rumble. Post-Rumble Orton poses with Legacy then climbs the buckle and points at the WrestleMania XXV (full review, click here) logo which explodes into fireworks to close the show. 8/10 The only plausible conclusion considering what had been going down on Raw with the McMahons; now Orton is contractually guaranteed to have a title match at WrestleMania. Good Rumble with a ton of near eliminations and a lot of guys brawling.
