It’s almost time for the 25th Annual WWE Royal Rumble, and I for one can’t wait to see it! Welcome to what I hope to be the first of a dozen monthly pay per view editions of Thunder’s Take for 2012! This year’s Royal Rumble is shaping up to be quite an event, so let’s get to the matches!
Kane vs John Cena: Embrace the hate! I know everyone and their grandmother has wanted the John Cena heel turn to take place. It’s a work in progress. Kane is probably the perfect candidate to be booked into this sort of role to help change the persona of John Cena. Kane has been contributing regularly to both shows since the brand split, and has feuded with and put over dozens of wrestlers over the last decade(yes, it’s been ten years since the first brand split with Flair/McMahon). Kane is clearly on the back half of his career at this point. Taking on the demonic character gimmick once again to help shape the company’s top guy into a heel role to me is just another shining mark to put on Glen Jacob’s resume. Props to Glen Jacobs for being such a standup company guy. I assume Cena will move on to the elimination chamber ppv and want to compete for the WWE Title before jumping into his growing rivalry with The Rock for their WM encounter. The only way Cena loses this match is if they want to continue the rivalry into February and wrestle a rematch at the elimination chamber. Otherwise, I expect Cena to show his brutal side in this match and do something completely “un-Cena-like” to defeat the Big Red Machine.
Mark Henry vs The Big Show vs Daniel Bryan in a Steel Cage for the World Heavyweight Championship: Two monsters and the little weasel World Champion do battle inside a steel cage. I wondered what sort of trick Bryan would use to survive a triple threat match with these two, and a steel cage is perfect. Henry has been nursing the groin injury while Big Show has been working his tail off to be a legitimate threat to the World Title. Unfortunately for Show, nobody is buying that the company will give him any sort of legitimate run. Apparently there is talk of Show facing Shaq at WrestleMania. I can hardly wait for a celebrity match to consume far too much time on the biggest pay per view of the year(WWE never gets tired of it, though). Mark Henry should become face after this match and continue to feud with Bryan until the Elimination Chamber event. Even if he doesn’t, I don’t expect Mark Henry to hold the World Title again and I expect him to be the big man that gets put into the WM Money In The Bank Match this year. Whether or not Randy Orton wins the Royal Rumble, I expect Daniel Bryan to be featured in a World Title match at WM that has more than just two participants. Bryan’s run as champion has been fun and entertaining with his new found persona. From what I’ve been hearing, nobody expects Bryan to lose the title this Sunday and I’m in agreement. Daniel Bryan will remain your World Heavyweight Champion.
Dolph Ziggler w/ Vickie Guerrero vs CM Punk for the WWE Championship, Special Guest Referee John Laurinaitis: Dolph Ziggler has defeated CM Punk four times in the last month(give or take). Dolph Ziggler has become the perfect(no pun intended with the Hennig comparisons out there) heel in WWE and is arguably the best heel wrestler(possible exception of Christian, and Chris Jericho if this is in fact a heel Jericho as it appears) on the roster. That said, CM Punk has only had the title two months and has done a good job as champion. He wins over the crowd with his promos and wrestles at a main event level in every match he is booked in. I almost don’t like that this match has been booked for the Rumble. Undercard matches never have enough value to them because of the Rumble match itself. The whole show is just a buildup to the 30 man match that everyone waits for and the rest of the show can seem insignificant. While watching the Rumble, I honestly think the last time I was really into a match was when The Rock took on Mick Foley in the brutal “I quit” match in 1999. Maybe that’s just me though. I don’t expect to see Dolph Ziggler celebrating as the new WWE Champion before the Rumble match occurs. Ziggler is there, but it just isn’t his time. I also expect, because of his upcoming evaluation on Monday, that John Laurinaitis will call this one almost completely down the middle. I predict Punk to remain champion.
30 Man Royal Rumble Match: I predicted Cody Rhodes as the most likely candidate to win this Royal Rumble. I don’t fully believe that it will happen. Rhodes is going to be booked in a match with his brother, Goldust, at some point and the rivalry is going to hinder Rhodes from moving on to bigger things too soon. Taking Rhodes out of the equation, we have Y2J back in the WWE. Adding a Rumble to Jericho’s resume seems like smart booking, but does he really need it? Jericho is capable of having the best match at WrestleMania going against a broomstick(yeah, I stole it from Triple H). He doesn’t necessarily need to win the Rumble to earn a title shot or set up a major match at WrestleMania. There is actually a new rumor that WWE is considering booking him in a match with The Undertaker at WM instead of CM Punk. Either way, Jericho will have the match of the night. My two dark horses to win the Rumble are The Miz and Christian. The Miz going in at number one means he will probably stick around awhile and most likely get eliminated by his next(or current) rival(possibly R-Truth). For the way 2011 went for The Miz, I feel like he deserves to win this Rumble and be elevated into the WWE Title picture once again. It’s not very likely to happen though. Christian could return as a surprise entrant on Sunday. If he does, I believe he will eliminate Sheamus and continue to feud with him. Christian winning the Rumble would be great for him and all, but I don’t see it as being the most likely scenario. Randy Orton returns on Smackdown. Randy Orton has the Rumble taking place in his hometown. Randy Orton had perhaps the best year of his career in 2011 and owes most of it to Christian for having such great matches with him. Despite this, his feud with Wade Barrett is far from over. The Barrett Barrage has been on a consistent role and Barrett has made himself a staple character on WWE programming. The guy is carrying two rivalries right now; one with Sheamus and one with Orton. True definition of a heel when you can sustain a rivalry with two of Smackdown’s top face superstars? I think so. As of right now, Barrett seems like the best candidate to win the Rumble to me.
I do, however, have a dream scenario. If CM Punk is going to feud with Chris Jericho as rumored, why not have Punk enter the Rumble? Punk had the year of his career in 2011 and is the top guy in the company. Hell, why not book CM Punk to eliminate Chris Jericho and win the 2012 Royal Rumble? What better way to kick off the Punk/Jericho rivalry than for Punk to ruin Jericho’s plans of winning and earning a title shot? In terms of making Jericho look weak, I think it’s a bad move. Jericho just came back and needs to look dominant. However, Punk is WWE Champion and only one other time in history has the WWE Champion entered and won the Royal Rumble(Hogan, 1990). It probably won’t happen, but I’d jump out of my seat if it did.
Possible “surprise” entrants that could potentially be in the match(I’m only speculating here and not sure how likely these are to happen)
-Christian (injury keeping him away)
-Alberto Del Rio (see Christian)
-Triple H (he’s back on Monday, why not set up a feud too?)
-Kevin Nash (see Del Rio)
-Booker T (not likely, but he adds star power)
-Goldust (what better way to feud with brother Cody than to cost him his dream of being IC and World Champ simultaneously?)
-Jerry Lawler (at 62 years of age, why not? Hell, I should’ve predicted Michael Cole as well!)
-John Laurinaitis (considering he’s about to get the boot, what has he got to lose?)
-Doink the Clown (trying to be funny but epicly failing at the moment)
-Sean Waltman (clique reunion? He’s under contract according to wikipedia…)
-Road Dogg BG James (see Waltman, but change clique to DX.)
– Zack Ryder(broken back included)
-John Morrison (no better time for a big return than after taking two months off! C’mon WWE, you need this guy!)
-The Undertaker (he’ll be back sooner or later. the rumble would be more fun)
-The Rock (doubtful, but I like numbers that are multiples of five.)
Anyone else out there that you think is possible? With only 30 spots and a pretty packed roster, it’s really hard to imagine that WWE will have too many surprise entrants in this one.
I hope we have a few more matches booked in advance for the Elimination Chamber pay per view. I expect a possible Primo/Epico vs The Usos tag team match or maybe even a Divas match to occur also, but neither have been booked. I’ll have my Smackdown column up in the next 24 hours and hopefully my retro Rumble column before the ppv Sunday. Until next time, this has been Thunder’s Take!
www.facebook.com/thunderstruck11 – add me!
