With the 2012 Royal Rumble approaching so quickly, I’ve decided to try something a little different. Traditionally around Rumble time, I take a seat and have a fun marathon of all past Rumble matches. This year I’ve decided to cover them right here on Creatively Endeavored in descending order. It should be fun and I hope this gets all of us excited for one of the most exciting nights of the wrestling year.
WWE Royal Rumble 2011
– 2011 might be the weirdest Rumble to watch over again considering just how much has changed over this past year.
– It’s amazing to see CM Punk start off the night in the middle of a battle between 2 stables that don’t even exist anymore.
– CM Punk and Daniel Bryan began 2011 starting the Rumble and ended the year as the WWE and World Heavyweight Champions respectively. Pretty good year for these two.
– Ah the origins of the Cole heel character. It was still annoying here.
– Boston Garden was jumping on the CM Punk bandwagon early.
– Hey a heel Zack Ryder wearing “Nasty Boys” trunks!
– And eliminated in a minute.
– Was this the only time in 2011 we had the pleasure of seeing William Regal in the ring?
– Release #1 – John Morrison
– And he had the Rumble moment of the year. His leap to the barricade was incredible.
– I miss the random stats and trivia Matt Striker would spit out.
– See ya in FCW, Husky.
– Release #2 – Chavo Guerrero
– Mark Henry before he was dangerous apparently. At least he didn’t have his Kool Aid gear on.
– Has JTG been released yet?
– Looked it up, apparently he’s on Raw. If you say so Wikipedia.
– I still say McGillicutty and Husky Harris could be a great tag team.
– Release #3 – Chris Masters
– I liked how Striker constantly corrected Cole’s mistakes. That’s probably why he’s not commentating anymore.
– Otunga before WWE realized the “Harvard” gimmick worked once, why not again. I don’t know which Otunga is more annoying.
– Tyler Reks sighting!
– Release #4 – One half of the tag team champions, Vladimir Koslov
– Punk mocking R-Truth’s “What’s Up?!” was just priceless.
– Release #5 – The Great Khali
– This was supposed to be Mason Ryan’s defining moment. Didn’t quite work out that way. I say throw him in a tag team now with someone like Curt Hawkins and it might work.
– Who would have thought this one Royal Rumble moment would lead to the worst year of commentary ever.
– “I’m marking out, bro!” Could have been the line that cost Matt Striker his spot.
– And this one John Cena moment was the one that killed off the already struggling Nexus.
– Poor poor Tyson Kidd.
– Hornswoggle lasted 9 mintues and 39 seconds in the Rumble. Longer than 26 other superstars. That’s more than HALF of the people in the Rumble and longer than such guys as Kane, Randy Orton, The Big Show, Mark Henry, Dolph Ziggler and the winner himself, Alberto Del Rio.
– Gotta love how Kevin Dunn completely missed the splash off the top rope.
– I thought this was going to be a nice launch for a new, more serious character for Kofi Kingston. Yea, not quite.
– I admit, I got really excited when I saw Sheamus come down when Hornswoggle was still in the ring. The Brogue Kick Horny took off the turnbuckle was brutal.
– It’s strange to think that both Sheamus and Daniel Bryan were left off of the main WrestleMania card only a few months later. Now they are the top two babyfaces on Smackdown.
– I fully believe that Kevin Nash’s run this summer would not have been as much as a failure if Nash was portrayed as Diesel. That pop for his Rumble entrance was for the return of Diesel, not Kevin Nash.
– Nice little payback for Nash from Mysterio for the infamous lawn dart incident back in WCW.
– Wade Barrett eliminating Diesel should have been made a bigger deal. Barrett needed things to brag about and eliminating a legend is perfect.
– The tallest player in the NHL? Isn’t it better to be shorter in hockey?
– With Rock/Cena and presumably HHH/Taker, WWE could safely book a surprise winner of the Rumble in order to reestablish that “anyone” could win.
– The time in between Del Rio’s and Orton’s entries seemed awfully quick.
– Almost complete silence when Cena and Orton faced off. I’m sure whomever was sitting next to Vince at that moment was very uncomfortable.
– Michael Cole conveniently left off Santino when running down who was left in the Rumble.
– Does anyone remember Barrett was in the final 3 of the Rumble? Seems like something that should have been mentioned more often over the year.
– NO ONE in Boston cared about Orton vs Cena.
– Nice pop for Cena’s elimination. When did that rule change by the way? In the past Rumbles, people in the Rumble could only be eliminated by other people in the Rumble. I’d love to hear some explanation on this change.
– My heart was pounding out of my chest when this was happening. I was terrified that Santino was going to win the Rumble. In retrospect though this was a great spot.
– In the end, the changes that have taken place since the 2011 Royal Rumble have been incredible. This year should be just as interesting as no one has really pulled ahead as the front runner. Gotta love WrestleMania season.
