The Royal Rumble is one of my favorite WWE events every year, as I’m sure many of you have the same feeling. However, there has always been something about the end of December and the whole month of January that seemed like WWE was on pause until the Rumble PPV. Now that Tribute to the Troops doesn’t replace an episode of Raw, it seems to be even more noticeable this year. New Year’s Revolution helped that a bit, but due to the low buyrates, I understand why they ditched that PPV so fast. Instead, I have a bit of an idea to get through this slow part of the WWE season.
In years past, there have been ‘Royal Rumble qualifying matches,’ however not every entrant had to have a match, or they had them at house shows. Why not make this a bigger deal? Sure, we expect HHH, Undertaker, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho, and all the rest of the top guys in the Rumble, but why not make them qualify for their spot? You can have HHH go over a heel jobber like Ryan Braddock, or Orton earn his spot by defeating Hacksaw Jim Duggan, but this is the perfect opportunity to give some heat for an upcoming heel, like Mike Knox. Or give an underdog face a win, albeit probably a fluke, to elevate him (Evan Bourne is obviously the best current example of this, if it wasn’t for his injury).
They can also use current storylines to move this along as well. For instance, they want Kung Fu Naki in for some mid-Rumble comedy, they can have him beat MVP, to continue the losing streak. Or, how about they take William Regal & CM Punk’s mini-feud, and have them have a match on the Rumble PPV, and have the winner earn the final spot in the Rumble? How about bringing people back or introducing new wrestlers for this? This would be perfect for Umaga’s return, or a re-introduction of DH Smith.
Sure, there are a few holes in this process, like the ability to keep out surprise entrants, but that’s what Creative is for. Each GM maybe gets one pardon entrant, a spot was guaranteed in someone’s contract, or something along those lines would suffice.
Something else that has bothered me the past few years is that WWE has fought to show that their Woman’s Title is as important as the WWE or World Title. Why are the women left out? There are easily enough to do a 15-woman Rumble match. And now that they have the awful looking Diva’s Title, they can cause the same mystery over which title the winner will fight for.
All I am saying is that there are generally six weeks between Armageddon & the Royal Rumble, and usually no major title defenses or even a title program until two to three weeks before the Rumble. The Royal Rumble starts the most exciting part of the WWE season, and I feel as though WWE needs to make the build-up to it a bigger deal. That would make the mark in me, very happy.
