THE RAGER! – Wrestling Christmas (Royal Rumble, John Cena, CM Punk, The Rock)

Columns, Top Story

As one might conclude by the title, I’m incredibly excited for the Royal Rumble as I tend to get every year even though I also have a tendency to be disappointed. However, it is the spirit of the wrestling fan to mindlessly get exciting for times such as these and I fully support this notion.

Pre-Show US Championship Match: Antonion Cesaro(c) vs Miz
Hopefully after seeing Miz horribly botch a Figure Four on Raw, WWE will put an end to messing with Miz to try to get him further over with the crowd. I thought he was fine enough as he was on his own but getting an endorsement from Flair seems to be a bit of stretch. That being said, I have my doubts that Miz will be the next US Champion unless there are bigger plans ahead in the very near future for Cesaro. However, with Mania looming, I doubt much time is currently being spent on a bigger plan for Cesaro. Or then again, they could use this as a way for try to get Miz over some more but that I think that would do more damage to Cesaro than good for Miz.

WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Team Friendship(c) vs Rhodes Scholars
Seems like a renewed interest has been invested into Team Friendship as of late so I’d be willing to bet that they’d keep the belts on them for the time being. However, if this were a few weeks ago, I’d say that it seemed like everyone was so high on Rhodes Scholars and Team Friendship seemed to be on the downswing and I would’ve been willing to bet a change at Rumble. However, the reception of Friendship’s recent promos have made me believe otherwise.

World Heavyweight Championship: Alberto Del Rio (c) vs Big Show
I will admit that face Del Rio is growing on me but still in the sense that it’s something different for him, he still hasn’t really done anything to woo me into actually giving that much of a crap. However I would find it incredibly silly for him to have just won the belt a couple weeks ago only to lose it this Sunday. It’s so silly that WWE might actually do it (I doubt it).

WWE Championship: CM Punk(c) vs Rock
This is the moment Punk fans have been both anticipating and dreading for the past 6-7 months. Punk fans are looking forward to it because they know the potential for a great match this can be but dreading because it’s the match that will probably end Punk’s reign. Now that all of the promo’s have completed, the buildup wasn’t all that painful (minus cookie puss) and has actually added to the overall build of a match that really didn’t need that much of a build to begin with. Like I said, I’m anticipating a great match that will kick off at least a couple WM story lines. I know a lot of people are wishing for a long match with a clean finish but I wouldn’t be surprised if any sort of run-in took place and neither should you.

The Royal Rumble Match:
Last week, I laid out who I thought would be the 30 participants for the Rumble so I won’t really go into who will or will not be involved but I will point out who all I can make a case for winning.

John Cena: I hate myself for furthering the existence of this thought but he has to be the one that’s the most likely to win given the emphasis everyone has on the past year for Cena. Plus, we all pretty much came to the conclusion that Cena and Rock are going to meet again at WM and this fits with Rock winning the WWE Championship.

Daniel Bryan: Nobody’s stock has risen more in the past year as this guy has. This time last year, he was a champion that WWE didn’t seem too confidant to get behind and would probably sweep him under the rug the moment he dropped the belt. Now, he’s in an entirely different league of overall popularity and it would be interesting to see how WWE would handle him as Heavyweight Champion now.

Randy Orton – Seems like the rumor of him taking time off was baseless. I can make a case for him getting back into the championship scene but I’m not sure if I can make a case for him winning the Rumble at this point. Don’t get me wrong, if WWE is committed to rebuilding Orton then winning the Rumble would be a great way to do that. However, I’m not sure how committed WWE will be with a guy that has 2 strikes and has been incredibly injury prone lately.

Wade Barrett – Not yet.

Ziggler – Will do great opening the match up but, honestly, he doesn’t need to be in the final 4 or so seeing as how he already has a title chance firmly in his grip.

Ryback – Once again, he’s still the new toy and this will help raise his stock as well as prevent him losing any airtime the close we get to WM as more and more guys make their returns.

Those are really the only few that I see that has a chance of winning this year. Of course, we can’t account for WWE’s sense of random and it has been a while since we’ve seen a complete upset/surprise win in the Rumble so maybe we’re due.

Be sure to be on the lookout for a new Classy Ring Attire coming later in the week and if you missed last week’s, shame on you. Also, follow us on twitter @CRAttire.

Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do twice,
Chris

The Answers: And lo, thy milk lasteth 4 days beyond the expiration date. tell every man, woman and child that the days betwixt Jan. 15-19 shall be joyous and celebrated with fresh milk and pop-tarts.

Chris is a writer from Fayetteville, NC. He's the co-creator of Irrelevant But Awesome Productions which produces podcasts you all know and love like Classy Ring Attire, Trashy Ring Attire and The Disney Magic Podcast. You can keep up with everything on twitter by following @IBAStudios and @CWSanders39