WWE’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view event had some nice surprises. To briefly recap the PPV, World Heavyweight Champion Edge and WWE Champion The Miz retained their respective titles. Booker T and Diesel (Kevin Nash) surprised the crowd and received huge pops for their participation in the Royal Rumble match. When the dust cleared, Alberto Del Rio emerged as the winner of the Rumble.
It was nice to see Booker and Nash work for their old company, though I hope they’re done. Neither of them are what they used to be. I do think it’s hilarious that Nash dyed his hair to play the Diesel character again; Nash has repeatedly said that he wants to work as a “silver fox” character but Vince McMahon hates his gray hair. I love that WWE went with Del Rio as the winner. He’s relatively new, he does great work in the ring, he’s above average on the mic, and his personal ring announcer Ricardo Rodriguez makes me laugh.
Anyway, let me know what you made of Del Rio’s win and the Royal Rumble PPV (please).
i'm surprised that you think Booker is done! i think he looked pretty good. he probably can't handle the WWE schedule now but i'm sure few shows a month will be great. He should be an NXT trainer. I agree with Kevin Nash being done. Man he looked so winded for being in the ring for a few minutes. I was glad to see Alberto Del Rio win! his entrance music is awesome and is now my ringtone!
Booker has gotten much sloppier over the years. Aside from his program with Angle, I thought that most of his WWE work wasn't as good as his WCW matches.
I don't know why Ricardo Rodriguez makes me laugh. His face is just funny.
well he was kind of all over the place but i just attributed that to ring rust. i'm sure he's wrestling in the independents but they're probably not as fast paced as wwe's.
Del Rio's announcer is awesome. you know what was also funny to me was Michael Cole jumping up and down when the Miz won!
That's just how he works these days. His moves were much tighter ten years ago. His axe kick actually looks like crap compared to how he used to do it.
oh that is sad. it was a great axe kick and the spin-a-roonie did last longer too.
I just googled Edge to see if he had roided up and gotten big…nope…he looks so puny. Heavyweight champion should indicate that you are HUGE….not tiny.
He's actually gotten smaller since WWE started testing. Most of them are smaller or less defined now. Funny that….
I totally agree with you Smartguy.
@Ray
He can get cut w/o roids lol. I am cutting right now w/o them hehe
Of course he can. It was just much easier before they started testing. These guys spend so much time traveling that it's amazing they have enough time to work out and get spray-on tans — both of which are necessary for WWE TV (except for Sheamus).
From my very limited knowledge of WWE, it seems that Ric Flair was the biggest offender of the "spray-on" tans. That guy was so organge, he looked like John Boehner's brother.
-M
Hunter was pretty bad too.
Every hotel, stadium, and dome have a gym.
Do you have any idea what their schedules are like? It's not like they have a ton of free time on their hands.
No I don't but whatever venue that they travel to there is a gym there.
@Ray
Meh. Maybe Vince doesn't feed them right hehe.
@roids
Who cares? I understand the need for their ban in the major sports but WWE?
There was a guy around here before Xmas who was arrested for possession of roids. Why? Pretty victimless if you ask me. I would never do them because of the liver damage. I could easily do that through legal alcohol purchases
Roids are not Edge's problem, he just hasn't been to the gym in many years.
No, he probably goes to the gym with the same frequency as before. Without the steroids, the results aren't the same.
Roids help but trust me, no one that works out regularly would have ZERO muscle definition like Edge. That's a result of not working out at all.
Perhaps he just has bad genetics. It's not like he was every super big or super defined. His cardio is obviously still very good because he can work longer matches than most.
I'll give him that but my only knock on Edge is that terrible excuse of a Spear.
@RROD
And prob doesn't eat enough or eat the things he needs. (read high cals and protein)
True, but if he worked out you would still see SOME resemblance of a muscle somewhere on his body but that's not the case.
@Raymond Padilla
We finally agree on something. I too think Del Rio was the right choice and his announcer makes me and my wife laugh too. I think Booker T has some gas left in the tank but Nash, not so much.
First and foremost, rI like Del Rio because he can wrestle. He has a long, long history as Dos Caras that most WWE fans aren't aware of.
Booker is too brittle for a full-time WWE schedule. I think his work would get worse and worse if he tried to do it full time.
I love Alberto Del Rio because he can wrestle, he sells others, he's good on the mic, he has an awesome finishing submission maneuver, his personal ring announcer, his great and fitting entrance music(which is rare these days), and he has a great look. Alberto Del Rio is what I call the total package.
Alberto Del Rio is Lex Luger! OMG! NOooooooo!
i'm glad to hear you like Del Rio, RROD. I was beginning to think you didn't like anyone in wrestling anymore btw THE MIZ is still a champion!!!!
There's only one more PPV before Wrestlemania which means Miz will have to cough up the belt at the next PPV because he can't headline Wrestlemania.
He's absolutely got the heat to headline Mania. I'm not fond of his in-ring repertoire, but it's no less limited than Hogan's was.
I agree with the heat. Like I've said before, the heat he generates reminds me of classic Piper.
They foreshadowed Orton vs. Punk last night. Let's see how they play it out. Perhaps that will be the WWE Championship match.
No. It needs to be Sheamus vs. Orton, assuming HHH stays at home that is.
What do you mean, "No."? That's the angle they started last night and continued tonight. Meanwhile, Sheamus doesn't look like he's main eventing any time soon. Perhaps they'll do more with him after WrestleMania. Of course there could be some quick rewrites with the Elimination Chamber PPV, but Sheamus seems to be handling the top of the mid-card for the immediate future.
I'm not fond of Del Rio's finishing maneuver, the cross armbar. I love submission holds as finishers, but he's using a move that's basically been a rest hold for the past 15 years as a finishing maneuver. That's like somebody walking in and using a snap suplex as a finisher.
I don't know. People buy the Stone Cold stunner, RKO, twist of fate, and diamond cutter as finishers when it was originated by a mid-carder. If it worked for those guys, why didn't Johnny Ace do better?
Those moves are all basically just variations of the jawbreaker or neckbreaker (depending on which move we're talking about), but they all look different the moves that they came from. 15 years of conditioning people that the exact same cross armbar that everyone's been seeing as just a rest hold is pretty hard to legitimately turn around.
They're variations of the Ace Crusher. Johnny Ace has been head of WWE talent for years, but never headlined as a wrestler.
As for the arm bar, I think MMA has made it more believable.
@Ray
The stunner was the finisher to the nut kick he did :)
Genetics play a part for sure. Some guys just take it further perhaps or eat more carbs than usual.
Chris Paul v Rose for example haha. CP3 isnt cut like Rose or Rondo but he is still in good shape. Maybe genetics?
@Ray
When you are that big you have to make time for your body. It’s a lifestyle really. Besides their line of work exercises them plenty. I say it’s bad nutrition on top of heavy drinking most of the time.
A lot of the boys do spend too much time in the bar. One thing to keep in mind is that along with the travel lifestyle, a lot of these guys can’t lift as much as they’d like to because of injuries. Since they’re all independent contractors, they often work through injuries and compound them. Their in-ring work helps their cardio, but doesn’t do much for definition.
Remember Paul Orndorf, Honky Tonk Man and Greg Valentine? Where was their muscle definition? 20 years of ‘roids has spoiled us to think “big” is “better.” But this is wrestling, not body building.
Orndorff's muscle definition was pretty obvious.
<img class="alignnone" src="https://rpad.tv/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/Paul-Orndorff.jpg" alt="" width="450" height="280" />
I remember him having a bigger gut, but then again I got into wrestling late in his career.
Bigger isn't necessarily better but when there are a lot of big men at the top you can't put little guys over them, it just doesn't look right. That's why you never see your CM Punks and Kofi Kingstons get clean wins over your Undertakers and your HHHs. That's not believable now is it?
Sure it's believable. 'Taker is middle-aged. Punk and Kofi are in their athletic prime. By your logic, it's unbelievable that The Big Show and Andre the Giant have ever lost.
Sure the Giants lost but Andre never lost to Koko B. Ware and Show never lost to CM Punk cleanly. They should be able to toss those puny guys around as they see fit.
Have you not seen The Big Show tap out cleanly to the likes of Chris Benoit ans Chris Jericho when it's happened live on TV? Those guys were roughly the same size as Edge, Kofi or Punk.
And steroids were "fine" back then.
Chris Benoit and Jericho looked the parts though. Edge looks isn't as cut.
It was merely an observation really. For guys who run around half dressed and are supposedly in to being strong I'd expect a bit more muscle tone.
The Rock comes to mind.
Benoit and Jericho are not small. You can clearly see that they work our regularly.
Benoit was short and on steroids. Jericho was on steroids. His body changed significantly after the WWE started testing.
All the more reason to work harder lol.
Speaking of flabby and overweight……Jerry Lawler's the #1 contender for Elimination Chamber, so I guess we can take it to the bank that The Miz is going to Wrestlemania after all.