The WORST Royal Rumble EeevVVveEeRRR!!

[Guest bob_barron]

The only reason I don't think they did the 'battle on the mat' spot was because they thought it was played. It's always Benoit suprises Angle on the mat and I guess they figured that was old.

[Guest The Mighty Damaramu]

You can think that all you want. That's fine. I enjoyed the match because I was able to get into it. Yes there was spotty selling but I enjoyed a lot of the spots in the match. The DDT on the apron was a nice one in paticular. But like I said I will not rate it. I will say...I enjoyed that match. I disliked the constant germans but I enjoyed the wrestling sequences and the Kurt Angle death grip at the end. And the fact that the match put both men over huge.

[King Cucaracha 0]

Worst Rumble ever? You're kidding me. This Rumble match had more talent than any other in history. I liked the show, apart from of course Torrie-Dawn. Steiner and Triple H surprised me...I thought they'd actually prove us all wrong. Boy, was I wrong. The crowd shitted all over it too, which didn't help.

 

The Tag Match and Lesnar-Show were passable. Angle-Benoit was awesome. I don't usually like the long drawn old school wrestling section, but this one was different. I wouldn't give it 5 stars(if I gave stars), cause 5 stars should be for true classics, but it was damn close in my opinion.

 

As for the Rumble Match, some parts were good but some parts were wasted. HBK getting dumped out early was a shock to me, but the way they did it was good. They kept to everyone's characters well in the Rumble e.g Nowinski, Team Mattitude, Dreamer. It was a little too predictable at times. It was obvious when Edge/Rikishi/Christian/Jeff Hardy some others would come out. The Undertaker return was the most anticlimactic return in wrestlign history...it was like he'd never been away. There were some very good spots in the Rumble though. Everything Rey Mysterio did was top quality. How he kept staying in shocked me, especially when Edge came so damn close to his feet touching when Rey and Edge went over. Jericho, Edge and Rey took some damn close risks. Team Mattitude was used just right, Nowinski using his brain worked well for his character. The Maven thing made me laugh out loud too. The ending should have been better, because it was obvious Lesnar would win. But, it sure as hell wasn't the worst Rumble ever.

 

The Sean O'Haire and Nathan Jones promos are gonna get them over...but my main problem was the announcers. JR, since when could you mistake D-Von for Bubba Ray? THREE TIMES! And, are Rikishi and Rosie brothers? I'm sure JR said they were.

 

Oh well, Austin/Goldberg/Rock should be back soon...yeah, at least we have Benoit and Angle.

[Guest RickyChosyu]

"The only reason I don't think they did the 'battle on the mat' spot was because they thought it was played. It's always Benoit suprises Angle on the mat and I guess they figured that was old."

 

But why not have Angle expand his skills on the mat? They're trying to get him over as a skilled amature, so why not having suprise Benoit and have that storyline lead to the finish? Angle could dominate Benoit on the mat and constantly look for the Ankle Lock, while Benoit fights back with his big suplexes and strikes. Angle's route eventually overcomes Benoit and he can no longer fight off the Ankle Lock and taps out. It would make perfect sense for the finish they used, tell a basic, compelling story and it would show progresion from their earlier matches.

 

Again, I don't want to sound like whiner, but I expected something along those lines for these two, especially Benoit, who I always hold high hopes for. To me, these two don't have another good match in them, because they've already thrown out the interesting things they can do together and are now relying on tired spots like "I put Angle in his own Ankle Lock" and such. It's not bad, just not up to snuff from two guys who are supposedly the Best in the World Today.

 

"You can think that all you want. That's fine. I enjoyed the match because I was able to get into it. Yes there was spotty selling but I enjoyed a lot of the spots in the match. The DDT on the apron was a nice one in paticular. But like I said I will not rate it. I will say...I enjoyed that match. I disliked the constant germans but I enjoyed the wrestling sequences and the Kurt Angle death grip at the end. And the fact that the match put both men over huge."

 

I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it either. Just that being a Benoit fan for so long and seeing so many great performances out of him, even this late in his career, I expected more and was left feeling dissapointed. I can still appeciate the match for what it was and I really enjoyed seeing Benoit get such a strong reaction. Considering how much Steiner/HHH did to kill the crowd, it's a near miracle that Angle and Benoit were able engage the crowd at all. I think they deserve praise for that, but there's a strong difference between seeing a guy you've always liked finally getting the respect he deserves and declaring the match itself a classic. This is a problem many people run into when rating matches like Flair/Vader and Savage/Steamboat. The circumstances lead to people throwing out praise for the work without really paying attention to it.