WWE Royal Rumble 2010 Review

From April 2, 2010.

For over twenty years, the Royal Rumble event has played a significant role in the road to WrestleMania and this year's was no different as over 30 WWE superstars participated in the Royal Rumble to crown a #1 contender for a World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania 26.

Match 1: ECW Championship - Christian (c) vs. Ezekiel Jackson w/ William Regal
The two men to jerk the curtain for the 23rd annual Royal Rumble event waged war in a singles match for the ECW Championship. This was the final time that the ECW Championship was defended on PPV and by the way that Christian was leading this match, you can tell that he really wanted to make this match something special. Heading into this match, I was really expecting a slow and boring match but that turned out to be far from the truth. In my opinion, both of these men are very underrated performers and they did a great job of working with the crowd to pump them up for the rest of the show. Christian retains his title after hitting the Killswitch on the huge Ezekiel Jackson.
Winner: Christian
Rating: **3/4

Match 2: United States Championship - The Miz (c) vs. MVP
Following the ECW Championship match was the United States Championship match. Just like a lot of these United States Championship matches on PPV, this one felt like an ordinary match that you would just normally see on Raw and was nothing more than a filler. It's about time that The Miz drops this title to MVP so Miz can rise to the World Championship status. However, the WWE thinks otherwise as The Miz once again as he pins MVP to retain his title. Matches like this one have the potential to be phenomenal but however, time restraints make it fall flat on it's face and does no good for the loser who in this case was MVP.
Winner: The Miz
Rating: *1/2

Match 3: WWE Championship - Sheamus (c) vs. Randy Orton
Sheamus is a guy who has really grown on me and to my surprise, his reign as the WWE Champion was a pretty damn decent one. Unfortunately, the man is still very green and it really showed in this match against Randy Orton who has established himself as a main WWE superstar. I really enjoyed the way that Sheamus toyed around with the crowd to gain heel heat and I really enjoy his hard hitting moves. I guess you can also say that Sheamus' in ring style can somewhat compare to Orton's because they both keep it on the ground a lot of the times and here and there, they'll land some extremely painful looking moves as seen in this one by Sheamus. This match also marked the beginning stages of the demise of Legacy when Cody Rhodes came down to the ring to supposedly help out Orton. However, Cody's help only set a path for Sheamus retaining his title via disqualification.
Winner: Sheamus
Rating: **3/4

Match 4: Women's Championship - Michelle McCool (c) vs. Mickie James
The feud between these two Divas has been a surprisingly good one with McCool teasing Mickie for her supposed weight gain. This was supposed to be their blow off to their long running feud but the WWE gave us a total swerve here as Mickie James pinned McCool within the first few seconds of the match which let her capture the Women's Championship from McCool.
Winner: Mickie James
Rating: n/a

Match 5: World Heavyweight Championship - The Undertaker (c) vs. Rey Mysterio
In a rare occurrence, The Undertaker takes on another fan favorite in Rey Mysterio in the undercard main event match. To no one's shock, Rey Mysterio pretty much had to carry the entire match as The Undertaker was pretty banged up and also, there was a risk of The Undertaker being injured before his WrestleMania match which would be an absolute tragedy. Because of this, both men restricted a lot of their moves and for the most part, kept the match a safe one and in my opinion, there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. As long as you can pull out a great match, then you're good and that is exactly what they did here. There was so much back and fourth action between the two here and the way that both men worked with the crowd was pretty damn spectacular. The Undertaker pulled out the victory after hitting Mysterio with the Last Ride to retain his championship.
Winner: The Undertaker
Rating: ***

Match 6: 2010 Royal Rumble
After finally getting the undercard out of the way, it was finally time for the main event match which was the Royal Rumble. To much of my disappointment, the first two men to open up the match were Dolph Ziggler and Evan Bourne. While I was hoping for a better duo to open up the match, I can't really complain about this because it's very symbolic in that the WWE is determined to begin a new age with younger superstars. The first gem of the match came when CM Punk entered the Rumble where he looked absolutely dominant as he talked trash on the microphone and eliminated opponents at the same time before being eliminated by Triple H. One of the biggest reasons why I love the Royal Rumble is because it establishes up and coming superstars but in this year's Rumble, that seemed to be a missing factor. Sure, Drew McIntyre survived a good amount of time in the match but what did he really do that made him look dominant? The only guys who lasted long in the match were the already established stars which doesn't help any of the young guys. Another reason in which I really enjoy the Royal Rumble is because of the predictability and unlike the last factor, this one was definitely here. Whenever Triple H competes in a Royal Rumble match, he normally lasts for the entire match and shockingly, he barely lasted longer than McIntyre as he was eliminated by his own partner, Shawn Michaels. Michaels played another unpredictable role in this year's Rumble as his excellent storytelling and facial gestures made you believe that he was really going to win the match. The last shock came when #29 entered the match when Edge made his amazing return to the WWE by eliminating John Cena lastly to win the 2010 Royal Rumble. This year's Rumble match was definitely a good one but a lot weaker than year's past. I enjoyed the unpredictability that the match brought but with no elevation of new talent and the speed that the match progressed really hurt it.
Winner: Edge
Rating: ***3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
The Royal Rumble is usually one of my favorite shows of the calender year but this year's seems to be an exception. The undercard matches were nothing special and the outcomes of those matches were all so predictable. The Royal Rumble match itself turned out to be a pretty good with with a lot of unpredictable spots. However, the Rumble couldn't save this show from being a bad one as it completely falls flat on it's face.
Rating: 5.5/10