WWE Royal Rumble 2008 Review

The Royal Rumble makes its return to New York City's famous Madison Square Garden! John Cena shocks the entire wrestling world by making an unprecedented comeback. Plus, Jeff Hardy finally gets his crack at the WWE Championship against Randy Orton while Edge defends the gold against Rey Mysterio.

Match 1: Career Threatening - Ric Flair vs. MVP
These two kick off the night in a rematch from their meeting in June at Vengeance: Night of Champions. Of course, if Ric Flair loses, he must retire. Energy from the crowd at Madison Square Garden is top notch for this. Flair getting some sweet pops as he starts with a promo before the match until MVP comes out to interrupt. Good opening match that unfortunately sees MVP take a loss after going for a Playmaker that gets reversed into a Figure Four. They tried to play off MVP losing by having the referee make a false count but the finish was too far from it. Still, enjoyable match with some great energy to kick off the night.
Winner: Ric Flair
Rating: **1/2

Match 2: Chris Jericho vs. JBL
Chris Jericho's hot return the company in 2007 came to a screeching halt when he began a program with JBL on Monday Night Raw. For whatever reason, the crowd was seemingly against the thought of even having this match on the card. The action in the ring was fine but I didn't get the sense that there was bad blood between the two like they made it out to be during their promos. And the crowd was reacting in turn to that. However, they finally turned things up a notch in the last couple minutes that saw Jericho bleed profusely after hitting a ring post. Jericho then landed a nasty shot to JBL's cranium with a steel chair that called for the disqualification finish. You can imagine how New York City reacted to that one. Jericho beat down JBL afterwards and choked him out with the cable cords. Nothing spectacular here but nothing too bad, especially when taking into account this was JBL's first match in a couple years.
Winner: JBL
Rating: **

Match 3: World Heavyweight Championship - Edge (c) vs. Rey Mysterio
After winning the beat the clock challenge on SmackDown, Rey Mysterio was rewarded a chance at Edge's World Heavyweight Championship. Crowd is definitely on Edge's side here as Edge has his twins with him along with his girlfriend in Vickie Guerrero. Keep your eye on her. Really strong showing here from the two veterans that swung the match left and right while bringing out some innovative offense for the crowd in the process. Loved how Edge worked on Mysterio's leg throughout the match as Michael Cole referenced the injury that put Mysterio on the shelf for nearly a year. Mysterio looked to have the match in the bag until Vickie dragged the referee out of the ring. Mysterio was able to go for another 619 shortly after but only for Vickie to protect Edge and take the hit. Mysterio looked to take out Edge right after but the slight hesitation allowed for Edge to regroup himself and hit a Spear for the sweet finish. Great match here that brought back the energy from the opening match.
Winner: Edge
Rating: ***1/2

Match 4: WWE Championship - Randy Orton (c) vs. Jeff Hardy
The steam behind the Jeff Hardy train in 2007 leading into 2008 was alive and growing. Unfortunately, it derailed fast before our eyes. One of the more underrated feuds in recent memory has to be this one with Hardy landing a Swanton Bomb off the titantron on Randy Orton during an edition of Monday Night Raw was a sight to behold. Strong match here that had Hardy almost play the role of John Cena. He took tons of damage from Orton as the crowd rooted Hardy on. But unlike Cena, Hardy got in a little more offense and used his daredevil style of wrestling to his advantage. But just when you think Hardy had the advantage, Orton stayed in it and poured in his offense. Hardy looked to score the win with a Twist of Fate before Orton quickly reversed it into an RKO to seal the win. That's one thing I love about the RKO, it really does come out of nowhere and the finish was a nice close to the match. Hardy was once again so close, but still so far. The fast finish was almost poetic to Hardy's derailed train, a screeching halt. Thankfully, the train picked up for him later in the year as this match would go down as the big first loss in his roller coaster year.
Winner: Randy Orton
Rating: ***1/4

Match 5: 2008 Royal Rumble
Nice touch by having Michael Buffer come out and do his signature lines to introduce the match. Who better to open up the 2008 edition than with the two men that closed out the 2007 edition, The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Love how they had them open up the match and go at it for a decent amount of time before more entrants started to pile in. This Rumble did a great job of blending enough surprise entrants along with great pacing throughout. This was just an easy Rumble to watch, especially with the crowd being so hot for it. The match turned up another notch when Triple H entered at #29 and looked to be the absolute favorite as he was cleaning house. However, John Cena entered at #30 to an insane reaction as shocked faces flooded Madison Square Garden. It comes down to those two along with Batista as they all do their signature taunts against each other before Cena eliminates with an FU to the outside. What a Rumble that was. I can't help but reiterate how great the crowd was, the moment Cena's music hit has simply become a historic moment in the company. It started off with the right two guys and it ended with the right two guys. Great stuff all around.
Winner: John Cena
Rating: ****3/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
While the match quality wasn't the best it could be, the atmosphere was certainly electric throughout the night. It made watching the matches more pleasurable and added a different layer to the show. The main three matches were great and especially the Royal Rumble match itself. This was probably one of the best Rumbles in the past decade with lots of memorable moments and a classic ending.
Rating: 8/10