Doc Manson tabulates every participant and elimination from every Royal Rumble match, ever. Or, at least, from 1988 – 2016, for those of you visiting from the future. Doc describes where the numbers come from and ponders the trouble with trying to get solid numbers for what seem like they should be straightforward stats.
Monday Night RAW ended in an unexpected fashion as Bray Wyatt (and Family) stood tall over BOTH Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar. Now, history would usually dictate that said ending guarantees Bray will not win the Rumble, as whomever stands tall on the go-home show tends not to do well on the following PPV. I get that.
But here’s the thing – Bray Wyatt SHOULD win the Royal Rumble.
Now, I can see NAIborhood members like Laz and even my very good friend Doc Manson shaking their heads at me again. “Oh, DC, there you go being that Irrational Idealist again. Bray Wyatt isn’t ever going to be a big deal in WWE.” Perhaps that’s true, but I say it again, with conviction.
Bray Wyatt SHOULD win the Royal Rumble.
OK, folks, since most of you are still raging, let’s use this as a place to get our thoughts and feelings out.
Overall, I thought the Rumble PPV was . . . just about “good”. Not totally good, nowhere near great, but not as bad as many of you seem to believe, which, I might add, is totally your opinion.
The Royal Rumble is but a few short days away, and from the look and feel of RAW last night, WWE just noticed. Last night’s show was a reminder that when push comes to shove, we can get a solid three hour wrestling show that has moments of greatness, which is really all we can ever expect.
There wasn’t a single moment that stood out to me (besides, of course, The Ascension getting buried by practically the entire cast of Monday Night War), so rather than reflect on a specific moment, I’d like to look ahead to the Rumble and give you 10 superstars who I could see winning the entire thing, and why they could be the lead car on the Road to Wrestlemania.
That’s right, I promised you 10 superstars. Hopefully I can come up with that many. . .
Welcome to the first installment of DC’s Network Diaries, where we document one insane man’s attempt to justify spending hours upon hours poring over the massive amount of #NAIstalgia that exists on the WWE Network.
If you’ve been a fan of mine from back before NAI, you know that this is not a new venture. Back before I had a name, in my Teacher days, I tried doing this over at Number Two Contenders, even including a snazzy syllabus and everything. Since trying to find “lessons” in each PPV was a difficult endeavor, and also because each of those entries seemed to be about 10+ pages, consider DC’s Network Diaries to be a streamlined version.
As I go through each PPV, I’ll share the following…
– My personal favorite moment / highlight of each match.
Note: This will not be a play by play recap, nor will I presume to “rate” matches. Wrestling, like all art, is subjective, so I will allow you to like what you like.
– In some cases, a “lowlight” – Either a problem I have or some other “ughhh” moment.
– A “so what”, in which I aspire to tie in the match with something happening in the modern WWE.
– At the conclusion of each event, I’ll offer a single recommendation (Match of the Night, if you will), along with a few discussion questions, since you can take the Teacher out of the classroom, but you can’t keep The Teacher from assigning homework.
I’d like you all to do me a favor. Close your eyes. . . And take a deep breath.
. . .
. . .
You can smell it, can’t you?
No, I’m not talking about what The Rock is cooking – It’s The Road to Wrestlemania, and it’s getting closer.
In fact, for my money, the first stop on the Road is the best one… Yes, my friends, I’m a Royal Rumble junkie.
For my money, there is no better single PPV concept than the Royal Rumble. It’s the perfect event for a culture with short attention spans. Every 60-120 seconds (depending on the year) another superstar enters the mix, leaving a seemingly endless number of possibilities. There’s always some surprise returns (at least there have been these last few years), some feuds continue while others begin and inevitably Kofi Kingston does something ridiculous, thereby leaving him free to languish in glorified jobber squalor for the next 364 days. . .
Sorry, was I really bitter just then?