Reflections of... Royal Rumble and the following Raw

So this go-around, I'm actually able to make a fully informed statement on a pay-per-view, as my friends bought and recorded it. The Royal Rumble card can be described as the PPV where WWE tried to do everything in its power to surprise us on a card where nothing was that surprising.

The World Heavyweight Championship opened the show, which is always unsettling, though I kind of figured it would. I liked the idea of Alberto Del Rio's rematch with Big Show also being a Last Man Standing match because it makes his wins look like they might be stipulation-based. This is the only way a build to a regular singles match out of a gimmick singles match makes any sense.

The match worked well simply because Big Show knows how to make the LMS stipulation really compelling. The finish, well, it was stupid. Just like when John Cena used the same duct tape trick to keep Batista down, it strikes me as a cheat because it's not actually limiting the person's ability to stand.

Additionally, the finish feels like something a cowardly heel should be doing, not someone who plays off as a fighting champion. It's not as bad as the Batista-Cena version since ADR recently was in the cowardly heel role, but it did diminish a good match. Still, it's worth 3 stars.

The World Tag Title match felt like a by-the-numbers match with minimal PPV quality (about 2.25-2.5 stars). Clearly, all four men were saving their strength for the Rumble, so it makes me wonder why they even bothered with the match.

Oh yeah, it's because the Divas can't carry an 8-minute match due to inhumanly awful signings, training and booking. Sara Del Rey needs to bring the NXT girls up soon.

The Rumble match itself was its usual awesome, almost-four-star self. Jericho was an excellent surprise, Bo Dallas made big noise in his debut and Kofi's chair routine was awesome.

My biggest two complaints are about the lack of real surprise entrants after Y2J (Goldust, Godfather and rookie Bo Dallas were all) and the predictability of the finish. The whole thing actually lost drama as contenders got thrown out.

The final six were Cena, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Dolph Ziggler, Y2J and Ryback, so it's clear WWE knew that they lacked any real drama so tried putting the most credible guys in at the end to throw some doubt.

But then the iron men from the start of the match (Ziggler and Y2J) were gone, ending all hope of Ziggler's belt unification tease (seriously, stop talking about it if you won't pull the trigger, WWE!), and the SmackDown superstars who could have gone for the WHC also went out, leaving a Cena-Ryback showdown with the finish as a foregone conclusion. Both would have gone for the WWE Championship, so there was no way Ryback was winning.

Overall, nice match, but the end result should not become an increasing certainty as you go.

Then the main event: This. Was. AWESOME. Unlike the Rumble match, Rock and CM Punk didn't have to do the title change that night, so there was some uncertainty.

Both men looked to be in excellent condition and it was a great watch, probably the best match on the card (I'd say 4 stars out of 5). What keeps it from being a classic was the nonsensical restarting of the match. There had to be a better way to do this. Masked assailant? Foot on the rope? Anything? Oh well.

I have no issues with the matches on this card, the card itself, or even the booking decisions on the card. My issue is that I can see the payoff to these decisions a mile away.

I have three things that sell matches to me on a PPV card: Quality potential (will the match be entertaining in the ring), urgency (a first-time, blowoff or last time ever match) and unpredictability (booking has made it that at least two different results are logical and viable). Name value means a lot to some, but I see the names in the build-up so it's not huge.

The problem with setting up Cena-Rock II is that it fails in all three categories. It's not a first-time match and I don't buy Rock will never return, so urgency is out. The crowd really pushed the first Cena-Rock clash to a high-level, and I don't see that happening again, so I don't see high quality potential.

And the result is a foregone conclusion. Rock is leaving for a while again, so he can't keep the belt. He can't just beat all the top active talent without burying the product. And he's facing the top guy (who never loses clean) who he's already beaten clean. There is literally no incentive for me to pay for this match.

Add in that there's no way Brock Lesnar will beat HHH again in that almost certain-to-happen match, and Undertaker's win is pretty much guaranteed, the most important match that meets any criteria is the WHC match. I can't justify paying any amount of money on a PPV if there is NO drama to it.

Luckily, while the payoffs at WrestleMania don't look like something to pay for, the build-up on the free shows looks like it'll be great. I've never been more upset that I had to work than last night, as Raw was on my old college campus 20 minutes away.

I can't seriously believe I missed seeing WWE Champion Rock, Y2J, and the announcement of Trish Stratus' Hall of Fame induction live. Then again, in two live shows I've seen the CM Punk pipe bomb, Big Show going through a steel cage wall, Shawn Michaels, Jack Swagger cashing in Money in the Bank and Undertaker the week after retiring HBK. (WWE likes to make a big deal out of Vegas shows, huh?)

The build to Mania looks like it's going to be great. Since Rock clearly won't enter an Elimination Chamber, it appears The Shield will go in with Cena, Sheamus and Ryback. To accomplish what, I'm not sure (Cena's Rumble shot, maybe?).

Y2J and Ziggler appear to be moving back toward a feud at Mania, so there may be at least one quality match. And I loved that Big Show got retribution for that B.S. ADR duct tape thing.

Rock and Punk are clearly setting up a match at the Chamber PPV, and this excites me. Aside from the awesome promos that will take up the next three weeks, this sets up the prospect of maybe a dirty finish that turns the Cena rematch into a Triple Threat with Punk, Rock and Cena. It would add some uncertainty and I think they could pull off a good three-way match.

There were drawbacks on this show, though. The thing with Tensai must NEVER be spoken of again. Cody Rhodes got an unnecessary squashing, which was annoying. And you know a match is going over horribly when the announcers have to apologize for it and swear that "it gets better from here" like they had to do with the Divas. (Seriously, this HAS to build to Sara Del Rey and the NXT Divas running in and overthrowing this forsaken turd of a division. Please let it be so!)

And this is really a nitpick, but did anyone else think that Cena's promo was supposed to originally end the show, but they moved it before Rock and Punk so it would get more interest? Because he clearly references Rock and Punk being his possible WWE title match opponents before any rematch was set up. Not a huge deal, but it raised my Person's Eyebrow.

But yeah, the Wrestlemania build should be awesome, even if at this point I'm just hoping WWE will do something to surprise me. Here's hoping for a good card in Jersey!

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