Royal Rumble Rewind: 2011

So we come to the end of our journey with a look back at last year's show. The 2011 edition of the Rumble once again tried to change the formula - this time by having 40 entrants in the match. As you'll see, this was not a case where the motto 'bigger is better' is true. I hope you've appreciated this look back at the Rumble match and will enjoy the 2012 edition tonight. As is typically the case, there should be a number of surprises and hopefully a winner we can all support. One thing's for sure, tonight will properly get us onto the 'Road to Wrestlemania'.

2011 Royal Rumble

Emanating from the TD Garden in Boston, MA

Last year’s Rumble MVP, C.M Punk gets the unfortunate luck of drawing #1. At this point, he was the leader of the (new) Nexus. Before #2 comes out, the entire group of the Corre (dumbest stable name ever) come out and surround Punk. They attack him, prompting the rest of the Nexus to run out and even the odds. As they brawl, the anonymous RAW GM sends an email ordering their fight to stop. He sends everyone but Punk to the back or else face removal from the match. Frankly I hope they stay so we don’t have to see them again later in an official capacity. As the crowd chants for Punk, the official #2 entrant, Daniel Bryan makes his way out to the ring. The two have some nice fast-paced back and forth action to start. Bryan connects with a missile dropkick but then misses a charge in the corner. #3 is the first Corre member, Justin Gabriel. Punk and Bryan clothesline each other which allows Gabriel to attempt the 450 splash. Punk moves out of the way and Bryan is able to throw the beaten Gabriel out of the ring. Zack Ryder is #4 and he goes right after Bryan. These three guys would be in much higher positions in the company by year’s end. Ryder charges at Bryan who is able to move and hiptoss him out of the ring. And we go from rising star to cagey veteran as William Regal comes out at #5. He lays some stiff shots in on both Bryan and Punk. Now Bryan lays out Punk and Regal with kicks. Ted Dibiase is the #6 entrant and he goes after Bryan. As Dibiase tries to get rid of Punk, Bryan brutalizes Regal with a series of kicks. #7 is John Morrison and he takes out everyone including delivering a C4 to Bryan. Dibiase manages to get Morrison on the apron. Regal then bumps him off, but Morrison manages to hop onto the guardrail without touching the floor. Morrison then walks the rail and hops back onto the ring steps and reenters the ring. That was pretty sweet. Meanwhile, as we were fixated on him, Regal was eliminated by Dibiase. We’ve paired off now with Dibiase and Morrison fighting and Bryan trying to eliminate Punk. Someone who’s thankful that the Rumble has 40 guys this year is Yoshi Tatsu, who’s out at #8. Nothing of note happens as our second Nexus member, Husky Harris is the #9 entrant. He comes in and plays bodyguard for his leader, Punk. #10 is Chavo Guerrero who continues to sponge off Eddie’s name by giving Dibiase the Three Amigos. That gets interrupted by Punk, so Chavo gives it to him instead. However, he gets interrupted again by Morrison, so Chavo tries it on him. One more interruption by Bryan ends with Chavo completing the move on Bryan. Chavo gets a nice pop for that.

We might get some ring clearing now because Mark Henry enters at #11. Chavo tries to hit him with a high crossbody, but Henry catches him and pitches him to the floor. Tatsu tries to attack Henry, so Henry retaliates by clotheslining him out of the ring. Henry finally gets stopped by a double attack from Punk and Harris. #12 is JTG and he always seems to luck out and get a spot in this match. This match is in need of some star power, however we don’t get it because another Nexus member, Michael McGuillicutty is #13. He does make an impact, however, by quickly eliminating JTG. He and Harris team up and are also able to eliminate Dibiase. The string of Superstars mainstays continues as Chris Masters enters at #14. He gets Punk in the Masterlock and nearly eliminates him before Nexus makes the save. It’s more Nexus members as David Otunga is the #15 entrant. He joins his Nexus brethren in eliminating Bryan, Masters, Morrison, and Henry. Only Nexus members remain in the ring as Tyler Reks (who?) comes out at #16. He doesn’t have the chance of getting one offensive move in before the Nexus eliminate him as well. Vladimir Koslov is the #17 entrant and he receives the same treatment. They eliminate him and pose as they wait for their next victim. We could use for Punk to get on the mic during these breaks. #18 is R-Truth, who runs to the ring seemingly undeterred by the fact that there’s a gang waiting for him. Punk mocks his ‘What’s Up’ catchphrase and then throws him out. Crowd is quickly growing restless with this. The Great Khali waddles out at #19 and I doubt, despite his size, that he’ll make much of a difference. I stand corrected though because he manages to take them down and eliminate Harris. However, just as we think that this will be the end of their dominance, the final Nexus member, Mason Ryan enters at #20. He attacks Khali and manages to throw him out, leaving us once again with only Nexus members in the ring.

In our first surprise of the night, the six time WCW champion, Booker T enters at #21. Big crowd pop for him. He initially holds his own and takes down the Nexus members long enough to perform the Spinarooni. He gets close to eliminating Punk, but Ryan comes up behind him and throws out Booker instead. #22 is John Cena and I think we can safely say the reign of Nexus will finally be coming to an end. He’s able to divide and conquer and eliminates Ryan, Otunga, and McGuillicutty and short order. Cena and Punk square off in a match up that would get much more interesting a few months later. Cena escapes a GTS attempt and both men clothesline each other. With both men down, Hornswoggle comes out at #23. He taunts Punk, who shoves him down. Good!! Punk gets Cena up again, but Cena escapes and manages to pitch out Punk. Not pleased about that one. Cena then helps Hornswoggle up. If Cena wanted to earn some favor with the crowd he’d launch him into the 8th row, but he instead opts to form an alliance with him. Tyson Kidd comes out at #24 and gets double-teamed by the two of them, which includes an FU by Hornswoggle. He gets eliminated shortly after that. The second Corre member to enter, Heath Slater is #25. He receives a 5 knuckle shuffle from both of them and then gets hit with the tadpole splash by Hornswoggle. Cena quickly pitches him after that. The only saving grace about this sequence is that they’re jobbing out worthless talent. Kofi Kingston is #26 and we’ll see what happens now that it’s another face in there. He actually locks up with Cena as Hornswoggle stands by and watches. That goes nowhere as Jack Swagger enters at #27. He takes down both Cena and Kingston. Hornswoggle shoves Swagger, which is enough of a distraction to allow Kingston to hit him with a high crossbody. Now Kingston and Hornswoggle hit Swagger with the Boom Drop. Sheamus runs out at #28 and I hope he destroys that horrible little nasty stereotype that’s in the ring. He comes in and attacks everyone else. When he spots Hornswoggle he shoves him down. Hornswoggle gets back up and tunes up the band. He hits Sweet Shin Music, but Sheamus quickly recovers and picks him up. He sets him on the top rope and then hits him with the Brogue Kick to punt him out of the match. Thank goodness. We get back to normalcy as Rey Mysterio enters at #29. He slides into the ring and is immediately caught by Swagger. As he tries to hit Swagger with a 619, Sheamus intercepts him with a clothesline. Swagger charges at Mysterio in the corner, but Mysterio heaves him onto the apron. As Swagger tries to reenter, Mysterio hits him with a 619 that knocks him to the floor. With everyone down, the next Corre member, Wade Barrett comes out at #30.

Kingston stomps away at Barrett in the corner as Dolph Ziggler makes history by being the first ever #31 entrant into the Rumble. It should also be noted that Ziggler already wrestled and lost to the World Champion, Edge earlier tonight. Cena, Kingston, and Mysterio team up to try and eliminate Barrett, but they’re unsuccessful. In yet another surprise entrant, #32 is Big Daddy Cool Diesel, who gets an even bigger pop than Booker. Barrett goes right after him but gets knocked down. Diesel catches Kingston and hits him with Snake Eyes. He even knocks down Cena with a clothesline. Drew McIntyre is the #33 entrant and he quickly teams up with Sheamus to take on Diesel. A ‘Let’s Go Diesel’ chant breaks out. Mysterio hits Diesel with the 619, which draws boos. The Miz’s protégé, Alex Riley enters at #34. He runs in and immediately gets punched by Cena. Meanwhile Barrett manages to dump out Diesel, which the crowd does not like. As the action continues, the Miz joins the commentary team. #35 is Big Show who has a brief staredown with Diesel in the aisle before entering the match. He knocks down everyone who comes in his path. Show grabs Ziggler and heaves him out of the ring. Cena and Kingston work together and manage to eliminate Riley, something that the commentary team, including Miz, completely miss. The final Corre member, Ezekiel Jackson is the #36 entrant. As he runs down Show manages to throw out McIntyre. Jackson clips Show in the leg and then heaves him out of the ring. Miz says that Riley is being very smart right now, apparently oblivious to the fact that was eliminated minutes ago. Santino Marella runs out at #37 and goes after Sheamus. Sheamus recovers and hits Santino with a Brogue Kick. That shot causes Santino to be knocked out of the ring, but under the bottom rope. Driving out to the ring in a Bentley is Alberto Del Rio at #38. As he postures in the aisle, Matt Stryker finally figures out that Riley was eliminated. Del Rio still hasn’t made it to the ring yet when Randy Orton runs out at #39. Orton also lost a world title match earlier tonight. He clotheslines Del Rio from behind and then sends him into the steps. He brings Del Rio into the ring and gives him the RKO. He then gives one to Sheamus and Kingston as well. He eliminates both Sheamus and Kingston after that. Orton and Cena have a staredown which draws zero response from the crowd. I absolutely love that their staredown was met with such apathy. They wanted to have an iconic moment in the same way whenever Austin/Rock, Michaels/Jannetty, or Santana/Martel met in the ring and yet nothing. Rounding out the field is Kane at #40. He comes in and punches everyone in his way.

Jackson charges at him, but Kane ducks and causes him to fall out of the ring. Kane catches Mysterio coming off the top rope. Before he can chokeslam him, Mysterio reverses it into a ‘rana that eliminates Kane. While still on the apron, Mysterio gets knocked to the floor by Barrett. We’re seemingly down to the final four of Cena, Orton, Del Rio and Barrett. From my perspective that’s a weak quartet, although the brain trust that run this company would disagree. Cena and Orton staredown again and it’s one again met with silence. To quote Nelson Muntz, ‘haw haw’. Despite being down to these last few guys, we’re still getting some pretty generic fighting between them. Suddenly Alex Riley runs back down and distracts Cena. That allows Miz to run into the ring and throw Cena out. I have to imagine that was not how that was originally supposed to play out. Riley likely got eliminated earlier than he was supposed to and that was the audible. Now Del Rio and Barrett team up against Orton. Orton recovers long enough to toss out Barrett, however, Del Rio quickly runs up behind him and throws out Orton. Del Rio begins to celebrate his victory, but suddenly Santino Marella, who had never been eliminated, reemerges. Del Rio turns around and gets hit with the Cobra. The crowd is loving this. Santino goes to throw Del Rio, but Del Rio reverses course midstream and pitches out Santino instead. Now Del Rio can officially celebrate his win.

Bottom Line: They added 10 more guys to this match and yet the roster still seemed weaker than in other recent years. We really did not need nearly a tenth of the roster to be comprised of Nexus and Corre members. Their presence also created the major sag in the middle of the match where either they or the Cena/Hornswoggle duo were dominating. On the plus side, there were a couple nice surprises and it also attempted to set up some Wrestlemania feuds. While I give them credit for trying to promote a new star in Del Rio, I think hindsight may prove that they made the wrong call by giving him the win. In fact, I think I would have rather had Santino win here, only to have him lose the title shot sometime before Wrestlemania. It would have given the match a feel-good ending and could have actually built Del Rio’s heel heat further by having him win the title shot in a more nefarious manner later down the line. This was not a strong Rumble and time (albeit only a year) has not been kind to it. ** ¾