WWE Royal Rumble 2009 - Results & Review

Catch up with the preview if needs be and then get back here because “the road to Wrestlemania begins here”. Ugh, I feel like Vince McMahon now. I need a wash.

Entrance Video
They showed a really nice highlights video recapping the past Rumble winners and how big an achievement it is to actually win it. They then replayed Randy Orton kicking Vince hard in the head.

Raw commentators Michael Cole & Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler greeted us and they used their ‘quiet voices’ as there is was serious matter to be dealt with. They told us that nothing has been disclosed about McMahon’s condition...except he has at least a concussion. Yes, quite. Fireworks then go boom!

The Matches

‘The All-American American’ Jack Swagger defeated Matt Hardy to retain the ECW Championship
Really solid match to open things with and it was given time which was a bonus. Swagger played a good heel by at one stage waiting outside in order to waste time and catch his breath back. There was some good psychology as Swagger worked over the arm of Hardy nicely and the commentators played that up to good effect. Hardy hit a terrible looking moonsault for a near fall but Swagger won with a Gutwrench Powerbomb. Very fine showing from Swagger in his PPV debut. Afterwards Matt Hardy looked really despondent as he sat on the ring steps for a wee rest. Wonder what he was pondering?

Melina Perez defeated Beth Phoenix to win the WWE Women’s Championship
Well, this surprised me. It was a clean victory too after a roll-up and there was absolutely none of the outside interference that was expected beforehand. The match was sound, I actually wouldn’t have minded them give it a bit more time as these two work well together. Phoenix looked really strong, so while the loss was big; it didn’t hurt her credibility as much as it should have done. Really crazy part where Phoenix bent Melina’s leg back up so it was touched her head and then used Melina’s own leg as a weapon against her opponent. It was something you would expect to see in SHIMMER, which instantly made it awesome. The problem with the title change though is that Melina is short on credible challengers, but there is value in this feud yet.

John Cena defeated JBL to retain the World Heavyweight Championship
The match was what you expected; slow, boring and dull. All the focus was on what Shawn Michaels would do from ringside. What he did do, after a referee got taken out, was plant a Superkick on both JBL & Cena before throwing JBL on top to get the pin. But a second referee came running down and Cena kicked out at two (like they always do with the new ref) before he quickly won with his finisher. Michael’s actions made me a bit more interested in this story, which is more than I was expecting.

Edge defeated Jeff Hardy to win the WWE Championship in a No-Disqualification Match
Hardy came out in some silly facepaint that made him look like an alien. Before the match Vickie Guerrero came out and announced it was now a no-DQ match. Chavo Guerrero accompanied Edge to the ring for some bizarre reason. Oh wait, he is just carnage fodder as Hardy jumped off a ladder sending both of them through the announce table. It was more dangerous than it looked as the ladder buckled at the very last second. Hardy hit his finisher but Vickie came in and broke it up. Matt Hardy then came down and grabbed a chair before striking his brother in the head with it! Ahh, so that’s what he was thinking earlier. Matt sold his betrayal brilliantly with no emotion while the crowd didn’t know how to react. Edge then covered for the easy win.

The problem I feel with the heel turn is that Matt was insanely over with the crowd and ECW is really short of babyfaces now as he was transferred to Smackdown to be on the same show as Jeff. Also while they are on the same show, Matt will NEVER be the better of the two as Jeff does more high-risk moves which the fans eat up. Even so, really solid match, Matt’s heel turn was a surprise (typical ‘bait and switch’ by WWE though as everyone was expecting Christian to appear) and Edge has the title again, so I’m happy.

Randy Orton won the Royal Rumble match
They set the time limit so that a new guy entered every 90 seconds. Triple H was due to be #1 but for some strange reason Rey Mysterio and John Morrison started things. MVP came in at #4 and was pretty good. He is in the midst of a babyface turn which is something different; I’m not entirely sold yet but he played his role well in this one. Vladimir Koslov entered at #6 and was on fire, eliminating a few guys. He quite frankly looked awesome. But then Triple H came in and dumped him out. Damn. Randy Orton then entered after followed by Ted DiBiase, who immediately teamed up as part of their ‘Legacy’ faction. Chris Jericho came out at #11; lots of big guns in early. Orton went crazy dropping everyone with his finisher. Triple H threw out the tag team champions, The Miz & Morrison, further showing that WWE don’t care about their tag team division. Mysterio also went out but used people as stepping stones to stay alive which was pretty nifty. Cody Rhodes then entered to complete Legacy.

Bong! The lights go out and the crowd went mad and The Undertaker made his way down to the ring. The ring was pretty packed as there were barely any eliminations. At #25 there was surprise entrant...Rob Van Dam! The arena went absolutely nuts, and rightly so. RVD put in a really good showing of himself overall getting all his trademark moves in. The final entrant was The Big Show. But there was 15 people left in the ring which is way too many at this stage. Eventually it got down to The Legacy, Big Show, Triple H & The Undertaker. Show & ‘Taker fought on the apron before Show got knocked off by Orton and then he pulled ‘Taker down to the floor. They then fought and I really hope they don’t do these two guys in a feud again. So the final four were Legacy and Triple H. If you can’t see how this one ended then you need your brain checked. Triple H dumped DiBiase & Rhodes before being tipped over by Orton who celebrated as fireworks went off and Legacy posed in the ring.

The fun and randomness of the Royal Rumble was there and I really liked how Orton held up Rhodes’ & DiBiase’s arms with him at the end. But there should have been more people thrown out earlier, it just got too clustered in the latter stages.

King Of The Ring or Jobber?
This was a very solid PPV, none of the matches were below their expectations and Edge/Jeff Hardy probably took it up another notch than from what was predicted. I’ve no problems with any of the winners to be honest so the booking was spot-on. It was an entertaining watch on the whole with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. A fine start to the year then for the WWE.