WWE’s Royal Rumble is the first step in the road towards Wrestlemania. You can usually see where the plans are going when it pertains to Wrestlemania after the rumble. It’s also one of the more special shows of the year simply because you only see one Royal Rumble a year.

At the bottom of this post, Duan, Alan and I will both give our thoughts about the Mosley and Margarito fight as well.

Here’s what the FGB crew thought about the shows.

Royal Rumble

Big D

Show overall rating: Thumbs Up

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: None

Awesome Royal Rumble. I always forget just how fun these matches can be every year and they rarely dissapoint. Every single match on the card delivered. I loved the back and forth Hardy vs. Swagger match. Swagger is really getting better and better with each match and I’m VERY impressed with his selling. The women’s match was fun and very similar to the Hardy/Swagger except with women. I loved Melina’s lucha like roll-up finish. I popped. Cena vs. JBL was a decent brawl. The ending was a bit predictable, but it was cool. Cena got his win back and HBK got to boot JBL. Good times. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy NO DQ was an awesome main event caliber match. I loved how they used tables, ladders, and chairs, but didn’t overuse them. The finish made absolutely no sense. I don’t care what stupid excuses and reasons people have for Matt to turn on Jeff – none of them make sense. If he was behind all of this, why did he attack Edge not only on Smackdown this past week, but throughout the past few months. I hated how the supposed reason was for Matt to be “jealous” of Jeff winning the belt… yet he attacks him a MONTH BEFORE JEFF WINS IT at Survivor Series in the hotel? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I do want to say that I feel bad for Matt. A bunch of disrespectful, uneducated, mouth breathing marks left very crude and rude comments on his myspace page. I actually read one guy say “I know its fake, but fuck you”. I cannot fathom there being HUMAN BEINGS that are like this. At least we can hope they’ll pay to see Matt vs. Jeff and give Matt money for that crap.

The Rumble match is ALWAYS fun and this year was no exception. I was a little dissapointed with the surprise of Regal and Hacksaw, but the RVD return was AWESOME. I broke this on AngryMarks.com before it happened and thought it was still cool that RVD got a shot. I loved how they did the Priceless vs. HHH fight at the end, and I was actually legitimately expecting Ted Dibiase to turn on Orton (payback for the kick in Tampa) and win the Rumble, setting up a new star against Cena. The Marine 1 vs. The Marine 2. It sounds lame, but I love it. Still, Orton’s win was… predictable. I liked how he pointed AT THE SIGN… AGAIN! Just like last year. But I loved the fireworks.

Overall, awesome Royal Rumble show. If you missed it, check it out.

Alan

Show overall rating: Thumbs Up

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: Melina vs. Beth Phoenix

Loved this PPV. So good, that not even the closing angle of Raw could wash away the good will I had for WWE after this show. I think I enjoyed the Rumble match more than anyone, so much action and so much stuff I marked for. Swagger/Matt was great too. Didn’t like the Matt heel turn though. That was some bullshit. I wanted a Christian return bad.

Duan

Show overall rating: Thumbs In The Middle

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: Melina vs. Beth Phoenix

I always have much higher expectations for the Royal Rumble than your average WWE PPV, and i was left feeling a little bit disappointed with this year’s effort. Certainly not a bad show, but i just expected more from it.

I thought the Royal Rumble match itself was very good up to a point, and then completely lost its way. There was some really good action in the early going, but i felt that letting the ring get so over crowded later on in the match was a huge mistake. It started to get very messy and the elimination spots became poorly thought out and very predictable. The ending lacked any real sense of drama.

I agree with what the others’ point of view on Jeff vs. Edge – the Matt turn was completely illogical and took from what was otherwise a very good main event match up.

GG

Show overall rating: Thumbs Up

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: Melina vs. Beth Phoenix

I almost always enjoy the Royal Rumble. I look forward to this just as much as I do Wrestlemania. I liked the opener and think Jack Swagger has pretty much everything it takes to at least be an uppercard star. The women’s match was too mechanical for what they tried to do but I didn’t expect it to be good. Cena/JBL was ok, but it was a complete backdrop to the HBK/JBL angle, which I didn’t really like. The only true payoff is if HBK makes his money and then beats up JBL. Hardy vs. Edge was a very good match, but just like everyone else I hated the Matt Hardy angle. Now, if they can turn it into something good, I’m all for it. But they have a lot of explaining to do and logic holes to fill. I’m really glad they stayed with Orton winning if that was their original plan. I was worried that they were going to switch it up and have someone else win, but he’s hot. Let’s run with him. I liked the show and my kids loved the rumble so all was good for me.

Shane Mosley vs. Antonio Margarito

Alan

I’m not a huge boxing aficionado, but I thought this was an extremely great fight. Mosley was amazing. Should have been stopped a tad
earlier though.

Duan

By far the best match up of the whole weekend. Unbelievable performance from Mosley. I don’t think anyone could have possibly expected him to just dominate the way he did. He was landing big shots with such frequency that I knew it was only a matter of time till Margarito would crack. Shane boxed a perfect fight, and you have to give credit to Naazim Richardson for coming up with the right strategy once again.

GG

I was simply amazed by Shane’s performance. What a legendary performance from someone who simply makes fights exciting. I knew he would push Margarito, but fully expected Margarito to take over later in the fight. But it just never happened. Any boxer who is fighting someone supposedly indestructible should watch that fight and copy Shane’s strategy. Now, they won’t have as much talent as Shane, but he simply fought a smart fight. He outhit him, outboxed him, and outsmarted him.

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