It’s too simple. Put two strong wrestlers in the ring, give them time, book a smart finish, and you have a match that builds to a story and makes everyone look good. It shouldn’t be this hard. Thank you Daniel Bryan and CM Punk, and to a lesser extent, Chris Jericho.

And because of that, my opinion of Raw and the first step in the road to WrestleMania is inflated.

Based on what happened at the Royal Rumble Sunday night and Raw last night, here’s where it looks like things are going for WrestleMania:

- John Cena vs. The Rock is the headliner of all headliners. However, since Rock is probably still a month away from being on a WWE show, the Kane vs. John Cena feud must continue. Kane attacked (sort of) Eve and told her that until John Cena embraces the hate, he’s going to continue punishing Zack Ryder and by proximity, her. Cena ran down to the ring and was more intense and violent than usual as he hit Kane with the steps a couple times and smiled. He’s also the worst Luke Skywalker of all-time. They are probably going to have a match at the Elimination Chamber, but the key to this will be to see if they turn John Cena full-on heel, or just amp up his violence. He’s going to be the heel against Rock at Mania anyway, so he might as well Stone Cold Steve Austin it up and wrestle as one. Of course, let’s hope he also doesn’t end up with Vince McMahon at the end of the night.
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Jason aka @dadrrtywhyteboi and I are back to talk about two big shows from this weekend, and to preview UFC 143.

The Royal Rumble was not a good show and we’ll talk about why. We discuss all the matches and go through the entire Royal Rumble, all the way down the the head-scratching conclusion.

Then, we discuss the second UFC On Fox show, which was also not as good as we’d hoped from an entertainment perspective, but seems to have done its job from a ratings perspective. We’ll go over all three fights and discuss where those fights should lead to.

We then talk about the build up to Nick Diaz and Carlos Condit, and preview the rest of UFC 143, which is this weekend. Lastly, I give a 30 second review of Gina Carano’s Haywire.

Thanks for listening.

Right click to download or stream below.

It’s my favorite PPV of the year and it generally delivers. We’ve done tremendous coverage on the show on the site so far with our preview articles and all that’s left is the wrestling.

1. Daniel Bryan vs. Mark Henry vs. The Big Show

The story of this match is that Daniel Bryan is a pinball and he’s bouncing around for Big Show and Mark Henry. Mark Henry couldn’t really do anything. He was not the world’s strongest man tonight. He could barely get his foot off the ground.

Bryan went to the top of the cage to try and leave, but the every so swift Big Show kept catching him. Big Show trapped Daniel Bryan’s arm and then also had him by his head so it looked like Bryan was hanging from the top of the cage, which was pretty cool. Show had a grip on him and Bryan was hanging from Show’s wrists, and finally let go and won the match.

Winner: Daniel Bryan

Bryan did the “Yes” screams after the match. (Photo sent in by my friend Jenn who is there live.)

2. The Bellas, Natalya, and Beth Phoenix vs. Alicia Fox, Eve, Kelly Kelly, and Tamina

Beth Phoenix tagged herself in by slapping one of the bellas pretty hard, immediately gave Kelly Kelly the Glam Slam for the win. Beth projects her character better than most of the dude wrestlers.

Winner: The Bellas, Natalya, and Beth Phoenix

3. John Cena vs. Kane
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And now the time of year where everything gets put on hold for one Pay Per View. An event I have watched many more times than any number of the WWE WrestleManias.

I’m talking the Royal Rumble. Two men enter the ring, and approximately two minutes later somebody else comes in. If you get tossed over the top rope and BOTH of your feet touch the floor, you’re eliminated. After 30 people (man, woman, rooster, tugboat, or mantaur) have entered the ring, the last person with both feet solidly in the ring gets a promise of a title shot at WrestleMania.

The Royal Rumble match itself usually lasts over an hour long, and has a cavalcade of gimmicks, feuds, and moments all rolled into one. If you haven’t yet, be sure to check out FGB’s Royal Rumble Preview, of our writer’s Favourite Moments, Most Surprising Moments, and our pick for who’s going to win.

The 2012 Royal Rumble has a surprisingly strong undercard, with both the WWE and World Heavyweight Title being defended. Also John Cena will face off against “The Prophet of Hate” Kane in a match not unlike Professor Moriarty trying to convince Sherlock Holmes to join him, so they can rule London together. Because we’re all tired of the Star Wars references.

Oh, and I’m sure there’ll be a few other undercard matches that haven’t been announced yet.

Let’s run down this sucker match by match.

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This UFC on Fox show is a big picture show. In pro wrestling, if you were to book the winners, you’d have Rashad Evans beat Phil Davis to set up his big fight with Jon Bones Jones. You’d also have Chael Sonnen slaughter Michael Bisping to set up his big fight with Anderson Silva. But it doesn’t always happen the way you want it to. The UFC has taken a risk in making both of these fights. If Davis and Bisping have an upset state of mind, those big fights become smaller fights and hurt the UFC’s bottom line. But that’s why this sport is so great. Anything can happen.

Curt Menafee says this is the first of four UFC shows on Fox this year. Well, at least if the shows bring in solid ratings or no one is violently hurt.

Menafee, Randy Couture, and Jon Jones are on the panel for the pre-game stuff. Menafee says that if Evans wins, he gets Jones at UFC 145 in Atlanta.

1. Chris Weidman vs. Demian Maia

You have a good wrestler and a great jiu-jitsu guy. Of course the first round is nearly all on the feet. Earlier, Maia seemed to be getting the best of it, but later in the round, Weidman was much more comfortable. Maia is telegraphing his right hand and Weidman was able to avoid it mostly. But Maia did land some nice knees. Weidman was varied with his kicks and punches. Weidman also got a takedown late.

Weidman had an early takedown and he fell immediately into side control. Weidman was tired for most of it and Maia was able to outstrike him, but not in any significant way. Pretty boring round until Weidman was able to secure another takedown and was working for Maia’s back. I think that last takedown and attempt toward submission may have secured him the round.

Maia is also tired and the third round suffered because of sloppiness. Maia was so tired that he went for a takedown, Weidman sprawled and Maia face planted. This isn’t necessarily the kind of fight that’s going to keep an audience. With Weidman having to cut so much weight, it was ripe for the taking for Maia and he just looks absurdly tired. I’d give the fight to Weidman simply because he closed rounds better and fought a smarter tactical fight than Maia did.

Winner: Chris Weidman by way of split decision

The scores were 29-28 once for Maia and the same twice for Weidman.

Bisping called Sonnen the UFC’s court jester. Sonnen cut a Saturday Night’s Main Event-like promo and said that fighting Chael Sonnen is hazardous to your health.

2. Michael Bisping vs. Chael Sonnen

Very active first round. Sonnen was all over Bisping early on and Bisping was on his heels. He took him down seconds into the fight, but wasn’t able to keep him down. Bisping looked flustered, but figured him out. Bisping’s striking was crisp while Sonnen’s was wild. Sonnen’s stand-up was so wild that it looked like he was going to conk Bisping in the head when he missed his left hand.
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I wonder if we’ll get more than 5 minutes of Nick Diaz this week?

Diaz says he started doing jiu-jitsu when he was about 15 or 16 and that’s when he met his MMA coach. He dropped out of school at the age of 16 to go into MMA full-time.

His Sambo coach said that he has his own drive and you don’t need to tell him to do things like run. Steve Heath, his MMA coach says that Diaz doesn’t have an off switch. He’s always training. He does marathon’s for fun.

Carlos Condit says that if he wasn’t a fighter, he’d be in the military and says that he’s a warrior. He loves shooting guns.

The Condits get together for family meals with 30 or 40 cousins. His dad says that when he gets closer to fight time, you see the happy Carlos less and less in favor of the determined Carlos.

The Diaz brothers are instructors at their gym. Imagine Nick and Nate instructing your kids in MMA. Nate says that Nick is his life coach. It seems like Nick can love his brother like he does because he can trust him.

Georges St. Pierre says he prays every night that Nick Diaz beats Carlos Condit so he can fight him when he’s healthy. GSP says that Diaz isn’t really crazy and that’s a fake crazy. GSP says he’s probably been in more street fights than Nick has.

Diaz says that in order to love fighting, he has to hate it. And he sort of makes sense in this weird circular way.

Bottom Line: They did a fantastic job of building up Nick Diaz vs. Georges St. Pierre and not such a great job building up Diaz vs. Carlos Condit. They’ve done an interesting angle with Diaz. Rather than show off his crazy side, they’re showing off a sensitive, uncertain side of him. He’s almost child-like. Condit comes off as way too regular kind of guy to be in a main event. The problem isn’t if he loses since Diaz is the star. It’s if he wins.