We’ve listed our favorite moments and our most surprising moments in the first two parts of our Royal Rumble preview.

Now, we’ll go through who we think is going to win. In our most recent edition of FGB Radio, Jason and I broke down who had a chance to win and who didn’t. We decided that there were really only a few guys who could realistically win the match (Jericho, Orton, Barrett, and Sheamus), unless there was a complete surprise winner. WWE TV has recently been pushing that everyone is eligible to join the Rumble, but they haven’t really said what that means. In the early years, everyone was eligible, including champions, so I’m not sure what the big deal is.

I’m going to guess that this means CM Punk and Daniel Bryan can be in the match even if they are still champs. I don’t really see what good that would do being that the stipulation is still that the winner gets a title shot at WrestleMania. The only way a current champion winning makes sense is if they want to go back to having one undisputed champion and I don’t see that happening.

Possible wrestlers returning at the Rumble may be Alberto Del Rio and Christian, just based on them being on the WWE Superstars page. I’m not sure who can be a “surprise” these days.

Alan: I’m really thinking it’s Jericho. We’ve had 29 men enter the Rumble, there’s 4 guys left – Wade Barrett, Sheamus, and two others. The two others get eliminated by Wade and Sheamus. Then those two start battling it out – hell for leather. The clock comes up for No. 30. The countdown starts: 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. They are beside the ropes, going at it. 5. Sheamus hits a big clothesline and both men go over. 4. It’s ruled that BOTH are eliminated. 3, 2, 1 – BUZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!! BREAK THE WALLLLS DOWWWWWN!!!! Jericho makes his big spectacular entrance, jacket a-glowing and he walks to the ring as the WINNER of the Rumble without having to touch anyone. It would be unforgettable.

Duan: I’m also leaning towards Jericho as winner. I was actually saying to my brother on Tuesday it would be good if they brought back Rikishi as a surprise entrant. I expect Foley to be in there as well. Not sure if that constitutes a surprise or not though.
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Yesterday, we wrote about our favorite Royal Rumble moments ever. In part two of our preview, we’re going to list the most surprising Royal Rumble moments.

Alan: HBK returning into the ring and eliminating Davey Boy. Was crushed by it as a kid. I was like “NOOOOO!!! This can’t happen!”

Duan: Vince McMahon’s win in 1999. Even at the height on Russo’s madness, I never envisioned Vinny Mac winning the Rumble. Then again, I never envisioned him being ECW champion either, so maybe it’s just a Vince thing. I fully bought Santino as a potential winner last year, but not McMahon in 99. I’m still stunned. I just googled it now to make sure it actually happened.

Don: I’d have to go with the return of John Cena at the 2008 Royal Rumble. It’s not too often that I’m surprised by anything in wrestling these days, so when it caught me off-guard I rather enjoyed it. It was apparent he was going to win as soon as he came out, but I still rewound that sucker 2-3 times to watch the crowd reaction.

Big D: Definitely Cena’s comeback. No question. I watched that in the living room and was like “WHAT?” “WHAT!?!?!?!” Then I cursed out Scherer and Meltzer for not telling me.

GG: I have to agree with Don and Big D. Nothing these days about John Cena will ever surprise any of us, unless he turns heel. And then people will say, “I knew it all along.” But when he won that Royal Rumble, it may have been the last time I was truly “surprised” and had no clue was going to happen. We were worried that he wouldn’t be at WrestleMania and low and behold he shows up at the Rumble. That dude is tough, no matter how stale his character may be.

We’re going to do a four part preview for the Royal Rumble. The first two parts will be historical while the last two parts will be about this year’s show.

In this first part, I asked the FGB crew about their favorite Royal Rumble moments ever.

Here are the memories:

Alan: Benoit winning in 2004. Sure it’s been tainted by non-wrestling stuff but at the time it happened I was over the moon. It was such a well crafted Rumble from beginning to end, and the finish by taking over Big Show with the guillotine was incredible. I remember really not wanting Goldberg to win and freaking out when Brock caused him to get eliminated.

Duan: Austin’s entrance in 1998. If I was to point to the one time when I was most invested in the WWE product, it would probably be that first quarter of 1998. Stone Cold had picked fights with pretty much everybody in WWE leading up to the Rumble. Watching the packed ring fall deathly still as Austin’s music hit, and he prepared to face down his ten on one odds, was one of the most tense moments the company ever created.

Cactus Jim: The show where the Rock just bashed the shit out of Foley with unprotected chair shots. That was pretty memorable.
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Jason aka @dadrrtywhyteboi and I are back to talk about many things on the latest edition of FGB Radio.

We recorded the show very soon after my beloved San Francisco 49ers lost in the NFC Championship Game to the New York Giants so we talk about football for the first few minutes, but quickly thereafter, we segue into talking about the top three fights on the 2nd UFC on Fox show, which is this weekend. We talk about Sonnen vs. Bisping being a true number one contender’s fight, Weidman being thrusted into the spotlight, and the funny circumstances between Rashad Evans and Jon Jones.

We then discuss the 2012 edition of the Royal Rumble which is also this weekend. We talk about the few guys who actually have a chance to win the Rumble and wonder if there’s a secret guy out there who we’re missing. We talk Punk/Johnny Ace and how Dolph Ziggler is kind of just a third wheel in the angle as well as Daniel Bryan and how he’s doing as champion.

Lastly, we talk about the heavily rumored rematch between Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto, going through most of the possible guys who Pacquiao could even fight.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Right click to download or stream below.

With the WWE Network supposedly coming out in 2012, I decided to ask my FGB crew their thoughts on the idea of an all-WWE network. Duan and Alan don’t live in the United States, so their perspective is from afar, though definitely valid. Cactus Jim doesn’t watch wrestling anymore, but at one point was a big fan.

(We previously discussed Chris Jericho’s return in our most recent The Cypher column.)

I posed one question to the crew and it was, “Are you excited for the WWE Network?”

Here were the responses:

Cadillac Don:
I’m interested only because I’m missing my WWE Classics on Demand. I would pop that in while doing some writing in the evening, reminiscing in my childhood while watching old RAWs, PPVs, or Superstars. Then I would see ECW and WCW programming I never had the chance to watch.

When it comes to the network, I’m only interested in the older programming, and possibly recaps, stories, or some kind of entertainment show with interviews/segments to get wrestlers over.

I have very little interest in any extracurricular shows like cooking, or traveling with Divas. It may be interesting to watch the Legends House show for the car-wreck mentality, but it would have to really grab me to get me to watch more.

It would be great to have classic programming to look forward to every week. With Classics on Demand I picked what to watch, and presumably missed out on a lot. Bryan and Vinny (from the Wrestling Observer/F4W) recapped matches I had no interest in seeing, then they turned out to be great, and I had missed out. Remember the classic matches they’d show at the end of the Mean Gene-hosted Confidential? There were some hidden gems there.

So yes, I am looking forward to reminiscing about the wrestling I missed.
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Your boy Jason aka @dadrrtywhyteboi is back for the first FGB Radio of the new year.

Before talking about UFC 142, we discuss UFC 141 and Brock Lesnar’s retirement from UFC. We also talk about some ideas for his WWE comeback.

We then preview UFC 142, which is probably going to be the lowest viewed PPV show of the year for the UFC. The card in general is full of guys who aren’t really pushed by the UFC, but we talk about why we’re looking forward to the main event in particular.

We move off MMA and start talking about pro wrestling, discussing Chris Jericho’s return and the man that is Brodus Clay.

In the final segment, we discuss the latest on Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao.

Check it out and let us know what you think.

Right click to download or stream below.