By Wade Keller, PWTorch editor

KELLER'S WWE ROYAL RUMBLE BLOG
JANUARY 29, 2012
ST. LOUIS, MO.
LIVE ON PAY-PER-VIEW

-So we have Daniel Bryan, trying to get himself over as a heel, being berated by the heel commentator Michael Cole, while Jerry Lawler and Booker T are coming to Bryan's defense. This is a complete mess. Cole should be siding with Bryan now, or at least be neutral, but how does it help Bryan to get over when Cole, perhaps WWE's top heel (sadly), is ripping into him on commentary? It didn't get any better as the match progressed. You even had Booker T defending Bryan not saying "I love you" back to A.J., suggesting with a straight face that saying he "appreciates her" is the same thing. He said he has trouble saying "love." He should try the "I appreciate you" approach with his wife and see how it works.

-Bryan climbing to the top of the cage just exposed how easily he can escape from it. There was a time when the selling point of the cage match was "trapping the heel" so he can't weasel out of the ring. Bryan just broke down that entire facade before the bell even rang. At least it did play into the match as Bryan darted at the bell to try to escape the cage, and his opponents immediately stopped him and stomped on him. I just wish the announcers would have built up what a big advantage it was for Bryan, despite the size disadvantage, to be able to escape over the cage because of his speed and agility.

-That finish wasn't as much of a "lucky win" as it could have been had he just tripped out of the cage door. I was thinking as Henry or Show left through the door, Bryan might just leapfrog over them to escape, but that would be a babyface move.

-As Bryan celebrated, Cole said he then has to survive the Elimination Chamber, and if so, he'll go to WrestleMania as World Champion. They still seem to have a gag order when it comes to talking about how the winner of the Rumble gets to choose to face either champ, and how it'd make sense for the winner to go after Bryan.

-A video feature aired on John Cena. Cena said he doesn't blame a portion of the audience with becoming "complacent with him," but he said he won't stop being who he is. Okay, first of all, that's the wrong use of the word complacent, but using context to assume what he meant, he's suggesting that fans who once cheered him now booed him. He's been booed from the start. That kind of "rewriting history" is not going to help his cause to stay babyface, but it's a good way to turn fans more against him since he appears to be either delusional or intentionally trying to deceive. This is the type of thing, with footage of kids loving him and his making tons of charity appearances, that will win over the audience who already like him, but it feels like heavy-handed corporation promotion to those fans who already are inclined to boo him.

-During the Divas tag, Booker was bragging about being up to 500,000 followers on Twitter. Help me get to 50,000 tonight! Follow me @thewadekeller and follow PWTorch @pwtorch. We have a long way to go, but we can do it!

-They noted that "#Royal Rumble" and "cage match" was trending on Twitter during the opener.

-Putting the Smackdown World Title on first and the Divas tag on second is another instance of the Smackdown belt seeming inferior to the Raw title. It's not quite as bad as how Dusty Rhodes treated the UWF World Title in the late 1980s when Jim Crocket Promotions bought out the UWF and it merged with the NWA/WCW, but I still argue for the sake of keeping both titles somewhat in the same neighborhood, they should pick a few PPVs per year where the Smackdown belt is the finale of the show.

-As Cena stood in the ring and soaked up boos just before Kane's ring entrance started, Cole said Cena's refusal to embrace hate is causing harm to those around him. They continue to play up the idea that Cena should feel guilty for not embracing hate, which is a tough, awkward sell.

-Cole touted that Cena has surpassed 10 million Facebook Fans, and he listed celebrities who aren't at 10 million and closed, with a hint of glee, that Rock is among those not at 10 million. Doesn't Rock school Cena on Twitter, though?

-A fan held up a sign that said "Embrace the Hate."

-Loud "Let's Go Cena / Cena sucks!" battle chant as Kane beat down Cena in the early minutes of the match.

-The Cena-Kane match played out like we could have anticipated. Cena goes after Kane aggressively at the start, but Kane quickly takes over and dominates for a while. Cena makes a comeback and hits a Five Knuckle Shuffle off the top rope, but then the brawl spills to the floor and they're both counted out. It would have been tough at this stage of the feud to do a finish. Having Cena lose clean two months before The Rock match at WrestleMania could weaken Cena. But they're not going to have a "feel good" finish at this stage of Kane's monster push, either. It sure seems more and more like Kane is being set up for Undertaker at WrestleMania, but there could be a surprise twist that leads to another credible opponent for him at Mania, too.

-The angle at the end was well done, with Kane going after Zack Ryder inside the (assembled for this angle) locker room that John Laurinaitis set up for him. Kane's smile as he delivered the tombstone on Ryder in the ring was great, as was Eve's reaction. She easily could stray into melodrama, but managed to hold back. Cena leaning against the bottom rope in the background was also perfect. Cole drew attention to how badly Cena must feel, and Eve shot Cena a subtle look that again said it was his fault. It's intriguing to imagine where Cena goes between now and Mania with Kane testing his resolve to remain himself.

-The Cena video package earlier makes more sense now that I see they did one for The Rock, too, that profiled his career and background, while also talking about his match against Cena. Well-done. It was part hype for Rock vs. Cena but more so a way for Rock to establish that (a) pro wrestling is in his DNA and WWE feels like home (b) but he has been on a journey of which WWE was just one stop and he has moved on to great adventures. He even made sure to make it clear that when he shows up at WWE, he could be on vacation anywhere in the world instead. He portrays himself - accurately - as a huge movie star returning to WWE to revisit home, just as he revisited his high school in the video package. Too bad WWE otherwise spends so much time implying resentment that Rock ever left to go to movies and that Cena is as big or bigger than Rock and certainly more into pleasing the WWE Universe.

-Drew McIntyre asks for a match since he was left out of the Rumble, says Cole, and he ends up with Brodus Clay. It does make sense to keep Brodus out of the Rumble because he shouldn't be eliminated from the match at this stage of his introduction to fans. He's still in that early stage where he shouldn't be defined down as someone who gets eliminated unceremoniously in the Rumble, nor is he at a believable level yet to be a finalist. Just as Kane is getting Henry's monster push, Drew is getting Ted DiBiase's losing streak push from last year right now.

-C.M. Punk is so heavy handed with his insults of Laurinaitis, he almost creates sympathy… until Laurinaitis shows up, that is. But seriously, he "sucks at life" and he's "pathetic." The way he says it, it just seems too harsh and heavy.

-Fan sign: "Y2Quiet"

-Punk gets a "Macho Man" chant after a top rope elbow.

-The Punk-Ziggler match was good, but it all felt like a set-up for the finish centering more about Laurinaitis with Ziggler a bump-taking supporting player. Ziggler's bumps for the Go 2 Sleep are tremendous (although he did show a little light on the first one). I haven't seen so many misunderstandings as I've seen with Punk and Laurinaitis since a marathon of "Three's Company." Laurinaitis managed once again to screw with Punk while having full plausible deniability. It was really funny when he insisted on sliding into the ring to count along with the in-ring ref when it appeared inevitable Punk was going to beat Ziggler. He only got in two counts, though. The in-ring ref got in all three. Lawler and Booker called him a humbled suck-up, while Cole declared that he should rule Raw for years to come.

-The WWE on YouTube ad airs pushing that nine new original shows debut on Wednesday. They include Outside the Ring, Long Island True Story, Superstar Toyz, In Box, Backstage Fallout, Santino's Foreign Exchange, Download, and WWE Presents.

-A WrestleMania video airs to this year's officially theme song, "Dark Horses" by Switchfoot. I hope you like it because you're going to hear a lot of it the next nine weeks.

-Time for the Rumble match, which starts with ten minutes left in the second hour, so they have roughly an hour to work with here.

ROYAL RUMBLE MOMENTS:

-After cutting a prematch promo expressing his confidence in lasting until the end, Miz eliminated Alex Riley, then gets cocky and calls out the next opponent.

-Mick Foley comes out seventh. The crowd cheers. Lawler says: "That's not a cheap pop, that's a real pop. Foley joins Justin Gabriel, Cody Rhodes, Miz, Epico. He eliminated Epico.

-Alberto Del Rio's music plays, but Ricardo drives out instead in a what appears to be a 1984 Datsun or something, in awful shape with upholstery that was as bad as it gets. He gets a pop and the crowd chants his name as Gabriel pinches his love handles judgmentally. The crowd turns on Foley when he takes a shot at Ricardo. Ricardo and Foley work together, though, and eliminate Gabriel, so Foley is back in their good graces. Ricardo makes a big production of celebrating the elimination.

-Santino out next, as Cole notes he has the record for shortest stay in the Rumble match. Santino battles Ricardo, and eliminates him.

-With Cody and Miz at ringside, but still legal, Foley and Santino face off. They pull out their respective socks - Mr. Socko and The Cobra. Primo enters, but they eliminate him together with a Cobra strive and a shove over the top by Mr. Socko.

-Cody and Miz attacked Foley, and Cody eliminates Foley. Could we see Foley & Goldust vs. Cody & a partner at WrestleMania?

-Miz and Cody briefly square off alone in the ring. That felt odd. Have those two ever been alone in the ring against each other? Kofi Kingston comes out before they can attack one another.

-Jerry Lawler's music plays next. Booker says he had no idea he was in the match. Lawler punches Cody and Miz, but ends up eliminated by Cody.

-After Ezekiel Jackson and Jinder Mahal enter, Great Khali makes a surprise entrance. He eliminated Mahal quickly.

-Booker T enters and Lawler cheers him on as Cole reacts with outrage and surprise.

-Original winner "Hacksaw" Duggan enters. Lawler says it's 25 years later, but it's really 24 years later. It's the 25th Rumble, but the first one took place 24 years ago. Nobody in WWE ever seems to get this basic math.

-Michael Cole enters at no. 20, but his excitement is cut off quickly when Kharma makes her return and clotheslines a frozen Cole. Cole begs off, then leaps over the top rope to eliminate himself, with some help from Lawler and Booker knocking him off the ring apron. Kharma gets the Diesel moment as she begins to eliminate some wrestlers, but Ziggler - the only wrestler from the undercard to enter the Rumble so far - backdrops Kharma out of the ring.

-It's down to Miz, Ziggler, Cody, and Kingston. Sheamus comes out no. 22 and beats up everyone.

-Cole brags that he lasted longer than Lawler did in the Rumble.

-"Road Dogg" Jesse James enters at no. 23. The crowd pops.

-The credible winner pool picks up as after Jack Swagger, out comes Wade Barrett, Randy Orton, Chris Jericho and at no. 30 The Big Show. He eliminates Swagger right away.

-Shortly after Cole touts that Miz and Cody each had been in there over 40 minutes, Show eliminates Miz and Cody. Then he knocked Ziggler to the floor.

-That leaves Show, Jericho, Sheamus, and Orton. Show chokeslams Jericho. Orton RKO's Show. That leaves Orton and Sheamus standing. Orton backdrops Show, but then Jericho eliminates Orton from behind.

-Final two: Jericho and Sheamus. They battled for a long with several dramatic near eliminations. Jericho dangled from the top rope and almost touched the floor; it pays to be shorter than average, huh?

-In the end, WWE showed us who thought there weren't credible, realistic winners other than Orton or Jericho, surprising us with Sheamus getting one of the biggest moments of his career. That shakes things up, assuming he really is in the main event WWE Title or World Title match at WrestleMania. For the sake of the value and tradition of the Rumble match, I hope they don't screw with that.

-Very good Rumble match and a good show overall. I'll be recording the VIP Audio Roundtable with Bruce Mitchell & Pat McNeill now, available later tonight for VIPers. Check out James Caldwell & Greg Parks live on www.BlogTalkRadio.com/pro-wrestling-torch for the live post-PPV show at 11:15 ET.

We suggest these recent related articles...

KELLER: Austin says no to Lesnar match, and he's right; Sting & Taker are wrong

KELLER: What was the Vince McMahon tweet about “E is for Entertainment” above New Day dancing with The Authority all about?

LATEST WADE KELLER VIDEO BLOG: Three Hot Topics - Hogan, Angle, ROH