Review for WWE Royal Rumble 2011

I love the Royal Rumble. Everyone who knows me knows this. I would happily watch the Rumble over any other event... yes including Wrestlemania. To me the Rumble is the most exciting and at times the most satisfying of the PPVs. The reason is that if the undercard is weak... and this year is a great example of this, I still know that I will get some thrills, spills and surprises form the Rumble.

This year the big news was that instead of the usual thirty entrants it was being increased to forty. I was a little sceptical about whether this would work or if it would just water the event down with ten more people who would not win. I should know by now that the Rumble could have five people it could a hundred and five people and it is still going to be the best event ever.

The matches are middling to fair. The Divas Fatal Fourway featuring LayCool, Eve and Natalya for the Divas belt was awful as always and I wish they would just do a Divas Rumble every year instead. WWE Championship match between Orton and The Miz was a little blah to me. This did not feel like a title match, it felt more like a Raw match. Of course those who watched the last PPV will wonder why John Morrison (who won a title shot at TLC) was not in it. Well, of course WWE decided to squander that match, which was infinitely better than this, on a random Raw and of course very few people will even remember it took place. This match was just two people going through the motions. Finally the World Championship Match between Edge and Dolph Ziggler was soso. I don't want to say it was a bad match, it wasn't, but it's not a match we will be talking about. The ending (much like the WWE Championship match) was blah and this was not the best showing by either of them.

The Rumble itself is as great as ever. The main stories going into this was the possible return of Undertaker and Triple H and the feud between CM Punk's New Nexus and Wade Barrett's The Corre. The rest of the match seems to weave in and around this and to be honest this was a pretty solid Rumble. I don't agree with the winner or the ending (though the ending was fabulous), but the action throughout the Rumble was great. The fact that a lot of heavy hitters and former champions like Sheamus, Randy Orton, Kane, Rey Mysterio and John Cena were in it, made the event feel a lot bigger. Having them in it it felt almost like the early years when the champions would be in the event (1988-1992) and you would get to see Hogan fighting alongside people who he may not have worked with. One of the main highlights was the Spiderman-like antics of John Morrison who shined throughout. Cena teaming up with Hornswoggle was fun for what it was, though I think it went on a bit too long, but it was still nice. It would be difficult to say any spots without spoiling surprises or exits, but the extra ten people simply increased the length of the Rumble and didn't add much else. But as I say, a longer Rumble just means more Rumble to enjoy.

I will say this time and time again and there has to be a point where someone in the DVD creation department will listen to me. If you are going to include extras... do not... and I repeat DO NOT reveal who won matches. If you have not seen the Rumble a glance at the extras will tell you who won the Rumble and who won the Divas match. You may aswell plaster the Rumble winner on the front cover if you are going to do that. Now I understand that some people say that because people should have seen the event on PPV that they will know who won, but all this means is that if I ever want to revisit this Rumble (as I may do) in a few years I may not remember who won. Sadly one slip on the menu and there's your winner and EJECT!

Royal Rumble 2011 was a great event, sure the other matches are not great, but I never expect them to be. The Rumble itself is great and even though I wasn't too pleased with the winner, I still enjoyed every moment of it and even the surprise at the end was great. This may not go down as the greatest Rumble ever, but for me even an average Rumble is lightyears better than anything else WWE produce.