2009
was during my long hiatus from watching the WWE, so this is my first time
seeing this PPV. Based on the opening video montage, the story of this event is
Randy Orton vs the McMahon family. We see Randy talking smack at Stephanie and
then attacking Vince, giving him a punt kick and laying him out. It was
surprising for me to see a much more violent and vicious Randy Orton. The
character as I know him now is fairly plain and stale, so this is an
interesting look into the character.
ECW Championship
Jack Swagger (c) vs Matt Hardy
During my time off, the WWE added a
third brand, ECW. Now, in no way, shape or form was this anything like the
original ECW. It just seemed like an excuse to add another show to their
lineup. They tried to push that ECW Championship as a world title but if
anything it was just a slightly elevated mid card title.
Jack Swagger never really had any
charisma. He was good enough in the ring and could wrestle a decent match, but
his character was just there, never anything special. This match with Matt
Hardy had the same characteristics as Swagger. It was good, not great, but did
not have any lasting impact or feature anything that special.
Winner:
Jack Swagger
WWE Women’s Championship
Beth Phoenix (c) with Santino Marella
vs Melina
This encounter was the story of Beth
Phoenix’s strength vs Melina’s agility and craftiness. Apart from a few timing
issues, the 2 styles meshed well together. It ended up being more violent than
expected, with one sequence where Phoenix forced Melina’s foot to kick her in
the back of her own head. Currently being in one of the stronger eras of
women’s wrestling, you hear that everything was bad just a few years ago but
this is not the case. The match was short but sweet, effective in what they
were trying to tell. Santino Marella walked to the ring with Phoenix but he was
a total non factor in this whole thing. In the end, Melina found a clever way
to counter one of Phoenix’s moves into a sort or roll up to get the pin.
Winner:
Melina (new champion)
World Heavyweight Championship
John Cena (c) vs John Bradshaw
Layfield with Shawn Michaels
Now hold on a second, Shawn Michaels
is with JBL?!?!?! I really did miss a lot of storylines during those years.
Luckily there is a video package, explaining that Michaels lost a lot of money
during the 2008 financial crisis and JBL offered to bail him out, but Michaels
had to help him win the World Heavyweight title.
The match itself is average at best.
Mostly slow power moves, nothing too thrilling. The most interesting aspect of
all this is storyline with Shawn Michaels. Throughout the whole match he is
conflicted. Does he help JBL in order to financially aid his family, or stick
it to him since he can’t stand him? You end up paying little attention to Cena
and JBL, you are watching Michaels the whole time. This just illustrates how
good HBK is in his role and why he is a legend, he just proved himself more
important than a match for the World Heavyweight Championship. In the end,
Michaels superkicks both JBL and Cena after the referee gets knocked out and
places JBL to cover Cena and leaves. A new ref comes in and Cena kicks out. He
then hits the attitude adjustment on JBL and wins. It’s worth noting that Cena
is actually being cheered in this match, no 50/50 cheers and boos. This is
indeed a whole different era that I missed out on.
Winner:
John Cena
WWE Championship
No Disqualification Match
Jeff Hardy (c) vs Edge with Chavo
Guerrero
I’m so glad they were doing these
video packages, otherwise I’d have no idea what the storyline was. Apparently
Edge was sabotaging Hardy’s life by running his car off the road and detonating
his pyrotechnics early and burning him (which is something that actually happen
to The Undertaker the following year). This story is, well odd. I’m not sure
where it all started or why Edge is such a dick, but it’s bleeding into weird
territory and just doesn’t feel right.
This match is the opposite of the
previous one. The story here is not that strong and Jeff Hardy and Edge are not
the actors that Shawn Michaels is. While the in ring action is fairly decent,
it’s doesn’t create enough emotion or attachment. It’s a match that happens,
that’s about it. In the end, Matt Hardy comes in and hits Jeff with a chair,
giving Edge the victory and the WWE Championship. The mystery is why Matt
betrayed his brother, which I’m sure was revealed later on since it set up a
Wrestlemania match between the two.
Winner:
Edge (new champion)
Royal Rumble Match
Winner gets a World Title shot at
Wrestlemania XXV
The WWE made it very clear that
Randy Orton was going to win the Royal Rumble. This whole match was centered
around him. The opening promo to the entire pay per view was about Orton and
his problems with the McMahon family. I don’t think they even mentioned any of
the other participants in their promos.
The match started off with some high
flyers in Rey Mysterio and John Morrison. At entrants 5 and 6 we got some big
guys in The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov and then the main eventers Triple H
and Randy Orton came in at 7 and 8. The ring starting filling up after this and
this rumble had a very full ring for most of the event. At certain points it
seemed that there were a dozen wrestlers in there at once. The Legacy stable,
consisting of Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase, was working together
for most of the match but had little success eliminating entrants. Late in the
match we had the now legendary spot where Santino Marella lasted 1 second and
we had several other participants who lasted less than a minute. In the end the
final four, usually my favorite moment of the rumble, were the entire Legacy
group and Triple H. Helmsley was eventually able to fight his way to
eliminating DiBiase and Rhodes before being tossed out by Orton, the winner.
The Royal Rumble overall was a good
match. There were a lot of participants that lasted a long time and there were
some cool spots, like when Mysterio jumped on the back of 2 guys who fell out
in order to avoid elimination. The only problem is that there was absolutely no
mystery as to who was going to win. Generally, there is one favorite, but there
are usually a few others who have a possibility of winning. Here, the WWE told
you right at the beginning of the show that Orton was winning, everything else
is a formality. That would be the main negative of the Royal Rumble itself.
Winner:
Randy Orton
Conclusion
This event was a fairly decent one.
Most matches were ok but none great. The opening contest was serviceable but
nothing special. The women’s match was actually pretty good and enjoyable. Cena
vs JBL did not have great action but it told a good story, whereas Hardy vs
Edge was the complete opposite. The Royal Rumble match is among the better half
of all the rumbles but the ending was way too predictable, at least leave some
mystery.
Final
Score: 7.5/10
