Wrestling thread 2010

[Panda]

After an eventful January, which has seen the start of the Hogan era in TNA and Bret Hart's return to WWE TV, things really get going in the ring with the Royal Rumble tonight.

The Rumble match itself is probably my favourite event of the wrestling calendar (though much depends on the quality of the match, the last 2 of which have been poor).

So far, 25 participants have been announced for the match, which leaves some room for some surprise entrants and that's always a good thing.

As ever, there seems to be 2 stand-out candidates to win the match. This year it looks to be between Triple H (who has been in the final 4 of the last 4 Rumble matches he's been in) and Shawn Michaels. A HHH win would set up a title match at WM with either Sheamus or Orton that no-one will care about. An HBK win would set up a mouthwatering rematch with the Undertaker after their classic at WM25.

John Cena's also in there and can't be ruled out but he doesn't look like being in the title picture at the moment.

Beyond those 3, I can't see anyone else winning unless Edge has recovered enough for them to pull off a surprise like they did with Cena 2 years ago.

I'd love to see Chris Jericho win it to possibly set up a match with Edge at WM if Edge is going to return later but I think Jericho's been out of the main event picture too long to suddenly win the Rumble. His chance should come later in the year.

It's 9 years since the winner of the Rumble was someone who had previously won it before. Since then, it's generally been the biggest name on the roster who hasn't won it yet, but I can't think of anyone from the announced participants who would be a possible first-time winner this year. CM Punk's probably a few months away from another push and I don't see John Morrison or Kofi Kingston being elevated in time for WM. If Jeff Hardy had still been with WWE, he may have started favourite but that's another story.


Announced participants:
Batista (winner in 2005)
Big Show (last man eliminated in 2000 and 2004)
Carlito
Chris Jericho (4th in 2004)
Chris Masters
CM Punk
Cody Rhodes (3rd last year)
Evan Bourne (debut!)
The Great Khali (eliminated s**tloads of people in 2007, was first man eliminated last year)
Jack Swagger (debut!)
John Cena (winner in 2008)
Kane (12th Rumble in a row, last man eliminated in 2001, final 4 on 4 occasions)
Kofi Kingston
Mark Henry (made his Rumble debut 12 years ago)
Matt Hardy
MVP
The Miz
R-Truth
Shawn Michaels (winner in 1995 and 1996, last man eliminated in 2007)
Shelton Benjamin
Ted DiBiase (4th last year)
Triple H (winner in 2002, last man eliminated in 2008 and 2009)
William Regal
Yoshi Tatsu (debut!)
Zack Ryder (debut!)


"Superstars" not announced for the Rumble, who don't already have matches:
RAW: Big Dick Johnson, Chavo Guerrero, Hornswoggle, Jerry Lawler, Primo, Santino Marella (was previously announced but was removed from the list)
SMACKDOWN: Charlie Haas, Curt Hawkins, David Hart Smith, Dolph Ziggler, Drew McIntyre, Edge, Finlay, Jimmy Wang Yang, John Morrison, JTG, Kung Fu Naki, Luke Gallows, Mike Knox, Shad, Slam Master J, Tyson Kidd
ECW: Caylen Croft, Goldust, Hurricane (was previously announced but was removed from the list), Trent Baretta, Tyler Reks, Vance Archer, Vladimir Kozlov



These would be my made-up odds for the Rumble:
7/4 Triple H
5/2 Shawn Michaels
4/1 John Cena
10/1 Batista
14/1 Big Show
14/1 Chris Jericho
16/1 CM Punk
20/1 Kane
20/1 Kofi Kingston
20/1 Ted DiBiase
25/1 Cody Rhodes
28/1 The Miz
33/1 Jack Swagger
33/1 Mark Henry
33/1 MVP
33/1 R-Truth
40/1 The Great Khali
50/1 Carlito
50/1 Matt Hardy
50/1 Shelton Benjamin
66/1 Chris Masters
100/1 Evan Bourne
100/1 William Regal
200/1 Yoshi Tatsu
200/1 Zack Ryder



Royal Rumble card:

30-man Royal Rumble match
Winner receives title shot at Wrestlemania 26

WWE title
Sheamus v Randy Orton

World Heavyweight title
Undertaker v Rey Mysterio

ECW title
Christian v Ezekiel Jackson

Women's title
Michelle McCool v Mickie James

[Panda]

My predictions:

Rumble: HHH (though I'd settle for anyone else winning)
WWE title: Sheamus
World title: Taker
ECW title: Christian
Women's title: Mickie

[Panda]

Previous Royal Rumble winners: (entry number in brackets)
1988 - Hacksaw Jim Duggan (13 - first Rumble only had 20 participants)
1989 - Big John Studd (27)
1990 - Hulk Hogan (25)
1991 - Hulk Hogan (24)
1992 - Ric Flair (3)
1993 - Yokozuna (27)
1994 - Lex Luger & Bret Hart (23 & 27 - joint winners)
1995 - Shawn Michaels (1)
1996 - Shawn Michaels (18)
1997 - Stone Cold Steve Austin (5)
1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin (24)
1999 - Mr. McMahon (2)
2000 - The Rock (24)
2001 - Stone Cold Steve Austin (27)
2002 - Triple H (22)
2003 - Brock Lesnar (29)
2004 - Chris Benoit (1)
2005 - Batista (28)
2006 - Rey Mysterio (2)
2007 - Undertaker (30)
2008 - John Cena (30)
2009 - Randy Orton (8)

Last man eliminated:
1988 - One Man Gang (19)
1989 - Million Dollar Man (30)
1990 - Mr. Perfect (30)
1991 - Earthquake (22)
1992 - Sid Justice (29)
1993 - Macho Man Randy Savage (30)
1994 - see winners
1995 - British Bulldog (2)
1996 - Diesel (22)
1997 - Bret Hart (21)
1998 - The Rock (4)
1999 - Stone Cold Steve Austin (1)
2000 - Big Show (26)
2001 - Kane (6)
2002 - Kurt Angle (26)
2003 - Undertaker (30)
2004 - Big Show (24)
2005 - John Cena (25)
2006 - Randy Orton (30)
2007 - Shawn Michaels (23)
2008 - Triple H (29)
2009 - Triple H (7)

#1 and #2 entrants:
1988: Bret Hart & Tito Santana
1989: Ax & Smash
1990: Million Dollar Man & Koko B. Ware
1991: Bret Hart & Dino Bravo
1992: British Bulldog & Million Dollar Man
1993: Ric Flair & Bob Backlund
1994: Scott Steiner & Samu
1995: Shawn Michaels & British Bulldog
1996: Triple H & Henry O. Godwinn
1997: Crush & Ahmed Johnson
1998: Cactus Jack & Chainsaw Charlie
1999: Stone Cold Steve Austin & Mr. McMahon
2000: D'Lo Brown & Grandmaster Sexay
2001: Jeff Hardy & Bull Buchanan
2002: Rikishi & Goldust
2003: Shawn Michaels & Chris Jericho
2004: Chris Benoit & Randy Orton
2005: Eddie Guerrero & Chris Benoit
2006: Triple H & Rey Mysterio
2007: Ric Flair & Finlay
2008: Undertaker & Shawn Michaels
2009: Rey Mysterio & John Morrison

Last entrants:
1988: Junkyard Dog
1989: Million Dollar Man
1990: Mr. Perfect
1991: Tugboat
1992: Warlord
1993: Macho Man Randy Savage
1994: Adam Bomb
1995: Crush
1996: Duke 'The Dumpster' Droese
1997: Undertaker
1998: Vader
1999: Chyna
2000: X-Pac
2001: Rikishi
2002: Booker T
2003: Undertaker
2004: Goldberg
2005: Ric Flair
2006: Randy Orton
2007: Undertaker
2008: John Cena
2009: Big Show

[-Big Dan-]

Ezekiel Jackson's theme must be the single coolest entrance theme I've ever heard.

[Panda]

Royal Rumble results:

ECW title
Christian bt Ezekiel Jackson to retain the title

United States title
The Miz bt MVP to retain the title

WWE title
Sheamus bt Randy Orton by DQ to retain the title

Women's title
Mickie James bt Michelle McCool to become the NEW champion

World Heavyweight title
The Undertaker bt Rey Mysterio to retain the title

Royal Rumble Match
Edge eliminated John Cena to win the Royal Rumble Match and earn a title shot at Wrestlemania

Order of entry/elimination:

Entry	#	Elimination
Dolph Ziggler	1	Evan Bourne
Evan Bourne	2	Dolph Ziggler
CM Punk	3	JTG
JTG	4	The Great Khali
The Great Khali	5	Beth Phoenix
Beth Phoenix	6	Zack Ryder
Zack Ryder	7	CM Punk
Triple H	8	The Miz
Drew McIntyre	9	MVP
Ted DiBiase	10	Matt Hardy
John Morrison	11	Kane
Kane	12	Carlito
Cody Rhodes	13	Cody Rhodes
MVP	14	Ted DiBiase
Carlito	15	John Morrison
The Miz	16	Drew McIntyre
Matt Hardy	17	Triple H
Shawn Michaels	18	Shelton Benjamin
John Cena	19	Yoshi Tatsu
Shelton Benjamin	20	Chris Masters
Yoshi Tatsu	21	Mark Henry
Big Show	22	Big Show
Mark Henry	23	Jack Swagger
Chris Masters	24	R-Truth
R-Truth	25	Kofi Kingston
Jack Swagger	26	Chris Jericho
Kofi Kingston	27	Shawn Michaels
Chris Jericho	28	Batista
Edge	29	John Cena
Batista	30	Edge

[Panda]

Very good Rumble match this year. The best for a number of years. It was well paced, nicely broken up in places, unlike the last couple, which just saw the ring filling up too quickly, with not enough of note happening between the first few entrants and the last few. This year's is up there with the classic matches we saw during the first half of the 00's.

Edge's return was only a semi-surprise because they did the same thing with Cena in 2008 but the match was booked very well. Triple H's elimination was a shocking moment, CM Punk did a great job in the early stages.

The rest of the card wasn't great. Christian couldn't really get a good match out of Zeke. Miz and MVP did OK with the time they had. Sheamus doesn't look ready to be a main eventer though Orton did a good job. It'll be interesting to see where the Legacy storyline goes for Wrestlemania. The women's title match was a waste of time. They could've scrapped the whole cake thing and given the match a few minutes instead. Taker v Mysterio was the best singles match of the night. Very solid work from both and they put on an interesting match, even though Rey was never going to be winning.



Edge's win throws the Wrestlemania picture wide open. It looks like they want to do HBK v Taker again at Wrestlemania, and rightly so but that match doesn't need to have a title involved, so I wonder if we might see Jericho win the World Heavyweight title at Elimination Chamber to set up a match with Edge. Sheamus v HHH would probably be the other title match at WM.

[-Big Dan-]

The 2 main event matches for the Elimination Chamber PPV have been set.

World Heavyweight Championship - Undertaker, John Morrison, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Rey Mysterio, R-Truth

WWE Championship - Sheamus, John Cena, Randy Orton, Triple H, Kofi Kingston, Ted DiBiase

[Panda]

That's a great line-up for the Smackdown match. Good to see Morrison in a PPV World title match. R-Truth's clearly getting a big push right now as well.

I wonder if we could see HBK somehow cost Taker the title to set up a rematch at WM. A match like that doesn't need a title involved and it would maybe set up Edge v Jericho for WM at the same time.

[-Big Dan-]

The Million Dollar Man is the first inductee into the 2010 Hall Of Fame!!

[Panda]

A well deserved inductee. I thought they might've done it last year but they don't like having too many big names in the same year so they pad it out with people like Koko B. Ware.



Two more title matches added to the Elimination Chamber PPV:

Intercontinental title: Drew McIntyre v Kane

vacant Divas title: Maryse v Gail Kim

[Panda]

My predictions for Elimination Chamber:

WWE title: Sheamus
World title: Jericho
IC title: McIntyre
Divas title: Maryse

Probably a couple more matches to be added to the card.

[-Big Dan-]

Elimination Chamber results:

WWE Title: Cena won the Chamber match, then Mr McMahon ordered Cena to face Batista. Batista pinned Cena for the title
World Title: Jericho won the title by pinning Taker, after Shawn Michaels appeared and laid Taker out with Sweet Chin Music
IC Title: McIntyre bt. Kane
US Title: The Miz bt. MVP
Diva Tag Match: Michelle McCool and Layla bt. Mickie James and Maryse (Match was changed from a Divas' Title match by Vickie Guerrero. I guess the Divas' Championship Tournament will now end at WM)

[Panda]

Liking the results from Elimination Chamber. Jericho's win sets up a title match with Edge, with HBK facing Taker. As I said previously, that match is so big it doesn't need the World title involved.

Batista v Cena with Vince and Bret in their respective corners now looks on for WM and I'd rather see that as a main event than Sheamus v HHH, which could still take place anyway. I'm all for new talent being pushed and Sheamus looks a good prospect for the future but he hasn't earned his place in the main event of WM yet. Let him prove himself over the next couple of years, then put him right at the top.



After last night, John Cena is now an 8-time world champion (6 WWE, 2 World Heavyweight). Batista and Chris Jericho are both now 6-time world champions.


All-time top 20:
1. Ric Flair 16 (2 WWE, 7 WCW, 7 NWA)
2. Triple H 13 (8 WWE, 5 World)
3. Hulk Hogan 12 (6 WWE, 6 WCW)
4= Jeff Jarrett 10 (4 WCW, 6 NWA)
4= Sting 10 (6 WCW, 2 NWA, 2 TNA)
4= Verne Gagne 10 (10 AWA)
7= Edge 9 (4 WWE, 5 World)
7= Kurt Angle 9 (4 WWE, 1 World, 1 WCW, 3 TNA)
7= The Rock 9 (7 WWE, 2 WCW)
10= Harley Race 8 (8 NWA)
10= John Cena 8 (6 WWE, 2 World)
12= Bret Hart 7 (5 WWE, 2 WCW)
12= Undertaker 7 (4 WWE, 3 World)
14= Batista 6 (2 WWE, 4 World)
14= Booker T 6 (1 World, 5 WCW)
14= Chris Jericho 6 (2 WWE, 2 World, 2 WCW)
14= Kevin Nash 6 (1 WWE, 5 WCW)
14= Randy Orton 6 (5 WWE, 1 World)
14= Randy Savage 6 (2 WWE, 4 WCW)
14= Stone Cold Steve Austin (6 WWE)

[-Big Dan-]

Matches confirmed for WM26:

WWE Championship: Batista v John Cena
World Heavyweight Championship: Chris Jericho v Edge
The Undertaker v Shawn Michaels (Taker's WM winning streak v HBK's career)

Christian, now a member of the Raw roster, is the first to qualify for the Money In The Bank ladder match. I was led to believe though that there wasn't going to be one at WM this year, as the July PPV is down as being called 'Money In The Bank'.

[Panda]

The WWE axe is out again...

Hurricane Helms, Paul Burchill and Maria have all been released...

[Panda]

Shelton Benjamin, Kane and Dolph Ziggler qualified for MITB on Smackdown. Kane became the first man to beat Drew McIntyre.

Also on Smackdown, Michelle McCool regained the Women's title from Mickie James thanks to referee Vickie Guerrero.

[sexystephmagielove]

Feb 27, 2010 18:41:35 GMT 1 Panda said:

Shelton Benjamin, Kane and Dolph Ziggler qualified for MITB on Smackdown. Kane became the first man to beat Drew McIntyre.

Also on Smackdown, Michelle McCool regained the Women's title from Mickie James thanks to referee Vickie Guerrero.

That awesome that Shelton Benjamin, Kane and Dolph Ziggler qualified for MITB on Smackdown. That awesome news.

[Panda]

Shelton deserves to have been pushed much more over the years. He'll do a great job once again in the MITB.

[Panda]

Updated Wrestlemania card after last night's Raw:

WWE title
Batista v John Cena

World Heavyweight title
Chris Jericho v Edge

Streak vs Career - No DQ, No Count-out
Undertaker v Shawn Michaels

Bret Hart v Mr. McMahon

Triple H v Sheamus

Money In The Bank Ladder Match
Christian v Dolph Ziggler v Kane v Shelton Benjamin v MVP v Jack Swagger v Matt Hardy v Evan Bourne

Unified Tag Team titles
The Miz & Big Show v John Morrison & R-Truth

[-Big Dan-]

HHH/Sheamus hardly strikes me as a Wrestlemania-worthy match. Summerslam maybe, but not WM.