Royal Bumble

[Velkontés]

It still feels like we're "just" over Christmas when really it was over 3 weeks ago and the Rumble is next weekend. Usually this is the point where I say "if ever they were going to have an out-of-nowhere winner, THIS would be the year to do it", but for the first time in a while there seems to be several plausible candidates and some intrigue as to who is going to win it.

Personally I think it would be funny if they leave Dan Bryan until #30, only for Batista to knock him out backstage and casually walk down the ramp and chuck Heath Slater out to win.

Dan Bryan would be the most obvious winner. I feel like it isn't going to happen though. Shouldn't he have a guaranteed rematch anyway? He never actually lost the title in the first place.

Roman Reigns is the other obvious winner. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. Stop trying to make Roman Reigns happen.

Is Rusev in this thing? Or do Battle Royale defeats not count against "undefeated" streaks?

I don't think they would waste Sting in this match. Maybe he will dispense justice in the Title match.

I'm not completely counting out the possibility of Rock being a surprise entrant and winner, because Rock vs Brock seems like a big main event.

If they did want a left-field winner, then Paige being the last entrant and winning to set up a title match against Rollins would draw a lot of mainstream attention. Not happening, I know, just a hypothetical.

What would TNA do in this situation? Well, Triple H to win, obviously. I was thinking TNA already had their version of the Royal Rumble last year: Magnus vs AJ Styles for the TNA title. 2 men start, and then every 30 second another person comes running down to interject themselves into the match. There were probably more people involved in that match then in the Rumble itself.

[Champ]

Wwe makes me sick right now lol. I'm just so sick of their nonsense. I just don't care about any of their wrestlers and it's just a shit era.

I thought Reigns was the obvious choice at first, but now I kind of just wish Lesnar would renew his contract and hold the belt another year. He's the only guy I'm really buying into right now. I do think reigns vs LEsnar is a better match than bryan vs lesnar though

[Velkontés]

Reigns is a BIG favourite with the bookmakers at the moment. Dan Bryan is the only other contestant who is even in the same ballpark. Also Triple H is only 7th or 8th on the list. lol. I forgot about that guy.

Man, that's going to be underwhelming. How can they have such an awesome roster and only give a shit about 5 of them? With a 6 hours of TV to fill?

[Champ]

It's bad man. I feel like they just got lazy and don't care anymore. It's like as long as they got Cena keeping them in business and they have all their social networking resources, they couldn't care less about having a decent product today. The truth is nobody seems ready for mania

[Velkontés]

Update: Dan Bryan and Reigns are both equal favourites now, with Rock not far behind them. That was a pretty drastic shift.

[MasterSnit]

Jan 18, 2015 9:25:41 GMT -5 Velkontés said:

TNA already had their version of the Royal Rumble last year: Magnus vs AJ Styles for the TNA title. 2 men start, and then every 30 second another person comes running down to interject themselves into the match. There were probably more people involved in that match then in the Rumble itself.

That match was ridiculous. LOL. The ring was like a clown car with free balloons inside. I'd say that AJ - Magnus feud, and the match in particular was one of the most TNA things they ever did.

I think Daniel Bryan will win the Rumble. I also hope Daniel Bryan will win the Rumble. I was thinking recently though that a surprise No.30 entrant named The Undertaker would be a cool way to go. Have Undertaker win the Rumble, then beat Brock at WrestleMania and retire as Champion. *sigh* I can dream...
Still can't believe the streak is over. That cut pretty deep.

As for the title match, I'm not too sure. Even if they pretend Brock has signed a 6 month extension or something, I'd like to see Brock go in to WrestleMania as the champion. Bryan beats him for the title and Rollins cashes in two minutes later.
I can't be bothered with Roman Reigns. I think Reigns beating Rusev for the U.S. title is the perfect feud for him right now.

Looking forward to it though. The Rumble match is the one I look forward to the most every year.

[Velkontés]

Wrestling is weird right now. You've got fans absolutely booing the shit out of the guy who won the Rumble, not because he cheated like a bastard or because he punted kittens on his way down to the ring... in fact they're not really booing him at all - they're booing the people writing him. They're upset because Dan got eliminated, but again, it's a fake sport and he got thrown out. They're booing the fact he's been written to be thrown out, rather than the fact he got thrown out.

I dunno, WWE probably could have avoided it, but it's kinda hard to see who the antagonist really is in all this?

Easiest way to resolve it is to have Rock (in support of Roman) turn heel on Dan. Wouldn't mind seeing Dan vs Rock at Wrestlemania.

[MasterSnit]

The way the whole Rumble match played out was what angered me more than anything.

• Bryan gets eliminated early like he's some worthless jobber
• The next 5-6 guys out are jobbers or heels. Designed to let the fans get the anger out of their system before a face comes to save the day
• Reigns comes out and isn't joined by any popular faces until the end when Kane and Big Show dump them out the ring like garbage bags

The whole match was designed around Reigns and other than Wyatt who had a good showing, every other participant might as well have not even been there. It was such a desperate attempt to squeeze a cube into a sphere for the second year running. My most anticipated match of the whole year was such a huge disappointment once again.


I think I know where they are going with the Bryan vs Reigns match too. Reigns goes over Bryan, probably clean, and Bryan endorses Reigns as the man to conquer the Beast and urges the fans to get behind Reigns. It might work, but I'm not fully convinced. Or they could try turning Bryan heel before the match before having Reigns beat him which would probably make the whole thing worse because nobody would buy it.
I also think if things don't go as they hope the guy who gets screwed the most out of all of this could be Seth Rollins. He's spent the last 6 months becoming their best heel in quite a while, but if Reigns absolutely has to be the man going forward, they might go the Corporate Rock route with him and kick Rollins to the curb as Reigns becomes the Authority's chosen one.

I suppose we'll see where it's all going, but they had a perfect main event match in Bryan vs Lesnar just sitting there on the table and the fans would have ate that up. It would have been such an easy angle to execute for this year, and Reigns could have easily been pushed again next year.

[Champ]

My thoughts this year are actually different than last year. Philly actually pissed me off. The thing is, I'm sick of people ruining events over one guy. They never did that back in the day. It's like kayfabe is ruined. That's more annoying to me than anything. It's like the stipulation was, bryan wins, he goes to mania. He loses, he gets run over by a truck and we never see him again. He's still going to have a high profile match at mania. These same people cheered reigns over batista last year. I'm just sick of guys getting reactions for who they are NOT.

Storyline point of view, reigns has been built as the next guy in line from last year's rumble. Then brock broke the streak. I feel like this match wrote itself after that. They can always build bryan back up.

This isn't even a Reigns/Bryan argument. They're both over. They can always build bryan to summerslam. This just feels like reigns match at mania, new guy, fresh mania moment. I just wish fans would be fans and let it happen. Smarks take it way too seriously

[Velkontés]

Yeah, it's just weird all round. They were touting "controversy" - there was no controversy, Reigns won the match long after Dan was eliminated. There's no reason for this Reigns vs Bryan match to be taking place.

As it is happening, perhaps The Rock can Rock-Bottom Dan while Roman isn't looking. Then Roman can be all pissed off that he did it. That would at least transfer some of the "you're not Dan" heat away from Roman and onto someone who can handle it. It's not Roman's fault that he's in this predicament. Hmm. "It wasn't my fault". That could be a catchy catchphrase for him!

[Champ]

Now that time has passed, I think they did the right thing not having Reigns win. It is the best thing that could have happened to him for the long haul