It's the dream of every superstar to headline WrestleMania. For one man out of 40, the dream becomes reality at the Royal Rumble. Whoever outlasts 39 other competitors earns himself a championship match at WrestleMania 27. The superstars of Raw and Smackdown, including past winners Randy Orton, John Cena, Edge, and Rey Mysterio, and superstars looking to add this win to their resume, including Wade Barrett, Kane, Kofi Kingston, Sheamus, John Morrison, The Miz, Mark Henry (and more) will do everything to overpower and outlast the competition as the Road to WrestleMania 27 begins at the Royal Rumble.
I enjoyed this years show quite a bit. It had some solid wrestling action, surprise returns, and saw a new main event talent emerge. Below are my thoughts for each match:
World Heavyweight Championship Match - Edge vs Dolph Ziggler w/ Vickie Guerrero
This was a strong match to open the PPV. Dolph and Edge both worked at a steady pace that built to where the finish they had the crowd fully into it with the belief that Ziggler might actually pull out the win. Vickie of course interferes and she was Gold. Winner (Edge
WWE Championship Match - The Miz w/ Alex Riley vs. Randy Orton
This was a well fought match but wasn't there best head to head contest. There was a lot of interference from the New Nexus and Alex Riley. Miz got the pin after CM Punk slid out from under the ring and hot the GTS on Orton and laid Miz on top to retain. Winner (The Miz)
Divas Title Match - Natalya vs. Michelle McCool vs. Layla vs. Eve
The less said about this horrible match the better. It is a shame that this is what represents the Womens division now. My best opinion of this match is press skip on your remote. Winner (Eve)
40 Man Royal Rumble Match
CM Punk and Daniel Bryan started the biggest Royal Match in history. For a brief 90 seconds I was admittedly marking out for this and then came the usual jobbers that help fill out the roster. Punk was my favorite to win even though he was entrant #1. Fans were treated to a breathtaking display of athleticism from John Morrison that to describe doesn't do it justice, just watch for it. The surprise returns were Booker T and Diesel , they both received HUGE pops from the crowd. Unfortunately they were both promptly eliminated.
I felt the worst part of the match was about a 7 minute segment where John Cena and Hornswoggle teamed up and eliminated quite a few entrants with some terrible unfunny comedy and crowd pandering thrown in. Thankfully the match got back on track later and as stated a new main event talent was made when Alberto Del Rio outlasted Randy Orton, John Cena, and Wade Barret in the final four. There was a fun end when Santino who wasn't eliminated came back into the ring and the crowd was going crazy thinking he was going to actually win but Del Rio countered a move and is going to Wrestlemania 27 to challenge for whatever Championship he desires. Winner (Alberto Del Rio)
Royal Rumble 2011 arrives on DVD with a 480i transfer in the original aspect ratio of 1.78:1. This is a very colorful and clean presentation. Primary colors are well saturated. Detail was good and the crowd was easily viewable. There were some light compression artifacts during ring entrances. Overall a consistently strong release. 8/10
Audio is provided by a Dolby Digital 5.1 track. The best part of the presentation is the entrance music which is provide with some decent bass. The commentary was crisp and clean bit found it a little too loud in the mix sometimes. Surrounds are mostly used for atmospheric crowd din. 7/10
* Todd Grisham Interviews Eve - What is she doing in WWE still?
* Alberto Del Rio's Royal Rumble Celebration - This is from the following nights Raw and Del Rio is GOLD here. "But you already knew that"