WWE Royal Rumble 2011

WWE Royal Rumble 2011

Boston, MA - January 2011

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the WWE Champion was The Miz, the World Heavyweight Champion was Edge, the United States Champion was Daniel Bryan, and the Intercontinental Champion was Kofi Kingston. The WWE Tag Team Champions were Santino and Koslov and the WWE Divas Champion was Natalya.

With the 2021 Royal Rumble not too far away, I opted to watch the 2011 edition for the first time. After a video hyping the night's main event - the Rumble match itself - the show kicked off with World Heavyweight Champion Edge defending the title against Dolph Ziggler, who was Vickie Guerrero's storyline boyfriend and poised as "the future of the WWE." As we now 10 years later, Ziggler never really broke out much higher than this - though he did flirt with being considered a "true" main eventer a couple more times over the next decade only to then be stuffed back into the midcard and used a utility player. The Spear is banned in this match, which makes the eventual finish somewhat predictable (Edge eventually lands one when the referee and General Manager Vickie are knocked unconscious), but there is also at least one effective false finish after Ziggler hits the ZigZag. All in all, a good match but not necessarily a great one. I'm guessing these two knew their marching orders were to warm up the crowd but not burn them out and were perfectly fine and willing to do the best job of that possible. (3/5)

The Miz defended the WWE Championship against the man he "stole" it from, Randy Orton, next. This was The Miz's first and arguably only real main event run, having won the Money In The Bank Briefcase and cashed it in on The Viper, who was technically a babyface (but always more of a "tweener") and had been feuding with Nexus' Wade Barrett. This seems like The Miz's biggest "warm-up match" for his eventual WrestleMania main event as he and Orton are given quite a bit of time. Orton is definitely "leading the dance"; this might be one of the best (of very few?) examples of Orton proving why other wrestlers have always heaped him with immense praise as this match, while not overly intricate, still comes off as seamless and tells a logical story. The Miz may not have the greatest offense, but he is wily, while Orton, who should be (and is) in control of most of the match, almost seems off his game, frustrated from the very start as he just can't seem to finish The Miz off at any point. Its a dynamic that worked for me, though, at the time many complained at how Orton basically dominated most of the match. The finish is another thing that I'd say aged better than it was received in 2011. Yes, Orton gets screwed by CM Punk and his New Nexus acolytes and, yes, this sort of screwy finish leading to a future non-title WrestleMania match is Royal Rumble PPV trope that dates back to at least Randy Savage costing the Ultimate Warrior the title at the 91' Royal Rumble, but The Miz's title reign was built on the premise of him being a lucky scapegrace (that's a new word I just learned), a guy that shouldn't be the WWE Champion but managed to not only steal the title but make it his rightful property and, in this case, not even by outsmarting his opponent or setting forth a devious plot. When the match ends, Miz doesn't even know how he's won! Its a perfectly fine set-up for both Orton/Punk and Cena eventually coming in to save the day. Another match I wouldn't consider truly great, but definitely above average and, despite its 20 minute length, never being boring. (3/5)

The next match was supposed to be a 2-on-1 handicap match pitting Layla and Michelle  McCool (collectively known as LayCool) against Natalya for her Divas Championship, but before match begins, the General Manager Podium *dings* and Michael Cole, the voice of the GM, announces that the match will now be a Fatal Fourway involving an additional woman - Eve. Ugh. If you're going to include another woman in this match, why not choose one that the fans would actually be excited to see? Or, barring that, one that is capable of lifting this match from being just a "bathroom break" into being something really good? I mean no disrespect to Eve's hard work, attitude, or what she could bring to the table, but if this match needed a spark, she was ill equipped to provide it and the crowd's indifference is proof of it. The match goes just about 5 minutes which feels rushed, but I'm not sure that there's a better match waiting to happen here. This one barely gets a point for its finish - which is well-executed - and at least teasing a LayCool split, which got the biggest reaction of the match by a country mile. (1/5)

The 2011 Royal Rumble Match is next, with CM Punk drawing number one. Before the man (or woman) who drew number two can come out, the rest of Punk's New Nexus stable and The Corre show up and start brawling. We hear another *ding* and Cole, speaking for the General Manager, announces that everyone must clear the ring except for Punk and that if the brawling continues, both sides' entrants will be automatically eliminated from the Royal Rumble. I don't get what the point of this was. If I recall correctly, the Corre and the New Nexus weren't even feuding with each other at the time - they were on separate brands - plus there's really no logic in them going after each other before the match in the ring when, ultimately, that would've just caused them to waste energy and effort. I mean, wouldn't it have made more sense to do this as a backstage segment? Anyway, its stupid and also undercuts the idea that these factions are rulebreakers that are dead-set on terrorizing the company because they follow the GM's orders. Punk stays in and fortunately, the Rumble itself is basically rescued by Daniel Bryan being the number #2 pick. As Striker notes on commentary, this was definitely a not-so-subtle nod to Bryan's cult following, though its clear from the audience's response that while internet fans at home may have been "marking out," the general audience wasn't yet behind the former RoH World Champion. CM Punk makes mean faces and gloats over the course of the first ten entrants, but he gets the most cheers of anyone for quite awhile. John Morrison comes in and we get our first ever (?) crazy non-elimination spot involving JoMo as he somehow flies off the apron onto the barrier and uses his parkour skills to jump back onto the apron. When Morrison left the company a couple years (?) after this, Kofi took over him. Husky Harris comes in and Striker makes a comment about how if this is what Husky is like at 24, what will he be like at 30? Well, Matt, he'll be much, much, much different...The ring fills up with the occasional elimination until David Otunga arrives and we've got 4 New Nexus members in the ring together. I absolutely loved the stretch of the match that followed as the New Nexus cleared everyone out of the ring and then proceeded to eliminate R-Truth, Koslov, and Tyler Reks (along with Yoshi Tatsu, seeing Reks was the biggest "He actually was in a Rumble once?" moment for me). The Great Khali comes out to a sizable pop because the audience has grown sick of seeing the New Nexus dominate and I love the "hope spot" (if one can call it that) of Khali eliminating Harris and then looking like he might knock out everyone else only for Mason Ryan, another New Nexus member, to show up. Gold star to whoever came up with that sequence. Khali gets eliminated and we get our first big shocker of the night - Booker T is back! Booker T comes out to a huge ovation and kicks major ass, but gets eliminated much to the dissatisfaction of the crowd. Side note - Booker T would have a few more televised matches over the next year and a half, but never really had a true, major "retirement" match, though his final feud was with Cody Rhodes. Back to the action - at 22, we get noneother than John Cena! At the time, I'm sure eyes were rolling all across this great nation, but watching this a decade later, I'm not ashamed to admit that I got goosebumps and loved seeing Cena come out and eliminate everyone (except Punk of course). If you're going to create a Superman character, you gotta let him do Superman things and that's what this is. We'd seen Khali fail to get the job done, we'd seen Booker T strike out, but Cena was the man and, hey, its not like CM Punk doesn't get to shine either as Punk's facial expressions and the fact that Cena doesn't eliminate him so easily makes it clear that he's still a real threat and not just a pushover hiding behind his acolytes. Hornswoggle comes in and...sadly...this is where the match loses for me a little. For some reason, after a stretch of intense action, they boomerang the exact opposite way and turn the next several minutes into children's programming as Cena (after seeing Hornswoggle eat a roundhouse) eliminates Punk and then allows the lil' Leprechaun to stick around just for the hell of it. I get that Cena doesn't see 'Swoggle as a threat, but its just too cutesy for me. Cena and 'Swoggle eliminate Tyson Kidd and Heath Slater with ease and the match doesn't really pick up again until the ring starts filling up and Swagger, Sheamus, Mysterio, and Barrett arrive. Around this time, Hornswoggle is mercifully eliminated and the match gets serious again. We get our second WTF return as Kevin "Diesel" Nash comes in at #32. Drew McIntyre comes in next, but the crowd is full-on in Nash's corner at this point, chanting "Let's Go Diesel" and booing when Mysterio strikes him with the 619. Alex Riley comes in at #34, the WWE Champion at his side. Barrett eliminates Diesel to get some heat and The Miz joins the commentary team. The Big Show comes in next. Ziggler gets tossed soon after, as does Drew McIntyre, before Ezekial Jackson comes in and eliminates Big Show. Jackson had size, strength, and the support of management for a minute but ended up released a few years after this, never really living up to his potential. Santino comes in next to a sizable pop. Santino gets booted by Sheamus and rolls under the bottom rope and onto the floor. Alberto Del Rio comes in at #38, showing up in a Bentley. Orton comes in at #39 and immediately goes after Del Rio, who had taken his sweet ass time getting to the ring. Orton hits an RKO on Del Rio and then Sheamus and then Kofi, eliminating Kingston and Sheamus in rapid succession before squaring off with John Cena to a surprisingly mild reaction from the crowd. As Cena and Orton have their staredown, they're interrupted by the countdown to our final entrant...Kane. That goes over like a fart in church, the crowd not reacting at all. Kane outsmarts Zeke, leading to Jackson's elimination, and we're down to six. Kane gets eliminated by a Rey Mysterio headscissors, but Barrett knocks Rey out soon after and we're down to 4 now. Cole describes the scene as a battle between two iconic stars and two guys that are going to be the future of the WWE - he'd be right if he included the word "endeavored" after the word "future." The crowd just doesn't seem to give a shit anymore, nobody in the ring getting a pop for anything they do. Cena hits the AA on Del Rio but Alex Riley shows up and distracts him as The Miz slides into the ring and dumps him over the top! That gets a huge reaction from the crowd, but its not necessarily a negative one. Orton tosses Barrett and then, in a mundane finish, Del Rio dumps Orton...but wait...Santino was never eliminated! Santino comes in and nails Del Rio with the Cobra! The crowd pops for Santino's shocking "return," but the excitement is cut short as Del Rio counters Santino's attempt to toss him over the ropes and ends up eliminating Marella. Aside from Punk and the New Nexus controlling the match early, this Rumble lacked an engaging throughline and while there were two cool returns - Booker T and Diesel - the crowd lost all interest once it became clear that the viable winners included Cena, Orton, Del Rio, and Barrett, all of whom had been overexposed over the previous few months. (2/5)

With an unremarkable Kwang Score of 2-out-of-5, Royal Rumble 2011 is a largely forgettable show that will likely only lessen in importance and value over time. 10 years after, the "young stars" it was seemingly designed to push forward as the future of the company are either completely out of the company (Del Rio), were never actually handed "the ball" (Dolph Ziggler, Sheamus), or reached their ceiling soon after this show (The Miz). Meanwhile, the guys who supposedly had one foot out the door ten years ago are largely still around and still being promoted as a step above the guys they were seemingly "passing the torch to" (Orton being the most prominent, but its only been about a year since Cena unofficially "retired" and Edge and Mysterio were heavily featured in 2020). This show doesn't make a very strong case for the WWE evolving very much over the past 10 years, while, if you look at the roster differences between 91' and 01' or even 01' and this show, the contrast would be undeniable. Now, that's not to say there hasn't been some reshuffling going on - in the past 10 years, the WWE's women's division went through a much-needed revolution, Daniel Bryan and CM Punk got their well-deserved main event runs (though both were tragically cut short by either bad booking or injury), The Shield created three new top-of-the-card fixtures, and Husky Harris became Bray Wyatt. But it is still a bit sad that guys like Ziggler, Kofi, and Sheamus are essentially in the exact same position they were in 2011, their gimmicks and personas barely changed in all this time. Without a single "must see" match and a rather lackluster Rumble, I'm giving this one a...

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver