Post by skiller on Jan 27, 2007 20:32:18 GMT -5
From Dave Meltzer's Saturday update:
--Tomorrow is the Royal Rumble from San Antonio, which is traditionally the second biggest WWE event of the year and leading off the road to Wrestlemania. Some notes on the show:
*Hardys vs. MNM - Hardys have won just about every key match since this program began, aside from the ladder match which neither team won. If they are going to keep it going, it is imperative MNM gets a win. Keep in mind this program only exists because of circumstances (shooting an angle off the Joey Mercury injury) as the plan was to break both teams up. The Hardys are definitely stronger as a unit. MNM I'm not as sure about because I think Johnny Nitro has great potential as a single. Probably a good match.
*Bobby Lashley vs. Test - This was already blown off on television on Tuesday. ECW is only there at this point to make Lashley into a star. If they do anything but a clean pin, it's just because they have no other heels in place, and they're setting up another Lashley clean pin soon enough. We've seen them wrestle enough to know this isn't going to be pretty.
*Batista vs. Mr. Kennedy - It wouldn't surprise me to see Undertaker involved somehow and a DQ win for Kennedy. It's possible they could hotshot a Kennedy win and have Batista beat him back at No Way Out to go into Mania as champ. Unlikely, but possible. Hopefully they keep the match short as Batista has not been faring well of late. Kennedy has improved a lot and they had a good short match on PPV a few months back, but I don't know if Kennedy is good enough to carry Batista for 20:00 for PPV quality.
*John Cena vs. Umaga last man standing. Like with the prior match, they could do something with Umaga and have Cena win it back fast at TV, but that's something they've steered away from in recent years. Last man standing means lots of gimmicks, so this should be entertaining and probably better than their New Year's Revolution match
*Royal Rumble really only has a few potential winners:
--Shawn Michaels. He's going to be the crowd favorite big-time, both because he's hot off the HHH injury and because they are in San Antonio.
--Undertaker. Undertaker vs. Batista is the one Mania match that has been already had the push started for it.
--Edge or Randy Orton, or both
--They could always do what the original plan for last year was with Mysterio winning the Rumble and not going to Mania (changed after the fact as the original plan was Orton beating Mysterio and Orton challenging for the title in a singles match), but I don't see that two years in a row, so that limits the candidates. For some reason, it just feels like there is less excitement leading to this show as compared to most, even though the product is fairly hot right now. I guess because the biggest program is Michaels vs. Team RKO and they aren't facing each other. Cena pinning Umaga first time didn't help interest in the rematch, even though Umaga was booked strong. I also don't think people buy Kennedy as a challenger to Batista no matter how often they talk about him beating all those world champs, because most of those wins have been DQ's or over Benoit, who isn't in the thick of things.
--Tomorrow is the Royal Rumble from San Antonio, which is traditionally the second biggest WWE event of the year and leading off the road to Wrestlemania. Some notes on the show:
*Hardys vs. MNM - Hardys have won just about every key match since this program began, aside from the ladder match which neither team won. If they are going to keep it going, it is imperative MNM gets a win. Keep in mind this program only exists because of circumstances (shooting an angle off the Joey Mercury injury) as the plan was to break both teams up. The Hardys are definitely stronger as a unit. MNM I'm not as sure about because I think Johnny Nitro has great potential as a single. Probably a good match.
*Bobby Lashley vs. Test - This was already blown off on television on Tuesday. ECW is only there at this point to make Lashley into a star. If they do anything but a clean pin, it's just because they have no other heels in place, and they're setting up another Lashley clean pin soon enough. We've seen them wrestle enough to know this isn't going to be pretty.
*Batista vs. Mr. Kennedy - It wouldn't surprise me to see Undertaker involved somehow and a DQ win for Kennedy. It's possible they could hotshot a Kennedy win and have Batista beat him back at No Way Out to go into Mania as champ. Unlikely, but possible. Hopefully they keep the match short as Batista has not been faring well of late. Kennedy has improved a lot and they had a good short match on PPV a few months back, but I don't know if Kennedy is good enough to carry Batista for 20:00 for PPV quality.
*John Cena vs. Umaga last man standing. Like with the prior match, they could do something with Umaga and have Cena win it back fast at TV, but that's something they've steered away from in recent years. Last man standing means lots of gimmicks, so this should be entertaining and probably better than their New Year's Revolution match
*Royal Rumble really only has a few potential winners:
--Shawn Michaels. He's going to be the crowd favorite big-time, both because he's hot off the HHH injury and because they are in San Antonio.
--Undertaker. Undertaker vs. Batista is the one Mania match that has been already had the push started for it.
--Edge or Randy Orton, or both
--They could always do what the original plan for last year was with Mysterio winning the Rumble and not going to Mania (changed after the fact as the original plan was Orton beating Mysterio and Orton challenging for the title in a singles match), but I don't see that two years in a row, so that limits the candidates. For some reason, it just feels like there is less excitement leading to this show as compared to most, even though the product is fairly hot right now. I guess because the biggest program is Michaels vs. Team RKO and they aren't facing each other. Cena pinning Umaga first time didn't help interest in the rematch, even though Umaga was booked strong. I also don't think people buy Kennedy as a challenger to Batista no matter how often they talk about him beating all those world champs, because most of those wins have been DQ's or over Benoit, who isn't in the thick of things.
