Top 10 talking points: Royal Rumble 2012

The 2012 Royal Rumble event has come to an end. Taking all the hype and hoopla into consideration, the event was a slight letdown of sorts. The match endings were ill-timed and unconvincing. Here are the Top 10 talking points of the 2012 Royal Rumble.

1. Much like last year, the World Heavyweight Championship match kicked off the show. Daniel Bryan won the match fair and square by escaping the cage. But, I did not like the way Daniel Bryan dominated both Show and Henry during most parts of the match. This match was built as a David Vs Goliath battle and should have stayed that way. Instead, Bryan was being portrayed as the dominant man, letting him win a steel cage triple threat match in a short duration. Moreover, the finish did not suit the way this match was built.
   

   Daniel Bryan escaped the cage to retain his World Heavyweight Championship

2. The Divas tag-team match was an unessential addition to the card. There was not build up to the match except the short feud between Natalya and Tamina on Smackdown. It would have been better if there was a singles match between these two instead of a 8-diva tag-team match. Kelly Kelly’s jump from the top rope taking down all the divas and Beth Phoenix’s harsh tag on one of the Bella Twins were the only highlights of this short match.
3. Kane Vs John Cena ending a count-out was a huge disappointment. What’s the point of Cena continuing the feud with Kane when his match with The Rock at Wrestlemania is fast approaching? Kane taking out both Cena and Ryder has already been done a few weeks ago on Raw. It was repeated again, the only difference being that it was done inside the ring.
4. Zack Ryder, as a character is getting buried in the current angle with Kane. While this may have been done to build a future match between Kane and Zack Ryder, all the momentum that Zack had over the last few weeks is being killed.
   

   Kane took out both Zack Ryder and John Cena

5. For those who were hoping that Drew McIntyre would revert back to winning ways at Royal Rumble, here’s some bad news. He got squashed by Funkasaurus ‘Brodus Clay’. Drew did put up a valiant fight, but Brodus is currently too hot to handle. What does this mean with regards to Drew’s career? Will he get fired this week? I do not understand the logic behind Drew’s jobbing over the last few weeks. And it would have been better had Brodus been in the Rumble match instead of this squash match. This match does no good to him either, storyline-wise. He needs a feud inorder to stabilize himself as a character.
6. The WWE championship match also ended in a dull fashion with CM Punk getting Dolph Ziggler pinned. It was funny to watch Laurinaitis come into the ring during the pinfall. Just for a moment, I thought he was going to screw the pin. But it didn’t happen. By the way, it’s a three count Mr.Laurinaitis, not just two.
7. Kane might have made heads turn by hitting the tombstone pile-driver on Zack Ryder, but it was a disappointment not to see him feature in the Royal Rumble match. With this no show, his 13 time consecutive Royal Rumble appearance record comes to an end. He is still 4 eliminations behind Shawn Michaels’ record of 41.
8. The first half of the Royal Rumble match was exciting with The Miz and Cody Rhodes dominating the proceedings. Both of them lasted for more than 30 minutes before being eliminated by Big Show. But the second half was a tad disappointing. All 3 commentators entering the match wasn’t necessary at all. It was odd is someways.
9. The Socko and Cobra had a field day at the Royal Rumble. One of my favorite Rumble moments this year. Also featuring in my favorites list would be Kofi Kingston’s upside down walk to avoid elimination. Road Dogg showed that he still got it by staying longer in the match than what was expected.
   

   Sheamus won the 2012 Royal Rumble match

10. Sheamus winning the Royal Rumble was a bit of a surprise. The Jericho-holics and the Viper-maniacs would be terribly disappointed at this. With half an hour remaining on the clock and #30 making his entrance, I had a feeling that WWE would give us a sudden twist by increasing the entrants to 40. But, that didn’t happen. The final 10 minutes felt like a singles match with both men going for their respective finishers. In the end, Jericho helped Sheamus get over. This finish will be much debated and it’ll be interesting to see who Sheamus faces at Wrestlemania.