On the Royal Rumble

I know I am late again with my wrestling reviews, but here was my take on the Rumble when I watched it:

The Good...
The CM Punk vs. Dolph Ziggler match featured excellent moves and good storytelling in the ring, then you had the Punk-Laurinitis interaction outside the ring that gave it extra gusto. Good all-around match that finally woke up the crowd.

The Royal Rumble match itself was full of unique spots like Kofi Kingston avoiding elimination by walking on his hands. There also was the Socko vs. Cobra moment between Mick Foley and Santino Marella. Futhermore, Road Dogg showed he's still got it in the ring and there were enough surprises to make this match memorable among the 24 previous Rumble matches. Jericho almost pulled out the victory, but I didn't mind that WWE didn't go with the predictable winner and gave Sheamus the push with the win.

The announcers actually kept the bickering to a minimum and called matches. They have been doing that recently and it has added to - or at least not taken away from - the overall effectiveness of the show.

The Bad...
The cage match between Daniel Bryan, Big Show and Mark Henry lacked any big spots or anything to make it stand out. One could have predicted that given Mark Henry's injuries and the fact that Big Show can't exactly climb out of the ring easily.

John Cena and Kane had some nice brawling moments in their match and got mild pops from the crowd, including tenacious boos when Cena walked to the ring. The double count out and subsequent beating of Zack Ryder bothered me though. A count out is not the way to end a pay-per-view match and Ryder has taken enough punishment over the past few weeks. Dear WWE: stop burying him!

The crowd didn't sustain any real noise or excitement. They weren't bad, but just not as good as Rumble crowds of old.

The Ugly...
An 8-diva tag match at the Royal Rumble? Seriously? This is a waste-of-time Raw match at best. At least make it for the title. I will grant that the ladies got more time to let the match unfold in the ring than they do on weekly TV, but this could have been thought out much better.

A Brodus Clay squash match on a PPV? Seriously? I know I sound like  broken record, but why was this on the Royal Rumble card? Drew McIntyre continued to get buried and Clay didn't get enough time to establish the fact that he can actually wrestle and/or entertain in the ring. This is a match that I would bitch about being on Raw, so why put it on a PPV? Take it away and give the other matches (like Punk-Ziggler) more time to play out.

Overall: 72/100
Punk-Ziggler-Johnny Ace and the Rumble match got the crowd going, but the rest felt like an episode of Monday Night Raw.

Your thoughts on the big show?