Royal Rumble 2014

The build is here.

Royal Rumble 2014 comes to you from Pittsburgh.

(Dark: Pac/Generico d. Sydal/Tatsu)

Joey/Regal is the announce.

Bret opens the show, in the way that Austin opened Survivor Series and Shawn Summer Slam.  Bret’s there as the physical representation of the reality of the Montreal Match.  Someone is leaving the promotion tonight.  One of the four men in the main event will not work here tomorrow.  History will be made in the main event.

1.       Usos d. Curtis/Ryback/Rowan

Usos get the win that earns them a WM30 match against The Shield, regardless of what happens later this evening.  This is entirely designed to put the Usos over, let them work really well as a 3 man unit, let Reigns get in his stuff.  Superman punch, pinfall on Ryback.

2.       (No DQ) The Miz d. PAUL

The camera didn’t focus on them until the start of this match, but in the front row are Nash, the Dogg, and Billy.  During the build, they did taped pieces putting over the Clique’s quarter century at Mania, which will come to a close if Miz doesn’t beat Paul.  Miz does his chickenshit routine to stay away from Paul as long as he can, but eventually Paul catches up to him and dominates. Turning point in the match comes when the retirees come over the barrier to attack Paul.  Henry emerges at the top of the ramp, he’ll come save his partner, but behind him his HHH-M.  Sledgehammer.  Pedigree.  Sign of the Clique and a Miz pinfall not long after.  The Clique will get a Mania match after all.

3.       Bray Wyatt (w/Harper) d. Damien Sandow

Sheamus and Kidd returned from injury, pushing Sandow aside from his role as Underground’s number two; Wyatt seized on that in this build.  With help from Harper, who Wyatt treats like a dumb animal, Bray goes over.  He and Harper carry Sandow away from the ring.

4.       Ka$h Kingston d. Truth Killings

We hit the “fight for your right” section of the card.  Kingston goes over his former partner, post match Kidd, Tatsu, and Primo all enter, the four men going nose to nose to nose to nose, as they’ll meet at 30.

5.       Rey Mysterio d. Dos Caras, Jr. (w/Ricardo/Vickie)

This goes the way you’d expect, Ricardo takes a 619 and he’s wrapped up, Vickie finally turns on Dos Caras with a slap and shimmies up the ramp, Rey gets the fall and heads to 30. 

6.       Claudio Castagnoli d. The Leviathan Dave Batista

Back to Hollywood Batista goes, he’s enhancement here, taking all of Claudio’s offense, including, hopefully, Hey Fever.  Ideally the Hey Chants fill the building.  Claudio heads to 30.

7.       WWF Tag Titles: The Shield (Black/Langston) d. Wyatt Family (Virgil/Cena w/Bray and Harper)

The Shield will head to their second straight Mania as tag champs.  Tag matches are “relaxed rules” allowing for outside spots and multiple men to be involved. That, hopefully, led to several good matches as part of this build and, here, allows for the Wyatts to go 4 on 2 for most of the match.  The turning point comes with Ambrose running to the ring, he has to defend his title in the 3 way next, but still comes down to fight both Bray and Harper at ringside, allowing Black to get the fall on Virgil and The Shield to roll into 30.  The Shield hits the three man pose, even against these numbers they still keep their belts.  (the next thing happens on RAW the following night after a rematch with the same outcome so as not to provide too much at the same time) The Wyatts regroup on the ramp and are then attacked by Defiance; Virgil, Cena, wind up getting unmasked, Virgil, of course, is Dustin Rhodes.   In their next appearance, Bray will make Harper unmask.  He doesn't want to, Bray slaps him, Harper complies.

8.       IC Title: Triple Threat Match: Sheamus d. Dean Ambrose d. Nick Nemeth

One fall to the finish. Two stories here, Ambrose is fighting the numbers, really against the odds; and Sheamus wrestles like a heel while Nemeth doesn’t, it allows him to get an advantage that he only loses due to Nemeth’s superior athleticism.  Finish comes after a ref bump (Sheamus inadvertently runs into the referee, knocking them both out) Nemeth hits superkick/rocker dropper on Ambrose to seemingly have the fall; Kidd runs in, hits a top rope maneuver on Nemeth to wipe him out, then pulls Sheamus atop for the cover and revives the official.  Sheamus is a two time IC champ, he and Kidd screwing their stablemate, Nemeth, in the process.

9.       WWF Championship: Montreal Match: Bryan Danielson d. CM Punk/Brock Lesnar/Jack Swagger

Another turning point, a fork stuck in the road.

CM Punk beat Ric Flair to win the WWF Championship back in 2006. He then threw down the Title belt in the pivotal moment of late period WWF.  Tonight, he leaves town.

All four men legal throughout the match, they can fight in and out of the ring, any interference is an instant firing, submission only finish.  Lesnar and Swagger, at Heyman’s instruction, lay out to start the match, letting Punk and Danielson have an extended brawling sequence – when the moment arises, Lesnar and Swagger take advantage and gain control of the match.  There’s a 2 on 1 spot with Lesnar and Danielson teaming against Punk.  There’s a possible Danielson submission of Swagger that Punk breaks up.  There’s a spot where Swagger challenges Lesnar to a lock up, they do a brief amateur sequence and Swagger gets the better of him.

Brock’s not in love with that – not long after, Brock (he and Swagger had been on the same page the whole match, even the amateur sequence was more an interlude than their turning on each other) starts a german suplex sequence on Swagger, hitting him with like a dozen of them while simultaneously Punk and Danielson crash together through the Spanish announce table (superplex to the outside), Brock gets a hold on Swagger, this is going to be it – Heyman comes into the ring, yelling at Brock, Brock won’t give up the hold – Heyman grabs at Brock – a shocked, infuriated Brock breaks the hold, grabs at Heyman ‘s neck, ripping the collar off that Heyman had worn since summer, Heyman runs – Lesnar chases him up the aisle, Swagger rolls out of the ring.

Punk and Danielson crawl back, they do a finishing sequence, and Punk winds up tapping in the middle.

When Bret submitted to Owen he put the belt around his teary eyed little brother’s waist; when Matt submitted Jeff, he celebrated wildly – once there’s a recognition that what has happened has happened, Danielson offers a handshake to Punk. 

Punk flips him off – then exits the ring flipping off the fans – both middle fingers, as many fans as he can reach.  Punk takes every last second we have of the PPV to let those fingers fly as if they could physically reach every person in the building.  Punk disappears from view and from the WWF.

The show ends with a graphic featuring the slogan for WM 30, the same slogan from 10 and then from 20.

Brother vs. Brother.  

The build's in February, I'll probably wrap up TNA in March with Bound for Glory as it doesn't look like PPV is part of their new model.  Then April is WM XXX.