Royal Rumble 30 comes to you from Phoenix; it is the 128th
PPV in WWF history. It opens the way all
PPVs have opened this year – cold on the ramp, awaiting the music…and then the
entrance of Ronda Rousey. She’s now accompanied
by her MMA crew, Baszler/Shafir/Duke – they came together in the build for this
show and are now a unit.
1.
Ronda Rousey (w/Horsewomen) d. Becky Lynch
-Like Rousey’s win over Charlotte at Survivor
Series, the goal here is a good professional wrestling match that feels
different than other professional wrestling matches in a way that Lesnar has
good professional wrestling matches that feel different than other professional
wrestling matches. Rousey dials down the
selling, throws hard strikes, has a level of scorn for her opponent and goes
over strong. Like Charlotte – Becky
showed she could stand in a ring with Rousey for more than a couple of minutes (unlike
Paige and Natty) but just isn’t the same caliber of fighter as Rousey and gets
put down. The Horsewomen hit all 4 turnbuckles
postmatch as the show now has a more traditional opening video:
30 Years of Rumble…
1989….there’s the first ever match in
Rumble history, Demolition beating the Powers of Pain…there’s Hogan bodyslamming
Andre…
1990…the Rougeaus slapping each other hard
across the face…Savage destroying Martel with chairshots…
1991…the Undertaker tombstoning Dusty…Shawn
superkicking Marty….
1992…Sid and the Undertaker going nose to
nose…Shawn leaping from the top buckle to elbowsmash Owen…
1993…Razor hitting Savage with the Edge..Hennig
hitting Flair with the Perfect Plex…
1994…Owen stabbing Savage in the head with
the WWF fork…
1995…Waltman crotch chopping in the direction
of Martel….
1996…Hakushi hitting Waltman with the Space
Flying Tiger Drop…
1997…Austin stunning Vader….
1998…Shawn beating Taker in a casket match…
1999…Shamrock and Severn staring each other
down in the Octagon…
2000…Angle hitting the Olympic Slam on Davey
Boy…then getting Waltman in the ankle lock…
2001…the Hardys hitting a double team
aerial high spot against the Dudleys…Angle suplexing the Rock…
2002…Regal has the Stretch on the Rock…Austin
gives DDP the double bird…
2003…Jeff taking a crazy fall from a ladder
atop Christian….Lesnar leaving Jericho laying…
2004…Christian getting the fall on Matt….Brock
scraping Foley’s face with the barbed wire…
2005…Eddy hitting the frog splash on
Leviathan Batista….
2006…Matt and Edge brawling in the Empty
Arena…Michaels getting the fall on Angle…
2007…Flair walking to the aisle, doing his
spin in his robe…
2008…Punk hitting Jeff with the Go to Sleep….
2009…Orton RKO’ing RVD…
2010…Edge spearing Maria in a steel cage….Matt
and Edge hugging postmatch…
2011…Vicki Guerrero turns on Chavo…Rey gets
a pinfall on Danielson….
2012…Swagger and McIntyre go nose to nose….Cena
gets the pinfall on Punk….
2013….Jericho hits Punk with the quebrada…Nemeth
with the superkick on Claudio…
2014…Rey hits Dos Caras, Jr with a frog splash
and does Eddy’s arm shimmy…
2015…Paige takes the Women’s Title from
Natty….
2016…Reigns hits Hunter with the superman
punch….Pac takes off his mask….
2017….Becky joins the Bullet Club attacking
Sasha….
2018…El Generico hitting Rey with the
brainbuster…
(The only announcer tonight is Ranallo, it
is his 14th PPV – that’s unexpected, Nigel left the announce
position during this build to manage British Strong Style full time, but Regal’s
absence is being presented to us not expected tonight and a little
concerning)
2.
Elimination Match: Underground (Aleister Black/Buddy
Murphy) d. Rey/Sombra (w/Zelina) Crews/Kalisto, Gable/
So – there’s no Nick Nemeth, we’re told apparently
he was found in his hotel room, badly beaten earlier today – Gable shows all
the fighting spirit you’d want to see, but eventually he gets pinned by
Murphy. Next to go is Kalisto – Rey was
being doubleteamed by Crews and Murphy – Kalisto intervened on behalf of
Mysterio – he attempted to take Murphy out, but inadvertently hit Crews –
Mysterio gets the fall on Crews. Crews
is super steamed as he and Kalisto exit.
Another example of Kalisto putting fidelity to Mysterio ahead of their
tag team. The final fall is Black getting Sombra. We see Rey, always in instructional mode, lecturing Sombra as they exit with Zelina trailing.
3.
Io Shirai d. Kairi Sane
-workrate only; just a 14 minute sprint, a hot match for the sake of having a hot match because it’s a wrestling show
4.
Jeff Hardy draw Mustafa Ali (double countout)
-All babyface match, battle of generations –
Jeff beat Ali a couple of times in the build to Survivor Series – Ali beat Jeff,
finally, at Survivor Series – it’s been all fun, really, Jeff wanting to pass
along his wisdoms to the next generation – but once Jeff lost things got a
little more personal and this degenerates into a brawl that the ring cannot
contain and both men are counted out – Ranallo strongly suggests that this story
is far from over.
5.
Women’s Title: Asuka d. Ember Moon
-Asuka’s unbeaten streak continues,
postmatch – here come the Horsewomen. Rousey
leads her crew to the ring – and for the first time ever, she and Asuka are in
the same ring together, Asuka and Rousey go nose to nose – the Horsewomen
surround Asuka who no sells it entirely, Rousey trash talking Asuka, pointing
to the belt – Rousey saying that belt is hers anytime she wants – the
Horsewomen are imposing, is this going to go down right now? Rousey and Asuka nose to nose – the Wrestlemania
banner in the background – it’s a moment….
Rousey steps back, grabs her crew – points at
the title belt again, nods her head – the Horsewomen exit and Asuka stands
alone, holding her belt aloft as we see Rousey back her way up the ramp. Ranallo strongly, strongly suggesting that we might see it go down at Wrestlemania - we might see undefeated Women's Champion Asuka put up her title against the Baddest Woman on the Planet, shootfighter Ronda Rousey.
6.
Shoot Nation (Angle/Benjamin/Lashley) d. New Day
(Kingston/Langston/Woods) – Angle gets the fall here on Woods, New Day comes in really battered from the long feud
with Gods of Carnage; Shoot Nation’s attention is clearly not entirely with the
match – Nemeth was attacked by unknown assailants in his hotel room, there’s just
no good clue about what might have happened – but they overcome that and Angle
gets the fall here. Every Angle match carries some weight, we know his career is ending at Wrestlemania, so he takes a moment in each match to thank the official, thank the opponents, takes a beat to soak it in - the Nemeth questions cast a pall on that here, but Ranallo makes clear that even with that backdrop seeing Kurt Angle for the last time in the Rumble is significant.
Two items happen postmatch – New Day is attacked backstage by
GoC – Rusev and Strowman, both suspended through this event, attack New Day as
they walk through the backstage area – they’re laid out pretty quickly, sent through
vending machines, that sort of a thing.
The second thing is this – during the match, Ranallo alluded
to a disturbing video link that had just been sent to the production team, he doesn’t
want to say what they are telling him is on that video until they can verify
its authenticity.
So – after the brawl, we cut back to Ranallo and he says it
appears that the following video is an accurate reflection of events from
earlier that day at the hotel. It’s a
cell phone video – we see the camera approaching a room – Nemeth answers the
door, confused, but not for long, because we see that he’s getting the crap
kicked out of him…by Underground – it’s the Authors of Pain, it’s Lorcan and
Gulak – it’s Murphy and Black…and after the beating has finished, the man
holding the cell phone camera turns it around and we see….
….Steve Regal. Which,
considering the long relationship between Regal and Nemeth and Regal and Angle,
probably will be a point of contention as soon as tomorrow night.
The tag title match is next – we get a clip package of each WWF
Tag Title match in Rumble history..
1989….double team Brainbusters spot on Shawn….
1990…Shawn turning on Marty….
1991…The Road Warriors go faces to faces with Demolition…
1992…Money Inc taking the belts from the Road Warriors…
1993…Scott Steiner hitting a Frankensteiner on Beau Beverly…
1994…Jacques and Pierre Rougeau taking the belts from the
Steiners…
1995…Davey Boy and Backlund embracing after beating Bret and
the Anvil…
1996….Austin and Dustin hitting a double team maneuver on
Razor and then holding the belts aloft…
1997…Davey Boy lifting Owen atop his shoulders as Owen wins
the Triple Crown….
1998….Cactus and Funk throwing a trash can atop the Rock and
then hitting it with baseball bats….
1999….Rock and Hunter brawling…
2000….The Dudleys setting fire to a table….
2001….Taz suplexing Edge through a ladder….
2002…Jericho and Storm holding their belts aloft…
2003…Haas and Benjamin double teaming Benoit…
2004…Benjamin suplexing Michaels…
2005…Rhyno hitting Haas with the Gore…
2006…Booker hitting Chavo with the Hangover…
2007…RVD hitting a Van Daminator on Dreamer through a glass
pane…
2008…Edge turns on Jericho…
2009…The Blood Dragon reveals himself to be Christian…
2010…Swagger and Nemeth hitting the buckles with their belts
in the air…
2011…Orton RKO’ing Killings…
2012…Orton RKO’ing Barrett…
2013…The Shield coming down through the crowd…
2014…The Shield hitting their pose postmatch…
2015…Reigns sending DDP through the retaining barrier…
2016…Kingston hitting a highspot on Rusev…
2017….Claudio’s giant swing on Generico….
2018…The Usos hitting stereo superkicks on Anderson and
Gallows…
7.
WWF Tag Titles: Hooligans (Sheamus/McIntyre w/
Miz) d. Trash (Claudio/Gargano)
Gargano’s quixotic journey to gain any
title in WWF continues; he’s the one taking the fall from McIntyre here; Trash
by necessity is really just here to put guys over right now – this is designed
to enhance Hooligans, they beat two elite workers in Claudio and Gargano and
they head strong into Mania season. Miz
is a tick more heelish than we’re used to seeing in his current incarnation –
he returned to his nickname before Survivor Series; in a managerial role here
he wears his old sunglasses. He’s a
natural antagonist and eventually its hard for that not to rise to the surface
a little bit, but there’s not a turn, he’s still positioned as the guy who crawled
his way out of the Cuck gimmick to become tag champ and he’s got his rough and
tumble friends with him.
The IC Title is next…here’s the clip package…
1989…Hennig pins Bret with the PerfectPlex…
1990…Bret submits DiBiase in the
sharpshooter…
1991…Bret holding the IC belt aloft after beating
Martel…
1992…Savage dropping the elbow on Piper…
1993…Shawn superkicking Owen…
1994…Shawn taking a ladder bump…
1995…Owen with a dive atop Razor…
1996…Vaderbomb to pin Shawn….
1997…Cactus and Funk squaring off with barbed
wire baseball bats…
1998…Mike Tyson stepping into the Octagon…
1999…Stone Cold Stunner on Al Snow…
2000…Jericho slamming Hunter’s face into
the cage…
2001…Regal with a high angle suplex to
Austin…
2002…Van Dam hitting Taz with Air Sabu…
2003…Mysterio hits RVD with the 619…
2004…Tajiri hitting Chavo with the quick
kicks..
2005…Edge spearing Jericho…
2006..Fit and Benoit hitting each other
with stiff shots..
2007…Helms and Chavo squaring off…
2008…MVP holding the belt above his head…
2009…MVP leveling Rey with a boot….
2010…Sydal coming off the top onto Michaels…
2011…Nitro hitting Kidd with Starship Pain…
2012…Sheamus sending Miz into the ringpost…
2013…The Rock emerging from the back…
2014…Sheamus snatching the belt from the official…
2015…Luke Harper brawling with Dustin Rhodes…
2016…AJ holding the belt in the crowd…
2017…Lesnar hitting Rusev with the F5…
2018…Lesnar and Benjamin grappling…
8.
IC Three Way Dance: Devitt d. Tozawa
(w/Alexander), Dunne (w/Nigel)
-Devitt’s run continues; he pins both Tozawa
and then Dunne, keeping his title belt; he taunts Dark Ride Wrestling postmatch
“I own you, you belong to me – all of it, the fans, the title, the ring, the concessions…all
of it” This program between Devitt and the entirely of Dark Ride Wrestling (focusing on Blood Warriors International) is a year in now and still rolling right along.
9.
No DQ: Samoa Joe d. Bryan Danielson
-This is designed to just be a brawl; they
did an in ring match at Survivor Series, this is not that – it’s a lot of
outside the ring stuff, a lot of plunder – two big spots – no one does any especially dangerous spots with Danielson’s head, that’s not a thing that’s discussed, but
if you’re paying attention, you see it’s a real thing – here, Joe has the
opportunity to hit Danielson with a chair and pauses, then decides to throw the
chair down and attack in another manner.
Later – Danielson picks up that same chair and just wears Joe out with
it, multiple shots to the upper back that lays Joe out. In the end, it’s Joe – a muscle buster in the
middle of the ring for the fall.
10.
Number One Contender’s Match: AJ Styles d. Brock
Lesnar (w/Heyman)
-First ever singles match between the two, it’s
the explosive Lesnar sprint – Styles with multiple forearms to get the
fall. Lesnar is noticeably frosty with
Heyman as they exit. Styles will move on
to the main event of Wrestlemania to take on the winner of Nakamura/Kenta.
11.
Loser Leaves Town: Tyler Black (w/Anderson and
Gallows) d. Dean Ambrose
-There should be a real heaviness to this one;
both men come to the ring, Ambrose stalking the perimeter as Black stares dead,
cold ahead. I get stuck sometimes with
an abundance of talent (Survivor Series 2019 will be an example of this) and
wind up with two many matches that aren’t 1:1, but this card (and Mania coming
up) just is built around 1:1 wrestling matches – so we get Joe staring down
Danielson – and then Lesnar and Styles going nose to nose – and then this one,
the final meeting between Black and Ambrose as the Shield explodes
forever. Ranallo makes clear that unlike,
say Joe and Danielson, this is not a feud likely to continue – one of these men
is leaving the World Wrestling Federation tonight and not returning tomorrow.
This should be super intense – Ranallo lays
out here a lot, the camera has a lot of close up shots – we want to taste the blood
and smell the sweat. The fight really
stays in the ring but it’s a fight, the last two matches would have had outside
spots, Joe/Danielson was mainly outside spots and the Lesnar matches all have
an outside the ring component, so this fight really stays in the ring – as if
that’s the only way to determine who is the better man, and if someone is
leaving the territory, it should be the loser of that type of fight.
Black kicks out of Ambrose’s finisher,
Black ends it with the curbstomp.
Renee Young, who has been in the Mean Gene
role for a few years and who was part of this storyline both a year ago and in telling
Ambrose he needed to take this match, leaves her post and comes to the ring,
she brushes past Black, cradles Ambrose’s head in her hands – and then slaps
him hard across the face. Slaps. Him. Hard. Across. The. Face.
Ambrose looks stunned – as Renee then takes
her fingers, points them as if they were a gun – and fires. Man, oh man.
Renee grabs Black – kisses him hard on the
mouth in front of the paralyzed with shock Ambrose – and the two laugh and sneer at her fallen husband, they hit the ramp
and join Anderson and Gallows – Devitt, now in streetclothes with the IC belt,
makes his way to the ramp – accompanied by Lynch (both have Bullet Club t-shirts,
Lynch has been distanced from the Bullet Club since last year’s Mania as she
needed to be positioned as a babyface in the Rousey storyline, but that’s not
needed anymore, and with Renee joining, we need the all hands on deck Bullet Club celebration) – Lynch hands a shirt to Renee – she puts it on - and it is clear for all to see – Renee Young
has joined the Bullet Club and driven the final nail in Dean Ambrose’s WWF
coffin. The Bullet Club has always
considered the Rumble their event as the 2016 Rumble was the formation of the WWF version of the Club – and they step up here in 2019…
That’s Ambrose's last appearance on WWF TV and as
of the time of this writing, he’s out of the territory.
Clip package of each WWF Title match in
Rumble history:
1989…Savage drops the elbow on Ted….
1990…Hennig pins Rude with the PerfectPlex…
1991…Savage attacking Hennig with the fork…
1992…Flair with the Figure Four on Davey Boy…
1993…Bret with the Sharpshooter on Tenryu…
1994…Bret thrusting the title belt confrontationally
after hearing the crowd cheer the Undertaker….
1995…Diesel pulling off Mad Dog Vachon’s prosthetic
leg…
1996…Bret and Owen going nose to nose…
1997…Pillman and Austin beating up the
Harts and the Clique…
1998…Austin with the crimson mask….
1999…..Cactus sickeningly pierced with
barbed wire…
2000….Cactus dropping the elbow from the
apron onto Taz…
2001…Benoit with the Crossface on Jericho…
2002…Angle Slam on Flair…
2003…Angle with the ankle lock on Michaels…
2004…Angle hits Eddy’s triple suplex spot
on Eddy…
2005…Benoit with the Sharpshooter on Michaels…
2006…Super Crazy and Psychosys hitting a double
team maneuver on Rey…
2008…Shelton Benjamin in tears, cradling
the belt…
2009…Jericho with the Walls on Hunter…
2010…Jericho stands over Matt, holding the
belt….
2011…Edge spearing Booker…
2012…the crowd singing “The Final Countdown”
as Danielson stands on the buckle…
2013…Danielson with cattle mutilation on
Dos Caras…
2014…Danielson submits Punk in the Montreal
Match…
2015…Lesnar hurling Claudio across the ring…
2016…The Bullet Club formation – Devitt, AJ,
Nakamura, Anderson, Gallows attacking the ring…
2017…Harper bouncing AJ all around the
steel cage…
2018…Nakamura standing alone after winning
the Battle Royale…
12.
WWF Title: Shinsuke Nakamura d. Kenta
-Nakamura will go into his second
consecutive Wrestlemania as the WWF Champion; main event style match – long, stiff,
nearfalls and a definitive Nakamura win.
Like Ambrose, Kenta’s also leaving the territory, so there’s no need to
hold anything back – by the end of the night it should be very clear that Black
and Nakamura are the superior wrestlers.
Kenta’s going to put Danielson over twice in the build to Mania on television
and then he’s done.
The show ends with Styles coming back to
the ring – he goes Nose to Nose with his former stablemate, it’s the main event
of Wrestlemania 35 and it’s coming in April – Shinsuke Nakamura defending the WWF Championship
against AJ Styles.
We start that build in February; it’s an
overstuffed show, a dozen matches to set up, first half in February, second
half in March. See you next month..
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