SCN: RRReview

Dear Fellas,
I wrote this originally as a comment for Poncho's post, but it was too long so now it's a real post.

Alice and I ended up buying the PPV.  We were both stoked on Bryan being (in my eyes) the favorite to take it home, and we wanted to watch it live.  It took us days of arguing to agree to go through with the purchase.  All in all, it was really fun to be watching a live PPV at home, but $55 is a lot of money for Daniel Bryan not to win.  In our conversation, I said that if Bryan wins, it will be totally worth it to watch live.  If he doesn't, it will probably be a waste of money.  It was a gamble, and I should have remembered that the house always wins. The way I felt at the finish was reminiscent of last year's Rumble, when Cena won, which wasn't that bad, but it was just kind of boring, and then Rock took the belt off of Punk, which was super depressing.

Preshow
Hated to see the Rhodes' step out of the limelight, but the belts have got to get to the Usos somehow.

Bryan-Wyatt
The only solid match of the night.  I thought that Wyatt was under-selling Bryan's stuff, but after getting beaten up so much lately, I didn't think that was unfair.  I was even rooting for him to win the match, to keep his credibility up.  Bryan was killer of course, and even used some Steamboat-esque crossbodies in his offense.  The match was fun, the finish was cool, it was a good PPV match.

Big Show-Lesnar
Fine.  At least I didn't have to watch a Big Show match.

Orton-Cena
The worst WWE match since the last time they squared off.  How is it possible for them to suck so bad against each other?  They've both had some great TV matches in the past month, but the WWE WHW Championship title matches have been absolute garbage.  The finish of the Rumble is what everyone is talking about, but this shitty excuse for a match was equally as bad.

The Rumble Match
Kofi Kingston was completely amazing.  I loved how the crowd popped for him when he came out.  Punk didn't have many spots, but his performance was outstanding.  He really kept it rolling when some of the other guys were just looking around for something to do.  The Shield was super cool.  The logic of their internal drama made sense, and was well-told, although I really hope they don't break up.  They've easily got another year in them as a unit.  Alexander Rusev had a solid debut.  I was disappointed that Xavier Woods and Brodus Clay weren't in it.  I really liked their feud, but it seems to have been completely dropped, and Brodus is jobbing to the Miz now instead of becoming a monster heel.  Sad, but it's kind of his fault for not improving in the ring.  Kevin Nash was a waste of an entrant.  Besides him, the Miz, Del Rio, and the winner were the only people I didn't think were any good.  Sheamus should have changed his look up a little, it was underwhelming seeing him back with his corny haircut, doing his stupid forearm-to-the-chest-10-times move.  I still felt kind of bad for him getting booed toward the end, though.  The end was really painful.  Talk about having the wind taken out of your sails, I felt totally deflated and confused and angry.  To me, the best thing in wrestling is when a story reaches a crescendo, and you get this great outpouring of emotion.  It takes a long time to tell that story, and the timing has to be just right.  Last night was Daniel Bryan's night, his popularity is at a fever pitch, and we've all been coasting on his ability to tell his story.  Instead, just like last year, an ex-wrestler/actor comes in and gets a massive victory right off the bat, thereby burying the roster's year of hard work.  Raw tonight is going to be interesting, they'll probably just be booing the shit out of everything.  Whatever the WWE is thinking of doing, even if their plan is to put Bryan over in a big way at Mania, the Rumble was a missed opportunity to keep the fans invested in the overall product.

In better news, I started a new job this morning teaching middle school kids about art, which was fun.  I go to my other job later today, which will not be as fun, but at least I'll be making a few bucks instead of sitting at the computer griping, which is probably what I'd be doing all day.

U-S-A U-S-A U-S-A Hoooooooooooo,
Marshall