WWE Royal Rumble 2009 Previews
Previews of all the matches set to take place at the Royal Rumble including the 30 Man over the top rope elimination match.
Here’s the link for my Title Matches preview:
WWE Royal Rumble 2009 Championship Match Preview
Which covers:
-The WWE Championship match between Edge and Jeff Hardy
-The World Heavyweight Championship match between JBL and John Cena
-The ECW Title match between Matt Hardy and Jack Swagger
-The WWE Women’s Championship Match between Beth Phoenix and Melina
and here is the link for my Royal Rumble match preview:
WWE 2009 Royal Rumble Match Preview
Which covers who is in the rumble already, who might be in the rumble and who is most likely to win.
Additional Content
Who ELSE might be in the Royal Rumble
Having already covered some of the more outlandish yet possible predictions in the Royal Rumble match article, there are a lot more more likely candidates that could fit the bill.
Goldust – Goldust always seems to show up in Rumble matches and knows what he is doing, good rumble fodder.
Mike Knox – It would be a good chance for the Knox/Mysterio rivalry to move forward, and could also lead to….
Evan Bourne - Not sure if he is fit yet, but if he is this would be a good point for him to return and perhaps get some revenge on Knox, who attacked him backstage when he had almost ‘recovered’ from his original injury.
The Godfather – Seems to love showing up at the Rumble, enough said.
The Great Khali – It isn’t often really big guys are faces in the Rumble. Usually a big heel gets in (Mark Henry or Viscera for example) and everyone gangs up to throw them out. Not sure how they would deal with a huge good guy, but it is possible he could make an appearance, unless there is a Royal Rumble kiss cam.
Manu/Sim Snuka – They could show up and spoil the party for ‘Legacy’ who are planning on using teamwork to win the Rumble.
JBL – It wouldn’t be the first time someone had lost a title match at the event then gone on to appear in the Rumble match.
Cryme Tyme – They aren’t doing much else, why not?
Who Won’t win the Rumble?
As usual with this match there are only a selection of Superstars that are actually likely to win and go on to Wrestlemania, looking back at the history of the event, the only winner that stands out as a ‘wow I didn’t expect that’ victory is Vince McMahon. Everyone knows people like Finlay, Carlito and Santino aren’t going to win it, but what about the people who COULD win, but probably won’t?
Rey Mysterio – Rey is capable of winning the Rumble, he did it a few years back and set a record for the longest time spent in a RR bout. But this year I can’t see him doing it, he’s not been in the main event for quite a while and there doesn’t seem to be anyone in the title picture that he could feud with up to Mania.
The Big Show - I know I listed him as a possible contender in my article, but I can’t see him winning it for similar reasons to Rey. The title picture doesn’t really contain anyone he hasn’t already feuded with recently, or someone he could slip into a feud with. Edge Vs. Big Show at mania could be a possibility, but that would mean splitting up the Edge/Hardy storyline that is developing nicely, as well as either turning one of them or having a Heel Vs. Heel Mania main event, which would be difficult to get the fans into.
C.M Punk – Punk is solidly planted in the mid-card at the minute and as someone who respects his wrestling ability, but thinks he’s pretty boring outside of that, I’m glad. He wasn’t treated too well when he had the title, and it seemed more of a way to get the Money in the Bank contract out of the way than actually give him a decent run with the title, and no matter how much I dislike him, I wouldn’t want that to happen again and further discredit the ability that he clearly has. Finally as an Englishman myself I’d be annoyed if William Regal didn’t get a chance to win his Intercontinental championship back.
Vladimir Kozlov – Seriously? If this guy main evented WrestleMania XXV then there would have to be a seriously strong undercard to persuade me to buy it. He’s boring, his gimmick got old about a week after he debuted and the sooner the WWE realise that ‘things that worked in the 80′s don’t really work now’ the better.
Kane – Nothing would please me more than for Royal Rumble veteran Kane to win his 11th consecutive Rumble. Sadly though I doubt it will happen. Kane deserves much better than he has gotten recently, jobbing to Rey Mysterio at every oppertunity should not be a task for someone who’s been around and overlooked for as long as Kane has.
World Heavyweight Championship match
This is likely to be a poor match. Cena and JBL struggled to put on a good match when they last feuded for a championship, their match at WM XXI was passable at best. The only standout match they had in my opinion was the ‘I quit’ match, but that is more because I like the match stipulation rather than the participants.
Thankfully HBK will be in JBL’s corner and the majority of the excitement in this one will come from whether he will decide to get involved or not. I personally like the current storyline between the two of them, and I just hope it doesn’t get rushed through and they let it build slowly.
Prediction – I think Shawn will get involved somehow, probably helping JBL to win the title, only to later win the Royal Rumble and face his former employer at Wrestlemania with a pocket full of JBL’s cash.
ECW Title Match
I don’t follow ECW quite as closely as the other two brands mainly because it doesn’t hold my attention, or it hasn’t so much recently. Personally it seems like a more publicised version of the old Heat/Velocity, and in keeping with that I think it should strive to give the up and coming wrestlers a chance to make a name for themselves. That is the main reason I was fed up of seeing Matt Hardy Vs. Mark Henry for pay per view after pay per view.
Originally I thought Hardy and Henry could put on a good bout as I like Matt and despite a lot of bad feeling towards Mark Henry from others, I think he’s good at what he does and being what he is, a big destructive strongman type. However after having numerous attempts at putting on a good match I got fed up of waiting, and I’m now glad that Jack Swagger is getting a chance to show off his skills. From what I’ve seen of him, he is very similar to Randy Orton in his earlier days and hopefully this ECW title run will last a while and prove to be his start on the rise through the ranks.
Prediction – Swagger to win it one way or another. I think if Christian does make an appearance then it will be a Hardys Vs. Edge and Christian feud leading up to Mania, and the ECW championship wouldn’t factor into that at all.
WWE Championship match
As I just mentioned above, it is looking more and more like Jeff’s secret attacker is going to be Edge’s on screen brother, Christian. His profile was removed from the TNA website earlier this month, leading me and many others to believe that he will be returning to the WWE in the very near future. It wouldn’t be the first time I’d built myself up for a fall though, and there is every possibility that either no one will show up, it will be someone more obvious (like Edge, Vikki, Chavo, Big Show) or someone much less obvious (HHH, it wouldn’t be the first time he’d orchestrated something like this, he turned out to be the mastermind behind Stone Cold being mowed down quite a few years back).
I’m really hoping that when it is revealed that Christian is the guy behind it all, but I won’t get my hopes up until I see something a little more concrete.
Prediction – Something could go wrong in this match, a turnbuckle breaks when Jeff is on the top, the ring collapses etc, to keep up with this storyline that someone is after Jeff. I think it would be cruel to put the belt back on Edge so soon after Jeff finally realised his dream of becoming champ, but I wouldn’t rule it out. Whatever happens I really hope it puts an end to Jeff’s painful promo slots, because sitting through his poorly delivered dialogue is beginning to grate. Get the kid a Manager/Mouthpiece for gods sake.
This concludes my additional content on the Royal Rumble event.
You might be interested in also reading:
Click the link above for my formal in depth review, and additional content.
Click the link above to read results written as they happened.
Thanks for reading!
JayD
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