Royal Rumble 2008 Thoughts
Royal Rumble 2008 was the 21st annual Royal Rumble PPV event produced by the WWE. The event took place January 27, 2008 at famous Madison Square Garden in New York City. Attendence was at 20,789 with a buyrate from home being 575,000. This would be the first WWE PPV broadcast in high definition (HD) and the last Royal Rumble PPV of the Ruthless Agreesion Era.
5 matches took place at this event. Of course the royal rumble match once more headline the event with a notable surprise return of John Cena who teased fans that he was going to miss WrestleMania this year only to comeback from injury after a 4 months hiatus. Jeff Hardy received his push for the first time battling Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. This was the start of Jeff Hardy's rise to the top with a great feud. Edge battled Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship as well.
The Good - The Royal Rumble was by far one of the best and most star studded rumbles ever. The talent was full and it was a very good rumble from start to finish. The atmosphere for the rumble and show itself blew the rough off. However it's obvious, John Cena's return was the biggest shocker of the night and one of the biggest moments in Royal Rumble history. The crowd like it always been was divided but when it came to John Cena, you can see people "forgetting" they hated him haha. Both the world title matches were really good and had great performances by the respective duos. Rey Mysterio sold a great knee injury well against Edge which made the match more intense.
The Meh - Flair vs. MVP was a fun opener. You can see Flair doing everything he can to keep up with MVP and I feel they both worked well with each other. Was great having Y2J back after his absence a long time ago. His match with JBL was okay to me. The DQ was questionable TBH.
The Bad - Nothing to really hate on. I say the little focus of the ECW brand was not fair but it sadly was the C-show. I mean the ECW "World" Champion Chavo Guerrero was in the rumble match instead. Small complaint
Overall - A solid PPV and a terrific start of 2008, which ended up being a great year in my opinion. Wasn't a show on pressure either with star power or bad recent booking of ratings killing either so you can tell the creative team pretty much had a relaxing night of putting up a good show that New York was sure to enjoy. Great job.
Score - 8 out of 10: Really Really Good
0 = Terrible : 1 = Bad/Lackluster : 2 = Decent : 3 = Good : 4 = Awesome : 5 = One of the Best of all Time :
1. Ric Flair vs. MVP (Career Threatening Match) - 2.5/5
2. Chris Jericho vs. JBL - 2/5
3. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio: World Heavyweight Championship - 3.5/5
4. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton: WWE Championship - 3.5/5
5. 30-Man Royal Rumble Match - 4.5/5
Best Match - Royal Rumble Match
Worst Match - Chris Jericho vs. JBL
Most Memorable Moment - John Cena surprise return at number 30.
Top 5 Performers
1. John Cena - Stole the show
2. Undertaker - Great Performance
3. Shawn Michaels - Great Performance
4. Rey Mysterio - Great selling
5. Edge - Good Performance.
Royal Rumble 2008 was the 21st annual Royal Rumble PPV event produced by the WWE. The event took place January 27, 2008 at famous Madison Square Garden in New York City. Attendence was at 20,789 with a buyrate from home being 575,000. This would be the first WWE PPV broadcast in high definition (HD) and the last Royal Rumble PPV of the Ruthless Agreesion Era.
5 matches took place at this event. Of course the royal rumble match once more headline the event with a notable surprise return of John Cena who teased fans that he was going to miss WrestleMania this year only to comeback from injury after a 4 months hiatus. Jeff Hardy received his push for the first time battling Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. This was the start of Jeff Hardy's rise to the top with a great feud. Edge battled Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship as well.
The Good - The Royal Rumble was by far one of the best and most star studded rumbles ever. The talent was full and it was a very good rumble from start to finish. The atmosphere for the rumble and show itself blew the rough off. However it's obvious, John Cena's return was the biggest shocker of the night and one of the biggest moments in Royal Rumble history. The crowd like it always been was divided but when it came to John Cena, you can see people "forgetting" they hated him haha. Both the world title matches were really good and had great performances by the respective duos. Rey Mysterio sold a great knee injury well against Edge which made the match more intense.
The Meh - Flair vs. MVP was a fun opener. You can see Flair doing everything he can to keep up with MVP and I feel they both worked well with each other. Was great having Y2J back after his absence a long time ago. His match with JBL was okay to me. The DQ was questionable TBH.
The Bad - Nothing to really hate on. I say the little focus of the ECW brand was not fair but it sadly was the C-show. I mean the ECW "World" Champion Chavo Guerrero was in the rumble match instead. Small complaint
Overall - A solid PPV and a terrific start of 2008, which ended up being a great year in my opinion. Wasn't a show on pressure either with star power or bad recent booking of ratings killing either so you can tell the creative team pretty much had a relaxing night of putting up a good show that New York was sure to enjoy. Great job.
Score - 8 out of 10: Really Really Good
0 = Terrible : 1 = Bad/Lackluster : 2 = Decent : 3 = Good : 4 = Awesome : 5 = One of the Best of all Time :
1. Ric Flair vs. MVP (Career Threatening Match) - 2.5/5
2. Chris Jericho vs. JBL - 2/5
3. Edge vs. Rey Mysterio: World Heavyweight Championship - 3.5/5
4. Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton: WWE Championship - 3.5/5
5. 30-Man Royal Rumble Match - 4.5/5
Best Match - Royal Rumble Match
Worst Match - Chris Jericho vs. JBL
Most Memorable Moment - John Cena surprise return at number 30.
Top 5 Performers
1. John Cena - Stole the show
2. Undertaker - Great Performance
3. Shawn Michaels - Great Performance
4. Rey Mysterio - Great selling
5. Edge - Good Performance.