{"id":207,"date":"2010-01-31T14:27:11","date_gmt":"2010-01-31T14:27:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=207"},"modified":"2010-01-31T14:27:11","modified_gmt":"2010-01-31T14:27:11","slug":"royal-rumble-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.housetoastonish.com\/?p=207","title":{"rendered":"Royal Rumble 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

As always, the WWE’s first pay-per-view of 2010 is one of the big ones.\u00a0 Traditionally, the biggest show of the year in always Wrestlemania<\/em> in the spring – this year, March 28th.\u00a0 And back in the days when there were only a handful of PPVs each year, the Royal Rumble<\/em> was the start of an extended build to Wrestlemania<\/em>.\u00a0 It’s a simple idea: the winner of the titular battle royal becomes the number one contender for the World Title, and the title match headlines Wrestlemania<\/em>.\u00a0 Then you spend two months building to it.<\/p>\n

It’s a bit more complicated now.\u00a0 The brand split means that Raw and Smackdown (and ECW, as if anyone still cares) all have their own separate versions of the world title, so the winner gets to choose which champion he faces.\u00a0 And there’s also a February pay-per-view to fill – ideally by selecting challengers for the other major titles.\u00a0 But the basic idea remains the same.\u00a0 The build to the major show starts tonight and lasts for two months.<\/p>\n

The WWE spent most of 2009 more or less making things up as they went along, and changing their plans on a weekly basis.\u00a0 Reportedly, things have now settled down a bit: the company has decided on the main matches for Wrestlemania<\/em>, and they’re working back from there.\u00a0 This is a good thing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The other key development in wrestling at the moment is a more direct challenge from TNA, the (distant) number two promotion, who are planning to move their show to Monday nights beginning in March, going head-to-head with Raw.\u00a0 In its current incarnation, TNA increasingly resembles a reunion of the WCW crew who went head-to-head with the WWE – and\u00a0beat them for quite some time – during the nineties.\u00a0 It’s always possible that this will prompt the WWE to focus a little more on the quality of Monday Night Raw<\/em>, which has been a haphazard and directionless mess of random celebrity guests and excruciating “comedy” for some time now.\u00a0 That said, it’s not as though the company has too much to fear from TNA.\u00a0 After all, this is the same WCW crew who beat their one good idea into the ground and ultimately killed the company from under their feet; and besides, they’re building their show around wrestlers whose heyday is now embarrassingly distant.<\/p>\n

So.\u00a0 Here’s what we have tonight.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 The 2010 Royal Rumble.<\/strong>\u00a0 The Royal Rumble<\/em> is an unusual PPV because the length of the eponymous match takes up a third of the show.\u00a0 For those who don’t follow wrestling, here’s how it (notionally) works.\u00a0 Thirty wrestlers enter.\u00a0 They draw numbers at random.\u00a0 Numbers 1 and 2 start the match, and everyone else enters into order at intervals of 90 seconds (or thereabouts – even the announced time varies from year to year, and it’s not as if they apply it that strictly).\u00a0 Elimination occurs if you go over the top rope and both feet touch the floor.\u00a0 Last guy left is the winner.\u00a0 You’ll note that under these rules, it takes over 40 minutes just for everyone to enter the match, so it inevitably goes on a while.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Obviously, this is a stupid way to pick a number one contender, since the match is heavily weighted in favour of the guys who draw later numbers.\u00a0\u00a0 But the staggered entries they make for a much better match.\u00a0 Battle royals are usually godawful, because the ring is so full at the start of the match that there’s nowhere to move, and most guys can only kill time until they’re readily to get eliminated.\u00a0 The design of the Rumble makes it possible to keep the ring quiet enough for faster-paced wrestling to occur, and to have a turnover of wrestlers.\u00a0 Plus, they don’t announce the numbers in advance, and they usually don’t announce all the participants, so there’s always the “who’s next” factor and a couple of surprise appearances every year.\u00a0 All these factors far outweigh the match’s logical shortcomings.<\/p>\n

Naturally, the company doesn’t employ 30 wrestlers who could all plausibly headline the biggest show of the year, so most of the field can be eliminated as possible winners right off the bat.\u00a0 We can also assume that no winner is going to waste his opportunity challenging for the bush-league ECW Title.\u00a0 The WWE Title (Raw’s version of the belt) is currently held by Sheamus, a rookie recently elevated from the midcard; his obvious potential challengers are John Cena and Triple H.\u00a0 Smackdown’s World Heavyweight Title is currently held by the Undertaker; Batista has been pursuing him for a while, and Shawn Michaels from Raw also wants to face him at Wrestlemania in a rematch from last year.\u00a0 So those four are your obvious contenders.\u00a0 But there are always other possibilities – in theory, some wild card could win and put their title shot on the line next month.\u00a0 Or, of course, Undertaker or Sheamus could lose their title on tonight’s show (though it seems unlikely), in which case everything’s up in the air.<\/p>\n

As of right now, 25 entrants have been announced.\u00a0 Actually, they’d previously announced even more, but Gregory Helms has been struck off the list are getting into a fight at a gas station, or something to that effect, and comedy act Santino Marella has also mysteriously vanished from the list despite several weeks of skits on Raw promoting his (self-evidently doomed) entry into the match.\u00a0 That leaves:-<\/p>\n