Royal Rumble Results Shock & WWE Divas Get RAW
By Kevin Nelson
This week’s edition took place in Providence, Rhode Island, with the revelation that Alberto Del Rio has won the Royal Rumble and now gets to decide who he will face at Wrestlemania. He can face either WWE Champion The Miz, or World Champion Edge.
As he enters the ring and celebrates with his Mariachi band, The Miz comes out and says that Edge has been badmouthing Del Rio and how he is a joke of a challenger. This prompts Edge to come out and say he never said those things, but agrees that Del Rio is a joke.
Del Rio announces he will face Edge at Wrestlemania. Edge then slaps him with the microphone and the future challenger returns by smashing the guitar on Edge. Also announced was a champion vs. champion match.
Once again Miz will face Edge with the stipulation that there must be a winner.
Next was the tag team match with the Tag Team Champions Vladimir Kozlov and Santino Marella facing Mike McGillicuddy and Husky Harris (Nexus). The match comes to a boiling point when Santino uses the finishing move: “the Cobra” to secure the win for the champs.
Randy Orton comes running down the ring and delivers a boot to Harris who is seriously hurt from that. Nexus came running down after Orton. The revelation was Nexus had distracted Orton and cost him a chance to defeat the Miz at the Royal Rumble.
The US Title on the line as Daniel Bryan defeated Tyson Kidd. At ringside were the heartbroken Bella Twins that were dumped by Bryan after finding out he was dating Gail Kim.
After the match, the Bella Twins attacked Gail Kim (catfight), leading into the next match, which was the champion vs. champion.
Edge and The Miz fought toe to toe with the Miz focusing on the injured shoulder of Edge (from the Del Rio attack). Just as it seemed Miz was going to win the match, Cena distracted him and Edge capitalized on that by hitting the spear for the victory. We learned that Cena did that as revenge for Miz distracting him while he was in the rumble costing him a shot at a title.
Laycool (Layla and Michelle Mccool) faced new Divas Champ Eve and Natalya in a divas tag team match. Now this match was very good with the divas really showcasing their skills as wrestlers as I enjoyed the match which often times is not the case when it comes to the divas. Laycool was successful in defeating Natalya and Eve.
With the revelation that the next pay per view was the Elimination Chamber the anonymous RAW GM announced that there will be a 7 man over the top rope challenge. The contestants are Jerry Lawler, Randy Orton, CM Punk, R Truth, John Morrison, King Sheamus and John Cena.
A tag team match with the Great Khali and Mark Henry facing the USOs in a dance off before the winner was announced the USOs attacked Khali and Henry.
Michael Cole was criticizing Lawler throughout the telecast about his chances of winning the top rope challenge. The ridiculously talented John Morrison was thrown over the top but continued to defy gravity by not landing on his feet.
As the match progressed Lawler, Sheamus and Cena were left as Cena was hanging from the outside with Sheamus trying to eliminate him. Sheamus would move out of the way and hit Cena eliminating him. As Sheamus then went to kick him he missed and fell over the top rope as Jerry Lawler is determined the winner.
Raw aftermath
With the final two contestants in the rumble being Santino Marella and Del Rio the WWE is for once not being predictable and although I was skeptical about Lawler getting a title shot, it still adds shock value and if for some reason he were to win that, it would be a huge upset going against the grain as a veteran would defeat a young champion.