PPV Fusion: Royal Rumble 2011

by Firefly on 31st January 2011

The 2011 WWE Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View starts with a video hyping the Royal Rumble match and the fact that it is going to have 40 participants this time around.

Our first match of the night is the World Heavyweight Championship match pitting Edge against Dolph Ziggler. Before this takes place, we see a video recapping the events of SmackDown! in which Vickie Guerrero announced the ban of the Spear, followed by Vickie coming out onto the stage and reaffirming the ban before introducing her boyfriend Dolph Ziggler.

During the match, Kelly Kelly attacks Vickie and leaves her knocked out outside the ring, which works in Edge’s favour as he is able to hit a Spear when the referee is also knocked out. He doesn’t immediately go for the cover however, but acts like he also got hit with something as the referee rouses himself.

Edge retains the title when he hits Ziggler with the Killswitch for the 3-count.

Going backstage, Josh Mathews interviews The Miz, who says that his entire championship reign has been smeared with lies and accusations, such as “If it wasn’t for Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler would be Champion” or “If it wasn’t for Alex Riley, Randy Orton would be Champion.”

He says that there is a reason why he is a Champion, and people like Randy Orton, Jerry Lawler, and even Tom Brady are not Champions. Riley says that The Miz can out-brawl, out-wrestle, out-shine, outsmart, and outclass Orton and will beat him to go on to WrestleMania as the WWE Champion.

The Miz says that it is because just like he told Orton as he stood over his barely-conscious body, he is The Miz, and he’s Awesome.

Back in the arena, we find out whether Riley is right, as it is time for The Miz to take on Randy Orton for the WWE Championship. The match ends with The Miz retaining his title thanks in no small part to CM Punk and The New Nexus, as The New Nexus show up and distract the referee.

Riley attempts to use the distraction to sneak up on Orton, but he is instead launched by Orton over the top rope into The New Nexus to knock them all down, as well as the referee due to him diving out of the way.

The Miz attempts a Skull-Crushing Finale, but Orton counters it into an RKO. He is unable to capitalise on this however as CM Punk hits Orton with the GTS and drags The Miz over onto him for the cover.

Backstage once again, Todd Grisham reads a prepared statement from “Dashing” Cody Rhodes where he says that it was going to be his time, the year that “Dashing” Cody Rhodes won the biggest Royal Rumble in history and went on to main-event WrestleMania.

Instead of headlining on the grandest stage of the entire WWE, he has a shattered face and his career is in jeopardy. Rey Mysterio has not reached out to him or apologised which is inexcusable, and at this time he asks that people respect his wishes for privacy as he deals with this very personal matter.

After a video of WWE fans being asked who they think will win the Royal Rumble, it’s time for a 2-on-1 Handicap match with Lay-Cool going against Natalya for the Divas Championship. Before the referee can ring the bell however, the lights flash, a sound plays, and Michael Cole informs us that he has received an email from the Anonymous Raw General Manager.

He says that Teddy Long may have allowed for the possibility of Lay-Cool co-holding the Divas Championship, but Long is currently incapacitated and he is in charge. This means that he is changing the Divas Championship match.

As he gets enough complaints of how annoying Michael Cole is (which Cole assures himself more than us that he’s probably joking about), but he’s not going to double it with complaints about Lay-Cool. Therefore the match is now a Fatal Four Way Divas Championship match between Layla, Michelle, Natalya, and the following Diva who turns out to be Eve.

The match ends with Eve hitting a moonsault for the 3-count to become the new Divas Champion, but it’s not without controversy, as at the same time behind the referee Michelle rolls up Natalya for the count too.

Josh Mathews interviews Daniel Bryan and Gail Kim and asks him how special it would be for him to win the Royal Rumble match. Bryan says that the great thing about the match is that anything can happen, and though people would say it’s unlikely, but for those people who keep calling him a nerd, if he can go from NXT Rookie to main-eventing WrestleMania, that would be pretty cool.

The Bella Twins interrupt and say that they come in peace before saying that they were just caught by surprise and apologise, as well as say congratulations as they hand flowers to Bryan and Gail. They continue however by saying that it’s kind of funny as they are both kind of the same, which they guess is why it works – looking at them, they are in the same league.

Gail asks what that is supposed to mean and they gesture to her and then themselves, and say that is why it works for him. Gail isn’t happy to hear this and a fight soon breaks out between them, though Brie is the first one to initiate it by slapping Bryan. Bryan tries to pull Gail away as the referees and Mathews try to separate the twins from them.

It’s now time for the Royal Rumble match, and we find out that the first entrant is the leader of The New Nexus; CM Punk. The Corre’s music hits and both Wade Barrett and Ezekiel Jackson make their way to the ring, with Heath Slater and Justin Gabriel apparently coming through the crowd to surround the other two sides of the ring.

All four members of The Corre enter the ring and start to attack Punk until The New Nexus run down to fight them off. As the referees try to restore order, Cole receives another email from the Anonymous Raw General Manager.

He says that the only Superstar who has the right to be in the ring right now is CM Punk, so all members of The Corre and the The New Nexus must return to the locker room or face being disqualified from the Royal Rumble match – unsurprisingly, they follow the order.

The second entrant is revealed to be the current United States Champion; Daniel Bryan. Notable moments of the Royal Rumble include John Morrison utilising his parkour skills to avoid his feet hitting the floor, The New Nexus dominating as a group for quite a while, and John Cena being eliminated from the Royal Rumble by The Miz throwing him over the top rope, despite the fact that The Miz wasn’t even an entrant.

Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Alex Riley, Hornswoggle, and The Great Khali are revealed as entrants, but much more notable is that Booker T and Diesel are too. The winner of the Royal Rumble is announced as Alberto Del Rio, but at that moment, Santino Marella re-enters the ring after having rolled out under the bottom rope earlier on.

Marella successfully hits The Cobra on Del Rio and does a little celebration before picking up Del Rio to try to throw him over the rope rope. Del Rio manages to reverse it and instead Marella is the one sent over the top rope, and this time Del Rio really is the winner.

Del Rio celebrates with Ricardo Rodriguez, who excitedly repeats Del Rio’s name (seemingly until he’s hoarse) as the Royal Rumble goes off the air.

About the Author: Firefly

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Discovering WCW Monday Nitro in the 1990s, he has been hooked on wrestling ever since, later going on to also discover WWF (now WWE), and even later numerous independent promotions, TNA and now the very captivating challenger known as AEW.

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