This year's Rumble was a solid affair. It had the drama, the shock, the intrigue, and all the stuff you want from the start to the Road to WrestleMania. Nothing on the show was overly bad and while there wasn't a five star classic that perhaps we all dreamed of, it was hardly a poor outing for WWE.
- Hell NO(!) vs. Rhodes Scholars was about as routine a tag match as you're going to get and while it didn't set the world on fire, it was a decent contest which popped the crowd as the champs retained their gold.
- Del Rio vs. Show was a solid, back-and-forth contest that just about equalled their initial encounter in this match type. Del Rio's been fantastic as a face thus far and Show put him over strong last night in a fun opener.
- The Rumble match was packed full of its usual fun and it remains the most entertaining match of the year. Jericho's shocking return was a great surprise to get us started. I enjoyed the Rhodes' Stand-Off, The Cena Dogpile, Barrett's School of Hard Knocks amongst others.
- The final six men were all in with a shout of winning so the conclusion was fairly gripping. Cena winning doesn't disappoint me or overly excite me, but it's probably the right move.
- Rock vs. Punk didn't blow me away. It reminded me of Lesnar vs. HHH in that it was good, but it failed to accomplish the task of surpassing its predecessor (in HHH/Lesnar's case it was Cena/Lesnar, in this case Cena/Rock). Not a truly memorable outing from either man and I wasn't a fan of the false finish. It didn't taint Rock's win, but it took away from the drama of it I felt.
Overall a highly entertaining night of quality action, thrills, spills and all that hoo-ha. Here's to a great Road to WrestleMania and bring on the Chamber!