Howdy BOD'ers!
Sorry for taking a couple of days off. I'm going to do Royal Rumbles from here on in until we get done with all of them. By my count we have done 1990, 2003, 1994, 1997 so far.
So today we'll head to Madison Square Garden for Royal Rumble 2008 so let's go to...Michael Buffer?
Sorry for taking a couple of days off. I'm going to do Royal Rumbles from here on in until we get done with all of them. By my count we have done 1990, 2003, 1994, 1997 so far.
So today we'll head to Madison Square Garden for Royal Rumble 2008 so let's go to...Michael Buffer?
Cena's surprise return = top 5 Markout moment of the past 10 years.
ReplyDeleteJR going apeshit was the perfect addition to that moment.
ReplyDeleteAnother great detail, Cena had a cap on, and kept his head down for a few seconds.... Just so we can all think "It's not really him, right?" YEP! IT WAS!
ReplyDeleteI really wish Cena would lose the jorts
ReplyDeleteBy far the hardest I have ever marked out for Cena ...
ReplyDeleteThis was at the peak of my Cena hate, so you can probably imagine how "fondly" I look back at this show.
ReplyDeleteI love it just because the snarky smarts got caught with their guard down and marked out
ReplyDeleteThis was coincidentally the last Rumble I ordered. I was pleasantly surprised to see Cena's surprise return and win.
ReplyDeletecena's return in this match took some of the oomph out of edge doing the same thing in 2010 (and I love edge). instead of "holy shit, it's edge! he's back!" it was 'is the next one edge? yes, it is!"
ReplyDeleteit planted the seeds for 'never trust them when they tell us so-and-so will be out for X amount of time.'
too bad we'll never get that cool old school msg entrance ever again :(
ReplyDeleteno one will ever be able to convey emotion like him.
ReplyDeleteeveryone got taken. this was the 1st time they'd ever really done the 'so-and-so will be out for X amount of time' deal and then completely blindsided everyone with an early return. like i said above, it planted the seeds that whatever recovery time they tell us should now never be trusted
ReplyDeletei wouldnt say i marked out for cena himself, but i definitely thought it was a great moment
ReplyDeleteYou would prefer the Botchamania edit, I think.
ReplyDeletehaha, I remember that.
ReplyDelete"F*ck"
Other fun details:
ReplyDelete-Taker/HBK starting as #1 and #2, great nod to the previous year's Rumble
-The Piper/Snuka confrontation, with the rest of the guys in the ring becoming "Fans" for a minute.
Yea. Loved that it was NY the apex of jaded fans. Fucking awesome moment. That and the Rocks return before WM 27 are the 2 biggest surprises in the last decade for me
ReplyDeleteI was at a packed bar for this one and the entire place just went insane. Really cool atmosphere to witness that in.
ReplyDeleteIf John Cena were to go away for a few years, and then make a surprise return without any type of announcement...we would all mark the fuck out. I KNOW this!
ReplyDeleteFuck yea
ReplyDeleteAnd then he started smirking, and lost all that goodwill.
ReplyDeleteYou want to see him naked?
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer. I love that entrance, it makes for a great new perspective as guys entered the Rumble.
ReplyDeleteBuffer's introductions were amazing. The Undertakerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr and the Heartbreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeak KID!
ReplyDeleteToo many guys in the announcing booth.
ReplyDeleteMaybe I'm misremembering but I thought Rock being the Wrestlemania Host was pretty well known in advance despite not being finalized until the TV "surprise"
ReplyDeleteYou could be right. I didn't watch at all for those 2-3 years. Didn't even read about the product either
ReplyDeleteSo the guy comes back from a 6 month injury, gets a thunderous reaction, is back to living his dream job... Did you want him to frown and cry?
ReplyDeleteIn all seriousness, I see it over and over again, I simply do not understand this blog's obsessive hatred with people smiling. It's ok to be happy sometimes. I really don't get it.
Rock being the guest host was completely out of left field. There was talk of Bieber being involved at Mania.
ReplyDeleteFucking BIEBER!
This is the Rumble that Cena won by eliminating Carlito or Ted DiBiase right? Because all the recaps show him eliminating one of those guys.
ReplyDeleteThat's because it doesn't exist and you just invented it.
ReplyDeleteDo you watch old Dynamic Dudes matches and sigh that the internet blog smarks of the early 90s hate on the happy day-glo smiles of Johnny Ace and Shane Douglas?
Oh wait. The crowds shit on them, despite the announcers acting like they were beloved, and there was no internet then.
A shit eating going from a doofus and its ability to infuriate is universal.
I wasn't following at all at this point, so it's kind of interesting for me to have a quick look at this and note that the likes of Snitsky, Benjamin & Hardcore Holly were still around in 2008. I always assumed they'd disappeared much earlier
ReplyDeleteI loved this Rumble, if only because it takes me back to the night at the bar, watching this while packed shoulder-to-shoulder with the most Cena-hatingest crowd in the history of Cena hating...only for them to all collectively lose their shit like small children at #30. Glorious.
ReplyDeleteEven a few weeks would be nice.
ReplyDeleteThe Rumble match really illustrates how generic all the entrance themes have become, 'cause you hear the same damn riff every 90 seconds.
ReplyDeleteOnly if he's going to slap your face with his dick
ReplyDeleteIf he'd been out since Summerslam, with maybe minor hints that he MIGHT be ready for the Rumble, and just comes out at #20 or so... think that would have gotten a pop?
ReplyDeleteThat is a very specific fetish... I wonder how big the "John Cena Mushroom Tattoos The #1 Draw at the BoD" genre is.
ReplyDeleteProbably not. #30 has all the time in the world to stand there and soak it in.
ReplyDeleteWould love to the Corporate Royal Rumble as one of the Match of The Day.
ReplyDeleteLaying around bored. Just watched the entire thing. The announcing I thought was fantastic. Not a top 2-3 rumble imp but still pretty good
ReplyDeleteI think anyone has enough time to soak the reaction in... just spend the first 15-20 seconds letting the crowd roar.
ReplyDeleteThis sums up my problem with a lot of Cena-bashers just jumping on the bandwagon. See that entrance, the MONSTER pop he gets as the crowd goes nuts and it's only when he starts going at it, they remember "Oh, wait, booing Cena's the cool thing to do." You don't like him personally and boo him, fine, but booing him just because it's what the "Smarks" do is just idiotic.
ReplyDeleteHe gets booed because he is the personification of "same old shit". He's exactly why a headline like "Vince orders faces to no longer acknowledge losses on screen" makes people unhappy.
ReplyDeleteDoes Cena have to turn heel? NO. Not yet. But at the very least, change SOMETHING for fuck's sake.
Ah, yes, I remember at ONS 2006, fans were chanting "Same old shit" at Cena (who debuted in 2001) while cheering on a guy who hasn't changed his moveset since 1999.
ReplyDeleteContrary contrarian is contrary
ReplyDeletePretty sure few people here would call Cena or Sheamus a doofus to their faces, but anyway. I'm fine with people being happy about their placement in life. I won't hate them for smiling.
ReplyDeleteOh I would have LOVED to see that... Just for the universal meltdown. (But it really would have made sense, since WWE is geared towards a younger audience, and Biebs from 3 years ago was as big as it got for that demographic.)
ReplyDeleteHAHA Yes!! I thought the same thing. RVD was totally unmotivated, and just ran through the exact same 5-6 spots every match for like 3 years.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, MOST wrestlers do the exact same moves/spots almost every match, even the great ones. Yet Cena gets singled out for it.
Here's your winner, Joooooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhnnnnnnnnn Ceeeeeennnnnaaaaaa!
ReplyDeleteYeah, I liked number 2 as well, especially when they start to fight and then the rest of the guys are like, "Oh right, we're still in a match."
ReplyDeleteWe did one other time, The Raw before Survivor Series 09, when Orton and Kofi had that brawl around MSG.
ReplyDeleteThat's right.
ReplyDeleteTriple H gets singled out for being repetitive.
ReplyDeleteIt was sad for me, after seeing Viscera getting eliminated in the 07 Rumble in a believable fashion, getting eliminated in a not so believable fashion by HHH.
ReplyDeleteI would, sure. Unless you think that either would violently assault me in public in which case, cool, MONEY! Plus they're both successful guys who are used to people calling them names because of the characters they play on TV. They probably would care more that they have been bothered on their day off.
ReplyDeleteAnd to expect a return every year around January.
ReplyDeleteI would venture to say that the sources of the monster pop he gets are the absolute shock of him showing up and the "the shit's on now" feeling when a star-studded pier six brawl erupts. Now, there's little doubt that he has plenty of fans, but NOT all of the WWE fans there were...(and this is important)... initially cheering him because they were thinking, "Oh boy, I'm glad Cena's back so he can win the Rumble." So, I would say it's safe to assume that a large percentage was happy he was back AND happy to boo him. What's wrong with that? What's idiotic about fans enjoying themselves? Perhaps, I'm biased because I have the same love/hate relationship with Cena as many so-called smarks (love his work, love to hate the character).
ReplyDeleteI don't remember anyone picking Jericho to make his return before they heard his music at the no. 2 slot.
ReplyDeleteThat's been a Rumble Staple for a fairly long time now...
ReplyDeleteYour attitude seems fine, but some people just seem to not allow themselves to enjoy anything related to him. (Same with HHH.) I don't get that, wrestling should be fun. If it makes me miserable, I take a break from it, it should relieve stress, not add to it.
ReplyDeleteGreat surprise return.
ReplyDeleteVan Dam is a special case I think, because unlike others who do basically the same spots every match he only has two moves (kick, splash) & then variations on them where he spins or flips a different way.
ReplyDeleteThis was the start of a pretty long rough period for Batista until his heel turn in the autumn of the next year. It's pretty telling that his taunt at the end got no reaction while Cena's "You Can't See Me" did (boos) as did Trips' crotch chop (cheers).
ReplyDeleteNo doubt, especially when he was thrown in a last minute match against Umaga at Wrestlemania, and was put in that weird feud where he was mad at Shawn for retiring Flair, but they didn't want to turn him heel.
ReplyDeleteHorrible Royal Rumble, I wasn't watching around this time and I can tell I didn't miss much. What the fuck is up with the 300 announcers?
ReplyDeletequit downvoting me, cole
ReplyDeleteDespite the Rumble win, 2008 was a weird time for Cena too. It was basically his only "give back the jobs" period since becoming a big star, as he proceeded to lose at virtually every PPV he competed at until Summerslam, then he was on the shelf for a few months, then he returned to beat Jericho for the world title at Survivor Series.
ReplyDeleteMost underrated storyline from this Rumble for me: HHH going over poor Mick Foley AGAIN. I've never seen such a one-sided rivalry in my life.
ReplyDeleteTrue, but despite being de-emphasized a bit, he didn't seem somewhat irrelevant the way Batista did.
ReplyDelete