Pre-Royal Rumble Thoughts

Tonight is the Royal Rumble, one of my favorite events of the year.  And despite the past few years being disappointing, I'm still eager to see what they have in store.

But beyond having the wrong person win the past couple of years, the Rumble itself just hasn't been very solidly booked.  The greatest Royal Rumbles had numerous stories that led various Superstars into WrestleMania or, at the very least, gave them a great push.  The Royal Rumble typically had a few important roles:  Somebody who lasted a long time and somebody who eliminates a lot of people.  Last year, for all intents and purposes, that hasn't really happened.  Not to any memorable degree, anyway.  And the past few years have also been about one thing -- the winner.  In years' past, various people walked out of the Royal Rumble with a story.  Maybe it was based on a shocking elimination.  Last year, for example, Daniel Bryan (the "favorite" to win) got eliminated and.....nothing happened following that.

In my view, the last truly great Royal Rumble (which I am about to watch right now) was 2010.  You had a great "side story" in Shawn Michaels desperately trying to win due to his obsession with beating the Undertaker at WrestleMania.  You a fun Rumble story with CM Punk clearing the ring and giving promos in between entrants.  You had a heroic moment with Triple H entering and eliminating him.  You had a shocking elimination in Shawn Michaels eliminating Triple H.  You had surprise entrants such as Beth Phoenix and Edge (which also counts as a shocking return).  And you had a new winner that people wanted to root for in Edge.

I hope we see some of the above moments tonight.