The Last Decade of Rumbles

[Jitters]

I would like to review the last decade of Rumbles and let's see how well I actually can remember them (not all of them were that memorable unfortunately).

So let's begin firstly with Royal Rumble 2010. This Royal Rumble had the 3 brands participating but we could all count out ECW having a winner I suppose. So this time going into the event I imagine everyone was probably pretty much looking at Cena to win it as super Cena was running strong around this time.

Shawn Michaels would've also been high on that list also but fell short in what was quite a strange way to be eliminated, it almost looked accidental?

So then later Michaels would have to find a new path to get that rematch with The Undertaker.

We had CM Punk have a good run not sure if he was doing his straight edge stuff at this time, pretty sure he was.

Then you have Edge come back as a surprise entrant and win it from number 29 last eliminating John Cena to later set up a world heavyweight championship match with Y2J and the rest is history.

This Rumble had its share of surprises and it proved that the Royal Rumble could be unpredictable...

It even got Cena to eliminate Batista (revenge for 2005) and it was also the night R-Truth would eliminate both Big Show and Mark Henry at the same time.

It also saw Great Khali be eliminated by Beth Phoenix.

So overall if we can get a Royal Rumble like this 10 years later we are on for a great rumble, what's you're thoughts?

[Fanny Batter]

An interesting era, that. Within 2 years Michaels, Batista, Edge, Triple H, Undertaker and Jericho had ended their full time careers, though obviously Jericho kept returning for sporadic runs. That was 5 out of the 6 guys in the main event of Wrestlemania that year, and the guy who had main evented 5 of the last 8 before that. Was during that time where they were rolling with guys like Sheamus, Cody, DiBiase, Morrison and Miz as prospective top guys, prior to NXT. 10 years later and Sheamus is exactly the same, Cody is a CEO of a rival company, Morrison and Miz are back together, and DiBiase did a documentary about religion for Amazon Prime. Funny old world.

It was a great Rumble, owing to the star power, the Shawn Michaels story, Batista's heel run and the surprise return for Edge. A really memorable Rumble. Had all the good troupes - the shock double elimination, the dominant run by Punk, the attack before getting in the ring with Miz and MVP, the Super Kick elimination on Triple H, and a great final stretch. I think the recent Rumble's have brought luster back after a rough patch following this - 2011 and 2012 had bad rosters and too much filler, 2013 was insanely predictable, 2014 wasn't anything special then the crowd turned on it late, 2015 was an abomination once Bryan was eliminated, 2016 had some strong patches but largely forgettable outside the Styles and Zayn entries, then they really got back to what makes them fun in 2017 with the monster star interactions and no clear winner. The introduction of the women's match has improved things no end, and while I wasn't huge on the men's match last year, the 2 women's matches and the one Nakamura won were pretty great.

[Ringo]

Nail on the head all round Batter.

I've watched a few rumbles over the last couple of months. 2010 definitely stood out as one of the best.

[Ringo]

It's completely nuts that the 2010 Rumble is 10 years ago though. The first rumble I ever watched live was 10 years before that in 2000. And it felt like an absolute eternity since 1990 at that point. Obviously saying that time goes quicker when you grow up is nothing new. But it still doesn't feel quite right.

Looking at the fields...

Zero wrestlers were in both the 1990 and 2000 editions of the rumble. And I think only one (Big Boss Man) was on both cards. Four were in both 2000 and 2010 however, six in total on both cards. I can count at least 10 from 2010's show that will likely be on this one. Not a big difference really. But it does feel like a lot less has changed between 2010 and 2020 than 1990 and 2000, for example.

[Donald]

It's completely nuts that the 2010 Rumble is 10 years ago though. The first rumble I ever watched live was 10 years before that in 2000. And it felt like an absolute eternity since 1990 at that point. Obviously saying that time goes quicker when you grow up is nothing new. But it still doesn't feel quite right.

Looking at the fields...

Zero wrestlers were in both the 1990 and 2000 editions of the rumble. And I think only one (Big Boss Man) was on both cards. Four were in both 2000 and 2010 however, six in total on both cards. I can count at least 10 from 2010's show that will likely be on this one. Not a big difference really. But it does feel like a lot less has changed between 2010 and 2020 than 1990 and 2000, for example.

Wrestlers tend to stay with companies for longer these days.

[PurePlayer]

2010 is definitely one of my favorites. There wasn't a dull period. You had the CM Punk run in the beginning and then the HBK/HHH interaction and then all the big stars came in including Edge's return. It was fast paced and there wasn't a point where there were more than 5 guys in there doing nothing waiting for the next guy. I think when Batista entered at 30 we were already in the final 4. It's definitely number one in the last 10 years for me and in the top 5 all time along with 92, 01, 02, 08.

2002 reminds of of 2010 for some reason. You had the Taker/Hardy stuff in the beginning and then went right to Austin/HHH before the rest of the big names came in. Yes it was a bit predictable with HHH winning but you had Austin playing the HBK role from 2010 by losing and coming in after being eliminated.

[Spudz Mackenzie]

I still think the 2002 Rumble should have ended with Maven dumping Triple H.

And then Triple H vs. Maven at Backlash 2002, with Maven's World Title shot on the line. Triple H beats him. Obviously. But afterwards, Triple H takes Maven under his wing, and then kind of passes him along to Ric Flair so Flair can mentor him.

Flair/Taker at WrestleMania 18 goes about the same. Except we get a Maven run in. Also, earlier in the show, Maven would beat Christian for the European Title. Christian would win it from DDP on TV.

[Fanny Batter]

One thing that's nice about the last 10 years of Rumble's is that out of 420 competitors (9 30 men Rumble's, 1 40 men, 1 50 men and 2 30 women's), none of them are dead. If you did a 10 year retrospective in 2010 - Benoit, Eddie, Bulldog, Test, Crash Holly, Umaga, Mr Perfect and Big Boss Man had all been in a Rumble the previous 10 years and were dead before the 2010 Rumble. All young men who fell victim to the excesses of the wrestling culture of the 90's and early 2000's.

[Mazer]

You just jinxed it. Somebody make sure that we have Santino Marella under constant medical surveillance after this weekend.







The wellness initiatives have been among the best changes of the past decade

[Romford Pele]

2010 Rumble was the best of the last decade. I enjoyed 17 and 18 but the middle years in particular were meh.