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Royal Rumble Thoughts and More...HUGE Monday Night RAW...Get JR's Products at WWEShop.com today!

Beautiful Monday in Norman, Oklahoma...let's get rolling...busy day for Ol J.R.

I was pleasantly surprised that Sheamus won the Royal Rumble match. I'm a big fan of the tough Irishman who carries himself like a champion and is a great representative of WWE. This should be Sheamus' biggest year ever in WWE. He's 'ready' in my opinion.

Loved how WWE handled many of the surprise entrants in the Rumble match.

Great to see Kharma return. That one was a big surprise for me. I love her work and am pleased to see her back. She's an impact player and not a 'Diva' in the stereotypical sense. Instead Kharma is a wrestling attraction meaning that she has more longevity and will sell more tickets that being more about sizzle than steak. When we first met many, many years ago, WWE was looking for Playboy covergirls and not wrestling attractions which is why I told her, honestly BTW, that she wasn't a 'Diva' but she was/is a wrestler and I love that about her. 

Huge pop for Jim Duggan in St. Louis. Loved the love for hacksaw. For newbies, if you've never seen Hack in action for Cowboy Bill Watts in Mid South Wrestling you missed something. Duggan was positioned much differently than he was in his WWE run. What a physically dominate dude who was New York State heavyweight, high school champion and earned a full ride as an offensive lineman at SMU in Dallas. Loved his ham-like right hands Sunday night.

Road Dogg still has 'it.' Great charisma and natural, Armstrong timing. Very pleased to see him in the Rumble. One of the best personal gifts one can receive is seeing someone that they truly enjoy being around get their personal life under control and turn the corner. Brian has done just that and my hats off to him. I'm very proud of Brian James.

Thought it was cool that Mick Foley, named after Mickey Mantle, entered the Rumble at #7 which was the former New York Yankee great's number. 

Move of the night had to be the handstand walk pulled off by Kofi Kingston. Amazing and innovative. 

Thought Punk vs. Ziggler was the match of the night. When it was over, I was left wanting more of those two in one on one competition. The officiating was like Women's College Hoops, eh.

Predicted that Daniel Bryan would retain the World Hvy Wt Title Sunday night and I guessed correctly. It's obvious that Bryan's TV persona is evolving of which I'm enjoying as a viewer. Big time main events featuring Daniel Bryan would be fun to broadcast. He's a wrestler with a budding attitude or so it seems. 

Zack Ryder should have stayed on Long Island based on his experience in St Louis. 

WWE TV personnel did a fabulous job on the editing, etc of the videos for John Cena and The Rock. Really slick. April 1 in Miami can't get here soon enough for me.

Yes, I enjoy the Brodus Clay presentation. No, I don't enjoy tweets @JRsBBQ from fans who want Clay to move up in competition immediately. Many fans today, got to assume they are younger in age, have little or no patience when it comes to character development. I like Brodus Clay's upside and am more than willing to sit back and enjoy its evolution. 

Hard for most informed fans to debate that Mark Henry didn't have the most improved year of 2011 of anyone in WWE as the big Texan came into his own. My gut feeling is that now that Mark has tasted main event level status that he will do all he can to get even better. 

I've seen Ricardo Rodriquez wrestle and he's MUCH better than some of his detractors perceive. MUCH better. Still feel that Rodriquez could be the best manager of this era if that was where he was positioned. 

Nice to see Randy Orton back seemingly healthy as his entrance into the Rumble match really awakened the home town crowd. 

There were some comedic moments within the Rumble match itself that got a chuckle out of me. Foley and Santino entertained me. 

Tonight's  Monday Night Raw from Kansas City is HUGE in my eyes for WWE. TV ratings should be good tonight so with a potentially, large, TV audience I'd expect several eye opening moments. The road to Wrestlemania is in progress and that means so much to WWE. 

On another note, it's strange how SO many fans, or they say that they are fans, don't understand the difference in the media friendly, tongue in cheek version of the 'Celebrity Wing' of the WWE Hall of Fame vs. the regular WWE Hall of Fame. They should not be compared but they are.

WWE.com has officially announced that Mike Tyson will go into the 'CELEBRITY WING' of the WWE HOF which will still get some fanatics ranting about Macho Man and others who haven't been inducted....yet. It's like comparing BBQ Sauce to Chipotle Ketchup. 

Tyson was a key role player in the Attitude Era specifically his interaction with @steveaustinBSR and DX. Iron Mike is also a true, wrestling fan and grew up following WWWF and guys like Jay Strongbow among others. 

Several of you have mentioned that some of our products have been out of stock at WWEShop.com. We have shipped a large order to WWE and just got another one today so all packages should be back in full force immanently. Business has picked up at http://www/wweshop.com/Category/JimRoss and we are greatly thankful for all your support. 

Follow us on Twitter @JRsBBQ. Come back soon for Tuesday's thoughts on Monday Night Raw.

Boomer Sooner!

J.R.  

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Post date: 
Mon, Jan 30 - 2:17pm CST
Posted in: 
Wrestling

Comments

Submitted by Solaaris on Mon, Jan 30 - 4:20pm CST

Greetings from the UK JR!

Must admit that was probably the best PPV's in a long time! The only thing that was abit of a letdown was the announcers (maybe not so much Booker) getting slots in the rumble over guys like Kane, Christian Brodus etc.

Sheamus winning was a very nice surprise! I mean all the dirt sheets were saying Orton and Y2J...It was nice to be surprised for once with the WWE product.

Loved the Kane and Cena match..Kane reminds me alot of his late 90s persona..great stuff!

Brodus is awesome I think, It makes a change not to have another monster heel big guy. I think people are too used to that so seeing Brodus like he is...well I guess it a shock to some.

Anyway looking forward to raw tonight (If I can stay up till 4am again lol)

Submitted by New Old Fan on Mon, Jan 30 - 5:54pm CST

JR,

Sheamus winning was kind of a shock to me.  I thought he had a good chance of being in the final four, but didn't think he would win it all.  He is deserving, however, and I am happy for him.

I would be lying, though, if I said that I wasn't a little disappointed that Jericho didn't win.  I am a big Jerichoholic, and although he didn't win the Rumble, I feel that he is going to be a major player in this year's Wrestlemania.

While I did not watch the Royal Rumble, I read the reviews, and it sounds like there were a lot of surprises.  I like surprise entrants in the Rumble.  I think it makes it exciting, and much more enjoyable.  I think that of the thirty men involved, 10 spots should be given to legit possible winners, 10 spots should be given to young guys who are working their way up the ranks, and 10 spots should be saved for surprise entries like Road Dogg, Jerry Lawler, Jim Duggan, etc.

I think the Elimination Chamber PPV is going to be great.  I hope I can watch!

Submitted by Powers_Of_Mild_Pain on Tue, Jan 31 - 5:35pm CST

Mr. Ross,

I like Sheamus getting the RR win, as Orton and Jericho didn't really need it to be elevated.  I was a bit disappointed to see Jericho fall flat in the RR after he hinted the previous Monday at some kind of huge development.  I liked Jericho attacking Punk on Raw, but I hope we will eventually get some explanation of his mysterious "2nd day of January" videos with the young girl.  (I'm the kind of pedantic nerd who laments that all the loose plot threads on "Lost" were not explained.)  Or maybe those videos will simply be forgotten like the Anonymous GM. 

Love Brodus Clay and Daniel Bryan and Punk and Dolph Ziggler.  As you've always said, developing new talent is key.  I like Del Rio also, and am eagerly awaiting his return.

I didn't quite understand the Undertaker-HHH interaction on Raw.  Taker already beat Helmsley last year (and at WM in 2001), so why does he want a rematch?  I liked the psychology wherein HHH condescendingly declined the challenge at the end.

I read somewhere that Rock has been booked to appear live at almost all of the Raws leading up to Wrestlemania.  The interactions between Rock and Cena (not to mention Punk and Jericho) are going to be great.  I wonder if Rock will wrestle again for WWE after this Cena program.

Submitted by razor 2012 on Wed, Feb 8 - 4:41pm CST

I had picked Sheamus to win the Rumble up until Jericho's Raw promo and Orton's return at the event in his hometown. I figured going into it that Jericho would last eliminate Orton to get maximum heat but i liked the outcome nonetheless. As for the HOF how can Koko B.Ware and Sunny be in there while Randy Savage, Rick Rude and Vader are not?