WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

Sunday, January 29th, 2012, from St. Louis

DANIEL BRYAN vs. MARK HENRY vs. THE BIG SHOW "CAGE MATCH": When they announced this as a cage match I knew that Bryan would win. Why? Because God forbid Bryan actually pin one of these guys. So he won by falling to the floor from the top. It was short and slow and awful. 1/2*

BETH PHOENIX, NATALYA & THE BELLA TWINS vs. EVE, KELLY KELLY, ALICIA FOX & TAMINA: Kharma showed up in the Rumble. So there are watchable women wrestlers...just not in this match. *

KANE vs. JOHN CENA: A double count out means this feud will continue. I don't want to see a re-match? Do you? After the count out, Kane went backstage and dragged Zack Ryder to the ring and gave him the Tombstone Piledriver. It was better than the cage match. That isn't really saying much. *

DREW MCYNTIRE vs. BRODUS CLAY: Clay is an obese wrestler that dances. Yeah. & this was a squash. On a $55 ppv. Really? -No Stars-

CM PUNK vs. DOLPH ZIGGLER: John Laurenitis decided to let another, regular ref call the match. It was slow until the finish that had Punk beating Dolph four times while the ref was hurt outside the ring and John was tending to him. Both the ref and John L. did the final pin and Punk won. It was mediocre. **

THE ROYAL RUMBLE (SHEAMUS): This was more of a comedy show than anything. We had Mick Foley and Socko verse Santino and his Cobra. We had all three announcers enter. The big surprises were Road Dogg and 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan...but Sheamus beating Jericho at the end was shocking. A so-so Rumble. Entertaining in spots but not very memorable. **

TNA GENESIS

Sunday, January 9th, 2012, from Orlando

AUSTIN ARIES VS. JESSE SORENSEN VS. KID KASH VS. ZEMA ION: Good opener, although the X-Division has seemed pretty depleted lately (I saw Jay Lethal wrestle in ROH last Friday night). **

POPE VS. DEVON: Pretty much unwatchable dreck. This storyline has Devon's kids involved. Who cares? 1/2*

GUNNER VS. ROB VAN DAM: RVD is old and slow and lost. Mostly sad. *1/2

GAIL KIM VS. MICKIE JAMES: I missed this match (not on purpose, I swear).

ABYSS VS. BULLY RAY: A match with barbed wire. Hooray! So I love this stuff and most hate it...but it had thumbtacks and barbed wire boards and was slow but sick and I thought it was the match of the night. **1/2

MATT MORGAN & CRIMSON VS. SAMOA JOE & MAGNUS: So TNA had this tournament for the tag titles and the tag team champs won anyway proving the entire tournament pointless. And we continue on with the slow demise of the once top star, Somoa Joe. *

KURT ANGLE VS. JAMES STORM: An okay match. Storm is out of shape and a terrible wrestler. *1/2

BOBBY ROODE VS. JEFF HARDY: Roode kicked Hardy in the balls to lose by DQ but keep the title. Not a good finish to a show you're charging money for. And yet TNA did this last month, too. Have they officially given up? 1/2*

Best Show of 2011: WWE MONEY IN THE BANK

This show might be the best wrestling ppv ever. That's saying something considering everyone seems to think wrestling is in a lull. Even the WWE had a mediocre year, but this show was a great culmination of a terrific storyline and it also just happened to feature four really good matches. The Smackdown ladder match was one of the year's best. It featured Sin Cara being power bombed through a ladder and Daniel Bryan winning. The Raw ladder match was sloppy but entertaining and the Orton vs. Christian match was another good match in their string of good matches. There were two lousy matches on the show but the epic main event made up for it. CM Punk spent the end of June and half of July saying that he would beat Cena at this show for the title and leave the company because his contract was ending. In his hometown, amidst a raucous crowd, he did just that. It was a show full of high intensity with a stellar payoff. A show for the ages.

Best Wrestler of 2011: CM PUNK

There was really only one great match that CM Punk was in this year (his match against John Cena at July's Money in the Bank ppv), but he was the most entertaining, the best on the mic, the most interesting, the funniest, the freshest, and by the far the best thing about the WWE this year. It almost doesn't matter that his list of great matches was so small this year. When he finally got the go-ahead and went full bore with his anti-WWE campaign and told everyone that he was leaving the WWE with the title in July it made RAW the most intriguing it's been in a long time. The build up for MITB was epic and the match against Cena for the title and the crowd and the atmosphere at the show were legendary. CM Punk became a star and a good guy and it was awesome to see it unfold. His mic work on RAW was electric all year and when his music hit you got interested regardless. It was nice seeing a small guy from Ring of Honor finally ascend to the elite level and show us that he belonged there all along.

Best Match of 2011: EDGE vs. REY MYSTERIO vs. THE BIG SHOW vs. DREW MCINTYRE vs. WADE BARRET vs. KANE WWE Elimination Chamber

Surprisingly enough, 2011's best match featured three of the dullest wrestlers of the year; Barrett, Big Show, and Kane. But it did feature Mysterio and Edge, two of the year's best wrestlers. And it certainly helped that Drew Mcintyre acted like the match was real with his oh-so brutal treatment of everyone (a gruesome high light was when he launched Mysterio head first into one of the plastic doors). The end had Edge and Mysterio left and kicking out of each others finishers in a high-intensity flurry. Post-match, Alberto Del Rio ran out to beat up Edge and Christian ran out to beat up Del Rio. This truly had it all. It was epic and awesome and a masterpiece.