Royal Rumble 2015 Predictions

A: Ladies and gentlemen… Welcome! To the Road to Wrestlemania! We officially get underway tonight, so get ready for two months of constant sign pointing. As always, the Rumble match will be the main attraction tonight, but there is also an extremely interesting WWE Championship match featuring Brock Lesnar, John Cena and Mr Money In The Bank, Seth Rollins. So let’s get to it! Here are our predictions for the first PPV of 2015!

M: This should be the 2nd biggest event of the year but it just doesn’t feel like it any more. Since the WWE Network came out over here I have been constantly watching as much as I can. Specifically Royal Rumbles to try and get in the mood. Alas the more I watch the days of old, the more I realise how pathetic today’s product actually is. Competition from WCW drove the WWF/WWE to do great things 20 years ago. They were forced to go against their grain and their core values to fight for their lives. Little did they know at that point that it would end up saving them and propel the company onto monumental success and eventually a complete monopoly of the wrestling world.

Within that however lies the problem. With no competition, there is no need to change or develop. The middle finger has been raised by Vinnie Mac for a long time now and it is aimed firmly at the audience that once saved his dream from dying. I’m not saying necessarily that it needs to go back to what it used to be, but it needs change and it has to progress. I’m getting closer and closer to just not tuning in anymore. I don’t usually watch Raw or some PPVs until the next day but I can foresee a time soon when I just don’t tune it at all, and it pains me to say that that doesn’t really bother me as much anymore.

I hate doing rants. I wish I had something good to write!!!

Might as well get started then. As always, I’ll spend as much time on the predictions as WWE have.

Royal Rumble 2015: Bryan or Reigns?

The Royal Rumble is fast approaching now, and it looks like there are only two contenders for the ultimate prize: Roman Reigns, and Daniel Bryan. But which one should win, and go on to headline Wrestlemania? Or maybe more to the point, who actually will?

We’re Now On Radio!

Who remembers the Black Pleb Watchers of Wrestling YouTube shows? Of course you do! As you may have noticed, we haven’t done one of those for a while. But now, we’ve found a way of doing those shows on a more regular basis! Myself and Jamie (The Black Watcher) are now doing a weekly wrestling radio show, which you can hear over at http://www.mixcloud.com/arh96. The shows will be titled BPWOW Presents:… So get listening! I’ve posted a link to the debut edition below for your listening pleasure.

The Royal Rumble Effect

What is it about this time of year? What is it about the Road to Wrestlemania that keeps getting people excited?

I don’t think anyone could class WWE TV over December and early January as definitively exciting, entertaining, or appealing. There has been far too much filler, too many unnecessarily boring storylines, and really nothing to hook the viewer in.

Yet I’m excited.

The same thing happened to me around Wrestlemania last year. I really didn’t care about most of the build, but when it came to be Wrestlemania week I couldn’t wait. Now, I’m even at the point of missing shows altogether – and from reading recaps I really haven’t missed anything. But suddenly I just can’t wait for the Royal Rumble this Sunday.

Part of it might be down to the UK finally getting the WWE Network. I’m watching old Rumbles and getting excited at the big pops for surprise entrants. I’m watching classic matches and remembering why I became obsessed with WWE in the first place.

And there’s always the feeling that things can only get better. We are about to get a reset of sorts of key feuds, and there may be a couple of golden ones that surprise us. Daniel Bryan is back in action. And let’s face it, there’s just too much talent in the company for everything to stay boring for too long. It’s easy to forget just how much talent is there. Here’s a list: you have Daniel Bryan, Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, Dolph Ziggler Cesaro, Damien Mizdow, Bad News Barrett, the Usos, the Dust Brothers, Tyson Kidd, Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt all on the main roster, with Sami Zayn, Adrian Neville, Kevin Owens, Finn Bálor and Hideo Itami in NXT. Solomon Crowe hasn’t even made his NXT TV debut yet!

So I guess my point, even though I’ve been saying it for years, is that things can surely only get better. We are entering the most exciting time of the year for wrestling, with one of the best rosters WWE have ever had. I feel like there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic, and so once again even with Raw not being particularly exciting, I will be watching the Royal Rumble with baited breath to see what will happen.