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Royal Rumble 2014: MVPs

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The Royal Rumble is one of WWE’s proudest traditions and a fan favourite event. Thirty men enter the ring at set intervals, vying for the opportunity to headline Wrestlemania. Even if your top picks go sailing towards the floor there is always a lot to enjoy at these events. Current stars, returning legends, and even the occasional newcomer butt heads and pit their mettles against one another. Of course there can be only one winner who can ascend to the highest of heights but part of the fun is watching all these diverse personalities clash in a series of bizarre combinations. Every single Royal Rumble sees a series of great performances, sometimes from the unlikeliest of players. This blog serves to highlight the Most Valuable Players from the recent Royal Rumble match. Have your favourites made the list? Read ahead to find out.

Honourable mentions:

Kofi Kingston

As anybody who has seen him perform in one can attest, Kofi Kingston shines in the Royal Rumble. He may not get the most eliminations and he certainly isn’t likely to ever win one. No, Kingston’s talent in Rumble matches revolves around his breath-taking feats of agility. This year Kofi had two amazing spots where he used his unique attributes to avoid elimination. The first came courtesy of Alexander Rusev dumping him on the security barrier only to leap back to the ring apron. The second involved using Jack Swagger’s boot first as an anchor to stop him from tumbling to the floor and then using as a weapon against its owner. Kofi always goes out of his way to give us fans something to talk about at the Royal Rumble.

Alexander Rusev

Rusev’s entry in the 2014 Royal Rumble continues the new tradition of debuting an NXT talent at the event, an idea that I am firmly behind as a big NXT fan. He follows in the footsteps of Bo Dallas from last year, who eliminated then-Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett. This is about as far as his tenure in the main roster went however and Dallas slunk back to development. I believe that Rusev is a much more polished performer than Dallas at this time last year and will hopefully make a smooth transition to the main roster from here. He has a unique look about him and an unorthodox style for a larger competitor. Needless to say I’m a fan. His Rumble appearance was only brief but it served as an excellent introduction for the Bulgarian brute to the big leagues.

5. Antonio Cesaro

Every year you get somebody from around the mid-card who performs far above their post in the Royal Rumble, usually leading to a push in the future. This year that man was Antonio Cesaro. The Swiss Superman lasted far longer than many had anticipated and even got in some greats spots with which to show off his freakish strength. His first order of business was to go on a swinging rampage. First the Miz fell victim to the Cesaro Swing – cut short by a dropkick to the head – and then Seth Rollins went for a wee ride. Twenty-seven revolutions later and Cesaro could not have looked more powerful. A little later in the match he proved that he was stronger than two thirds of The Shield, throwing Ambrose and Rollins around like toys and coming close to eliminating them both at the same time. By the time he got eliminated by Roman Reigns the crowd had become believers.

4. Sheamus

That fact that Sheamus was going to be in the Rumble this year was at best a poorly kept secret. Still when his music hit and his blinding white flesh walked out onto the ramp the crowd blew up. Considering that he has been absent since his injuries sustained at Money in the Bank last year, away from TV for half a year, the fact that the Celtic Warrior made it to the final three was impressive in itself. As a previous winner of the event he was always going to be a threat to reckon with. His character may have gotten a bit stale by the time he left but it was a joy to watch Sheamus decimate the others with gusto. I sure have missed those thunderous Brogue Kicks. If only Ricardo Rodriguez would have left the commentary table to show these guys how to take the move properly.

3. Batista

“The Animal” Batista was the odds on favourite to walk out of Pittsburgh with a ticket to Wrestlemania 30 and he fulfilled that potential. He was the oldest serious competitor in the match (only behind JBL and Kevin Nash) and having only recently returned to the WWE he crowd were red hot for him when his music hit and sauntered out. The crowd was 100% behind him until it became obvious that Daniel Bryan wasn’t going to come out and the fans rallied behind Roman Reigns instead. Batista is a fierce competitor and one hell of a champion but he was outclassed that night by the young lion Reigns. Still, Batista ultimately won the match, earning the right to a title match at the grandest stage of them all, and nobody is taking that away from him.

2. CM Punk

When it was announced on last week’s Raw that Punk would enter the Rumble at the uneviable number one position we knew two things. Firstly, the Authority did not want him to win. Secondly, that we were in for another stellar performance from The Best in the World. His shock early elimination of Kane sealed his fate of being dragged out of the ring near the end of the match and brutally choke slammed through the Spanish announce table. Hey, someone was going to go through it. Punk always brings a bit of humour and a lot of character to large multi-man matches like this, like getting into a fight with a midget in a bull costume. When Cody Rhodes went to dunk him over the top rope how could you not laugh at his very audible “No, not again”?

1. Roman Reigns

At Royal Rumble 2014 Roman Reigns was a victim of history. With the Rumble victor going right to headline a milestone Wrestlemania the winner was going to be somebody who would bring a lot of star power to the big dance. Unfortunately at this stage in his career that man is not Reigns. If this had been Wrestlemania 29 or 31 then Reigns should have won by a landslide. His performance in the ring was exceptional, something that we have come to expect from him in recent months. It is very telling also that his character is a heel but by the end of the night the fans were treating him like a hometown hero – erupting with every elimination and every devastating spear he dealt out. In doing so he knocked off Kane’s old record for most eliminations in one Rumble match (12 to Kane’s 11), a record that has stood since 2001 and he managed to look like a million dollars doing it. Also this year’s Royal Rumble opened the door for a Shield breakup programme after Reigns dumped both Rollins and Ambrose over the top rope simultaneously. This turn of events will undoubtedly benefit all three men in the long run but we are expecting Reigns to be the big winner overall. The way has been paved for a face turn and meteoric push for some time now and now I believe that the door has been swung wide open for him. Come 2015 it is safe to say that Roman Reigns will be the favourite to win the Royal Rumble and fulfil his Wrestlemania destiny at last.

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