Royal Rumble Vegas Odds and Picks

By: Jared Gebhardt

Here we go the bring it home column just before the second best pay per view of the year the Royal Rumble. I’ll forgo my question and answer format for my unique picks column. Not a lot of matches and I am doing this before SmackDown so there is a chance a match will be added that won’t be in the column, just assume I’d get that match correct.

Here is how I do my picks for those unfamiliar with my process. I place fake money lines Vegas style and tell how I’m betting and why. Not sure what money line is. That’s okay I’ll explain it as best I can.

JC’s Top Rope Report: WWE Royal Rumble Preview

My birthday is this Sunday, so instead of giving you a Royal Rumble Preview I’m giving you a detailed look back at my 24 years of life. I was born on a cold January day in 1988….

JC’s Top Rope Report: The RAW Truth Review for 1/23/2012

It’s another RAW, and another live RAW Review tonight. The only thing advertised is Chris Jericho and the Highlight Reel. Are you ready for the quietest Highlight Reel ever?

The Return to the Ring You’ve All Been Waiting For
RAW started with C.M. Punk. Punk said that there is a huge WWE Title match this Sunday. Punk said despite Ziggler beating him three times in a month, all of those victories were handed to him by John Laurinaitis, the special referee of his match this Sunday. Punk said Laurinaitis can be described in one word: failure. A failure in life, at his job and as a wrestler. These are all facts. He checked on Wikipedia. But Laurinaitis did something unexpected last week. They replayed Laurinaitis saying he plans on screwing Punk out of the Title. Punk said I guess it pretty much means he is done as WWE Champ. But there is a course of action he can take. You can’t ref a match with two broken arms. Punk invited Laurinaitis out there and say everything he said last week to his face. Laurinaitis didn’t come out, but John Cena did.

JC’s Top Rope Report: The Top 10 Moments in Royal Rumble History

We are less than one week away from the 2012 Royal Rumble. The Rumble itself used to be my favorite PPV of the year. Most of the time it is because it usually happens around my birthday, which happens to be on the 29th. But also because the Rumble match is one of my favorite matches of the year. This year, however, I think the WWE has done a poor job of building up to the Rumble.

There are many reasons for that. One is that the Rumble winner will arguably be in the third most important match on the card. This year they fall behind Rock/Cena and the Undertaker match in terms of importance. You could argue that in the last three years the Undertaker’s match has been more important than any of the WWE or World Title matches. There’s also this little nugget: The last wrestler to win the Rumble match and actually win the WWE or World Title at Wrestlemania was The Undertaker at Wrestlemania 23. It almost seems like that the new “Rumble Winner” is whoever wins the Money in the Bank Ladder Matches at that PPV, since they have had a 100% success rate when cashing in. That might be part of the reason the Rumble match hasn’t been booked as strongly in recent years. Hell, last year Alberto del Rio was in the first match of Wrestlemania after winning the Rumble!

From the Mouth of The Shark

What is up, people? This is From the Mouth of the Shark, I think therefore I am The Shark of Wrestling that is Sean Williams. We are one week away from the Royal Rumble, the Super Bowl is now officially set and a lot to talk about in the world of wrestling so strap yourselves in because this is what I’m sinking my teeth into this week:

-The good news is that this past Monday’s ending of Raw was what the WWE needed. It got people talking and it leaves something open for John Laryngitis vs CM Punk and what many believe is the second coming of Austin vs McMahon. The bad news is that there’s no way this goes long term. Yeah, Johnny Ace had one good night in the months that he got the GM role/character, but how can he actually keep this fresh longer than this will probably go for? The sad truth is that this guy has reached his peek with his character.  The guy has no charisma and quite frankly, Punk had it right that Animal got the fame and glory and all Johnny Ace got was his brother’s shadow to stand in. As for Foley being involved with this, one can only hope this leads to John Laryngitis coming to an end as GM and hopefully as an on-screen character and have Foley take over.  Foley has charisma and can entertain while Not So Big Johnny doesn’t and can’t.

JC’s Top Rope Report: The RAW Truth Review for 1/16/2012

Yes sir, it is that time again. Time for another RAW Review! And with my Sabres sucking up the joint, there is no way RAW can be any worse.

RAW Is Bad Shirts and Homeless People
RAW started with Mick Foley in a bad blue tye-dye shirt coming to the ring. Foley said he was here for two reasons. One, he never passes up a trip to Disneyland, right here in Anaheim. Foley said he’s happy to be back in a non-competitive role, because he lived out all of his dreams inside a WWE ring. But he has one more dream. He has two more kids, and he wants those kids to see him in a WWE ring one more time. Foley said he wanted to enter the 2012 Royal Rumble.