The Official WWE thread

[charlie stubbs]

who won royal rumble?

[Tommy Tight Lips]

the legend killer randy orton!!!his dad headlined the first ever wrestlemania,now 25 years later.....

[charlie stubbs]

the great cowboy bob??the legend killer strikes again!

[Santino]

Go on Randy!
The whole show mighta been a bit predictable, other than matt hardys heel turn, but have to say it was a class experience live. RVD prob got the biggest pop from what i could tell cuz he's from just outside detroit. Santino marella was also massively over. Was hopin they were gonna have him shock the world by dumpin some of the big guys outta the rumble but at least he has his own rumble record now!
Is it gonna be shawn v undertaker at Mania now?
Apparently Micky Rourke is gonna face Jericho now which should get massive publicity. No better man than Jericho to sell that feud!

[anportmorforjfc]

it Will be edge + matt hardy vs Christian + Jeff Hardy at wrestlemania

[his holiness nb]

Good ppv, great turn by Matt Hardy, and delighted to see Orton win the Rumble.
Not very often that the bad guys wins this one.

Whats all the Christian talk? Is he due back?

[anportmorforjfc]

I heard that he was meant to win the rumble but everyone knew about it so it didn't happen.

[Gabriel_Hurl]

Whats all the Christian talk? Is he due back?

Yeah - his TNA contract expired in November - and has resigned with WWE. Everyone assumed he was the one behind the incidents on Jeff Hardy.

As has Gail Kim - but that's for another time


And as for Monday night -  brutal finish - way to blow up the best angle you've had in a year in one fell swoop

[Galwaybhoy]

Lads mark my words by this time next year Randy Orton will be the biggest thing in the industry, maybe not on Austin/Rock/Hogan level, but he will be huge.

The Rumble was another great PPV, I'm sick of people saying how shite WWE has gone, because in my opinion its better now than anytime since the end of the attitude era which was in 2001.  2003/04 were terrible years.  They have been putting on a few very good storylines these past few months, for the first time ever I was interested in a JBL match, the storyline with Shawn Michaels is very good, also Orton/McMahon, Edge/Jeff, the stuff between Matt and Swagger which has now come to an end and a few other good storylines are pretty good too.  Also there are so many good young wrestlers coming through, Legacy is the best Stable in ages, Swagger looks good The Miz (who at one stage I couldn't stand) and Morrisson are the best tag team in ages and Dolph Lundrig's character is entertaining and funny in my opinion even if it is one dimensional.

Matt Hardy vs Swagger at the Rumble was good enough though not as good as their first effort on ECW a few weeks ago.  The ending to Cena/JBL was good too and the Womens match was the most entertaining in ages even if Malina was a bit sloppy in parts.  Edge vs Jeff Hardy was also very good and Jeff Hardy's spot on the ladder could have turned out a lot worse with him nearly botching it!  The finish was great and though I was hoping Christian would return this could work better with Matt turning heel.  Its about time Matt turned too, a small change of character now and a haircut could also do wonders for him! The Rumble match was the most enjoyable I have watched since 2001 though I haven't seen all of them since then.  I always thought it was stupid the way teams turn against each other in the Rumble match so it was a nice change and sensible that Legacy worked together.  Delighted Orton won, was worried Triple H would, though it was made sure he would look very strong in the Rumble.

The stuff between Orton/Vince last week on Raw was some of the most amazing TV I have seen in ages, and while at first I wasn't happy with the way Jericho was treated I now understand it had to happen so as to set up the following segment between Orton and Vince.  Then the final segment on this weeks Raw looked great when all the Raw ahem "superstars" came out on stage to see what was about to go down.  It really made Orton's character look great and showed how important this story was....of course knowing the McMahon's sometimes ego gets in the way and they nearly ruined everything when they had Shane McMahon come out and singlehandedly take apart the three members of Legacy and also attack two of the other wrestlers on the top of the stage.  Talk about making their talent looking weak, what were they thinking...I hope they can rectify that on this Monday's Raw and make Orton look strong again!

[TacadoirArdMhacha]

The UK Broadcasting rights to World Wrestling Entertainment are up soon after 4 years and Sky (Sky Sports) may have a fight on their hands to secure a new deal with WWE. Virgin Media and Setanta Sports are both in line to battle for the rights to air the weekly broadcasts of RAW, Smackdown! and ECW as well as the monthly PPV's and specials. WWE Joined Sky Sports fully in 2002 after many years airing on the UK's fourth terrestrial Channel 4. The demise of WWE on Channel 4 was credited due to a number of things during the live edition of Royal Rumble 2000 Mae Young exposed herself live and soon after Channel 4 imposed a live delay on the PPV's this pretty much lead to a non-renew of contract and an outbid from Sky Sports. The Channel also aired commercials during the PPV which become increasily unpopular with fans.

WWE's tenure with Sky has not always been smooth sailing in 2003 Sky controversially refused WWE Armageddon making it the first WWE PPV not to be shown on Sky in years. Due to a contractual dispute with WWE (although the problem actually goes back as far as December 99' when Channel 4 outbidded Sky for 4 PPV events including Armageddon), Sky refused to broadcast the show, which meant that UK WWE fans weren't able to see it. However several weeks later a new WWE Box Office package was released and it still exists in the same form today in which UK fans pay for several of the PPV's such as Wrestlemania, Summerslam (£15/$30) etc while a nice number are free! in recent years Sky Box Office has began 3 for 2 offers toward the end of the year on PPV's. Sky Sports airs all WWE specials such as Saturday Nights Main event, three hour RAW's and one hour promotion clips from upcoming DVD releases. If that was not enough Sky airs WWE Vintage collection which replaced Heat in the UK in 2008.

Recently WWE announced 'This Week in WWE' and 'WWE Vintage Collection' will be moved to Eurosport in all its European territories excluding the UK further sign that Sky might win the rights. Setanta Sport are becoming a bigger threat to Sky signing many large football broadcasting contracts and not to mention being the UK home for UFC. Virgin Media on the other hand seem to be the less likely candidate although they did express interest several years back in fight Sky for the rights but that was when the company was known as NTL before Virgin purchased them in 2006.

Whoever gets the broadcasting rights to WWE has a heck of a lot of programming on their hands plus replays! only time will tell.

Was only ever 1 or 2 years on Channel 4 - remember well cos i got big into WWF at that stage, in fact a board regular useta tape Raw and Smackdown for me every week as we didn't have sky. The Mae Young thing was Channel 4's first PPV. To be honest it was no worse that what Channel 4 happily broadcast on Eurotrash for years. That Royal Rumble was the Cactus Jack v HHH street fight - superb match. 

[Galwaybhoy]

I hope Sky get the rights again.  If Setenta did buy the rights, could I just order the PPV's when they come around or would I have to pay for the all the Setanta channels for the year?

[Puckoon]

Watched smackdown last night - was a couple good parts on it.

The undertaker and Triple H Beat the Edge and The Big Show in a tag team match after The Big Show knocked out his partner with a right hook!

[Galwaybhoy]

Anyone ever watch TNA?  I struggle too, I think its brutal compared to WWE at the moment.  There is nothing on TNA that interests me except maybe MCMG and Styles.  TNA have really gone down hill in the last few years.

[Santino]

Would only watch TNA if i'd read that there was something outta the ordinary from the likes of styles, joe, christian or angle. Seen the occasional good ppv match but most of the tv shows are hard work.
I see Jericho attacked a female fan tonight at a house show! Might be some serious fallout from that! Youtube vids up already.

[Galwaybhoy]

Wow, I cant believe that.  Great heel heat right there.

Seriously though, will be interesting to hear what WWE have to say about this.  While none of us know exactly what any of the wrestlers are like outside of the ring it still seemes seriously out of character for Chris.