Royal Rumble (2012): Difference between revisions

The event comprised five matches, including one on the pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed [[Face (professional wrestling)|heroes]], [[Heel (professional wrestling)|villains]], or [[Tweener (professional wrestling)|less distinguishable characters]] in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, ''[[WWE Raw|Raw]]'' and ''[[WWE SmackDown|SmackDown]]''.<ref>{{cite web|title=How Pro Wrestling Works|url=https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/pro-wrestling.htm|last=Grabianowski|first=Ed|work=HowStuffWorks|date=January 13, 2006|publisher=[[Discovery Communications]]|access-date=March 5, 2012|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131129050844/https://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/pro-wrestling.htm|archive-date=November 29, 2013}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Live & Televised Entertainment|url=https://corporate.wwe.com/company/events.jsp|work=[[WWE]]|access-date=March 21, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090218142749/https://corporate.wwe.com/company/events.jsp|archive-date=February 18, 2009}}</ref>

 

 

Another match heading into the Royal Rumble featured [[John Cena]] against [[Kane (wrestler)|Kane]]. Upon returning to WWE on the December 12 episode of ''Raw'', after an absence of nearly four months, Kane interrupted Cena's match against [[Mark Henry]], and though it was Henry who put him out of action, he bypassed him and attacked Cena, [[Chokeslam|chokeslamming him]] before revealing his new mask. While demanding an explanation for these events the next week on ''Raw'', Cena was again attacked by Kane, who revealed in the next several weeks of his desire to have Cena "embrace the hate" (his current on-screen character and T-shirt promoting otherwise) within caused by the anti-Cena crowd who continued to boo him. When Cena dismissed any intentions of doing so, Kane not only continued his attacks on Cena, but began to direct his attention to his close friend [[Zack Ryder]], assaulting him as well, to the point of injuring him ([[kayfabe]]), ultimately leading to Ryder losing his [[WWE United States Championship|United States Championship]] to Jack Swagger on the January 16, 2012, episode, under orders from John Laurinaitis. The same night, Laurinaitis put Cena in a one-on-one match against Kane at the Royal Rumble, in addition to booking Cena in a match against Swagger. Before the match even officially started, Cena started to attack Swagger aggressively to avenge Ryder's loss, prompting Kane to appear on the TitanTron and congratulate him to have started "embracing his hate". On the January 23 episode, during a [[Falls Count Anywhere match]] (in which Laurinaitis had prevented Cena from interfering, on the pretext of never granting Ryder a rematch for the United States Championship if he did so), Kane chokeslammed Ryder through the entrance stage, incapacitating him. As Ryder was stretchered and taken away in an ambulance, [[Eve Torres]] (Ryder's storyline girlfriend) blamed Cena for Ryder's injuries, leading to Cena knocking the microphone out of interviewer [[Josh Mathews]]' hand in frustration, and donning a very aggressive look in response to this entire situation.<ref name="Kane and Cena">{{cite web|last=Passero|first=Mitch|date=January 29, 2012|title=John Cena vs. Kane (Double Count-out)|url=https://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/john-cena-kane|work=[[WWE]]|access-date=January 31, 2012|archive-date=October 23, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161023170858/https://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/john-cena-kane|url-status=live}}</ref>

|[[Scott Armstrong (wrestler)|Scott Armstrong]]

|-

|}

 

The next match was an [[Eight-woman tag team match|Eight-Diva tag team match]] with [[Alicia Fox]], [[Eve Torres]], [[Kelly Kelly]], and [[Tamina Snuka]] taking on [[The Bella Twins]] ([[Nikki Bella]] and [[Brie Bella]]) and [[The Divas of Doom]] ([[WWE Divas Champion|Divas Champion]] [[Beth Phoenix]] and [[Natalya Neidhart|Natalya]]). The latter team won after Phoenix tagged herself in and performed a glam slam on Kelly Kelly, scoring the pinfall.<ref name="RR2012"/>

 

 

The next match was made after [[Drew McIntyre]] requested a spot in the Royal Rumble, asking SmackDown general manager Teddy Long for an opportunity to prove himself, so he gave him a match against a mystery opponent who turned out to be [[Brodus Clay]]. Despite McIntyre starting the match well, Clay would quickly defeat him after a running splash.<ref name="RR2012"/>

===Main event===

[[File:Sheamus 2.jpg|thumb|right|250px|[[Sheamus]] won the 2012 [[Royal Rumble match]].]]

 

The ring began to fill up with superstars as [[Booker T (wrestler)|Booker T]], who was also sitting on commentary, entered at #17 and Hall of Famer and [[Royal Rumble (1988)|first ever]] winner [[Jim Duggan|"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan]] entered at #19, the latter of whom was quickly eliminated by Rhodes. Miz almost eliminated [[Kofi Kingston]] (#11) by causing him to almost fall off the apron. When Miz tried to flip Kingston over by his legs, Kingston instead did a handstand and walked over to the steps without his feet touching the floor, saving himself and staying in the match. Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler (#18) teamed up to eliminate Booker T and [[The Great Khali]] (#15). [[Michael Cole (wrestling)|Michael Cole]], the final member of the commentary team, entered at #20, only to be joined by entrant #21, [[Kia Stevens|Kharma]], the third female superstar to ever enter a Royal Rumble match. Cole climbed over the top rope to avoid Kharma, only for Lawler and Booker T to pull Cole to the floor, eliminating him. Kharma then eliminated [[Sin Cara|Hunico]] (#16), but was then eliminated by Ziggler. Another surprise entrant, [[Road Dogg]], entered at #23, before [[WWE United States Championship|United States Champion]] Jack Swagger joined the match at #25. [[Wade Barrett]] (#26) eliminated Road Dogg only to be joined by [[Royal Rumble (2009)|2009]] winner [[Randy Orton]] (#28), who in turn eliminated him. [[Chris Jericho]] came out at #29, eliminating [[David Otunga]] (#27), before Big Show entered at #30. As Big Show entered, he assisted [[Sheamus]] (#22) in eliminating Swagger before hitting Swagger with a knockout punch. Big Show cleared out the ring, eliminating both Miz (who lasted over 45 minutes) and Rhodes (who lasted over 41 minutes and scored the most eliminations with six) at the same time, as well as Ziggler.<ref name="RR2012"/>

|time1 = 4:00

|match2 = [[Bryan Danielson|Daniel Bryan]] (c) defeated [[Big Show]] and [[Mark Henry]] by escaping the cage

|time2 = 9:08

|stip3 = [[Eight-woman tag team match|Eight-Diva tag team match]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/eight-diva-tag-team-match|title=Divas Champion Beth Phoenix, Natalya & The Bella Twins def. Eve, Kelly Kelly, Alicia Fox & Tamina|work=[[WWE]]|first=Matthew|last=Artus|date=January 30, 2012|access-date=January 30, 2012|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303220245/https://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/eight-diva-tag-team-match|url-status=live}}</ref>

|time3 = 5:29

|time4 = 10:56

|match5 = [[Tyrus (wrestler)|Brodus Clay]] (with [[Cameron (wrestler)|Cameron]] and [[Naomi (wrestler)|Naomi]]) defeated [[Drew McIntyre]] by [[pinfall]]

|time5 = 1:05

|match6 = [[CM Punk]] (c) defeated [[Dolph Ziggler]] by [[pinfall]]

 

===Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations===

:{{Color box|gold|border=silver}} – Winner

:{{Color box|silver|border=black}} – [[WWE Hall of Fame|Hall of Famer (HOF)]]

!Time

!Eliminations

| {{sort|01|1}}||[[The Miz]]||25||Big Show||45:39||2

| {{sort|02|2}}||[[Alex Riley]]||1||rowspan="2"|The Miz||01:14||0

| {{sort|03|3}}||[[R-Truth]]||2||04:57||0

| {{sort|04|4}}||[[Cody Rhodes]]||24||Big Show||41:55||6

| {{sort|05|5}}||[[P. J. Black|Justin Gabriel]]||4||Mick Foley & Ricardo Rodriguez ||07:42||0

| {{sort|06|6}}||[[Primo Colón|Primo]]||3||Mick Foley||01:57||0

| {{sort|07|7}}||[[Mick Foley]]||8||Cody Rhodes||06:34||3

| {{sort|08|8}}||[[Ricardo Rodriguez (wrestler)|Ricardo Rodriguez]]||5||Santino Marella||02:19||1

| {{sort|09|9}}||[[Santino Marella]]||7||Cody Rhodes||02:31||1

| {{sort|11|11}}||[[Kofi Kingston]]||18||Sheamus||17:55||0

|-style="background: silver"

| {{sort|12|12}}||[[Jerry Lawler]]||9||Cody Rhodes||00:43||1

| {{sort|13|13}}||[[Ezekiel Jackson]]||11||rowspan="2"|The Great Khali||03:46||0

| {{sort|14|14}}||[[Jinder Mahal]]||10||01:18||0

| {{sort|15|15}}||[[The Great Khali]]||13||Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler||07:29||2

| {{sort|16|16}}||[[Sin Cara|Hunico]]||16||Kharma||09:00||0

| {{sort|17|17}}||[[Booker T (wrestler)|Booker T]]||14||Cody Rhodes & Dolph Ziggler||04:40||1

| {{sort|18|18}}||[[Dolph Ziggler]]|||26||Big Show||19:46||3

|-style="background: silver"

| {{sort|19|19}}||[[Jim Duggan]]||12||Cody Rhodes||00:56||0

| {{sort|20|20}}||[[Michael Cole (wrestling)|Michael Cole]]||15||Booker T & Jerry Lawler<ref group=lower-alpha>Booker T and Jerry Lawler were both eliminated prior to eliminating Cole.</ref>||01:24||0

| {{sort|21|21}}||[[Awesome Kong|Kharma]]||17||Dolph Ziggler||01:00||1

|-style="background:gold"

| '''{{sort|22|22}}'''||'''[[Sheamus]]'''||'''{{sort|30|—}}'''||'''{{sort|40|Winner}}'''<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/royal-rumble-match#Full-list-of-Rumble-participants|title=Sheamus won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match|publisher=[[WWE]]|author=Ryan Murphy|date=January 30, 2012|access-date=January 30, 2012|archive-date=January 7, 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107205352/http://www.wwe.com/shows/royalrumble/2012/royal-rumble-match#Full-list-of-Rumble-participants|url-status=live}}</ref>||22:22||3

| {{sort|23|23}}||[[Road Dogg]]||19||Wade Barrett||04:55||0

| {{sort|25|25}}||[[Jake Hager|Jack Swagger]]||23||Big Show & Sheamus<ref group=lower-alpha>Big Show had not entered the match before assisting in eliminating Swagger.</ref>||07:59||0

| {{sort|26|26}}||[[Wade Barrett]]||21||Randy Orton||03:55||1

| {{sort|27|27}}||[[David Otunga]]||22||rowspan="2"|Chris Jericho||03:15||0

| {{sort|28|28}}||[[Randy Orton]]||28||05:46||3

| {{sort|29|29}}||[[Chris Jericho]]||29||Sheamus||11:34||2

| {{sort|30|30}}||[[Big Show]]||27||Randy Orton||01:51||4

|}

 

{{DEFAULTSORT:Royal Rumble (2012)}}

[[Category:2012 in Missouri]]

[[Category:2012 WWE pay-per-view events]]

[[Category:January 2012 events in the United States]]