Rumble Reax
Wow! 2004 is shaping up to be a good year, wrestling-wise. Of course, all I can see to is WrestleMania, but still...

Here are my thoughts:

First three matches were WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too short. Even Dudleys vs. Ric Flair/Batista, which I wasn't looking especially forward to, could have used some fat on it. But Eddie Guerrero Vs. Chavo Guerrero deserved at least 10 minutes and probably 20. At the very least, they could have used the five minutes afterward where Eddie pulverized the Chavos and turned that into valuable ring time.

Bob Holly vs. Brock Lesnar went almost perfectly, considering they actually, you know, went ahead with it. Nobody wanted to see it, and so WWE decided to turn it into a glorified squash. Something right out of Saturday-morning Superstars of Wrestling. Hell, I was almost expecting Gorilla Monsoon to take us over to the event center at the end of the replay.

Shawn Michaels vs. Triple H was their usual dose of the good stuff, and I really dug Michaels' Asai moonsault onto the announce table. The bladejob on Michaels was particularly gory and unnecessary. Was I crazy about the finish? No, but what decision were they going to give that would have made everyone happy? They can't put the title on Michaels (it bombed last time) and having HHH go over clean with a pedigree would have also been a mistake. No, the double count-down wasn't a brilliant finish, but it wasn't an awful one, either.

The Rumble match itself was near-perfect; one of the best ones I've seen in a while. Benoit suprised me with the win (I was thinking Kurt Angle so he could have Goldberg at No Way Out next month), but his performance there didn't. The semi-returns of both Undertaker and Foley were well done; neither was overexposed (in Taker's case, he wasn't exposed at all, which is a good thing). The comedy spots (Spike Dudley, Nunzio, Ernest Miller) were done sparingly and effective. More subtle interaction between Chris Jericho and Christian -- works for me. Big Show was especially impressive, and I seriously mean that. From big fat goof two years ago to big fat threat, at least the guy's going places. And who can frown on the interaction between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar?

Overall, I wasn't crazy about the undercard, but the Rumble match ruled.