WWE Royal Rumble 2012 Results: 20 Things We Learned

Well, that was wild.

The 2012 Royal Rumble is officially in the books, and it was one that was full of surprises.

John Laurinaitis willingly counted the pin for CM Punk, guys like The Great Khali and Road Dogg showed up out of nowhere, and perhaps most surprisingly, Sheamus defied the odds to win the 30-Man Royal Rumble match.

What we did and did not see during tonight's pay-per-view sure taught us a lot and gives us a pretty good indication of the WWE's plans going forward.

Here are 20 things we learned from the Royal Rumble.

20. The WWE Relies Way Too Much on Its Announcers

Though the Royal Rumble appearances by Michael Cole, Jerry Lawler and Booker T were all pretty harmless, they do shine a light on a big problem that the WWE has: relying too much on its announcers.

All three of those guys are involved in far too many storylines, and in this case, it prevented the full-time wrestlers from getting on the card and getting that big Royal Rumble payday.

I think the WWE has to stop using Cole, Lawler and Booker T as part of storylines or in the ring so often.

Leave those guys at the announcers table where they belong.

19. Ricardo Rodriguez Is Ridiculously Hilarious

Move over, Santino. Ricardo Rodriguez might be the funniest man in the entire WWE.

Seriously, I can't get over how ridiculously hilarious this guy was tonight.

His Alberto Del Rio style entrance was absolutely priceless, and his facial expressions and mannerisms in the ring were over big-time with the crowd.

Rordriguez needs to have a permanent spot on TV because he shines every time the spotlight is on him.

18. Mark Henry Must Really Be Hurt

The World Heavyweight Championship match only went about 10 minutes, and Mark Henry was down on the canvas for what seemed like half of it.

Then, he didn't appear in the Royal Rumble match like I expected him to.

Something is definitely wrong with the World's Strongest Man.

It looks like Henry has some sort of lower leg injury that might be more serious than the dirt sheets are reporting, which is a shame because he's had the greatest run of his career over the last six months or so.

I'd expect Henry to take it rather easy for the foreseeable future.

17. Daniel Bryan Is a Heel Who Isn't a Heel

Daniel Bryan is not a full-fledged heel or baby face, but whatever he is is definitely working for him.

Although he still hasn't had that official heel turn, he's continues to get over as SmackDown's top heel and an incredible little weasel.

Bryan is doing a great job at playing this tweener role, and it will be interesting to see where the WWE goes from here.

It's almost as if the creative team is hesitant to pull the trigger on an official heel turn, but that might not even be necessary because Bryan's already getting so much heat. 

16. The Miz Has the Worst Spray Tan in History

Holy crap.

The Miz's spray tan looked like he rolled around in a giant bucket of brown paint.

It's almost as if he intentionally pulled a Ross.

15. The Big Show Takes Top Priority over Young Talent

Did anybody else notice that The Big Show buried the WWE's future talents in like a 60-second span?

After having him enter at No. 30 (what a letdown), he eliminated Jack Swagger, The Miz, Cody Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler.

What? Huh? Why? Now?

The Big Show's nearing the end of his career, and it's absolutely absurd that the creative team had him run through the WWE's future talent like that.

Dumbest. Booking. Ever. 

14. The WWE Has a Bad Habit of Not Announcing PPV Matches Beforehand

Why wasn't the four-on-four Divas match or Drew McIntyre vs. Brodus Clay announced before the PPV actually started?

The WWE has gotten absolutely ridiculous with this.

I realize that announcing those matches isn't exactly going to bring in a lot more viewers, but the company has made a really bad habit out of this and has to stop it.

Announce all the damn matches before the PPV airs. It's really not that hard, I promise.

13. PPVs Have Way Too Much Filler

Natalya, Beth Phoenix and the Bella Twins vs. Kelly Kelly, Eve, Alicia Fox and Tamina in a five-minute match?

Brodus Clay squashing Drew McIntyre? The insane amounts of promo videos (especially the ones on John Cena and The Rock).  

Really?

Save that stuff for TV because when it takes place on pay-per-view, all it becomes is filler.

12. Wade Barrett's Push Might Be on Hold

I expected Wade Barrett to have a very memorable Royal Rumble performance and even had considered him a dark-horse candidate to win the match.

Instead, Barrett eliminated only one competitor and lasted just a total of three minutes.

His performance in the match was completely forgettable, leading me to believe that his massive push might be slowing down considerably.

I realize that he was eliminated by Randy Orton, and thus, this just could have been a way to further their feud.

But I don't see the point in having Barrett last just three minutes unless his push is cooling down.

11. Dolph Ziggler's Day as a World Title Contender Are Over...for Now

Dolph Ziggler has been feuding with CM Punk over the WWE Championship for a while now, but he was never more than the third fiddle in this storyline.

The real beef is not between Punk and Ziggler. It's between Punk and John Laurinaitis.

So, now that Ziggler lost his WWE Championship match without controversy, it looks like he is done as a serious World title contender.

For now at least.

10. John Laurinaitis Is Here to Stay

Had John Laurinaitis cost CM Punk the WWE Championship tonight, it would have been a pretty good indication that he was going to get fired on tomorrow night's Raw.

Surprisingly, though, Laurinaitis counted the one-two-three for Punk and never did anything (kinda, sorta) to intentionally screw Punk out of the title.

That likely means that Laurinaitis' job is safe for now and that his feud with Punk will continue for the foreseeable future.

9. Big Things Are in Store for Cody Rhodes

Cody Rhodes dominated the Royal Rumble match.

Sure, he may not have won it. But he eliminated the most competitors (six), had a lengthy stay in the match and shined throughout it.

If anything, this showed that the WWE definitely has something big in store for Rhodes in 2012.

He wouldn't have been booked like he was tonight if that wasn't the case. 

8. The Divas Division Just Got a HUGE Boost

Kharma is back, and her return could not have come at a better time.

The Divas are just plain brutal at the moment, and Kharma provides a monster lift to the struggling division.

All I have to say is: welcome back, Kharma. Boy, oh boy, have you been missed.

7. Sheamus Is Going to WrestleMania

Not to brag or anything, but I called this.

Sheamus had been pushed heavily heading into the Royal Rumble, and having Randy Orton or Chris Jericho winning it just would have been way too obvious.

So, giving Sheamus the win and World title shot at WrestleMania may come as a surprise to many, but not to me.

The Celtic Warrior is as over now as he's ever been, and he's headed for a match with CM Punk, Daniel Bryan or perhaps even someone else on the grandest stage of them all.

6. The Angle Between Kane, John Cena and Zack Ryder Is Far from over

The match between Kane and John Cena ended in a double count out, and the last image we saw of The Big Red Monster at the Royal Rumble was him standing over the destroyed bodies of Cena and Zack Ryder.

I'll take that as a pretty good indication that the angle between those three is far from over.

In fact, it's probably just getting started.

5. Our Expectations Are Too High

We should probably start lowering our expectations considerably.

While we've all spent weeks or even months debating and predicting who would win the Royal Rumble or which stars would make their shocking returns, it was largely all for nothing.

Sure, we got a couple of nice surprises tonight, but nothing all that major.

There was no Brock Lesnar return, no Christian and no Undertaker.

Perhaps we should realize that WWE officials just aren't going to do what we want them to do.

4. Tonight Was Not "The End of the World as You Know It"

On last Monday's Raw, Chris Jericho vowed that tonight would be "the end of the world as you know it."

While many thought that pretty much guaranteed Jericho a Royal Rumble win, he actually wound up being the last wrestler eliminated.

Therefore, it was not the end of the world.

I have to wonder if the WWE will now completely drop Jericho's promise to end the world as we know it.

Who am I kidding? They probably will.

3. The Creative Team Is Afraid to Have John Cena Lose Clean

A double count out at one of the biggest PPVs of the year? Weak.

John Cena could have easily taken the clean pin to Kane and made their storyline much more intriguing, but instead, the creative team felt the need to protect Cena with that lame non-finish.

Vince McMahon must literally force the creative team members to book Cena in this way, but it's bad for business.

No one wants a TV-worthy ending on PPV, especially when it's done to protect Cena, who's already been a top guy for the better part of a decade.

Maybe we didn't "learn" this tonight, but it was definitely reinforced more than ever.

2. WWE Officials Swerved Us Because the Original Plans Leaked out

Although we will probably never know for sure, I'm fairly confident that the creative team changed the Royal Rumble plans considerably after they leaked out on the Internet.

I don't think for one second that Sheamus was always going to be the Royal Rumble winner.

In fact, it was only after plans for both Randy Orton and Chris Jericho to win it leaked out the Internet that I thought, "Hey, someone else is probably gonna win this thing."

Once creative plans get out, the WWE loves to change them. And that seemed pretty evident tonight.

1. The WrestleMania Card Just Got a Little Fuzzier

I think most of us had already penciled in Daniel Bryan vs. Randy Orton and CM Punk vs. Chris Jericho for WrestleMania 28.

While both matches are actually still possible, the roads to them just got a little trickier, and the WrestleMania card just got a lot fuzzier.

We're now looking at Sheamus in a World title match, with no clear-cut plans for Jericho or Orton in place.

I wouldn't be surprised to see Jericho earn his No. 1 contender's status at Elimination Chamber or even for Orton to somehow be added to the World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania to make it a Triple Threat (Bryan vs. Sheamus vs. Orton).

At least for the time being, though, we'll have to reconfigure our projected WrestleMania cards.