Marking Out: The Royal Rumble, Chris Jericho, and the Undertaker

Last night was the Royal Rumble and, to say the least, the IWC is pissed. You can take your pick from any of the numerous complaints that have been found: Why were all three commentators in the match? where was Kane? Great Khali can't wrestle. And the most prominent one: Chris Jericho didn't win.

Now while those can be valid points, some are unwarranted. It's a simple case of “damned if they do, damned if they don't” for the WWE, because internet fans would have found something to gripe about.

When it comes to the Royal Rumble, it's like watching a cheesy action or horror movie, you expect it to be bad or full of plot holes, but you sit back knowing that and enjoy it regardless because it's a fun show.

I can easily admit that I really enjoyed the Rumble, because it was meant to be a fun show. That's not to say that I didn't find things that could have been changed for the better.

With how much the WWE tried to pack into this year's Rumble I would have liked to have seen 40 entrants in the Rumble. That way you could have had Brodus Clay, a returning star like Christian, and maybe another returning star instead of guys like Jim Duggan or Great Khali. And with the WWE saying that every superstar could enter the match, I would have liked to see either CM Punk or Daniel Bryan enter and go near the end of the match and give fans the inkling that we might see a champion vs. champion match at Wrestlemania.

With Kane not entering the Rumble, it makes perfect sense. If there was an iota of thought that he would have won, then fans would instantly think that Cena would win the title soon in order to keep their angle going. For all three commentators entering the match, I could have done with just Booker entering but it was nice to see Cole freak out when Kharma entered, which I first thought was either Boogeyman or Heidenreich based on the look on his face.

The match overall was fun to watch and there were plenty of enjoyable moments. The return of Kharma and Road Dogg Jesse James were both great to see and very unexpected. I loved that James was allowed to do the Shake, Rattle, and Roll, though I understand that he wouldn't be able to do any dry humping before hitting the pumphandle slam in the more family-friendly era. I actually laughed watching Ricardo Rodriguez coming out in a beater while acting like Alberto del Rio, and the hand battle between Mick Foley and Santino was cheesy enough to be funny.

Now, with the big “controversy” of Chris Jericho not winning the Rumble, it makes perfect sense for this to happen.With everyone screaming that he was supposed to win and it makes the “end of the world” speech irrelevant, they are jumping the gun.

It was too predictable for Jericho to win as far into his career that he is, he doesn't need a Royal Rumble win to help his standing in the company. He showed that he was willing to let a younger wrestler get the win on one of the biggest nights of the year and it doesn't derail the end of the world in any way, shape, or form.

Notice from last night the information that the commentators were giving out about the Rumble, everything from number of total competitors to the combined weight of everyone who has participated.

Then they mentioned how the Miz could be only one of three men to enter first and then win the Rumble, the first man to do this being Shawn Michaels. The second, unnamed person was Chris Benoit who also holds notoriety for being the first and only person to challenge the champion of the opposite show (he challenged the Raw champion when he was on Smackdown) for the title at Wrestlemania.

So when Sheamus won last night it became very apparent that he is not going to challenge CM Punk for the title in Miami because if he did so, in the WWE's mind they would be giving a slight nod to an undesirable like Chris Benoit.

So that makes for a possible Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan title match, which may happen just so the WWE can boast that these guys a year prior were in the dark match of the event and are now having a title match a year later. That leaves Chris Jericho to bring the “end the world as we know it,” which can go in quite a few appealing ways.

The way that most fans think that this can go is in a feud with CM Punk, who has been claiming to be the best wrestler in the world. Not only would the feud feature two of the best technical wrestlers in the WWE, the promos that they would cut on each other would be fantastic. It also makes sense because both have been giving each other jabs in either interviews or online so an angle makes sense.

Another possibility for Jericho could be going against the Undertaker at Wrestlemania. While the Undertaker came back last night to indicate a third match against Triple H, it may not happen if the WWE sees that there isn't a big enough demand for another match between the two. Just look at last night and they left the door open for a match to happen between Jericho and the Undertaker as Triple H didn't acknowledge the Undertaker like he had last year and even said that he has put his personal issues behind him.

This would be the other way that the world can end if Jericho could break the streak it would end something that the majority of wrestling fans have witnessed for most if not their whole lives.