Sports, real and fake

So this weekend was the Superbowl, but I only semi gave a shit about that. Rather, the true focus of my sports entertainment watching weekend was ordering the Royal Rumble replay on Saturday night with the one and only Big John. Here's how it went down.

Jack Swagger(c) def. Matt Hardy, ECW Championship
This match was decent; somewhat surprising finish where Swagger won cleanly with his finisher, despite being a heel. I honestly don't remember anything specific about the match, but I remember being happy with it.

Melina def. Beth Phoenix(c), Women's Championship
I'm not usually into women's matches; I think part of it is that the women don't have the same weight behind their moves as the men do. Also for the most part they're hired for hotness, not wrestling ability. However, both women brought their "A" game and this was a solid match. Highlight of the match was Beth putting Melina in a leglock and then KICKING HER IN THE BACK OF THE HEAD WITH HER OWN FOOT. Fucking sweet.

John Cena(c) def. John "Bradshaw" Layfield, World Championship (RAW Brand)
The story behind this match was that Shawn Michaels had been hired by JBL to ensure a win tonight; Michaels accepted because he's bankrupt and needs to put his children through college. Stupid angle to use Michaels for, as he was the main draw for the company for years and years, but whatever. The match was okay, I couldn't care less about either guy so it made it sort of less exciting. The end of the match saw the referee get knocked out, Michaels superkick JBL then Cena, then lay JBL over Cena and walk out of the ring. Of course, by the time the ref woke up, Cena broke out of the pin, and went on to win. Bleh.

Edge def. Jeff Hardy(c), No-Disqualification Match, WWE Championship (SMACKDOWN Brand)
The story here was that someone had been attacking Jeff Hardy for months: beating him up in an alley, running his car off the road, rigging his entrance pyro to go off in his face, etc. Hardy believed it was Edge, but Edge claimed innocence. The match was actually really good, and the finish saw Jeff's brother Matt come to the ring, ostensibly to help him, but in the end waffled him with a chair to enable Edge to take the title (and possibly identify Matt as the attacker, though that's still not been said).

Randy Orton wins Royal Rumble match (winner receives guaranteed title match at Wrestlemania)
If you've watched any wrestling in the last 30 years or something, you know what the Rumble match entails: 30 wrestlers compete; two start, with an additional wrestler entering every 90 seconds; the only way to be eliminated is to be thrown over the top rope to the outside, with both feet touching the floor. There are always surprise entrants; this year they were Rob Van Dam and the legendary (and old) "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan. The story of the match became Orton and his two henchmen, Ted Dibiase and Cody Rhodes, dominating the match. In the end, Triple H eliminated Dibiase and Rhodes, and immediately thereafter was eliminated by Orton. Some highlights included The Undertaker entering, and everyone in the ring stopping to stare in horror; and Rey Mysterio avoiding elimination by walking along the backs of already-eliminated wrestlers outside the ring.

Overall, it was a good pay-per-view. A bunch of decent quality wrestling and a really fun Rumble match. I don't follow wrestling quite as religiously as I have at some points in the past, and so it's always nice when a show can stand to some extent on its own in terms of in-ring action, regardless of storylines going in.

As for the real sports I watched this weekend, it's always nice to have a Superbowl that's competitive; there's so much hype about it, everyone has big parties, and if the game sucks it's extra shitty as a result. So it was nice to see Arizona not going down without a fight, regardless of whether it actually mattered in the end. Not quite as exciting as last year's game, but what can you do.