Royal Rumble Preview

What a long, strange 6 PPV-less weeks it's been.

Sorry for the quickie preview this week, I PROMISE an actual recap in the week to come. What's important for tonight, however, is that my favorite annual PPV, the Royal Rumble, is about 15 minutes away from starting. Here are some quick picks.

ECW Championship
Matt Hardy vs. Jack Swagger (c)
And we have a PPV debut! If this doesn't open (among the matches listed, at least), I'll eat my shorts.

Winner: Jack Swagger
My Pick: Swagger

WWF Women's Championship
Melina va. Beth Phoenix (c)
Why is Melina getting a PPV spot?

Winner: Beth Phoenix
My Pick: Glamarella, baby

WCW Championship
John Cena (c) vs. JBL (w/ Shawn Michaels)
I've got a bad, bad feeling about this. "The Wrestler" angle aside, I have no desire whatsoever to see JBL with a title. Barring a dream WrestleMania main event like Cena-Austin (or please, pretty please, Cena-Rock), it looks like a three-way match with these guys is very likely.

Winner: JBL
My Pick: John Cena, sober or drunk

WWF Championship
Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Edge
Could this be Christian's debut? I'd love to see it, but I'm not so sure that the attacker is Christian and not Matt. I also don't think we get two world title changes, but we'll definitely get one.

Winner: Jeff Hardy
My Pick: Hardy, only because Edge winning here probably means Edge-HHH at WrestleMania, and we don't really want that, now do we?

The Royal Rumble Match
I look forward to this match more than any other, every year. This year's edition features 7 unannounced participants, and those are always the best kind - last year, one of them won the whole thing. I see this year's coming down to either Orton or Michaels; I guess a Stone Cold surprise is possible, but I wouldn't bank on it. Regardless, they'd better put this on last.

Winner: Shawn Michaels
My Pick: Randy Orton

Recommendation: I've been telling you to save your pennies for months now. Recession or no recession, it's WrestleMania season, baby! Pay per view budgets are meant to be blown in the first three months of the year. Besides, you can always bootleg Backlash the next day.

BUY THIS ONE and have a happy Rumble evening!