Let’s start today with the news and events that have happened in WWE and around wrestling since I last wrote up The Master’s Dojo.  First and foremost, as we all know the country of Haiti has been suffering for days now after their terrible earthquake. People are homeless, people are dying from all different reasons. The United States and many other nations throughout the world are sending supplies and going to Haiti to help rebuild that nation.  Bubba the Love Sponge, the popular wrestling radio talk show host, recently posted on his blog a very controversial statement about Haiti relief. I know this doesn’t particularly pertain to wrestling, but it involves someone involved in the industry. This may be what you personally think Bubba, but keep these things to yourself. Your job is to talk about wrestling, not criticize what countries are doing for Haiti. Stick to what you’re paid for. Go ahead and give me flak for this, but I was really disturbed by this.

Anyway, back to the actual wrestling. RAW’s biggest news since I’ve been gone is that we have a new WWE Champion. Not an over-hyped merchandise tool, not a viper, not a proven star at all in the business, but obviously proven enough to be champion. The new champ is the scary, beastly, pasty Sheamus. I honestly was stunned when he became champion. We’ve seen Cena take down the giants before (i.e. Khali at One Night Stand 2007). I thought it would be no different in their match at TLC. But hell, I’ve been wrong before and I was wrong again. I don’t know how legitimate this guy will be as a champion, but I already know he’s a legitimate beast. I understand that one powerbomb wouldn’t make Jaime Noble retire, but that was a pretty sick moment. Now for Royal Rumble Sheamus will be defending his belt against Randy Orton, but I’ll get to that later. Anyway, this guy came out of nowhere basically and became champion. It’ll be interesting to see what happens while he’s champion.

Moving on to SmackDown, it’s always good to see Undertaker as a World Champion. He hasn’t seemed to have had many issues since becoming champion. That screwjob garbage with CM Punk ended, and his focuses were turned to Batista and Rey Mysterio, who are now bitter enemies. Those two have been fighting each other for months now. Mysterio recently got the better of Batista to become Number One contender. I wish they’d bring back a legitimate Cruiserweight Division. If you put in guys like Mysterio, Evan Bourne, Chavo (if he ever got back to respectable stature) and maybe a few other smaller guys, you could have some good television. Anyway, I haven’t been keeping up with SmackDown as well as I could, but as far as I can tell, the Batista/Mysterio feud hasn’t done as much as I thought they might have. Correct me if I’m wrong on that though. The World Title match at RR could be fun, since Rey Mysterio always seems to be beating people bigger and stronger than himself.

Also, Edge, come back please.

I haven’t even bothered to watch ECW. All I know is William Regal’s boring stable broke up (right?), and Christian is still champion. Surprise surprise.

A few other notes here: Congrats to Degeneration X for becoming champions back at TLC. Couldn’t get the belts a few years ago, but I’m happy for them that are champions now. Also, why has Legacy not broken up yet? Or have they? Man, I don’t even know. Although I do know Orton and Kofi Kingston have gotten into it and Kofi went nuts on Orton some weeks ago. I still don’t like Miz. Apparently Drew McIntyre, the Intercontinental Champion, is hurt. Possibly an opening for John Morrison to win the title back? Oh, and how can I forget about that great night a couple weeks ago when Bret Hart hosted RAW? Him and Shawn Michaels putting the Screwjob behind them was an alright segment, Hart making Jericho look like an ass was good, but the end was the best. Vince looking all happy and raising Bret Hart’s hand and stuff; I couldn’t believe it. Then Vince kicks Hart right in the gut. Damn. I would have preferred to see Bret nail Vince, but it was cool anyway. Nothing against Bret, but that was exciting. Also, what is up with all of these former WWF/E stars going to TNA? I’m not a big follower in TNA, I’m not even the occasional watcher, but I do know that Hulk Hogan, Eric Bischoff and Ric Flair have gone over. Also, Jeff Hardy was in TNA temporarily, correct? But then Jeff was indicted on drug charges and what not. Man, what a sad story. I feel bad for Jeff. One last TNA related topic, how did their show go when they went up head-to-head with RAW on the first Monday after the start of the New Year? Anyway, I know this wasn’t all that happened while my writing career has been inactive, but it is some big stuff that’s been going on.

Ok, on to some Royal Rumble coverage. I’m hoping this year we have a great Royal Rumble (the actual Royal Rumble match specifically). When was the last great Royal Rumble? Last year? 2 Years Ago? 3 Years Ago? You can be the judge of that. There are great moments in every Royal Rumble. 2007: Undertaker returns and wins the Rumble. 2008: The same, but Cena this time. 2009: Rob Van Dam returns, and Santino sets a record for shortest amount of time in the ring. There are plenty of guys this year who could really make a splash in the Rumble. One of those men could be Edge, but it seems he won’t be back in time for the Rumble. Both members of DX are in the Rumble, and both Triple H and Shawn Michaels have won the Royal Rumble before, and I don’t think either of them will be going out early. John Cena is also in, and (unfortunately) you can never count Cena out of anything. Any of these guys, or one of the lower level guys (i.e. Shelton Benjamin, M.V.P., The Miz, etc.) could really make an impact or even win the Rumble. However, there is one guy who I like in this Royal Rumble. He’s not officially in yet, but he’s been in 11 straight and I see no reason why his streak shouldn’t continue. I can really see Kane winning the Royal Rumble. It could work out perfectly storyline wise. We know that both Kane and The Undertaker will not be around too much longer. If Undertaker wins matches at the Royal Rumble and No Way Out, he’ll have the title going into WrestleMania XXVI. If Kane wins the Royal Rumble, he could set it up so that he will face The Undertaker for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania, which would be the third match-up between the Brothers of Destruction on wrestling’s biggest stage. This is possibly the last WrestleMania for both of these legends and future Hall of Famers, so it might as well be great, right? But this is all just speculation at this point; we’ve still got to wait over a week to see who will actually win the 2010 Royal Rumble.

There have been plenty of great moments in Royal Rumble history. Of course, the first Royal Rumble, where there were only 20 men and there was no guaranteed shot at the WWF title. That one was won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, by the way. How about that ridiculous Sudden Death Royal Rumble in 2005 with John Cena and Batista. Batista ended up winning and defeated Triple H at WM 21 on his way to Superstardom. How about 2001, when Kane eliminated a record 11 men in the Rumble before losing to Stone Cold. Speaking of Stone Cold, he’s won a record 3 Royal Rumbles. 2004: Chris Benoit pulls The Big Show over the top rope to win the Royal Rumble. 2 Months later he defeats HBK and HHH to become World Heavyweight Champion. There have been a lot of special, epic moments at the first Pay-Per-View of the year for WWE, and hopefully this year will be no different and we will see more memorable moments.

Well ladies and gentlemen, it looks like this edition of The Master’s Dojo has come to a close. Can y’all believe it has been over a year since I began typing The Master’s Dojo?  And I know this is late, but I hope you all had a good holiday season and a great start to 2010. I hope you have enjoyed this week’s article and will be reading again next week. Until then, I am The Master of Puppets, the dojo is closed and I AM OUT!!