Thanks to mason_beer's Road to Wrestlemania FanPost, I've got fantasy booking on my mind.  For me, though, the best booking opportunities always revolve around the Royal Rumble rather than WrestleMania, so I thought I'd toss out a few ideas that I've had percolating. 

And consider this an open discussion. I'm interested to hear what everyone else thinks should go down as well.

Option 1: Super Heel

This is one I've had in mind for years.  It requires a high level heel that plays the "arrogant prick" card to tremendous heat.  In the past, guys that would have fit this bill (at the time of the Rumble) include Mr. Kennedy, Randy Orton, the CM Punk who was leader of the Straight Edge Society, and Alberto Del Rio, more or less in that order.  Some years, there's no one that could pull it off. This year, both The Miz and Del Rio could do so handily, and I suppose you could make a case for Christian, Dolph Ziggler, or even Wade Barrett, as well.  Basically it works like this: The second-to-last guy (I'm unclear on whether that is number 29 or number 39 now; I assume 39 from here on out) is a crowd favorite.  Say Orton.  He runs down, house of fire, dumps two to three guys, and is left one-on-one with a nemesis.  They go at it like crazy and double-eliminate each other before number 40 even comes down (or while number 40 is walking to the ring).  Number 40 then casually struts into the ring, climbs between the ropes, and is declared the winner of the Royal Rumble.  Now, we all know there's a number of reasons the WWE would never do this, but imagine for a moment the heat leading into WrestleMania this heel could generate if he played it right. Bragging for weeks on end about his flawless Rumble victory, how he could not be denied and he deserved it more than anyone else, and so on and so forth.  A fella can dream, I guess.

Option 2: Monster Champ

Pretty basic.  One of the brand champions gets pushed as totally unstoppable within his brand (yes I know this also could never happen because it would require burying half the roster, but bear with me), he squashes the contender in his title match at the Rumble, then surprise enters the Rumble, wins it, and declares his intention to go take the other title as well.  I'm actually surprised a version of this has never happened before; it's probably because the WWE would have no clue what to do with a title vs title match at WrestleMania.  It's also probably because they've never had such an obviously perfect candidate to make this work like they do right now with Mark Henry.  Were they to continue his monster push, this would be the star-making moment he requires to really go to the next level as a viable Mania main eventer.  I'm not holding my breath, though.

Option 3: Daniel Bryan Mania

So most of us still assume that the WWE will screw Bryan out of his "guaranteed title shot at WrestleMania," right?  Right?  Okay, well I do.  And they should ... right before he wins it right back at the Rumble.  Bryan shouldn't even be in the Royal Rumble, because logically it makes no sense for him to take someone else's shot away if he's already got his. (Cena also shouldn't logically be in the Royal Rumble this year but I have a funny feeling they'll overlook that.)  This in mind, Teddy Long, or whoever, should inform him that since he won't be in the Rumble, he still has a match at the Rumble -- they can't just not have a 'Mania main eventer on the critical lead-up pay-per-view -- and his match will be for his Money in the Bank briefcase.  They can explain that any way they want, but it will work because it plays into the fan expectation that eventually he was going to get screwed.  So he takes the match, loses his briefcase, cries, then surprise enters the Rumble and wins it.  He then plays the 'it's my destiny' card right up until WrestleMania. "Even the company doesn't want me to main event WrestleMania but I can't be denied!"  Or whatever.  I'm not a Daniel Bryan guy but even I would root for that.

Sidenote: There's a different version of this in which he wins the Rumble while still holding his briefcase and this ignites a backstage shitstorm with the boys, but I don't feel like plotting that one out in my head right now.

Of course, there are a couple other obvious Rumble swerves still available, including "Guy loses his title match then wins the Rumble to get another shot" but, to be honest, they don't strike me as quite as fun or fantastic. 

I'm sure you guys have some great ideas, though, so let's hear them!

A fascinating article just posted to SB Nation's Pro Wrestling blog, Cageside Seats:

Original Story at Cageside Seats

Sometimes the most intriguing wrestling news stories are broken or teased on the Wrestling Observer / Figure Four Online message boards.  This is one such case, as German sportscaster and keeper of savage WWE secrets Oliver Copp, let the news leak that Vince McMahon is attempting to sabotage UFC's expansion into key European markets in a thread about Dana White's recent ambition to hold an event at the newly opened largest domed stadium in the world, Cowboy Stadium in Dallas.

Oliver thought this was a bad idea for the following reason:

Unless UFC manage to pack a stadium they go into, it'll be a negative for the brand's development. WWE, for instance, is only waiting for a high-profile failure like that to try and mock the UFC. They're already actively trying to get UFC banned in many European countries. Don't give them ammunition.

Dave Meltzer then corroborated the story: 

Well, I guess that cat is out of the bag.

Yeah, very scared of what happened in the U.S., and more particularly Canada, would happen in Europe.

But Oliver would know better, my impression is it's whispering behind the scenes about violence and brutality not being suitable for television, not inability to draw.

And, of course, he couldn't leave without taking a potshot at WWE's official line that UFC is not their competition: 

But none of that could be true, since Donna Goldsmith continually says that they are not competition because one is scripted entertainment and the other is not, plus UFC doesn't know how to make stars, has no stars, or something like that.

Finally, Oliver Copp expanded on his vague original post:

Yeah, WWE's that shady. Of course UFC isn't competition, and that's why they really don't care how UFC does. Just like TNA which also isn't considered competition but who they constantly try to screw with.

The bottom line is WWE don't like it too much when UFC's bottom-of-the-barrel shows still outdraw 90 percent of the WWE PPVs in North America.

And suggests how UFC failing to draw well at Cowboy Stadium would be twisted to fit WWE's agenda: 

"UFC only appeals to a small, socially disturbed percentage of the viewing audience. Due to the violence it portrays, it shouldn't be considered acceptable in any civilized community. When they went to Cowboy Stadium, they only drew 20,000 people. We have had four years of 60,000+ fans at WrestleMania. Our appeal is much broader and we present a safer product."

If you were a television executive, could you see through the BS? They're really good at twisting the facts.

Personally I could do without Oliver's "holier than thou" pro UFC tone.  Sure it's shady.  Part and parcel of the job of being a great promoter, unfortunately yes. It's not like Dana White is above doing a whispering campaign against his enemies, whether it be Pride, Elite XC, M-1 Global, Fedor Emelienenko or Strikeforce.  Dave and Oliver should just be thankful that Vince McMahon wasn't ahead of the curve and didn't nix the first series of The Ultimate Fighter from following Raw on Spike TV in January 2005.

Last week, one of the BE contributors wrote something to the effect of "If Dos Santos wins, he'll have the most impressive Heavyweight UFC record by a non-title challenger in history (I apologize for not remembering who made this point)."  Now that Dos Santos has won, impressively, against the same guy who constituted Carwin's most valuable victory, let's take a look at the UFC records of the "Young Guns" of the division.

I'm not going to outwardly analyze these records and how they stack up to one another; I'll let the readers make their own judgements.

JUNIOR DOS SANTOS:

W Gabriel Gonzaga (TKO)
W Gilbert Yvel (TKO)
W Mirko CroCop (Submission - Strikes)
W Stefan Struve (TKO)
W Fabricio Werdum (TKO)


SHANE CARWIN

W Gabriel Gonzaga (TKO)
W Neil Wain (TKO)
W Christian Wellisch (KO)


CAIN VELASQUEZ

W Big Nog (TKO)
W Ben Rothwell (TKO)
W Cheick Kongo (Dec)
W Denis Stojnic (TKO)
W Jake O'Brien (TKO)
W Brad Morris (TKO)

And, just for the sake of conversation...


BROCK LESNAR

W Frank Mir (TKO)
W Randy Couture (TKO)
W heath Herring (Dec)
L Frank Mir (Sub)

** I didn't include Frank Mir in this breakdown because: (1) Mir is not a part of the "new breed" of HWs that is so often touted, and (2) Mir has three factors that validate him well beyond simple W-L record: He's beaten the champ, he's a 2-time previous champ, and he is intensively working on building his theoretical third fight with Lesnar into the greatest angle in UFC history, which invalidates all other deciding factors.  You get a story like that one (with the PPV buys that come with it), and you make the match.  Period.