WWE Royal Rumble 2008: 3 Things We Hated And 3 Things We Loved

Welcome to another edition of Wrestling Inc.'s retro reviews, where we take notable wrestling shows from the past and apply our globally celebrated loved/hated format! We have done four of these features prior to this one, and due to nothing more interesting than the way things shook out, they have exclusively come from the years 1997 and 2014. Today, we break that cycle, because it's not just Royal Rumble season — it's John Cena Royal Rumble season. With Cena preparing to enter his final Rumble match here in 2025, the WINC team thought it only appropriate that we revisit his very first Rumble victory, which also happens to be a massive piece of Cena lore.

See here's the thing: Cena wasn't supposed to be there. He had torn his pec muscle completely off the bone in October, an injury that caused him to vacate the WWE Championship — ending what was then the longest reign of the modern era — and would theoretically keep him out of action for at least six months. His music hitting when the timer reached zeroes and it was time for #30 to come out made Madison Square Garden absolutely explode while also melting the brains of the vast majority of us watching at home; it remains a signature Rumble moment to this day.

Obviously we are going to focus somewhat on the Rumble itself and Cena's return in particular, though even in that match alone there are things we'd love to spend more time on (check out a 22-year-old Cody Rhodes entering his first Rumble and immediately going after a 29-year-old CM Punk). We'll also discuss Randy Orton's title defense against Jeff Hardy, a "Kiss Cam" segment that features both Vince McMahon's unfortunate brand of "humor" and a tragic appearance from the late Ashley Massaro, and perhaps most surreally, Ric Flair putting his career on the line against current AEW star MVP, more than 14 years before an event called "Ric Flair's Last Match." With that in mind — and with apologies to JBL vs. Chris Jericho and Rey Mysterio vs. Edge — here are three things we hated and three things we loved about WWE Royal Rumble 2008.

I've never personally been a fan of WWE rotating their commentary teams during PPVs/PLEs to maintain brand split consistency. Rotating between two teams for "Raw" and "SmackDown" was already enough circa 2018, but when you add a third one into the mix, it becomes incredibly annoying to go back and forth between hearing various different voices and commentating styles throughout the night rather than just have the same ones throughout the duration of a show. Royal Rumble 2008 is a prime example of why the concept of rotating commentary teams is a terrible one, with Michael Cole and Jonathan Coachman being the "Raw" representatives, JR and Jerry "The King" Lawler representing "SmackDown", and Joe Styles and Tazz being the ECW representatives.

While I respect each commentator as individuals, it becomes a lot when you hear all their voices in one night. It becomes even worse when you have six men sitting at the desk at once to commentate the same match, as they tend to overlap one another and not be as coordinated as they would be if it were simply individuals. John Cena's incredible return at this event was the proof in the pudding, with everyone over one another in the excitement of the moment and it subsequently suffers from so many people all reacting at the same time. It was a terrible idea from the beginning, and made what was otherwise a pretty good event feel a little bit less special.

Written by Olivia Quinlan

I have to admit, this very well could be recency bias when it comes to MVP, as we've just seen him mix it up once again in an AEW ring, but back in the day, I thought he was destined for greatness in WWE. I'm also ignoring everything we know now about Ric Flair, for obvious reasons, but I did genuinely like him at this point in his career, though I, like assumably many others, thought it was coming to an end sooner rather than later, but how very, very wrong we were. The opening match of the pay-per-view saw MVP take on Flair in a "Career Threatening" Match. Even though that sounds pretty ominous for both men, it really meant that if Flair lost, his career would come to an end after Vince McMahon gave him a "win or retire" stipulation, one that lasted for months. The other main thing of note is that MVP was United States Champion at the time, and the pair were going in to a non-title match, which was almost a dead giveaway that Flair was going to win the match.

I thought WWE did an excellent job throughout this PPV with setting up the matches with great video packages telling a brief, but cohesive story about why the likes of Randy Orton and Jeff Hardy were fighting, or Rey Mysterio and Edge. That wasn't the case for this match. It's not that I needed an explanation of how MVP got roped into this, but I would have liked a recap of how McMahon came up with the "win or retire" stipulation for Flair, and what "The Nature Boy" did to deserve it. Instead, we get Flair addressing the Madison Square Garden crowd before MVP's music hit, with Michael Cole on commentary reiterating the retirement aspect of the bout ahead.

It would have set MVP up for a lot more in WWE if Flair would have put him over at MSG. He could have been like any other "retiring" wrestler and went away for a few months and came back, but that wasn't the case. MVP dominated the majority of the match, which was just under eight minutes from bell to bell, but in the end, MVP at least tapped to the best move in Flair's arsenal at that point, the Figure Four leg lock. Flair's selling was still top tier at this point of his career, as well, so it wasn't too difficult to watch.

While MVP doesn't look terrible in defeat, since he still left with his championship gold, this certainly didn't do anything for him. Sadly, at the end of the event, MVP didn't even get a crack at winning the Royal Rumble match, though possibly for the better, since the winner was pretty obvious when he entered at #30. With not much to hate about the 2008 Royal Rumble, this match was just serviceable, but it certainly didn't get me anymore excited for the rest of the show ahead.

Written by Daisy Ruth

Where to start with this one? Well a good place would be that of the five matches on the card and the 38 people that competed on this show, none of them were women. I know this was at the tail end of the Ruthless Aggression era where women's wrestling wasn't really a priority, but you could literally count on one hand how many women were on this show. That's not an exaggeration either as I counted five. Ashley and Maria who were in this segment, Lilian Garcia doing announcing duties, Vickie Guerrero in a wheelchair during Edge's World Heavyweight Championship match with Rey Mysterio, and I am not making this up, Chyna, who appeared in the Royal Rumble "By the Numbers" video package. I don't care if it's 2008, that is unacceptable.

Speaking of unacceptable, this segment made it on to one of WWE's biggest pay-per-views of the year. What was this segment you ask? It starts with Maria coming out and doing the WWE Kiss Cam with members of the audience, all of whom looked extremely awkward and one woman straight up refused to kiss the man next to her for reasons I don't care enough to think about. Then Ashley comes out, revealing that she has been on the phone with Hugh Heffner who wanted to know if Maria wanted to pose for Playboy, something that had become a yearly tradition at this time. Given this is 2008, this got one of the biggest reactions of the entire show.

This then prompted Santino Marella, who was dating Maria at the time, to come out and say that she can't do it, before descending into a "your local sports teams are all trash" promo. This was actually pretty fun as Marella was one of the funniest men on the show at the time, even saying that the New York fans would cheer for diabetes if said it enthusiastically enough, which they did (chef's kiss for that one Santino). However, Maria accepted the offer, leading Marella to try and put her off the idea by having the fat naked oily guy, who many people know as Chris DeJoseph, one of the minds behind "Lucha Underground," to do a funny little dance, and then it ends.

When people you know ask you why you watch wrestling, this is a segment that will make you embarrassed to say you're a fan. Ignoring an entire division in favor of announcing that one of these women has already posed nude and the other one is about wouldn't fly now and shouldn't have flown then. Wheeling out the fat naked oily guy was likely to give Vince "the man who is on the Mount Rushmore of terrible wrestling people" McMahon a cheap pop, with the only saving grace being that this segment didn't have Mae Young in it, which wouldn't have been out of the realm of possibility. Let's just be glad that we live in a world where women's wrestling is taken seriously.

Written by Sam Palmer

The story goes that in 2008, Jeffery Nero Hardy was as popular, if not more, than the man who would become President of the United States of America by the end of that year, Barack Obama. Saying that in 2025 has almost become a meme in of itself, but going back and watching the 2008 Royal Rumble, it is a stark reminder that if Hardy ran for President against Obama, it could have been a very different election year because THIS MAN IS SUPER OVER. For context, Jeff Hardy was my first favorite wrestler, with his ladder match against The Undertaker in 2002 being the match to win a very young me over, but even I don't think I loved him as much as the Madison Square Garden crowd did on this night.

What also helped Hardy's case for being Mr. 2008 was that his first pay-per-view match of the year, this one, was easily the match of the night outside of the Royal Rumble match itself. This bout with Randy Orton genuinely had a big match feel to it that can felt through the screen. The classic face/heel dynamic where both guys know exactly what they need to do to get the job done. Hardy needs to throw everything at Orton, not let him have any room to even try and catch a breath, the quicker the match, the more likely a Hardy victory will be. As for Orton, he wasn't quite in his full "viper who kicks people in the head for fun" form quite yet, but he was near to that, and was all about killing the momentum of his opponents with quick, ferocious offense that could end the match at any time.

That is exactly what we got, a match that almost touches the 15 minute mark but didn't feel that length at all. A breezy watch where everything ramped up minute by minute, Hardy pulling every trick out of his bag to maintain the advantage as he knew how dangerous Orton could be at any moment. Giving Hardy the majority the match made him look fantastic, he grew in confidence as each second went by, to the point where when the vest comes off, he is in his bag and you believe that this could be his moment. However, this is the unfortunately the point where he lets his guard down, and Orton hits quite possibly the smoothest counter out of a Twist of Fate in history for the win.

One RKO isn't a burial either, it adds to how dangerous the champion is, and even at a young age it shows that he has the experience in the big matches to just hit that one move and it is over. I know WWE sort of fumbled Hardy throughout 2008 and waited way too long to pull the trigger on him as WWE Champion, but this was a great championship match between two guys who were at the top of their games on this night.

Written by Sam Palmer

There's no one right way to book a Rumble match, and different Rumble matches are trying to do different things. But two things I think all Rumble matches should at least try to do are (1) use its length to its advantage, but also (b) stay focused. I like a Rumble with lots going on, where a lot of stories are advanced and elimination spots are callbacks to things that happened 45 minutes ago, but I also want the match to feel cohesive with its own beginning, middle, and end. It's not easy to do, but the 2008 Rumble does a great job of threading that needle.

The match is built almost entirely around five stars: The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels (entrants #1 and #2), Triple H and John Cena (entrants #29 and #30), and Batista, who enters eighth but gets the longest overall time in the match thanks to a lengthy Samoan Spike sell outside the ring (RIP Umaga) which allows him to bridge the gap. Those five guys account for 18 total eliminations, and while there are a few other stories that get individual moments, the Rumble is mostly about them. Taker and Michaels hold down the first half of the match, telling a half-hour story that sees Michaels fail at two early attempts to toss out Taker immediately after he himself has made an elimination, only to succeed at the third attempt much later on (hilariously, this obvious set-up for a WrestleMania match wouldn't get paid off for more than a year). After that, it's all about filling up the ring so Triple H, Cena, and Batista have plenty of guys to eliminate, and while the "Who is Hornswoggle's real dad" storyline is extremely weird and not funny in the slightest, it does invaluable work during this period and once again takes advantage of the match length. Then Triple H and Cena come out and we're off to the fireworks factory, with the two of them plus a re-emerging Batista accounting for the final 12 eliminations, ultimately building to a big final three and an even bigger final two.

Interestingly, there are very few surprise entrants in this match. In fact, aside from Jimmy Snuka (RIP Nancy Argentino) and Roddy Piper — who show up back-to-back about halfway through to provide a sort of "legends intermission" before they're both eliminated — the only one is Cena. Obviously that return is massive (it's the first thing anyone thinks about when they think about this match) but I think it's telling that in this case, the one big return is just the cherry on top, just the thing that tips a great match into legendary status. You don't actually need big surprises to put on a great Royal Rumble. They help, they're nice to have, but you don't need them — you need a fundamental understanding of structure and pacing, which is something I wish certain bookers and promoters would take the time to develop in 2025.

Fingers crossed for Saturday; let's hope Paul Levesque also went back and watched this one.

Written by Miles Schneiderman

Going back and watching this Royal Rumble event was quite literally a step back into my childhood, considering I was only seven the first time around, and gave me a chance to watch it with the added caveat of hindsight. As such, there were things that stuck out to me both negatively and positively as my outlook on life has changed; as a kid there was something in Jerry Lawler's delivery that warmed me, but as I've grown to learn the meaning behind some of what he says that warmth has been replaced with a tangible apathy. Likewise, given that we're in the same decade as an event billed as "Ric Flair's Last Match" and it's been established that he isn't all that great behind the persona, I didn't exactly feel compelled by his angle watching things back. But it works the other way too, and that's mainly what I wanted to cover here in my retrospective, just the sheer nostalgic joy that the Rumble match, and specifically the closing stretch brought back. Pitting three of the company's top stars at the time, all of whom have gone on to stretch the definition of success from professional wrestling, encapsulated what the Rumble should be about.

John Cena's return and the immediate reaction from Triple H sold the impact of the moment, and while it was lost on me at the time that he had done the seemingly impossible, Cena was very much the favorite when I was a child, and he remained so as I watched this. In fact, re-watching this drove me to the belief that he could and maybe should win what is going to be his last Rumble match this year. It was very much a playbook Cena run to win it, clearing the field to reveal the final three of him, Triple H, and Batista. But it was the moments that built into such a fantastic ending, with Cena just doing enough to fight off Batista before "The Game" took advantage to eliminate him. That sold the spontaneous danger posed against Cena in the Rumble he sought to win — though admittedly it didn't really matter by the time of 'Mania — and therefore the feat that came with eventually doing so. Sure, by the end of it they were essentially finisher and finisher-reverse spamming a little, but it conveyed the teetering nature of the match and frankly the whole WWE Championship picture at that time; both were worthy winners and it felt well-earned when Cena finally threw Triple H out. As has already been discussed, it was an all-round fantastic match, but this closing stretch was an all-timer, and I am pleased to report that it was just as good in hindsight as it was when I first watched it.

Written by Max Everett