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Beth Phoenix Reminisces on Last Year’s Rumble Match, Wants to Compete in This Year’s

On the eve of the 2011 Royal Rumble, SLAM! Sports caught up with one of the people who made last year’s Rumble match so memorable: Beth Phoenix.

Phoenix eliminated The Great Khali last year before herself being eliminated by CM Punk. Beth reveals how it all came about and what the experience was like:

“It was a really, really last minute opportunity,” Phoenix told SLAM! Wrestling, adding some background. “Honestly, I put my bid in each and every year, hoping that one day I could follow in the footsteps of Chyna before me, but there wasn’t an opportunity. In 2010, they decided to give me a shot.”

“Being only one of two females that have done that before, it’s probably the most intimidating and invigorating experience of my life. I can’t imagine any scarier experience than, going toe to toe with one man is crazy enough, let alone the off chance of being in there with 29 other male superstars,” she said. “It was a very intimidating experience, but it’s one of those things where I really admired what Chyna had done in the past. I was thrilled and excited and ready to take on that challenge myself. I can’t tell you how awesome it was to be able to do that in 2010.”

Beth also says that she wants another shot in the Rumble match this year. She says:

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Royal Rumble in Review: Sweet Revenge & A Rumble Match Treat

Week after week, we have witnessed Michelle McCool and Layla crack about 10,000 jokes, all with the same punchline: Mickie is fat. As lamented as this “Piggie James” storyline has been here at Diva Dirt, with its fat jokes and barnyard humor, it has been given one of the biggest buildups in recent Diva memory, and it was reasonable to think that they would cap off this pretty silly storyline with a decent enough match, at least to make the juvenile booking somewhat worth it. After all, their match at TLC was pretty damn good. Let’s see if Mickie and Michelle were able to transcend the “Mean Girls” cliches and mature a bit:

Michelle comes out to the ring, microphone in hand, and explains to the crowd that Mickie was a no-show tonight. “Where oh where has my piggie gone?”, she laments. She figures Mickie is forfeiting. Layla shows up in her fat suit, doing the same Mickie impression she did last Friday. She doesn’t get very far, though, before the real Mickie emerges and attacks her. She tosses FatSuitLayla into the barricade, as Michelle looks horrified. Did she really think Mickie was a no-show? Would that be why they left her off SmackDown last week–to fool Michelle into thinking Mickie went into hiding? That’s the only reason I can think of why Layla would come prancing down to the ring in a fat suit not once, but twice, and not even watch her back.

Mickie gets into the ring, and the match starts. FatSuitLayla isn’t quite done sticking her plastic pig nose into Mickie’s business, though, and climbs up the apron to distract her. It works for a split second, and Michelle charges with her boot but Mickie dodges, replaying a similar collision from TLC: Michelle accidentally delivers a big boot to Layla and lays out her backup. Michelle turns around right into a kick from Mickie, who plants her with the Mickie T. One 3-count later, and we have a new Women’s Champion!

FatSuitLayla comes into to check on her fallen friend, and Mickie hits her with a kick that lands her smack dab on top of Michelle. Meanwhile, several babyface Divas (Maria, Gail, Kelly, Eve, and the Bellas) come to the ring with a rather large cake in tow. Similar to what Laycool and Beth did to Mickie a week before, the Divas prop up Michelle and Layla as Mickie plants the giant cake in both their faces, the other Divas smearing it in. Michelle and Layla do a good job of acting horrified and look pretty damn hilarious blinded by yellow cake and icing while pitching a fit. Mickie celebrates with her newly-won title and smears some more icing in their faces, tasting it for good measure. All the good girls make their exit as the bad girls wallow in their “just desserts” (it’s okay, you can boo.. it was a pretty awful joke).

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Royal Rumble Official Match Preview

As reported earlier in the week, Women’s Champion Michelle McCool will defend her title against Mickie James at the Royal Rumble in just over a week’s time. The bout will be the pair’s second consecutive pay per view encounter following last month’s favourably-reviewed TLC match. WWE.com has now posted an official match preview: After coming … Read more