Hello:
The death of a friend's son led me to be away from the wrestling world for few sad days so my Royal Rumble Thoughts were delayed. However, I will give you a little bit of a low down on the Rumble now. I will have some strange and interesting news as well in my next column right after this so sit back and read about the Rumble then look for your weekly dose of news coming at ya!
The 2006 WWE Royal Rumble was a bit of a downer. For one, the Rumble itself was not the main event like it often is. This year, it was on before the title matches with Kurt Angle defending the Smackdown Championship against Mark Henry as the final match. Needless to say, Angle worked hard but the match just wasn't a showstopper and left the crowd a bit cold. However, the Undertaker showed up at the very end to silently demand a title shot from Angle, which will happen at the February WWE pay per view, No Way Out, and that helped to end the show on a less sour note.
1 -- KID KASH vs. PAUL LONDON vs. FUNAKI vs. NUNZIO vs. BRIAN KENDRICK vs. GREGORY HELMS vs. NUNZIO
Good cruiserweight action especially from Paul London. Helms won the title after pinning Funaki and has subsequently jumped to Smackdown. The reason that Helms was allowed into the match was because it was open to all former Cruiserweight Champions and Helms, as the Hurricane, was, indeed, a former CW champion.
2 -- MICKIE JAMES vs. ASHLEY --Trish as special referee
Before the match Mickie confessed to Trish that she loved her. This was an awful match but furthered the storyline as Trish hesitantly counted the three to give Mickie the legitimate win. Mickie took that to mean Trish loved her as well. Bad wrestling but at least it continued a storyline and wasn't just there for no reason. Mickie is talented but Ashley needs much more work before she can wrestle a full match alone, in my opinion. Trish, as always, was fine in her role.
3 -- BOOGEYMAN vs. JBL (w/Jillian Hall)
Words cannot describe how bad this match was. It was a squash that ended with Boogeyman winning in less than two minutes after taunting Jillian with worms and JBL playing a coward for a while. Boogeyman is an "interesting" character but as a pay per match, this bombed. I am not a huge JBL fan but he was the champ for nearly a year and he certainly has fallen in the last couple of months at a time when Smackdown desperately needs top talent.
4 -- ROYAL RUMBLE
Throughout the night, they had shown various workers pulling a ball out of the drum and reacting to their numbers but never giving away what those numbers were. Rey again vowed he would win for Eddie (Guerrero) and that Eddie would help him get through it. When he pulled his number, he looked up at the sky and said that Eddie really got him that time. I am probably one of the biggest fans Eddie had and I am tiring of the constant use of his name in storylines but at least this time it was tastefully done.
Surprise entrants were Tatanka, a returning Goldust (Dustin Runnels), and a fresh out of drug rehab Eugene (Nick Dinsmore). The Rumble itself was solid with a lot of action and some fast-paced moments. As predicted, Vince McMahon came out to taunt Shawn Michaels and, while Michaels was focused on Vince, Shane McMahon snuck in the ring and caused him to be eliminated from the Rumble. This obviously angered Michaels and furthered the "McMahons vs. Michaels" storyline.
Triple H drew #1 while Rey Mysterio drew #2. Rob Van Dam, who had been out of action for a year with a knee injury, made his return at the Rumble drawing #20 while Randy Orton drew #30. Those were the final four in the ring.
Once RVD was eliminated, the final three, all of whom had been heavily favored to win the rumble, went head to head. Triple H was eliminated by Rey leaving the two Smackdown stars in the ring. It looked like Orton had the win but Rey reversed it and eliminated him to win the Royal Rumble.
Rey was in the ring longer than anyone ever has been during a Royal Rumble beating Chris Benoit's record by just a minute or so. However, he probably won't be going to Wrestlemania for a title shot despite it all. More on that soon.
5 -- EDGE (w/Lita) vs. JOHN CENA -- WWE Title match
This was decent match with some good spots. Cena won the title back via tap out, which surprised many insiders and fans because the thinking was that Edge was doing a good job as a heel champ and Cena needed a break to get the fans to rally behind him before regaining the title. The plan for many months has been for Triple H to wrestle John Cena at Wrestlemania this year and it looks like that plan is still in place despite the screwy rematch the next night on Raw that left us all wondering what was going on. We'll know more Monday about why Lita hit Edge with the chair and why Edge was disqualified rather than Cena, not that it matters since belts can't change hands on a DQ anyway.
This was a high energy match that wasn't terrible by any means but didn't steal the show. Cena celebrated in the ring and the fans seemed to be OK with him as champ with only scattered boos that I could hear.
After the match, Jim Duggan showed up backstage to say "Hooooooooooooo" to a visibly upset Lita in a comedy spot.
6 -- KURT ANGLE vs. MARK HENRY (w/Daivari) -- World Title match
Not good. Angle is great but he's not that great. Henry isn't a very easy guy to have a great match with and, try as he might, Angle couldn't even pull a good match of out of Henry. It wasn't embarrassingly bad but we have come to expect so much from Angle – and deservedly so – that this match was quite a letdown. Angle won with a schoolboy to keep his belt.
After the match, the lights dimmed, the smoke machine was cranked up, and the Undertaker showed up on the ramp. After some special effects, the ring that Kurt was standing in collapsed and Taker made the sign of the belt around his waist then turned and walked away leaving Angle shook up and nervous as the show went off the air.
This was a very average pay per view and it didn't feel special or have any truly great matches on it. The cruiserweight match and the Rumble itself were the highlight matches with the rest being passable to poor. I would give this Rumble a C if I were scoring it from A to F. I hope Wrestlemania will try it up several notches and give us an A+ show to remember.
Coming up…News you NEED to know and more so stay tuned.
If you have any Royal Rumble thoughts or want to discuss my opinions, head o over to the forum. I am there often and would love to hear your opinions of the show, the Raw after that, and what you think is in store for WWE as we head down the road to Wrestlemania.
In the famous words of Arnold…I'll be back!
Patty
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