Bruce Prichard Reveals Backstage Reaction to John Cena-Batista Botch At Royal Rumble 2005

In an interview with Wrestling Inc, Something to Wrestle With host and former WWE producer Bruce Prichard revealed the backstage reaction to the botch between John Cena and Batista at the 2005 Royal Rumble. It was initially planned that Batista would win, but it ended up being a double elimination. While Batista attempted a Batista Bomb, Cena countered with a headscissors and both men fell outside at the same time. This resulted in Vince McMahon coming out to restart the match, which itself resulted in Vince tearing his quads getting into the ring. Here are highlights:

On the reaction backstage to the botch: “The initial reaction was, ‘F**k!’ The second reaction was, ‘Let’s take a look at it and see if, hopefully, Cena hit first.’ We looked at it and every angle, there was no angle that you can even argue that Cena hit first, they hit precisely at the same time… You couldn’t have planned this better, they landed at the same time so Vince just went out and decided, ‘Start it over, g*damnit, just get them out of there!'”

On a botch during the very first Rumble: “Sometimes it’s not a perfect world, it ain’t ballet, and things are gonna happen, so you make the best of it and you adapt. The very first Royal Rumble we ever did, Pat Patterson laid it out and we forgot to get Rick Martel out. He knew he wasn’t winning, but he just stayed in because he didn’t have anybody to eliminate him. He was still in the ring for a long time and we’re looking at it and I’m going, ‘Who’s getting Martel out?… We gotta get Martel out of there.’ So the next guy we sent down we said, ‘Go in and tell Martel, just eliminate Martel, get him out of there.'”

On Andre the Giant being removed from the 1991 Royal Rumble: was health issues, it was the thought that we’re not going to get Andre beyond this. [We thought] maybe we do one where he wins it, but health issues just weren’t going to allow him to be able to compete in it. Even bringing him out at number 30 wouldn’t have been pretty.”