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Kevin’s Random Reviews: WWE Royal Rumble 2005
Loading...WWE Royal Rumble 2005
January 30th, 2005 | Save Mart Center in Fresno, California | Attendance: 12,000
It was a time when the WWE was way into the idea of pushing new stars. After Brock Lesnar left, the rest of the OVW Four were on the rise. Randy Orton had won the World Title the previous August, while Batista and John Cena were on the verge of superstardom. Guys like Edge were also on the cusp. It was quite an interesting time to be a fan. This was the 18th Royal Rumble event.
The opening video package was rather basic and focused on the Rumble match. Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler (Raw), Michael Cole, and Tazz (Smackdown) alternated commentary.
Edge vs. Shawn Michaels
Two of the very best to ever do it. Shawn came out firing and got the jump on Edge despite being the babyface. For some reason, things like that always worked for Shawn. Edge took a more methodical approach. He wore down Shawn with some slower paced offense. You could tell this was still in the early days of heel Edge. He didn’t quite have it down yet, so he seemed to be resorting to just working at a less frantic pace than he did as a face. As the match progressed, they moved on to bigger offense. When Shawn tuned up the band for Sweet Chin Music, Edge cut him off with a great Spear that led to a cool near fall. On most nights, that would be a strong finish. Edge had another Sweet Chin Music counter ready, turning it to an awesome Electric Chair Drop. Edge was reaching deep into the bag of tricks, even trying his Edgecator submission. It made sense with Shawn’s leg being worked some. Despite Shawn surviving all those things, it was a rollup counter, with the ropes for leverage, that got Edge the win in 18:32. It was a bit slow at points, but picked up late. I liked the story of Edge trying everything he had to win and not having enough until he resorted to cheating. It felt like the first big heel step for him, as it showed how being an opportunist was the best route for him. [***½]
In the back, Christy Hemme and Torrie Wilson played the role of “ball girls.” Meanwhile, Eric Bischoff and Teddy Long did the basic “Raw/Smackdown is better than the other” thing. Long bragged that a Smackdown guy won the Rumble two straight years. Ric Flair and Eddie Guerrero entered to pick out their numbers. Flair was happy about his, while Eddie was not thrilled at all. Eddie congratulated and hugged Flair, before leaving. When asked about his number, Flair showed it off and nobody seemed impressed. Apparently, Eddie stole his number. Awesome little angle.
Elsewhere, Heidenreich played the role of almost every big heel in a Casket match. He’s scared of them (see: Kamala, Yokozuna). Snitsky walked up to him and they breathed heavily on each other, saying they like one another. Creepy. Snitsky said he had a plan.
Casket Match: Heidenreich vs. The Undertaker
I never understood the WWE’s obsession with making Undertaker opponents scared of caskets. It takes the drama out of the match and gives the babyface the upper hand. They attempted one cool spot, which was when Undertaker caught a Heidenreich punch into a bit of a hanging Hell’s Gates on the turnbuckle. However, it’s a tough spot to pull off, so Taker could barely hold it. Snitsky ran in to help Heidenreich. They jumped Taker until they tried using the casket, as Kane popped out. I know Kane had beef with Snitsky, but that’s going a long way to possibly get a shot at him. Like, what if Undertaker opened the casket first? Anyway, the only other real highlight came when Taker hit the guillotine leg drop with Heidenreich halfway in the casket. Undertaker survived a few close calls, before hitting the Tombstone and putting Heidenreich in the casket to win in 13:20. Boring match with no drama and an obvious outcome. [*¼]
In the back, Teddy Long wanted Flair’s number back from Eddie. Evolution barged in and HHH demanded the “jumping bean” give the number back. Eddie obliged and apparently also had Ric’s wallet. HHH and Batista nearly came to blows, before cooler heads prevailed.
Time for a legendary segment. Christian and Tomko got Christian’s Rumble number. John Cena came in (and hilariously called Eric Bischoff ‘Burt Reynolds’). Christian, unimpressed by Cena’s rapping skills, challenged him to a rap battle. “Tomko, gimme a beat.” Tomko: “No.” Christian’s rap was pretty funny, while Cena’s rebuttal was just insinuating that Christian was gay. Unimpressive. Christian was incredible in this era.
WWE Championship: John Bradshaw Layfield [c] vs. Big Show vs. Kurt Angle
JBL came in limping. As usual, Show got to play the dominant big man. Neither JBL nor Angle could get him down on their own. So, when he wanted to Chokeslam JBL off the steel steps and through the announce table, Angle came in with a low blow. A monitor shot later and Show was through the table and out of it. That led to Angle suplexing JBL all over the place. Commentary noted how JBL took eight of those in a match on Smackdown a few days prior. Show returned and did the Roman Reigns, tackling JBL through the barricade. That set up a JBL stretcher job. Show had Angle beat, but Mark Jindrak and Luther Reigns got involved. While Show fought them off, Orlando Jordan (who ran in to check on JBL) rolled JBL inside. He hit the Clothesline from Hell on Angle to steal it in 12:04. That was good fun and better than I expected. Going the route of taking one guy out made sense here because of Show’s size. [***]
Backstage, Carlito attempted to get Batista to sign his petition to get Teddy Long fired. When Batista declined, Carlito got set to spit the apple, but decided against it. Batista hit him in his injured shoulder before going to get his number. While he did that, Bischoff barred Evolution from ringside for the World Title match. Batista said he’d go give the news to Triple H.
World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H [c] vs. Randy Orton
Triple H ended Orton’s World Title reign in September after a mere month. It killed all of Randy’s momentum. Orton started hot and got the RKO blocked. That put Triple H in the driver’s seat. He worked over the knee and even stole Orton’s taunt. Though he messed it up a bit and threw in a bit of Sabu with it. HHH worked one of the longest figure fours you’ll ever see. Orton got in some hope spots, but it hurt that the fans weren’t that into him. There were even some “Randy sucks” chants. Orton had a rally cut short by a DDT where he seemed to knock himself a bit loopy. He began selling the effects of a concussion of sorts. That, combined with a ref bump, led to HHH winning with the Pedigree after 21:28. These two never really had great chemistry. This was going well with the leg work, but the figure four went too long and then they mostly abandoned things for the concussion and late overbooking. [**¾]
As Nunzio went to walk to the ring with his Rumble number, Kurt Angle stole it. He dared him to fight for it, but Nunzio decided against.
Meanwhile, JBL and the Cabinet celebrated backstage in Teddy Long’s face. Teddy messed up the fun by announcing that JBL would face Big Show in a Barbed Wire Steel Cage Match at No Way Out.
Royal Rumble Match
#1 was Eddie Guerrero and #2 was Chris Benoit. Benoit won at #1 last year, and both ended Mania as champs. They had a fun interaction until Daniel Puder was next. He got on the mic to brag about being the first Tough Enough Champion to win the Rumble. That led to Eddie, Benoit, and Hardcore Holly (#4) beating on him. Like, it’s widely known that this was some hazing for the young kid. For some reason, the Hurricane (#5) also got a beating. From there, we got a strong set of guys like Edge, Rey Mysterio, Shelton Benjamin, Booker T, and Chris Jericho (#7-11). The guys in the ring had a great face off against each other until Muhammad Hassan (#13) came out. Hassan was so great. Everyone jumped him and eliminated him. Other than Charlie Haas (#16) teaming with Benjamin for a cool callback to their days as a team, not much happened until Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle (#19 & #20) came in. Angle came in hot and put on the Ankle Lock, but Shawn got out and superkicked him over the top. A few entrants later, Angle got back in and threw Shawn out. He continued the attack, setting up an incredible Mania match. More scrubs until John Cena (#25). Snitsky (#26) gave us one of the most famous eliminations of all time, clotheslining Paul London (#24) into a shooting star press. Kane (#27) handled Snitsky, but then Batista (#28) did his thing next. Christian (#29) and Ric Flair (#30) rounded things out. Batista and Flair worked together to dump out Benoit, but then Flair tried throwing Batista out. Edge threw him out, leaving it down to himself, Mysterio, Batista, and Cena. The interactions here were great and Edge tossed out Rey, but got dumped by the other two. The two guys clearly pegged as the future were the final two. Their battle went to both of them falling out at the same time. They played it like there was a question about the winner, but Cena CLEARLY hit the floor first.
Referees were split on the winner. Hilariously, the Smackdown refs said the Smackdown guy won and vice versa. Vince McMahon angrily came to the ring and got in, tearing his quads in the process. It’s funny as hell to watch him sit on his ass as things unfold. Batista threw Cena out, who returned the favor, both staking their claim to the win. The final two got restarted and Batista won at 51:27 without much late drama. This was great and one of the better Rumbles of the decade, with only 2001 and 2004 coming to mind as being better. This had good action, plenty of fun character moments, and the right guys getting showcased to set up the next few years. [****¼]
