Royal Rumble 2005 opens with Shawn Michaels vs. Edge. I didn't dig this one too much. Edge and Michaels don't have much chemistry and Shawn really overdoes it with the 2.999-shoulder up kickouts. Edge's spear was in the process of being a credible finish, but because it wasn't fully there yet, the moments when he hits it don't feel like believable match-enders. The match also goes close to 20 minutes, which seems excessive. Edge has a reputation for being at his best when there are tables, ladders, and chairs for him to utilize, but I think with him it really comes down to chemistry with his opponent. Cena? Taker? Jeff Hardy? Mysterio? Sure. But Edge vs. Shawn? Edge vs. Jericho? For whatever reason, those matches tend to underwhelm me. Not the worst match ever or anything, but nothing I'd revisit. (2.5/5)
The Undertaker took on Heidenreich in a Casket Match next. This one was all smoke-and-mirrors with the best part of the match coming, surprisingly enough, when Snitsky ran in and the Undertaker looked to be in serious trouble of a 2-on-1 beat down until Kane emerged from the ringside casket on evened up the odds. That moment drew the biggest pop of the match and it deserved too. The rest of the match was nothing special, though the Deadman did hit Heidenreich with the Tombstone (which was an impressive feat of strength). Running only a little bit over 10 minutes, I felt like this moved quickly enough not to drag and, again, it helps that they filled it with as much bells-and-whistles as possible. Heidenreich wasn't a good worker, nor was Snitsky, and though I think they'd hang around in the company through 2005 and maybe even into 2006, this was arguably their career peak. (2/5)
The show continued with more of your typical Royal Rumble hijinks including Eddie Guerrero stealing Ric Flair's number and Christian doing a freestyle rap mocking John Cena, plus on-going tension between Batista and Triple H (which kinda gives away the fact that Triple H will be retaining his championship against Orton in the night's RAW main event).
Back in the ring we get SmackDown's main event - JBL defending the WWE Championship against Big Show and Kurt Angle in a triple threat match. Very forgettable bout that played out as a real "Ruthless Aggression Greatest Hits set" with a big table spot, the television monitor getting used as a weapon, a ton of interference involving a bunch of jobbers towards the end, and everyone hitting their signature spots but nobody getting the W because there's always someone to break up the count. The eventual finish came when JBL caught Angle with a Clothesline in Hell while Big Show was dealing with two other big muscle freaks who never amounted to much in the WWE - Jindrak and O'Haire - on the outside. This one was even shorter than the Casket Match. (2.5/5)
Triple H vs. Randy Orton for Triple H's World Heavyweight Championship is next. The rest of Evolution - which was now only Batista and Flair - was banned from ringside, which I guess was supposed to make fans believe that Triple H might lose but it seems so clear already that Batista/HHH was going to be the Mania main event that I didn't once believe Orton was going to capture the title. Now, that's not to say there aren't some good teases of the RKO, but ultimately, the only question I had as the match progressed was how Triple H was going to retain, not whether or not he actually would. The story of the match is Triple H working on Orton's knee, but because Triple H wasn't really known for his arsenal of submissions - focusing on the knee or not - it doesn't quite work as well as when, say, Ric Flair does it or when Bret Hart works on his opponent's lower back. It also doesn't play into the finish at all, which involved Triple H countering a DDT and Orton falling back hard and suffering a (kayfabe) concussion, then a ref bump, than a sledgehammer tease, and then an eventual Pedigree. In other words, convoluted, overbooked, somewhat unnecessarily confusing and ultimately unsatisfying. Its hard to review a match like this so many years after the fact because we now know that Orton would need to basically be re-built over the next year before he was back to being a main eventer and it all happened away from Triple H while Triple H would end up putting over Batista multiple times in the spring, which means he might've actually benefited from a stronger, cleaner victory here. For what it was, this is not a match I'd ever recommend or revisit really, but it wasn't too bad. (2.5/5)
Its main event time - the 2005 Royal Rumble! Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit are the first entrants, a nice callback to the previous year's end-of-the-show WrestleMania celebration. Both men last quite a long while, but its fairly clear that they - and eventually Jericho, Edge and Rey - are really in this match to carry the little bit of actual wrestling that needs to happen between the arrival and departure of various "monsters," including Luther Reigns, Viscera, Kane, and Batista. Unlike the Rumbles that would come over the next few years, this one is devoid of any real surprises (unless you count the inexplicable involvement of Jonathan Coachman as an entrant) and doesn't build up a single WrestleMania match aside from Kurt Angle and Shawn Michaels, whose heated interactions are a highlight but also make it somewhat glaring how little storyline development is happening with anyone else. One of the other more memorable segments of the match involved Muhammad Hassan, the anti-American Arab-American, who comes out to massive heat and gets beaten down by every single other Rumble entrant before getting hit with a 619 and tossed out of the ring. The other, maybe less memorable but still awesome, spots worth mentioning was Snitsky's elimination of Paul London off the apron. Snitsky clotheslined him and London basically hit a Spanish Fly onto the arena floor that looked like it legitimately broke his neck on the landing. Later, the crowd goes crazy for Cena and Batista, who both get some big eliminations to reinforce their status as the two emergent stars of this post-Lesnar world. I really liked the double elimination spot too and would argue it was better executed and timed than the Luger/Hart one from 94'. With both men seemingly eliminated, Vince McMahon made his way out - and tore his quad getting into the ring, forcing him to restart the match from down on the mat in a seated position. You gotta think Vince was pissed at himself in that moment. I like the way Cena and Batista both believe they've won the match and toss eachother before the match restarts and Batista gets the definitive win. Just really well-booked and well-executed (aside from Vince's injury) with a crowd-pleasing result. (3/5)
Royal Rumble 2005 plays exactly like what it was - a precursor to better things on the horizon, but not yet there itself. Based on the crowd reactions they received, it was clear that Cena and Batista were poised to be the breakout stars of the year and, with the right booking, be top guys for years to come. By the end of this show, its also obvious that Orton and Edge's potential has been nearly reached but that they too need something to cement them. For Orton, that would be a heel turn and a new habitat (he would feud with The Undertaker in the build to WrestleMania XXI before officially jumping to SmackDown in the summer) while, for Edge, it would end up being something totally unplanned - a real-life scandal that briefly made him (and Lita) the most despised heel act in the company and eventually led to him capturing the WWE Championship in December. By the 2006 Rumble, the WWE would lose both Eddie Guerrero and Chris Jericho, but as a whole, I'd still consider the 2006 Rumble entrants list a touch stronger thanks due to the inclusion of Big Show and Rob Van Dam, along with some nostalgia entrants in Tatanka, Goldust, and Road Warrior Animal. With a Kwang Score of 2.5-out-of-5, Royal Rumble 2005 is a show that falls squarely in the middle of my scale, so I'm going to go with a...
FINAL RATING - Watch It...Remote in Hand
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