The OAO WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Thread

[CBright7831 0]

 

[Lil' Bitch 0]

The Paul London injury angle was a complete work and he was OK from what we've been told. He did one heck of a job selling that nasty clothesline off the ring apron.

 

Credit: Ryan Clark

[Conspiracy_Victim 0]

So...umm... Anyone know where a guy could pick up some highlights of the match, if not the match itself? Yes I know it's only been 5 hours. I would like to at least see London's latest desperate attempt to get attention from WWE bookers, and maybe Hassan getting beat down by apparently everyone.

 

Working evening shift sucks, I would've ordered this one if this had been my weekend off.

[JoeDirt 0]

Vince McMahon's knee was injured last night, but no details are known at this time. It's the type of thing most people within WWE don't want to be caught talking about since the boss has a lot of pride when it comes to this type of thing. McMahon has a rep for not selling pain. Many people close to him have commented over the years that he could be in tremendous pain due to bumps he's taken in angles or back problems he's had, and he would never show it in front of the wrestlers. The speculative psychological breakdown is besides general ego, McMahon feels if he shows that injuries slow him down, it sets a bad example for letting wrestlers' injuries slow them down. McMahon is a workaholic, but not a complainer.

 

-The finish of the Royal Rumble was rushed, which is part of the reason Batista showed a little bit of frustration after the match. The show was running right up against the top of the hour. Hunter vs. Orton ran a bit longer than it should have due to the hard timeframe needed for the Rumble with the 90 second entrance intervals. More was planned between Batista and Cena at the end regardless of the McMahon injury.

 

-Randy Orton didn't suffer a concussion. That is part of the storyline of the match and where they're going from this point with Orton. The concussion storyline could possibly play a significant role in a shift of how his character is portrayed. With Batista taking over what was originally scheduled to be a Rumble win by Orton (months ago, when the original idea was that Orton was going to have to win the Rumble to earn a title shot against Triple H at WrestleMania), Orton has to change to not appear lost in the shuffle. It's acknowledged - even by him - that his character has gone off course, so some moves will be made to give him a new direction.

 

-There were no injuries of note on the show. Paul London was fine after his dive. Others who appeared banged up were just bruised.

 

-There wasn't the usual few moments of relaxation after tonight's PPV that there usually is, especially when both crews get together, since the feeling in the back was more tense as everyone was bracing for the unprecedented Raw/Smackdown marathon taping tomorrow night in San Jose, followed by an immediate overseas trip to Hawaii, Japan, and Alaska with the entire crew travelling together for the next week.

 

CREDIT: PWTorch.com

[tekcop 0]

-Randy Orton didn't suffer a concussion. That is part of the storyline of the match and where they're going from this point with Orton. The concussion storyline could possibly play a significant role in a shift of how his character is portrayed. With Batista taking over what was originally scheduled to be a Rumble win by Orton (months ago, when the original idea was that Orton was going to have to win the Rumble to earn a title shot against Triple H at WrestleMania), Orton has to change to not appear lost in the shuffle. It's acknowledged - even by him - that his character has gone off course, so some moves will be made to give him a new direction.

This is good.

[fazzle 0]

The concussion storyline could possibly play a significant role in a shift of how his character is portrayed.

He's going to be Eugene's newest, most specialest, friend!

[The Mandarin 0]

Awesome rumble, considering I had NO expectations whatsoever.

 

The Rumble itself was incredible. They ruined Batista being 28 on Experience, though. Grisham made a stupid comment, I forget what, but it gave it away. Also, the placement of Guerrero, Benoit and Flair was obvious. Still, I was pretty shocked when it was Batista and Cena as the final two. And I was happy with the outcome.

 

Way better than NYR.

[muzz 0]

Heidenreich is comedic gold.

 

That and Tomko/Christian were the biggest laughs for me of the night.

[1234-5678 0]

The concussion storyline could possibly play a significant role in a shift of how his character is portrayed.

He's going to be Eugene's newest, most specialest, friend!

Or else he is going to start fucking a mop.

[Open the Muggy Gate 0]

The Paul London injury angle was a complete work and he was OK from what we've been told. He did one heck of a job selling that nasty clothesline off the ring apron.

 

Credit: Ryan Clark

Thank God for that.

[bob_barron 0]

after thinking about it; this is my personal ranking of all the 30 man rumbles.

 

1992

2005

2004

2001

2000

1990

1994

1991

2002

1989

1998

1995

2003

1997

1996

1993

1999

There is no way 2005 is the second best Rumble ever. It was too rushed to be better then 04 and I wouldn't rank it above 2001 either.

[Brett Favre 0]

I had no idea the Royal Rumble was on yesterday. From the looks of it, it was great. Too bad Cena didn't win, although he'll still probably get that title shot at WrestleMania.

 

And it seems that the Angle/HBK feud is underway? Maybe?

[natey2k4 0]

yah Definately HBK and Angle is on the way... They started back in back at Survivor Series.. continued to a Japan thing (not sure of the details) and now this. Epic Encounter at Wrestlemania I hope.

[Guest bigm350]

I didn't watch the Rumble but I was wondering what move or thing did HHH do to Orton to make it appear that Orton had a "concussion"?

[evilhomer 0]

I didn't watch the Rumble but I was wondering what move or thing did HHH do to Orton to make it appear that Orton had a "concussion"?

Orton was going for a DDT and HHH blocked, pushing him down, sending him slamming into the mat. Orton hit the back of his head hard (supposedly) giving him the concussion.

[Guest bigm350]

I didn't watch the Rumble but I was wondering what move or thing did HHH do to Orton to make it appear that Orton had a "concussion"?

Orton was going for a DDT and HHH blocked, pushing him down, sending him slamming into the mat. Orton hit the back of his head hard (supposedly) giving him the concussion.

Ahh OK. Thanks.

[evilhomer 0]

Did anyone notice Scotty 2 Hotty and Shawn Michaels were never actually eliminated? Scotty never even made it to the ring. I know they are technically "knocked out of the match" because they are unable to continue, but that would have been a perfect spot to slide a surprise guy in there like last year when they inserted Foley in for Test.

It's a rule that you have to enter the ring before the next entrant is announced (within the 90 seconds). That's why Simon Dean went in when he did rather than continuing his warm up outside.

 

On the other hand, Nunzio hid out beside the ring as 3 or 4 entrants came in (last year I believe). It's the WWE, rules are more like guidelines.

 

I don't know about a specific rule, but it's happened before that if you can no longer continue, you're gone.

[Precious Roy 0]

Paul London is a madman. I've NEVER seen a bump like that before. Real shame that the E's only use for him is Velocity matches that nobody sees and cheap pop suicide bumps. They don't let the cruisers loose because supposedly their style promotes injuries, yet they have London do THAT?!! It reminded me of when Taka was in the Rumble just to take a crazy bump and got a severely seperated shoulder out of it.

 

Overall a fun Rumble match, with the highlights being of course Vince fucking up his knee and JR repeatedly referring to Charlie Haas as "Rene Dupree" and even throwing in an Au Revoir when Haas got tossed. You can't script comedy that gold

[Guest ShootingStylesPress]

I knew Paul was fine, right after I cleaned up my own piss from marking the fuck out for that elimination. He could've kipped up and got back in if wanted to.

[CanadianChick 0]

figures the two 5'7 guys are off to the side during that.

5'7? Yeah, Rey wishes.

 

Man, London's pretty desperate to get noticed, huh? He'll make a great underdog against even the mid-sized guys.

[evilhomer 0]

Okay, after watching it twice, I couldn't tell if the ending was planned or not.  However, it seemed that Korderas and Robinson (SD refs) had no clue as to what to do when they both hit the floor.  Jack Doan (Raw) declared Batista the winner by raising his hand, and right after, it appeared that Korderas was pointing to Cena and saying, "He hit first."  I'm waiting to hear the inside scoop that will no doubt come in a couple days' time.

My brother and I just rewatched it now and saw the same thing you did. The Smackdown refs went along with the decision that Batista won, but as soon as Cena started to get back in the ring suddenly Korderas shouts to Robinson to "Raise Cena's arm"

The refs were what really confused me about the finish. They really did look confused about what to do. Maybe they were trying to build up some anticipation for the obvious, but by the time they finally raised Cena's hand it was gone. The fact that they didn't hit anyone's music added to this. It wasn't the standard ref argument formula that's been done before. Maybe the time constraints didn't allow this.

 

The restart match itself was clearly done on the fly. I think they had a mini-match planned out for Cena and Batista but when they looked at the clock they knew that it had to be done quick. There was virtually no drama or excitement for his win.

 

 

Do you think they'll reshoot the double elimination segment? I wasn't able to tell from the one look I got but simply by the way they fell it was pretty clear that Batista would have touched first.

[cabbageboy 0]

Don't worry about Cena, he is obviously going to Mania to take the title from Bradshaw at this point. I did the old Zapruder frame by frame on that finish and Batista's legs were both down a fraction of a second before Cena.

 

Gee, the Rumble finish being rushed due to HHH's match going over...what are the odds? Though if anything I would have rather them shaved off some of Edge/Shawn since that match seemed overlong considering both guys were doing double duty.

[Precious Roy 0]

After reading through some earlier pages in this thread, I do agree that JR should have verbally put over Benoit more, and it's not smarkdom saying that, it's the fact that he won last year by going the distance, they put the story in place this year with him lasting 50 minutes or whatever, but JR never drove it home. Little things like that add a great deal to a match when it comes to standing the test of time. We all knew Benoit wasn't going to win, and JR acted like he knew it too, which an announcer should never do.

 

They were guilty of this with Edge too. JR never mentioned Edge's quest for the world title, never mentioned how he was a main player in the RAW world title being held up for a month and how close he was, how he missed two straight Mania's due to injury. This is the essence of Edge's character yet to hear JR tell it he's just another victim for "THE MONSTER BATISTA WHO BY GAWD IS SO DANGEROUS HE SHOULDN'T EVEN BE ALLOWED IN THIS MATCH!" the telegraphing of who could win v. who was just fodder was way too obvious.

 

And I'll admit this is nitpicking so jump on it if you want, but Tazz got on my nerves a little freaking out a couple times when Edge did skin the cat stuff which in retrospect gave away that he would be one of the last guys in there, because the rest of the match Tazz could care less about a RAW guy getting tossed yet seemed overly concered that Edge not fall out by accident.

 

Maybe they shouldn't tell the announcers how they're booking the match and just let them call it as they see it.....

[Slickster 0]

[Guest Deadbolt]

How long is it going to take any of you to realize that the only reason Batista is getting cheered so much is because he's against Triple H? It was said in an earlier post. Batista is so over now because the fans smell an Evolution breakup. After the breakup, hes going to lose his steam. Cena on the other hand has built up momentum since he came in the WWE. Watch Cena when he 1st came in to him now and you can clearly see he changed gimmicks, and changed movesets. He developed his character. Batista has done the same moveset since he was on Smackdown as Deacon Batista as hes doing now as Evolutions Monster on Raw. You people buy into the hype JR and the WWE puts on everything. Anyone who faces HHH will get a great crowd reaction because they're facing HHH.

[Spaceman Spiff 0]

After reading through some earlier pages in this thread, I do agree that JR should have verbally put over Benoit more, and it's not smarkdom saying that, it's the fact that he won last year by going the distance, they put the story in place this year with him lasting 50 minutes or whatever, but JR never drove it home.  Little things like that add a great deal to a match when it comes to standing the test of time.  We all knew Benoit wasn't going to win, and JR acted like he knew it too, which an announcer should never do.

Use it to build a little drama as the match progresses - "can Benoit become the 1st man to win back-to-back Rumbles?" They don't have to constantly mention Benoit's name, but have JR or Tazz throw that out there to remind people he's still there, and that he won it all last year. Then, when he gets eliminated, it's a bigger deal for the guy who tosses him (which shouldn't have been Flair).

[Guest Hass of Pain]

Last nights Rumble was one of the most entertaining cards from top to bottom that I have ever seen WWE put on. Everything clicked from the first bell to the last and I don't know if I can remember a Rumble match itself that was booked so perfectly for not just the winner, but more or less everyone involved. There was a ridiculously well written spot that popped the crowd what seemed like every two or three minutes in the Rumble match and it was really just a fun show in general, and WWE needed to put one of those on badly. It's very, very rare that I leave a pay-per-view so amped up that I can hardly sleep when I jump into bed, but last night goes down with Wrestlemania XX, Wrestlemania XIX and the SummerSlam where Lesnar went over The Rock as a pay-per-view that was that good. I haven't seen as many people turn out at my sports bar in years for a non Wrestlemania pay-per-view either, so I think WWE is going to pull a huge buyrate for this years Rumble.

 

One thing that I really liked was the fact that Raw and Smackdown were booked and treated as equals and I think a lot of jaded former Smackdown fans who watched last night might be a little more prone to tune in next week given the strong performances from the Smackdown side.

 

Truth be told, Michaels/Edge was the low point in the pay-per-view for me. I just don't get the massive support for Edge lately. The guy bores me to tears. His ringwork is so stiff and lanky looking and his promos aren't believable at all to me. For a long time his look was the main thing he had going for him but it's like he let himself go too and he's looking almost cavemanlike lately. The match was really good for what it was as you can't blow the audience away with your curtainjerker, but I don't think it's going to be a career boosting win for Edge nor do I think the loss will effect Michaels all that much. Just kind of there and entertaining for what it was.

 

The backstage interaction between the Raw and Smackdown stars is so entertaining and part of what makes the co-branded shows so fun. Christian and Cena were GOLD and it was great to finally see Tomko FINALLY show some personality. His delivery of the word "No" might be his crowning moment on the mic up to this point, which may or may not be a good thing. Cena calling him blackbeard made me laugh as well. Flair and Guerrero were gold, Bradshaw sucking up to Bischoff was gold, Heidenreich and Snitsky's interactions were gold and I would love to see them as a full time tag team if WWE has to keep them around, The Eugene parady was gold, Batista and Carlito was great, everything just seemed to click.

 

I thought Smackdown's title match was not only better, but seemed a lot more important than Raw's title match with all three guys really getting it done.

 

Thoughts on the actual Rumble Match:

 

- They really booked Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit perfectly in the Rumble and made both look really strong.

 

- How about that job WWE did killing Daniel Puder's tough guy rep?

 

- Wasn't it almost pathetic to see Bob Holly playing to the crowd for his one pop of the year when he was stiffing the hell out of a kid half his size?

 

- Even though he didn't win, Rey Mysterio was put over big time as a guy who's every bit at the level of Benoit, Guerrero and Chirs Jericho in the match.

 

- I as always thought he was just kind of a generic big man, but I'm finally starting to get what people see in Luther Reigns. Even though his performance was slightly understated and he didn't do much individually of note, I couldn't help noticing what a good job Reigns was doing quite a few times.

 

- It's ridiculous how hot Hassan's character is already. He could not have been booked more perfectly or performed any better. When he was slowly walking towards the ring the fans looked like they literally wanted to swarm the aisle and kill the guy, and they really protected him well having him be eliminated by 8 people and then getting his heat back punking out Scotty 2 Hotty after the peppiest entrance of all time.

 

- The few Raw vs. Smackdown moments really are something special that make me realize how much I really do enjoy the brand seperation.

 

- The Hass/Benjamin Team Angle spot might have been the highlight of the night for me, and if WWE let these two face eachother at Wrestlemania it could very well steal the show.

 

- He's still got a ways to go but Mark Jindrak has improved in a few ways over the last few months.

 

- Paul London's bump was sick, and hopefully they'll at least follow up on his condition and maybe start something with him.

 

- Flair trying to eliminate Batista is the best comedy spot ever.

 

- John Cena and Dave Batista really did look like the future of WWE when they were standing in the middle of the ring. I like Cena slightly more and think he needed the win just a little bit more, but I think that moment gave both guys huge career boosts. It's a shame they had to cut a few minutes off of the finish because it was pretty obvious they had more planned than just Batista quickly throwing out Cena before the PPV got cut off of the air. I almost thought for a second that Vince McMahon didn't even know who he was going to put over in the match and was gauging the crowd reaction (seemed about 50/50) before he came down, but that didn't turn out to be the case.

 

Awesome, AWESOME show from top to bottom.

[Downhome 0]

I just don't get the massive support for Edge lately. The guy bores me to tears. His ringwork is so stiff and lanky looking and his promos aren't believable at all to me. For a long time his look was the main thing he had going for him but it's like he let himself go too and he's looking almost cavemanlike lately.

Thank God that someone agrees with me about Edge.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Tomko brushing the dirt off of Christian's shoulder was by far the funniest moment of the show, followed up by Flair's selling once he realized that Eddy took his wallet.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

My point is if Batista threw Cena's ass out to begin with, I wouldn't have had a problem with the ending. But they decided to do the double finish, which also I did not have a problem with. My gripe is they restarted the match when it was clearly obvious Batista landed first and THE REFS SAW THAT and they still had Batista win even though it should have been Cena. If WWE chooses to ignore facts, the booking committee is even shittier than we believe it to be.

 

Edit: If they wanted Batista to win, they shouldn't have done the double finish to begin with.