OAO Royal Rumble Thread Jan/29th/06

[Guest nokia]

The rumble is a great place to start some interpromotional set up's for Wrestlemania...

 

For starters, how about Gregory helms WINNING the cruiserweight invitational?

[Carnival 0]

Final Four will be Mysterio, Orton, Taker, Trips.

 

Trips eliminated by all 3 SD guys.

Taker elim by Orton

then Orton elim by Mysterio.

[Shooting Star 0]

The Royal Rumble Facts on WWE.com are wrong..they say:

 

"Big Show is the only Superstar to be eliminated last twice (‘01, ‘04)" but it's actually 00 and 04.

[Foshi 0]

I'm excited about the rumble more than anything because I really think there's for the first time not like such a clear cut winner. For me, Triple H, Orton, and Rey(in order of likeliness) all appear to be distinct possibilities. In years past, even if there was more than one guy who might win, there was usually that one guy you figured had the best shot. And I'm not sure if the lack of any run-away certainty of who will win is a good or bad thing, but it's made it an anticipated PPV for me.

 

But officially, Triple H is my pick. I dunno, he just seems like he's been lurking in the shadows for too long. He's had upper midcard feuds with Flair and Show since he returned from months of being gone and I really think he's trying to gain the "man, I miss Triple H in the main event" sentiment. And you know, I can't say I don't considering we've been force fed Cena forever and now in a feud with an out of the blue main event Edge, that I don't miss him in the main event. That said, I still don't think it'd be the right thing to do for Triple H to win the rumble when you can elevate someone else, but they don't always do the right thing.

[Guest J0bber]

Royal Rumble Interesting Facts and Stats from Wikipedia:

 

-The Royal Rumble match was reportedly created by Pat Patterson, who was inspired by the annual Cow Palace battle royal.

-The first Royal Rumble in 1988 aired on the USA Network. The 1988 Rumble was unusual for two reasons: It featured only twenty competitors rather than what would become the standard thirty, and any egress over the top rope constituted an elimination (regardless of whether that wrestler's feet touched the floor). As such, it is also the shortest Rumble, lasting only 33 minutes.

-The first two wrestlers to ever compete in a Royal Rumble were Bret Hart and Tito Santana, who in the inaugural 1988 match drew #1 and #2 respectively. The first wrestler ever eliminated in a Royal Rumble was "The Natural" Butch Reed.

-To date, there have been two Royal Rumble matches were the #1 and #2 competetors that started the contest were tag team partners. In 1989 Ax and Smash, The Demolition began at 1 and 2 respectively. In 1998, Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie, began at 1 and 2 respectively.

-There have been a few select Royal Rumble matches were the #1 and #2 entrants were on opposing tag teams, that at the time may have represented storyline feuds. These situations occured at the 1988 rumble with Bret Hart of the Hart Foundation and Tito Santana of Strike Force begninning the event at #1 and #2 respectively. In 1994,Scott Steiner of the Steiner Brothers and Samu of the Headshrinkers begninning the event at #1 and #2 respectively. In 2001, Jeff Hardy of the Hardy Boyz and Bull Buchanan of the Right to Censor begninning the event at #1 and #2 respectively. In the previous two stated cases #1 entries Scott Steiner and Jeff Hardy were joined by thier respecitve tag partners Rick Steiner and Matt Hardy as the #3 entry.

The state that has hosted the Rumble the most is California with five.

While the #1 draw would appear to be the worst possible number of entry, the first entrant has twice won the Royal Rumble: Shawn Michaels in 1995 and Chris Benoit in 2004.

-The 2002 Royal Rumble is the longest, lasting 69 minutes and 22 seconds.

-The youngest Rumble winner is Brock Lesnar in 2003, who at the time was 26 years old.

-The oldest Rumble winner is Ric Flair in 1992, who at the time was 42 years old.

-The 1992 Rumble marks the only time the WWF Championship was on the line. It was won by Ric Flair.

-Despite being the best draw possible, no wrestler has ever won the Royal Rumble from the #30 position. The closest was Brock Lesnar in 2003, who entered at number 29.

However, the following wrestlers who have entered at Number 30 were the last eliminated in the Rumble: Ted DiBiase (1989), Mr. Perfect (1990), Randy Savage (1993), and The Undertaker (2003)

Superstars have won at #1 (twice), 2, 3, 5, 13, 18, 22, 23, 24 (three times), 25, 27 (four times), 28, and 29.

Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels are the only superstars to have entered the Royal Rumble Match as #1 on two or more occasions. Bret Hart in 1988 and 1991 and Shawn Michaels in 1995 & 2003. Michaels volunteered for the #1 entry in 2003.

-Despite being the worst possible numbers to draw, the participants that entered at #1 and #2 have been the final two in the ring on two seperate occasions (Shawn Michaels and Davey Boy Smith in 1995, and Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in 1999).

-The Undertaker is the only superstar to have entered the Royal Rumble as #30 on two or more occasions, in 1997 and 2003.

-Big Show is the only Superstar to be eliminated last twice, in 2000 and 2004.

-The 1991 Royal Rumble was the first to have a WWF Championship match on the card, featuring The Ultimate Warrior defending the title against Sgt. Slaughter.

-Vince McMahon entered the 1999 Royal Rumble at number two and went on to win the event. He took the victory by rolling underneath the ropes early in the event to lure Stone Cold Steve Austin into an ambush. A wrestler is eliminated only if they are thrown over the top rope; since McMahon rolled underneath the ropes, he still was an official participant in the match), joining the commentary team, and then returning to the ring to eliminate the last contestant (Austin) with help from The Rock.

-In 1998, Mick Foley was eliminated three times in the same Royal Rumble, each time as a different one of his three personas, which has never happened before or since. He entered #1 as Cactus Jack, #16 as Mankind, and #28 as Dude Love. Despite entering three times, he could no do better than the final four, being eliminated at #27 by Faarooq. Because of this, and the abscence of scheduled participant Skull, the 1998 Rumble was the smallest since the original, with 27 participants.

Chyna was the first woman in WWE history to have entered the Royal Rumble match, entering both the 1999 and 2000 matches.

-The "I Quit" match at the 1999 Royal Rumble generated huge criticism towards the WWF that even had the USA Network demanding that the WWF "tone down" its image after it was deemed the match went too far. Interestingly the 1999 movie Beyond the Mat touched on this subject. Originally Mick Foley (wrestling as Mankind) was only to take 5 chair-shots and ended up taking roughly 11. Both his wife and kids were at the arena to watch the match and had to leave before the match ended as both Mick Foley's children had broken into tears after watching The Rock dismantle their father.

-There are only three Superstars who have each won the Royal Rumble back-to-back: Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Stone Cold Steve Austin. Steve Austin, however is the only WWE Superstar to have won the Rumble match three times, although not consecutively.

-The 2003 Royal Rumble was the first Royal Rumble to feature defenses of both the WWE Championship and World Heavyweight Championship on the same card.

-The 2000 and 2004 Royal Rumble matches featured no superstar who won the Royal Rumble match in previous years.

-Maven was eliminated from the 2002 Royal Rumble by The Undertaker, who had already been eliminated (by Maven). After several beatings he took from The Undertaker, the latter brought Maven back into the ring and tossed him over the top rope to the outside, which would consider as a legit elimination. Maven later received a title shot at the Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho.

To those who have compared this elimination as Vader's over the top rope tossings in 1996 after he was eliminated: back then it was the first-and so far last-time which saw eliminations which won't count and therefore Undertaker's elimination of Maven is considered legit.

Viscera (then known as Mabel) in 1999, Spike Dudley in 2004 and Scotty 2 Hotty in 2005 were never technically eliminated from the Rumble. Mabel was taken from the ring by the Ministry of Darkness through the ropes (not over) and never came back (although WWE has officially acknowleged the elimination); Spike was attacked by Kane before he could get to the ring and Scotty 2 Hotty was attacked by Muhammad Hassan. Though neither of the 3 men were technically eliminated, they never came back, so they were considered eliminated anyway.

-Mabel, however, apparently was not scheduled to be in the Rumble match. Right before he entered, footage was shown of him attacking Mosh of The Headbangers, which led to believe that he took Mosh's number. A similar situation occurred in the 2001 Survivor Series when Test attacked Scotty 2 Hotty right before the Immunity Battle Royal, thus Test took Scotty's place in it and eventually won the match. Ironically the same thing happened to Test at the 2004 Royal Rumble where Test was supposed to enter the Rumble, but footage of him laying unconcious was shown with Mick Foley shown to be responsible after taking Test's place.

-Dean Malenko is the only member of The Radicalz who has never participated in the Royal Rumble match. The rest of them made their debuts in different years. Perry Saturn in 2001, the late Eddie Guerrero in 2003, and Chris Benoit in 2004. To this date, all three of them have participated in 2 Rumble matches each: Saturn (2001 & 2002), Guerrero (2003 & 2005), and Benoit (2004 & 2005).

"Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Big John Studd, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar, and Chris Benoit all won the Royal Rumble match on their first try (1988, 1989, 1992, 1994, 1999, 2003 and 2004, respectively).

-At the 2004 event, Test was scheduled as the 21st entrant in the rumble. He was knocked out backstage by someone, rumored to have been Mick Foley. Stone Cold Steve Austin approached Mick Foley as the replacement for Test.

-The Big Show was eliminated by The Rock from the Royal Rumble Match in 2000 and 2001.

The WWE European Championship was defended only once at a Royal Rumble event (1999).

-The WWE Hardcore Championship was never defended at a Royal Rumble event. At the 1999 event, then-champion "Road Dogg" Jesse James wrestled The Big Boss Man, but the title was not on the line.

The 1998, 2001 and 2003 Rumbles are the only Rumbles featuring legal weapon use.

-Hulk Hogan was the only reigning WWF Heavyweight Champion to win the Royal Rumble match.

Jerry "The King" Lawler is the only superstar to enter the Royal Rumble match while already doing commentary for that very same Rumble match.

-Tito Santana is the only wrestler to compete at the first six Royal Rumble events. At each one, he competed in the Royal Rumble itself, and not in any other matches.

-TV comedian Drew Carey was among the thirty Royal Rumble participants in 2001. Drew eliminated himself later in the match after getting a near chokeslam by Kane.

-In each Royal Rumble show they participated in, Hulk Hogan and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin always competed in the Royal Rumble match.

-Kane has been in every Royal Rumble since 1999. He also was in the 1996 match as Issac Yankem and the 97 Rumble as the Fake Diesel. In 1998 he interfered in the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker WWF Championship match, his first Rumble appearance as Kane.

With his participation in the 2006 event, Kane will eclipse the record of seven consecutive appearances in the Royal Rumble match with his eighth. The record is currently shared by Owen Hart (1993-99) and Rick Martel (1989-95).

-Chris Benoit holds the record for being in the Royal Rumble longer than anyone else (1:01:37).

-None of the three Dudley Brothers that worked for WWE have ever participated in the Royal Rumble match. Bubba Ray and D-Von participated in five tag team matches at the PPV, from 2000-2004 (four of them for the Tag Team Championship). Spike Dudley, on the other hand, was scheduled to participate in the 2004 Rumble, but was attacked by Kane before he could enter the match, and thus never officially made his Rumble debut.

-Chris Benoit lasted longest in the 2005 Royal Rumble but WWE instead said that Edge lasted longest in the Rumble that year.

The 2002 Royal Rumble was the last Rumble to feature an Intercontinental Championship Match as the Intercontinental Championship was abandoned in October of that year and was not reintroduced until the following May. The Intercontinental Champions appeared at the 2004 and 2005 Royal Rumbles but not with the title on the line, instead as participants in the Rumble Match.

On the January 11, 1999 RAW, Vince McMahon held a "Corporate Royal Rumble" featuring only the members of D-Generation X and the Corporation. In the end, Chyna won the Rumble by eliminating Vince McMahon and earned herself the #30 spot in the 1999 Royal Rumble match. This was the first of only two times that a Royal Rumble match has been held ouside of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The other time that has happened was on January 29, 2004, when then General Manager Paul Heyman announced a "SmackDown! Royal Rumble", which would determine the challenger for the WWE Championship at that year's No Way Out. This variation of the Royal Rumble match featured only 15 participants instead of the usual 30, but otherwise the rules were identical to the standard Royal Rumble match. The winner of that match was Eddie Guerrero, who went on to win the WWE Championship at No Way Out.

-The record for the elimination requiring the largest number of "eliminators" was set in 1994 when Mabel was eliminated by 7 other superstars. Following him are Earthquake in 1990, Rikishi in 2000, and Muhammad Hassan in 2005, who were eliminated by 6 superstars at the same time. Tied in third place are Crush in 1994, Diesel also in 1994, and Kurrgan in 1998, all eliminated by 4 superstars.

-Even though many tag teams have particpated in the Royal Rumble, most of the time their members draw numbers away from each other or one of them has been eliminated by the time the other one enters the Rumble. The team with the best "luck" when drawing entry numbers was the Hardy Boyz, who in both of their Rumble appearances as a team were, at most, one entry number away from each other. In 2001, Jeff drew #1 and Matt was #3; and in 2002, Matt drew #9 while Jeff was #10. Even when they were not a team anymore, the Hardy brothers were always close to each other in their entry numbers, as in the 2003 Rumble Matt drew #13 and Jeff drew #15. In 1990 however Demolition members Ax and Smash drew the first two numbers, and true to their gimmick fought each other until the third entrant André the Giant joined the match, where they teamed up against him.

-Twelve different competitors have competed in more than one opening match in the Rumble event's history. Buh Buh Ray Dudley and D-Von Dudley opened up the 2001, 2002, and 2004 Rumbles in tag team action. The other ten were Jim Neidhart (1989, 1992), Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau (1989, 1990), Shawn Michaels (1991, 2005), Kato and Tanaka (1991, 1992), Jeff Jarrett (1995, 1996), Goldust (1997, 1998), Tazz (2000, 2002), and Edge (2001, 2005

[SuperJerk 0]

There's gonna be a Rumble tonight...

[Dr. Zaius 0]

There's gonna be a Rumble tonight...

A very Royal Rumble?

[SuperJerk 0]

There's gonna be a Rumble tonight...

A very Royal Rumble?

That's right!

[Epic Reine 0]

There are only 27 spots announced for the Rumble which leaves 3 mystery entrant.

 

Let the Brock Lesnar speculation begin.

[haVoc 0]

The three open spots will probably be the Undertaker, Tatanka and Goldust.

[bob_barron 0]

The three remaining slots will be the wrestlers Bret Hart has picked to lead the invasion.

[Guest Princess Leena]

Cena, Vince, Undertaker or Henry.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Steph and unnamed Levesque fetus will take up two of those three spots.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

I gotta believe Undertaker is one. I've heard rumors Goldust is going to be in it. I doubt the other spot is going to be anyone. Only real surprise I could see is maybe Chris Jericho showing up for a one-off appearance, or maybe Mick Foley. It's not going to be Lesnar or anyone meaningful like that. My guess it will be another jobber from Smackdown to fill out their jobberriffic side of the Rumble...

[cabbageboy 0]

When predicting the Rumble I always ask myself "Who are the most over guys in the match?" Tonight I'd say the two most over guys in the match will be Rey and RVD. Traditionally heels don't win the Rumble since it'd be 60 some minutes to produce a winner people don't like (the 1993 Rumble is a great example of why that sucks).

 

HHH could well pull a power play but right now his feasible matchup is with Cena and I don't think Cena gets the belt back tonight. They can easily do that at WM anyway as a non title match.

 

Edge said something this week on Raw that stayed with me, it was during his "I am not a transition champion!" rant. He said something like "After I get done beating Cena you people will have to find another overrated piece of crap to get behind." I couldn't help but think he was referring to RVD with that statement. Am I the only one who picked up on this? Who else could he be referring to? I can't see it being HHH, who would never let himself be referred to as an "overrated piece of crap" on TV.

[Epic Reine 0]

I can't see anyone from Raw winning the Rumble this year. No way in heel are they gonna let RVD win it.

 

It's either gonna be Rey or Ortonbut I'm leaning more towards Rey but then again, Rey/Angle or Rey/Henry at Mania doesn't scream big time Wrestlemania match to me.

[Guest OKCoyote]

There won't be any major surprises. RVD would have been the major surprise but they're hyping it instead for ratings.

 

Instead we might see a minor surprise (Haas).

 

I think Mysterio's winning this Rumble, and I think the last man eliminated will be Mark Henry (who will find his way into this match after failing to beat Angle). They've been hyping the last couple weeks how Mysterio gets THIS close to beating Henry but just can't put him away.

[Downhome 0]

Everyone, try to pick out all of the errors in this Wikipedia post from above:

 

Royal Rumble Interesting Facts and Stats from Wikipedia:

 

-The oldest Rumble winner is Ric Flair in 1992, who at the time was 42 years old.

 

Nope - Vince McMahon won the Rumble in 1999, and he was 53 I do believe.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Mark Henry losing to Angle but winning the Rumble and the PPV closing with him laughing manically with Styles and Tazz talking about how the apocalypse is nigh would be fitting.

[naiwf 0]

Mark Henry losing to Angle but winning the Rumble and the PPV closing with him laughing manically with Styles and Tazz talking about how the apocalypse is nigh would be fitting.

 

I'd buy it just to see the marks at another board have their heads explode simultaneously beneath the weight of Henry's sheer awesomeness.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I'm considering ordering the PPV tonight now because I have this weird idea in my head that Angle/Henry is going to be a *** 1/2 affair that will have people scratching their heads as to how it all happened.

[JHawk 0]

I could have sworn Mabel went over the top rope in 1999.

 

My official pick is Rey, and if Orton or Triple H win it I'll probably cry.

[gWIL 0]

I'm actually excited for this PPV, 2 title matches were the winner is unclear and the Rumble also with the winner unclear. I have but one thing to say... Go Mark Henry!

[SuperJerk 0]

Given his clean job to Benoit, and how he's about to enter a feud with Booker T, I really can't see Randy Orton winning the Rumble.

[naiwf 0]

I don't think he'll win it either, but I still think the WWE will let him co-Main Event WM even though Rey will likely win the Rumble, just because they're that retarded. If that's the plan, just let HHH win and make the crowd suffer for 25 minutes tomorrow night as he gloats.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

I don't think he'll win it either, but I still think the WWE will let him co-Main Event WM even though Rey will likely win the Rumble, just because they're that retarded

 

I could see Orton/Rey being a legitimate possibility at this point for the Smackdown Main Event. Orton really has credibility issues at this point though. I know Rey has just lost twice to Henry, but he always had that underdog vibe going for him so it would hurt a lot less than Orton tapping clean to Benoit and getting crushed by Undertaker.

[Epic Reine 0]

Orton always seems to lose steam going into Mania around Rumble time.

[naiwf 0]

Orton/Rey for the next # 1 contender would be fine at WM provided they eliminate each other tonight. I just think that Rey wins tonight, loses the title shot to Orton at NWO and Orton/Angle is going to be the match they try to build to as the SD showpiece which makes no sense to me. If they go this route then Rey goes from the biggest win of his life right back to the midcard at the biggest event of the year, which is so stupid it's probably the plan they will most likely go for. They also would probably try to put Rey over Henry there to give him back his heat, foolishly thinking that a win over Mark is the same as headlining WM.

[Dobbs 3K 0]

To be fair to Mark Henry, I think most of his matches have been decent since his return (granted, they've been with some good workers). It's not like he's the second coming of Big Van Vader, but I don't think he's a terrible big man worker at this point.

[Guest J0bber]

I hope Mysterio doesn't win. How can a little shrimp win a 30 man Royal Rumble? I just don't see it happening. Maybe, if he had to beat one big man like Mark Henry, it's believable, but not more. It's dumb how they have built Mysterio and Chavo's current characters around the deceased Eddie Guerrero. It's been over two months already.

 

Did the "E" do that for Owen? Nope, but they should of since common sense says they would have felt more guilty for Owen's death than Eddie's.

 

Why is Henry in the World Title picture? I know he's a relatively new face in the picture, but come on. He comes back and within two weeks he is the number one contender. Hopefully, he gets buried tonight.

 

As for Triple H winning the Royal Rumble, I have no problem with it. As a matter of fact, I hope he wins since HHH/Edge and HHH/Cena would both be interesting matches for WM.