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Falls
Count Anywhere
01-31-06
(Smackdown)
Royal
Rumble
The Rumble show was weak until it came to the Rumble. The
undercard kinda seemed slammed together, with matches like
Brian Kendrick vs. Fit Finlay (Fit pinned Spanky with the
Emerald Frosion) and a bunch of Cruiserweights facing off
with the first pin getting the Cruiserweight title. Kid
Kash, Funaki, Jamie Noble, Paul London, and GregoryHelms
got the pin with the Shining Wizard on Funaki to win the
belt. I’m getting a little tired of RAW guys always
beating SmackDown! folks for their belts.
They showed a bunch of folks drawing their
numbers, which was OK. HHH basically gave away that he was
going to be one of the longest-lasting wrestlers but wouldn’t
be winning. This also basically gave away that Cena would
be winning the belt. Sad.
Mickie
Jame and Ashley had a match that wasn’t as bad as
you’d think for the first half, but then it became
a cluster of a match. The crowd hated this. I did, too.
Ashley tried to grope Trish. I wish I did, too.
Boogeyman beat JBL quick, which is good
because he’s a terrible wrestler with a gimmick that’s
slowly gaining ground. He spit worms into Jillian’s
mouth. Hah!
Spirit Squad and Mama Benjamin came out
for various bits. Lame.
The
Rumble itself was really, really good with a great running
storyline. Rey and HHH started out and it was obvious that
these two were gonna be around for the finish. They were
selling Rey winning it for Eddie, and he even came out in
a Low Rider. Nice. They did a lot of work on a couple of
guys and tossed some folks really fast, including Chavo
and Flair. They let Bobby Lashley do a few spots that put
him over, including giving Kane a Dominator and a Press
Slam on HHH. Good call.
Carlito
worked a lot and got a decent reaction. They brought in
Tatanka, which was met with no care whatsoever. Carlito
and Benoit chopped each other a ton, which was cool. HBK
got dumped with a little interference from Shane McMahon.
Nice entry for SuperCrazy by giving a bunch of guys a Crossbody
off the top. They let Matt Hardy almost eliminate HHH, which
is as close as he’s getting to that one. Goldust is
in! He looks OK, better than the last time we saw him. Shelton,
who is saddled with the lamest gimmick, looked really good
off of winning the Observer’s Most Underrated award.
Orton was the last guy in. Goldust dropped a few Shattered
Dreams to the crotches of guys like Nitro and Carlito.
RVD
got a good reaction on his return and worked really well.
He eliminated Carlito, which was a good way to set up their
feud. The Final Four were, and remember this for Mania time,
HHH, Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton and RVD.
Anyone
wanna guess who went out first? That’s right, RVD
was eliminated when Rey is thrown into the ropes by HHH.
A very nice Double DDT by our good friend Rey on Orton and
H. Rey Mysterio got to eliminate HHH in a moment that I
thought would never happen. H agreeing to that gives me
hope for the future. HHH was in for more than an hour. Orton
goes out with a Hurrancanrana by Rey to win it all for Eddie.
Great stuff.
I really
think they should have saved the Rumble for last, because
the last two matches weren’t very good. Edge did his
best in losing the belt back to Cena. They effectively killed
all future that Edge had as champ. Shame. Kurt Angle retained
over Mark Henry in a short match.
The
highlight was a pair of Chairshots to Mark’s head
and then Angle pulls off the cover to the middle turnbuckle
and eventually gives Angle the drop toehold which sends
Mark into it and that allows Kurt to get the pin.
After that, Undertaker comes out and Taker
does a promo as Kurt is holding the belt. All sorts of pyro
goes off and the RING COLLAPSES! That’s right, the
ring falls apart. Nice touch to end the PPV.
I’d
still say that it was worth watching.
RAW...
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