DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu – Royal Rumble & Raw Reviews + Roster Cuts
Submitted by DaveyBoy on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 at 8:21 AM EST






THE WRESTLING MENU #216

Welcome one and all to the 216th edition of The Wrestling Menu, the column that is sure to satisfy your taste buds when it comes to discussing all things wrestling.

Well, it's been another busy week for yours truly, but I've fortunately got a few days off work now & should be able to at least get back on to level footing (if I don't sleep throughout most days).

I'm two-thirds of the way through my concert week, with 'My Chemical Romance' & 'Muse' behind me & The Killers to come tomorrow (Thursday) night. At some stage during 2007, My Chemical Romance are touring throughout North America. I do recommend going to see them if you are a fan, especially seeing as though they have got a couple of decent acts supporting them. On the first half of the tour it will be 'Rise Against', who had one of their tracks used as the theme song to the Royal Rumble this past weekend.

While on the second half of the tour the support act is apparently 'Muse'. That's not a support act folks, that is 2 lead acts on the one bill. And while I'm at it, what the hell is wrong with you North Americans? At least try to get into 'Muse' for goodness sake. They are a genuinely great musical group that throw in more sounds than the average rock band. Their live show was absolutely tremendous & I genuinely recommend giving them a listen. And go see them if they are coming to your city, especially those where they are supporting 'My Chemical Romance'!

As for my column, I had another week of massive feedback that I eventually have caught up on. As per usual, I thank everyone who has emailed me of late. Furthermore, thanks go out to all of my readers who have given me great hit figures of late, with my last 10 columns dating back to mid-November averaging over 9,000 hits (with 3 of those columns going over that magical 10,000 hits figure).

Anyways, enough about hits & hits, and let's get on with the show.....


APPETIZERS - Roster Cuts

As I don't think they will have all that much significance on the WWE product, I wasn't totally convinced to write a topic on the latest round of WWE roster cuts, but I suppose I should at least talk about them briefly. So here goes:

SYLVESTER TERKAY: This cut was surprising in one way & not in another. I think the problem here was mainly to do with timing & the balance of the rosters. While he did bring some amateur & mixed martial arts action to the ring, at the end of the day, Terkay was just another big guy that fit into the mold of The Great Khali, The Big Show & even Bobby Lashley. He probably would have got a better push if Khali wasn't on the same brand at the same time, so I think there was a little bit of mismanagement there. But even then, nothing would have amounted from the push & this cut simply would have come a few months later.

CHRISTOPHER W ANDERSON: This signing confused me from the get-go. Even if the WWE went old-school with the ECW brand, I couldn't see Anderson fitting in at all. I wonder if he was simply signed (along with some others) to get some original ECW fans on side... If so, what a waste of money!

JAZZ: See my comments above for Anderson, although I suppose Jazz would have fit nicely into a Women's Division if the WWE had chosen to go that route with the ECW brand.

RODNEY MACK: Rehiring him in the first place could only have been to appease his wife Jazz. I see no other possible reason as I have never been a fan of Mack's work.

TONY MAMALUKE: I must say that Mamaluke impressed me more than I thought he would during his brief stay in the WWE. Unfortunately, he is one of many talents underused due to the WWE's lack of a push for the cruiserweight division, whether it be on SmackDown or ECW. Why Super Crazy wasn't sent to ECW to spearhead this division is beyond me.

THE BASHAM BROTHERS: I was never a fan of Danny Basham & his release is overdue if anything. However, I have alwas been a fan of Doug Basham's as I think he is quite good in the ring, is more than able to hold his own on the mic, while also having above average charisma. The WWE couldn't find anything for him that was half-decent though, so he ends up on the scrap-heap. With the right gimmick, Doug could at least be a solid midcarder & he may be worth a look for TNA.

AL SNOW: Only released as an active wrestler, Snow will continue his training duties for the WWE. Despite being a solid & often underrated wrestler, I think training up & comers is where he is best put to use nowadays.

THE GYMINI: I'm not surprised at this release & I actually don't feel that they were that bad of a short-term signing. They played the prototypical heel tag-team challengers when the SmackDown tag division lacked depth. But now that there is some depth in the tag-team ranks, then this team is really no longer required.

GANGREL: The hiring of Gangrel in the first place confuses me. Surely they had something in mind for him. And while the Kevin Thorn & Ariel characters have taken off, you could hardly say that they have succeeded so much that they couldn't have done with some help. It was at least worth a short, even if it was short-term. Oh well. No great loss (except some dollars) I suppose.

TATANKA: I'm actually a bit surprised at this release, especially its timing. While Tatanka hasn't exactly set the world on fire since his return to the WWE in early 2006 & was predominantly overused, I did feel that he had at least garnered some interest. The type of interest that could come in handy when the WWE required a half-competitive squash match. Furthermore, his recent heel turn hadn't really been explored all that much, so I felt that he could have been at the very least useful for another few months, if only for that short-term.

BILL DeMOTT: The former Hugh Morrus was arguably a Hardcore Holly wannabee & that can't be a good thing! He hadn't been used in the ring for years, but was the head trainer down at Deep South Wrestling. So the bigger story here is whether or not the WWE drops it's second developmental territory & goes back to predominantly relying on Ohio Valley Wrestling. To the majority of WWE fans, the answer is 'Who Cares'?

7 DEVELOPMENTAL WRESTLERS: I'm not going to lie & tell you that I knew a great deal about Mike Taylor, Tracy Taylor, Tony Salantri, Thomas Farra, Seth Skyfire or Jack Bull. The only 2 I had heard anything of was Skyfire (a promising cruiserweight from memory) & Bull (an old-school big man from memory). But even if promoted, they would have been mainly used as undercard jobbers. The 7th wrestler released does surprise me a little though; It's Ryan Reeves from the latest Tough Enough series. You may remember him as the guy who constantly referred to himself as Silverback. The guy had bulked up even more of later & had been improving in the ring from all reports, so I thought the WWE would persist with him a little longer.

I think the most interesting factor to come out of these releases is how many of them are relating to talent from the ECW brand. I suppose this can only mean one of 2 things. Either (1) ECW will not last through 2007, or (2) the ECW roster is about to get a freshen up with Raw and/or SmackDown wrestlers moving over.


MAIN - Royal Rumble Review

For those that cannot recall my previous PPV review columns, this is the key that explains what the final PPV Rating means:

<50: Ask for a refund for not only your money, but also your time. [F] (Armageddon '04)
50-54: Mediocre & disappointing. [D] (EG: December To Dismember '06)
55-59: Average. [C] (EG: Cyber Sunday '06)
60-64: Worth A Watch. [C+] (EG: No Mercy '06)
65-69: Good event that was worth the money. [B] (EG: New Years Revolution '07)
70-74: Very good. [B+] (EG: Unforgiven '06)
75-79: Make sure you add this ppv to your video or dvd collection. [A] (EG: One Night Stand '05)
80+ : Make sure that the video or dvd is locked in a safe & cannot be erased. Memorable. [A+]

THE HARDYZ defeated MnM: Both Mercury & especially Matt (following the Snapshot he took to the concrete 9 days earlier) have their faces targetted by their opponents to begin with. Matt plays the face in peril for a while before getting the hot tag to Jeff who cleans house. The Hardyz go for their old-school stereo top-rope moves, but while Matt hits his legdrop, Nitro gets his knees up to counter Jeff's splash. This knocks the wind out of the IC Champ who then becomes the face in peril as MnM consistently tag in & out, using double-team moves practically every time they do so. Following the ref missing a tag to Matt, the older brother is eventually tagged in & cleans house while getting the crowd on their feet. Some good quality fast-paced action ensues & there are some great nearfalls involved.

The clever ending comes at the 15 minute mark when Mercury saves his partner from getting pinned by Matt after a Twist of Fate, but Jeff gets the blind tag & hits the Swanton for the pinfall. Solid & entertaining opener that wasn't all that dissimilar to the December To Dismember opener between these 2 teams. It was good to see the facial injuries storyline used but not overused here, while the old-school feel to the bout in general was once more very effective & performed successfully. Match Rating…8

BOBBY LASHLEY defeated TEST to Retain the ECW World Title: Test brings a cocky attitude to the bout & Lashley responds with a spear, an impressive throw & a delayed vertical suplex. The momentum swings to the heel though when he throws the champ head first into the corner & then works on the left arm with restholds & a couple of other moves. Lashley sneaks in some offense, but can't sustain a gorilla press slam due to the injured arm. Test gets a nearfall with a big boot, but has a subsequent TKO attempt countered into another throw. Test is then clotheslined out of the ring where he intentionally gets counted out at the 7 minute mark. In a failed attempt to save face, Lashley drags Test into the ring for a running powerslam! The cheap, disappointing & premature finish was not a good end to a bout that was really too short to amount to anything. It had a couple of nice moves & that was literally it. Seemed like more of a storyline bout, but even then it was no better than your average tv bout, which is going to lead me to just fail this. Why RVD wasn't included here is still beyond me. Match Rating…4.5

BATISTA defeated KEN KENNEDY to retain the World HeavyWeight Title: Kennedy brings the intensity even before the bout as he demands the champ come to the ring & then stares a hole into the World Title. An even beginning sees Batista score with a big boot while KK retaliates with shots to the knee. Kennedy takes control as he locks on a strange Indian Deathlock variation & follows this (after some strikes) with a half-crab targetting the injured knee. Once free, Batista buys some time with a Spinebuster & then puts together a decent spurt of strength-based offense while adequately selling the knee. Kennedy counters a Batista Bomb though & puts together a great flurry of adaptive offense (including a neckbreaker & DDT) that even sees a portion of the crowd cheering for the heel! But a top-rope move is countered by a clothesline & the Batista Bomb follows for the pinfall at the 11 minute mark.

Another excellent performance from Kennedy here. He may not be main-eventing WrestleMania this year, but he may be come 2008! I saw flashes of both 'Stone Cold' Steve Ausin & The Rock in him during this bout as he brought a very good match out of the lumbering Batista. Despite submission holds & many strikes, this was never boring & the storyline played out very well. Once more, Kennedy also showed that he has a few more offensive tricks up his sleeve than people think. This may not have succeeded if it was the main-event of the evening the way the bout was structured, but it was perfect for its role on this card. Some may feel I have over-rated this, But I personally liked it a lot. Match Rating…7.5

JOHN CENA defeated UMAGA in a Last Man Standing Match to retain the WWE Championship: The nicely paced beginning lasts less than a minute as Umaga strikes to Cena's injured ribs & we quickly see our first count of the match! Cena's luck doesn't change at ringside as another count follows when Cena is thrown into the steel steps. Back in the ring, a huge clothesline gets a 7 count... & this is all in the first few minutes of the bout! Cena then earns a 6 count with a steel steps shot of his own. Then Umaga gets an 8 count with a belly to belly coming out of a long'ish bear hug. Another steel steps shot by Cena earns a 7 count. Umaga continues to target the ribs, but a 3rd Banzai Drop is countered & Cena hits a bulldog & spinning slam on the steel steps. A 5 knuckle shuffle follows but an F-U attempt fails & sees the champ busted open as his own face hits the steps! Duelling Cena chants see the champ hulk up, hit a nice top-rope fameasser, ram Umaga into the steel corner & then hit a huge monitor shot. But the false finish only gets an 8 count!

To the announce tables they go as Umaga innovatively runs the desks & attempts a big splash that Cena avoids. But once more, the apparent finish only gets a super close 9 count this time. Armando then loosens up the top rope so Umaga can use a steel bolt as a weapon, but it backfires as Cena uses the steel first with a head-shot & then follows up with an STF-U imaginatively using the loosened top-rope for the victory at the 23 minute mark! This was another one of those Cena matches that began inconsistently but succeeded after a lot of hard work. There was way too much dead time (as per usual in Last Man Standing matches) in the opening 5-8 minutes that resulted in the bout being a little overlong, but it's hard to fault the entertainment value, booking & effort that eventually resulted. I especially liked the 2 big false finishes. Flawed, but finally very successful. Match Rating…8

ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH Won by The Undertaker: Ric Flair enters at #1 to a good pop & then Finlay strangely joins him, before Kenny logically enters at #3 as the 2 heels predominantly team up on the Nature Boy. Matt Hardy then follows & then Edge, who eliminates both Flair & Kenny. Dreamer, Sabu, Helms, Benjamin & Kane then round out the first 10 entrants. The Big Red Machine eliminates the 2 ECW men (Sabu through a ringside table that the Extremist had set up), before CM Punk emerges to represent the brand. As the match settles in, The Hardyz perform some double-team moves, but are both eliminated by Team RKO when Orton enters at #16. Kane eliminates Booker, who then goes back in & eliminates Kane (clearly starting a feud between the 2), as Viscera takes his place in the big man department as we head into the final 10 entrants. Hometown hero Shawn Michaels enters at #23 & quickly eliminates Finlay as the rest of the mob get rid of Big Vis. The match does drag a little at this stage, until The Great Khali's imposing presence joins us at #28. Everyone in the ring stops & a hush comes over the crowd. Khali leaves everyone laying & then eliminates Holly, The Miz, RVD, Punk, Carlito & Chavo.

With only 5 men left, The Undertaker makes it 6 as he enters at #30 & the 2 giants trade blows before the dead man eliminates Khali with a clothesline. MVP gets thrown out next leaving the favored 4 ('Taker, HBK, Edge & Orton) to battle it out. Orton hits a chairshot on 'Taker & then an RKO on HBK that sees Michaels roll out of the ring. Rated RKO then work through some dissension to take on The Undertaker & a few minutes of good 2 on 1 action follows. Edge hits the phenom with another big chairshot & sets up the conchairto. But HBK appears from nowhere & eliminates both heels with a back body drop on Orton & Sweet Chin Music on Edge! This leaves the 2 favorites to face off as a busted open Undertaker sits up & HBK kips up. 'Taker brings the strength, while HBK brings the intensity & some pace, as there are a number of nicely done near-eliminations that follow. HBK hits his top-rope elbow drop & sets up for Sweet Chin Music, which is blocked into a chokeslam. A tombstone is then blocked though into Sweet Chin Music. HBK then tries to follow up with another of his finishers, but The Undertaker ducks & rather messily eliminates Michaels for the victory at the 56 minute mark.

The good final 10-12 minutes involving the final 4-6 participants made up for what was a sufficient, if rather drab, lead-up. While we knew it would come down to the final 4, I thought there was enough star-power elsewhere to make better use of throughout the first 30 minutes. But I can't say that anything very memorable occurred during that time unfortunately, while no undercarder or midcarder was given a push out of the match, even those that lasted a while. It was still it's usual fun self though & I really liked the way the match settled when it got down to the final 4. Too often, there is a lack of detail put into this time & the last couple of eliminations occur too quickly, when in reality it should be not all that dissimilar to a normal singles or tag match. There was good use of all 4 men here though, with Team Rated RKO used well leading up to the face vs face conclusion that fittingly lasted a good 7 minutes. Overall, this was an enjoyable match that was more than adequately saved by its finale. Match Rating…8.5

PPV RATING (36.5/50) = 73

Looking at the key, I have basically given the 2006 version of the 'The Royal Rumble' a 'B+' grade & said that it was ‘very good‘. I can't complain with that conclusion. The fact that the failing ECW Title match brought the rating down is practically negated by the fact that my PPV Ratings system tends to favor those events with fewer matches on the card. But the end result is spot on as there were 4 solid & varying matches that could have even been ranked as excellent (9 out of 10) by some fans dependant on their personal tastes regarding bouts. The time was filed out nicely with short & sufficiently entertaining backstage segments & I was glad that there was no time-wasting in-ring segment that I had expected. Overall, a very good event that has acted as a great beginning to the 'Road to WrestleMania 23'.


DESSERT - Raw Review

Having a few days off work means that I can post a Raw review at a relatively timely stage this week (although the Muse concert has pushed this back a little), so I thought that & the fact that this episode of Raw was important on the 'Road To WrestleMania 23' was enough reason for me to point form this show to death for the first time in a few months:

- HBK comes out to open the show & was it just me or did it almost feel wrong that he came out to the DX theme & not 'Sexy Boy'? I guess they're going to continue on with a one man DX while H is on the shelf. Michaels throws his hat into the ring as a WWE Championship contender & this brings out John Cena to a mixed reaction. Just as the banter of the 2 faces starts to get entertaining, they are interrupted by Edge... & then Orton. All men state good cases as to why they should main-event WrestleMania & then Vince McMahon appears on the TitanTron & makes our main-event of the evening for the tag-team titles. Very good opening segment that very much got the ball rolling towards WrestleMania 23.

- Cryme Tyme take on Haas & Benjamin next & I wish this type of match-up would get more importance placed on it. Where's JBL when you ned him!?!?!? The heels target big Shad's knee & then JTG finally wakes the crowd up by cleaning house following a hot tag. The finish is actually quite impressive & sees the heels get the victory. Solid, if short, bout that made me wonder how much JBL actually does for SmackDown with his commentary! JR & King were terrible here!

- Nice look at the first Royal Rumble match ever in the 'This Week In Wrestling History' segment. 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan eliminates the dominant One Man Gang to emerge victorious & I am a little surprised that didn't get ol' Hacksaw a gig this year!

- A #1 Contenders Match for the Women's Title is up next. Melina defeats Maria in a rather short bout. I liked the use of the nice new submission move that Melina used though & it's good to see they are working on her heel character to challenge Mickie James. There's still a fair bit more work to be done though.

- A few backstage segments are up next & they see [1] HBK remind us of Triple H (just in case the DX music at the start of the show didn't), [2] Melina & Mickie have a nice & intense little catfight (I wonder if they are over their real-life tiff as yet), and [3] Edge explain to Cade & Murdoch that Randy Orton is a great tag-team partner (King Booker was needed here, not the rednecks). All pretty good stuff that didn't take up too much time.

- Holy Val Venis sighting on Raw! Of course he gets completely squashed by Umaga in about 2 minutes. But thanks to Wevv Mang's latest column, I just thought back to the good ol' days & that infamous comedy gold that was the feud between Kaeintai & Val!

- Speaking of comedy gold... NOT; Here comes Vince & The Coach! Vince craps on about cowboy hats to get heel heat from the Dallas crowd (The Mavericks must be winning damn them... Go Spurs!). I'm sure JR & JBL loved the cowboy hat comments by the way! Then Vince wastes some more time by presenting some young lady with a poster of himself! Donald Trump then interrupts on the TitanTron to thankfully add some variety & decides to drop bucketloads of money on the live audience! MmmKay... Ummm, I suppose that's as good a way as any to introduce Trump as a face to the WWE fans. But overall, this segment was way too overlong to be seen as entertaining. I wanted to flip the channel before the punchline was ever delivered!

- It's Carlito & Super Crazy against Kenny & Masters up next in our midcard tag-team match of the evening (even though most of these guys have been treated as undercarders of late). A few mis-timed moves at the beginning of this bout hamper a decent, if unspectacular, television match. Needless to say, this match was more entertaining when the faces were in control & Carlito did a very good job of getting the crowd involved towards the end.

- Oh no... Jeff Hardy vs The Great Khali is actually for the InterContinental Title... & we all get down and pray for a miracle! Khali pushes Jeff around for a few minutes & then our prayers are answered as a countout result finally works in the favor of the fans! Jeff keeping the title is almost enough to make me completely overlook why the hell this worthless match was even on the show!

- Some new interviewer with a 1970's hairstyle interviews Vladimir Kozlov & the big guy still loves "Double-Double-E" & is not impressed with the WWE roster. We've heard that one before Vlad... Now it's time to get in the ring buddy!

- A nice little backstage segment between Flair & Cena leads into our main-event for the tag-team titles. Solid back & forth action to begin with & the crowd was right into it. Edge hints at a walk-out, but decides to stick around so the heels can target Cena's injured ribs, which leads to the champ playing the face in peril role. Cena even gets busted open before he gets the hot tag to HBK who cleans house & has the crowd in raptures while doing so. Michaels then counters an RKO & tags in Cena who hits the F-U for the title win!

Afterwards, HBK gets sprung when he is about to deliver Sweet Chin Music to the champ. This leads to the 2 faces jaw-jacking, until they are surprisingly interrupted by The Undertaker's presence in an all-face crowd-pleasing finale. Solid television main-event with an unexpected title change & lots of good byplay leading up to WrestleMania 23.


Overall, this was a sufficient episode of Raw. A lot of things were thrown at us, with some hitting & others missing. Everything that involved HBK, Cena, Orton & Edge (especially the first & last 15 minutes of the show) was terrific in the way that it got people talking about WrestleMania. Personally, I think this proved that a Fatal Fourway is the best way to go (and if they go with the rumored planned opponent for HBK, I'll be extremely disappointed), but that's all another topic for another day. Both of the earlier tag-team matches were relatively good when isolated, while some progress was made with the Mickie vs Melina feud. Umaga is in a tricky situation right now, so I can forgive the squash of Venis. But the same can't be said of Khali vs Hardy & the terribly overlong McMahon/Trump segment. They were both wastes of time & genuinely a reason to change the channel. But like I said earlier, this episode of Raw had a sufficient amount of this, that & the other to make it more than passable.


Okely dokely, that's it for edition #216 of 'The Wrestling Menu'. I hope you enjoyed the 3 topics that I presented today. If there is anything amongst my 2 reviews and/or roster cut analysis that you wish to discuss, please don't hesitate to send me your thoughts via e-mail. You know that I will reply to all feedback. My e-mail address is DaveyBoy123@bigpond.com, but if you are an LOP Forums member, it would be much appreciated if you could leave feedback on my thread at http://www.lopforums.com/showthread.php?t=217&page=3.

I must be honest & state that I am not at all sure what will be served up to you next Wednesday in 'The Wrestling Menu'. It's almost time for another poll, so that is a possibility. And with me being off work for a few days, I may be able to sneak in watching a DVD for me to review. Anyway, the bottom line is that my weekly posting streak stretches to 16 months next Wednesday February-7. As per usual, my column will be posted at the same Wednesday time on the same LOP channel. Until then, this is DaveyBoy signing off & asking you to remember that dinner is best served in 3 courses.


DaveyBoy’s Wrestling Menu. 2002-2007

Exclusive To LordsOfPain.net / WrestlingHeadlines.com










***DIRECT LINK*** Very PRIVATE Shots of Maria & CM Punk MAKING OUT!!

• Quick Links -
  [Back to LOP] [News Archives] [Results] [Columns] [Forums]