WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Review

Match 1: Edge vs. Shawn Michaels
The established superstar in Shawn Michaels opens up the night against the up and coming superstar in Edge. Feels weird typing that out. It's interesting to see how their chemistry together here started. If you watch their matches in the years after this, they just gelled so nicely. However, it felt like a bit of a sluggish match for their standards. Then again, Edge hadn't established himself as one of the best wrestlers in the world just yet. They still did a fantastic job and the match was definitely a good one. Michaels, even in 2005, was a joy to watch. He perfectly spaces out his moves and lets Edge get in a good amount of offense. Edge eventually scored the win after getting some help from the ropes.
Winner: Edge
Rating: ***1/4

Match 2: Casket - Heidenreich vs. The Undertaker
Heidenreich hates caskets. And here we are. The Undertaker is his opponent and must put The Undertaker in the casket. I can't believe I'm watching this 11 years later for my review. Regardless, they centered the match around Heidenreich's fear of the damn casket. They had a pretty lackluster match going on and when Undertaker looked to be in complete control, Snitsky came to Heidenreich's aid. However, Kane emerged from the casket and fought Snitsky away. Meanwhile, Heidenreich pushes the casket away with ease. Funny considering the announcers just said the thing must weigh over 500 pounds. Undertaker would later hit a Tombstone and placed Heidenreich away in the casket. Wasn't as bad as I expected but don't get it twisted, I won't be watching this again any time soon.
Winner: The Undertaker
Rating: *1/4

Match 3: WWE Championship - JBL (c) vs. The Big Show vs. Kurt Angle
Sometimes, you need a cluster of a match and guess what, these guys delivered that with an exclamation point. Both JBL and Kurt Angle are nursing injuries from their encounter on SmackDown three days prior. The Big Show has the definitive advantage here but carnage basically breaks through between the three. Awesome spots from this triple threat match that saw Big Show fall through a table and JBL get slammed through the barricade at ringside. That's where the match began to end as Angle has Mark Jindak & Luther Reigns come out for assistance as they take out Big Show away from the equation. However, JBL is able to get back into the ring with help from his Cabinet where he lands a nasty Clothesline from Hell on Angle to retain the title. Great triple threat match that allows JBL to sneak away as the champion once again.
Winner: JBL
Rating: ***1/2

Match 4: World Heavyweight Championship - Triple H (c) vs. Randy Orton
The heat between Triple H and Batista is nearing its boiling point. However, Triple H must put their beef aside and focus on Randy Orton as Evolution is banned from ringside for this match. Orton was booked as a chump following his 2004 title reign and while he lost the match here, I thought that he at least came off as a pretty strong challenger. Great wrestling from the first bell as Triple H reminds us how great he is at telling a story. Working on the leg of Orton and looking cerebral in doing his best to destroy Orton from moving at all. Things really heated up when the referee got knocked down and Triple H brought in his sledgehammer and looked to have a field day against Orton. Orton already looks like he had gotten the crap kicked out of him. However, Orton doesn't allow Triple H to use the sledgehammer but still gets hit with a Pedigree. Orton needs to reset after this loss, always an essential when someone is booked to early to become champion. Like I said, Randy Orton put up a worthy fight but he goes to the back of the line after this.
Winner: Triple H
Rating: ****1/4

Match 5: 2005 Royal Rumble
This was probably one of the best constructed Royal Rumble matches of all time. They started the match off with Eddie Guerrero taking on Chris Benoit before letting loose some jobbers so the focus was mainly on them. The Rumble is a perfect time to draw lines for feuds headed into WrestleMania and the perfect start for one came when Kurt Angle rushed towards the ring and delivered suplex after suplex. This was only before getting hit with a Sweet Chin Music by Shawn Michaels. Angle rushed back into the ring, threw out Michaels, and beat the living daylights out of him as blood ran down the face of HBK. So awesome. There was never really a dull moment in this match and they were able to get their stories across. It was SmackDown vs. Raw at one point, it was Muhammad Hassan getting eliminated by all the competitors, and most importantly, it was a match that saw the dawn of a new era. Gone were Brock Lesnar, The Rock, and Stone Cold Austin. Instead, our final four guys consisted of Rey Mysterio, Edge, Batista, and John Cena. However, the SmackDown vs. Raw story intertwined in the very end as it came down to Batista and John Cena. Batista hoisted up Cena for a Batista Bomb but the two ended up falling out of the ring simultaneously. The Raw referees declared Batista the winner while the SmackDown referees declared Cena the winner. Nice touch. Mr. McMahon then came out to the ring and restarted the match where Batista quickly eliminated Cena. Epic win and an epic road for Batista to WrestleMania 21.
Winner: Batista
Rating: ****1/4

Overall Show Thoughts and Rating:
This was one of the more memorable Royal Rumble events that have come about in the past 15 years or so. This show also had one of the better undercards aside from the Casket match with Triple H vs. Randy Orton being the focal point. The Royal Rumble match delivered on so many levels and also marked the start of a brand new era.
Rating: 8/10