Royal Rumble 2005 was the eighteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event from World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on January 30, 2005 in the Save Mart Center located in Fresno, California, which is why it used the West Side Story theme. Tickets for this event went on sale on December 18, 2004.

Results

• RAW brand - Sunday Night HEAT match: Maven def. Rhyno
  • Maven pinned Rhyno with a roll-up.

• RAW brand - Edge def. Shawn Michaels
  • Edge pinned Shawn Michaels with a roll-up holding both the ropes and HBK's tights. (18:32)

• SmackDown! brand - Casket match: The Undertaker def. Heidenreich
  • Undertaker defeated Heidenreich after a Tombstone Piledriver. (13:20)
    • Gene Snitsky and Kane interfered in this match.

• SmackDown! brand - Triple Threat match for the WWE Championship: John "Bradshaw" Layfield (c) def. The Big Show and Kurt Angle
  • JBL defeated Big Show and Angle after pinning Angle following a Clothesline from Hell thus retaining the WWE Championship. (12:04)
    • The Cabinet, Luther Reigns and Mark Jindrak also interfered in this match.

• RAW brand - World Heavyweight Championship match: Triple H (c) def. Randy Orton
  • Triple H pinned Randy Orton after he hit a Pedigree to retain the championship. (21:27)
    • By order of RAW general manager, Eric Bischoff, Evolution were banned from this match.

• Interpromotional - Batista (RAW) won the 2005 Royal Rumble
  • The final two contenders were John Cena and Batista. Batista tried to hit Cena with a Batista Bomb but was countered with a headscissors takedown by Cena, sending both over the top rope and touching the floor at the same time. While a dispute by RAW and SmackDown! officials started over who the actual winner was, a restart was eventually requested by Vince McMahon. Batista tossed Cena over the top rope after a Spinebuster. (53:54)
    • Shawn Michaels hit the Sweet Chin Music on Kurt Angle sending him over the top rope. Later on in the match, Angle sneaked back into the ring and tossed Michaels over the top rope. Following this, Angle busted open HBK, slammed his face onto ring steps and locked on the Ankle Lock until referees broke the fight.
    • A RAW vs. SmackDown! confrontation eventually occurred between Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Edge and Shelton Benjamin from RAW against Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Booker T and Luther Reigns from SmackDown! with general managers Eric Bischoff and Theodore Long coming out and rooting them on. The interbrand battle was interupted by Muhammad Hassan. Hassan was then surrounded and ganged up by both brands, ending up in his elimination. Hassan unleashed his anger by beating down an entering Scotty 2 Hotty so that Scotty couldn't make it to the ring.

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

Red ██ indicates a RAW superstar, blue ██ indicates a SmackDown! superstar. A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds.

Other on-screen talent

Commentators

• Michael Cole - SmackDown!
• Jerry "the King" Lawler - RAW
• Jim Ross - RAW / Royal Rumble match
• Tazz - SmackDown! / Royal Rumble match

Spanish Commentators

• Carlos Cabrera
• Hugo Savinovich

Referees

• Mike Chioda - RAW
• Jack Doan - RAW
• Jim Korderas - SmackDown!
• Nick Patrick - SmackDown!
• Chad Patton - RAW
• Charles Robinson - SmackDown!

Other

• Eric Bischoff - RAW general manager
• Tony Chimel - ring announcer
• Howard Finkel - ring announcer
• Fit Finlay - official
• Christy Hemme - Royal Rumble drawing
• Steve Keirn - official
• Theodore Long - SmackDown! general manager
• Vince McMahon
• Torrie Wilson - Royal Rumble drawing

Royal Rumble qualification matches

• Edge defeated Rhyno on RAW
• Shelton Benjamin defeated Maven on RAW
• John Cena defeated René Duprée on SmackDown!
  • Dupree was still allowed to participate.
• Viscera defeated Tajiri on RAW
• Batista defeated La Résistance (Rob Conway and Sylvain Grenier) on RAW
• Scotty 2 Hotty defeated Akio on SmackDown!
• Rey Mysterio defeated Chavo Guerrero on SmackDown!
• Muhammad Hassan defeated Val Venis on RAW
• Paul London defeated Spike Dudley, Shannon Moore & Funaki on Smackdown!
• Kane defeated Gene Snitsky & Maven on RAW
  • The stipulation was that the person who took the pinfall wouldn't be in the rumble, Maven took the pinfall.

Trivia

• The theme tune for the event was "Find The Real" by Alter Bridge.
• When the Sunday Night HEAT match was aired, the match was plagued with technical difficulties. Because of that, it was not put on the DVD despite being advertised as being on it.
• Throughout the night, Carlito was asking wrestlers to sign a petition that would depose Theodore Long from his SmackDown! general manager post.
• Unpleased with his own number (eventually revealed to be #1), Eddie Guerrero notices Ric Flair's number (eventually revealed to be #30) and steals it. Guerrero is eventually forced to return it back to Flair by Theodore Long.
• When drawing for their numbers, Christian and John Cena confronted each other. Unimpressed with Cena's rap image, Christian tries his own battle rap.
• Unhappy over his loss in the WWE Championship match, Kurt Angle finds Nunzio and steals his draw number for the Royal Rumble.
• After being eliminated by Edge, both Tazz and Jim Ross noted that Eddie Guerrero was eliminated due to distraction by Simon Dean, who was "warming up" at ringside. However, this is false. Eddie first got a dropkick, and when getting up was grabbed and thrown out by Edge. Another mistake was made by Jim Ross, when he commented that Chris Benoit had Eddie Guerrero trapped in the Boston Crab when it was The Sharpshooter.
• This is the second straight Royal Rumble where The Hurricane, was eliminated before the man sent to come in after him came to the ring. In short, he was eliminated in less than 2 minutes (at the 2004 Royal Rumble match, he came in at #10). Overall, he has been eliminated under 2 minutes 3 times (at the Royal Rumble 2002, Triple H and Steve Austin eliminated him in mere seconds).
• This is a second year a Royal Rumble match participant didn't make it to the ring to compete. In 2004, Spike Dudley was chokeslamed by Kane, and in 2005, Scotty 2 Hotty was attacked by Muhammad Hassan.
• This was also the second time Scotty 2 Hotty was attacked in the entrance ramp before he could enter the ring. In the 2002 Rumble Scotty was attacked by the Undertaker, but he still managed to make it to the ring and participate in the match.
• The last two men at the Rumble match, John Cena and Batista, became the World champions of their brands at WrestleMania 21 with Cena winning the WWE Championship and Batista winning the World Heavyweight Championship.
• The planned finish for the Royal Rumble match did not actually include both men falling over the top rope. Batista botched the planned finish, forcing the match to be continued.
• The botched ending of the Royal Rumble match resembled the incident of the 1994 Royal Rumble, where Lex Luger and Bret Hart were simulataneouly eliminated. However, a restart of the match occured and Batista won, thus claiming him as the undisputed winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble.
• During Vince McMahon's appearance during the finish, Vince tried to run and slide into the ring but legitimately tore his quadriceps muscle when it hit ring apron. Vince had to make his decision over the match while sitting in the ring.
• This is the second year in a row where the United States Champion was the runner-up in the match.
• This was the second time Batista entered the Rumble at #28. The first was in 2003.
• 10 wrestlers made their first appearance in the Royal Rumble match: Daniel Puder, Kenzo Suzuki, Luther Reigns, Muhammad Hassan, Orlando Jordan, Simon Dean, Jonathan Coachman, Mark Jindrak, Paul London, and Gene Snitsky

References

• obsessedwithwrestling.com - Royal Rumble '05 results
• twnpnews.com - Royal Rumble
• hoofco-inc.com - Royal Rumble '05 review

External links

• Official 2005 Royal Rumble website

Royal Rumble 2005 | Royal Rumble