Royal Rumble 2007

Date: 01/28/2007

Location: San Antonio, TX

Announcers: Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole, JBL, Joey Styles, and Taz

The Setup

After teasing Cena barely escaping Umaga at the last PPV, here he is getting a LMS match three weeks later. Besides the Rumble, we also had Batista defending the World title against Mr. Kennedy.

Results/Ratings 

Hardys def. MNM in 15:27 ***1/2

ECW World Title Match: Lashley (C) def. Test in  7:18 1/2*

World Title Match: Batista (C) def. Mr. Kennedy in 10:29 3/4*

WWE Title Match: John Cena (C) def. Umaga in 23:09 ****1/2

Undertaker won the Royal Rumble in 56:18 ***3/4

Business Notes

According to Wrestlenomics, this show had 525,000 worldwide PPV buys, down slightly from 585,000 in 2006 and 575,000 in 2005. Cena and Umaga really didn’t do anything at the box office since we’ve seen the result of their two matches and the PPV buys. 

Prowrestlinghistory.com lists an attendance of 13,500 for a $780,000 gate. 

Snap Bumps: 

-The mini-match between Shawn and Taker at the end of the Rumble was outstanding. This was easily the longest “final two” sequence in Rumble history. 

I thought the Rumble match itself flowed well, but the final four of Rated RKO, Shawn, and Taker was excellent. It was like a mini-tag, but both teams worked it well, like they couldn’t quite trust the other one, even the regularly teaming RKO. 

-They probably miscalculated how over Taker would be in his home state of Texas versus Shawn, who was from the city they were actually in (San Antonio). They expected a better response when Taker won, but the hometown crowd wanted HBK. Their response was flat. 

-Who in the fuck thought it would be a good idea for Bobby Lashley’s first PPV title match to be against Test? 

-For a guy who overthought realism to a fault, Kennedy’s basics, like punching, generally looked like shit. The crowd was so dead for the Batista match. I can’t remember an era where Ken Anderson ever even semi-consistently figured it out in the ring. 

-Poor Sandman came out in the Rumble and hit a couple of guys with the cane, and then was immediately tossed by Booker. All of the ECW guys mostly looked like geeks. Shocking, right? Still, eliminations like that and the Sabu chokeslam through a table gave the match some color. 

-The Hardys/MNM match was after the injury, where Mercury’s face basically exploded in a tag team ladder match involving the Hardys. In hindsight, it was probably a huge mistake not to push MNM harder after that and to use it to give them an edge. I’m sure all the politics with Melina didn’t help. 

-They did a Rumble elimination where Booker got back in the ring and eliminated Kane, which counted. I fucking dread that spot. Twenty-eight other guys are pussies for just walking to the back. 

-This was probably Umaga’s best match of his career. Man, he was so fucking good. It’s too bad his issues cut his life and career short. 

Edge was the Rumble Iron Man, coming in at number five and going 44:05. 

-The Great Kahli had the most eliminations with seven, but it didn’t stop them from having Taker throw Kahli out solo. 

The Verdict: Thumbs Up 

Two out of three world title matches sucked, but the other one was fucking epic. Umaga looked like a fucking force of nature, and watching him make himself change colors to sell the strangulation finish, put it over the top even more. Shawn and Taker helped bring the Rumble to another level, and the Hardys/MNM was a good in-ring feud, even if MNM couldn’t win. This was a strong outing from WWE.