Could 2005 Have Been a Repeat of 1992?

[Little Jerry Lawler]

In 1992, Ric Flair became the first and only wrestler to win the world title at the Royal Rumble eliminating Sid Justice. Fast forward to late 2004, when there was a triple threat match between HHH, Chris Benoit, and Edge for the WHC title. Benoit's and Edge's shoulders were both on the mat and the title was declared vacant by Eric Bischoff. There would be an Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution 2005 in which HHH would win.

Did Bischoff miss a golden opportunity to keep the title vacant until the Royal Rumble. They didn't necessarily need a title match at NYR. They could have had HHH, Batista, and Edge versus Benoit, Jericho, and Orton in a tag team match. For the Royal Rumble they could have HHH win eliminating Batista and you could have had the same WM 21 match albeit a different storyline. Imagine Orton finally exacting his revenge on HHH by eliminating him. I would have loved that type of scenario as well.

So did they miss an opportunity to have the Royal Rumble in 2005 be like the one in 1992 or not? If the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble was declared champion, who you want it to be and why and would it have changed WM 21?

 

[King Douche]

I would of loved a modern day Royal Rumble were the WWE Championship was on the line like back in 1992. I would have it set up were Orton and HHH are the last 2 guys in the ring and Orton gets his revenge by eliminating HHH to become World Champion again. It would of solified Orton's babyface turn and make him a serious main eventer. Cause what was missing in Orton's babyface run was him beating HHH. Orton was written as a pussy, having Evolution take out Orton all the time. And of course having Orton do stupid stuff as a face. If Orton was treated right he would of been a good babyface. Then you still could of had a Taker vs. Orton Wrestle Mania but Taker as a heel instead. Taker is a way better heel then face by the way and he is more exciting. Now even though Orton was face he could of been a badass, cocky, arrogant face like Austin and the Rock was.

 

[litpdwi16]

Well...if you want to get really technical about it, Scotty 2 Hotty won the 2005 Royal Rumble. He never officially entered the ring, but at the end when Cena and Batista got eliminated; he was the only one that was never eliminated.

 

[Arkham Noir]

No, the way they did it was much, much better than the title being on the line at the rumble. The build to the Batista vs Hunter match was perfect, and if hunter had become champ at the rumble only than it would have meant Batista finding another title shot and would have taken a month out of the program.

 

[RicSpade]

If this would've been the case then what we needed to see would've needed to see was big Dave being screwed by Triple H once again to set up the feud otherwise we would've had another press conference via 1992 to find out the man we want to see get the title shot get outed by a man who hadn't been in the main event in months (we all know the world wanted Hogan vs Flair, but Vince knew Hulk wanted out so he wasn't about to give him one more title run) so they set up everything with Flair and Macho.

 

[ashe draven]

ive always dreamed of another scenario like the 93 rumble. where sny one of thirty superstars could become champion. also been waitng for another WM like Wm4 where the title is up in a tourney. situations like this, especially with the title on the line give the ppvs an ultimate sense of unpredicability wrestling thrives on.

 

[It's...Baylariat!]

I'll say that the build that Batista and HHH had was great, but nothing beats the thrill of a Battle Royal being for a title. The question is, who would have been the winner? At the time, Batista was still in Evolution and the way to build the feud with HHH up was to have Big Dave win the Royal Rumble and win a shot at a title at Wrestlemania. If the belt was vacant at the Royal Rumble, it could make things complicated. The only logical way it could have worked and made the feud with Batista and HHH work was to have Orton, Dave, and HHH left, and have Orton go after HHH and try to eliminate him. Only problem is that Batista would be behind HHH and if Hunter moves, and Orton gets rid of Batista...then it would leave HHH to elminate Batista. That would have caused some friction with HHH and Batista that way.

But as far as what happened, I believe the WWE brass considered leaving the title vacant until the Rumble, but realized that it would be hell to make a story that made sense with Batista and HHH.

 

[Dagger Dias]

So did they miss an opportunity to have the Royal Rumble in 2005 be like the one in 1992 or not? If the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble was declared champion, who you want it to be and why and would it have changed WM 21?

I don't think they missed an opportunity because if the winner of the 2005 Royal Rumble would be declared champion, then we would not have gotten the title match that Triple H was in.... plus Batista would have become world champion before Wrestlemania 21. This would have been a bad idea because part of why that match was so great was because we anticpiated a Batista victory at Wrestlemania 21 after what had been going on in Evolution. Batista winning when he did was a Wrestlemania moment, and we would have lost that if he had won at the Royal Rumble instead.... This also means Triple H would probably have won the title back at Wrestlemania 21. Who knows, really. It's an interesting scenario, but I don't think they missed an opportunity at all because things worked out great the way they did in real life back in 2005 and I wouldn't have changed a thing.

To answer the second question.... if they had the winner of the rumble become champion anyhow, then I would have picked Triple H to win it because then they could still begin the HHH/Batista feud for Wrestlemania 21. However, the way they did it in real life was better because Batista's rumble win gave him more momentum. I liked the real version better and wouldn't change it.