After all the speculation as to whether Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore would appear in the Royal Rumble match, the two SmackDown stars wrestled in a dark match and defeated Deuce and Domino.
In a great marketing move, the UFC purchased ads on the large video screen outside of Madison Square Garden to promote upcoming events, including Brock Lesnarâs debut this weekend.
There was a huge “Letâs Go Giants” chant before the show started.
Thanks to reader Joseph Santangelo for sending this in:
First of all the line to get in the garden was stretched all around the building.
One we got in we were able to buy a program for $15. It showed every single WWE superstar on the roster but Lashley was not in there.
TNA sent ALOT of people around the building to hand out flyers for the house show in NYC in February.
The place was packed from the start.
Ironically Cena was heavily booed in the Wrestlemania 23 video package that was shown.
The dark match was Deuce n’ Domino vs Jimmy Yang and Shannon Moore. Basically the high flyers got some short quick offence and won a good 6-8 minute dark match to warm up the crowd.
Right after the dark match there was a loud WOOOOO played over the loudspeaker that everyone thought was Ric Flair but just turned out to be a VERY well done video package about his career.
The opening pyro was awesome.
The Flair/MVP match had good heat. There were tons of woooooooo’s and the only thing that I would have to say bad was that it was a little to short for me. The figure Four got a big pop.
The Y2J pyro was amazing. JBL had a ton of heat and both guys entrances were great and had some good heat. That was until the match started. It was a pretty boring match for most people. The post match hanging got a huge pop.
The Edge/Rey match was really fun. Edge was super over and the finish was really good but it did make Rey look kind of weak. Rey got Cena heat with him only being cheered by little kids.
The Santino skit was really funny and had me even chanting “lets go giants”. He is a tremendous character.
Ok I was MAJORLY disappointed that we did not get that big MSG moment with Jeff finally winning the belt. Especially with a clean finish, with Cena back I am really afraid for what they will do with Jeff.
The Rumble was completely awesome. Undertaker got A HUGE pop for being number 1. HBK got a bigger pop for being number 2. The Santino thing was great with him getting beaten so easy. I do wish they would have milked it a little more and given him a Daniel Pudder style rumble beating. Khali got a “you can’t wrestle” chant. There were tons of ECW chants for tommy dreamer. The ovation for Batista was big. There was confusion with the hornswogell/finlay stuff. I think the buzzer was malfunctioning for a bit cause finlay never entered the rumble. People were confused with horny being dragged away. Punk was over with some small ROH chants. The crowd was in shock when both HBK and Taker were eliminated. Both Superfly and PIper got huge ovations. So did Kane and surprisingly to me, Foley was HUGELY over with the crowd. God Big Daddy V was fat. John Cena shocked the garden with his surprise appearance. Whether you love him or hate him I will surly remember his entrance forever. No one expected that. And that was a pop close to Austin proportions. Cena winning was great and I was happy to see a great rumble close off the show.
Biggest pop
1. Cena
2. HBK
3. Taker
4. Hardy
5. Foley
Biggest Heat
1. Cena
2. Hardy Losing
3. Orton
4. JBL
5. Rey Mysterio
Chant of the night
“Lets go Giants”
Great show in conclusion.
GET THE REPLAY.
