New Year's Revolution Revisted - A New Champion Is Crowned

Let's review the picks...

Elimination Chamber
In a shocking move, Angle was the first eliminated. For the first 5-6 minutes after he entered the match he was totally dominant. He was suplexing people, throwing them into the chains, reversing every move that he was put in, giving ankle locks, and all that stuff. Then out of nowhere he gets superkicked and pinned just like that. The kick was the only move that was done to him. An excellent match overall. Cena ended up winning the chamber match...but wait there's more. I'll get to that later though.
Me: 0/1
David: 1/1

Flair v. Edge
A decent match, but nothing out of the ordinary. Edge got DQ'd when he slammed Flair with the briefcase.
Me: 0/2
David: 1/2

Big Show v. Triple H
In the middle of the match Triple H busted the cast off of Show's arm. He later used a sledgehammer and followed it up with a pedigree for the win.
Me:1/3
David:2/3

Trish v. Mickie James
Average match. Trish won with a Chick Kick.
Me:2/4
David:3/4

Lawler v. Helms
A boring match which saw Lawler win.
Me:2/5
David:4/5

Bra & Panties Gauntlet Match
Maria dominated for most of it until Victoria eliminated her. Then Mae & Moolah came down and stripped most of Victoria's clothes off. Ashley later finished what Mae & Moolah started and won. At one point Mae stripped down to her bra and panties...or should I say bra and bloomers.
Me:3/6
David:4/6

Total
I picked 3/6 matches correctly. David picked 4/6. Congrats to David. It should be noted that David has barely watched Raw since mid-2001 and the only wrestling that he has watched has been Smackdown during the time between mid-2001 and Sept. 2005.

There was also an impromptu match between Shelton and Viscera that was instigated when 'Big Vis' tried to get freaky with Shelton's Mama's ass when she was bending over in the room where they served the food. Shelton won.

Here's the interesting part - The Elimination Chamber match ended at 10:35. That should have thrown up a red flag that something was going on. As Cena was laying bloodied in the ring Vince came out, congratulated Cena on his win, and ordered that the chamber be raised because the show wasn't over and that there was one match left. At that point Vince announced that Edge was cashing in his 'Money In The Bank' title shot right then on the spot which entitled him to a Title match at any point up until Wrestlemania. Edge's music then hit and he proceeded to pummel Cena and spear him. Cena would kick out though. Edge then went for another spear and easily got the pinfall to become the new WWE champion. This was certainly a huge surprise ending. I was expecting the title shot to be wasted on a meaningless Raw and not on a PPV. I was wrong. Normally I would have rather seen some sort of build-up to Edge's title shot, but I thought having Edge win the title out of nowhere brought back a bit of the old WWE days where the viewer never knew what was going to happen next.

I think that it's a great move taking the title off of Cena, but I would have rather seen Angle get the belt. I am a big fan of Edge too so I guess there's not much for me to complain about. Cena was getting real stale real quick. They needed to give someone else a title run. I get the sneaking suspicion that Edge's title reign will be short-lived though. I would imagine that whomever the new Raw GM is going to be is going to claim that the 'Money In The Bank' title shot was for the World Title (the one Batista took to Smackdown when he was drafted) and not the WWE title (the one that Cena brought over from Smackdown). This is pure speculation though. Edge has worked hard for the title and deserves a title run and I'm happy to see him finally get it. No matter what happens on Raw, I don't see him getting an extended title reign. This may in fact only be a test to see how the crowd reacts to Edge as champ - Just like they did with Jericho and just like they did with Randy Orton.

I was really disappointed that Angle lasted so little time in the Elimination Chamber. He was in for only about 6 minutes, when everyone else spent at least 15 minutes each in the match. It was like a 6 minute flurry of awesome moves by Angle and then all of a sudden he was gone from the match. It just struck me odd that he would be in and out so quickly. I hope that having Kurt only be in the match for 6 minutes is part of some larger storyline and not just some dumb booking decision. I also hope that it's not part of some build-up where they re-ignite the Angle-HBK feud of early 2005. That would be very poor idea.

Overall I would give the PPV a C rating up until the end which I would give a rating of B.

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