Recap courtesy of PWInsider:
WWE holds the 18th-annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. This event made Fresno the first city to host more than one Royal Rumble event. San Antonio, Texas and New York City, New York would join that list in 2007 and 2008, respectively. In the main event, Batista won the Royal Rumble match from the #28 entry position, last eliminating #25 entrant John Cena. Both men had gone out of the ring at the same time, ala 1994 with Bret Hart and Lex Luger, prompting Vince McMahon to come to the ring to start the match, McMahon was injured while getting into the ring, slamming his thighs into the metal frame on the side of the ring, resulting in a double quadricep tear. The ironman of this Rumble match, for the second straight year, was Chris Benoit, who was the second man in, and lasted 47 minutes and 26 seconds, and was one of the final five men in the ring along with Batista, Cena, Rey Mysterio, and Ric Flair, before being eliminated by Flair.
I recall that being one of the funniest things I ever saw. Vince should have never had tried to slide in the ring. I know he hasn’t since. 🙂 Looking back, WWE needs to stop with the screwy Rumble finishes. They don’t do it every year, but it needs to be taken out of the playbook.
