10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2006 Facts
Rey wins one for Eddie.
At times it seemed like WWE pushed Eddie Guerrero harder in death than they did while he was alive. That's a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much. The year 2006 was rife with mentions of the departed Guerrero, from wrestlers dedicating their matches to him, to heels disparaging his name for heat, to Eddie's widow, nephew, and best friends having a prolonged feud in which is name was uncomfortably invoked quite a bit.
The 2006 Royal Rumble featured one of the more innocent co-opts of Eddie's name, as Rey Mysterio dedicated his performance in the Rumble match to his fallen comrade. This involved donning one of Guerrero's t-shirts, while entering in his trademark low rider. When Mysterio dramatically won the match from the number two spot, the moment was more feel-good and heartwarming than crassly exploitative. Compared to later invocations of Guerrero's name, this was downright cathartic.
The rest of the show didn't pack the same emotive wallop, as the 2006 Royal Rumble was arguably one of the lower-quality Rumbles in quite a few years. The uninspired undercard (Mickie James-Ashley Massaro, JBL-Boogeyman) combined with a horrid main event (Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry) to sink the entire card.
Alas, the uplift of seeing ultimate underdog Mysterio stand tall could mute most kinds of badness. At least the show had that.
Here are ten facts about the 2006 Royal Rumble you may not have known.
10. Gregory Helms' Cruiserweight Title Reign Would Last More Than One Year
Helms had abandoned the Hurricane gimmick in the fall of 2005, turning to the trope of "angry young man" while competing under his real name. Helms made the sudden shift from Raw to SmackDown the night of the 2006 Rumble, winning the brand's Cruiserweight title in a six-way skirmish.
The SmackDown Cruiserweight division was quite fertile at the time, as Helms joined Kid Kash, Paul London, Brian Kendrick, The Mexicools, Jamie Noble, and others. However, Helms would actually hold the belt for more than one year, albeit without much recognition or ceremony. Along the way, Helms won pay-per-view matches over Super Crazy and Jimmy Wang Yang.
Helms' reign lasted 385 days, not ceasing until No Way Out the following year, when Chavo Guerrero took the belt in one of those "just throw 'em all out there" eight-man scrambles. The New Day's dragged-out, oft-hyped Tag Team title reign this wasn't.