One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every WWE Royal Rumble

2011 - History Repeats Itself Yet Again

As mentioned, the WWF wanted to thwart the XWF when bringing Curt Hennig back. Missing from the prior entry is the report that WWE’s initial move for Umaga was spurred by his key spot in Hulk Hogan’s tour of Australia, which presumably was generating a little too much interest for their liking (WWE retained their interest after the fact).

WWE was at it again in 2011.

WWE never took TNA all that seriously as a threat - certainly not on the scale of AEW. WWE never actively counterprogrammed TNA. Few snide references were made to TNA on their own TV show. But if WWE was going to interfere with the XWF, TNA was not going to emerge unscathed even from such a grotesque competitive mismatch.

In two awesome moments, both Booker T and Kevin Nash appeared as surprise entrants in the Royal Rumble match. The latter’s spot was particularly well-received and inspired; a repeat of the 2002 trick, bringing Nash back under the old Diesel persona made him feel, for a few fleeting moments, like the legend born again.

Both wrestlers were brought back to spite TNA; the promotion was interested in Book and Nash to join a babyface Main Event Mafia, teased as ‘They’, to oppose Immortal. This was ambitious on TNA’s part, since Booker had been in talks with WWE for a couple of months. Nash was different; TNA was expecting him to come in, and Dave Meltzer’s sources were told that Nash had committed to TNA. But he had signed nothing.

LOLTNA had booked an angle without those involved in it under contract, leading to a farce in which the Fortune stable turned face and were revealed to be ‘They’, even though they were fretting about ‘They’ days earlier.