STW - Armageddon 2006 [Show Notes] (Patreon)

Welcome back to the 300th episode of Something to Wrestle With. Today we’ll be ending our 15 year look back as we look at what I think is a really underrated show but there’s just so much going on in and around it let’s get right to it.

We were originally going to cover December 2 Dismember but with Bruce not being there and probably never actually watching that disaster of a show...be sure to check out our WWECW episode in the archives...we’ll talk about the fallout from it.

Paul Heyman and Vince McMahon split ways afterwards. This is the third key time and obviously won’t be the last. What do you remember of Vince’s reaction coming off the show?

Did you ever get to talk to Paul about it?

Were you worried this was going to stretch what was already a thin creative force even thinner?

Something else coming out of Armageddon is Big Show is going to take time off to get his body right and with his contract coming up doesn’t return to the WWE until February of 2008. Was it time for Big Show to go...learn a new hold as you say?

You’re building up really three events at a time. You’re starting the prep work for Royal Rumble, you have Armageddon, and on the Raw side you’re working on the New Year’s Day Raw with Cena vs. Federline. We covered that Raw earlier this year so check it out in the archives. Do you think Armageddon for Smackdown gets lost in the shuffle?

There’s talk in the Observer that Rob Van Dam was openly complaining after the ECW pay-per-view and with his contract coming due it was assumed he would be leaving after the failure of the launch of the brand. It’s such a quick fall from grace for Van Dam. Was it all about the arrest and suspension for him or was ECW dying a death really it for him?

From the Observer…”With things changing it seems every hour, the last word after TV was no long-term plans are being formulated for either the Hardys or MNM. Vince had changed his mind a few times, which is why Joey Styles on the ECW broadcast talked about it being the last time

they would be together, and then they were in the Raw main event the next day. If Vince decides to go with both as tag teams, the tentative idea is both will be used on Raw. If they are singles, Mercury goes to ECW and Matt back to Smackdown. I know the Hardys were under the impression they were going to be kept together, at least for the short run, and MNM had the impression they weren’t going to be. Heyman came up with the idea of putting MNM back together and wrestling the Hardys because he knew he needed a strong wrestling match on the PPV, and it was at the time supposed to be a one week thing for the Hardys and one show for MNM.”

Plans change pal but it does seem like the brand extension is really hindering creative here. You got guys bouncing from show to show and in different roles on them. On Raw Johnny Nitro is helping Kevin Federline against Cena but on SmackDown he’s teaming with Joey Mercury. What’s up with that?

The WWE goes to Iraq for the Tribute to the Troops special. How special is this for Vince? Did you go? What was the experience like?

From the Observer: “With Heyman out, here is how the creative team

stands right nmv and the basic depth chart: Raw- Brian Gerwitz (lead), Ed Koskey and Dave Kapoor; Smackdown- Michael Hayes (lead), Dusty Rhodes, Court Bauer and Christopher DeJosephs; ECW- David Lagana (interim lead writer) and Pantelis Ypsilantis”

We know a lot of the names on that list. What is your exact role at this time?

Booker is suffering through some back injuries and is also opening a wrestling school and promotion in Texas. Does he just have a lot going on at this time?

Cena is moved over to Smackdown for another one night only appearance since the show is in Boston but it’s never advertised which leads Meltzer to believe the show only drawing 5,500 was the result of that. How much last minute booking is done in this era that things like this happen?

Undertaker & Kennedy continue their program with Taker using hearse’s to freak Kennedy out while Kennedy cuts promos on how he’s beaten Taker twice now and doesn’t have anything left to prove. To keep the Kennedy push going why keep him with Taker or did you feel it necessary to get Taker his win back?

Cena and Batista stand tall over Finlay & Booker on Smackdown and it seems like Cena being on Smackdown is going to be a thing moving forward. How stretched is Cena’s schedule at this time?

On the show an interesting match is announced for Armageddon. Paul London & Brian Kendrick will defend the Tag Team Titles against William Regal & David Taylor. We know now that that match will not take place in that form. When does something like this change between Tuesday and Sunday?

The rest of the card is announced as an Inferno Match between Kane & MVP, The Miz vs. Boogeyman, and Ken Kennedy against the Undertaker in a Last Ride match. One of these things is not like the other. Who the fuck thought Boogeyman vs. Miz needed to happen?

Armageddon from Richmond, VA happens on December 17th, 2006 in front of 8,200 with 7,100 of them paying $423,500. The show would garner 239,000 pay-per-view buys. The 2005 Armageddon which featured Randy Orton vs. the Undertaker in a Hell in a Cell match drew 320,000 buys. That’s a steep drop in one year is it not Bruce?

The show is well received by the Wrestling Observer readers. 73.4% voted it a thumbs up which keeps the Smackdown pay-per-view streak of good shows going. Do you think at this point Smackdown was putting on better individual pay-per-views compared to Raw?

We open the show with the inferno match. Does it make life easier for production and everyone involved for this to open the show?

I. Kane beat MVP in an Inferno match in 8:21. They billed this as six foot flames surrounding the ring. The flames were closer to one foot high, although if someone took a big bump, they would momentarily get to the level of the top rope. The match itself becomes limiting because nothing matters except burning someone. At one point MVP undid a turnbuckle pad and set it on fire. He had to try twice, because the first time, his trying to light up the pad saw the flames go out on one side of the ring. Kane stopped him and the pad, “on fire” , fell to the mat, which momentarily lit up. Kane knocked MVP off the top rope onto the floor and then did a plancha on him. He grabbed MVP and shoved his back into the flames. MVP ran around with the back of his ring outfit on fire until he was put out with a fire extinguisher. They announced on the show he was taken to the hospital, but that was all a work. *

These matches are very hard and limiting to do. Any fear from MVP on the fire aspect or was that taken care of with his outfit and the fire extinguisher?

I don’t know why it tickles me but Meltzer saying that him being taken to the hospital was a work but it did.

Now the match everyone is waiting for you to discuss…

“The show was stolen by a four-team ladder match with tag champs

Brian Kendrick & Paul London keeping the title against William Regal & David Taylor, as well as late additions MNM and The Hardys. The addition of MNM and the Hardys, and the ladder stipulation, was done late. It may have helped buys for a lackluster show had it been advertised, but the decision to go with it came late.”

I’m going to stop right there with that comment. Do you think advertising these two being added would’ve done anything? The Hardys vs. MNM was put together as a one time only thing for the ECW pay-per-view and it didn’t move the needle at all. But in a ladder match and in this environment would it had done something for business?

How does Regal & Taylor...not exactly ladder match guys...take to doing this match?

2. Paul London & Brian Kendrick retained the WWE tag titles in a four-way ladder match over MNM , Matt & Jeff Hardy and William Regal & David Taylor, in 20: 13. Teddy Long announced the ladder stipulation, and the fans began chanting for the Hardys after they saw MNM entered. The Hardys were the clear crowd favorite. It was telling that the two most over acts on a Smackdown PPV were a tag team that isn't supposed to exist featuring a guy on Raw, and Cena. This was your classic car crash match. It was a series of stunts, which at time told a little story and at other times was just setting up a new crazy spot. They did a gimmick where Regal & Taylor were afraid of heights. So when they had the advantage, they would , particularly Regal, he would be so hesitant to climb that they'd blow the chance. Mercury was on top and all the other wrestlers picked up the ladder from the bottom and tipped it over. He went flying over the top rope and crashed onto Nitro, who broke his fall. There was a spot in the match where Jeff Hardy came off the top rope onto

one-side of the ladder, for a teeter-totter spot that was to take out both members of MNM. It did the job too well , as the ladder smashed into Mercury's nose and left eye. Blood was flying everywhere, swelling was apparent immediately, and it was clear his eyes would be swollen shut very quickly. Medical personnel rushed to the scene and got him backstage in what was a scary scene. It's very rare to leave in the

middle of the match. particularly this one which had many more pre-planned spots involving him. In fact not only did many aspects of the match at that point have to be improvised, but Mercury was heavily involved in the planned finish which was all done on the fly. He was rushed to the hospital . and diagnosed with four different fractures of the nose. He needed five stitches on the inside of the nose and cheek and 15 more stitches on the outside, as well as his left eye being swollen shut as of the next day.”

Johnny Nitro would later say: “I happened to be looking up, so it hit me in the throat. But Mercury was looking straight at it and it hit him square in the nose and the orbital bone. It really could have been any one of us. I was just lucky that the ladder hit him first.”

And Matt Hardy would say: “I'll always remember [the match] for what we did to Joey Mercury's face. After the seesaw, I remember hearing him yell, "I'm bleeding," and it was like someone went to a sink and turned the faucet on. It was gruesome.”

What’s the backstage reaction like? How quickly do you realize how bad he’s fucked up? Who called for the EMTs to head out there?

The match must continue...what’s going on in gorilla to communicate to the different referees at the ring to direct traffic or is it mostly left up to the boys in the ring?

Kendrick went to do a sliced bread #2 with Regal off the top of the ladder. Kendrick landed all wrong. Regal sold it like he was knocked out. Kendrick was hurting bad, suffering a legit rib injury, and he was foaming at the mouth. London finally, in an improvised finish, climbed to the top to win. **** ¼

Wow Bruce. This is just a car crash as Meltzer describes in the worst way. Even in the most talked out, planned out, situation with 8 professionals… things like this can happen. Do you remember anything changing coming out of this match for future accidents?

Mercury would recover obviously and be in and out of the WWE and various other promotions since then. Do you think he was ever the same again?

“3. Boogeyman pinned The Miz in 2:51 with a tree slam. The only entertaining thing about the match was Mi z, in doing his promo, mentioned the angle that led to this on Thursday night's Smackdown. Always good to see these guys who claim to live and die with wrestling not even realize the show has been moved to Friday now more than a year ago. Boogeyman is nowhere near as over as he was before

the injury. This was the level of a bad independent match. Boogeyman spit worms into Miz's mouth after the match . DUD”

Well at least the Miz has gotten better in 15 years right?

4. Chris Benoit retained the U.S. title beating Chavo Guerrero in 12: 14. At one point Benoit delivered three straight German suplexes. Later in the match, he delivered eight in a row, and then put on the sharpshooter. Vickie Guerrero ran in with the title belt. Benoit told her not to hit him. She made a move. Benoit tripped her and teased putting her in the sharpshooter. He hesitated in doing so, and then Chavo came from behind with a rolling reverse cradle (O'Connor roll). Benoit reversed the move into a cradle of his own, and then moved from there into a sharpshooter, and Guerrero tapped out. *** l /4

The last couple minutes of reversals you should go out of your way to watch if you love technical wrestling because it’s just so god damn smooth and easy for them and it’s a real testament to the working ability of both men. But other than that it’s just another good match in a storyline nobody is really getting into because of the uncomfortable nature of it. Is it time to move on at this point?

5. Gregory Helms retained the cruiserweight title pinning Jimmy Wang Yang in a updated version of the Three Count vs. Jung Dragons rivalry in I0:51. Crowd wasn't into this even though they had a good match. JBL went crazy, ripping on the crowd, even acknowledging they were chanting "boring." Helms dropped Yang’s face on his knee and got the clean pin. Helms was bleeding badly from the Mouth at the end of the match. JBL went off on the crowd again after the match. ***

Doing a Miz vs. Boogeyman and two straight wrestling matches after the ladder match has to be difficult to pull off to keep a crowd entertained who saw a bunch of crazy shit and a dude’s nose exploding. Was the show formatted wrong in your mind?

6. Undertaker beat Mr. Kennedy in 19:08 of the last ride match. Again, little heat in this one as well. Undertaker was limited here because of his rib injuries. The match told a solid story, of Undertaker being "beaten" twice and arising from the dead each time. First, Kennedy got behind Undertaker and choked him out. He put Undertaker in the back of the hearse, but Undertaker stopped him from closing the door. Kennedy

gave Undertaker six chair shots to the back and a hard chair shot to the head. Undertaker sat up from that. They ended up brawling on the top of the set. Kennedy threw Undertaker off, but you could see it was a gimmicked crash pad. There was a light "holy shit" chant but the fall really didn't get the stunned reaction because everyone could see it was gimmicked. Kennedy put Undertaker in the back of the hearse and got in to drive it away. But when he got in the hearse, Undertaker. who had been dead when he was put in , had fully covered. He gave Kennedy a chair shot to the head and Kennedy juiced, and then followed with a tombstone on the roof on the hearse. Undertaker put Kennedy in the back of the hearse and drove off to end the match. **1 /4

This match is a lot between the chair shots, the bump which Meltzer points out twice is onto a crash pad, and Kennedy throws all of this at Taker...and then Taker rises from the dead and kills Kennedy dead. What did you think Bruce?

Here’s a doozy Bruce…

“Next was the worst segment of the show. It was billed as Santa Claus

doing a Naughty & Nice Diva lingerie contest with Jillian Hall, Ashley, Layla and Kristal Marshall. It's almost mind-boggling how much this stuff is played out when the audience hardly reacted to those women in lingerie. It was clearly designed for Ashley to win, since she's the one being pushed with her Playboy cover coming out. They let her wear the least amount of clothes and put her on in the clean-up position. Plus, Hall isn't over at all and Kristal, who has the freaky phenomenal body, wore lingerie covering her up, basically eliminating her from competition. For some reason, they allowed Layla to wear basically a skimpy bikini outfit like Ashley. figuring Ashley is over and she isn't. But they forget Layla is a professional dancer and knows how to work a crowd. They forget to tell her to lose, so she blew away the field . When Santa asked the audience to pick who won, they booed Hall and Marshall, who wore the least. However, Layla got twice the cheers of Ashley. Nevertheless, that didn't stop Michael Cole from proclaiming that the audience had picked Ashley, in one of the more embarrassing moments. Santa Claus then said that everybody won. Then he took off his Santa outfit and it was Christopher

DeJoseph, doing the Big Dick Johnson act in his thong. He started dancing. Kristal acted revolted while Layla acted like she was havng fun. I'm trying to figure out what this Big Oick Johnson character is supposed to appeal to. 65% of the audience is guys and they're not into seeing naked fat dancing men-well. at least most of them. 35%, are women. and I'm not sure they'd go for him either. I sort of get the idea that it's meant as humor. but when nobody in the audience laughs. cheers, or really acts like anything but being revolted, I'm not sure what it's accomplishing. It's gross, but not even all that gross, like eating worms. which we already got on the shows.

Audience of one Bruce?

We’re at the main event now!

7. Batista & John Cena beat Fit Finlay & King Booker in 11:29. Cena sold most of the way. Crowd was into Cena & Batista as being big stars, but didn't seem into the match at what you'd consider main event level. It was fine with Cena selling, but then he made the hot tag to Batista. Batista was messing up moves all over the place. He and Booker just can't work a good match together. Batista was working to the finish but botched another spot. Finlay then hit Batista in the knee with a chair, apparently figuring he could sell and then they could go back to what they were supposed to be doing. Batista figured it was time for the finish, so ignored

that his knee was hit with a chair, and used a spinebuster and Batista bomb on Booker for the pin. * 1/4

Holy shit this match. What is going on with Batista and not being able to work with Booker & Finlay? The finish is something as Meltzer describes. What do you remember and why...if the chemistry of Booker and Batista was so clearly not there...did they continue to main event shows?

You take away the injury and what really messed up a lot of stuff in the ladder match...it’s not a bad show by any means. But I don’t think this holds up as well as some remember it. What say you Bruce?