Long before Day 1, the WWE experimented with another early January pay-per-view, way back in the days of the first brand split. The result was the Raw-exculsive event New Year’s Revolution for three years during the height of the Reign of Terror on the show. So think about the your plans for the new year as we take a quick trip through the late Ruthless Aggression era. As always, if you just want a quick list of the matches you should definitely check out, just speed down to the bottom of this post.
2005
The first New Year’s Revolution emanated from the Coliseo de Puerto Rico in San Juan, making it the only pay-per-view on the island in the company’s history thus far. Nearly 16 thousand people packed the building to witness the third-ever Elimination Chamber match, with the winner claiming the World Heavyweight Championship that was vacated by Triple H in early December after a double fall in a triple threat match against Chris Benoit and Edge.
The PPV card opens with a World Tag Team title match, as Eugene and William Regal defend against Christian and Tyson Tomko. I think we can agree that the less said about the Eugene gimmick, the better. We get a relatively standard opening tag match here. The crowd was over for Eugene and all of his schtick, of which there was plenty. Unfortunately for young master Eugene, the match came to an accelerated end after he suffered a ruptured patella tendon while throwing a dropkick. He’d roll up Tomko to retain. Christian and Tomko had some good heel tag team work going before the abrupt end.
Another chapter in the storied rivalry between Lita and Trish Stratus, as Lita defends the Women’s Championship. Unfortunately, it would be the second-straight match that would be marred by injury as Lita would tear her ACL executing a Lou Theze press on Trish to the floor. Stratus would become Women’s Champion for the 6th time after an abbreviated match.
Up next, Shelton Benjamin defends the Intercontinental title against… ::squints::… Maven? Really? I completely forgot this mini-feud they gave Benjamin as something to do in this period when they were totally ignoring the I-C belt. This could have been an audible to buy time, but Maven gets all the cheap heat by taunting the audience for speaking Spanish, then gets rolled up in the first move of the match. Maven demands an immediate rematch, then eats another pinfall. All cheap heat, all schtick, possibly all a time filler.
Next, Mohammed Hassan makes his PPV debut against Jerry Lawler. I will say this for the Hassan character; he had some sweet entrance music. Let’s agree to let this character go by us as well. The match is also a different watch because JR accompanied King to ringside to counter Davari and no one filled in on commentary. So we get a 10 minute match with just the crowd noise, which is an abrupt shift on a television show. In fact, the running soundtrack comes from Davari, whose standing next to a camera with its external mic on, so you just hear him screaming at Hassan/JR/the ref for 11 minutes. Halfway through, San Juan starts chanting boring and I tend to agree. The King’s hulking up gets a reaction and they really wanted the three after a fist drop from the second rope. Davari with the distraction, Hassan with a flatliner and the win and its over. For the third match out of four, we have a segment that is highly reliant on schtick to get reactions and the action has been pretty lacking so far.
It’s also been a night of angles best forgotten, as Kane takes on Snitsky next and we get a dramatic package recapping the killing of Lita’s rape baby and retconning this storyline out of our collective memories about Kane is the best thing we can all do. I mean, it’s 11 minutes of two big buys doing big guy things to each other. It was a physical battle and thus far the best match of the night in terms of action and heat.
And now we come to the match that sold this show, the Elimination Chamber match for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H vs. Randy Orton vs. Batista vs. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Edge.
MUST SEE MATCH: The Elimination Chamber
Everything you want in a match like this is here: serious physicality, multiple stories being told through the violence, a healthy splash of blood and, the only thing I’d knock this match for, an expected outcome.
RATING: C-
This was a one match card and it was a hell of a match, but the rest of the undercard was nothing to write home about. The only thing keeping this show out of the D range was the injuries early that likely caused a lot of last minute additions and stretching. The main event is the one worth coming back for though
2006
The second edition of New Year’s Revolution would come to us from the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York and would be headlines once again by an Elimination Chamber match for the WWE Championship. Right off the bat, I have to point out how cool the stage is with a replica of the Chamber on one side. I miss those kinds of custom sets for pay-per-views. Joey Styles and The Coach are your announce team tonight.
The opening match is Edge challenging Ric Flair for the Intercontinental Championship. Ric is still pretty mobile at this point in his career, though his offense is chop-heavy. But he’s pulling out all of the classic Nature Boy moves and Edge is a great opponent for him to play off of. He even hit a move off the top rope. Disappointingly, the match ends when Edge pops Flair in the head with his Money in the Bank briefcase while Ric had Lita in the figure 4. It’s a little scary how fast Ric was busted open with that shot and the mat is a mess in match #1.
The Women’s Championship is on the line next, as Mickey James challenges Trish Stratus and we are in the middle of the crazy stalker fan storyline, which was actually one of the better women’s angles of the time. Despite a scary looking hurricarana botch, they had a good match going that told a good story and one that deserved more than the seven minutes they were allotted. We all know they’d have better matches with their apex in a few months at Wrestlemania but this one deserved a few more minutes to breathe.
Jerry Lawler is in action for the second NYR in a row as he takes on the newly-christened Gregory Helms. The former Hurricane having an attitude change that really didn’t get the chance that it deserved to grow as a gimmick. He was doing good work with it. This was a match. It happened, that was about it. It got a little plodding and took Helms out of his wheelhouse in terms of moves and pacing. Lawler would get the win after a flying fist drop, which kinda took all of the shine that they were trying to build off of Helms.
Up next, Triple H takes on one half of the World Tag Team Champions, the Big Show. They’ve gone back and forth costing each other a spot in the Elimination Chamber. In the week’s before NYR, Triple H would also break Show’s hand with a sledgehammer, resulting in him wearing a comically oversized cast. It was a good match, these two had more in-ring chemistry than I remember. But the story they told around Show’s broken hand and cast was much better than the in-ring action. This was pretty much the blow off of their feud at the time. They’d meet in the semis of a tournament for the right to face the WWE Champion at Wrestlemania but that’s about it for the time being.
Shelton Benjamin’s mama is in catering, looking for food for her son when the world’s largest love machine Viscera comes in to be creepy af and we have an impromptu match. Mama brings the challenge and Shelton doesn’t seem too enthusiastic about taking on the big man. The match isn’t the story here, it’s Shelton’s mama. Much like Davari last year, she provides her own loud running commentary the entire match and this is all to establish her as a new addition to his character. And… oh, goddamn I forgot about the humping aspect of Viscera’s gimmick at the time… let’s move on, shall we? Shelton wins with a spin kick and ends a losing streak for Benjamin and man did this company just not know what to do with this phenomenal athlete.
And your comedown before the Chamber match is a bra and panties gauntlet match. It’s advertised as the first one ever and hopefully, this was the only one. These 11 minutes are an abrupt reminder of how far the women’s division has come in this company. I will say this for Candice Michelle; she became much, much better in the ring as her tenure with the company continued. Mae Young and Moolah strips Victoria of her shirt (after Mae strips down to her bra) and Ashley Massaro quickly takes advantage to win the whole thing. That was a thing.
We are finally at our main event as John Cena defends the WWE Championship against Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, Kane, Carlito and Chris Masters inside the confines of the Elimination Chamber. The boo birds are out for the WWE Champ in Albany and this feels sooner than I remember this happening. It could also just be the one town, like Chicago and Montreal, that would turn on Cena. The intensity was at a slow burn until Kurt Angle got into the match, but he was the first one eliminated. Shawn is the only one bleeding this year and he’s providing enough claret for the other five combined. I stand corrected minutes later as Cena has been busted open as part of the extended beatdown being delivered by Carlito and Masters. The master lock gets clamped on but Carlito turns on Masters, low blow, roll up. Then Cena rolls up Carlito and the only story being told in the match ends with a whimper.
But wait there’s more! We get our first ever Money in the Bank cash-in as Edge storms down and takes home the WWE title after a pair of spears. Well, a spear and a Cena kick out because we gotta keep him strong brother. Then a spear and a title change.
RATING: D
Another one match show, but that match was not enough to keep this show out of the doldrums. Most of the undercard were Raw quality matches. Triple H and Big Show told a great story, but the action wasn’t anything to write home about. Unlike the year before, the Chamber match only really had one storyline to tell (Cena overcoming all the odds) and served as the set up for a title change that Albany was stoked as hell to see. I suppose if you want to see that bit of history, fast forward to the last 3 minutes of the show but the rest can be passed over. Edge and Lita would have their infamous Live Sex Celebration the next night on Raw so there’s that. This was like two years before they decided to go PG.
2007
The final (so far) edition of New Year’s Revolution took place at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri in front of more than 10 thousand people. This show would be cut after brand-exclusive PPVs were discontinued as the company would reduce the number of PPVs on the calendar. It’s also the only show in the event’s run not to feature an Elimination Chamber match; it would get its own standalone PPV starting in 2010.
We open with a steel cage match for the Intercontinental title as Jeff Hardy defends against Johnny Nitro, which is down in my must-see matches on the night.
Next up is announced as a “bonus” match, which ends up being a Tag Team Turmoil match for a future World Tag Title match. The Highlanders and The World’s Greatest Tag Team start this one off. Haas and Benjamin have a good little exchange before Shelton does Shelton things to beat the Highlanders. Up next… Jim Duggan and Super Crazy??? That’s blessedly fast with another WGTT win with Lance Cade and the current NWA World’s Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch. Cade and Murdoch looked good with some great double team offense before stealing a win to move on. Next out is Cryme Tyme. It doesn’t give me confidence that the King had to be told that Cryme Tyme was the last team out in this one. This was really a series of decent tag team matches but no real connection between them. There have been other tag team turmoil matches that have worked much better.
Oh Christ, Vince and Coach backstage are setting up the Trump v. Rosie segment on the next Raw. It was bad then and even worse now.
Oh hey, remember Kenny Dykstra and the rub he got off of Ric Flair? Yeah, well we’re doing that here now. The guy had all the physical talent to make it in the company, I’m just not sure why he never really caught on. The booking probably didn’t help, but the potential was there. This match was not bad actually. It started as the Nature Boy offense by the numbers then told a decent story. The ending was abrupt but made sense. I can’t say it was the end of a memorable angle because I don’t remember anything about it. Just that Kenny didn’t become the superstar of the future because of it.
Mickey James puts the women’s title on the line next against Victoria who has been making a list in recent weeks and checking off the division. Running it down, it is not a deep period in the women’s division. Some solid chain wrestling to open this one before Victoria takes over and unloads all the offense on Mickie, that didn’t end until she missed a 2nd rope moonsault, which is always an impressive move to me. I am going to make the same complaint that I did a year before. This match deserved a few more minutes to breathe. Mickie’s comeback was pretty much rushed and cut off by the massive interference on the outside.
Your come down before the main event is Carlito vs. Chris Masters in a match that could have started the year before in a failed team-up attempt in the elimination chamber. Instead they’re going with the ‘“Torrie Wilson is randomly with this guy for a few months” angle. Not a ton to this one, but props to Carlito for the triple jump moonsault.
Our main event is John Cena defending the WWE title against the undefeated Umaga. Cena got beat down for most of this 17 minute match, until kicking a charging Umaga and rolling him up. There was a simple story here, though it seems a little weak. Especially when you consider that this was the first pinfall loss hung on the Samoan bulldozer. I know there was more to this feud, but that was an underwhelming stop on the way to its eventual conclusion.
MUST SEE MATCHES:
- Steel Cage Match for the Intercontinental Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) vs. Johnny Nitro
- This is how you want to start a pay-per-view. A ton of action, great high spots, lots of flying and a well-paced match that kept the crowd into the whole thing. The cage match has evolved from when I started watching wrestling and this is a great example of the new school of thought. Also, a very unique ending to this one.
- World Tag Team Championship: Rated RKO (c) vs. DX
- An old school tag team war. This thing had several chapters. It was a standard tag match, there was a segment of heel heat, it turned violent, then it got crazy. Shawn bled like Shawn. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Randy Orton bleed as heavily as he did in this one. They threw everything at each other in this one. I can’t even be upset that the match just ended as it was thrown out.
RATING: C+
This was the best show of the event’s short run, despite an underwhelming main event. The tag team war is a spectacle to behold. The opener is a fun watch with a cool twist on the modern cage match. There’s stuff in the middle worth skipping because it’s obvious filler. I think that it’s safe to say that this show suffered from a problem a lot of the pay-per-views did in the first brand split: a lack of depth. There wasn’t enough happening in the lower to mid-card to warrant some of these matches making it to pay-per-view. Like I said before, this would be the last brand-exclusive show before the end of the first brand split so the idea goes out with an “eh” rather than a “bleh”.
| Year | Match | Card Grade |
| 2005 | Elimination Chamber for the vacant World Heavyweight Championship: Triple H vs. Edge vs. Randy Orton vs. Christ Jericho vs. Chris Benoit vs. Batista | C- |
| 2006 | none | D |
| 2007 | Steel Cage Match for the Intercontinental Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) vs. John Morrison | C+ |
| World Tag Team Championships: Rated RKO (Edge & Randy Orton) (c) vs. D-X (Triple H & Shawn Michaels) |
The Finisher 