WWE in 2006: Yay or Nay?

[thegame415]

Just thinking about this year, I feel it had a lot of potential.

In early '06, you had:

-Edge's rise to to the main event.
-John Cena has the mega face/heel, getting amazing reactions.
-Triple H as an aweomse tweener.
-An impending DX reunion.
-The planned re-launch of ECW, and the awesome worked shoots that came with it.
-Mickie James/Trish.
-Kurt Angle as World Champion.
-Booker T/Chris Benoit feud for the US title.

By the second half, things really tamed down. My question is, what is your opinion on 2006? Do you view it as a good year? Did it suck?

IMO, it could've been the start of something new. There was so much potential in the first half, but then it really played out like a fart in church during the end of the year.

[rapidfire187]

2006 should have been a great year. The DX reunion and ECW revival were two things that fans had wanted to see for a very long time. But instead of getting what we wanted, we got really watered down versions. There were some great moments, but 2006 was pretty lackluster in hindsight.

[A damn road sign]

SmackDown! I completely switched off to because of the ridiculous Eddiesploitation, and I hated the whole Rey Mysterio push. I enjoyed RAW for the majority, Cena/Edge was fantastic and the ECW invasion stuff started off pretty good. Good points and bad points, but SmackDown! circa 2006 forever left a bad taste in my mouth.

[agent817]

I find it funny how Smackdown was bad due to the product and angles at the time, particularly Eddiesploitation, but then again, the Smackdown PPVs were all decent to good. No Way Out was one of the best PPVs from that year. Judgment Day was also good. Great American Bash was not great, but still better than the previous GABs. No Mercy was a good one and Armageddon was also a decent PPV.

However, I remember thinking that things were not bad on the Raw side. However, the whole McMahons vs. DX angle kind of got old after a while. I thought that the Spirit Squad were entertaining for a little bit but they kind of fell of the radar after being taken out of the angle and into feuding with Ric Flair and Roddy Piper.

As for Raw PPVs, the best is no question Unforgiven from that year. Vengeance came close. The rest were okay or bad.

[frogsplash45]

Nay.

And an even BIGGER NAY to 2007. The Great Khali as World Heavyweight Champion is inexcusable.

[lez 3:16]

Jan 5, 2012 16:14:31 GMT -5 frogsplash45 said:

Nay.

And an even BIGGER NAY to 2007. The Great Khali as World Heavyweight Champion is inexcusable.

co sign

[Bishblast]

Better than 05 and 07, as a whole, but like those two years, there was just some awesome stuff here and there....

King Booker
Benoit having great matches with Regal and Finlay, on PPV no less
ECW was having a great match on every show, it seemed
Jeff Hardy had a great comeback

[Junkenstein]

Funny, I actually preferred Smackdown during this period. The Eddiesploitation was in bad taste, but it never totally dominated the show. Plus the Rey/Chavo matches that came out of it were very good. Besides that, you had the awesome King Booker run, solid PPVs, the rise of MVP and Kennedy, as well as Benoit and Angle still being around. Not to mention JBL on commentary.

Raw I stopped watching mostly due to the DX reunion and the McMahons feud dragging on for too long. But most of Raw was pretty awful really. Some of those late 06-early 07 episodes in particular were among the worst ever.

ECW I thought was a solid show when they were treating it as an equal brand to the other two. That only lasted for a few weeks though, and it all went tits up after December to Dismember.

[BorneAgain]

Raw sort of became a mess with DX dominating way too much TV, but still it had the nicely booked initial push of Umaga, the great feud between Edge/Cena and a decently respectable mid-card with Morrison, Carlito, Shelton, Jeff, etc.

I adored SD during this period. JBL became a great heel commentator, Booker was tearing it up as king, Hardy, Helms and others were having solid matches every week, Regal and Finlay got some good upper card pushes, Londrick were doing well as babyface champs, Lashley was being utilized perfectly, Kennedy was still interesting, and the show felt fresh because due to all the injuries of top guys they had to get creative with the weekly TV.

ECW was a completely bizarre show in the first month, but starting getting some better parts bit by bit, till it really took off as possibly the best brand in 2007.

[Metalheadbanger Man]

I started watching again in 2006 after a 4 year hiatus. There were still a lot of out there gimmicks going on at the time, but overall I can't say I particularly disliked it.

Edge finally became a bona fine main eventer in 2006, and he's one of my all time favourites, so there we go.

[Sir Woodrow]

I give it a "Yay" mainly because I thought Wrestlemania was really solidly entertaining that year and One Night Stand was great.

[FUNK_US/BRODUS]

WrestleMania 22 was freaking awesome.

[ronin705]

one of my favorite matches happened during this period. The 3 way championship match between Cena, Big Show, and King Bookah!!! at cyber sunday (or tuesday?? i cant remember lol) but that year was decent.

[moneyman20]

Lots of potential, little execution.

[Cam]

First half of 2006 - Yay
Second half of 2006 - Nay

First half (Yay):
Edge winning WWE title for 1st time
Mickie/Trish feud
Return of RVD
Angle vs Taker
Edge vs Foley
HBK/Vince feud
King Booker
ECW ONS II
Rise of Johnny Nitro
Return of D-X

Second half (Nay):
GAB 2006
Rey/Chavo/Benoit feud
Kurt Angle released
RVD suspended
Mick Foley "fired"
D-X/McMahons feud
Beginning of year-long Cena title reign
Lita and Trish retire
King Booker
K-Fed/Cena feud
ECW D2D

[Ryback on a Pole!]

Jan 5, 2012 18:36:16 GMT -5 Cam said:

First half of 2006 - Yay
Second half of 2006 - Nay

First half (Yay):
Edge winning WWE title for 1st time
Mickie/Trish feud
Return of RVD
Angle vs Taker
Edge vs Foley
HBK/Vince feud
King Booker
ECW ONS II
Rise of Johnny Nitro
Return of D-X

Second half (Nay):
GAB 2006
Rey/Chavo/Benoit feud
Kurt Angle released
RVD suspended
Mick Foley "fired"
D-X/McMahons feud
Beginning of year-long Cena title reign
Lita and Trish retire
King Booker
K-Fed/Cena feud
ECW D2D

This pretty much sums it up. For me though the bad far outweighed the good, DX taking up most of Raw in the latter part of the year was horrible.

[wcw]

WWE 2006 had a ton of potential but they never really took off with it by the second half of the year and into 2007. Cena, Orton, Batista, Edge, and Rey were a newly established core of guys that should have taken them into a new era quicker. ECW had guys like Punk and Elija Burke among others that could have joined that core (Punk did) moved up the ladder while helping to establish ECW.

But a lot of the potential early to mid 2006 showed were squandered. ECW was quickly not taken seriously as its own brand due to bad booking (Also the fact that it was only an hour long didn't help) among other things. The DX reunion tanked Raw's quality. Super Cena's long title reign would dominate Raw (Which wouldn't have been terrible had they actually booked Cena better). Smackdown was decent with King Booker getting a good run but the show wasn't phenomenal.

It was this wasted potential combined with the disaster that was 2007 that in my opinion led to the PG era. And honestly as much as I might hate it at times it was the best business decision.

[-Lithium-]

From when Edge cashed in the MITB to ONS 2 is one of my favorite periods for WWE. It's what made 2006 better than just about every year in the decade, other than 2000 and 2001. The consistent 4's in the ratings show that it had people interested. The Royal Rumble may have sucked, but WM 22 is still the best of the 20s, IMO. Triple Threat World Title, HHH/Cena, Mickie/Trish, Vince/HBK, MITB 2, Edge/Foley. All very enjoyable in different ways. The whole year was good, but the first six months were REALLY good, IMO...

[chunkylover53]

No mention of RVD's "up-in-smoke" title reign? I'm shocked. Needless to say, 2006 for me was pretty lackluster. Hell, any year after 2001 didn't match up to that.

[woowoowoox]

Yay. Loved it.