20 Years: A Look Back at New Year's Revolution

Hard to believe that today marks 20 years since we fans of World Wrestling Entertainment were introduced to the short-lived event known as New Year's Revolution. It was the height of the Ruthless Aggression Era, and WWE was already almost three years into the original Brand Extension, which saw Raw and SmackDown with their own announcers, rosters, champions, and yes, even pay-per-views (with the exception of WWE's Big Four) were split up.

Regarding New Year's Revolution, while I haven't read a confirmed reason as to why this was created, I do have a theory. First off, I believe that WWE wanted to provide a roadblock between Armageddon (the December PPV at the time) and the prestigious Royal Rumble event. Secondly, again, the PPVs were brand exclusive at the time, and Raw's last appearance at a PPV was Survivor Series in November. Armageddon was given to SmackDown in 2004, meaning that without this event, Raw would have to wait until the Rumble to appear on PPV. Hence, New Year's Revolution was created for the Raw brand.

So yeah, New Year's Revolution was actually announced during Survivor Series in 2004, marking the debut of a new event, which didn't last long. Here's what took place in each event:

2005

The first event took place on January 9, 2005 in the Puerto Rican capital of San Juan, and it was quite the event for sure. Kane and Snitsky fought in a huge grudge match, Muhammad Hassan (remember him?) had his first WWE match against Hall of Famer Jerry "The King" Lawler, though unfortunately, one of the things I do remember from this event was the rematch between Lita and Trish for the Women's Title. Lita won the title from Trish in the memorable bout that main evented Raw, but in the rematch, Lita ended up badly injured to the point where their rematch had to be shortened, and the title was dropped back to Trish.

Of course, the main event was the Elimination Chamber bout, and I think WWE's intent was to have New Year's Revolution be the official host PPV for the Elimination Chamber. In this case, it was the vacant World Heavyweight Championship on the line, with Triple H, Edge, Chris Benoit, Chris Jericho, Batista, and Randy Orton all vying for the title. This was the third Chamber match in WWE (after such matches took place in Survivor Series in 2002, and SummerSlam in 2003), and in the end, Triple H stood alone (sort of) and captured his 10th World Title.

2006

The second New Year's Revolution event took place on January 8, 2006, and this was quite the event. We saw Mickie James get her first shot against Trish Stratus for the Women's Title; Jerry "The King" Lawler was in action again, this time against Gregory Helms, and Triple H faced Big Show in an interesting match. Once again, the Elimination Chamber took center stage, but it was the WWE Championship being defended in that structure. In this match, it was John Cena defending the title against Kurt Angle, Shawn Michaels, Carlito, Chris Masters, and Kane, quite the population in that bout.

This was Cena's first EC, and it was still his first overall World Title run. He survived a hell of a lot during that run: JBL's violence, Jericho, Angle, Bischoff's attempts to stack the deck against him, and on that night, Cena would add the Elimination Chamber to the list. However, there were two things that Cena did not survive on that same night: a briefcase and the Rated R Superstar. Edge cashed in the Money In the Bank briefcase that he won at WrestleMania 21, delivered two spears, and captured his very first WWE Championship.

2007

The third and final New Year's Revolution event took place on January 7, 2007, and honestly, I do remember the build (or lack thereof) to the event. The main event was Cena defending the title against Umaga, and it did seem like that match was a bit on the random side. I also recall DX (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) challenged Rated RKO (Edge and Randy Orton) for the World Tag Team Championship, and sadly, that was the match where Triple H's past quad injury resurfaced, and the match ended up being thrown out. In the women's division, Victoria challenged Mickie James for the title, though the only thing that stood out was that Victoria (who had been a heel since 2005) was back to that psychotic gimmick she had before, but that was about it.

* * *

The elimination of New Year's Revolution was done because WWE was on their way to combining PPVs again, meaning that they would no longer be brand exclusive (until the brand split returned in 2016). The last New Year's Revolution event in 2007 was the final Raw exclusive PPV until 2016, and the last to only feature one brand's superstars. Though 2007's No Way Out a month later was SmackDown branded, stars from Raw and ECW appeared at the event. In recent years we've seen WWE finally fill that void with the Day 1 event, as well as NXT's annual New Year's Evil special episode. The New Year's Revolution name would not return until 2024, serving as a special episode of SmackDown that aired on the first Friday of that year.

New Year's Revolution was one hell of an event for sure. I watched the 2005 event and the Elimination Chamber, and it looked like the Chamber would be at New Year's Revolution every year. 2007's event didn't have the Chamber because it was used in the forgettable December to Dismember event a month prior. While it sucks that New Year's Revolution is no more, we do have the memories, and at least the Elimination Chamber does now have an event of its own, so there's that.