Royal Rumble 2006 Dumbest Ass Award: Big Show

The Royal Rumble match is a 30 man over the top rope battle royal, and it's every man for himself. That invites strategy. It's a tactical war as much as a test of physical strength and endurance. Too often, wrestlers either forget this fact or ignore it completely. They do so by engaging in such ridiculously dumb behavior like outright stopping eliminations from occurring. There are exceptions, of course, like tag teams or factions attempting to work together to give themselves the best chance to win but generally, it's a really stupid idea to stop an elimination.

In each Royal Rumble, there are always wrestlers who stop multiple eliminations. In some cases, a wrestler will stop an elimination that has a monumental effect on the match and is detrimental to his chances of winning in a way he ultimately cannot overcome. I like to refer to such a wrestler as the "Dumbest Ass." Special considerations made for other stupidity.

Here, we'll hand out the award for "Dumbest Ass" in each of the Royal Rumble matches that have taken place so far.

_______________________________________

2006

A record breaking Royal Rumble, both for WWE and for this series.

Dumbasses

Simon Dean

1. He gets in at number 3 and beats on Rey Mysterio a bit before tossing him over the top rope. He doesn't bother to make sure he completed the elimination, however, and turns to Triple H for a high five while bouncing around like an idiot. Triple H responded with violence and Mysterio got back in the ring to help toss him.

Big Show

1. He never, ever learns. He got in early at number 6 and Triple H and Rey Mysterio were the only two in the ring. He easily beat both of them down. At one point, he picks Triple H up over his shoulder, holds him there playing to the crowd, then slams him to the mat. My god, man. Guess who eliminated him?
2. Not long after, he again picked Triple H up over his head, this time pressing him, once again playing to the crowd, and slammed him to the mat. There is a tumbleweed kicking around in Show's brain, I'm sure of it.
3. Instead of working together with his tag partner, Kane, which would be a really great strategy considering their collective size, he got into a prolonged confrontation with him that included that super dumb double throat grab nonsense. They did this to such a degree that they were both leaning over the top rope and Triple H came right up behind them and chucked both of them.

Kane

1. See above.

Jonathan Coachman

1. My man gets in and there are three people in there: Big Show, Triple H, and Rey Mysterio. Show has Triple H in the corner and is working on him while Mysterio is by himself selling in another corner. Guess who Coachman decided to go after? After he stupidly blasted Big in the back, he was quickly thrown out and injured his shoulder in the process.

Bobby Lashley

1. Had Triple H up over his head and slammed him to the mat. What is wrong with big guys in this match?
2. Had Kane up for the Dominator and played it up before slamming him. That's two eliminations one right after the other of two very dangerous opponents that he chose not to follow through on. Kane got some help from his tag partner at the time, Big Show, and threw Lashley out.

Triple H

1. He got into it with Chris Benoit and when he had him over the top rope and on the apron, he picked him up and put him on the top rope on the turnbuckle. He was fought off and no elimination occurred.

Carlito

1. He's working over Rey Mysterio, who had been selling for like 10 minutes at this point, when he looks over to see Chris Benoit trying to get Triple H out on the turnbuckle in the corner. So, of course, he peels off to blast Benoit in the back.

Trevor Murdoch

1. He was helping Carlito try to toss Tatanka when he suddenly stopped and punched Carlito. I don't get it. Maybe I'm not supposed to.

Chavo Guerrero

1. I'm including him here but am not sure how to feel about it. He went through the ropes and to the top, where he pointed to the sky, presumably in tribute to Eddie Guerrero, who had died just a couple months earlier, and was pushed out by Triple H. I'm not sure about this both for the Eddie part and for the fact that he went through the ropes to get to the top rope. I don't know. It's all weird. He's here, but I don't like how it happened.

Johnny Nitro

1. This is so very dumb. He picks Carlito up, drops him on the top rope, then walks away. No wonder he never won the world title.

Orlando Jordan

1. He and Viscera are teaming together to get Shelton Benjamin out. They get him over the top rope but he lands on the apron and manages to keep himself in. They both see this and neither of them do anything. They just stare at him and then back off a little. Jordan then attacks Viscera. Pure idiocy.

Viscera

1. See above.

Chris Masters

1. He teamed together with Carlito to eliminate Viscera and when they completed their task, he celebrated by calling himself the man and going on like he was something special. Naturally, Carlito used the opening to dump him.

Rob Van Dam

1. Shawn Michaels eliminated both members of MNM and on the second one, he, too, went over the top rope. He had to skin the cat to get back in and RVD was standing right there in the corner watching him do it.

Shawn Michaels

1. Allowed himself to get distracted by Vince McMahon coming out and was eliminated from behind by Shane McMahon, of all people.

The Dumbest Ass

Big Show

This man could have built a dynasty by this point and in a way I guess he did -- a dynasty of dumb. He had so many opportunities to eliminate top guys, many of whom went on to win Royal Rumble matches. He always chose to be an idiot and he never learned from that. He's building a resume I'm not sure anyone can top. Lex Luger, you're off the hook.

_________________________________________

Previous "Dumbest Ass" award winners:

1989: Bad News Brown
1990: Ultimate Warrior
1991: British Bulldog
1992: Hulk Hogan
1993: Randy Savage
1994: Lex Luger
1995: Lex Luger
1996: Diesel
1997: Mil Mascaras
1998: Disciples of Apocalypse
1999: Stone Cold Steve Austin
2000: Big Show
2001: The Rock
2002: Undertaker
2003: Undertaker
2004: Big Show
2005: Rey Mysterio