Vengeance (2006)

Vengeance (2006) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which happened on June 25, 2006 at the Charlotte Bobcats Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. It was the sixth yearly Vengeance event. Eight professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's card. The buildup to the matches and the situations that took place before, during, and after the event were planned by WWE's script writers. The event starred wrestlers from the Raw brand: a storyline expansion of the promotion where employees are assigned to a wrestling brand under the WWE banner.

The main event was a 5-on-2 Handicap match, a match consisting of one team of wrestlers facing off against a team of wrestlers with more people such as three against two, or five against two, between D-Generation X (DX) (Triple H and Shawn Michaels) versus the Spirit Squad (Kenny, Johnny, Mitch, Nicky, and Mikey). Triple H and Michaels won the match after pinning Kenny and Mikey, respectively. Two other matches were on the card. In singles matches, John Cena beat Sabu in an Extreme lumberjack match, which featured wrestlers from the Raw and ECW brands at ringside. The other featured match was for the WWE Championship, in which Rob Van Dam beat Edge to keep his title.

Vengeance made over $400,000 in ticket sales from an attendance of 6,800 and received 320,000 pay-per-view buys, which helped WWE increase its pay-per-view revenue by $21.6 million compared to the year before. When the event was released on DVD, it reached the number one position on Billboard's DVD Sales Chart.

Background
The event had eight professional wrestling matches with different wrestlers involved in scripted feuds, plots and storylines. Wrestlers played either villains or heroes as they followed a series of events, which lead to a wrestling match or series of matches. All wrestlers belonged to the Raw brand – a storyline division in which WWE assigned its employees to a different program, the other two being SmackDown! and ECW.

The main event scripted into Vengeance was between D-Generation X (DX) Triple H and Shawn Michaels versus the Spirit Squad (Kenny [Ken Doane], Johnny [Johnny Jeter], Mitch [Nick Mitchell], Nicky [Nick Nemeth], and Mikey [Michael Brendli]) in a 5-on-2 Handicap match consisting of one team of wrestlers facing off against a team of wrestlers with more people such as five against two. The story for the match began after Backlash, Raw'''s previous pay-per-view event, where The McMahons (Vince and Shane) defeated Michaels and "God" in a tag team match, with help from the Spirit Squad in a no disqualification match, a match where neither wrestler can be disqualified, allowing for weapons and outside interference. For weeks on Raw, Michaels got revenge on both Vince McMahon and the Spirit Squad, until the May 22 episode of Raw, where the Spirit Squad were scripted to injure Michaels' left knee. Then, by orders of McMahon, Triple H was to "break Michaels' skull", with a sledgehammer. Triple H failed to do what McMahon ordered and instead attacked the Spirit Squad, thus turning into a hero. Two weeks later, McMahon put Triple H in a gauntlet match, against the Spirit Squad. In the match, Kenny grabbed a steel chair and put it on Triple H's left knee, similar to what the group did to Michaels. Mitch, who was the only member not participating in the match, was thrown out from the backstage curtain by Michaels. Then, Michaels joined Triple H in the ring as they began to beat down the four members of the Spirit Squad. This lead to Michaels and Triple H reforming D-Generation X for the first time since their teased reunion in 2002. That same night, McMahon scheduled the Spirit Squad and D-Generation X in a 5-on-2 handicap tag team match. On the June 19 episode of Raw, DX marked their return, when the duo humiliated the Spirit Squad as DX dumped green slime onto the group and embarrassed the team afterward, by beating them.

One of the featured matches was between John Cena and Sabu in an Extreme lumberjack match, a standard match with the exception that the ring is surrounded by a group of wrestlers not directly involved in it and competed under hardcore rules. On the television debut of ECW on Sci Fi on June 13, a brawl broke out between Rob Van Dam and Edge. Edge, who tried to leave through the ECW crowd, was attacked by Cena, because he caused Cena to lose the WWE Championship at ECW's One Night Stand, and Cena wanted revenge against Edge. Following the attack, Cena went to ringside where he knocked ECW Representative Paul Heyman unconscious, after Heyman awarded the win to Van Dam at One Night Stand. Following the attack, Heyman announced that all ECW superstars would be at Raw the next week. The next week on Raw, Heyman appeared alongside ECW superstar, Balls Mahoney, who was booked to wrestle Cena in a match. The match was won by Cena after he made Mahoney submit. After the match, Cena was attacked by ECW wrestler, Sabu, who, in the premiere of ECW on Sci-Fi won a 10-man Extreme Battle Royal, (a multi-competitor match type in which wrestlers are eliminated until only one is left and declared winner) where the winner would face Cena at Vengeance in a match. Sabu beat up Cena and performed a leg drop on him, diving onto Cena and putting him through the Raw announcers' table. The following night on an episode of ECW on Sci-Fi, Cena went to the ECW locker room, where he challenged Sabu to an Extreme lumberjack match, which Sabu accepted.

The other featured match was between WWE Champion Rob Van Dam defending the title against Edge. The story for the match began on the television premiere of ECW on Sci-Fi, when Van Dam was awarded the ECW World Heavyweight Championship by Paul Heyman, making Van Dam a double champion by holding both the ECW and WWE Championship. Van Dam's celebration was then interrupted by Edge and his girlfriend, Lita. Edge, who was number one contender for the title, told Van Dam that they both had a lot in common, meaning that they were both Money in the Bank winners and successfully became WWE Champions. Edge ended his speech by giving Van Dam some kind words and then attacking him. On the June 19 episode of Raw'', Van Dam attacked Edge, moments after Edge won a match against Ric Flair.

Results

References

2006 in professional wrestling
Sports in Charlotte, North Carolina
WWE Vengeance