Vengeance 2006: Rob Van Dam Gets One Night as WWE Champion Before the Summer Changes Course

Angle and Orton deliberately slow the rematch down, which gives the opening more realism but less urgency than their One Night Stand meeting. Orton repeatedly uses chinlocks and distance to stop Angle from turning the bout into a wrestling sprint. Angle finally breaks through with the German suplex sequence, stringing together seven and pulling the crowd into his comeback. The ankle lock appears to give him the same path to victory as two weeks earlier. Orton survives by using the exposed turnbuckle, sending Angle face-first into the steel before hitting the RKO. The finish is clean enough to even the series while protecting Orton's opportunistic character. As Angle's final WWE pay-per-view match for eleven years, the bout matters more historically than competitively.

The match is designed as a monster showcase and barely pretends otherwise. Eugene arrives with Jim Duggan, Doink the Clown, and Kamala, creating a nostalgia frame around a wrestler WWE is quickly establishing as dangerous. Umaga absorbs the few punches Eugene lands, drives him into the corner, hits the running hip attack, and finishes with the Samoan Spike in less than two minutes. The post-match attacks on Duggan and Doink extend the message without adding much wrestling. As developmental booking for Umaga, the segment is efficient and easy to understand. As pay-per-view competition, there is almost nothing to revisit. The opponent, entourage, and quick finish exist solely to make the new heel look unstoppable.

Flair and Foley build the match around Foley's determination to prove he can outwrestle the man who mocked him as a stuntman. The idea is clever, but the execution never develops because the first two falls arrive too easily. Flair catches Foley with an inside cradle for the first. Foley then becomes frustrated, brings in a trash can, and gets disqualified to lose the second without forcing a third fall. The hometown crowd likes Flair, but the stipulation feels wasted. The real payoff comes afterward when Foley uses a barbed-wire bat and leaves Flair bleeding heavily. That attack creates genuine heat for their SummerSlam feud, yet it also confirms that the match itself was merely a vehicle to reach the angle.

The triple threat gives the show its first sustained burst of athleticism. Carlito works as the increasingly popular babyface, Benjamin brings explosive power and timing, and Nitro keeps slipping into openings created by the other two. The match becomes especially good once all three begin stacking counters rather than rotating one-on-one. Carlito's springboard dive and the Tower of Doom sequence wake the building up, while Benjamin repeatedly looks capable of surviving with the championship. The finish is simple and effective. Carlito lands the Backstabber on Benjamin and appears ready to win, only for Nitro to pull Carlito outside and steal the pin himself. The result launches Nitro's singles championship run without making Carlito look foolish.

Van Dam and Edge produce the best complete match on the card by treating the championship like the center of the story rather than relying on the ECW novelty around it. Edge attacks the back after a brutal powerbomb to the barricade, forcing Van Dam to sell through his comeback. RVD answers with springboards, kicks, and creative counters that keep the challenger from settling into control. The referee bump introduces Lita and the championship belt without becoming the finish. Van Dam kicks the belt into Edge's face, then later avoids a charge that sends Edge head-first into a chair wedged in the corner. The Five Star Frog Splash finishes the defense. It is Van Dam's only pay-per-view WWE Championship defense, and it holds up.

The match exposes the central problem with the Imposter Kane idea: once the visual joke is established, there is nowhere interesting for the wrestling to go. The masked imitator copies Kane's mannerisms and power offense while the real Kane tries repeatedly to remove the mask. Both men work slowly, and the crowd becomes openly restless as chinlocks and basic heavyweight exchanges fill the seven minutes. The finish is supposed to create shock. Kane jumps from the top rope, the impostor catches him by the throat, and a chokeslam gives the imitator the clean pin. Instead of creating intrigue, the result mostly produces silence. The storyline disappears soon afterward, leaving the match as a strange detour with almost no lasting payoff.

Cena and Sabu use the lumberjacks as an extension of the Raw-versus-ECW feud rather than background decoration. Every trip to the floor becomes dangerous because one side or the other immediately swarms the opponent. Sabu controls much of the match with chairs, a triple-jump moonsault, and the Arabian Facebuster, while Cena survives long enough for the Raw wrestlers to help create an opening. The match is extremely short, so the escalation becomes frantic. Cena knocks Sabu out of the air with a kendo stick, throws a chair into him, and delivers the FU over the top rope through a table at ringside. Back inside, the STFU forces the submission. It is reckless, compact, and much more entertaining than six minutes should allow.

The crowd is far more invested in seeing D-Generation X together than in wondering who will win, and the match never escapes that imbalance. Spirit Squad use their numbers to isolate Michaels and create a long control segment, including outside interference and a chair shot while the referee is distracted. Michaels eventually reaches Triple H, and the hot tag gives the final minutes the pace the earlier work lacks. The comeback is satisfying because every Squad member gets knocked around before Kenny takes the Pedigree and Mikey takes Sweet Chin Music. Triple H and Michaels score simultaneous pins. Seventeen minutes is generous for such a predictable result, but the audience gets the reunion celebration it came to see.