Brand(s) Raw (2005–2007) | Promotion WWE | |
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First event New Year's Revolution (2005) Last event New Year's Revolution (2007) | ||
Not to be confused with the XPW event of the same name.
Contents
New Year's Revolution was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event, that was produced every January by the American professional wrestling promotion, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). The event was created in 2005, with its inaugural event produced in January of that year. To coincide with the brand extension, the event was made exclusive to the Raw brand throughout the event's history.
New Year's Revolution was removed from the WWE schedule when they reduced the number of PPVs per year.
History
New Year's Revolution was a pay-per-view (PPV) event consisting of a main event and undercard that featured championship matches and other various bouts. The first New Year's Revolution took place on January 9, 2005 and aired live on PPV. The main event was an Elimination Chamber match, a special professional wrestling match type promoted on rare occasions in WWE. The Elimination Chamber is 16-feet-high and weighs 10-tons. It is composed of two miles of chain, steel grating, and plexiglas pods (which contain the individual wrestlers). The 2006 event also featured an Elimination Chamber match as the main event. Later that year, however, the annual Elimination Chamber match was moved to December to Dismember and was made ECW-exclusive. After its 2006 return, the December to Dismember event was canceled in 2007, and the Elimination Chamber matches were moved once again to the No Way Out event. The New Year's Revolution event was then canceled in 2008.
In 2002, WWE held a draft that split its roster into two distinctive brands of wrestling, Raw and SmackDown, and ECW later in 2006. Before the draft, matches featured wrestlers from the roster without any limitations; after the draft, however, matches consisted only of wrestlers from their distinctive brands. The first New Year's Revolution event which took place on January 9, 2005. New Year's Revolution was exclusive to the Raw brand. After three years of being produced as a brand-exclusive event, New Year's Revolution (2007) was the final New Year's Revolution event.
At the final New Year's Revolution in 2007, the main event was a singles match for the WWE Championship between John Cena and Umaga, which Cena won to retain the title.
Reception
The 2005 event never reached Billboard.com's top ten list for Recreational Sports DVDs. The first week the event appeared on the Billboard chart, it ranked 19th. The following week, the event ranked 17th, only to drop off the chart the next week. The 2006 event ranked third on its first week in the chart's top ten list. The following week, the DVD reached second on the list, and remained in the top ten for five weeks until the week of April 8, 2006, when the event dropped to 11th. The 2007 event ranked second in its first week in the top ten. The DVD remained in the top ten for four weeks until the week of March 31, 2007, when it ranked 11th.
Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section rated the 2005 event a three out of ten stars. The main event was rated a seven out of ten stars. The 2006 event was given a rating of three out of ten stars also, with the main event being rated six out of ten stars. The 2007 event was rated six out of ten stars, the highest a New Year's Revolution event has been rated. The main event was given a six out of ten stars rating, the same as the previous year's main event.