We are reminded of the start of Ric Flair's "retirement tour", if you will, imposed by Vince McMahon. Flair faces Raw GM William Regal tonight, and if he gets by Regal, he has MVP at the Rumble.

Match 1: Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, & Melina Perez vs. Ashley Massaro, Maria Kanellis, & Mickie James With the exception of the women's champion, these ladies had a lingerie pillow fight last week which was one of the coolest parts of the show. This 6-woman tag should be better. Well, it would, if it had more time. Each woman got their chance to shine. At the end it came down to Mickie & Beth, and it looked like Mickie would get the drop on the champion after an enziguri, but Mickie anticipated the entree of Jillian & Melina into the fray to break up the fall. Maria & Ashley cleared out the trash, if you will, but Mickie's momentum was cut off with a hot shot on the top. Phoenix followed with the fisherman buster to pick up another win. Winners: Beth Phoenix, Jillian Hall, & Melina Perez.

Backstage, Vince McMahon is with William Regal, who is confident he'll beat Ric Flair later. McMahon gives Regal an enema, using it to illustrate the insane chairman's belief that Mobile, Alabama would be the enema of the US. Not funny. Snitsky appears and is tired of waiting for his chance to make an impact. McMahon sets up Snitsky vs. Triple H for later. Oh, by the way, it's Snitsky's birthday.

Tomorrow on ECW: Edge brings the Cutting Edge to ECW, with ECW champ CM Punk as the guest.

Clips are shown from last year's Royal Rumble, with Shawn Michaels & Undertaker the last two. The Deadman won his first Rumble, and is in position to repeat this year.

Match 2: Shawn Michaels vs. Trevor Murdoch (Royal Rumble qualifier) HBK cuts a promo pre-match, citing his 2nd place finish last year and the fact that he's won 2 Rumbles (1995-6). He wants Ken Kennedy, but gets Murdoch instead. To his credit, Trev comes out full of fire & venom, and it's a slugfest from the go. However, Murdoch takes his foot off the pedal, shall we say, and lets HBK come back. After the elbow off the top, Shawn tunes up the band, but Murdoch drops to the canvas to avoid the superkick, so HBK improvises and applies a modified figure four leglock---in homage to Ric Flair, natch---and Murdoch flails away, telling the ref he's had enough. Old school style submission. Winner: Shawn Michaels.

Post-match, a pre-recorded video from Kennedy is shown. Kennedy-HBK III will be next Monday. Kennedy is on his honeymoon, having gotten married over the weekend.

Clips are shown of Flair vs. Randy Orton from November.

Wrestlemania Flashback: Wrestlemania 6, 1990: Ultimate Warrior defeats Hulk Hogan to add the WWE title to the IC title. This is brought up because Randy Orton has a chance to add the IC to his WWE title later.

JR & the King run down the Royal Rumble card.

Vince is backstage with Hornswoggle. So much for assuming Kennedy's on his honeymoon, because there's going to be a mini-Rumble later, to give 'Swoggle a warm-up for the real thing. Kennedy, Mankind, Batista, and "a couple of surprises" round out the field. When 'Swoggle admits he doesn't really have much chance to win the real Rumble on 1/27, Vince goozles him and reminds that "your last name is McMahon. Anything can happen!".

Melina is doing a promotion for a contest on Mun2, which airs Raw on Sunday afternoons from 4-6 pm (EST).

Match 3: Triple H vs. Gene Snitsky JR describes Snitsky as "bowling shoe ugly", which according to Jerry Lawler would be an insult to bowling shoes. Well, this match wasn't exactly a mat classic, but it had a point to prove. Pretty even in terms of brawling. The turning point in the match comes as Hunter's about to check Snitsky's pedigree, as JR would say, but he's too close to the ropes, and Snitsky backdrops him over. Snitsky follows the Cerebral Assassin outside, and rams him into the steps. Snitsky takes the top steps and intends to crush the Game's skull, but he takes too long, and Hunter's long gone upon impact. Helmsley's response is to grab a steel chair and ram it into Snitsky's gut, prompting ref Mike Chioda to call for the bell. Winner: Gene Snitsky via DQ.

Snitsky does not feel like a winner, though, as HHH throws him back into the ring, then reaches under the ring for his trusty sledgehammer. Hammer shot to the gut sets up a pedigree. As Hunter leaves, Vince appears on the TitanTron, noting the growing rage in the former champion after being screwed out of the Rumble 2 weeks ago. Hunter uses the hammer on the lower video screen, a symbolic act, considering that Raw will be broadcast in high definition starting next week, and the rumors are true, as they'll have a new set to go along with that.

After the break, Vince meets up with HHH backstage, and tells him that he'll let Hunter back into the Royal Rumble provided he wins his match next week against an opponent to be determined.

After nearly hanging Chris Jericho last week, John Bradshaw Layfield has decided to celebrate this act of barbarism by duplicating his entrance from 2 weeks ago. The man has no shame. He's pompous, arrogant, irresponsible, selfish, et al. He thinks he needs to have balloons come down from the rafters for nearly ending Jericho's career? The man is nuttier than McMahon, and he's nuttier than a case of Snickers! JBL gloats about his attack on Jericho last week, and cuts a promo directed at Jericho and his children watching at home in Florida. JR tells us Jericho suffered a "bruised larynx" last week, and thus isn't there. JBL calls up the pyro four times upon his exit, which is a little too much.

Match 4: Hornswoggle vs. "Batista" vs. "Mr. Kennedy" vs. "Kane" vs. "Mankind" (mini Royal Rumble) Stress "Mini". Midgets were hired to impersonate the other wrestlers, and some actually had the moves of their counterparts down. 'Swoggle starts with Mini-Kennedy. 30 seconds later, Mini-Mankind follows. 'Swoggle eliminates them both rather easily, pressing Kennedy-Lite overhead and tossing him over the top. Mini-Batista is next, and gives a good accounting of himself, using a spear on 'Swoggle. Mini-Kane is the last man in. He hits a series of uppercuts, and even hits a clothesline off the middle rope after Mini-Batista was eliminated. However, he couldn't connect with a chokeslam, and 'Swoggle borrowed Finlay's finisher, the Celtic Cross. A baseball slide dropkick sends Mini-Kane out, but the clock is still running.

Great Khali comes out with Ranjin Singh, and suddenly, the fun is over. Finlay, however, runs in to save his friend and chases off Khali with the shillelagh, then bum-rushes Singh out of the ring. Winner: Hornswoggle.

Backstage, Finlay confronts Vince, who denies sending Khali out, but makes Khali vs. Finlay for Smackdown. Finlay isn't buying Vince's claims, and whatever that deal was they had is crumbling, even though Vince doesn't want it mentioned. Guilty conscience?

Match 5: Ric Flair vs. William Regal After the introductions, we end up going to commercial, so the match is in progress as we come back from break. This is what happens when you give someone like JBL too much time. The match was rushed, obviously. Regal had an advantage early on, but like Trevor Murdoch earlier, it was squandered. Flair hit the figure four, but Regal forced a rope break. Regal went for a roll-up and a handful of tights, but ref Marty Elias picked up the infraction at 2 and forced a break. Naturally, Flair reciprocates by grabbing the tights on a schoolboy rollup, and we nearly get a full British moonshot. Winner: Ric Flair.

Match 6: Jeff Hardy vs. Randy Orton (Intercontinental title) Orton has held the IC title before, and just wants to win it again to gain a psychological edge on Hardy going into the Royal Rumble. However, with so little time left in the show, this one will be rushed as well. In fact, it doesn't even take a minute. No sooner does ref Mike Chioda call for the bell to start the match than Orton meets Hardy with a deliberate low blow. Chioda waits a few seconds as Hardy sells, then calls for the bell to end the match. Winner: Jeff Hardy via DQ.

After the bell, Orton cut a promo saying the show wasn't over, and that he had other ideas. He pulled out some of the mats at ringside, and planned to RKO Hardy on the floor, but Jeff recovered and fought Hardy all the way to the stage. He backdropped Orton off the stage, then climbed up one of the light stands and hit the Swanton Bomb on an already prone Orton. Both men are being removed from the arena on stretchers to end the show.