40 Fun Facts About WWE SmackDown! Vs. Raw 2006

Which wrestler on the SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 roster died suddenly the day before the game's North American release?

Eddie Guerrero died on November 13, 2005, and the game reached North American shops the next day with him on the SmackDown brand, rated 89 overall.

Which Legend appears three times on the SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 roster, in 1980s, nWo and 2000s versions?

Hulk Hogan fills three Legend slots, including the villainous Hollywood version. He had missed the two previous games while away from WWE.

Which SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 cover star released the rap album You Can't See Me in 2005?

John Cena shares the cover with one SmackDown star, and his album You Can't See Me peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard 200.

Which SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 cover star later played Drax in Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy films?

Batista sits on the game's SmackDown brand with an 88 rating. He first played Drax the Destroyer in 2014, nine years after the game came out.

Which Legend nicknamed The Texas Rattlesnake returned to the roster in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Stone Cold Steve Austin was left out of the previous game while on a break from WWE. He comes back as a Legend rated 90 overall.

Which SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 Legend played Fezzik in the 1987 film The Princess Bride?

Andre the Giant, dubbed the Eighth Wonder of the World, is one of the game's Legends with an overall rating of 85.

Which match type, requested by players for years, made its series debut in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Buried Alive had been requested by players for several years. Shutting the opponent in the casket triggers a cut scene of the burial.

Which role do players take in a new SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 mode, drafting a roster and booking shows?

General Manager mode opens with a draft of 20 Superstars for Raw or SmackDown, then reports how fans reacted to every show the player books.

Which handheld got SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 a month after the home console, a first for the series?

Sony PSP owners got the game in December 2005 with three exclusive minigames, although GameSpy called its loading times abysmally long.

Which SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 Legend had left wrestling for film roles such as The Scorpion King?

The Rock is rated 93, second among the game's Legends. The Scorpion King, released in 2002, gave him his first leading role.

Which Raw star in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 won Olympic freestyle wrestling gold in 1996 despite a broken neck?

Kurt Angle carries a 95 overall rating in the game, just one point behind the highest-rated Legend.

Which Mick Foley persona, masked and deranged, is the one playable as a Legend in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Mankind is rated 91 and is one of the Legends who can be taken through Season mode, something the previous game did not allow.

Which Legend in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 was nicknamed The Hitman and The Excellence of Execution?

Bret Hart is rated 92 in the game. Commentator Gorilla Monsoon coined the Excellence of Execution label for his agile, technical style.

Which Legend's self-awarded Million Dollar title belt can be won and defended in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man, is a playable Legend rated 86, and his diamond-encrusted belt sits beside the titles WWE used in 2005.

Which Raw wrestler in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 wrestled in a superhero costume before reverting to his real name?

The Hurricane dropped the superhero act in 2005, the year the game came out, and went back to wrestling as Gregory Helms.

Which wrestler, Women's Champion for most of 2005, is the highest-rated woman in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Trish Stratus is rated 66 overall, one point ahead of her rival Lita. The title reign she began in January 2005 lasted 448 days.

Which publisher, bankrupt by the end of 2012, released SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 everywhere except Japan?

THQ filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2012. In Japan the game was published by its developer instead.

Which newcomer in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 was known for spitting apple at people he judged uncool?

Carlito makes his series debut on the Raw brand, rated 84. He had arrived on WWE television in October 2004 as Carlito Caribbean Cool.

Which Legend famed for the DDT was exclusive to the handheld version of SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Jake Roberts, 'The Snake', could be brought into the home console game by linking a handheld save over USB. It was his series debut.

Which console, new to the series, got the sequel to SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 in November 2006?

Xbox 360 owners got SmackDown vs. Raw 2007, the first game in the series to be published on a seventh-generation console.

Which Legend, new in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006, won the Intercontinental title in the main event of SummerSlam 1992?

British Bulldog, the ring name of Englishman Davey Boy Smith, debuts rated 87. The WWF took SummerSlam to London because he was so popular in the UK.

Which chain-wearing Legend, new in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006, regularly sold out the Louisiana Superdome?

Junkyard Dog makes his series debut rated 83, a year after his posthumous induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.

Which SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 newcomer was written off WWE television after a July 2005 loss to The Undertaker?

Muhammad Hassan was released by WWE in September 2005, two months before the game came out, yet he makes his series debut rated 84.

Which newcomer in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 claimed that nobody could break his full nelson hold?

Chris Masters, billed as The Masterpiece, debuted on Raw in February 2005 and reached the game the same year with an 82 rating.

Which Raw wrestler, written as an overexcited savant, has an airplane minigame in the handheld SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Eugene has to be steered around the ring against the clock in the airplane game, one of three minigames found only on the handheld.

Which winner of the 2004 Diva Search made her series debut in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Christy Hemme won a one-year WWE contract worth $250,000 in the contest. She appears on the SmackDown brand, rated 56 overall.

Which Osaka studio, known for developing WWE's video games until 2018, made SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Yuke's also published the game itself in Japan, where it went on sale in February 2006, almost three months after Europe and North America.

Which new bar in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 replaced the old clean/dirty and SmackDown meters to track a match's flow?

Momentum now decides the flow of a match, and style still matters: a wrestler who fights clean is portrayed as a face, one who fights dirty as a heel.

Reviewers compared SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 with which acclaimed Nintendo 64 wrestling game released in 2000?

WWF No Mercy was the yardstick: IGN's reviewer wrote that no wrestling game since it had offered as much replay, value or depth as this one.

Which event staged outdoors at Caesars Palace supplies the unlockable retro arena in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

WrestleMania IX, held in 1993, was the first WrestleMania staged in the open air, and its arena is the only one in the game that predates 2004.

Which card game is one of three minigames exclusive to the handheld version of SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Poker sits beside a 500-question wrestling quiz and an airplane game, and up to four players can join each minigame over local Wi-Fi.

Which former president of WCW appears in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 as Raw's on-screen boss but is not playable?

Eric Bischoff is listed among the game's non-playable characters, a group that also covers referees, ring announcers and both commentary teams.

Which 2005 reunion pay-per-view, held at New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, has its arena in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

ECW One Night Stand reunited wrestlers from a promotion that had folded in 2001, and its arena sits beside those of WWE's regular pay-per-views.

Which team, featuring Sylvain Grenier and Rob Conway, is one of five ready-made stables in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

La Résistance began as two supposed Frenchmen who were really French Canadians, and all three of its members made the game's roster.

SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 added a Create mode for which part of a wrestler's act, ending an old one-minute limit?

Entrance design became a mode of its own, with control over details such as pyrotechnics, arena lighting and camera angles.

SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 went on sale in Japan in February 2006 as the seventh game under which name?

Exciting Pro Wrestling 7 was the Japanese title, and the game's developer handled publishing there instead of its Western publisher.

Which 2004 pay-per-view, where fans voted on the matches, has its arena in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Taboo Tuesday was billed as an interactive pay-per-view, and one of its 2004 bouts inspired a new match type for women in the game.

Which retired wrestler, nicknamed The Human Suplex Machine, calls SmackDown matches in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006?

Tazz retired from the ring in June 2002 and became a full-time broadcaster; in the game he shares the SmackDown desk with Michael Cole.

Which backstage space, new in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006, can players customise in full 3D?

Locker room decoration arrived in the same game as a Season mode with 100 motion-captured cut scenes.

Create-A-Belt returned in SmackDown vs. Raw 2006 with which kind of belt available to design for the first time?

Tag Team belts joined the creation mode, and for the first time in years any title in the game could be defended in Exhibition matches.