Bonus Episode: 2011 WWE "All-I-Want-for-Christmas" Battle Royale

Join Bradley Palermo and Aaron Fink for a festive dive into the hilarious and chaotic 2011 WWE "All-I-Want-for-Christmas" Battle Royale! In this special bonus episode of Grapple City Rewind, we break down this over-the-top match featuring Sheamus, Hornswoggle, and a wild mix of WWE stars. From the strange holiday vibes to the unforgettable moments with Mick Foley as Santa, we discuss everything that made this match a memorable and lighthearted WWE moment. Tune in for some laughs, nostalgia, and surprising facts from the world of professional wrestling!

(626) 657-SLAM

Email: Grapplecitypod@gmail.com

IG: @grapplecitypod

X: @grapplecitypod

TikTok: @grapplecitypod

Threads: @grapplecitypod

Music by Bradley Palermo & The Shadow Queens.

Created by Bradley Palermo & Aaron Fink.

Transcript

00:00.21
Bradley Palermo
Hello and welcome to a very special bonus episode of of Grapple City Rewind. Today we are talking about one match.

00:13.60
Bradley Palermo
Not an entire pay-per-view like usual. We're just going to get into some holiday fun here. We're going back to the all-I-want-for-Christmas, over-the-top, battle royale,

00:24.56
Bradley Palermo
from WWE back in the year 2011. two thousand eleven I'm Bradley Palermo here, as as always, with Aaron Fink. And Aaron, Aaron, the show aired live from the Time Warner Cable Arena in Charlotte, North Carolina. Do you know the exact date on it?

00:40.66
Aaron
November 29th is what I wrote down.

00:43.48
Bradley Palermo
November 29th. Yeah, so this this whole event was hosted by Mick Foley, who wasn't really involved in this battle royale at all, but

00:52.10
Aaron
Dressed in Santa attire, right?

00:54.16
Bradley Palermo
right yeah he was wearing the santa claus outfit but this is a strange festive side of of of professional wrestling and and a comedic side of professional wrestling it was um 20 man over the top battle royale most of the guys are already in the ring um during the commercial break and then we get uh sheamus gets a little intro sheamus has been there forever man it's crazy

01:04.32
Aaron
Mm-hmm.

01:14.80
Aaron
mm-hmm yeah who

01:19.18
Bradley Palermo
And Hornswoggle, the little person, Hornswoggle, that some of you may know and remember. he He got a little entrance as well. But the full participant roster, 20 20 people. Most of these guys, I don't really know who they are. Sheamus, Justin, Gabriel, Hunico.

01:35.74
Bradley Palermo
Did I say his name? Who knows? Hunico. Jinder Mahal, remember him. Kovie Kingston, Ezekiel Jackson. Ted DiBiase Jr. Is he dead? Ted DiBiase's son? No?

01:45.93
Aaron
I don't know. Look it up.

01:48.27
Bradley Palermo
I think he got into some financial scams with his father, which is really fitting for he is alive.

01:52.47
Aaron
He is alive.

01:54.09
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. I think there is some, uh, they stole from a church or something. Uh, have to look it up though.

01:57.92
Aaron
Oh, God.

01:59.70
Bradley Palermo
Don't quote me on it. Um, Tyson kid, he's Slater, Jay and Jimmy Uso, who at this time, the announcers don't even know the difference between the two of them.

02:07.00
Aaron
Yeah, there goes one of the Usos.

02:07.13
Bradley Palermo
They look, yeah, they kept saying one of the Usos.

02:08.88
Aaron
i heard him say that. There were so many people i had never heard of in this match. i I was not watching at the time um when I saw Sheamus come in as a featured entrance actually on the show.

02:23.84
Aaron
i was like, okay, well, Sheamus is clearly going to have an important role to play in this one.

02:27.23
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, young Seamus.

02:27.99
Aaron
And I assume the same thing about Hornswoggle as well, because usually with these types of matches, When you just shove everybody into the ring and you have a few people that get entrances, those are the people that actually matter.

02:39.17
Aaron
And And that ended up being the case here.

02:39.29
Bradley Palermo
Right.

02:41.38
Aaron
Yeah.

02:41.81
Bradley Palermo
There's only... well Since I've mentioned almost everyone else, let us throw in the last few. Yoshi, Tatsu, Curt Hawkins, Tyler Rex, JTG, Percy Watson, Titus O'Neil, remember him, Johnny Curtis, who would later be Fandango, um Darren Young, and Hornswoggle.

02:52.78
Aaron
Mm hmm.

02:59.10
Aaron
Mm hmm.

02:59.66
Bradley Palermo
Tyler Rex, at the time, was a man, big-ass, Jesus-looking, white guy with... with threads uh pretty good looking guy he became gabby tuft so one of the the few big bulky male wrestlers of the of the past that became trans woman and now sells whey protein on instagram she has a company called glow so you're work out you know you gotta

03:06.90
Aaron
Mm hmm. Oh.

03:23.10
Aaron
Whey protein. OK.

03:29.04
Bradley Palermo
Gotta hit up Gabby for that that whey protein afterwards.

03:32.71
Aaron
Yeah.

03:32.78
Bradley Palermo
While...

03:32.91
Aaron
So a lot, a lot, I, you know, like I said, 20, 20 people in this, I guess I probably, maybe I knew 10. I mean, i remember Hawk, Curt Hawkins from Hawkins and Ryder, you know, um Tyson kid.

03:43.54
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

03:45.45
Aaron
I remember too. And he's married to Natalia. That's TJ when she's always talking about TJ. He's like a, yeah, he's like a trainer now, you know, outside of the WWE wwe helps people a lot.

03:51.19
Bradley Palermo
Oh, is it?

03:55.11
Bradley Palermo
Oh, yeah. She's always talking about her... She has a dungeon, right? Like she has a training facility and she's like, TJ is so good with this.

03:58.68
Aaron
Yeah. And, And her and TJ.

04:01.48
Bradley Palermo
and TJ does this. Yeah.

04:02.56
Aaron
Yeah, that's Tyson Kidd, yeah.

04:03.15
Bradley Palermo
Right. Yeah.

04:04.35
Aaron
And then, yeah, obviously Kofi Kingston, The Usos, Jinder Mahal, those are like and then Sheamus and Hornswoggle. Those were pretty much the only people that I remembered at all in this, but...

04:12.62
Bradley Palermo
Yeah, most of these guys were thrown out immediately and they were kind of just there.

04:17.10
Aaron
Father for Sheamus.

04:17.30
Bradley Palermo
I'm assuming some of them were call ups and stuff.

04:18.04
Aaron
Yeah.

04:20.81
Bradley Palermo
yeah, the the chaos hits immediately. you got 20 dudes in there. um And Sheamus starts throwing everybody out. Ezekiel Jackson gets isolated, beaten down and dumped with no resistance whatsoever.

04:46.37
Aaron
i it is different, right? But it's essentially the same thing.

04:47.81
Bradley Palermo
Yeah.

04:49.13
Aaron
It's just you get the big pomp and circumstance of the entrances and the the timed ah participants. So the Royal Rumbles, I always seem to like a bit more than just like throw everybody in the ring and start the match. I think it's probably because Royal Royal Rumbles do...

05:04.66
Aaron
more often than not tend to have a story that unfolds like one in 2020 where Lesnar was kicking everyone's ass and then drew, you know, got him out. And, and then the Cody ones where you're like, is Cody going to be able to finish his story?

05:18.38
Aaron
I feel like overall those tend to have a bit more of a through line than something like this, where this is just like schmoz and everyone's doing shit in the corners and some people's punches look kind of shitty and,

05:28.77
Bradley Palermo
Yeah. This is the kind of battle royale you get if you go to like a Monday Night Raw or in this case a SmackDown where it's just kind of TV battle royale.

05:38.98
Aaron
Yeah.

05:39.62
Bradley Palermo
And this was mostly about Sheamus and Hornswoggle. Hornswoggle does, I guess what he does best, he just hid under the ring until the chaos died down. And so, I mean, and every once in a while, somebody would stick their leg too far out to where he could reach it and he'd fuck with them, pull them out of the ring or, or whatever.

05:48.80
Aaron
Yeah.

05:56.50
Aaron
Yeah.

05:57.05
Bradley Palermo
But, uh,

05:57.11
Aaron
I guess if if there was a story for this, it was that Seamus dominates and Hornswoggle hides until it's convenient. Yeah.

06:03.22
Bradley Palermo
Yes. And then eventually we get left with Seamus and Hornswoggle as the last two men in the ring. Of course, Seamus is huge and very bright and Hornswoggle is very short and Seamus tries to be noble.

06:16.53
Bradley Palermo
He he tells Hornswoggle, just go. Hornswoggle, just go.

06:19.74
Aaron
Yeah, just get out of here.

06:20.46
Bradley Palermo
Eliminate yourself. Go home, says Hornswoggle.

06:23.02
Aaron
but

06:23.24
Bradley Palermo
Hornswoggle refuses and he gives he does his little his little fighting fists. He puts them up and Seamus is just like, oh my God, I'm not going to beat up this little person. But the winner, i should I should have said earlier, gets to ask Santa for a Christmas wish.

06:39.31
Aaron
Whatever they want.

06:50.94
Bradley Palermo
Seamus is just kind of smiling. Like, what are you doing? And then eventually they're standing on the apron together. and he's like, okay, just go now, Hornswoggle. You know, just do your thing.

07:00.38
Aaron
Yeah.

07:00.64
Bradley Palermo
And Hornswoggle, as he tries to swerve Seamus, he's like, okay, give me a hug. Seamus goes to give him a hug and Hornswoggle Hornswoggle pushes them off and wins so hornswoggle is the winner of the christmas witch and the 20-man 20-man battle royale um and seamus has has a good sense of humor about this whole thing he's just smiling it up i've never seen seamus yeah and then i don't know if you fast forwarded erin to the the christmas wish where he was sitting on santa's lap hornswoggle

07:17.34
Aaron
Yeah.

07:23.07
Aaron
He's like, you son of a gun. Yeah.

07:32.32
Aaron
Oh, no, I didn't know that was on this episode. Yeah, tell me about it.

07:42.75
Aaron
Oh.

07:46.02
Aaron
um

07:50.18
Aaron
ah

07:53.72
Aaron
Amazing.

07:57.87
Bradley Palermo
So a wonderful...

08:01.18
Aaron
Lighthearted affair. ah

08:32.58
Bradley Palermo
that'll leave ah That'll take you to our Google Voice line where you can leave a message. Tell us which one you're next. Cut a promo on us. Whatever you want to do. And also, you can find us across social media, of course.

08:42.86
Bradley Palermo
GrappleCityPod. Instagram, GrappleCityPod. TikTok, GrappleCityPod at Gmail if you'd like to send us an email. And we will see you guys very soon.