The story’s true starting point begins as far back as the fall of 2005. They were building towards Taboo Tuesday, a PPV where the fans would get to vote on every match of the night. They debuted it a year earlier and it was a pretty fun show. Part of it was because WWE makes sure not to lie about voting results and lets the fans dictate what’s going on, such as having Shelton Benjamin compete for the Intercontinental Championship when WWE would have rather had Batista take that spot.

The 2005 Taboo Tuesday was a bit different because while WWE still let the fans vote, the narrative was especially different, namely in the main event storyline. John Cena was WWE Champion and was feuding with Kurt Angle. Three qualifying matches on Raw would bring in three potential challengers. The last of which was a battle royal featuring the surprise return of Kane. His win was in no way in question, considering the rest of the ring was filled with one of the saddest collection of forgettable midcarders in WWE history like Eugene, the Heartthrobs, Super Hero in Training Rosey, and 2005 Val Venis.

Yes, Val Venis was still around in late 2005. I’m just as surprised as you are.

We ended up with Kane, Big Show, and Shawn Michaels. The fans would vote on which one would be added into Cena vs. Angle at Taboo Tuesday, making it a Triple Threat. The other two would become partners against the tag champs Lance Cade and Trevor Murdoch. All well and good, but WWE hedged the hell out of their bets.

For one, the trio had their own Triple Threat and Michaels won. Second, Michaels got his own one-on-one match with Cena in the lead-up. Third, Big Show and Kane were forced to be tag partners a couple of times. Instead of attacking each other, the two sort of found a kinship upon realizing that they were both dominant giants who loved chokeslamming guys.