No Way Out (2006) - Background

Background

The event featured seven professional wrestling matches with outcomes predetermined by WWE script writers. The matches featured wrestlers portraying their characters in planned storylines that took place before, during and after the event.

The main feud heading into No Way Out was between Kurt Angle and The Undertaker, with the two battling over the World Heavyweight Championship. At the previous pay-per-view, Royal Rumble, Angle defeated Mark Henry to retain the World Heavyweight Championship. When the match was over, and the pay-per-view went off the air, The Undertaker came out and issued a challenge to Angle for the World Heavyweight Championship. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown!, Angle accepted his offer and the match at No Way Out was made official. The next week on SmackDown!, The Undertaker defeated Mark Henry after MNM, along with Daivari, came out and attacked The Undertaker, causing the disqualification. After the match, MNM, Henry, and Daivari attacked The Undertaker until Angle came out and made the save. SmackDown! General Manager Theodore Long then announced that Undertaker and Angle would face off against Henry and MNM in a 3-on-2 Handicap match next week. On the February 17 episode of SmackDown!, Undertaker and Kurt Angle defeated MNM and Mark Henry after Angle forced Johnny Nitro to submit to the Ankle lock.

The other main match on the card was Randy Orton versus Rey Mysterio for Mysterio's world championship match at WrestleMania 22. Their match stemmed from the Royal Rumble, the pay-per-view three weeks before No Way Out. At the Royal Rumble, Mysterio won the 2006 Royal Rumble match and a world championship match at WrestleMania 22 by last eliminating Randy Orton. On the February 3 episode of SmackDown!, Orton claimed that there's no way he could beat him in a normal match and that he won the match because of some divine intervention. Orton then challenged Mysterio to a match at No Way Out for his title match at WrestleMania 22, and claimed that Eddie Guerrero was not in heaven, but in hell. Later that night, Orton along with Mark Henry defeated Mysterio and Kurt Angle. Midway through the match, Davari confronted Angle and was chased outside the ring and into the crowd. Henry followed, leaving Mysterio and Orton on their own. Orton gained the pinfall after sitting on Mysterio. After the match, Orton claimed that Mysterio had as much chance of defeating him as Guerrero did of coming back to life. Mysterio responded by accepting Orton's challenge on behalf of Guerrero. The next week on SmackDown!, Orton set the record straight about the comments he made about Eddie Guerrero. Backstage, he said that he only made the comments to get inside Mysterio's head, and that he did not know or care if Guerrero was in Hell. Orton later entered the arena in a lowrider to further explain his actions, and read an excerpt from Guerrero's book, Cheating Death, Stealing Life - The Eddie Guerrero Story, but Mysterio attacked him, dropkicking his head into the steel ringpost. On the February 17 episode of SmackDown!, Mysterio faced off against Sylvan, which Mysterio won after a West Coast Pop. After the match, Orton came out and said that Mysterio would never main event WrestleMania, he would never become World Champion and that he could never beat him.