Royal Rumble - San Jose Arena, San Jose California, January 18th 1998

I loved this opening video which puts the focus on the Royal Rumble match but also on the huge significance of winning that and getting yourself a WWF title shot at Wrestlemania. On the version of the show I’m watching, the WWF references haven’t been completely scrubbed but you’ll notice in this video that there’s an awkward pause near the end where they’ve clearly removed “WWF”

Big stories coming into this event? Other than the ones about each specific match, in the Rumble match EVERYONE wants Stone Cold Steve Austin who has been Stunning everyone in sight in preparation for the match. The WWF also heavily promoted the appearance of Mike Tyson (who gets heavily booed when he’s shown on screen) which was a huge deal for the company, but they were deliberately misleading - the run up to this event made it sound like he’d be physically involved, or someone would get in his face? Spoilers for the rest of the night but nope, none of that happens. He sits quietly in his skybox and watches the event as a fan. Lucky guy getting a free ticket I guess?

The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust (w/Luna) vs. Vader

Goldust’s outfit tonight is especially ridiculous. I’m not sure how I feel about this massive gimmick change for him but it’s more interesting than the bland babyface version he was playing at the end of 1997. The death of Brian Pillman changed his trajectory but I do wonder if this shift was always planned? Vader wants revenge because Goldust walked out on him and Team USA at the Survivor Series but there’s also a bunch of stuff Goldust’s done to him since. In his first appearance with Luna he poured rubbing alcohol in Vader’s eyes and blinded him but it seems like that segment must have offended people or something because it was edited out of my copy of that episode of Raw and it hasn’t been mentioned again since!

Goldust attacks Vader as soon as he steps through the ropes but the big man battles back and dominates Goldust, battering him around the ring and throwing him into the ringsteps. The referee has to step in and stop Vader from using the steps as a weapon and getting himself disqualified - the crowd is pretty into this as Vader throws Goldust around but a well timed distraction from Luna allows Goldust to hit a big clothesline and build some momentum in the ring with strikes and focusing on Vader’s leg. He keeps things slow inside and outside of the ring and plants a big kiss on Vader in the corner to get in his head but that draws “Vader” chants and the big man gets back into the match by reversing a suplex and hits a big splash for a near fall. The action is decent here and the match is made better by the crowd being so into it! Vader shakes off Goldust’s attack and clobbers him with big forearms and strikes and sets up the Vader Bomb in the corner but Luna distracts the referee so that Goldust can stop it with a low blow before both men collapse.

Goldust makes the mistake of going for a sunset flip so Vader just sits down on him to block it, and then sets up a second Vader Bomb. Luna runs into the ring and jumps onto his back so Vader ignores her and completes the move with Luna on his back! The crowd went NUTS for that spot, as did JR and Jerry Lawler. They scream about how that was over 500lbs being driven into Goldust’s chest. Vader wins a match I really enjoyed, helped massively by how hot the crowd were for the whole thing. 

Backstage, Stone Cold arrives at the arena and tosses his keys to Michael Cole telling him to park his truck but if he scratches it he’ll whip his ass. Seconds later, The Godwins show up and demand to know which way Austin went - he is a marked man and being hunted.

Max Mini, Mosaic and Nova vs. Battalion, El Torito and Tarantula

Special Guest Referee: Sunny

Sunny looks great in her referee getup, but then she always does. Both teams of Minis come out to music which is very heavily dubbed by whatever their original themes were. I had this PPV on VHS back in the day and on that copy of the show they came out to the same music they’d been using on Raw and on previous PPVs. I wonder who owned the rights to that? Weird to see music which sounds so clearly from the 2020s being used in 1998. 

I like these guys a lot but this is pretty much their last hurrah as I don’t recall the minis division sticking around much after this. They flip and fly around each other - Max Mini is incredible, he moves at 100mph and springboards in and out of the ring.

JR and King struggle to talk about these guys fast enough to keep up with the endless string of armdrags and headscissors and hurricanranas so I have no chance typing about it - Mike Tyson is shown cheering them on from his seat and the crowd are respectful, making noise and cheering after each bump and move so their silence in between spots can easily be interpreted as them paying attention. It's hard to describe but my honest take is that this crowd is pretty into this match.

Sunny finally has to step in and tell off El Torito for using a closed fist. Max Mini crawls through her legs and then she grabs him and lifts him up for a series of kicks to the chest and a handshake - not really cool that she’s being so partial as a referee but who doesn’t love Max Mini? Lawler is on fire with short jokes in this match, but its all the same ones he used on Raw and used a couple of years later directed at Crash Holly. The Minis line up and dive to the outside one after another, crashing into the pile. Some of the dives looked better than others but it leaves Max Mini and El Torito as the two legal men in the ring. Max hits a diving headscissors off the top rope and quickly transitions into a crucifix roll up for the victory! This was fun but hard to follow! Sunny has to get on her knees to raise the winners’ arms and actually picks up Max like a baby and carries him around the ring.

The Nation of Domination - including the newest member Mark Henry - go looking for Stone Cold Steve Austin. They burst into his dressing room to find...a middle finger foam finger waiting for them! 

Up in the sky box, Vince McMahon and his son Shane are now sat with Mike Tyson and continuing the negotiations for him to appear at Wrestlemania. They’ve already said we’ll get big news on Iron Mike tomorrow night on Raw. 

WWF Intercontinental Championship

The Rock © vs. Ken Shamrock

This match doesn’t have a video package per say, but here’s JR narrating a recap of the events between Shamrock and The Nation over the past month. I’ve also left in The Rock’s prematch promo so you can see his early attempts to be “the most electrifying man in sport’s entertainment” and talk about a news story from the day (Bill Clinton cheating on his wife. Again.) It also provides an explanation for why The Rock is flying solo tonight - earlier tonight on the Free for All, the Nation had a little argument about which of them would be winning the Royal Rumble match. No back up for The People’s Champion tonight.

The two circle and The Rock does his best to avoid locking up with Shamrock until he can’t. JR has some great analysis at the start of the match; Shamrock is training to be a WWF superstar and doesn’t want to be seen as a one dimensional submission only athlete, but with a match this high stakes it seems like it would be wise to focus on his strongest skill, which is going for a submission and the ankle lock. The Rock loses the first couple of lock ups so he resorts to a kick to the belly instead. Shamrock wins the striking exchange too so Rocky bails to the outside to regroup and come up with a new plan.

Shamrock goes for a hurricanrana and The Rock blocks it by dropping backwards, bringing Kenny’s throat down across the top rope. The champ starts working over the world’s most dangerous man from there both inside and outside the ring and the second Shamrock starts to come back, The Rock counters by floating over into a DDT. That looked gorgeous and it got a rightful big reaction from Lawler on commentary. The Rock grinds him down with a sleeper hold but Shamrock fights up out of that and sends The Rock into the ropes and manages to string some offense together with a big kick to the chest, a big rebounding bodyslam and then a hurricanrana. He hits the belly to belly suplex and screams - he’s snapped and moving towards the ankle lock - and that brings The Nation down to make the save. With D’Lo and Kama distracting the referee, The Rock pulls some brass knuckles from his tights and punches Shamrock’s lights out, but then hides them inside Shamrock’s trunks. The challenger just barely manages to kick out! 

Shamrock perseveres and hits a big belly to belly suplex out of no where and that’s enough for the three count! Shamrock wins the Intercontinental title. Or does he?

The Rock protests to the referee and says that Shamrock used brass knuckles, encouraging him to check his tights. The referee does and of course he finds the knuckles that The Rock put there! The referee reverses the decision and disqualifies Shamrock - The Rock retains the Intercontinental title! The quickly leaves with the rest of the Nation lucky to still be champion but the referee makes the real mistake, continuing to debate it with Shamrock. Mike Chioda gets a big belly to belly suplex and locked in the ankle lock for his troubles! More referees run down to save their comrade and Shamrock chases them away but they are able to get him out of the ring and to safety. No one is dumb enough to get back in the ring with Shamrock after that. This was another really good match I thought - a little slow in the middle and obviously the finish is really frustrating but that’s by design because the company was ALL in on making The Rock one of the top heels. 

Backstage it's Los Boricuas turn to go hunting for Stone Cold and they think they’ve found him! They attack a bald guy in the dressing room but whoops, it's a member of the DOA! It turns into a brawl between the two factions. 

WWF Tag Team Championships

The New Age Outlaws © (Road Dog and Bad Ass Billy Gunn) vs. The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

This match gets a video package but on the Netflix version of the show, the audio has been heavily dubbed and edited presumably because of licensed songs. That’s very annoying BUT, on the Raw is War before the show the exact same video package was shown with the correct audio so here’s the same video package from Raw, with the better audio. Don’t say I don’t ever do anything for you people!

Road Dog’s promo as he walks to the ring focuses on all of the local sports teams. None of it means anything to me so I’ll talk about his hair instead - he now has long dreadlocks. There’s no way he’s grown them out since his appearance on Raw where he didn’t have them so they must be extensions. Backstage, Michael Cole chats to the Legion of Doom specifically about Animal’s back and the rumours that the doctors have told him he shouldn’t wrestle tonight. They fire up - Animal doesn’t care what the doctors say. Win lose or draw, they promise that the Outlaws are going down tonight. Oooooh what a rush! 

The Outlaws attack Hawk and Animal from behind while they’re getting their shoulder pads off but pay for it and Road Dog is immediately spiked with a powerbomb and pinned. Billy breaks up the three count to keep the match going but that story continues with the LOD easily dominating and slapping around Road Dog and Mr. Ass. JR goes into overdrive in this match talking about the LOD’s history and all the teams they’ve beat which helps Lawler make a lot of jokes about their ages. It’s a fair point and the company does look slightly hypocritical making jokes about all the old men in WCW while promoting the LOD. I suppose there’s a big difference between being used in the tag team division vs. WCW, who used people like Hogan, Flair and Macho to lead the entire company. 

The LOD dominate the Outlaws with ease but Road Dog trips Animal and then throws him into the ringsteps so, with his bad back, Billy is then able to isolate him in the ring. The champions pour their offence directly onto Animal’s lower back. Hawk is still a force to be reckoned with so the Outlaws handcuff him to one of the ringposts. Animal, back injury an’ all, is left solo against the Outlaws but he does an admirable job and counts Billy’s top rope crossbody into a powerslam! That looks like the end so Road Dog grabs a steel chair and blasts him across the back, losing the match by disqualification but keeping the Tag Team titles. With Hawk handcuffed and helpless in the corner, the New Age Outlaws hammer on Animal’s back with the chair over and over until finally Hawk snaps the handcuffs and makes the save! He hits Billy and Road Dog with chairshots of his own but, in fairness too him, he’s pretty gentle about it and clearly didn’t want to injure them. He taps them with a pair of light shots to the head so the Tag Team Champions make a getaway while Hawk checks on his fallen brother. 

This wasn’t a great match but it wasn’t long enough to be back either. It felt more like a storyline angle than a match! 

The 1998 Royal Rumble match

Does the video package for this match make it obvious who’s winning? There’s only one person in this match with a story heading into it and really only one choice - I think even in 1998, you’d bet your house on the Rattlesnake in this one!

Mike Tyson is a huge Stone Cold fan and mouths “Stone Cold - Number One” to the camera, but he still gets booed by the crowd in San Jose. He’d had some legal troubles and was always in the news and not always for positive reasons - this was a long time before he became a cult pop culture figure. 

Howard Finkle runs down the rules as always, but you know the Royal Rumble match rules by now! Number One is Cactus Jack! Earlier tonight, JR told us that Cactus would be in this match but “neither Dude Love nor Mankind made the trip” Hmm, we’ll see. Number Two is his new tag team partner, Terry “Chainsaw Charlie” Funk. He doesn’t have a theme song, just the revving sound of his chainsaw. Jim Ross is pretty openly talks about their history outside of the WWF as Mick Foley and Terry Funk respectively, and Cactus throws steel chairs and trash cans into the ring. We start off with a hardcore Rumble! The two of them hammer on each other with steel chairs across the head and back and then, in a bizarre spot, they allow each other to take turns hitting each other in the head! They’re psychopaths who are motivated and revved up by the pain. They dent the chair over each other’s head which is kind of gross looking back with a modern eye and knowledge of concussions and head trauma. They stop fighting to wait for Number Three, Tom Brandi and they beat him up two on one and quickly throw him out. Poor guy. Cactus sets up a pair of chairs like a sort of metal table and suplexes Chainsaw through it as Number Four, the Intercontinental Champion The Rock, makes his entrance. He tees off on both men with right hands but pays for it with a trashcan to the head. They put the trash can over his head and then blast him with a chair so he tumbles through the ropes - not eliminated - just before Number Five, Headbanger Mosh, makes his entrance.

Chainsaw Charlie throws a chair at him during his entrance! Things settle down with them pairing off and Funk misses a moonsault off the top on Mosh (Mosh didn’t move, Terry just totally missed) seconds before Number Six, Phineas I. Godwin enters. “Five superstars in the ring and only one brain between them in the head of The Rock” says Jerry Lawler. The weapons have all been cleared out of the ring now so this has settled down into a more traditional Rumble match with fighting in the corners of the ring. Number Seven is 8-Ball of the DOA. Thankfully the nameplate tells us which of the twins it is otherwise I’d be using both names all night. The second elimination comes out of nowhere when Chainsaw Charlie eliminates Cactus Jack! At this point, Jerry Lawler fills us in on the story of the night; he has a source backstage who says that someone got to Stone Cold Steve Austin and he is now too injured to enter the Rumble match! Number Eight is Blackjack Bradshaw, another huge man who much like Phineas and 8-Ball, got no reaction from the crowd! Number Nine is Owen Hart who is attacked from behind during his entrance by the NWA North American Champion Jeff Jarrett! Jim Cornette is there too to cheer him on but there’s no explanation for this? My assumption is that Triple H was supposed to be the one who attacked but he’s got a legitimate knee injury and couldn’t do it. Owen is badly beaten up in the entrance way by Jeff before referees and security get him away so that seems to have ruined Owen’s chances tonight and he also heads backstage, unable to compete.

Number Ten is Steve Blackman. Lawler provides an update on Stone Cold; he believes it was Ken Shamrock who attacked Stone Cold, but more on that later. Number Eleven is The Nation’s D’Lo Brown, so some backup for The Rock at long last. They team up for a bit against Steve Blackman but then D’Lo turns on The Rock! Every man for himself lads. Number Twelve is Kurrgan, The Interrogator, easily the largest man in this year’s Rumble match. Everyone starts to team up on Kurrgan but it doesn’t work and he dumps Mosh with ease. Lucky Number Thirteen is Marc Mero with the gorgeous Sable. I was never her biggest fan but even I have to admit she looks incredible during this era. The fans agree and the crowd chants for her rather than pay attention to the match. Kurrgan gets his second elimination with Steve Blackman while The Rock and D’Lo beat the hell out of each other in the corner. Number Fourteen is Ken Shamrock who goes right for Kurrgan with kicks to the leg and then everyone piles him and with the help of 6 or 7 men, Kurrgan is eliminated! I’m surprised Shamrock didn’t go right after The Rock but there’s a lot of people in the ring at this point so I’m sure they’ll find their moment. Number Fifteen is Headbanger Thrasher and makes so little impact that I have nothing else to say before Number Sixteen, Mankind enters! This is a shock to everyone, but Mankind goes right after Chainsaw Charlie and eliminates him. That’s payback for Cactus Jack earlier. Shamrock finally gets his hands on The Rock just as Number Seventeen, Goldust jogs to the ring. He has a totally different look from earlier, including facepaint which makes him look like Kane’s biggest fan. Mankind goes right after Goldust but that backfires as Goldust turns the tables and eliminates him!

Mero dances around the ring as the fans chant “Sable” at him and Number Eighteen is the NWA North American Champion Jeff Jarrett (with Jim Cornette). Jarrett’s entrance takes forever as he keeps stopping to strut on the entrance aisle every five minutes. Owen Hart sprints to the ring and goes right after Jarrett, hammering him around the ring. Owen was never eliminated and has picked his spot for revenge on Jarrett. I still think this spot was supposed to be Triple H before he got injured. Jarrett thinks he has Owen out and turns to strut before he pays for it and is launched out by the Black Hart! Number Nineteen is the Honky Tonk Man, but when he enters he’s followed by European Champion Triple H (on crutches) and Chyna). The Rock eliminates Ken Shamrock with little to no fanfare and the moments later, Triple H blasts Owen with his crutch as he hangs over the ropes, eliminating him. He hammers on him with his crutch until officials and referees finally manage to get Triple H and Chyna to leave. Owen Hart is eliminated, is the main point. Number Twenty is Ahmed Johnson and as he enters, Owen chases after Triple H and actually slips and falls as he disappears through the curtain! Ahmed’s career has gone so far off the rails - he was in the running to be WWF Champion at one point last year! He slowly saunters to the ring wearing a swimming cap for some reason and gets right into Phineas’ face. Number Twenty One is Mark Henry, the newest member of the Nation and the third one in this match. He goes right after Ahmed and JR says that he’s “handling the big Johnson” which must have been intentional. Number Twenty Two is…no one. No one enters. JR and King immediately start to speculate that this should have been Stone Cold’s entry and this confirms King’s story about the backstage attack. The Nation gang up and eliminate Ahmed Johnson on one side of the ring right as Mark Henry eliminates Phineas. For some reason, Ahmed runs around and attacks the hog farmer and they brawl to the back. Number Twenty Three is Kama Mustafa, bringing the total number of Nation members in the ring to four. They could gang up and clear the ring with ease here if they wanted to. Jerry Lawler continues to laugh about Stone Cold’s misfortune as the timer counts down - Number Twenty Four is Stone Cold Steve Austin! The action in the ring stops and everyone awaits the arrival of the Rattlesnake who comes through the crowd and fights everyone in the ring at the same time.

He eliminates Marc Mero and then 8-Ball and uses low blows, right hands and chokes people with his vest to make sure that he’s not overwhelmed. The match settles back down to “every man for himself” as Mike Tyson is shown flipping out for the Rattlesnake in his skybox. Number Twenty Five is Henry Godwin who goes right after Austin. That makes sense seeing as we saw the Godwins hunting for him earlier. Twenty Six is Savio Vega, who runs to the ring with the other three Boricuas in tow. The four of them attack the Rattlesnake but he fights them all off and clobbers Goldust with a big stiff clothesline for good measure. Number Twenty Seven is Faarooq, the final Nation of Domination member. All five of them are in the ring but Faarooq goes right after The Rock! There’s been tension between them lately so it seems like he finally has a chance to beat up Rocky without it causing a split. Rock and Austin actually fight to the outside and brawl around the ring, but neither man is eliminated. They both went through the ropes. Twenty Eight is Dude Love, who gets a huge pop from the crowd. Mick Foley has had three entries in this Rumble match and he eliminates Bradshaw as soon as he gets to the ring.

Austin stays outside the ring and keeps pulling people out to beat up including Goldust. Twenty Nine is Chainz from the DOA, because this was the days before the final entrants being a surprise or return or anything like that. Number Thirty is Vader, who’s already had a good night with his big win in the opener. He got a nice big pop from the crowd too. He goes right after Goldust just before the Honky Tonk Man is eliminated. The eliminations come thick and fast now with Stone Cold eliminating Thrasher, Kama and Savio Vega within seconds of each other. Goldust gets a little bit of payback from earlier, eliminating Vader just as Dude Love eliminates Henry Godwin. Faarooq throws out Goldust and it’s thinning out. Stone Cold eliminates Chainz and Faarooq eliminates Mark Henry to give us our final four - two Nation members in The Rock and Faarooq vs. former Tag Team Champions Stone Cold and Dude Love!

Austin and Dude work together but the Rattlesnake turns on his old partner and kicks him low so Faarooq can eliminate him. Faarooq tees off on Stone Cold in the corner until The Rock sneaks up from behind and eliminates the Nation leader. It’s down to Rock and Austin and they trade rights and lefts back and forth. The Rock is thrown up and over but holds on but walks right into a Stone Cold Stunner and is launched out of the ring! Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Stone Cold! 

This was a perfectly paced Royal Rumble match. It was obvious who was winning it for weeks before the event but that doesn’t matter. Everyone got their moments and their stories and there’s no arguing that Austin didn’t deserve to win. Up in the skybox, Mike Tyson went nuts for the victory and Michael Cole chats to him for the first time tonight. However you feel about Iron Mike, it's nice to see him so genuinely gleeful and excited about what he’s watching. This was all great stuff and Jerry Lawler hammers home that even with 29 superstars working together, no one can stop Stone Cold Steve Austin! 

Casket match for the WWF Championship

Shawn Michaels © (w/Chyna and WWF European Champion Triple H) vs. The Undertaker

I love this video package and remember it really, really clearly from watching it as a kid. I got this PPV on VHS and my brother and I used to watch it all the time. This video package gets a lot of the credit for turning us both into huge Shawn Michaels fans! 

The Undertaker’s entrance is still awesome and full credit to Michaels who gets a big fright and flips out, diving out of the ring to regroup when the Undertaker’s pyro booms to bring the arena lights back up. Great stuff. 

Michaels keeps his distance and dances around the Deadman in the early going, throwing stinging jabs but gets overconfident and is thrown into the corner by the Undertaker who is unfazed by the right hands. Mights keeps stopping to taunt Mike Tyson after all of these punches. In a super impressive spot, Michaels springboards off the ropes and Undertaker catches him by the throat and has to muscle him up after almost dropping him.

Then, in a moment which changed WWF history forever, Undertaker backdrops Michaels up and over the top rope on the side with the casket. No one knew it at the time but Michaels’ lower back catching the edge of the casket caused him some severe damage to his spine and, while he doesn’t show any signs of it during this match with his adrenaline riding high, it changed everything for HBK.

Anyway, back to this match the story is that Undertaker is no-selling all of Michaels’ blows as HBK runs around and tries to stick-and-move and keep his distance. Whenever Undertaker catches him he’s slammed and thrown around with ease.

The Deadman gets Shawn into the casket but the champion keeps his hand out to block the lid from closing and comes out throwing white powder into The Undertaker’s eyes. The challenger keeps swinging with big blind punches and connecting but on the outside, Shawn reverses a whip to send Undertaker crashing into the ring steps, he uses them as a weapon across the Deadman’s back and then in an awesome looking spot delivers a piledriver onto the base of the ringsteps.

Undertaker comes in and uses his crutch across Undertaker’s back and Michaels follows up with a chair shot. He finally has control of the match and it was during this period that I first noticed Michaels struggling with his back a little, pausing to stretch it out and wincing a little. In the ring, HBK stomps away at Undertaker and makes his own first attempt to roll him into the casket. Undertaker fights back so Shawn goes back on the attack and hits a gorgeous moonsault to a standing Undertaker. He grinds him down with a long sleeper hold but Undertaker suplexes out of it. He’s shut down with the flying forearm and then his diving elbow drop off the top and it seems like Michaels has the match in hand. He tunes up the band for Sweet Chin Music and hits it. If pinfalls counted, this match would probably be over! He makes his attempt to roll the challenger into the casket but pauses to taunt him, standing over the Deadman and telling him to “suck it” but pays for it when Undertaker grabs him by the junk and throwing him into the ring! Undertaker is back in the fight but a flying forearm knocks him back into the casket. Michaels climbs to the top rope and drops an elbow down all the way into the casket and the lid clothes on both men! Michaels crawls out and into the ring and in an awesome visual, Undertaker grabs his ankles and drags him kicking and screaming back into the box! They fight in the casket and back into the ring and Undertaker plants Michaels with a big, gorgeous looking one-armed chokeslam and then in an awesome spot, jumps off the apron with a Tombstone into the casket!

Undertaker has the match won so DX springs into action and Chyna and Triple H take out the referee as The New Age Outlaws and Los Boricuas rush the ring and attack the Deadman, six vs. one! The lights go out and Kane arrives to save his big brother! Kane fights off all six men and with these two brothers face to face…Kane attacks The Undertaker! He beats up his brother and chokeslams him off the apron into the casket, allowing Michaels to slam the lid shut and officially win this match, retaining the WWF Championship. 

This was a great match, but measured against their incredible fights at Ground Zero and Badd Blood, it was the weakest of the three. D-Generation X makes their getaway and leaves Kane and Paul Bearer to do what they want to do. They padlock the casket closed and roll it to the top of the entrance ramp (there’s a big plastic sheet on the floor, which is very kind of them, making this easier to clean up) and, after smashing multiple holes in the lid of the casket, they set it on fire! The PPV ends with Kane and Bearer watching the casket which contains the Undertaker burn.

Man, what a PPV! I really enjoyed everything on this show from top to bottom. There’s a real feeling that the company has turned a corner and while with hindsight, Michaels’ back injury was a huge negative coming out of this show, everyone’s performances were top class. Big, big thumbs up for the Royal Rumble 1998!