Royal Rumble 2000 - Madison Square Garden, New York City New York, January 23rd, 2000

One of the all time great video packages from this era welcomes us to the historic, legendary Madison Square Garden for the 12th annual Royal Rumble! The fans are intensely excited and Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler sound delighted to be there. And you know what? So am I! I try to keep my “I’ve seen these shows before” comments to a minimum but I love this PPV.

A lot has changed since we were last on PPV. Triple H and the evil Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley have been running the show and throwing their weight around, bullying everyone in the company. It’s been…a lot. 

I love the way MSG looks in general, and I love the entrance ramp here - it’s set up to look like a New York alleyway with brick walls and a full size NYC taxicab hanging above the door. So awesome, even King and JR keep mentioning it all night.

Kurt Angle enters first and talks about local sports stuff - it's cheap but the New York fans hate him and loudly boo and chant “asshole”. New York has no champions so just for tonight, he wants to be their champion. The crowd cheers when he mentions his “unknown opponent” because everyone on Earth knew who it was. They’ve been turning the arena lights orange and flashing a mysterious logo on the titantron at least twice during every single episode of Raw and Smackdown since before Armageddon. 

Kurt Angle vs. Tazz

It’s Tazz! (with two Z’s, he only had one in ECW). For those unaware, Taz is/was a legend of ECW which had strong links to NYC and they are EXCITED for him. He gets loud cheers for his every move and “ECW” and “Taz” chants right from the bell. 

The two fight to the outside and Kurt Angle battles back with his own suplexes. Tazz is the “human suplex machine” so these two are well matched, and the fans boo Kurt for posing after a nice belly to belly suplex. 

Tazz catches him going to the top rope and hits him with an impressive overhead throw from the top rope but Angle gets his foot on the ropes to stop the three count. The fans are cheering and booing for every near fall and kick out and hanging on these men’s every movement.

A barrage of suplexes and Tazz locks in the “Tazzmission” which is the rear-naked chokehold which JR calls his version of a sleeper. 

Angle passes out and Tazz is declared the winner as King protests that the move was an illegal chokehold! Kurt has been choked unconscious. 

As officials rush the ring and stretcher Kurt out of the ring, while the commentators discuss whether Tazz’s victory should count, or whether that move should be considered illegal. He did choke the Olympian unconscious so on paper at least, yeah that move shouldn’t be legal. But officially, Kurt Angle’s singles undefeated streak is at an end. Later in the show, we’d see Kurt being checked on by the medical staff and him in a groggy state asking if he was choked out and saying that he should still be undefeated. 

Michael Cole interviews Matt and Jeff Hardy (with a robe wearing Terri, who will be taking that off later for the Miss Rumble Swimsuit Contest). The Hardyz tell Terri to stay backstage because it’ll be too dangerous and violent for her. These two teams have been putting each other through tables for the last week. Matt says they’ll win, or die trying.

Tag Team Tables match

The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley) vs. The Hardy Boyz (Matt and Jeff Hardy)

This is the first ever tables match, and the rules are as simple as it gets - to win, you must drive both of your opponents through a table. Howard Finkle says it has to be consecutive, and I don’t think he knows what that word means because in theory that means this match could go forever if they keep alternating.

Before the match, Bubba asks D-Von if he can believe how backwards the people in New York City are for cheering for the “pretty boy punks” The Hardy Boyz. He then makes some more local sports references. 

When The Hardyz rush the ring, JR hammers home that to win, you must put your opponents through the table with offensive moves. That’ll be important.

The Dudleys waste no time setting up a table and backdrop Jeff towards it but Matt moves it out of the way and DDTs Bubba with Jeff following up with an amazing dive to the floor. 

Matt and D-Von have a good exchange, fighting to powerbomb or suplex each other through a table and countering each other's moves. 

Jeff knocks out Bubba with a stiff chair shot and dives off the railing at him, but Bubba throws a table into Jeff’s face! 

Bubba lays Matt on a table in the ring and gets ready to jump off the middle rope onto him but Matt stops it and when the Hardys double suplex Bubba from the top, D-Von moves the table! 

Matt Hardy gets a ladder out from under the ring and he and Jeff use it as a weapon. There’s tables, ladders and chairs now. 

With Bubba laid on a table on the outside, Matt jumps from the ladder and Jeff jumps from the top rope and both men drive Bubba through the table! That draws the first “holy shit” chant of the night. 

Jeff sets up a pair of tables on the outside, one against the railing and one between the ring steps and the ring apron. They lay D-Von across it and are set to win this match but D-Von dodges Matt’s dive, and then Jeff’s and both Hardys spike themselves through tables one after another! That doesn’t count - they can’t put themselves through a table. 

The Dudleys now have an advantage and set up a table on the ring steps in the ring as a sort of elevated platform and the fans explode for Bubba’s top rope powerbomb on Matt Hardy through the table! 

I’m not mentioning it every time but the fans are cheering loudly, gasping and chanting for every weapon shot and table break. This is a great match! 

The Dudleys fight The Hardys into the crowd and set up a table in a side entrance way. Bubba actually sets up four tables, side by side and then stacked two tall and then lay Matt Hardy on top. Bubba gives Jeff a big stiff shot to the head with a chair and drags him by the hair up onto the elevated position above the tables. He wants to powerbomb Jeff from the balcony down onto Matt, through four tables. Jeff gives Bubba a low blow and a chair shot and he falls backwards and crashes through the tables! 

Matt moves one of the unbroken tables into position and lays D-Von across it so that Jeff, in a spot that would come to define his entire career, strips his top off and gives him a Swanton Bomb from the balcony onto D-Von and the table to win the match! 

This was the first and even almost 24 years later arguably the best “tables” match of all time. Just an absolutely amazing match.

Going to take this spot to talk about the tag team division - between these two teams, Edge and Christian, how popular Too Cool have gotten and a bunch of other teams getting great reactions and having fun matches on TV, the entire Tag division is in great shape. Except that is, for the actual tag team champions - The New Age Outlaws have been playing main eventers and working as Triple H’s henchmen for months now and the tag team title belts weren’t even on TV for several weeks. They look like dinosaurs in a division full of comets and they needed to drop the titles and move on to other things and let this crop of new, exciting teams have matches like the one we just saw for the belts. 

Miss Rumble 2000 Swimsuit Contest

The judges are introduced first - Sgt. Slaughter, Tony Garea and Classy Freddie Blassie. They did hype up on TV in the build up that the judges might be a big reveal.

Before the contest begins, King tells us that there's a final judge - its legit celebrity Andy Richter. I do like him. My wife and I saw him walking his dogs when we visited Los Angeles in 2019. True story.

As for the contestants, Ivory enters first wearing her ring boots and a big baggy yellow fleece. Next up is Terri, and then Jacqueline. They’re both wearing black robes and come out to the same theme song, but Jackie does at least have a cowgirl hat on. Next up is former medical personnel turned wrestler, BB in a red robe and then Luna - her robe is open so we can already kind of see her swimsuit. For some reason on the WWE Network her theme song has been totally dubbed over with one I’ve never heard. Finally, WWF Women’s Champion The Kat in a black robe. On her way to the ring, King reminds us about her getting topless at Armageddon. 

Ivory strips first and has a nice teal swimsuit on. She looks absolutely furious to even be taking part but everyone ignores her attitude and just whoops and cheers for her body.

Terri is next and is wearing a flesh coloured Borat-style mankini. She looks great to be fair, and stripped to The Hardyz theme song even though she didn’t come out to it.

Jacqueline goes third and is wearing a bikini that's so tiny, she looks naked from the side on. 

BB is next and has a pretty plain basic bikini on but the interest seems to be that she has big boobs. They aren’t as big as Jackie’s though so…what?

Luna refuses to remove her robe, which is fair.

Finally, WWF Women’s Champion The Kat removes her robe and she’s not wearing a bikini, she’s just wrapped in bubble wrap. King loses his mind even though honestly, it's less revealing than what Terri or Jackie were wearing.

As a man, Jacqueline wins. Easily. But as a wrestling fan, Ivory wins - she at least tried to get some character and promo work in with her attitude.

Before the judges can vote, Mae Young comes out in a red robe. She says that everyone wants to see her puppies, and starts to strip revealing an old fashioned bathing suit and then getting her breasts out! It’s heavily censored of course but in my memory, on the original live showing we did indeed see some boob. They were fake prosthetic ones, thankfully. 

Mark Henry covers up his girlfriend, and the judges declare Mae Young the unanimous winner of the contest. The fans loved this but I’m glad it’s over.

The newest interviewer Johnathan Coachman reports live from WWF New York - a restaurant/entertainment venue in Times Square, New York. It's a TGI Fridays now. I’ll talk more about WWF New York in time, but this is its first appearance on TV, having only opened a few days prior. It was always packed on PPV nights and the fans there look ROWDY.

Backstage, Chris Jericho and Chyna argue over which one of them gets to wear the Intercontinental title belt to the ring. In the end, official Dave Hebner takes it from them and carries it to the ring himself. 

Undisputed WWF Intercontinental Championship

Chyna © vs. Chris Jericho © vs. Hardcore Holly

Hardcore Holly enters first. He’s in this match because he has pinned both of the co-champions in tag team matches recently. Chyna next, and her abs look incredibly defined! She looks amazing. Finally, Chris Jericho enters to potentially the loudest reaction anyone has had on this show so far. He has a microphone and basically promises victory. He’s way better as a babyface than he was as a heel.

The co-champions stuff was messy and I wish they hadn’t bothered but at least it only lasted a couple of weeks, and it was designed to keep Y2J and Chyna both looking strong. They double-pinned each other on Smackdown and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley made them share the title belt rather than just…booking a rematch?

The three of them trade stiff slaps to the face to start and then Chyna is pitched to the outside so that the two men can wrestle and Holly hits his very nice dropkick and gets booed. Jericho riles back and gets “Y2J” chants while King talks about how Mae Young exposing herself was worse than a horror film. “Like Man on the Moon, a horror movie like that?” That was a good line.

Jericho goes for the Walls of Jericho and Chyna stops it and gets booed. The fans really want to see Y2J win this. Chyna fights Holly to the floor and then Jericho springboards off the ropes and lands on Hardcore on the outside but Chyna avoids the contact. 

Chyna almost wins after a handspring elbow in the corner and a DDT but Hardcore breaks that up. They fight to the outside and Holly prepares to hit Chyna with a chair but Jericho stops it and he gets a dropkick of the chair back into his face. 

Jericho and Chyna hit a tandem splash and almost get a double pin! I suspect that was the original booking idea to prolong this co-champions storyline but neither Chyna nor Jericho enjoyed working together so let's not drag this out.

Chyna hits a Pedigree on Hardcore Holly but he impressively manages to kick out on his own. There’s some nice three way spots in this, with Chyna on Holly’s shoulders, Jericho crossbodies them both from the top rope for a near fall. 

Hardcore and Jericho trade fists, and Chyna cracks Holly in the head with a chair shot and puts him in Jericho’s hold, the Walls of Jericho. It backfires and Y2J gives her a running bulldog and follows up with the springboard moonsault off the middle rope - the Lionsault - to win/retain the Intercontinental Championship. I think we’re all just glad the co-champions storyline is over.

This is where trivia nuts like me and the WWF/WWE disagree - WWF would count this as Jericho beginning his second reign as Intercontinental Champion but in my opinion, given that he never lost the title in between and simply “shared” it, this is still his first reign that he began at Armageddon. 

Michael Cole interviews The Rock, who is the heavy favourite to win the Royal Rumble match. The Big Show, Kane, X-Pac and Rikishi have all been positioned as possible winners too. The Rock says he’s only worried about two men - Crash Holly, and Headbanger Mosh. Cole asks if he shouldn’t be more worried about The Big Show, so The Rock tells him to shut up and chases him. This is a great, classic Rock promo. He has guaranteed victory.

WWF Tag Team Championship

The New Age Outlaws © (Roaddogg and Mr. Ass vs. The Acolytes (Faarooq and Bradshaw)

This match has had the most build, and does actually get a video package! They didn’t interact a lot in truth, most of the previous six weeks have involved Triple H using his new found power to put Bradshaw and Faarooq in difficult positions against other teams. They did the same to Edge and Christian and The Hardy Boyz honestly. To say that the audience at large is ready to see The Outlaws drop the belts is an understatement. I mentioned it earlier but there are multiple teams that the people are way, way more interested in at the moment. The titles shouldn’t be on the team with the least heat. But that’s just my opinion.

There isn’t a great deal to say about this match - within a couple of minutes, Bradshaw has hit the Clothesline from Hell and Faarooq has hit a stiff spinebuster and has the three count but Billy pulls the referee out of the ring. He’s knocked down, and Roaddogg gets a hard double powerbomb but there's no referee to count.

X-Pac runs in and hits a spinning heel kick on Bradshaw. He’s cleared out by Faarooq, and Mr. Ass hits the Fameasser on Bradshaw and The New Age Outlaws retain the tag team titles, thanks to X-Pac.

“This ain’t over” says Jim Ross. Yes, it is. But after all that build - six weeks of hype - this match ended in less than four minutes with another sneaky Outlaws victory. Beyond disappointed.

Street Fight for the WWF Championship

Triple H © vs. Cactus Jack

The WWE Network version of this event has the video package for this match, but they’ve changed the music from the one I remember, and edited out as many mentions of “WWF” as possible. Very irritating. So I went and found the original version because it’s even better and does a better job of filling you in on how we got to this point that I can. I've included the WWE Network version of the same video package in case you're curious about the difference or want to see the clips used in higher picture quality

Cactus Jack enters first and it's a quiet, subdued entrance. He comes to the ring, and paces waiting for The Game. Triple H enters with his wife, but by the time they complete the short walk to the ring, he tells her to go to the back. This is no place for Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley.

Much like with the tables match earlier, I won’t be able to do this match justice - it’s one of my all time favourite matches and I think that’s true for a lot of people. I’ll do my best to hit the big spots.

The two start quickly and with intensity and fight to the outside. The first weapon shot belongs to the champion as he hits Cactus with the ring bell, and then gets into the ring with a chair, daring Jack to follow. He’s not intimidated and gets in the ring anyway. He charges and Triple H blasts him with a stiff chair shot but Cactus gets right back up. Mick Foley is impervious to pain, but no more so than when he’s dressed as Cactus Jack. 

He gets the first near fall after leg dropping a steel chair across Triple H’s head.

They fight into the entrance way and Cactus uses a wooden pallet as a weapon, suplexing The Game onto it and squealing in his face like a maniac. 

Jack slams Triple H’s head into the walls, but he counters with a suplex onto a trashcan which flattens out under Mick’s weight. 

After a comeback, with Triple H laid in the ring, Cactus Jack goes under the ring and retrieves a plank of wood (or 2x4 if you’re American) wrapped in barbed wire! That gets a big cheer from the crowd. He takes aim, but the referee wants him to stop which just lets Triple H use a low blow and get the barbed wire himself.

He hits Jack in the gut, then across the back not once but twice, and the barbs get caught in Cactus’s t-shirt. Triple H tries for a big swing to the head but gets a low blow of his own, and the referee gets the barbed wire out of the ring to safety as Jack plants him with a DDT. The referee gives the barbed wire to the Spanish announcers to hide and Cactus just goes looking for it as soon as he’s back on his feet. Jack punches out one of the announcers and demands his weapon back, which he gets and once again referee Earl Hebner proves himself to be the worst referee in wrestling history as he continues to get involved. It doesn’t help and Jack hits The Game in the head with the barbed wire, and then drops it across his face which busts him open! Triple H comes up bleeding heavily from his hairline and it looks like from under his eye too! He stumbles into another shot to the head and AGAIN, Earl Hebner insists on no-selling a referee bump that would normally kill a referee and getting involved again! Cactus uses the barbed wire like a cheese grater on Triple H’s forehead and continues the punishment on the outside. 

Cactus sets up a piledriver on top of the announce table but Triple H backdrops out of it and he crunches on the table which cracks in half and both men collapse. It looked and sounded so violent, and Triple H is absolutely soaked in his own blood. He even has a big deep puncture wound in his calf somehow. That one is even more impressive - there’s no way he bladed his own leg so it must be legit.

Triple H finally mounts a comeback with a hip toss on the outside which crashes Foley’s legs across the ring steps, and then whips him in to take more punishment to the legs.

Triple H then focuses his abuse on Jack’s legs with chop blocks in and out of the ring and then retrieving the barbed wire himself and hammering it across Cactus Jack’s legs. 

The champion gets out of the ring and grabs something from Howard Finkle that he’d given to him before the match - it’s a pair of handcuffs, and he handcuff’s Foley’s arms behind his back while King and JR talk about what The Rock did to him last year in the I Quit match. It feels crazy that that was only a year ago! 

Triple H tries to use the ring steps but gets a drop-toe hold and then a headbutt into the crotch for his trouble. Cactus Jack keeps on fighting even handcuffed, and starts biting the WWF Champion but this flurry of no-armed offence doesn't last long and Triple H clotheslines him and gets a steel chair. He hammers Cactus in the ribs and across the back hard enough to break a piece off the steel chair! Jack doesn’t leave his feet and collapses through the ropes and they fight up the entrance ramp. 

As The Game continues the assault with a pair of hard shots to the head, Cactus Jack dares him to keep hitting him until his saviour - The Rock - explodes out of the back and hits Triple H with a chair too! With both men down, a police officer uncuffs Jack and he’s back in the fight! 

The Rock doesn’t stick around, and Jack fights Triple H back to ringside and piledrives The Game on top of the announce desk, which doesn’t break and they bounce off it. 

Back in the ring, Cactus gets a big bag from under the ring and the fans cheer - they know what's coming - but the commentators play dumb until Foley pours hundreds and thousands of thumb tacks all over the ring mat. 

It backfires and despite his best efforts to knock Triple H into the tacks, he backdrops Cactus and he lands spine first in the tacks. Triple H follows up with a Pedigree and the fans explode when he kicks out! No one has ever kicked out of the Pedigree! 

Triple H follows up with a second one - right into the thumbtacks, driving Cactus face first to the mat. Brutal, and it’s enough to finally win this match!

This was a war, just as brutal and bloody as I remember. One of the greatest matches in WWF/E history and everyone should go and watch this. Amazing stuff. 

Triple H is quickly loaded onto a stretcher and wheeled to the back but Cactus is having none of that and gives chase, dragging Triple H back to the ring, throwing him into the ring and hitting him in the face with the barbed wire one more time. He may have retained the title, but he has been left a bloody, quivering mass. Cactus lost, but he doesn’t look like a loser.

The Coach is still live at WWF New York but this time he has a guest - it’s the CEO of the WWF, Linda McMahon. Mrs. Charisma. He asks her how she, Vince and Shane all feel about the McMahon-Helmsley regime. Linda says she refuses to comment but that things will be handled “the McMahon way” which makes it sound like one or all of them will be back on TV soon. 

There’s a fair bit of time-killing by JR and King as the ringside assistants work hard to get all of the thumbtacks out of the ring. They show one random “classic Royal Rumble moment” of Shawn Michaels winning in 1995. This would make sense if they’d been showing these all night, or been showing them on TV during the build up. Nope, it was just this one moment. It is a classic, I guess.

The 2000 Royal Rumble match

The number one entrant is D’Lo Brown. He’s been dressing more and more like The Godfather lately as they’ve formed a tag team but he’s back to his classic gear. Number two is Grandmaster Sexay from Too Cool. This year’s Rumble has 90 second intervals between entrants, and the two lads work quickly and trade some moves - including D’Lo’s powerbomb countered into a hurricanrana - before the countdown begins. Headbanger Mosh  - is number three. For the first time tonight, Taka Michinoku and Funaki run in and try to attack but are quickly thrown out. They’re upset at not being in the Rumble match this year. Mosh’s cone bra is a tribute to Madonna. I think. Who can tell in this era? Number four is Christian - who gets a lot of female cheers because it was the era of boys with long blonde hair. The men in the ring all just pair off and wrestle and other than Kaientai’s interference there haven’t been any spots yet. We are only five minutes or so in though. Number five is Rikishi, Grandmaster Sexay’s buddy. He quickly and easily clears the ring, dumping out Mosh, Christian and D’Lo. He teases throwing out his friend as Grandmaster pleads but thankfully number six is here - it’s Scotty 2 Hotty, the other member of Too Cool. This is an ALL time classic Rumble moment as the three men don’t fight - they dance! It’s incredible seeing this enormous MSG crowd cheer and clap along. A sea of people. I got goosebumps.

The fans chant “Rikishi” and then he ruins the moment, double clotheslining Too Cool and eliminating both men! They do all bump fists to show there’s no hard feelings at least. They’re still friends. Rikishi continues dancing - he has gotten unbelievably popular very quickly. Number seven is Steve Blackman who jumps at Rikishi with kicks, but is reversed into a Rikishi Driver when he tries to eliminate the big man and is dumped out right away. Number eight is the even bigger Viscera, the 500lbs beast. They trade punches until Big Vis plants Rikishi with a belly to belly suplex and a leg drop. Rikishi manages to reverse a whip to the ropes and sends Viscera packing very quickly in the end! Wow. The Big Bossman is number nine, but he smartly doesn’t get in the ring and hangs out on the ramp killing time until number ten, the WWF Hardcore Champion Test enters. They have a brief fight on the outside before Test sends Bossman into the ring and the match continues properly. Number eleven is The British Bulldog. Up until now, Rikishi has eliminated everyone who has been eliminated. Rikishi tries a Banzai drop on Bulldog but it is countered with a low blow.

Number twelve is Gangrel, who pauses to complete his entrance and spray his fake blood before getting into the ring but is immediately jumped by Test and Bossman. That brings Kaientai out for their second run of the night. Taka is LAUNCHED by Gangrel and Bossman and, in a famous spot, lands hard and bangs his face HARD on the mats at ringside. That’s the last time we see him tonight but it does get replayed a bunch of times, with King laughing at his misfortune and continually calling them Chinese no matter how many times JR corrects him. Lucky number thirteen is Edge who gets the same loud girly scream from the fans that Christian and Test got.  The ring has really started to fill up now. Number fourteen, a total surprise to everyone is former WWF Champion Bob Backlund! Just as he enters, everyone in the ring teams up and manages to finally eliminate Rikishi. He had a good run. Number fifteen is the WWF Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho, who eliminates Backlund right away. Number sixteen is Crash Holly, who has started to really find his niche with his tough, scrappy-doo type character. The little guy who doesn’t know how little he is basically. Number seventeen is Chyna, entering for the second year in the row. She goes right after Chris Jericho and manages to suplex him out of the ring, but then while she gloats she's quickly dumped out by Bossman.

Number eighteen is Faarooq, no doubt in a vile mood after being cheated out of the tag titles earlier. He’s jumped by all three members of the Mean Street Posse, which lets Bossman eliminate him. The Posse, much like Kaientai, are upset that they aren’t in the Rumble match. Number nineteen is WWF Tag Team Champion Roaddogg. He gets a low blow from Gangrel right away. The fans, bizarrely, chant “we want puppies”. Odd timing. The twentieth entrant is Al Snow, who has made no friends lately. He’s tried to team up with a lot of teams lately but keeps turning on his own partners. I really don’t like his new theme song either. Roaddogg dumps out The British Bulldog quietly in the background. Number twenty one is the WWF European Champion Val Venis. There’s no mention made of him being a title holder, and he’s barely been on TV with the title since he won it. Funaki runs in again and tries to get involved but is swarmed and thrown out again. Taka isn’t with him because he got a nasty concussion when he landed on his face earlier. The number twenty two entrant is Prince Albert. He throws out Edge, and goes right after his former partner and now rival The Big Bossman. By this point, Roaddogg has lay down and wrapped his arms and legs around the bottom rope, holding on for dear life and never moving. Twenty three is Hardcore Holly. Finally, after Jerry Lawler trying to guess who was next all night long, at twenty four is the first proper main eventer, The Rock. He instantly sends Bossman packing over the top rope but is swarmed by all the midcarders and Hardcore Holly dares to try and eliminate him. He called everyone in this match a jabroni in the run up but The Big Show is the only one who took specific, personal offence. Twenty five is WWF Tag Team Champion, Mr. Ass. He very aggressively goes after The Rock and hammers him down in the corner which brings his partner Roaddogg finally out of his hiding place. He does go right back under though. The Rock throws out Crash - who he did say he was worried about - and then goes back to being worked over in the corner by Al Snow.

Twenty six is The Big Show, which draws a gasp from the crowd - he and The Rock are the big story of this match and now they’re both in. He eliminates Test, and then Gangrel in short order. Twenty seven is Bradshaw. He goes right after Roaddogg but much like Faarooq earlier, he’s attacked by the Mean Street Posse. He fights them off but the distraction let's Mr. Ass and Roaddogg work together and eliminate him. Faarooq comes back out and The Acolytes fight with The Posse up the ramp and backstage.

Twenty eight is Kane (who does have Tori with him, but she doesn’t stick around at ringside) His pyro fills the arena and ring with smoke, and he chokeslams Val Venis over the top rope (kind of) and then goes after Roaddogg, who is still holding onto the bottom rope for dear life. Kane eliminates Prince Albert as number twenty nine, The Godfather enters. He does a full lap of the ring with four hoes while Funaki runs in for the final time, being thrown out of the ring again. King is still calling him Chinese and requests a fourth replay of Taka Michinoku injury spot and makes fun of him. I intensely dislike Jerry Lawler. The thirtieth and final entrant is X-Pac, who earned the spot by beating Test (with a lot of help) and the fans are nearly silent for him. Al Snow eliminates Hardcore Holly. At no point does anyone point out that there's three members of DX in the ring who could work together. Big Show throws out Godfather as The Rock clotheslines out Al Snow and the field is thin. Mr. Ass eliminates his own partner, but then Roaddogg gets the last laugh as Show throws Billy out right after. The Outlaws pull Kane out of the ring and brawl with him on the outside as The Rock throws out X-Pac, but the referees don’t see it and he’s able to re-enter the ring - they were all too busy trying to break up The Outlaws and Kane. Kane does come back and the final four is Kane, The Big Show, The Rock and X-Pac.

One of these things is not like the others. Kane body slams The Big Show but as he stumbles off balance, X-Pac heel kicks him over the top rope! Kane is out. The Big Show takes a Bronco Buster but no-sells it and military-presses X-Pac out over the top rope to the floor. We’re down to The Rock and The Big Show! The Rock hits the spinebuster and a People’s Elbow and the fans are electric. He tries to throw him out but Show stops himself and kills The Rock with a violent chokeslam.

The fans boo him loudly and chant “Rocky” as Show scoops Rock onto his corner and teases throwing him out, asking which side to use. He runs and The Rock counters, grabbing the top rope and sending The Big Show crashing to the floor!

The Rock wins a fun Royal Rumble that was lacking in big spots, but moved along quickly enough with enough popular performers that it didn’t really matter. 

The Rock is going to Wrestlemania (for now).

After the match, The Rock asks for a microphone to address the rabid fans in New York City but doesn’t get to celebrate for long as The BigShow sprints back to the ring and cuts off his “If ya smell…” clotheslining him and throwing him over the top rope to the floor. The PPV ends with the fans chanting “asshole” at Big Show as The Rock taunts him and talks trash from the entrance way.