Royal Rumble - Philips Arena, Atlanta GA, January 20th, 2002
The 15th Annual Royal Rumble. Given that I'm still watching WWE religiously in 2025, this only being the 14th one makes me feel very old indeed.
Bit of a personal story - UK fans will remember when the WWF put a handful of the yearly PPVs on free to view channel, Channel 4 rather than Sky Sports. Up until 2000, all WWF content was on Sky for no additional charge (a Sky Sports subscription is expensive enough). That deal with Channel 4 ended and so that handful of PPVs moved back to Sky but on Sky Box Office for an additional £14.95 charge. That set a dangerous precedent for us fans and by the end of 2003, all of the monthly PPVs were on Box Office for £14.95. This PPV was the first one, and the benefit of Sky Box Office was that after buying the event, it was repeated every four hours or so on that channel for a week afterwards so, after telling my dad I was too ill to go to school on Monday January 21st, little 14 year old William was able to sit and watch the end in bed as close to live as possible (without staying up til 4am, that is). I have really vivid memories of being absolutely furious that the person I wanted to win, didn’t. But no spoilers, we’ll get to that later.
A good video package highlighting former winners but sadly as predicted, the PPV’s theme song (Cocky by Kid Rock) has been edited off this version - don’t think too hard about where I’m getting all these shows since the WWE Network closed but this I’m watching on Netflix! Which means no screenshots so also try not to think too much about where i’m going to get my usual screenshots either (Netflix doesn’t allow them)
WWF Tag Team Championships
Spike Dudley and Tazz © vs. The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von Dudley, w/Stacy Keibler)
No messing around and straight into the action with our opening match. Sadly, much like Kid Rock’s Cocky there's another big music edit as Tazz debuted a new version of his theme song (performed by Cypress Hill) on this show and that’s also been dubbed out. Curse you McMahon for being too cheap to pay for music.
Bubba Ray and D-Von waste no time and with their little brother Spike wearing a neck brace, they isolate him and immediately tear it off and brutalise him. Tazz was knocked down so there’s no one for Spike to tag but given how quickly we’ve shifted into the “heels work over one guy” spot, I suspect this match won’t last long.
Bubba and D-Von tag in and out and punish Spike with suplexes and punches as Bubba shouts at Tazz that he’s going to break his partner’s neck. Sinister.
Spike counters out of another suplex attempt and hits a desperation Dudley Dog on Bubba but is too hurt to cover. He crawls for a pin but thanks to some shenanigans with D-Von distracting the ref, he doesn’t see the tag to Tazz and the challengers send Spike high into the sky and bring him back down with a flapjack.
Tazz and Spike have been on a roll, winning underdog match after underdog match including winning and keeping the titles but the build on TV really made it seem like they’d lose them back to the Dudleyz here.
Spike gets a tag after avoiding a double team charge where Bubba and D-Von crashed into each other and Tazz throws them around with suplexes. The fans are hot for this match!
Stacy Keibler gets up on the apron and tries to slap Tazz but he ducks it and puts her in the Tazzmission! D-Von saves her but he also gets locked in the Tazzmission and in a shocker, Tazz and Spike retain the Tag Team titles clean as a whistle! That match only lasted 5:06! And since Tazz won, here’s his new theme song.
After a recap of some of the interactions between William Regal and Edge over the past couple of weeks (especially focusing on Edge losing his temper and blasting crooked referee Nick Patrick with a steel chair on Smackdown) Lillian Garcia interviews the Intercontinental Champion Edge. No joking around tonight - if Regal wants to play dirty, he can. He gets a steel chair and bangs on it. He Edgecution’d Regal onto one and broke his nose, and laid him out with another on Smackdown. Regal says Edge is dealing with the devil so tonight the devil gets burnt. Big words when you’re holding a weapon there buddy.
WWF Intercontinental Championship
Edge © vs. William Regal
The referee for this match is Nick Patrick who you’d assume has some sore feelings towards Edge. Nick is smart and searches the ring, checking under the apron and behind the ring steps for Regal’s hidden brass knuckles. Normally they search his person but he’s gotten good at hiding them in recent weeks.
Edge is all business and rushes the ring and has to be held back. It was worth waiting as Nick Patrick does actually find Regal’s brass knuckles down the front of his trunks!
Edge runs through his challenger sending him from corner to corner and back dropping him and Regal is on the back foot early. Edge focuses his attack on Regal’s face as after weeks of being knocked out with those brass knuckles he wants to re-break his nose.
Regal fights back and catches Edge with a stiff knee to the head allowing him to assume control of the match with a chinlock.
I really enjoyed their match at Vengeance and with six extra weeks of build this should be nice and heated. It would have benefitted from a stipulation I think. Put them in a cage!
Regal drops Edge right on his face with an german suplex where the champion completed the turn and landed on his front. That looked brutal.
There’s some more nice counters and creative moves as Edge drops Regal on his back with a sort of northern nights suplex where his arms were bound, and Regal pounds Edge with a double underhook powerbomb, both for close near falls.
Edge avoids being powerbombed off the apron with a DDT which got a big reaction. Moves on the apron are old hat in 2025 but that was very new in 2002!
Regal tries to block a spear but instead both their heads bang together and that gets us back to the start with no advantage for either man.
A spinning heel kick and suplex from Edge, another disgusting suplex right onto the back of his head and neck by Regal and then a double clothesline. They’re evenly matched!
Regal blocks an Edgecution and locks in the Regal Stretch but Edge guts it out and makes it to the ropes to break the hold. Regal’s attempt at a suplex from the top rope is blocked and Edge comes off with a nice looking spinning heel kick. As Edge sets up the spear, Regal appears to retrieve a second pair of brass knuckles from his tights! He pulls the referee in front of him to absorb Edge’s spear and then clocks the champion with the loaded left hand as the referee lays unmoving in the corner.
Regal crawls into a cover on an unconscious Edge as the referee slowly recovers and three seconds later, William Regal is the new WWF Intercontinental Champion!
I like Edge but his run as champion had been a little flat. I’m delighted to see Regal win the title, he is one of my all time favourites. I was mad as hell about it when I was a kid though! As Regal leaves he's stopped by Michael Cole on the ramp who asks how he can be proud of winning the title that way and Regal says he was gifted by God with a magnificent power - the Power of the Punch!
WWF Women’s Championship
Trish Stratus © vs. Jazz
Special Referee: Jacqueline
Before the women’s championship match, Jacqueline is introduced as the special referee which I think was a surprise to everyone. She looks a lot better in her referee gear than Earl Hebner does I’ll say that.
This is one of those things that only really bugs me but while all of the match graphics for the title matches have been updated to an image of the title belt itself, the women’s championship is still using the same plain text one it’s had since 1998. I do like those match graphics - mostly for nostalgia really - but it shows the lack of attention the women were still getting that they haven’t updated it.
There’s a replay of Jazz’s attack on Trish on Smackdown and sure enough when the champion comes out it’s with a heavily bandaged left hand which she theatrically rubs so that everyone in row Z gets the idea. I love it when wrestling is a bit of a pantomime.
Jazz attacks Trish right away before she even gets her jacket off and throws her around the ring and splashes her on the mat.
Trish comes back with a sunset flip which Jazz rolls through and the pair of them go back and forth with dueling roll ups for a string of one counts in a row.
After more domination from Jazz she gets in Jackie’s face about slow counts and pays for it as when she next has Trish pinned, Jackie does wait a beat before she begrudgingly counts. Trish kicks out.
With Jazz busy arguing with Jackie, Trish hits her Stratusfaction bulldog but Jazz kicks out.
She spikes Trish with a DDT and Trish kicks out! They’re motoring through moves and spots with no rest or selling between them so my coverage of the match is accurate in its spottiness.
Trish blocks Jazz’s corner charge with a foot to the face and runs in with a quick bulldog and despite the odds and the injured hand, Trish Stratus retains the WWF Women’s title! This match, much like the tag team opener, sprinted through the usual spots you’d expect and lasted less than four minutes. Wasn’t very good but certainly wasn’t long enough to be terrible. I am shocked Jazz lost so quickly and cleanly but I suspect this story isn’t over.
Earlier today, one of the co-owners of the WWF Ric Flair arrived at the arena. This isn’t worth mentioning but he arrives with two of his kids - his daughter Megan (not Charlotte) and Reid, who appeared on WCW TV a bunch of times and actually had a couple of PPV matches, all before his 15th birthday. His more famous son is David who was heavily featured in WCW storylines and was at this point actually in training to join the WWF as a wrestler but, to be kind, he was terrible and quickly gave up on it for a career in the US government’s parks department (yes, really)
Street Fight
Vince McMahon vs. Ric Flair
The video package does a good job of making McMahon look like a real creep.
This is Ric Flair’s first WWF match since January 25th 1993. Ironically the man who beat him in that “Loser leaves Town” match on Raw is also making his WWF return tonight - Mr. Perfect, who is announced for the Rumble match later. This is Ric’s first wrestling match period since losing to Sting on the final episode of WCW Nitro in March 2001. He gets a warm response from the crowd in Atlanta. This was WCW’s homebase for many, many years and the company and Flair himself have always been significantly more popular and well known “down South”.
Vince is bigger than ever. The last time we saw him wrestle on PPV was Wrestlemania X7 and he’s HUGE but distractingly he’s wearing an enormous amount of fake tan. He looks like someone varnished his face.
It’s kind of funny that this year’s Rumble match only has one former winner in it (Stone Cold Steve Austin) but this match has two former Rumble match winners in it - Flair in 1992, McMahon in 1999 with a big, big asterix obviously. They did both win it from very early entrance spots too (3rd and 2nd respectively).
They circle each other and lock up and amazingly, McMahon takes control of this shoving Ric across the ring and striking a muscle pose to intimidate his business partner, who laughs it off. The story in the early moments is that Ric is out of practice and Vince is very big and strong - a story I assume Vince himself wrote.
McMahon gets a lot of boos for taunting Ric with his own strut and that gets “asshole” chants. The Nature Boy turns it up and schools Ric with some proper chain wrestling before taking Vince to the corner and lighting him up with punches to the ribs but Vince is having none of that and continues to bully and dominate the 16 time World Champion. He even gives Ric one of his own chops but that fires him up and Nature Boy fights back and lights him up with a few chops of his own!
I’m sure it upset a lot of long time fans to see non-wrestler McMahon dominate what many people consider to be the greatest wrestler of all time but with a poke to the eye, Vince does just that.
On the outside he blasts Ric with a stop sign, a trash can and runs him into the barrier at ringside and Flair comes up bleeding. King continues to go on and on and on about how impressive Vince’s body is to the point where it gets a bit uncomfortable.
Beating him up around the ring and slamming him at ringside in front of his family, McMahon takes Ric’s daughter’s camera from her and takes a couple of selfies years before that was a thing. Flair is bleeding heavily and it looks so dramatic mixed with his bright white hair.
On the inside, Vince starts to wrestle and uses locks and holds on Flair’s leg, apparently wanting to humiliate him further by beating him with his own Figure Four. It is beyond bizarre that the match has been booked this way as, with no help or cheating, the non-wrestler owner of the company beats the life out of the greatest wrestler of all time with ease. The fans in attendance agree with me as they are in stunned silence watching it happen.
Vince locks Ric in the Figure Four and this honestly seems like it could be the end of this very one-sided match! Flair gets to the ropes so Vince goes out to ringside and retrieves the same big heavy metal pipe he’s used the last couple of weeks. He spends too long taunting and gets a big low blow for his trouble.
Ric FINALLY gets into the match and pummels him with chops and punches on the outside as Vince sells like he’s had an electric shock!
Flair gets one of the TV monitors off the announce desk and hits Vince square in the head, sending him flying up and over the table to the concrete. That looked cool and in a nice spot, Ric grabs one of the monitors to watch his own replay and there’s a cool camera shot of the replay on the monitor laying on its side as Ric continues the live beating in the background. I liked that a lot.
Ric has some fun now, beating Vince up around the ring and biting him and showing off in front of his kids and when back in the ring, Vince begs for mercy. He gets none and the Nature Boy lights him up with punches, a big low blow and finishes him with a shot to the skull with that steel pipe Vince introduced! He swings and it makes a thud noise - I hope it wasn’t a real pipe otherwise Vince is dead! Ric locks him in the Figure Four and with the fans going crazy, a bloody Vince McMahon taps out. Ric Flair wins this street fight! As much as I have to question why Vince dominated Flair with such ease for most of the match, I’m happy it had the right outcome at least.
A bloody Flair looks down at Vince before he leaves the ring and shakes his head in disgust while Vince flails on the mat. Will there be retaliation and a price to pay later? We’ll have to wait and see.
This feels like a good spot to talk about a major issue in the WWF in 2002 - McMahon Fatigue.
By January 2002, Vince McMahon had been a major on screen presence for close to four years. He had stints of being off TV but when he was on TV it always meant multiple segments per night, appearing constantly throughout the show and sometimes more than one in-ring segment too. He was all over Raw and Smackdown and even PPVs.
The evil “Mr. McMahon” character was a creative revelation in 1998 but by 2000, people were tired of him. He tried to reinvent the character and morphed from a crooked businessman obsessed with controlling the WWF and the Championship with an iron fist into a sexual deviant who got off on humiliating people on TV and forever talking about his sex life. In 2025, it's easy to look back and see that as his confidence and fortune grew, what really happened was that who he is in real life started to bleed heavily into who he was on TV. 2001’s disgusting Trish Stratus love affair was Vince McMahon living out his perverted power and humiliation fantasies on live TV for us all to watch. A lot of it is hard to watch and for some fans, it drew “the wrong kind of heat”. It was no longer fun to boo him and watch him get beat up - fans just wanted him to go away and stop grossing everyone out. It would take several more years before he finally took the hint.
Michael Cole interviews Nick Patrick and asks if he has reviewed the tape of William Regal’s unfair victory earlier and for his thoughts. Nick doesn’t get to answer as he’s interrupted by Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley who says Triple H will give everyone a beating much worse than the one her dad just got. As Stephanie starts to talk trash about Debra, her husband Stone Cold Steve Austin appears behind her. WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? WHAT? He berates her as she stammers and can’t get a word in between WHATs. She runs away and leaves the Rattlesnake alone with Michael. He doesn’t let Cole speak either. Stone Cold is going to win the Rumble. WHAT. Stone Cold. WHAT. 29 pieces of trash. WHAT. Over the top rope. WHAT. The Bottom Line. WHAT. I love you Steve. WHAT.
Undisputed WWF Championship
Chris Jericho © vs. The Rock
The build for this match has mostly been assuming that The Rock would win, and Chris Jericho getting upset about that. It’s a fair assumption as even a month into his title reign Y2J still didn’t feel like a main eventer or ready for Wrestlemania.
That isn’t Chris Jericho’s fault - the booking of him as a cowardly underdog who just barely scrapes victories hasn’t done him many favours and swimming in shark infested waters with The Rock, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle and now Triple H puts him at about fifth on the totem pole. Even JR calls him the underdog during his entrance. What he does have going for him is that he is undefeated at the Royal Rumble PPV, though this is only his third match at it.
The two got face to face and on Smackdown, The Rock slowly walked about Jericho talking down to him. Jericho returns the favour here as The Rock looks stunned Y2J would talk to him that way! The Rock finally snaps and drops Jericho with a big right hand to start the match.
Jericho is forced to bail out of the ring and compose himself almost immediately but the Rock is all gas, no breaks and chases Jericho around and tackles him with punches. Jericho looks like a coward here but finally gets into it with a flying forearm and an attack in the corner. Jericho maintains control and slows things down, stopping The Rock’s brief comebacks with a spinning heel kick for the first near fall of the match.
The fans are hot for this chanting “Jericho sucks” as JR and King discuss how reasonable it is for people to overlook Jericho. He is the first and only Undisputed WWF Champion but no one takes him seriously and honestly I’m not sure how much its helping him to acknowledge that.
In one of his books, Jericho told a story about how Vince McMahon killed all of his confidence immediately - when Y2J got backstage at Vengeance, moments after winning the titles, Vince remarked “things must be going to hell - we’re putting the title on Jericho!” The boss was kidding, but it was quite a mean joke to make at that moment.
Jericho continues to keep it slow, stopping Rock’s comebacks with a back elbow and grinding him down with a long, long sleeper hold. The Rock’s arm falls limp twice but he stops it the third time to keep the match going - you don’t see that spot anymore do you? The Rock fights back up and is shut down again with a back elbow. He goes to the top rope but Rocky bounces into the ropes to make him fall and then brings him down the hard way with a great looking superplex.
The Rock is too hurt to properly follow up and Jericho knocks him down and gives him not one but two Lionsaults. The Rock kicks out!
Jericho tries for a dropkick off the middle rope but The Rock catches his legs and locks him in the sharpshooter - a move Jericho tapped out to a couple of weeks ago.
Chris Jericho’s buddies Lance Storm and Christian run down. Storm distracts the referee who misses Jericho tapping out! The Rock fights off Christian and Storm but walks right into a Rock Bottom - that’s how Jericho beat The Rock at Vengence!
The Rock kicks out but he’s still down so Jericho continues the mind games with a People’s Elbow - The Rock hops to his feet mid-move and sends a charging champion up and over the top rope to the floor. It’s taken some time but this match has gone up a gear now as the two men fight on the outside. The Rock clears off one of the announce tables but is taken down from behind by Jericho, who then clears off the other.
Jericho prepares to give The Rock a Rock Bottom onto the announce desk but The Rock elbows out of it and turns the tables, leaping from one table to the other with a Rock Bottom of his own! That looked awesome and the table exploded beneath the weight of the landing.
It takes some time for The Rock to get the Undisputed Champion back into the ring and so he’s recovered enough to kick out.
Jericho fights out of a Rock Bottom attempt and locks The Rock in the Walls of Jericho but the challenger holds on and with “Rocky chants” to encourage him, eventually makes it to the ropes to break the hold.
The Rock comes back off the ropes with a big clothesline but Jericho ducks and the referee gets knocked down. It’s Earl Hebner, so that's fine. Jericho uses the WWF title belt as a weapon and calls for a new referee - its Nick Patrick, the crooked referee. By the time he gets to the ring to count, The Rock kicks out.
The Rock scores with a DDT but Nick Patrick refuses to count - he’s in McMahon’s pocket! The Rock has had enough and drills Nick with a Rock Bottom, and then catches Jericho with a spinebuster and a People’s Elbow! But there’s no referee to count.
The Rock goes to get the referee but when he comes back to Jericho he receives a full house of cheating, a masterclass of illegal moves as Jericho gives him a low blow, drives his head into an exposed turnbuckle, rolls him up and gets his feet up onto the ropes to steal a three count.
This was a good match, but probably not as good as their efforts for the WCW Championship at No Mercy 2001 or Raw a couple of weeks later. Jericho steals another victory, and probably still looks like a fluke champion? Or maybe that's just my 2025 brain telling me that I don’t like Chris Jericho anymore and wanting this title reign to be bad. Though in my defence, historically this is remembered as a bad title reign.
Live from WWF New York, former two-time winner of the Royal Rumble match Shawn Michaels is in the house! This is his first appearance in a while as his substance abuse issues led to a big falling out with Triple H around Wrestlemania X7. By this point in his life Shawn was getting clean and sober and had found Jesus thanks to his second wife. But I’ll get a chance to talk a lot more about Shawn soon enough.
The 2002 Royal Rumble match
Before we get going there’s a video package which was set to Kid Rock’s Cocky but has been dubbed with a generic production track. Without that song, it's really just a lot of action awkwardly played to quite a dull song.
After Howard Finkle’s historical and often made fun of long explanation of the Royal Rumble rules, Number 1 entrant Rikishi is introduced. This makes him the first man in history to go from being number 30 one year to number 1 the following year. That’s something. Number 2 is the first of tonight’s big returns, Shattered Dreams Productions Presents Goldust! He looks in much better shape than he was in when he left the WWF in May of 1999.
The two trade blows with Rikishi sending Goldust up and over the top not once but twice, but the bizarre one holds onto the ropes and stays in the match both times.
Number 3, the Big Bossman slowly walks down to join the fight but not especially liven up the action much. Big 1999 vibes with Bossman and Goldust in the ring. Rikishi gets turned inside out with his famous flipping Rikishi-bump off a Bossman clothesline. Even working together, Bossman and Goldust can’t dump out Rikishi and are joined by Number 4, the APA’s Bradshaw. George Bush’s number 1 fan runs down and makes a difference and allows Rikishi to give Bossman a Stinkface and throw him out of the ring for the first elimination. Next up is Number 5. Lance Storm, the first of many men making their Royal Rumble debut tonight. Storm and Goldust work together to try and get Rikishi out but still aren’t able to lift the 400lb Samoan. Number 6 is Tough Enough trainer Al Snow, who I think counts as an unadvertised return! Bradshaw flattens Storm with a clothesline from hell as the fans chant “we want Head” for Al Snow. I’m glad they’re happy to see him too! Number 7 is one half of my new favourite tag team, Billy of Billy and Chuck! He has lots of energy but runs into a big boot from Bradshaw. The ring is filling up a bit now with only Bossman eliminated so we’re probably due a big name to do an “everybody out of the pool” spot. Lance Storm and Al Snow end up on the apron and trade kicks with Snow winning the exchange and Storm falls to the floor, eliminated. Goldust keeps it moving as he outmanoeuvres Bradshaw and sends him up and over the top rope making Bradshaw the third man out. My wish for the first big name is granted with Hardcore Champion The Undertaker at number 8. No one has actually mentioned the Hardcore title for weeks so maybe it’s been quietly retired? The Deadman motors through everyone with punches, kicks and a chokeslam to Billy followed by one to Goldust up and over to eliminate him. Undertaker pretty effortlessly dumps Al Snow, Rikishi and Billy up and over in short order to make himself the only man standing in the ring. Number 9 is a returning Matt Hardy (with Lita, who he seems to have made up with!) Matt hasn’t been seen since Undertaker injured him last month. Taker grabs Matt by the throat, and Lita too when she jumps off the top.
She kicks him low and they double team the Undertaker for what he did to them. He can’t get him out of the ring but might have more luck with the help of Number 10 - Jeff Hardy! I’m happy to see they’ve dropped the Matt heel turn and reunited Team Xtreme as they work together to eliminate the man who injured them both (and Lita) in Hardcore matches before Christmas. Jeff blocks Matt from being eliminated and the crowd roars as the three of them stomp on Undertaker and then Matt and Jeff hug, officially back on the same page. A Twist of Fate and Swanton Bomb combo looks like it’ll give them their revenge but Undertaker is having none of that and catches Jeff in mid-air, throwing him over the top and after a thunderous Last Ride to Matt, he’s thrown out too. The Undertaker weathers the storm. Number 11 is Tough Enough winner Maven making not only his Rumble debut but his PPV debut. He looks pretty nervous at the idea of getting in the ring solo with Undertaker but he sprints down anyway. Lita distracts Undertaker and Matt and Jeff attack him again, not done with their revenge. He fights them off a second time and sends them packing, but with his back turned watching them leave Maven dropkicks Undertaker in the back and it sends him up and over the top rope! It gets a monstrous reaction from the fans and the commentators. This is a legendary spot - Tough Enough winner Maven just eliminated The Undertaker!
Undertaker is furious and goes back into the ring attacking Maven and beating him up around the ring. He grabs a steel chair and gives Maven a brutal, absolutely disgusting shot to the head which busts him wide open. That chairshot could have been a career ender. Referees are powerless to control the Undertaker and when Number 12 Scotty 2 Hotty enters he’s immediately dropped with a right hand too. For the 3rd year in a row, Scotty enters at the worst possible time - in 2000, the only two men in the ring were his own tag team partners, in 2001 the only two men in the ring with The Undertaker and Kane and this year it’s while a furious Undertaker is on the rampage. He continues to beat up Maven and takes him up and through the crowd, disappearing backstage and finally he ends the beating by smashing a near unconscious Maven into a glass popcorn machine. What a psychopath. Maven is eliminated, just not officially.
Getting back to business, European Champion Christian is Number 13 who gets time to pose and parade with the ring all to himself. Scotty makes his way to the ring and he and Christian get the match back on track, with Christian getting the advantage. Number 14 is Diamond Dallas Page making his one and only Royal Rumble appearance. Christian shuts him down with a reverse DDT but turns into a surprise Diamond Cutter. DDP is knocked out of the ring - but not over the top - and Scotty takes his chance to give Christian the Worm. He’s then thrown out by DDP without getting to celebrate it. Number 15 is Chuck. JR and King are incredibly homophobic about Chuck as we wait for Number 16, The Godfather! He gets a huge pop. Well, the hoes do. His first appearance since the death of the Right to Censor last May and he’s reverted back to his most popular version. JR and King mention a few times that he's “gone legit” - he owns an escort service and a strip club in Las Vegas! He brings out a parade of 16 hoes and dances for his entire time slot before heading to the ring.
While this was going on, Chuck and Christian eliminated DDP. By the time Godfather finally enters the ring we’re ready for Number 17, Albert. He dominates Christian and Chuck but the much bigger Godfather puts up a good fight. He looks in great shape. He misses a Hoe-train on Christian and Chuck and Christian dump him out just before Number 18, Perry Saturn. Weird that he got a spot in this match given that Perry hasn’t been on TV in months, not counting the occasional “standing in the back ground” spot backstage. The fans start to loudly react and it took me a moment to realise it was to the ladies who came back out to meet the eliminated Godfather at the top of the ramp while he left. With Perry, Christian and Chuck in the ring it’s time for the next main eventer and my own personal pick to win this when I was a kid - Stone Cold Steve Austin! He gets a huge pop. The only former Rumble winner in this match, and he’s won it three times. Austin hammers all three men with the crowd screaming WHAT and after a Stunner on Saturn, eliminates him, Chuck and Christian with ease. Stone Cold stands tall as the only man in the ring with the crowd going nuts. He has time to kill and so he goes out and gets Christian, gives him a Stunner and eliminates him a second time for fun! He does the same thing to Chuck.
In a cool repeat of his 1997 Rumble spot, he sits on the top rope checking his imaginary watch waiting for Number 20, another return - Val Venis who has kept his RtC short hair but gotten his old porn star gimmick and theme song back. The fans bellow WHAT WHAT WHAT as Austin beats up Val and stomps him in the corner. He puts up a little fight and keeps Stone Cold busy long enough for Number 21, Test to get to the ring and help him out. The two Canadians double team him in the corner but Stone Cold fights back and with a barrage of punches and ANOTHER Stunner on Test this time, he dumps Val and Test and remains the only man in the ring. Stone Cold gets a couple of moments to recover before business picks up with Number 22, Triple H. The Game takes his time with his entrance and with a long, slow, tense staredown between Austin and Triple H they come to blows throwing lefts and rights and not giving each other an inch. The tension is broken by Number 23, the Royal Rumble’s only superhero, The Hurricane. In a great spot he bides his time and grabs both Stone Cold and Triple H by the throat like he wants to do a double chokeslam! The Game and the Rattlesnake exchange incredulous looks before throwing him up and over the top rope.
The two favourites to win exchange blows and take turns getting the upper hand until Number 24, Faarooq arrives while both men are down. He does better than Hurricane actually attacking them with punches and a spinebuster on Stone Cold but he too is quickly dumped out of the ring after a Stone Cold Stunner. This could be the end of the Rumble with these two eliminating everyone who comes out quickly to keep it one on one. Number 25 marks the final returning superstar, Mr. Perfect. This is his first WWF match since 1996 having had issues with back injuries and spending a lot of time in WCW. This match was intended to be a one shot deal but Perfect performed so well and got a strong enough reaction that WWF management offered him a full time contract. He bides his time before rushing the ring and attacking Stone Cold. He fights off both men and is the first to put up a proper fight against a now tired Stone Cold and Triple H. The big names keep coming with Number 26, Kurt Angle to make his Royal Rumble match debut. He gets the You Suck chants to his theme song which seems to have finally caught on. Historically I always thought Edge started those later in the year but as it turns out the New York crowd in MSG seem to have spontaneously picked it up and run with it. Triple H and Angle fight in one corner as Mr. Perfect beats down Stone Cold in the other. Bizzarerely, Austin seems to rescue Triple H from being eliminated. Number 27 is another former WWF Champion, The Big Show. He makes a big impact, headbutting Kurt and chokeslamming Perfect before double clotheslining Triple H and Stone Cold.
Kurt can’t German suplex him and pays for it with an overhead gorilla press slam. Number 28 is the third former WWF Champion in a row, Kane. He enters slowly while Show is the only man standing in the ring. King and JR remind us how impressive Kane was last year setting the all time elimination record and lasting almost an hour. Show and Kane exchange big shots but neither man gives an inch so they grab each other around the throat. Kane uses a low blow to break it and in a big feat of strength, picks him up and throws Show out!
Kane turns into a Stone Cold Stunner allowing Kurt Angle to dump him out too and both big men are gone.
Number 29 is another Royal Rumble debut - RVD. His new “Breaking Point” theme song is edited off the Netflix version of the show which makes me sad. Van Dam enters the ring with a Five Star Frog Splash on Kurt Angle and then runs through everyone else with heel kicks and a Rolling Thunder on Austin before walking into a Pedigree. Triple H collapses and everyone is down just in time for final entrant Number 30, Booker T. It’s all big names with no filler at the end here as we have Booker T, Rob Van Dam, Stone Cold, Triple H, Kurt Angle and the returning Mr. Perfect for the final six in the ring. Booker immediately throws a groggy Van Dam still selling the Pedigree out of the ring before going a Spinarooni! He pays for it, taking a Stunner and flying backwards up and over the top rope. Booker T is out and we’re down to the final four. Stone Cold hammers Mr. Perfect with right hands but Kurt catches his old nemesis with a barrage of German suplexes. He breaks that with a low blow and returns to trying to get Perfect out. With a double team effort by Angle and Perfect, Stone Cold is dumped out. That’s a shocker, and it broke my heart when I was a kid.
Outlasted by Perfect and Angle who now turn their double team efforts to Triple H. Stone Cold is pissed and gets in the ring with a steel chair knocking out all three men with brutal shots to the head! The Texas Rattlesnake is eliminated but he left his mark and had the final word. That's fitting as the only three time Rumble winner in his last ever Royal Rumble appearance.
Triple H ducks an Angle clothesline which catches Mr. Perfect causing them to turn on each other. Mr. Perfect gets a big pop with a Perfect-plex on Kurt Angle but is clotheslined by Triple H up and over the top rope. Mr. Perfect is out and the final two are Triple H and Kurt Angle. The two wrestle quickly with Kurt taking control - an overhead belly to belly suplex and he dodges a charing Game to send him up and over. Kurt thinks he’s won but stupidly doesn’t check and Triple H holds on, not hitting the floor. A facebuster and running clothesline later, Angle sails over the top rope and Triple H wins the Royal Rumble!
The PPV ends pretty quickly with The Game celebrating and JR screaming himself hoarse about his comeback and the Wrestlemania main event.
The Rumble match itself was pretty good. No huge spots (other than the Undertaker stuff) but lots of returns either from injury or exile and that final run was all big names who got big reactions. Well paced and on balance, probably the correct winner (even if I selfishly want Austin to always win).
A strong PPV with a shockingly good street fight between two old men, and Rock and Jericho who gave us a worthy main event even if it wasn’t as good as their previous matches. Thumbs up for both of those and for the show in general which was a nice fun watch - nothing overstayed its welcome.
From here it's on to No Way Out (with its own enormous returns/debuts) and then Wrestlemania X8 from the Toronto Skydome.
