Featuring:
Cactus Jack
Stone Cold Steve Austin
The Rock
Triple H
Vader
Bradshaw
Mark Henry
Mr. McMahon
Gangrel
Kane
Jeff Jarrett
Hardcore Holly
Matt Hardy
William Regal
…many more
DVD Release Date: January 8, 2008
Rating: Not Rated
Running Time: 846 Minutes on 5 discs
The Event
By now wrestling fans know what the Royal Rumble is and just how important it is to the array of PPVs that litter each year. It is one of the “big four” and always shall be. Actually in terms of importance, I’d say that it is close behind WrestleMania and ahead of Survivor Series and Summerslam in that order. It’s the time of year that fans get to see wrestlers they’d never imagine in the ring together, possibly face off. Everyone has seen some of the classic match-ups that have littered different Rumbles. Demolition Ax versus Demolition Smash. Mankind versus Terry Funk in a pull apart brawl. And the Ultimate Warrior versus the immortal Hulk Hogan.
Each year the Rumbles would see some of the same old faces and then some newer ones jumping into the fray. All one has to do is look at the overall combined roster of every Rumble to see that any and every big name in wrestling has shown up in one or more. Ric Flair. Goldberg. Kerry Von Erich. Stone Cold. Bret Hart. Owen Hart. Randy Savage. The Rock. Triple H. Earthquake. The list could literally go on for hours, but it just means that the Royal Rumble may be even bigger then WrestleMania in the eyes of some fans, and every year it just gets better.
Through the later years of the nineties and into the new millennium, the WWE was going into a big transition phase. The ratings had come back their way from WCW and then in 2001, WCW was bought up by their competition. It was a great time for an event like the Rumble as fans of both promotions were finally able to start seeing match-ups they could only ever dream about. What would happen if Goldberg actually made his way into the match? How would DDP hold up if he was in the ring for close to an hour or even longer? So many possibilities; so many wrestlers; just one ring.
The WWE Attitude era was in full swing in 1998 when the Undertaker and Shawn Michaels main evented the Rumble in a casket match that ended with one of the most memorable finishes in PPV history. In 1999, things were taken up a notch as four titles were on the line including the WWE Championship in a brutal “I quit!” match. The Intercontinental, Women’s, and European titles were all defended in what proved to be a night full of gold. 2000 saw a Rumble that debuted the first ever tag-team tables match in WWE history. It was a tremendous battle between the Hardyz and Dudleyz that left fans in complete awe and totally breathless. That year also saw the debut of ECW superstar Tazz as he came in and made short work of the big-mouthed Kurt Angle.
The Rumble in 2001 saw a great ladder match between two historic superstars that will forever go down as one of the best ladder matches ever. And the thirty man over the top match battle royal saw fantastic performances from Stone Cold and especially Kane that will notch them in the record books forever. 2002 witnessed the first Rumble since Shane McMahon purchased WCW and not to mention that ECW had thrown their hat in the mix as well. The big match saw the great superstars of the WWE along with such favorites not seen before in a WWE ring like Rob Van Dam, Booker T, and Diamond Dallas Page.
~ Goldust Vs. Vader
~ Six Man Tag-Team Match: Battalion, Tarantula, & El Torito Vs. Max Mini, Nova, & Mosaic
~ Intercontinental Championship Match: The Rock (c) Vs. Ken Shamrock
~ World Tag Team Championship Match: The New Age Outlaws (c) Vs. Legion Of Doom
~ Royal Rumble Match – I can’t stand the fact that the WWE put the Rumble match on the card and not as the main event. As you’ll read later, the fans were still sent home in shock but it just makes no sense to put the match the PPV is named after in the middle of everything. Stupid.
The match itself was nothing to write home about but still had a lot of memorable moments. Mick Foley made three appearances in the match as he drew numbers for every personality he had: Cactus Jack, Dude Love, and Mankind. A lot of entrants last long periods of time such as D’Lo Brown, Bradshaw, 8-Ball, Thrasher, Mark Henry, and even Marc Mero. But in the end, the Texas redneck, Stone Cold Steve Austin was able to survive all and win his second Rumble in a row.
~ Michael Cole Interviews Mike Tyson
~ Casket Match for the WWE Championship: Undertaker (c) Vs. Shawn Michaels
~ After the Casket Match – The match itself was somewhat of a debacle although it provided some of the greatest visuals in wrestling history. But everything that happened after the match is what everyone remembers this particular PPV for. Kane had come out with Taker’s former manager Paul Bearer and cost him the match against Michaels. After chokeslamming Taker into the casket, they locked the casket shut, doused it in gas, and then lit it on fire stunning the audience. This would then lead to a long line of matches between the Brothers of Destruction.
~ Road Dogg Vs. Big Boss Man
~ Intercontinental Championship Match: Ken Shamrock (c) Vs. Billy Gunn
~ European Championship Match: X-Pac (c) Vs. Gangrel
~ Women’s Championship Match: Sable (c) Vs. Luna Vachon
~ “I Quit” Match for the WWE Championship: Mankind (c) Vs. The Rock – This was a great brawl and quite possibly one of the most controversial finishes to a match ever. The Rock was incredibly hated by any and every fan around the world. The lovable Mankind came in and knew how to take a beating which was evident by this match. This match was showcased in the film Beyond The Mat in which Mick’s wife and kids actually had to leave ringside because he was taking such a beating from the Rock. Mankind just wasn’t going to utter the words “I quit,” so the Rock continued with multiple chairshots to the head and just overall brutality. The ending came when Mankind got one of the most vicious shots from a chair I’ve ever seen that had to knock him unconscious. The Rock threw a mic in his face and a pre-recorded tape with Mick’s voice echoed “I quit!” throughout the arena much to the chagrin of everyone in attendance.
~ Royal Rumble Match – I’m willing to place money on this Rumble being the least favorite of all wrestling fans everywhere. This time in WWE was right in the middle of the Vince McMahon Vs. Steve Austin feud that lasted seemingly for eighteen years. Austin had been given number one in the Rumble and a bounty of $100,000 was laid out by Vince to anyone who could eliminate Stone Cold. Vince came in at number two and a little fighting then led to Austin chasing him throughout the arena for almost the entire duration of the match.
Upon returning after a whole bunch of shenanigans, it comes down to the final four of Austin, Vince, D’Lo Brown, and the Big Boss Man (corporate version, not Cobb County). It didn’t take a genius even when I was only twenty back then to figure out what was going to happen here, or at least that it would come down to Vince and Austin. The worst finish in Rumble history saw the Rock come out for interference and Vince McMahon winning the entire thing. So essentially the only parts of the hour long Rumble you had to watch were the first three minutes and the final five.
~ Kurt Angle Vs. Tazz
~ First Ever Tag Team Tables Match: Hardy Boyz Vs. Dudley Boyz
~ First Ever Miss Rumble Swimsuit Competition: Ivory / Terri / Jacqueline / B.B. / Luna / The Kat – If you’ve got a weak stomach, I recommend you avoid this for one reason and two words: Mae Young.
~ Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental Title: Chyna (c) Vs. Chris Jericho (c) Vs. Hardcore Holly
~ World Tag Team Championship Match: New Age Outlaws (c) Vs. Acolytes
~ Street Fight for the WWE Championship: Triple H. (c) Vs. Cactus Jack – For the second year in a row, Mick Foley was involved in an incredibly brutal match and for the second year in a row, he lost. Foley was now known as Cactus Jack and was in a huge feud with Triple H which would lead to a Hell In The Cell match later on that Trips would win and “retire” Foley for good. This match is nothing more then a good old fashioned brawl that has lots of weapons and a hell of a lot of blood. Seeing someone slammed face first into thumb tacks is just hard to watch no matter who it is.
~ Royal Rumble Match – Here was an interesting Rumble match to say the least as there was a nice amount of random things happening throughout. The dancing Samoan Rikishi actually made the first seven eliminations and looked to be on his way to completely dominating the match until a total of seven men ganged up to throw him out. Kane had a good showing as did the Big Boss Man, but it all came down to two men. The Rock and the Big Show ended up being the final two participants left in the ring and it led to another controversial finish. The Big Show attempted to throw the Rock over the top rope but the Rock held onto the ropes and Show ended up eliminating himself. This lead to a feud between the two over the coming weeks as Show showed proof later on that Rock’s feet had touched the floor and he should have been considered eliminated.
~ World Tag Team Championship Match: Edge & Christian (c) Vs. Dudley Boyz
~ Drew Carey Arrives At The Arena
~ Ladder Match for the Intercontinental Championship: Chris Benoit (c) Vs. Chris Jericho – Perhaps one of the greatest ladder matches I’ve ever seen and it made it even better considering I got to watch it in person. Benoit and Jericho put their all into this match and really laid everything on the line. The best moment came when both were going for the belt on the ladder and Jericho ends up locking on the Walls of Jericho to Benoit on top of the ladder. It was an amazing sight and a great display of brutality and technical wrestling from two fantastic superstars.
~ Women’s Championship Match: Ivory Vs. Chyna
~ Trish Stratus and Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley Confrontation
~ WWE Championship Match: Kurt Angle (c) Vs. Triple H
~ Royal Rumble Match – Seeing the Rumble in person back in 2001 was a dream come true because it has always been my favorite PPV even ahead of WrestleMania. The one thing that bothered me was the whole Drew Carey bit and actually giving a spot to him when it could have gone to any superstar and it would have been more deserving. All in all, even though he didn’t win, this was Kane’s night to shine. Kane eliminated a record eleven entrants which is a record that still holds to this day.
Kane only needed one more elimination to win the whole match, but when it came down to him and Stone Cold Steve Austin, the rattlesnake was able to persevere and win his record third Rumble. The reason this Rumble proved to be so entertaining is that it never appeared to slow down. A lot of times you’ll find parts of the match in other years start to drag if the ring gets too full or if we’re down to one participant awaiting the entrant of the next. This Rumble kept things rolling and had a slew of entertaining matches prior making the entire PPV enjoyable.
~ World Tag Team Championship Match: Tazz & Spike (c) Vs. Dudley Boyz
~ Edge and William Regal Story
~ Intercontinental Championship Match: Edge (c) Vs. Williams Regal
~ Women’s Championship Match: Trish Straus (c) Vs. Jazz
~ Street Fight: Ric Flair Vs. Mr. McMahon
~ Undisputed WWE Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) vs. The Rock – Maybe I’m biased because Jericho is one of my favorite wrestlers ever and the Rock is more entertaining then most hardcore wrestling fans give him credit for, but this match was fantastic. It’s a fantastic match that doesn’t have the cleanest ending in the world, but still makes for a great twenty minute back and forth between two awesome superstars.
~ Royal Rumble Match – This is the first Rumble after WCW had officially become defunct and was now owned by Vince McMah…err, Shane McMahon. There was some fun in this match though as it just contained a huge array of different superstars from different promotions and different eras. In the end it came down to Stone Cold, Triple H, Mr. Perfect, and Kurt Angle (see what I mean?). I enjoyed seeing the late Mr. Perfect mix it up with some of the superstars from WWE’s attitude era as it just made my entire childhood of watching wrestling sit up and take notice. Things boiled down to a lot of confusion and Triple H taking out Kurt Angle to win his first and only Royal Rumble.
The Video
The events are shown in 1.33:1 Full Screen format and some of these are close to being a decade old but still look great. No pixilation and no drab colors starting to fade. You can tell that the quality wasn’t quite there back in the day, but no complaints really.
The Audio
The events are heard in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound and all sound good. The music and announcing can be heard clearly with the crowd cheering and booing from all around you.
Special Features
None
The Inside Pulse
The Royal Rumble is by far my favorite PPV every single year even if it turns out to not be one of the better ones compared to years past, but that doesn’t mean I love them all. This volume of the anthology has two of what I consider to be some of the best all-time Rumbles and that is 2000 and 2001. Both of those had some fantastic matches on the undercard and then delivered solid battle royals that kept things entertaining throughout. 1998, 1999, and 2002 were all good but just seemed to be missing something and never felt quite complete. Still this is a DVD set that should be purchased by wrestling fans everywhere. The Royal Rumble may not showcase any special features but you don’t need them. You’re getting five full PPVs and they will forever be a lot of fun to watch, so get them to complete your collection or to start it, but get them.
