Rolling Through Royal Rumbles

[Sky]

Sorry... no surprises in the 1996 Rumble? Are we just forgetting the beginning of the illustrious WWF careers of Doug Gilbert, Takao Omori, and the Squat Team?

 

[Bobby Barrows]

Doug Gilbert. Talk about a guy who rode the coat tails of his brother his whole career lol

 

[Jacob Fox]

Sorry... no surprises in the 1996 Rumble? Are we just forgetting the beginning of the illustrious WWF careers of Doug Gilbert, Takao Omori, and the Squat Team?

lol I guess I assumed they were announced on the shows leading up to it. At least I know in the USWA they talked about Doug Gilbert being in the Rumble

 

[Sky]

Doug Gilbert. Talk about a guy who rode the coat tails of his brother his whole career lol

No, be fair to him. He did have that one promo on Jerry Lawler

 

[Jacob Fox]

Oh 1999. This was the first Royal Rumble since 1993 that I didn't watch live. I took a hiatus from wrestling for a few years due to the Attitude Era and ECW and WCW treating my favorite wrestler like garbage. So, the first time I saw this was years later.

The match itself was a decent match. It was definitely not one of the best nor one of the worst Rumbles ever. Of course the story was McMahon and Austin, as was most of the stories during this period of time. It was interesting to see McMahon in the ring actually wrestling for the first time... if you can call getting beat up the whole match wrestling.

We also got to see the first woman ever in a Royal Rumble match, Chyna. She won a DX vs Corporation battle royal to get into the match. Mabel got kidnapped by Undertaker and eventually became Viscera.

So Steve Austin was attacked by Vince's henchman and sent to the hospital while Vince joined Lawler and Cole on commentary. Of course Steve came back and went after McMahon.

A key part of this match was that Vince was offering $100,000 from "Shane McMahon's trust fund" to whomever would eliminate Austin from the match. That money eventually went to the Rock for helping McMahon win the match.

Winner: 1/10

Probably the worst Royal Rumble winner of all time. Other than McMahon booking himself to win, he really had absolutely zero offense and technically eliminated no one since Austin was pulled out by the Rock. It was a really chintzy moment.

Match: 5/10

The match was enjoyable regardless. It was nice to see Chyna in the match and funny that she eliminated Mark Henry. As strong as Chyna was, though, you can literally see Henry propelling himself over the rope.

The Austin and McMahon story played into the commentary and even into a bathroom. The Mabel kidnapping was kinda lame in my opinion. But the pure fact that people kept saving Austin from getting eliminated because they wanted the bounty was sort of a silly way to explain how Austin survived to the end.

Surprises: 5/10

Kane was a surprise entrant but eliminated himself quickly. Still, he came in and destroyed everyone in the ring so at least it was fun.

The whole match itself was still enjoyable. But McMahon winning... eh... it is hard to get behind that. That is like a little league team winning the World Series.

 

[Chris]

I think that one is trash, worst of all time at that point in time to me lmao

 

[Jacob Fox]

I probably would have hated it more if I had seen it live. It really contained all of the things about the Attitude Era that made me quit watch wrestling for a while. I was able to go back and appreciate some things, but McMahon winning the Rumble... wow...

But yeah, it's kind of in the middle for me, but on the lower end of the middle.

 

[Sky]

Fun fact: Vince's theme No Chance In Hell was written for Rumble '99

 

[Bobby Barrows]

No, be fair to him. He did have that one promo on Jerry Lawler

I'm pretty harsh on Dougie lol, but in fairness, he's one of those guys that's like... he was a good wrestler but not a good "worker" if that makes sense.

 

[Jacob Fox]

When I came back to watching wrestling in 2003, the 2000 Royal Rumble was the first thing that I watched. I was having a hard time psychologically and a friend of mine thought it was a good idea to find something that as a comfort to me in the past and this ended up being his idea. So, being the event that got me back into wrestling, it means a lot to me.

I enjoyed this one a lot. Like many Rumbles, it is a story in parts. It starts with the Rikishi story and eventually moves on from there. After Rikishi is eliminated, the story struggles just a little bit. That often happens though when a dominate person gets booted from the Rumble.

There were things I could have done without. I could have done without the King talking about Mae Young's breasts throughout the entire match. Also they showed the replay of Taka Michinoku being thrown out of the ring too often. It actually hurt each time lol. But I liked the fact that Kaientai kept coming in and getting eliminated over and over.

The ending being botched was unfortunate but that sort of thing happens. I would like to think that WWF fixed it before Mania but...

It was something to follow that extremely violent championship match but I think it did a good job of following it.

Winner: 6/10

I am mostly doing this because I didn't really care much who won this plus the botch made everything kinda muddled afterward. I don't know if the four way at Wrestlemania 2000 was the plan beforehand, but it makes me think the botch is what led to it. Who knows? A McMahon in every corner... talk about ego fest.

Match: 7/10

It was more solid during the first half. A lot of the heavy hitters didn't come through until the second half, but often the others perform well in the beginning. I really liked it regardless and have seen it several times that I even have a lot of it memorized. A very solid Rumble.

Surprises: 7/10

I am going to include more than just Bob Backlund's suprise entry, which I really loved. But Kaientai coming in over and over again plus the ending were both surprises, even though the last one was not intended to be so. But I also don't think Taka Michinoku planned to land head first outside the ring.

I like watching this one and will likely watch it many many more times in the future. I like the set a lot and just the feel of this Rumble along with how it makes me feel about bringing me back into the wrestling fold. A solid show.

 

[Jacob Fox]

I am dreading g the 2004 Rumble

 

[Jacob Fox]

For anyone who has been reading these, I apologize for such a long time between them but I was hit with some illness this week. I've been getting back to myself.

The 2001 Rumble isn't really one of my favorites, although it definitely has its high points. I think it was the first one to really start having multiple surprise entrants, leading to this becoming a thing in the future. But it had some weirdness in it too. There was the really awkward way Matt and Jeff Hardy eliminated each other. Drew Carey being a surprise entrant in the Rumble was just way too goofy and unecessary. Scotty 2 Hotty being stupid enough to get into the ring with only Kane and Taker in it.

But there were good things too. This is where Kane set his long standing (although now broken) elimination record. That is probably one of the best points and enjoyable points about the whole thing.

Winner: 6/10

I still really enjoy Austin, so it was good seeing him win. I only rank it lower because it isn't really the most interesting way they could have gone. Plus it set up Rock vs Austin II at Mania, which we all know how THAT turned out. This was the beginning of maybe the worst year of Austin's career in WWE.

Match: 5/10

I found myself spacing out a few times actually. I didn't need Raven bringing in all the weapons to the ring either. I am not the biggest fan of that so that was sort of uck for me. Plus, I mentioned having Drew Carey in the Rumble and the weird double elimination of the Hardys. I thought Rikishi was eliminated too quickly too.

Kane was really the reason for watching the Rumble though. His dominance throughout it was entertaining and it was cool that it lasted through the majority of the match with him being the iron man AND having the most eliminations.

Surprises: 7/10

It was fun seeing the Honky Tonk Man. I always enjoy it when he makes his surpises. He plays his character in such a way that he knows he is a parody of himself. I enjoyed seeing him. As I mentioned, Drew Carey was dumb and that definitely brings my score down. But it was great to see Haku make his return from WCW. He has always been a great guy to see although I would have liked to see him kick more butt than he did... sort of like his real life stories.

It's not one I take out and watch all the time. Maybe once a year at the most, but it's still enjoyable. But now that I have seen it, I probably won't again until next Rumble time.

Have a good night all!

 

[Jacob Fox]

I was watching so many Oscar movies this week, it feels good to get back to wrestling.

The 2002 Royal Rumble is not really one of my favorites either. I have only watched it a few times and while it had its moments, there were periods of what I thought were slow and also had some really odd decision making in them.

Also, Jim Ross sounded like a horrible bigot when Chuck Palumbo came to the ring. I lost a ton of respect for him the way he kept saying Billy and Chuck's names as he was obviously mocking them for the gay relationship storyline. It's only a small part of the Rumble, but it is one of the main reasons I don't watch this one much.

The Undertaker's beat down on Maven was almost as fun as Maven eliminating the Undertaker. Almost but not quite.

Winner: 6/10

Sometimes the Rumble winner is predictable and this was one of those times. Triple H had to win and Jericho had to keep the title to defend it at Mania. Not really a big shock but was good to see him get a Rumble victory as I am a fan.

Match: 6/10

As I mentioned, not one of my favorites but I don't hate it or anything. I loved seeing Maven eliminate the Undertaker. I hated seeing Undertaker basically humiliate the Hardys and Lita. Also, this match seemed to eliminate many of the really big names shortly after they got into the ring. Seemed like a bad idea to me.

Surprises: 7/10

Hey I was excited as Hell to not only see Mr. Perfect return, but he lasted until the final three. That, plus Maven eliminating the Undertaker were two huge surprises that really were the highspots of the Rumble for me.

Not a whole lot more I can say about this one really. I don't really have strong feelings about it one way or the other. But it was entertaining enough and maybe I may have enjoyed it more if I had seen it live rather than over a year later. Who knows.

 

[Jacob Fox]

I am in a really good mood right now, so I am going to skip 2003 for the moment and jump to 2004. I will review them in order, but I figure I better watch the Benoit match while I am feeling positive

 

[Jacob Fox]

It really wasn't difficult watching the Rumble (which I will review after I do 2003). I mean, I don't talk about the Benoit issue much because of the upset it causes. But it didn't bother me at all to see him wrestling. Plus, very little of the focus of the match is actually on him. He spends a lot of time laying off to the side with someone beating on him.