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Match #33
The Corporate Rumble
WWF Monday Night Raw - January 11, 1999
The Corporate Rumble
WWF Monday Night Raw - January 11, 1999
How's this for a coincidence? 16 years to the day before our last match is this one. It's one of the few times they held a Rumble not at the Rumble PPV, but on a Raw. The story of this is that it's members of the Corporation and DX fighting over who gets the Number 30 spot in the real thing. And like the previous Rumble, the format's going to be rather different. Let's go.
Number 1 - Ken Shamrock
Number 2 - Billy Gunn
Ken Shamrock is out first, fucking yes. Such a wasted talent in the WWF but so good to see him here. Aaaaaaand he's gone, instantly eliminating himself to fly over the top rope and attack Gunn. He beats the hell out of him on the outside for the first 90-second period, with Shane on commentary cheering him on, but at least has the decency to roll him into the ring. He's still whaling on him, seemingly not knowing he's out, and the referees can't stop him!
Number 3 - Big Boss Man
Number 4 -
Shamrock only chooses to get out when his Corporation teammate shows up to continue the beatdown. The New Age Outlaws' music hits but the crowd's pop is misplaced as Test comes out just to hurt Gunn more. Really not much to say about this so far.
Number 5 - X-Pac
And here comes the DX save. We get a brief period of evenness until Test manages to toss Gunn, and he and Boss Man bully a much shorter man. The way X-Pac is struggling to fight back is actually quite fun.
Number 6 - Road Dogg
Oh, there's the Dogg. I was kind of expecting a Russo swerve and for some other random Corporation member to come out. Dogg is covered in tomato juice because he got in one of the Brood's "bloodbaths" earlier. How's that for a storyline intersection? Boss Man and Test eventually obtain control over both X-Pac and Road Dogg respectively.
Number 7 - Kane
Number 8 - Triple H
The good old days, back when Kane was a badass and not a piece of shit mayor. Commentary calls him "Corporate Kane" which is quite a fun thing to hear in hindsight. X-Pac manages to backdrop Boss Man to a huge pop but it's missed by Kane tossing Road Dogg out. It's a Corporation 3-on-1 until HHH shows up and starts cleaning house. Apparently HHH is the last entrant. Test collides with Kane so Kane ditches him before HHH and X-Pac double clothesline Kane out. And then Boss Man removes X-Pac. HHH and Boss Man brawl for a bit, and they're so close to elimination when a ninth entrant comes out...?
Number 9 - Mr. McMahon
Vince shows up, steroid-jacked and full of rich guy rage. As Boss Man's about to slam HHH out, Vince comes in and pushes them both out of the ring and of the match! The stooges celebrate his victory and Vince does a Hogan shirt-rip, until the airhorn sounds for a TENTH entrant!
Number 10 - Chyna
The stooges try to hold off Chyna but she beats them up, then Steve Austin comes out to taunt Vince, allowing Chyna to get the elimination!
Not bad, really, but didn't feel like a Rumble, mostly because it was an extended Raw segment and didn't have that element of intersection between wrestlers you wouldn't normally see together. The ending moments were pretty fun, and this is just Sports Entertainment after all.
Also, not only do we have four new returning wrestlers (Boss Man, Kane, HHH, Vince) but we have our first 3-time entrant (X-Pac). Yay for him.
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