WWE Royal Rumble Retrospective Review
January 23, 2000
New York City at Madison Square Garden
Review PWTorch Common Fan specialist Jimmy Eaton (@TheCommonFan)

Ah, the Royal Rumble. The official start of the "Road to WrestleMania." It's always fun to try to figure out who's coming out next and, heck, one of my fonder memories was when I went by myself to a Hooters and watched it with a bunch of other fans. Grown men, families, and everything in between made the experience a blast. That was in 2011, I can't imagine how popular it would've been back in 2000. Some fun facts about this show:

Sunday Night Heat featured three matches, one with Christian defeating Steve Blackman, a six-man tag with the Headbangers and Big Boss Man defeating Prince Albert (Now Tensai), The Godfather, and D'Lo Brown, and a young Edge defeating Al Snow by DQ.

Moving on to the actual show itself, it started with the debut of a newly acquired WWE Superstar taking on one who never lost.

1 -- KURT ANGLE vs. TAZZ

The crowd actually popped pretty big for Tazz and even seemed to be chanting his name before he made his entrance. Before that, Angle came out to a decent heel reaction, but got more boos after his brief promo on staying undefeated and being their champion. Tazz was up most of the match and both men exchanged suplex after suplex. Not much more to this one and after Tazz locked in the clutch that was all she wrote.

WINNER: Tazz via choke-out in about five minutes. Good debut for Tazz that made him look strong and still kept Angle with a slight out, as Ross sold the fact that the chokehold is illegal. (**1/4)

A quick promo followed with the Hardy Boyz telling Terri Runnels that she wasn't going to be at ringside in this dangerous tables match coming up. Man, Michael Cole looks different. As much fun as it was to watch Jeff Hardy and especially the Hardy Boyz back then, they were not strong on the mic. Then again, it was early in their careers so I'll forgive them, but I remember thinking they needed a manager.

2 - HARDY BOYZ vs. THE DUDLEYS - Tables match

The Dudleys came out first cutting a heelish stutter promo, which the crowd ate up in New York. Classic stuff. This match had the odd rules of both members of a team had to be put through tables offensively. Normally, I'd say that's a bit tough to follow, but Jim Ross is an expert at giving people the proper call and explaining what's going on. At the same time, he taught me about the Civil War and how to roast a turkey. Seriously, the man is that good on commentary and I followed every word. Some fun spots with of course the biggest being the final spot where Jeff Hardy did the Swanton Bomb from the crowd down through Devon and a table. Poor Bubba got one before that and something tells me they had the wrong guy. Oops. Then again, that's just an observation. Fun match with the usual amazing spots by both teams. To say back then they put their bodies on the line is an understatement.

WINNERS: The Hardy Boyz in about 15 minutes. Fun match that set the stage for their feud that included Edge and Christian leading to WrestleMania 2000. Good spots and the crowd ate it up (***)

3 - MISS ROYAL RUMBLE COMPETITION

All of the judges were introduced and Jerry Lawler pandered quite a bit to Andy Richter in the process. Entertaining and very, very non-PG competition. Lawler was Lawler throughout and then Mae Young hit the ring. Good Lord. She basically stripped for the crowd, bare-chested and all, before Mark Henry covered her up. She escaped, though! And proceeded to flash her puppies again even over the large "Censored" on the screen. The most hilarious part about this was Classie Freddy Blassie. He was applauding the whole time, especially the stuff with Mae. Priceless. The judges voted and.....

WINNER: Mae Young. It cannot be unseen! (-***)




Post-Mae Young's frightening display, a quick promo was shown with Chris Jericho and Chyna trying to decide who gets to wear the Co-Intercontinental Title. Jericho rightfully won that argument.

3 - IC champion CHRIS JERICHO vs. co-IC champion CHYNA vs. HARDCORE HOLLY -- Intercontinental Title match

All three opened the match with Chyna getting dumped to the outside after a few minutes. Jericho and Holly went at it and had a solid string of exchanges before Chyna cleaned house. I give both Holly and Jericho a ton of credit for how they sold her moves. Chyna had talent it seems, but some of the stuff was just very awkward and looked sloppy. This was didn't last too long and unfortunately it felt like it went on longer than it did, dragging in some spots.

WINNER: Chris Jericho via pinfall to decisively win the Intercontinental Title in about eight minutes. Eh, I really didn't care for that. I remember reading Jericho's book and he wasn't particularly loving this time, either. I can't same I blame him. Still fun, but very sloppy in spots. I forgot how stiff Hardcore Holly worked. (**)

4 - NEW AGE OUTLAWS (BILLY GUNN & B.G. JAMES) vs. THE ACOLYTES (JBL & RON SIMMONS) - World Tag Title match

There really wasn't too much to this match. The Outlaws did their usual promo and most of the match the Acolytes just brawled with them before the Outlaws snuck in the win with the ref bump and interference from X-Pac. Way to short for any type of title match. It was at least longer than 18 seconds.

WINNERS: Outlaws via pinfall in not even five minutes. Not much to this one and it didn't last long enough to mean much. (*)

5 - WWE champion TRIPLE H vs. CACTUS JACK - WWE Title match - Street Fight

They showed a bunch of videos hyping this match and it immediately invested me in the build-up despite the passing of time. That's exactly why most WWE videos are so excellent as they make the viewers want to see the upcoming match. Cactus Jack came out to a huge reaction and Triple H was getting a ton of heat. Stephanie McMahon left to go to the back and the brawl ensued. It got pretty vicious by the "street" area and after a back-drop by Foley onto an old-looking wood panel, Hunter's calf was busted open bad. Ouch.

Hunter had a really hard time walking, but gutted out the rest of the match where they brawled all around the ring, had crazy-looking spots by the stairs and announcers tables... Just an insane brawl. Major kudos to both men. After some fantastic nearfalls, Cactus just couldn't withstand a Pedigree onto thumbtacks. Another highspot of this match was the barb-wired two by four, which the crowd popped big for. Man, what an exhausting match and I only watched it.

WINNER: Triple H via pinfall in 30 minutes to retain the WWE Title. Wow, I really, really enjoyed that. Excellent match. It was painful to see some of the head-shots, though. Outside of that, both men worked very hard and it showed by the time it was over. (****)

The Rock cut a typical Rock promo with Michael Cole before the Royal Rumble match. I'm sure you readers already smell what he's cooking.

6 - ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH

Hitting just the high points of this match, Rikishi played the role of dominant entry, clearing the ring near the beginning and basically eliminating people as they came in. There was a moment before that where Scotty 2 Hotty and Grand Master Sexay came out and they did their dance before Rikishi dumped them both out. Eventually the numbers game caught up to him and he was later eliminated by six men. It was very bizarre too at one point to see Test, the British Bulldog, and the Big Bossman in the match together. Sadly, they've all died. Way to soon for them all.

Regardless, it seemed that mainly mid-carders hit the ring for the bulk of the middle of the Rumble before guys like Big Show and Rock appeared. It was hilarious to see Kai and Tai come out time after time only to get dumped out by everyone. Those poor fellas. Of course, the finish was the classic moment of Rock flipping out Big Show for the W and the trip to WrestleMania 2000/XVI. They had a great exchange prior to this that the crowd was absolutely loving. X-Pac was eliminated before this, but had to be thrown out twice due to the refs being distracted by the Outlaws. Regardless, the last few minutes of this Rumble were very strong.

WINNER: The Rock by eliminating the Big Show in around 45 minutes. (***)

Overall Score - 7.0: I actually enjoyed this Rumble quite a bit and while it doesn't bring back as many memories as 1995-1996 (yes, I know they were bad for the most part but that was when I first started watching and... Yeah, nostalgia is king in this case!) it was still a blast to watch with some solid stories, fantastic main event, and an above-average to very good Rumble match. I remember picking up wrestling again around this time leading up to WrestleMania 2000. You saw some seeds definitely planted here leading up to the big show.

Before I close, I want to give a shout-out to PWTorch specialist Nathan Kyght for the article he wrote on DDPYoga. It's not only taught me to own my life, it's helping me changing it. I can't compare to other success stories, but I still feel awesome. I dropped about 30 pounds before starting it (although I used some elements of it before I got my hands on the actual program), I've not only kept that off, but dropped almost five more this past month. I'm shooting for five a month at the least and, folks, this stuff works. Of course I also improved my diet, but this is a huge part of it. I save money on weights and such, too. No, I'm not getting paid to say this, it's just the truth and I encourage all who have been searching for a solid, simple workout program to look no further! Thanks @DDPYoga, #BANG.

Lastly, for the record, this year's Rumble prediction from me is pretty simple. The Final Four will be Cena, Sheamus, Ziggler, and Ryback. The Shield will have been eliminated shortly before and return to eliminate Ryback. They attempt to get to Cena, but Sheamus clears the ring before being dumped out by Ziggler. Cena capitalizes and wins the match. I hope I'm wrong due to the fact that anyone by Cena would be a surprise, but I'll stick with this for now. Thanks for reading and this has been your perspective from a common fan. Enjoy the Rumble!

[ Images courtesy of meme-pictures.feedio.net, royalrumbler.wordpress.com, and en.wikipedia.org ]

Agree? Disagree? Have an nostalgic show you want me to review? Tweet/Post suggestions to me and keep the debate rolling on Twitter - @TheCommonFan.

Jimmy occasionally writes a Retrospective/Perspectives of of the Common Fan column for the Pro Wrestling Torch on nostalgia/independent scenes and can be found on Sean Radican's Wrestling Community Audio page/show yapping about independent wrestling from time to time. He also blogs about gaming, sports, movies, and other entertainment mediums via his website, POTCF.blogspot.com. Speaking of which, be sure to "Like" the Radican's Wrestling Community Page! It's here - Facebook.comSeanRadicanRWC.

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