World Wrestling Entertainment – Royal Rumble 2003 – 19th January 2003
This event is famous for one match. If you asked someone about Royal Rumble 2003 they may not be able to tell you who won the Rumble itself, and they might not even be able to remember much of the undercard…but they will definitely remember Kurt Angle defending the WWE Championship against Chris Benoit. It is regarded as the definitive match in their legendary rivalry, and but for the Benoit family murder/suicide (and possibly Kurt’s acrimonious departure in 2006) it would still be considered an all-time classic for the promotion. If those fans can remember anything else about this show, it’s more than likely it’s the Triple H/Scott Steiner World Title clash – albeit for very different reasons. As for the rest of the show – we see Brock Lesnar plotting his final revenge on Big Show with a spot in the Rumble at stake. They will an add to a Royal Rumble which, in terms of sheer in-ring talent, boasts one of its strongest line-ups EVER. Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, Michael Cole and Tazz are in Boston, MA.
Big Show vs Brock Lesnar
The winner of this one gets entered into the Royal Rumble, whilst the loser sits it out. Show has been a rival of Lesnar’s since the day he arrived on the Smackdown brand. He inflicted serious rib injuries, then with the help of a double-cross from Lesnar’s former agent Paul Heyman he defeated him at Survivor Series for the WWE Championship. Brock’s ensuing rage would see him suspended whilst he recovered from his injuries – but he returned at Armageddon 2002 and helped to end Big Show’s reign as WWE Champion too. Both men enter feel they want ‘revenge’ but know they need to keep their emotions in check if they want to achieve their ultimate dream of a spot in the WrestleMania main event and a chance to regain the WWE Title.
Despite Show’s size and power he is manhandled into the corner straight away by Lesnar. BELLY TO BELLY SUPLEXES NAILED! He tries one more and gets TOSSED OVER THE TOP ROPE by the giant! Big Show’s size comes into play now as he starts trapping him in the corner and crushing his chest. GERMAN SUPLEX by Lesnar! It means Heyman has to grab him to create a distraction – and Show snatches the opportunity by hitting a big boot to the throat. Chokeslam blocked with another belly to belly…but again Paul E. tries to interfere. F-5 on Heyman COUNTERED with Show’s Chokeslam! Brock kicks out…F-5 SCORES! He wins at 06:28
Rating - *** - There’s a pretty solid argument to be made that Lesnar is Big Show’s best ever opponent. He’s the only person who’s ever had believable strength and power to move Show around, yet also had the kind of workrate needed to produce memorable matches. This was pretty much a repeat of the Survivor Series match except this time it had a much better finish. It was kept brief, people got to marvel at Brock’s freaky strength and he picks up the win to continue his journey to WrestleMania 19. He should never have lost the belt back in November in truth…
Chris Jericho is backstage with Terri Runnels. He complains about winning the right to pick whatever Rumble spot he wanted…but then not being able to pick #1 because Vince had forced that onto Shawn Michaels. Instead he chose #2 so he can still go the distance to prove his greatness before winning it…
Lance Storm/William Regal vs Dudley Boyz – World Tag Title Match
I really liked Powerman 5000’s ‘Bombshell’ as the Dudleyz entrance music. Bubba and D-Von only reunited a couple of months ago, but have been in the thick of Raw’s Tag Title scene ever since. Storm and Regal have been dominating the division recently, largely thanks to Regal and the re-emergence of the ‘Power Of The Punch’ but the Dudleyz represent a serious challenge in their first ppv defence.
Bubba Ray starts with Storm and demonstrates his versatility as he actually looks very comfortable wrestling back and forth with the world-renowned mat technician. D-Von’s power proves too much for Regal too…so finally the champs resort to a bit of cheap double teaming to gain a foothold in the match. Unsurprisingly the heat segment by the Un-Americans is extremely slick, and perhaps equally unsurprisingly the live crowd couldn’t give a sh*t. Their focus is making it hard for D-Von to breathe which works fine until Lance gets too close to Bubba and gets a punch in the mouth. GERMAN SUPLEX from Bubba to Storm! POOUUUUUUNCE on Regal too! Has Bubba Ray decided he needs some new moves? Regal saves the match after a Bubba Bomb on Storm…only for normal service to be resumed as he gets the Wassup Headbutt. Chief Of Staff Morley (Val Venis’ latest gimmick) tries to help out the champions due to an existing vendetta he has with the Dudleyz, but all he does is cause a distraction as they take out Regal with the 3-D. POWER OF THE PUNCH ON STORM! D-Von stole William’s brass knucks – and we have new World Tag Champions at 07:22
Rating - ** - Nothing more than a filler bout so it’s hard to get too excited, but there was more than enough talent in the ring to make this enjoyable enough. Bubba Ray busting out new moves was pretty cool, and I really enjoyed the excellence of Storm and Regal during their heat segment on D-Von. The run-in finish was appropriate to the storylines they’d been running on Raw at the time and it sent everyone home happy. If they had no serious plans for Raw’s tag division the Dudley Boyz were the ideal placeholders for the belts.
Dawn Marie vs Torrie Wilson
Having clearly learned very little from the Katie Vick debacle, WWE decided tasteless dead body comedy skits in funeral parlours were something they should continue to feature on their television shows with this feud. Despite Torrie’s protestations Dawn and her father Al were finally married. Then they ‘killed Al off’ on honeymoon – the implication being Dawn’s rampant sex drive gave him a heart attack. It led to a cringe-worthy skit at a fake funeral where Torrie and Dawn brawled next to the open casket of the deceased Al, knocking the casket itself to the floor before Dawn smashed a lamp over his daughter’s head. She accuses Torrie of not wanting her father to be happy, whilst Torrie thinks Dawn is partially responsible for her father’s death. How this angle ran for so long is a serious mystery. Thankfully tonight marks the final chapter.
Dawn comes out wearing a black veil as she is still in mourning. In contrast Torrie’s outfit could be described ‘hooker chic’. Nobody has any interest in watching these two work a wrestling match, but for some reason Dawn starts the match like she’s William Regal and starts working the arm. I mean Fujiwara armbars, keylocks…the works. Torrie sells it by hitting armdrags (groan) and wins with a swinging neckbreaker at 03:36
Rating - * - A pretty horrible match to conclude what was a rather unsavoury feud. I gave a star to this entirely because I liked Dawn’s random desire to be a submission wrestler. She really worked that arm!
Randy Orton (who’s shoulder is ‘healing nicely’) chats to Eric Bischoff…but they are both interrupted by Stephanie McMahon. She gloats that Vince has given Eric thirty days to ‘save Raw’ or he’ll be fired…and pretty much says that nepotism is the sole reason she won’t be fired too.
SIDENOTE – If you’re interested in where Randy’s career was at, he hooked up with the HHH/Flair/Batista unit on Raw the following evening to formally begin Evolution’s run.
Triple H vs Scott Steiner – World Heavyweight Title Match
We all know this one sucked so I don’t think I’m spoiling it for anyone. You know what really irritates me about how bad this was? It’s that the actual feud felt quite refreshing. We’d seen HHH feud to death with pretty much everyone on the roster. Steiner wasn’t a miracle worker on the mic and he ended up completely tanking in the ring…but he did have a certain x-factor to him, he was definitely an intimidating presence and for the first time the World Title had a feud which didn’t feel boring or stale. The build to this was actually pretty fresh too, with arm-wresting matches, pose-downs and push-up contests replacing funeral parlour skits and 20-minute self-indulgent promo segments. It might not have always been entertaining, but at least it was different. If only Steiner had been able to back it up…
Steiner no sells HHH’s punches and clubs the sh*t out of him in the corner. The assault continues even when Helmsley leaves the ring with Scott simply giving chase and mauling him into the rails and ringposts. Already large sections of the crowd are booing him and chanting ‘Steiner sucks’ – though he hasn’t actually done much wrong yet. His strategy of overpowering and beating the crap out of the Game (whilst targeting his offence on the back) is perfectly valid. The jeering gets louder as he no sells the Triple H facebuster to clamp onto a bearhug…then converting for a belly to belly suplex. Ric Flair makes his presence felt by distracting ‘Freakzilla’ which Hunter capitalises on by throwing him into the steps. I swear you can hear a fan shouting that Steiner has ‘run out of moves’, and there are loud sections cheering as Flair chokes at him with his suit jacket. Steiner is still too strong for the Pedigree though and he easily counters it into a northern lights suplex. HHH gives Scott his fourth or fifth neckbreaker of the match…so Steiner gives him his third or fourth belly to belly. I think both of them are fast running out of moves now. Scotty doesn’t feel the crowd at all and is getting boo’d more and more as he unleashes a series of suplexes. He then BOTCHES a tiger suplex which is the trigger for the crowd to really unload on him. Even the WWE edited home video version can’t cover all the ‘you f*cked up’ chants and how bad that looked. Triple H and Flair stage an unsuccessful walk-out, and an equally unsuccessful attempt to whack Steiner with the title belt. So unsuccessful in fact that HHH’s head gets busted open by it instead. ANOTHER belly to belly suplex from Steiner follows…then more punches to open the cut up some more. Flair and Hunter are desperate to escape with the title now so try anything from wanting the match stopped for ‘blood loss’ to HHH forcing an intentional DQ by throwing Earl Hebner around. You might have guessed that Scott’s only response is some more belly to belly suplexes. It has gotten so bad that HHH is cheered to the rafters for a low blow/cheap roll-up pin, and the sledgehammer gets one of the biggest pops of the night. Helmsley hits Steiner in the ribs with the hammer…finally forcing Hebner to disqualify him at 18:13
Rating - DUD - Since this is one of wrestling’s most famous suck-fests I’m sure that rating won’t surprise you. What did surprise me, however, is that this didn’t start out bad. The first few minutes are actually pretty good from a strategic standpoint – with Steiner dominating and working the back to set up for the Recliner. But he was horribly exposed as a limited, overly-muscled, ageing mess as the match went along…and when you need post-quad tear HHH to carry the match from a workrate perspective you know your match is going to have real problems. Hunter didn’t actually do a lot to help Steiner, but then again, Scott didn’t do a lot to help himself either. He was blown up early, and I’d suggest that when you’re supposed to be a babyface and the crowd starts booing the sh*t out of you because you're only doing one move on repeat...the solution isn’t to KEEP DOING THE SAME MOVE! On the one had you feel bad for Steiner because you know that, in the past, he’d been a hell of a worker. Hell, his post-WWE run in TNA produced several really decent matches that proved he could still go with the right opponents. But this was bad enough to make you weep…
Steiner (his ass and man-thong are hanging out to complete a miserable evening for him) gets a measure of revenge by clocking both Flair and HHH with the sledgehammer. Fans hate him more for it
Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit – WWE Title Match
These two men have been rivals for almost as long as they’ve been in the company together. As far back as WrestleMania 16 we saw Benoit beating Kurt to take half of his ‘Euro-Continental’ double title. They engaged in a lengthy feud through 2001 which took in a Three Stages Of Hell Match, a conventional 2/3 Falls Match, a WrestleMania classic, a Steel Cage showdown and a 30-minute Ultimate Submission Match. Hostilities then resumed between them in 2002 when Benoit returned from neck surgery and switched to the Smackdown brand. They shared a classic at Unforgiven, became the inaugural WWE Tag Champions after being forced together to form a super-team by Smackdown GM Stephanie McMahon…and spectacularly fell out once again after losing them. Kurt revealed Paul Heyman as his new agent after Armageddon (Paul’s sole motivation was to control the WWE Title it seems), announced that he would refuse to defend the belt against Brock Lesnar (despite promising him a shot before the Armageddon ppv)…and surrounded himself with ‘Team Angle’ – Charlie Haas and Shelton Benjamin – in a wrestling-centric super-group focused on making sure Lesnar and Benoit can’t ever take the belt from Angle. In fact, the only challenger Heyman seemed to deem appropriate for Kurt was his OTHER client, Big Show…whom Benoit defeated to become #1 contender.
WGTT try to prevent Benoit from getting to Kurt before the bell…and are rather harshly punished by being ejected from ringside. When the match does begin Benoit goes straight for a Sharpshooter to test out the heavily-braced right knee (Kurt had recently returned from minor knee surgery). That is blocked so he hits a flurry of dragon screws instead as he continues to probe for weaknesses. Angle’s defence is to drive his shoulder into the ringpost. A barrage of stiff strikes come back at him so it’s clear the Wolverine isn’t happy about that tactic. DDT ON THE APRON by the challenger! The Flying Wolverine misses…but he recovers quickly to counter the Angle Slam into a Sharpshooter. Angle escapes with this arena’s favourite move – a belly to belly suplex. His next strategic move is a smart one though as he clamps down on Benoit’s suspect neck with a super-tight rear chinlock. He can grind on an existing injury and utilise all of his amateur wrestling prowess. He’s also on top or Benoit so that as soon as the Crippler finds away to escape he can start taking him down again with more suplexes. Benoit’s energy reserves are visibly running out, and he can’t keep his hands locked as he attempts his usual rolling German suplex combo. GERMAN SUPLEX DUEL! ROPE RUN BELLY TO BELLY SUPERPLEX COUNTERS THE FLYING WOLVERINE! Olympic Slam countered right back to the CRIPPLER CROSSFACE! And when Kurt crawls to the ropes Chris simply drags him back with an Anklelock instead! ANKLELOCK ON BENOIT! COUNTERED TO THE CROSSFACE! This is crazy – they haven’t released each other in almost two minutes! CROSSFACE ESCAPED WITH AN OLYMPIC SLAM! The champ seizes his chance to apply the Anklelock, but he is blocked and flipped into a pin for a HOT nearfall. DUELLING GERMANS AGAIN! FACE DROP GERMAN BY BENOIT! FLYING WOLVERINE ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE RING! Kurt somehow survives the pin on that and delivers a TURNBUCKLE ALLEY-OOP! ANGLE SLAM FOR 2! CROSSFACE AGAIN! COUNTERED TO THE ANKLELOCK! This is mind-blowing now. Kurt tenaciously refuses to release the hold despite multiple escape attempts. LEG GRAPEVINE ANKLELOCK! BENOIT TAPS! It’s finally over at 19:47
Rating - ****1/2 - After Scott Steiner did his best to kill the show, Smackdown’s hot main event scene gets wheeled out to revive it. These two had great matches in the past, but this one pushed the benchmark even higher. The first half is what traditionally has people marking it down (and in fairness, it’s probably why I didn’t stretch to 5* too) because they really took a while to click into the top gears. But in their defence, it’s not like they were stalling. Everything they did made so much sense. Benoit started by testing out Kurt’s knee – which turned out to be ok so he got smashed into a ringpost. Angle went after the Benoit’s shoulder…which Chris really didn’t like so absolutely destroyed him with a DDT on the apron. Next Kurt tried to use his amateur skillset to slow the pace and dominate, and when that failed they both said ‘f*ck it’, loaded up both barrels and went all in. The blistering second half with masses of counters, crazily over nearfalls and a fantastically executed clean finish which made Angle look awesome (without murdering Benoit’s upward momentum either) is one of the best ten minute periods of professional wrestling ever. It’s only January and WWE’s 2003’s MOTY is all but settled already.
Team Angle return to celebrate with Kurt before leaving the ring. Benoit gets a thunderous standing ovation too as the crowd show their respect for his performance.
RVD and Kane discuss the Royal Rumble. Despite being tag partners they agree it’s every man for himself. Rob should probably wear a shirt that doesn’t have holes in.
Royal Rumble Match
You know the drill. Thirty men, over the top rope eliminations, then the winner advances to the main event of WrestleMania. The brand extension means there is a slight difference this year however. We’ll see fifteen Raw entrants and fifteen Smackdown entrants with the winner earning the right to challenge for either the WWE Title or the World Heavyweight Title depending on which brand they represent. We know Shawn Michaels and Chris Jericho are the first two in – locked in an ego-centric battle to prove themselves better than each other and last the distance (as Shawn did in 1995) to win the whole thing. Other notable entrants include Rey Mysterio, Los Guerreros, Matt Hardy and John Cena from Smackdown alongside Raw’s RVD, Kane, Batista, Booker T and Jeff Hardy. I guess the show is running short on time because entrants will only be 90 seconds apart rather than the usual two minutes.
Christian comes out dressed as Chris Jericho, serving to distract Michaels as Y2J enters through the crowd to start the Rumble with a low blow. A steel chair shot across the skull follows, which HBK sells with a HUGE blade job. #3 is Chris Nowinski, but he stands outside the ring allowing Jericho to continue the assault on the bloody Michaels. HBK is the first man eliminated at 02:30 much to the disappointment of the live audience. Rey Mysterio enters at #4, sprinting straight past Nowinski (who still hasn’t got into the ring) to take it to Y2J. Seconds later he is clinging to the ringpost in a last ditch effort to avoid elimination! Our #5 entry is Edge who charges out to come to the aid of his friend Rey. SPEAR on Nowinski…who leaves the ring again! In fact, Jericho is tossed through the lower ropes too leaving the ring empty so the two partners can now go at it! Spear ducked! 619 ducked! Both men then come perilously close to elimination…before Edge COUNTERS the West Coast Pop into a Ligerbomb. #6 is Christian and he makes a beeline for Edge…to give him a HUG! SPEAR ON CHRISTIAN! Edge clearly picks Rey over his estranged brother, which turns out to be a wise choice as Mysterio’s leg strength saves him from elimination at the hands of Nowinski. BOTCHED STEREO MISSILE DROPKICKS ON NOWINSKI! Rey landed, whilst Edge splatted straight onto Chris’ face! Lucky #7 is Chavo Guerrero (his entrance music sucked), who gets his block knocked off with the 619. Mysterio then West Coast Pops Nowinski out – eliminating him seconds before Jericho returns to knock him out too! The clock ticks towards ten minutes, and we have our 8th entrant in the form of Tajiri. #9 is Bill DeMott…who is so un-over he is basically boo’d for being crap. He played college football so JR likes him at least. #10 Tommy Dreamer (with an arm full of weapons) as the ring starts to fill. He and Edge SMASH DeMott out of the ring with a tandem kendo stick assault…before Jericho and Christian chuck him out following a TRASH CAN LID CON-CHAIR-TO! ‘I see an alliance developing between Christian and Jericho’ – Lawler. THEY’VE BEEN PARTNERS FOR MONTHS YOU F*CKING CRETIN! Y2J counters the Tarantula and eliminates Tajiri in the process.
#11 is Bull Buchanan, who apparently isn’t running with Cena anymore. Not that it matters because Edge throws him out almost as soon as he gets into the ring. SPEAR THROUGH THE ROPES from Edge eliminates Chavo! We’re left with Edge, Christian and Y2J…before Jericho tosses them both out! Y2J has been busted hardway by Dreamer’s kendo stick by the way. His reward for emptying the ring is entrant #12 – Rob Van Dam. They have a pretty sweet little exchange until Matt Hardy arrives at #13. He nearly falls over coming down the aisle to everyone’s amusement, but announces himself in the match by levelling RVD with the Side Effect. FIVE STAR FROG SLASH on Y2J! Eddie Guerrero is in at #14, and he heads straight for his old enemy from 2002 RVD. He Frog Splash’s Van Dam’s FACE only to get up right into the Twist Of Fate. Matt’s celebrations are short-lived because Jeff Hardy is #15, ignoring his pleas and grounding him with a jawbreaker. Shannon Moore (the MF-er) is at ringside and lies on top of his mentor to protect him from the SWANTON BOMB! #16 is 3MW’s Rosey most likely because there were too many exciting smaller guys getting themselves over with good wrestling in the ring at that point. As if to back up that theory, Test is #17 too. Is it just me or does his Pumphandle Slam look like he’s trying to rape the person taking the move? John Cena makes his Rumble debut #18, treating us to a Royal Rumble rap (the rhyme of ‘explain to ya’ and ‘WrestleMania’ is clever). Watching in 2014 it’s almost weird seeing Cena playing a bad guy. RVD hilariously leaves the ring to get him to shut up! Charlie Haas join us at #19, and since he’s a former college sports star from Oklahoma JR basically jerks off over him. Jeff Hardy is the next person eliminated as Van Dam shoves him off the top rope attempting Whisper In The Wind. We’re in the business end of things now as #20 enters – it’s Rikishi. Apparently his appearance here means he’s been in more Rumbles than anyone else (eight since you asked). Rosey tries to form an alliance with him which is a nice touch. The other big Samoan comes in at #21 as well – it’s Jamal. 3MW turn on Rikishi predictably…so Jamal gets a Stinkface. Kane, a record breaker in 2001, is #22. The ring is really full now – not helped as Kane drags Rico (3MW’s manager) in for no reason.
He eliminates Rosey, then kills Mattitude with a double Chokeslam to both Hardy and Shannon (who isn’t in the match either). LEAP OF FAITH from WGTT to Cena after Shelton Benjamin enters at #23. Jericho, Matt Hardy, Eddie and RVD have been in for a long time now and look pretty exhausted now…and they are soon joined by #24 which is Booker T. Booker sends Guerrero packing, as JR has another orgasm for A-Train at #25. Shawn Michaels does a run in looking for revenge on Jericho – and causes him to be eliminated by Test at 39:00! Maven is #26, a year after be provided one of the most memorable Rumble moments ever by eliminating Undertaker. In an awesome little subtle moment Kane goes straight after him – presumably to arrange that very incident. JR bigs up the amount of winners who have got the #27 draw. This year it’s Goldust so those stats will probably take a dive after this year. He does give poor Maven a Shattered Dreams at least, before Team Angle easily eliminate him. Haas and Benjamin are on a roll and eliminate Goldy’s tag partner Booker T seconds later! #28 is Batista…and he starts hot by eliminating both Test and Rikishi. HUGE pop for #29 – Brock Lesnar! Team Angle are his first victims, with Hardy soon following after an F-5 TO THE FLOOR! Our #30th and final entrant is Undertaker – making his return after the injuries inflicted by Big Show in October. Cena and Jamal are his first victims…before MAVEN TRIES TO DROPICK HIM OUT! Not two years in a row kid! CHOKESLAM ON MAVEN! Taker gets revenge for 2002 and sends the rookie home as Kane levels Lesnar with a Chokeslam. The Big Red Machine and Kane work together to eliminate A-Train…only for Rob to look like an absolute retard by allowing his partner to press slam him. Kane inevitably tosses him out – giving us a heavyweight final four of Kane, Batista, Lesnar and Undertaker…with the Raw guys stopping Lesnar and Taker from renewing their rivalry. F-5 ON KANE! F-5 COUNTERED TO THE TOMBSTONE BY TAKER! The Phenom eliminates Batista and helps his brother to his feet! The Brothers Of Destruction are all set for another reunion – until Taker turns on Kane to toss him out. Batista runs in with a chair for NO REASON other than to save Undertaker’s heat (and his f*cking ego)…distracting him so Brock can sneak up on him to win the 2003 Royal Rumble at 53:47.
Rating - **** - If they had a better finish on this it would seriously have been one of my favourite Rumbles. The sheer amount of good wrestlers in this really does help. It’s hard to go wrong with a near-hour long match featuring Jericho, Michaels, Mysterio, Edge, Christian, Tajiri, Los Guerreros, Dreamer, RVD, the Hardyz, WGTT, Cena, Kane, Booker, Batista, Lesnar and Undertaker. There may not have been the star power or as many surprise comedy entrants as usual (Taker’s return was pretty much the only ‘surprise’ – and EVERYONE knew it was going to happen) but the mix of strong workers, hot up and comers (Cena, Rey, Batista, Benjamin and Umaga/Jamal all made Rumble debuts) and viable main eventers really carried things. I LOVED the angle they wrote for Jericho. His own ego meant he made things more difficult for himself, but he approached the match with his usual asshole gusto, from the fake entrance and sneak attack on Shawn to the sheer amount of times he got thrown over the ropes and barely avoided elimination. The first 10-15 minutes were great, and largely held together by him. It was a super fun plot to hold the match together…and whomever made the call not to let him make AT LEAST the final four is a f*cking idiot. They could have done the exact same angle with Michaels then – but Y2J would have been able to boast making it all the way to the end. In fact, it was largely the final four that really pissed me off about this Rumble. Batista had no place for a start, and once again the ridiculous protection of Undertaker was incredibly bad. He literally damaged the characters of ALL THREE of the other guys in the ring with him for no reason other than to protect his own ego. Brock’s win is tainted by the fact he needed a distraction and to SNEAK UP on him. Kane looks like a retard for trusting Undertaker…and Batista looks like an even bigger moron for running into the ring with a chair for no reason, to attack an unsuspecting victim, and still getting beaten up. Ultimately the right man won, and it sets up the Lesnar/Angle Mania match everyone wanted. It is a shame such a good Rumble ended in such mediocre fashion though
Tape Rating - *** - 2003’s MOTY and a really under-rated Royal Rumble Match make this an easy recommend. You really should see the sucky HHH/Steiner match at least once too. It’s good for a laugh of nothing else. As ever with the Royal Rumble ppv, the Rumble match itself takes up so much time there just isn’t room for the kind of sh*t that tends to drag down WWE ppvs. It meant we were short on skits and crap tonight (Armageddon 2002 take heed) and got lots of decent wrestling. Brock Lesnar, at this point still the ‘chosen one’ when it came to long-term superstardom in the WWE, ends the night looking particularly strong so, from a long-term booking perspective, it’s halfway decent too.
Top 3 Matches
3) Brock Lesnar vs Big Show (***)
2) Royal Rumble Match (****)
1) Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit (****1/2)