World Wrestling Federation – Royal Rumble 2002 – 20th January 2002
It’s fair to say that 2001 wasn’t the finest year in the history of the World Wrestling Federation. The years of fairly consistent growth for the company started to fall away amidst a crippling self-inflicted creative slump, they blew potentially the biggest professional wrestling angle of all time in the ‘Invasion’ plotline, and they ended the year by spectacularly botching the unification of the WWF and WCW Heavyweight Championships. To say things could only get better in 2002 would be inaccurate though. Things didn’t start particularly well and largely continued downhill as the year progressed. We begin the year as we ended 2001, with Chris Jericho as Undisputed WWF Champion, without ever being booked as a first rate competitor, and made to look inferior at every turn to the likes of The Rock, Stone Cold, Kurt Angle and the returning Triple H – who looked noticeably slower, more unsteady on his feet and substantially bulkier than was the previous year. Unsurprisingly, buyrates didn’t spike to see an Undisputed Champion people didn’t want, booked like a clown (remember – we were screwed out of the Austin/Rock unification match everyone wanted to see) and shows were hastily rebooked around the ‘top guys’ whilst Jericho kept the belts warm for them. Tonight he faces arch rival The Rock, who looks to avenge two (tainted) ppv defeats to him at the end of 2001, with the title on the line. Uncertain of whether that and the Rumble alone would draw a decent buyrate, Vince McMahon also steps into the ring himself – in a ‘dream match’ against his ‘50/50 business partner’ Ric Flair. On the positive side, the Rumble itself is absolutely stacked with the likes of Steve Austin, Triple H, Undertaker and Kane in there alongside Rumble debutants like Booker T, RVD and Kurt Angle. JR and King welcome us to Atlanta, GA.
Tazz/Spike Dudley vs Dudley Boyz – WWF Tag Title Match
I’d completely forgotten about the brief but rather entertaining Tag Title run for Spike and Tazz. They face fellow ECW-alumni and former Tag Champions the Dudley Boyz tonight, with Spike’s big brothers hell bent on getting their belts back.
Spike is wrestling in a neck brace, but he is swatted aside so the Dudleyz can scoop Tazz up for a 3D-II ON THE FLOOR! 3D-II ON SPIKE’S NECK! Bubba then drops poor Spike with a neckbreaker putting the challengers in what could be an unassailable position. Stacy Keibler looks impossibly gorgeous at ringside by the way. Brainbuster piles more pressure on LSD’s neck, but out of nowhere he hits Bubba Ray with the ACID DROP! A colossal double flapjack prevents him from making a hot tag though. Eventually the plucky underdog does get the tag to Tazz – who flies in showing why they called him the Human Suplex Machine. Acid Drop on Bubba Ray again – whilst Tazz has the TAZMISSION ON STACY! TAZMISSION ON D-VON! Tazz and Spike retain at 05:06
Rating - *** - Far too short to be overly memorable, but this was an absolute riot whilst it lasted. The bond between these four former ECW wrestlers was immediately apparent – particularly in the Dudley Boyz who were working harder than they had done in months to make their opponents look great. The work on Spike’s neck was great, whilst Tazz got to look like the killer he was in ECW.
SIDENOTE – This home release is pretty heavily edited in terms of the music each superstar uses – for instance, Tazz’s old music has been dubbed in instead of his Cypress Hill theme, and Kid Rock’s ‘Cocky’ (the theme for the show) replaced with generic guitar riffs. It’s not a huge deal, but it means we lose a lot of crowd responses for synthetic, piped in crowd noise. The entire pop for Tazz and Spike’s win is lost as a result.
Lillian Garcia talks to an unhappy Edge, who is bringing a steel chair to the ring to counteract Regal’s ‘Power Of The Punch’.
Edge vs William Regal – WWF Intercontinental Title Match
This feud had started to turn increasingly violent. William Regal had had his ‘nose broken’ with an Edgecution on a chair (in reality a way to get him off TV for a couple of weeks whilst he had nasal surgery to stop the nosebleeds he suffered in basically every match), and in response Regal had levelled the IC Champion with countless knuck-loaded punches. Edge actually snapped on the Smackdown leading into this ppv and laid out Regal, Test and even referee Nick Patrick (yes, even he survived the Alliance losing ‘Winner Takes All’ at Survivor Series) with a chair.
More piped in crowd noise for Edge’s entrance, which has ‘You Think You Know Me’ dubbed over Rob Zombie. Nick Patrick is apparently now an unbiased referee, as he checks Regal’s tights before the match and takes the brass knucks from him. Despite having his signature weapon stolen from him, Regal starts confidently and makes moves to dominate Edge on the ground. HEAD DROP GERMAN SUPLEX! That looked so violent it hushed the crowd to a stunned silence, but it doesn’t win the match for the challenger. Tiger Driver blocked, but Regal ROLLS THROUGH Edge’s back body drop cover to hit the Tiger Driver second time of asking. EDGECUTION ON THE APRON NAILED! That was the huge offensive strike Edge needed to bring himself back into the match, and it dropped Regal straight down onto his surgically repaired face. They knock heads in the middle of the ring to leave them both on the canvas. Edge-O-Matic countered to an EXPLODER SUPLEX! NO SOLD! Edge dives at William with a clothesline. Edgecution blocked…into the REGAL STRETCH! Unfortunately Edge is too tall to force a tap-out on there, and the angry champion forces his way back to his feet and puts Regal in his own submission hold! Tiger superplex blocked into a TOP ROPE spinning heel kick! Edge sets up for a Spear only for Regal to drag Nick Patrick into it’s path. The brass knucks are back in play, and Regal scores with the Power Of The Punch. He wins the title at 09:44
Rating - *** - I’m not sure how much the live crowd appreciated it, but I loved the super-physical style they worked in this one. After a year of seeing Regal slum it with the likes of Naked Mideon and Hardcore Holly whilst working the stereotypical stuffy Englishman gimmick, getting to see him cut loose in full on ass-kicker mode here was a lot of fun. He was BRUTAL with Edge, who in turn took a lot of crazy bumps to make Regal look as imposing as possible. Edge should actually take a lot of credit for the success of this match. Of course, Regal was a substantially better worker, but he was nowhere near as over and his unorthodox style usually left most of his inferior opponents well out of their depths – resulting in a piss poor match. Edge worked damn hard to make sure that didn’t happen. A definite improvement on their match at Vengeance.
Trish Stratus vs Jazz – WWF Women’s Title Match
Yes, Trish is still Women’s Champion – with WWF sensibly realising that, other than Lita, she was miles more popular than anyone else in the division so put real effort into giving her a decent reign. She has a tough assignment tonight though, with the violent and dangerous former ECW athlete Jazz positioned across the ring from her. Jazz is another former Alliance member quietly filtered onto the WWF roster following the demise of the Invasion angle. Jacqueline, whom she beat to become #1 contender, is special guest referee to ensure the rules are followed after Jazz broke Trish’s hand with an amp case on Smackdown.
Jazz attacks Trish during her entrance, and tees off on her unprotected face as the champion has her hands held to her side by her ring jacket. They trade nearfalls with surprising fluency – ending when Jazz decapitates Stratus on the top rope. She starts attacking Trish’s injured hand by wrenching it around the bottom rope and is apparently so confident of victory that she finds time to pick a fight with referee Jackie too. Trish tries to capitalise only to be dropped on her face with an arm wrench (using the bad hand). Stratusfaction gets 2, but Jazz is back on her feet moments later to hit an Evenflow DDT. Running bulldog retains the belt for Trish at 03:43
Rating - ** - Way too short and the finish was pretty flat, but I appreciate the obvious hard work the two women were putting in. Trish was still pretty green, but she was working seriously hard to keep up with a more seasoned worker like Jazz – not afraid to take a couple of stiff shots and throw some back herself. That rolling cradle sequence in the early going was really slick, and an example of something she’d never have been able to do properly just a couple of months previously. I was going to praise the match for making Jazz look like a bad ass in the women’s division too, but that was before she bossed the whole match only to get beaten with two moves – which makes her look seriously weak.
EARLIER TONIGHT – Ric Flair arrives with two of his children (Megan and a very young Reid – who tragically died in 2013) ready to put a beating on Vince McMahon.
Ric Flair vs Vince McMahon – Street Fight
I think Flair has since said in interviews that he’d not done a whole lot of training and really wasn’t ready to go as an in-ring worker again when Vince made the call that he wanted to transition him from on-screen authority figure back to part-time wrestler. These two haven’t gotten along since Flair returned the night after Survivor Series as Vince’s ‘50/50 business partner’. Nature Boy challenged booked Vince into this match when he found out that his contract said ‘owner/wrestler’, only for an angry Mr McMahon to mock him in a skit then make him bleed all over the ring with a lead pipe shot.
Vince looks so unhealthily pumped up it defies belief. He’s also spent so much time under a tanning bed that, to quote Percival Cox, he ‘looks like a purse’. He showcases his power by easily shoving Flair to the ground in the opening moments. He taunts the Nature Boy and draws serious heat for doing so. It provokes a response from Naitch, who uses all his technical skill by putting McMahon on the deck then laying into him in the corner. Still he can’t come to terms with Vince’s power though, as the Chairman pumps him aside and starts mockingly chopping him. It has Flair flopping to the ground, so beaten up that he can’t even flop over the turnbuckles as he normally does…and Vince compounds his misery by physically clobbering him off the apron. He dents a steel sign over Ric’s face and busts him open by ramming his skull into an unprotected steel portion of the guardrails. Vince is like a shark, going after the blood and looking to open up the cut further by repeatedly punching the cut…before body slamming Flair onto the floor right in front of his children. And having beaten and bloodied the multi-time former World Champion Vince now looks to add further insult to injury as he starts going after his legs (as Flair had done to so many opponents throughout his career). Figure 4 Leglock applied as the final insult with Flair only staying in the match through sheer guts at this point. Vince pulls out a lead pipe but finds out why Ric has been called the Dirtiest Player in the Game as he instinctively puts a fist into the ‘grapefruits’. The deranged Flair belts McMahon with one of the commentary monitors, and screams like a maniac when it breaks so he can’t watch an instant replay. He bites at Vince’s now bloody face right in front of his kids; demanding they take pictures of it as he goes. Lead pipe to the face comes next…into the FIGURE 4 LEGLOCK! Vince taps at 14:55
Rating - *** - It wasn’t particularly pretty, but this was actually much better than I remembered or was expecting. To their credit, they largely shied away from smoke and mirror tactics to mask their perceived in-ring deficiencies and relied on old-fashioned story-telling to get their point across. Flair was portrayed as a retired, former great rather than an active in-ring performer. He said himself he hadn’t trained for the match and hadn’t thought about wrestling in the WWF again at this point – and it showed as he came into the match and struggled against a bigger and stronger opponent. Vince dominated Flair to such an extent that he simply couldn’t use any of his tricks or signature moves to get the advantage as he had done on so many great opponents in his glory days. It took a full ten minutes of McMahon dominance before Ric finally rediscovered the form that brought him so many championships through his decorated career. At last he landed a low blow – which acted as the turning point of the match. Drenched in his own blood and frustrated by his inability to outwrestle Vince as he knew he could have done in his heyday, he proceeded to assault him like a wildman. As jacked as he was, ultimately Vince was no match for Flair as he slowly returned to the kind of worker we’d seen throughout his illustrious career…and he polished the Chairman off with his vaunted Figure 4. As I said, it wasn’t necessarily that attractive to watch, particularly in the first few minutes as Vince worked some really cumbersome wrestling holds – but I appreciated where they were going with the story and it definitely paid off in the end.
Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley hijacks a Michael Cole interview to talk up her husband’s chances in the Royal Rumble. Unbeknownst to her Steve Austin is behind her and gives her so many ‘What’s that she runs away screaming. The 'What' thing was so crazily over at this point. In hindsight it’s probably the most annoying thing to happen to live promos in wrestling history as it is still ruining them to this day. But at the time it was a lot of fun – particularly because Austin was so bloody good at working his promos around it.
Chris Jericho vs The Rock – WWF Undisputed Title Match
The heat between these two was so intense that it threatened to derail WWF’s efforts for survival during the Invasion angle. Rock mocked Jericho for his inability to win the big one, and probably regretted his words at No Mercy when Y2J happily benefited from the inadvertent assistance of Stephanie McMahon to defeat him for the WCW Championship (the first World Championship of his career). Once the Alliance was vanquished at Survivor Series there was nothing to keep these two aligned, and they spectacularly went to war again at Vengeance as part of the Undisputed Title tournament. Once again it was Jericho who benefited from controversial circumstances to score a second pay-per-view victory over the Great One on his way to becoming Undisputed Champion. Rock comes for Y2J again tonight, this time pointing out that he doesn’t think Jericho is a joke and is deadly serious about beating him clean in the middle of the ring.
It’s extremely intense before the bell even rings, with Jericho circling Rock and taunting him just as Rock had done to him on Smackdown. The match itself starts with Y2J telling his opponent to ‘bring it’…then turning tail and leaving the ring when he duly does so. He goes on the defensive, trying to keep as far from the challenger as possible, lying in wait for Rocky to make a mistake. The error eventually comes, and it’s a costly one as Rocky charges in, allowing Chris to hotshot him into the ropes and open up an injury to the ribs. As referee Hebner checks on Rock’s injuries, Y2J exposes a turnbuckle bolt. He succeeds there, but takes so long doing it that he misses a chance to put The Rock into the Walls Of Jericho. Already struggling to breathe, Rock is put under more pressure as Jericho cranks on his spine with a rear chinlock, cutting off the air supply at the same time. It’s his cockiness which gets the better of him in the end, abandoning that strategy in favour of trying a top move – and getting punished with a superplex. It’s a momentary rally though, with Jericho sweeping him down across the ribs again with the facebuster, then scoring with REPEATED SUPER-ARROGANT LIONSAULTS…FOR 2! The champion vents some frustration on Hebner, wasting precious time as Rock recovers to COUNTER a missile dropkick aimed at his ribs…into the Sharpshooter! Lance Storm (Jericho’s friend) runs in to distract the ref, causing him to miss Jericho tapping out. Christian runs in to help too, allowing Chris to hit a ROCK BOTTOM ON ROCK! Again The Rock kicks out! Jericho’s ego is out of control at this point, and he sets up for The People’s Elbow – the ultimate sign of disrespect. The pop when Rock nips up to heave him over the top rope is deafening! He prepares to put Jericho through the announce tables…only to be dropped ribs-first over one of them. The two men climb atop the Spanish announce table, with Rock hooking up Jericho to ROCK BOTTOM HIM FROM ONE TABLE – THROUGH THE OTHER! Both men lie in a crumpled heap. Back to the ring they crawl with Chris desperately blocking another Rock Bottom into the WALLS OF JERICHO! Rock somehow escapes and moments later accidentally knocks Earl Hebner out. Jericho capitalises instantly by laying his challenger out with the one of the title belts. ROCK KICKS OUT AGAIN! As the champion remonstrates with replacement referee Nick Patrick Rock drops him with a DDT. Suddenly Patrick is a crooked ref again…and refuses to count the fall? ROCK BOTTOM ON PATRICK! Jericho gets the People’s Elbow – with no official to administer the three-count. Y2J completes a cheating triple whammy by low blowing Rock, then bashing his head against the exposed turnbuckle, THEN pinning him with his feet on the ropes to retain at 18:49
Rating - **** - It was overbooked to the point of insanity, but amazingly this was still an incredible match. You’ll hear no argument from me that the creative team’s lay-out for this one was appalling. Jericho needed two run-ins, an illegal weapon shot, a corrupt referee then three separate cheating tactics in succession to beat The Rock. Does that sound like booking your champion to look remotely credible? If they had no plans to treat Jericho as a serious player in the main event division – why on earth ruin Vengeance, piss off your fanbase and put the Undisputed Title on him in the first place? BUT, his performance here was utterly brilliant. His offence was focused, and the way he carried his character through the match was masterful. He was cocky, confident, idiotic, egomaniacal and brilliant all at the same time. Very few people can eclipse Rock with their charisma and ability to make a crowd buy into something – but Jericho came extremely close here. It isn’t often that something can be, creatively, so bad, yet still be so great to watch thanks to sheer force of will from the in-ring talent. This is an example of just that.
Shawn Michaels is at WWF New York. He tells JR that he enjoyed Vince/Flair, and picks Stone Cold to win the Royal Rumble.
Royal Rumble Match
In terms of major, main event players who could conceivably win the Rumble this is one of the most stacked Royal Rumbles we’ve seen. Triple H returned at the start of 2002, and immediately threw his name into the ring as he looked to make his way back to the summit of the World Wrestling Federation. He is a hot favourite, but with the likes of Steve Austin, Undertaker and Kurt Angle all involved as well as a number of solid outside bets like Kane, Booker T and Rob Van Dam, he will have his work cut out for him if he wants to win the Rumble for the first time. In an interesting move, WWF announced before the show that several big names would be returning – including Goldust, Val Venis, Godfather and Mr Perfect – rather than have them come out as special attractions or surprises as is usually tradition in the Royal Rumble.
Rikishi and Goldust are the unlucky first two entrants, with Goldy’s return getting a decent pop. His weirdness obviously unsettles the Samoan and, despite his size disadvantage, he peppers Rikishi with right hands. Big Bossman is #3, getting involved in some heavyweight scrapes with Rikishi – all of which seem to cause damage to Goldust’s crotch. #4 is Bradshaw, who inexplicably gets one of the biggest pops of the entire show. Thankfully his heat is quickly stolen by Rikishi giving Bossman the Stinkface then clobbering him over the top rope making him the first man eliminated. Entrant #5 is Lance Storm for his Rumble debut…with his momentum instantly getting stunted following a super-ugly flapjack into the ropes by Goldust. #6 is Al Snow, as Bradshaw DECKS Storm with the Clothesline From Hell. The ring is starting to fill, and #7 joins the party – it’s Billy Gunn. His first serious contribution is tripping over his own feet, and I’m really not lying about that. Snow makes Storm the second competitor eliminated with a superkick off the apron, with Bradshaw soon following him after being dumped by Billy. #8 is Undertaker, with LOUSY generic rock music dubbed over Limp Bizkit, completely killing his pop. Goldust’s tenure in the Rumble soon comes to an end with a CHOKESLAM TO THE FLOOR! Snow, Rikishi and Billy are sent packing moments later to leave Big Evil standing alone in his yard. #9 has the unfortunate task of confronting a rampant Deadman – and it’s Matt Hardy (Team Xtreme are making returns after internal issues had caused a suspension I believe). Lita dives in trying to help Hardy as well – and kicks him in the balls to allow Matt to land a swinging neckbreaker. She clearly hasn’t watched any WWF television in the past year, because Taker doesn’t really sell low blows (or anything else), so he’s soon back pummelling on a defenceless Matt Hardy seconds later. Help is on the way in the form of entrant #10: Jeff Hardy is back too! All three of Team Xtreme stomp on the hapless Phenom before embracing to indicate that their feud is now over (nice touch). Matt hits the Twist Of Fate (although Taker bumps like a neckbreaker), setting the Deadman up for the Swanton Bomb. Poetry In Motion attempted…only for Taker to catch and toss Jeff to the floor. LAST RIDE ON MATT! Undertaker just single-handedly decimated and eliminated both Hardyz, so he’s alone again waiting for #11. It’s Tough Enough winner Maven!
The smirk on Undertaker’s face isn’t well hidden…but he gets distracted by Lita and the Hardyz who jump him despite being eliminated. MAVEN DROPKICKS UNDERTAKER TO THE FLOOR! ARE YOU KIDDING ME? He spent all last year refusing to sell for Dallas Page, but willingly lets the kid from Tough Enough eliminate him from the Royal Rumble? Crazy pop for that, but it’s short-lived as Taker marches back into the ring beats the sh*t out of Maven. He takes a BRUTAL chair shot that splits him wide open before being dragged through the crowd for a very public flogging. He isn’t technically eliminated from the Rumble, but he never makes it back to the ring. Scotty 2 Hotty is #12, who jigs down the aisle right past Undertaker…who punches his lights out. The camera is following Undertaker and Maven through the arena as the clock ticks down for #13 which is Christian – who poses in the empty ring with his European Title belt. Scotty does eventually join him, soon followed by #14 which is Dallas Page. Christian eats the Diamond Cutter and doesn’t recover from that before S2H gives him The Worm too. DDP tosses Scotty out as we make it to the halfway point with entrant #15: Chuck Palumbo. Godfather returns at #16, bringing with him a massive Ho Train. DDP’s WWF embarrassment continues as his elimination isn’t even shown – in favour of watching Godfather dance with the Ho’s. In fact, Godfather’s entrance lasts the entire two minute period taking us to #17, which is Albert…who doesn’t long before Palumbo and Christian ditch him. Double Ho Train misses and the same impromptu tandem eliminate Godfather seconds later. #18 is Perry Saturn, who comes to the ring into a REALLY stiff exchange with Chucky. Cue a massive pop as glass shatters to signal the arrival of entrant #19: Steve Austin. Christian, Chuck and Saturn are eliminated in mere moments…and since Austin has some time to spare he starts dragging them back in to eliminate them again! That takes us to #20, which is Val Venis (returning to the porn star gimmick). Any babyface heat he had is quickly nullified as he has to fight Austin of course. Test is #21, with some absolutely crap new music which I’d completely forgotten ‘aboot’. His Big Boot softens Val up for Austin to eliminate him…and after a Stunner, Test finds himself sent packing as well. #22 is up next, and it’s another monster pop as HHH’s music hits. At this point HHH’s body was ludicrous. He is still obviously limping from his quad tear, and is so jacked up his arms can’t actually touch the side of his body. Even with that the staredown between he and Austin is SO intense…and in fact they barely have time to come to blows before The Hurricane blows in to join the party at #23.
Helms stands behind both Austin and HHH, and sets them up for a double Hurri-Chokeslam. The mutual ‘is this kid nuts’ look between the Two Man Power Trip is hysterical, and they soon throw him overboard so they can continue fighting amongst themselves. Faarooq is #24, but even he quickly eats a Stunner before being sent home so once again Austin and the Game can slugging it out. #25 is up next – and it’s the return of Mr Perfect. He has the savvy to fight his way into the match and survive until the next entrant. #26 is Kurt Angle, who has lengthy history with both Stole Cold and Triple H. The duelling ‘You Suck’ and ‘What’ chants are NUTS. The big names keep coming too, as #27 is Big Show. He instantly levels Hennig with a Showstopper and sends the rest of the remaining athletes scattering like bowling pins too. #28 is Kane, who has a MUCH better draw than he did last year, when he broke elimination records and nearly won it all. He and Show tee off on each other, before Kane BODY SLAMS BIG SHOW OUT OF THE RING! STUNNER ON KANE! ANGLE SLAM TO THE FLOOR! An amazing sequence which sees both of those behemoths eliminated in mere seconds. The crowd are already chanting his name as the buzzer hits for #29 – Rob Van Dam. FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH ON KURT! Rolling Thunder soon follows on Austin, so HHH gives him a PEDIGREE! Our final entrant is due, with Booker T getting the prime #30 spot on his Royal Rumble debut. He instantly eliminates RVD to serious heat, and celebrates with a Spinaroonie. STUNNER ON BOOKER…who falls out of the ring! The final four is Austin, Angle, HHH and Hennig! Kurt hits Helmsley with the Angle Slam then grabs Stone Cold for the ROLLING GERMANS! Austin counters with a low blow so gets double teamed by Kurt and Perfect (who is inexplicably in the final four). Angle eliminates Austin and tosses him into the ring steps for cheap thrills too. Austin hates that and stomps back in to lay out all of the remaining three with a steel chair. Any doubts as to whether HHH is as over as Austin as a babyface is roundly answered as the crowd is absolutely livid that the Rattlesnake has gone. PERFECT-PLEX ON ANGLE! HHH capitalises to eliminate Hennig taking us down to two. The crowd are more interested in a fight in the crowd, as in the ring Angle mistakenly thinks he has eliminated Hunter. He hasn’t…and HHH rolls back in to eliminate Kurt! Triple H wins and gets the ticket into the dead-spot after Rock/Hogan at 69:22
Rating - *** - I remember HATING this Rumble at the time. Whilst it wasn’t a patch on the 2001 Rumble, it did end up being far better than I recalled. Undertaker was actually entertaining, first in his interactions with the reunited, returning Hardy Boyz – then providing THE shock moment of the match with Maven eliminating him. People only really remember this Royal Rumble now for HHH’s win and Maven, so it’s a pretty iconic piece of footage. Austin and HHH were awesome when they came in, providing an injection of serious energy and talent – which carried us all the way through to the star-laden finale. I do have some criticisms, such as the opening ten minutes which were so dull you could fall asleep, the colossal under-use of RVD and Booker T, and the decision to put Mr Perfect (cool as it was to see him back) in the last three, which should never have happened and there were several guys who deserved that spot more than him. But despite all my aforementioned reservations, this really surprised me, particularly in the last 15-minutes which were extremely exciting.
Triple H has been such an outstanding heel through his career that it actually feels very foreign and bizarre watching him win a major match as a babyface. He actually looks a little uncertain how to celebrate, and makes some inexplicably strange body spasms as he does so…
Tape Rating - *** - Hardly a knockout, must-own event by any means, but this is actually a really solid pay-per-view. There were some really stinky ppvs to sit through in 2001, so a crisp, punchy and action packed three hour extravaganza like this is nothing to be sniffed at. Regal and Edge beat the sh*t out of each other, Vince and Flair surprised a few people with a hard-fought and rather cerebral Street Fight, Chris Jericho produced a rousing performance in the face of some farcically poor booking from WWF creative, and the Royal Rumble was full of really big names and provided it’s usual dose of thrills and spills. Watching live at the time I really didn’t enjoy this event at all, but was actually a bit of a sleeper hit. Well worth checking out on the WWE Network if you’re bored and have made your way through most of the ‘must-see’ stuff.
Top 3 Matches
3) Ric Flair vs Vince McMahon (***)
2) Royal Rumble Match (***)
1) Chris Jericho vs The Rock (****)