Royal Rumble 1999

Royal Rumble 1999 Review


After last Sunday's very controversial Rumble event, I thought I'd go back to this one as it was originally well known as having the worst Rumble match in history. A lot of people have now named the 2015 Rumble as the worst one ever, so I wanted to go back and see which one was indeed the worst, and I thought I might as well review the rest of the show too.


Ok let's get on with it.


Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole are the announcers for the night. Weird to think that they're still there sixteen years later. Feels longer.



Road Dogg vs The Big Boss Man
Speaking of acts that for some reason still around today, here we have Road Dogg defending his Hardcore Championship. For some reason this isn't a hardcore rules match. What the hell is the point then? This was a mostly boring match with only Road Dogg's comeback being the most interesting part and that only lasted about thirty seconds, with Boss Man hitting him with the big side slam to win the Title. Bad opening match. *



Billy Gunn vs Ken Shamrock
The IC Title is on the line. I believe this is the first of many of Billy's failed singles pushes. Shamrock was pissed at Billy as he mooned his sister while she was in the crowd. I'm pretty sure mooning was all Billy was good at. This started off with an energetic pace but it slowed down considerably as it continued. Another boring match with Shamrock controlling almost the entire match and Billy didn't look that strong since he couldn't even beat Shamrock with Val Venis' help. Another forgettable bout. *1/4



Gangrel vs X-Pac
The European Title is on the line. Two minutes in and this one is already more entertaining than the last two matches. X-Pac was pretty good around this point and was always able to give us a good match. The only thing that really brought it down was a botched three count by referee Teddy Long. Better stick to making tag matches Teddy. This one was way too short though and I was really enjoying it whilst the last two matches were long and boring. A short but sweet match that could have been better with more time. Best of the night so far. **



Shane McMahon enters the ring so he can introduce Luna Vachon. He wants Sable to forfeit her Title to Luna and out comes Sable with a back injury. The match will go on.



Luna Vachon vs Sable : Strap Match
The Women's Title is on the line. Luna is looking very strange tonight. Just like every night. This is the kind of strap match you have to touch all four corners to win. I prefer when it's pinfall and submission rules. A short match that didn't really feature much except for the strap being used as a choking device. This ended like all other strap matches, with the face touching the corners after the heel, only to hit the last one and win. 1/2*



Mankind vs The Rock : I Quit
The WWF Title is on the line. This is one that is much harder to watch now that we know what chair shots do to people. If you think chair shots to the face should still be allowed in wrestling then just watch the Beyond the Mat documentary and you'll why it's a good thing that they're banned. The chair shots are just so hard to watch and I have no idea why Mick would bring his kids to watch this one. Although before all the chair shots began, this was a pretty fun match and still featured some big spots like Mankind's fall into the electrical equipment or a nasty fall on the announce table. Plus when Rock was on the mic it was never not entertaining. But then the chair shots arrive and things get uncomfortable. It's hard to rate this match like any other match, but I'd recommend it even just to see why safety measures are necessary in wresstling. I'll go with  ***1/2



One thing I can note at this point in the show is that laser pointers are a real pain in the ass.



The Royal Rumble Match
I only know of a couple of storylines going into this match like the $100,000 bounty on Austin's head or the fact that Chyna is #30 and will be the first woman in a Rumble match. Steve Austin and Vince McMahon are the first two entrants. I think Austin was the only likely winner of this one which did hurt things quite a bit even if he didn't end up winning which he probably should have. Austin kicking Vince's ass at the start was probably the funnest part of the match. Nothing much else happened in the match but it wasn't really boring as it had a sort chaotic feel to it. I actually enjoyed this more than I thought I would. McMahon as the winner was an awful decision but the entire match was pretty fun to be honest. It's still one of the worst but it's not bad. I'll give it  **1/2




4.5/10. Yeah this wasn't a very good show. The Rumble was pretty average overall, the WWF Title match was good but disturbing, and everything else was just completely forgettable. I did review this to compare this Rumble to the 2015 Rumble, so I'll say that the 2015 is the worst one ever. A bad show here.