Royal Rumble Match 1997

[4.0] "So boring except Austin and for a little time near the end it was good but took too long to end + there is a lot of self elimination in that match to a point where it just makes no sense Lawler Elimination was funny though"

[4.0] "Only two stretches of this match are good and the ending is dragged down by the same thing that the rest of the match is dragged down by which is how light the roster was back in 1997. Austin winning in the way he did was great but too little too late."

[5.0] "An amazing Royal Rumble in terms of story building. A pretty terrible Rumble in terms of action and pacing. Austin has a standout performance, and his performance in this Rumble helps get him over to another degree just like his KOTR win started. Bret's gradual bitterness that'll lead to his masterful heel turn his given more credence here. In terms of importance to building character for the future, this match shines. But that is it. In terms of action, the whole match goes in waves. A few guys build up, they all get dumped to leave Austin alone, and then the process repeats one or two more times until the finale. A lot of upper mid card guys like Mero, Goldust, Bulldog, and Triple H barely get any time to shine at all, and it makes them feel less significant than they are. And then you have the fact that the WWF roster in early '97 was so poor that they needed AAA wrestlers and MANY of their own talent pulling double duty to fill up 30. None of the AAA talent got a pop at all besides the legendary Mascaras who gets the respect he deserves. For Austin and Bret fans, this is an amazing Rumble. But there is little else of significance, and no moments in this match stand out or mean anything beyond the finish."

[4.0] "A boring rumble for the most part. Steve Austin was the standout performer and his spots were the most fun/memorable. Jerry Lawler elimination was great and this rumble marks the beginning of Bret's upcoming heel turn."

[4.0] "I don't see it. Maybe one of the worst rumble in history. You have what? Not more than 3 legit people in there? It was basically a squash match for Steve Austin against 29 other men. It was the start of Austin as the face of the company."

[6.0] "Something I liked from this was the finish, Bret eliminated Steve but no one noticed and he returns and eliminates Bret, kept building that WrestleMania classic, and the match and rumble itself really felt fast and like most of the entries were without noticing, the lack of a Buzzer or horn didn't help here, and the rumble didn't feel good for those things, but still it's memorable for being Stone Cold's first rumble. 6/10 [***1/2]"

[9.0] "A really great rumble match with great entrants, fun spots, a great pace, and everything revolving around Stone Cold with his iron man performance and furthering his rivalry with Bret especially in the finish where he wins despite cheating."

[6.0] "Creative, if unsatisfactory, finish to the Rumble. The match does a great job cementing Austin's rise. But it shows how little depth there was to the roster and filling out the lineup with AAA wrestlers did no one any favors."

[8.0] "This is a strange one to review. The roster was a skeleton crew at this point so you have Fake Razor, Fake Diesel, the Godwinns, a horribly deteriorating Jake Roberts, and several AAA wrestlers nobody in the audience had heard of at the time. And then there's the infamous moment where Mil Mascaras goes off script and eliminates himself. But this was really about establishing Austin as a main event player. He just takes the trash out of the ring. And then when Bret comes in, Austin's face was classic. The rest of the Rumble was basically just the two of them beating the hell out of each other. Which was a very good thing that made this Rumble memorable."

[3.0] "This Rumble stumbles out of the gate with some of the worst opening minutes of the match type I've ever seen, Ahmed Johnson and Crush struggling to throw each other over the ropes isn't exactly a hot start. An overall lack of starpower - and a real lack of talent visible on the roster with AAA vets, people already on the card and Jerry the King Lawler as entrants. Never really heated up until Bret Hart entered, at which point the match was already dead in the water and didn't have much time left. Also had a weird finish that I personally kind of hated."

[6.0] "The Steve Austin Show, muscling it towards something decent. Admittedly, the supporting cast is not exactly a championship team, resulting in some truly wretched work along the way. You do get some Bret Hart and Terry Funk though, with a unique charm and novelty accompanying much of this. **3/4"

[6.0] "Wasn't it good, wasn't it bad? Mostly centered around Austin's rise as a face of a company, that's for sure. Weird beginning with clock being fucked up, but later, match was running as expected."

[7.0] "While this Royal Rumble match has its boring spots, especially in the first half, as well as a good amount of filler, it remains a fun and memorable edition, particularly due to Steve Austin's iron man performance. Austin's constant eliminations and his moments alone in the ring make him feel like a total star. The final section is incredibly strong in terms of star power, featuring Steve Austin, Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Rocky, Mankind, and Terry Funk all in the ring together. One of the standout moments is the look on Austin's face when Bret Hart's music hits, which is one of my favorite Royal Rumble moments ever. Although Austin's win at the end feels a bit rushed, it makes sense for the storyline and continues his feud with Bret Hart effectively. While it may not be the best Rumble ever, it's still a fun edition and worth watching."

[6.0] "This sure is a Rumble. I dont understand why some people rate this as high as they do. Overall, the match is fine. The first third of this match is quite shit. Ahmed Johnson is a shit wrestler, so starting with him at #2 was a bad decision. Crush and Phineas Godwin arent awful wrestlers, but they arent great either. Fake Razor Ramon is here. He lasts 17 seconds. Austin comes out at #5 and adds some substance to the match. The ring clears. Bart Gunn is #6, lasts 26 seconds, and fucks up a famouser. Jake enters at #7 and has a half decent skirmish with Austin, but he ultimately gets dumped after a minute. Bulldogs #8 and the match is now somewhat watchable. Some AAA guys enter the fray. The Sultan does not look like Rikishi at all. Some more nobodies enter. Owen dumps out Bulldog. Out comes more AAA guys. Máscaras either didnt wanna put anyone over or hes a fucking dumbass. Faarooq enters and dumps a dude, but here comes Ahmed with lumber, so Faarooq eliminates himself. Austin then dumps the remaining guys. This middle portion was solid with some storylines being worked in (Goldust & HHH, Owen & Bulldog, Faarooq & Ahmed) which really helps my enjoyment. Savio Vega and Road Dogg come out but are both eliminated before the next entrant can even come out. Bret is #21. Great moment there with Austins face. They have a decent brawl. Lawler enters at #22 and is immediately shitcanned by Bret. Then, eight more guys come out. Nothing interesting happens here. Nobody gets eliminated either. Flash Funk eats a load of shit on his way out. Hey look! Its Rocky Maivia! I wonder if hell be a star one day? Mankind and Terry Funk have a cool little thing going. They both go over at the same time, but both hang on. Mankind pulls Terry out before eating a boot from Undertaker. The two brawl on the outside as Bret throws out Austin. However, the refs didnt see it. Austin slips back and and dumps Undertaker and Vader out. Bret manages to dump out Fake Diesel (Kane) right before Austin eliminates Bret himself. Great ending. This ending directly tied into the main event of IYH: Final Four. That match itself was incredible and should be seen. Anyways, Bret throws a fit and complains to Vince. Now, lets talk about the matchs quality. Like I said earlier, overall, this match is fine. Id probably even call it good. My big takeaway is just how bad the first third is. Its fucking dreadful. It doesnt help that the countdown clock doesnt work for the first couple entries. I wouldnt quite call it unwatchable, but sure is boring. The middle section is pretty solid and is enjoyable with all the stories. The last third is solid as well, but theres actually some bigger stars in at this point. Theres some good moments here. Id say that the last third is the best part (particularly when Undertaker has entered). The middle section is pretty much right behind it. The first third, however, is one of my least favorite bits of any Rumble ever. Its so bad. Regardless, this is an average Rumble in the end. The stories being a huge part of the Rumble itself help the match drastically and probably add about a star to what the match wouldve been without it. There are so many stories going on here. Youve got Nation of Domination vs. Ahmed Johnson, Bulldog vs. Owen, Goldust vs. HHH, a callback to Austin vs. Savio Vega, Austin vs. Bret, Mankind vs. Funk, Vader vs. Undertaker, and another callback to Undertaker vs. Mankind. Surely, up to this point in time, this Rumble had the most storylines being a part of the match. It probably is still near the top of the list in that sense. Lets talk about the participants, shall we. Its very obvious that the shitty gimmicks and overall lack of Star power that plagued the previous couple of Rumbles have gone away because theres some real Star power here; admittedly, its pretty much all at the end though. In terms of performances, there are really only 2 really good ones. One of them is an all time great performance by Austin. This leads me right into the MVP discussion. Austin is the clear front runner here. At this point, hes the second person to be the iron man, have the most eliminations, and win the whole match. The only one up to this point is Michaels back in 1995. Austins performance here is very obviously a better one than Michaelss. Here, Austin lasted 45 minutes, eliminated 10 people (tying the record set by Hogan in 89), and he won the thing albeit in controversial fashion. If you hate the way he won it, then thats unfortunate because it led to one of the greatest WWE matches of all time at WrestleMania 13. Anyways, Im done with this match. I definitely went longer than I needed to, but who cares anyway. I give this Rumble a solid 6. Its got some good moments but the bad parts are really fucking bad. Final rating: ***"

[7.0] "This was a decent enough Rumble that was mostly focused on Austin. Theres a lot of jobbers and luchadors in the match. The finish involved Austin getting eliminated but still coming back and throwing everyone out to win."

[7.0] "This Rumble had its highlights but I have to say about 90% of them involved Stone Cold Steve Austin! The ending of the match was very creative with Austin getting back in the match when the referees was distracted by Funk and Foley brawling outside and then gets the controversial win, which continues a great storyline with Bret Hart getting screwed over again. Unfortunately this ended up with one of the weaker matches in terms of talent as most of the stars don't get in till later on and the latter part of the match is a bit of a slog because towards the end the ring is packed full of jobbers. The most memorable spot that doesn't involve Austin is Mil Mascaras eliminating himself."

[5.0] "I've never liked battles built around quickly eliminating a cohort of wrestlers. The first half is absolutely passable, the interesting spectacle began only with the exit of Bret Hart, and there half of the time - a fuss at the ropes. The messy ending leaves a double aftertaste: on the one hand - it's something new, but on the other hand - the victory in the Battle Royal is an incredible achievement and to overshadow it with a messy victory is a bad decision."

[3.0] "One of the worst royal rumbles in history! The start is just awful with lots of botches, its 1997 and wrestlers still dont have a theme song, stone cold winning was dull as well, there were some good moments which is why this is not a 1 but also some awful moments like at the start someone eliminated themself in the most obvious way. Just a bunch of randomness and i think the 1996 Royal Rumble match is way better than this one, i dont regret watching it just because i wanted to watch all the royal rumbles but i almost fell asleep at this one"

[7.0] "A goood amount of filler in this rumble keeps it from getting a higher score. The Mexican wrestlers, jobbers like Fake razor and diesel, flash funk, Jesse James, the Sultan and a few others. But the stars are that here Steve Austin, bret hart, Vader, taker and a few others help balance out the filler. A great rumble moment when Austin is alone in the ring and Brets music hits and watching Austins reaction is priceless. Austin getting out but not getting caught then eliminating Bret to win the rumble is a great moment as well and a smart way of winning the match. Also helped build up their match for Mania 13 even if that wasnt meant to happen lol. Solid match boring in some places tho. 3.75/5"

[8.0] "Always Enjoyed this Rumble. Great swerve at the end to have Austin win. Although I enjoyed the entrants, there were many who entered that had singles matches earlier in the night. Plus a few luchadors, which was cool to see. Also a perfect final four, which ended up being the main event for the next ppv. 8 rating for the match. In my top 10 of Rumble matches. The last 10 entrants or so have so much history. The Funk Brothers (Flash/Scorp and Terry). Mankind , Terry/Rock/Kane/Austin. Scorp and Vader. You realize so many epic rivalries in one ring. Taker/mankind. Cactus/Terry. Bret/Austin. Rock/Austin. Love it mane"

[7.0] "Similar to the 1992 Royal Rumble this match is all about one man - Steve Austin. He's fantastic here and the moments when he's left in the ring alone are the ones that make him a superstar. The crowd cheers for him even though he cheats constantly and when Bret finally enters the atmosphere feels massive. Apart from these two there are other impressive performances from Foley or Owen, plus it's nice to see Terry Funk back. There's some stupid stuff with the luchadors, but at least Mascaras gets some recognition, although I would prefer if he didn't eliminate himself like a dummy. Overall a very good Royal Rumble Match with a nicely executed finish."

[4.0] "The crowd was really not into this match. One of the weakest Royal Rumble matches ever. You had Lucha guys from the AAA promotion that got little to no crowd reaction. Mil Mascaras is probably the only Lucha guy in the ring who had proper WWF experiences with the crowd. This match wasn't terrible, it just didn't generate any excitement at all. If this match took place a couple of years later with the same Royal Rumble participants, the match may get more recognition."

[7.0] "[7.0] This is ultimately a vehicle to get Steve Austin over even more before pushing him to become one of the company's biggest stars, and it does an excellent job at that. Austin, who enters early, picks off competitors one after another, surviving by the skin of his teeth. His showmanship and mannerisms are already leagues ahead of everyone else in the match, from the whiplash neck to the trash talk. It's obvious that he's going to win from the onset, but the way that it's done differentiates Austin from your typical babyface by having him cheat his way back into the ring after being eliminated. It's even more thematically fitting that Bret, who occupied that face position in prior years, is the central antagonist in Austin's path. The match is full of highlights, like any good Rumble. Terry Funk lasting longer than excepted and brawling with Mankind outside of the ring, Owen Hart skillfully saving himself from elimination with an acrobatic feat, Austin's look of pure dread when Bret Hart's music hits, and Vader LAUNCHING Flash Funk over the top rope. I mean, he just hurls him to the floor, it's amazing. At one point in time, you have The Rock, Austin, Hart, Undertaker, Vader, Funk, and Foley in the same ring with one another its truly a glimpse into how deep the well of talent ran in the midcard and main event scene at the time. Fake Diesel is also there. Of course, there's some low points as well. The beginning of the match is especially slow, with Crash and Johnson being the first two entrants, and Johnson elmininating himself only a minute in at the sight of Farooq standing in the entrance. Fake Razor is then eliminated in seconds, before the commentary team can even say his name. Jake Roberts looks and works horrible but that goes without saying in 1997. There's some particuarly dull undercarders in the early points of the match that get little reaction from the crowd and even less credibility in the ring. Mil Mascaras seemingly forgets the rules of the match after leaping from the turnbuckle outside of the ring and re-entering it, which is a confusing, but ultimately hilarious spot. Theres a lot to like here for anyone who's in love with the Rumble concept, even if the outcome is telegraphed."

[4.0] "Three things to take away: 1. crowd was DEAD especially for the lucha guys, except for counting down to the next wrestler to ignore, Austin, Taker and Bret - wild for those. 2. Henry O Godwin dressed like a minion was hilarious 3. the booing for fake Razor was also hilarious. Drags on but comes alive a bit at the end."

[8.0] "It's a slobber knocker! What a good Rumble. I know I'm using hindsight, but considering the main event of WM 13 was Sid vs Taker and not Bret vs Steve, I'm lowering the rating by 1. Thank you Shawn."

[7.0] "Mil Mascaras is the dumbest person on earth. Amigo, if you are not willing to get thrown out of a match just don't accept the booking. This is actually good by Rumble standards with Stone Cold being the clear stand out guy."

[6.0] "Kind of a so-so Rumble overall but a definite improvement over the two preceding years. Austin was the major highlight of course, and his reactions were classic throughout (most notably him checking his "watch" while waiting for the next entrant, as well as his stunned expression when Bret Hart's music hit). This was early on in the Austin/Bret feud and their interactions here were all fantastic. The roster was better than in years past, as the final ten remaining included Austin, Bret, The Undertaker, Vader, a very young Rocky Maivia, Mankind and Terry Funk. There were still some questionable entrants, however, such as the AAA guys (although that did lead to a hilariously awful elimination of himself by Mil Mascaras). ***"

[6.0] "While not the most memorable rumble in history it is enjoyable, some good comedy moments [Lawlers 4 secs for example] as well as some great superstars and a really fun finish make this a worthwhile watch."

[5.0] "This is slow and shitty until Austin shows up. The luchadors are also shitty; mil mascaras is not selling ANYTHING for ANYBODY. Then you got Ahmed with the long ass plank, but the crowd is blowing for it. Ahmed was over like a mf in 96. 97 is such an important year for the wwf. At one point you got Rock, Austin, Bret, and Foley in the ring during this match. And Terry Funk, looking way better than Dory in the 96 rumble. This is the first time Vince is identified on screen as the owner, though it's in a very worked shoot kind of way- off mic and improvised. This is a good one if you're a stone cold fan or are feeling especially nostalgic for what would become a great year for the wwf. Otherwise, this doesn't have much else to offer."

[4.0] "This was quite a hard Rumble to sit through. It was so dull, with the fans sitting on their hands in silence for the majority of it. The AAA guys added nothing to the match, and it only went to show how egotistic Mil Mascaras is as he eliminated himself as didn't want anyone to get a rub from eliminating him. Austin's reaction to Bret Hart coming out was by far my favorite moment of this match. His reaction was priceless. Jerry Lawler's being a surprise entrant and getting eliminated seconds later was genuinely quite funny and added some much-needed personality into the match. The match starts to show a bit of life once Bret and other stars join the match. I liked the screwy finish, with Austin sneaking back into the match after both referees were too pre-occupied with Funk and Mankind fighting on the outside to notice that Austin was actually thrown out by Bret. Austin gets the biggest victory of his career up to this point and it gave Bret a reason to finally start embracing the heel side."

[5.0] "This was the next step for Stone Cold Steve Austin after winning King Of The Ring. Austin controls most of the first 2/3rds, then they do a cheap finish where the referees totally miss Austin being thrown out because they are trying to break up Mankind and Funk's fight. Bret Hart jerks Vince around post match and is pissed! Rightly so. Not as good as 96 or 94, but better than 93 and 95. Didn't like the dead space with Austin waiting on people though."

[6.0] "Okay rumble, but clearly carried by Austin. Talent is at an all time low, so unsurprisingly, the rumble is pretty average for most of the time. However, a fairly mediocre beginning and middle are somewhat forgiven by the innovative and legitimate entertaining finish of Austin getting eliminated, but not actually being declared out of the match, and eliminating everyone else in the match to both emphasize that he? s a major dick for stealing Bret Harts opportunity, but also someone who? s a legit threat. In fact, this lays the seeds for the famous double turn at mania 13, so although this match is only okay in terms of work rate, its proceeding events as a result of it are monumentally important. ***"

[6.0] "A pretty unremarkable though still entertaining rumble. Austin's reaction/fighting with Bret when he came out was good and I enjoyed Mankind and Funk's interactions. The incredibly thin roster really hurt this rumble."

[7.0] "***1/2. The match had its slow points, but Austin really did an amazing job of carrying it. I've always liked this rumble because it is one of the most unique endings they have ever booked. Best Performers (3): 1) Steve Austin. This was the second best royal rumble performance by a single person in the history of the Rumble to this point. Ric Flair in 1992 was better, but this was very close. 2) Bret Hart. I loved his chemistry with Austin. It doesn't get much better than that. 3) He was only in for about 9 minutes. Nobody else stood out. I enjoyed his heel shtick so much, though. Best Elimination: My favorite was Vader throwing out Flash Flunk. That looked very painful."

[5.0] "It was much more boring than I had expected. It also showed that there had not been a lot of wrestlers enough to make 30 entries"

[7.0] "You can tell they knew how thin the roster was as they reduced the time between entrants to 90 seconds. You'd have to be generous to say more than half the entrants here should have been there. That said, it was for the most part entertaining, with Austin's domination being the main storyline, and the fight between Mankind and Terry Funk being the best side story. It was hurt by the screwy ending, but apart from that it was entertaining pretty much all the way through."

[9.0] "I'm not sure why this wasn't well received at the time as I always thought it was great. I was really pleased to see that it still holds up after rewatching it and I would say it's in the top three or so Rumbles of all time. Truly an excellent match."

[8.0] "This told the solid story of Steve Austin being resilient by wrestling almost the entire match and taking out everyone until Bret Hart comes in. The stuff between Austin and Bret felt like a big deal (and in retrospect, it WAS a big deal) and is the driving force of the match. It got Austin over, it continued the Hart-Austin conflict, and it planted the seeds for Bret's heel turn. The only negative here is the inclusion of the AAA guys, which felt really weird at the time, but I understand why they did it in retrospect."

[10.0] "Absolutely one of the greatest Rumbles of all time, this is a brilliant match. The entire final run is packed with talent almost beyond belief, you've got The Rock, Mick Foley, Terry Funk, Undertaker, Steve Austin, Vader, and Bret Hart, all in the ring at the same time, are you kidding me? The chaotic nature of the ending only adds to the drama, I adore the craziness of it."