Royal Rumble Match 1999

[6.0] "Realistically Rumble matches are very rarely outright bad, and this is no exception. The match-long angle with Austin and Vince is pretty good and there were enough other good moments for it to justify a 6. Not a great rumble by any means but perfectly passable and enjoyable off the basis of being a rumble match."

[3.0] "Don't hate the idea of Vince winning the rumble, do sort of hate the structure of having him and Austin be the first two entrants, brawl around the arena and then end up the last two entrants because it makes the match itself feel meaningless. Not the worst thing in this match, that being the men in white coats showing up to take Kane away (way to make your big monster heel look like a joke, Russo), but it nukes the excitement and anything can happen nature of a good Rumble. And there's constant silly Family Guy style cutaway gags to Vince and Austin's proper Attitude era shenanigans around the venue. Some of the talent make the most with what they have, I especially loved those guys in the front row headbanging to Gangrel's awesome entrance music, but a bad idea is a bad idea."

[1.0] "Craptastic Royal Rumble. The match itself was really boring, lacking in many entertaining spots or pre-planning at all outside of when everyone is supposed to enter and who would eliminate them. Really this Rumble would have been a 4 or 5 even if it did have a good ending and winner. Unfortunately it didn't. Ultimately it comes down to Stone Cold, Mr. McMahon (who stands around commentary most of the match), Big Bossman way past his prime, and D-Lo Brown. What a star studded final four that is! Yeah, no it sucks and completely telegraphs that this match is going to come down to Stone Cold vs Mr. McMahon shenanigans if that wasn't obvious from the beginning. This was at a time during the height of the Attitude Era where Austin and Vince were the hottest thing going and their fued engulfed everything else in the company, sometimes it was legitimately awesome but a lot of the time it was crap. This was an example of going way too far with one angle running your whole territory to where it ruins one of the best gimmick matches you have. Oh, and of course Vince wins. Side note, it's really funny people complain about modern babyfaces being booked like idiots when in '99 Austin was the biggest thing in the industry and they have him stand right against the ropes so he can jaw at the Rock and let Vince walk up behind him and dump him over the top to win. Like he couldn't figure out that's what would happen. Yes, Austin looks like a chump. Vince looks possibly dumber trying to celebrate with a beer bash at the end. Anyone that thinks this match wasn't a monument to Vince's Titan Towers sized ego is insane. Oiled up Vince shirtless being the second guy out, it's truly classic insane Vince behavior. Last note, as much as people sanctify the Attitude Era, in '99 the roster was complete crap. Or at least the guys they got in this match. Kurrgan, Golga, Gilberg, Mable, a bunch of just whatever guys like Bossman, super green Mark Henry, Venus, Snow, Blue Meanie. As much as I respect Severn as a fighter and legit badass, he wasn't over at all and was a failed Cornette experiment in the WWF so he is just a nothingburger here. Yeah this was awful. Great example that a lot of the AE does not hold up and there were really a small handful of guys and stories that were making the product red hot, everything else was just dreck. 1 point because Austin, Kane, Goldust and Triple H are in the match and The Rock makes an appearance so that's cool I guess."

[6.0] "Of course people shit on fact Vince pitching himself as the winner, but looking back at this legendary rivalry, I'm honestly not mad at it. You could be emotionally invested in the further phases of the match for closely an hour which never really happened before. Match itself had too many breaks from action, however I can handle it."

[7.0] "Not my favorite Royal Rumble ever, but there was still enough across the match to enjoy. I think the start is brilliant with Stone Cold and Vince brawling throughout the arena, and then the match sort of slows from there (ministry stuff aside) until austin shows back up"

[7.0] "The final two of Mr McMahon and Stone Cold was obvious, but there was always a decent amount happening in the match, despite a lack of star power, Undertaker not being in the match didn't help, even if he did make an appearance, Kane's role was also a bit frustrating."

[0.0] "This was to further the Austin Vs Vince rivalry, but it sacrifices the whole royal rumble match and everyone else competing as those two mostly brawl outside the ring and around the arena, the match itself is also flat out weak with weak star power and elimination order, Kane's one being the worst with him eliminating himself, and at the end Vince wins the match which would later on in time be utterly pointless. Just a horrible rumble all around."

[6.0] "Though it's a slight step down from 1997's and 1998's Royal Rumbles, this is still a solid and entertainment match. And while it's true McMahon didn't need the win, Stone Cold had already won the two aforementioned events and there were no other obvious winners."

[4.0] "I've never been a fan of these large matches, be it the 3-ring PPVs of WCW or the Royal Rumble. Everyone knows that this match is all about Stone Cold and the Corporation anyway, so when they disappear to the lobby and the only ones in the ring are Droz and Edge the crowd understandably goes pretty quiet, even with the pop of Gillberg. Can't help but feel a bit bad for the guys in the ring having to try and entertain an audience that's completely uninterested while we get clips of Austin being wheeled into an ambulance after a backstage ambush. Nothing too interesting happens throughout the match. The Acolytes coming in to deal with Mabel, Austin eventually returning to awaken the crowd. I don't hate Vinnie winning, but it never really went anywhere so what was the point of it?"

[6.0] "I mean Rumble is always rumble so it's always fun to watch until the last second but Vince coming at number one and winning it is unbelievable really. In his defence he was really jacked. It helped Austin and Vince's rivalry to be honest but sacrificing arguably the most important match of the year for it is absurd."

[6.0] "I still like this Rumble to a point, I wouldn't want the Rumble to be like this every year but it fit the time period well. The Austin/McMahon story is fun and I actually have no problem with Vince winning as a one off either as it was just another twist in the story they were telling. It's more the fact that there's very little interesting about the rest of it and not much star power at all."

[5.0] "This wasn't a good Royal Rumble match overall, but I will say the McMahon vs Austin stuff was by far the most entertaining aspect of the match and McMahon getting the cheap win after sitting out of almost the whole match was a big angle storyline heading into Wrestlemania so I didn't mind him actually winning the match as much as others. The problem with the match was that there was a huge lull in the action. McMahon and Austin start the match and this winds up spilling out all over the arena where Austin is ambushed and taken to hospital and when these two wasn't involved, the match was clearly lacking in star power and they just brought in the mid carders and jobbers to fill out the time and a lot of the time the ring would be cleared out and the biggest disappointment was probably Kane coming in and looking dominant and then he eliminated himself while the white coats was chasing after him. Things do pick up a little bit once McMahon returns panicking on commentary when Austin returns to the match, but again because of the lack of main eventers in the ring it was obvious it was going back down to an Austin v McMahon match where the Rock provides a distraction when Austin dominates."

[6.0] "While this match had Vince Russo written all over it, I still somewhat enjoyed it. The star power in this rumble was severely limited so it made sense to center the match around Austin and Vince. It was different than most Rumbles and I thought it worked in getting the story across. Many stories were developed in this match which in my opinion, make this match a success. Vince is seen as one of the worst Royal Rumble winners ever but him winning was the right decision, as they were able to add another layer to Austin and Vince's rivalry. [**3/4]"

[5.0] "[**1/2] While I understand the reasoning behind some of the negative reception this Royal Rumble match receives, I have to admit that I was entertained by it, especially compared to last year's Royal Rumble match. However, it's obvious that the enjoyment of this match depends on how you feel about it being used more as an angle to further the Austin/McMahon/The Rock storyline leading to WrestleMania, rather than being a classic Royal Rumble. I feel that the execution was very entertaining and made the match fun. Unfortunately, as a Royal Rumble, it feels a bit secondary or transitional, serving the overall story they are telling with this feud. No one else feels important, and the decision to have McMahon win the entire match is questionable (even though I don't mind it as much as others seem to). Overall, it's a bit of a controversial match and definitely not the best Royal Rumble match by any degree, but it's not one that I hate, and I kind of enjoy what they were going for with it."

[3.0] "I consider the Royal Rumble match to be the greatest stipulation in the history of professional wrestling. With that having been said, this is quite shit. Its inherently dull throughout. Its incredibly uninteresting. The only mildly interesting thing is that McMahon set a $100, 000 bounty on Austin for whoever can eliminate him. It starts off fine with Austin and McMahon fighting. The crowd loves it. He just beats the piss out of McMahon for the first couple minutes. Golga is #3 and gets tossed immediately. Then, they leave the ring. The whole selling point of the match was how Austin and McMahon were gonna start it off just for them to leave 3 minutes in. They brawl through the crowd and out into the lobby. The corporation batters Austin in the ladies room as Droz comes out at #4. He walks around till Edge comes out at #4. Edge isnt great yet so its just alright. Gillberg is #5 and gets dumped out in seconds. Blackman comes out at #6. He adds something to the match immediately going after both guys. He was so underrated, he wouldve done incredibly well in the early UFC days. Severn is #8 and he goes after Blackman. They pretty much focus on each other until they get tossed out. Tiger Ali Singh is #9. He does nothing. Blue Meanie is #10. More boring brawling. Mosh is #11. Mabel beats him up and takes his spot. Something finally happens here as he dumps Severn and Blackman. He clotheslines Tiger out. Blue Meanie tries to do something, but he gets clobbered. Road Dogg is #12. During his entrance, Mabel dumps Blue Meanie and Droz. Road Dogg targets Edge for some dumb fucking reason and tosses his ass out. Lights go out. Its the Ministry. They abduct Mabel. We dont know if Mabel went over, but it doesnt matter because he aint coming back. Gangrel is #13 and gets thrown out immediately. More walking around. Kurrgan is #14. Basic Rumble stuff. Al Snow is #15. He comes out to a huge ovation. He goes to help Road Dogg dump out Kurrgan. For some reason, Al stands on the middle rope while trying to dump Kurrgan. Road Dogg aint an idiot, so he shoves Al to the floor. More boring shit. Goldust is #16. Nothing happens. Godfather is #17. Nothing else happens. Basic Rumble stuff. Kane is #18. He grabs Road Dogg by the back of the neck and tosses him. He clotheslines Kurrgan out. He punches Godfather to the outside. Then, he chokeslams Goldust out. Something interesting is happening. Out come the white coats. He murders some of them before eliminating himself and chasing them off. The ring is empty. #19 is Shamrock of The Corporation. Vince is back. He gets in the ring and poses before going back out and joining commentary. Billy Gunn is #20. Them two had a match earlier in the night. Billys selling his ankle really nicely. This part is actually pretty good. Test is #21. Hes also in The Corporation. They team up on Billy. Cameras are in the back as Mabel gets shoved in a truck. Austins back in an ambulance. McMahon shits his britches. Back in the ring, Billy nails Shamrock and Test with some low blows. He then levels them with a double clothesline. Austin comes back out as Boss Man enters at #22. Austin chase McMahon around and ends up back in the ring. Shamrock goes after him, but Austin backdrops him out. Boss Man goes after him. Triple H is #23. He saves Billy from Test. Val Venis is #24 to a decent ovation but immediately gets attacked by Triple H. Billy goes after Austin but gets some instant karma as Austin stomps on his injured foot and throws him out. Austins now got 3 eliminations. X-Pac is #25. He immediately goes after The Corporation. Mark Henry as Sexual Chocolate is #26 to a big ovation. He goes right after Austin. Double J is #27 to another good ovation. He goes after Austin alongside Val before getting beat up by DX. DLo is #28 being led to the ring by PMS. Test goes after Austin just to get dumped out immediately. Boss Man then runs and throws X-Pac out. Jarrett goes after Austin along with Boss Man. Austin fights out it and levels Jarrett with a Thesz Press and some punches. He pulls him up and hits him some more. Triple H snatches him and tosses him out as Owen is #29. He goes after Austin as well. Austin rolls out of the ring and takes a drink of water before splashing it in Vinces face. He re-enters and gets beat up. Chyna enters at #30 and makes history as the first woman to enter the Rumble match. She gets met with a good reaction from the crowd before going after Mark Henry. She beats on him for a bit. She then tosses him out. She turns around and is met with a clothesline to the outside by Austin. Triple H goes after him. He goes for the elimination, but Val pushes him away and takes over. Triple H grabs him and tosses him out. He then gets a stunner from Austin before getting clotheslined to the outside as well. Great pop there. Its pretty boring and nothing of note happens until Owen goes after Austin. Austin goes to the corner. Owen runs at him, but Austin dumps him out. Boss Man and DLo work on Austin. DLo hits a splash, but Boss Man shoves him out. Austin hits Boss Man with a stunner and then dumps him out. Down to two. Austin and McMahon. For the second time in Rumble history, the two that started the match are ending the match. What ensues is a few minutes of Austin just beating the shit out of McMahon. The Rock comes out and distracts Austin. He gets on the apron, so Austin lunges at him, but McMahon dumps him out from behind to win. It made sense in story, but Austin gets the shot anyway. Lets just discuss the MVP. Its Austin. Wikipedia says the match lasts 56:38. He was only really in there for 25 minutes. He tossed 8 guys and was the runner up. He only got eliminated due to shenanigans. The only other really good performances are Triple H, Big Boss Man, and Road Dogg. Kane and Mabel eliminate a bunch of dudes though. Anyways, pretty shit Rumble. Its got a good story going in and the last third is fine. Ill give it a solid 3. Final rating: *1/2"

[5.0] "This match is more of an angle than an actual wrestling match, but the match overall is mediocre. McMahon and Austin are the first and final two, and The Rock came out to cost Austin and McMahon won the Rumble for some reason."

[6.0] "This battle royal has an unfamiliar structure. The first half of the wrestlers eliminated very quickly, there was no pandemonium. Austin and Vince's feud is great. The men beat the last spirit out of each other, they gave a great start and a great ending. Vince's victory was a surprise move, I think a lot of people underestimate this fight."

[10.0] "I'm well aware of the poor ratings left for this match but if your going for entertainment value I rate this highly, it is always difficult rating rumble matches because they are so unique and this match had so much going for it, the match centres around arguably the hottest feud in history and has some truly timeless moments in my opinion probably the greatest rumble match in history despite the thin roster at the time"

[6.0] "This Rumble is all about one story, but they got me invested, so even though other participants didn't get much focus I've still enjoyed it. I really liked the bounty on Austin's head since everybody was trying to eliminate him and at the same time stopping other guys from doing so. I also didn't mind Vince winning as he was the most over heel in the business and it's nothing compared to Russo putting himself over in WCW when nobody cared about him. Obviously they could have done more with other guys, especially Triple H who seemed to be getting more and more over, plus Kane eliminating himself was dumb, but the stipulation carried the contest at times by itself."

[7.0] "My judgment on Rumbles is fairly tame because the concept is so fun that whatever baloney they throw at it usually still makes for an entertaining 60+ minutes. The Austin/Vince stuff was some Russo garbage, but the rest of the combatants were a strange, eclectic mix and I like these matches where anybody under the sun shows up."

[3.0] "Well enough is enough, and it's time for a change! And that change is to say: Poor Owen. AGAIN. This was a great angle and a terrible match. You could've handled this way better"

[4.0] "The big story of this rumble was Austin vs. McMahon. Other guys felt secondary. This was boring at times."

[2.0] "Even in 1999, when I was a Russo fanboy, I didn't see this as a great Royal Rumble. Vince McMahon spends most o the match outside of the ring, shows up at the end and wins on a fluke. Russo was good for his time, but this wasn't one of his best ideas. The idea of Austin and McMahon starting the match I liked. But all of the ga-ga in the arena outside of the ring wasn't necessary. Kane chokeslamming orderlies was cool, though, even if he did eliminate himself. But it's unforgivable to have Vince win the rumble. Stupid."

[3.0] "This was really bad. The entire match revolved around the Austin/Vince storyline, with everything else just a boring backdrop. The talent pool at this point was super thin, although the crowd didn't seem to care since they went wild for everyone. The only notable thing besides Austin/Vince was the Undertaker and his crew kidnapping Mabel. I know this wasn't highly rated back in the day either but man it really doesn't hold up well today. *1/2"

[1.0] ""Bro, listen bro, I got a genius idea. We're gonna have Vince win the rumble..." is what I imagined Vince Russo to sound like when pitching this idea. Incredibly poorly structured."

[1.0] "Absolute peak garbo russo shlock. This is what I never want a rumble to be, a match focused on one story with no regard to any wrestling or other side characters/stories. Just an absolute garbo match, the only people I can see who liked this match are young wrestling fans at the time and nobody else."

[8.0] "A huge soft spot for this match. I had the VHS as a kid and I must have seen it so many times. Yes, not much happens outside of the main Austin/Vince story and the majority of entrants didn't have a chance in hell of winning - but the story was well executed, Cole & King were fantastic on commentary, Vince plays his part to perfection. A very enjoyable watch."

[7.0] "I found this pretty entertaining overall. The Austin/McMahon storyline running throughout the match was something different and it made for some huge crowd reactions. The crowd had some great reactions to many of the entrants too. Austin did one of his stiffest clotheslines to Billy Gunn in this match too."

[3.0] "Was the WWF roster really that thin in 1999? This is jobber city in the first half of the match. The match is centered around Steve Austin and Vince McMahon. Which makes sense, they are the hottest feud in all of wrestling currently. But, with the two of them starting, they backed themselves into a corner. There's no way Vince lasts an entire Rumble legit. So they quickly have an angle where he and the Corporation lure Austin to the outside and ambush him. Then, he can go rest at the commentary table while Austin is taken to the hospital. Congratulations, now no one cares about whoever else enters the match as no one else makes for a convincing winner or an interesting character in the eyes of the public. Other notable moments include Mabel being abducted into the Ministry of Darkness, Kane facing people from a psychiatric hospital because... why not I guess. There's also Chyna as the first woman to enter a Rumble but frankly, none of that mattered the moment Austin came back. Now the main plot point of the match can resume, and leads to Vince McMahon winning. I mean props for trying but man this match was dull and the ending was ludicrous. Acceptable at the time, but much like most of the Attitude Era, it has not aged gracefully."

[7.0] "I'm certainly a Russo hater, but this match as a piece of business/entertainment was great. This is the best angles have ever weaved themselves in and out of a rumble. Notables- Vince says "hospital, " fucktons of ball shots, Road Dogg slapping himself whenever he throws a punch or kick which is super distracting and stupid, an empty ring at one point, and Chyna. The commentary is bad but it could be so much worse considering who's doing it and in what time period. While the actual wrestling could have been better, this rumble has star power, story, and is engaging. Rumbles should be fun, and this one certainly is."

[3.0] "Vince Russo's stink is all over this thing! Firstly, the "random drawing" shows that the roster is pretty much cut right down the middle as all the jobbers are in the first half of the match and the guys who actually have a chance at winning are saved for the end. Match starts hot with Austin beating the snot out of McMahon but then Vince runs away and Austin gives chase, only to get jumped in the bathroom by the Corporation and we spent the next 4-6 minutes of constant cutaways to Austin being loaded in a ambulance while the jobbers in the ring with no shot at winning fight to the thrills of nobody. Mabel makes a surprise entrance, clears the ring then Undertaker immediately shows up and his New Dungeon Of Jobbers draft Mabel into their army of emo's. The contender credibility picks up slightly when Road Dogg enters and things start to look like a normal Rumble match until Kane shows up, clears the ring then eliminates himself to escape the orderlies from the nut house....can you tell Russo booked this yet? Shamrock is next out there, as Vince McMahon comes back to sit on on commentary as he's feeling confident enough and we got more dead time of wrestlers alone in the ring doing nothing. We cut outside as Mabel is being loaded into a hearse, and conveniently Austin has managed to hijack the ambulance and return it to the arena AT THAT VERY MOMENT! Austin returns to the match, he runs after McMahon who dives into the ring, leading Austin to the goons and Austin backdrops Shamrock out. Billy valiantly fights Austin but Austin kicks Gunn in the ankle and tosses him. Everyone keeps going after Austin for the bounty and fighting each other on the elimination attempts. Austin with a power surge gets rid of Test then X-Pac in succession. Owen Hart is #29 just as HHH eliminates his buddy Jarrett. Owen and D-Lo double team Austin. Chyna is #30, and she gets rid of Henry right away, but showboats and gets dumped by Austin. Henry points at her and laughs outside, I was laughing too actually:) D-Lo gets the Lo-Down on Austin and works him over pretty good. Owen smacks Austin in the back of the head with the enziguri then tries a blind charge at Austin in the corner and gets big back dropped out. D-Lo showboats after taking Austin down, and Bossman dumps him easily. Bam, Stunner, goodbye Bossman. That leaves Vince at ringside, so Austin beats the hell out of him and kills him with a chair shot then drags him in. Here's Rocky to seal the deal. Austin stops to yell at him, acting like a total idiot, waiting a good 20 seconds for Vince to get in position and dump Austin. Rock and Austin fight to the back as Vince celebrates with the stooges. Definitely the worst Rumble up to this point in time and only outdone by 2015 years later. At leas the crowd was into this pile of garbage mostly start to finish. The smarky Philly crowd in 2015 just hijacked that Rumble and savagely booed everything once Daniel Bryan was eliminated."

[2.0] "6 of the 8 men on the undercard were also in this match, along with such stars as Gillberg and the Blue Meanie, showing just how thin the WWF's roster still was at this point. The match itself showed that, with lots of attention being paid to stuff not even in the arena (thanks Russo), plenty of times when there was literally no action in the ring, no interesting stories aside from Vince/Austin, and few interesting spots. McMahon winning from number two was one of the dumbest things they ever did, wasting the whole Rumble for one man's ego. Or two men, if you count Russo. Pretty awful."

[4.0] "The whole Rumble match is built around Austin and Vince, who's gonna take Austin out for $150, 000. The start is nice with Austin kicking Vince ass, but after Austin eliminates Golga he's lured to the back and taken out by the corporation which leaves him out of the match for a while. Match is boring without those two, but hey at least we got Undertaker and the Ministry of Darkness kidnapping Mabel which was the only interesting thing that happened for a while in this. Austin coming back to kick ass is awesome, he loses due to getting distracted allowing Vince to eliminate him. Pretty boring Rumble outside of the Vince/Austin bits which was expected considering that's the only thing that was built up for the match, I felt like their should have been more of a focus on attacking Austin considering the bounty he had on his head.**1/4"

[5.0] "One of the only (rare) instances that Russo's overly convoluted, nonsensical, WTF overbooking got to the point that it was so horrifically bad it actually got good at some points. Yes, you'll probably roll your eyes at some of the stuff here. But there were a few moments in the match that it was just good ol' wacky fun. The Austin/Vince bits especially were friggin' gold. Obviously, it's far from being a good Rumble, but I never found it boring or anything, as stupid as some parts of the match were. [**1/2]"

[0.0] "The excesses of Russos booking drowned the Rumble match in a sea of convoluted muck. Most of the undercarders were sequestered to the first half of the match, creating an unrealistic imbalance. Vince McMahon wins after spending 90 percent of the match as an observer. Despite there being a $100, 000 bounty on Steve Austin' s head, wrestlers only attack him in randomly-timed portions."

[7.0] "I thought it's a interesting plot twist that the chairman became the royal rumble winner thanks to the Corporate."

[9.0] "I can understand why some hate this Rumble, but really I think it's great personally. Is there a stretch of unimpressive midcarders? Certainly, but in service of the larger story which is all about Austin and McMahon I don't mind it a bit, and that story was told beautifully. The crowd ate it up and I had a blast, what a performance by those two. Vince doing hilarious faces on commentary is worth more than many of the wrestlers did in the ring."

[3.0] "Vince and Austin start off and things are going pretty decent until Vince lures Austin into an ambush taking them both out for the majority of the match. We then get treated to an empty ring which quickly fills up with the likes of Droz, Dan Severn, Tiger Ali Singh, Gillberg and Kurrgan. The next vaguely interesting thing to happen is Mabel coming in at number 11, who clears house before being kidnapped by the Ministry Of Darkness. You know a match is bad when you use the words 'Mabel' and 'Ministry Of Darkness' in the same sentence with 'vaguely interesting. Austin eventually comes back and kicks ass before Vince sneakily eliminates him to win. The main two issues with this match is the lack of star power and the match was build around two people. No one else was even mentioned in the video package. Abysmal Rumble match."

[7.0] "I always loved this Rumble. Top and/or rising mid card guys like D-Lo Brown, Test, Road Dogg, Ken Shamrock, Owen Hart, Edge, Triple H and others got some minutes in there. Plus this was a chance to see guys who rarely appeared on PPV or even TV with Meanie, Droz, Dan Severn (! ), Gillberg, etc. The main story of the rumble was the Austin/McMahon issue and the match suffers on rewatch value as a result but I think it worked for the time, particularly if you consider that Vince was ultimately their top heel. Other stories present in this are that Kane and Mabel both got the "Diesel" spot of sorts before Kane was nearly "committed" and Mabel was soon to become Viscera. Plus we have DX against the Corporation and Chyna making history and getting some revenge against Mark Henry."

[2.0] "Pretty bad rumble. It felt like nothing happened in the match at all and everything good was going on outside the ring."

[3.0] "Probably one of the weaker Rumble matches due to how much they backload all of the talent, with it not being until #12 when Road Dogg comes out that a genuine star enters the match outside of Austin at #1. There's also lots of waiting around or seeing lower card guys slug it out to barely any reaction whilst they faff around with the Stone Cold storyline of him getting injured and carted away to hospital. Once you get into the final third the match picks up a bit, with Owen Hart and D'Lo Brown being the stand out guys in that section. I've never liked the finish either, as it was just so out of character for Stone Cold to lose that way"

[4.0] "I thought this was fine but this match mainly focused around the story of Vince McMahon and Stone Cold Steve Austin. I thought the concept was pretty neat and the way this match went about has been replaced mainly times in recent years"

[3.0] "Very boring. All the match people were just waiting for Stone Cold to come back, and the ending was very disappointing. The rest of the match was just filled with jobbers and uninteresting characters."

[1.0] "Yeah this rumble is pretty damn bad. The only surprise entrant was Mabel and did anyone really want that? And I say this as a dude who loves Viscera but damn. I liked the Austin/McMahon stuff but that was the only story of the Rumble. Well that and Kane being detained by the Asylum workers. Oh yeah and Chyna wins a Royal Rumble match on RAW only to get eliminated a minute in by Stone Cold, what a horrid match."

[3.0] "One of the worst rumbles in WWE history. A lot of dead time and a complete lack of action or excitement. There was one story for the entire match, Austin and McMahon. Going in there were no other expectations and it felt like a formality as a result. The McMahon finish may have been surprising (swerve bro) but it contributed negatively to an already lackluster match. Better story than a match."