Royal Rumble 2000

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble 2000

January 23, 2000 from Madison Square Garden

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

They're using the short MSG entrance again tonight like at Summerslam '98. The whole entranceway has been set up to look like a NYC street, complete with graffiti, to play off the Street Fight WWF Title match tonight. To top it off there's a taxicab hanging above the entrance doors, which is really cool.

Kurt Angle's music opens the show to a chorus of boos. He's taking on a mystery opponent tonight. He has a mic and does his usual early career shtick, including getting the sports heat by running down the Knicks and Patrick Ewing. He says he's still undefeated and doesn't care who his mystery opponent is. The crowd starts chanting and shows that Angle's "mystery" opponent is an open secret here in the early days of internet spoilers. Music hits, and.......IT'S TAZZ! He's making his WWF debut tonight, another ECW alum coming over as part of the somewhat under the table WWF/ECW partnership.

Tazz def Kurt Angle in 3:16- Tazz jumps all over Angle as soon as he hits the ring and backdrops him over the top to the floor. ECDub chant from the crowd. Tazz goes for a suplex in the entrance aisle. Angle escapes and hits it instead. Back in Angle hits a flying forearm for barely 1. Belly to belly suplex from Angle! That gets big boos. He goes up top. Tazz hits the ropes to crotch him. Tazz superplex! Angle JUST gets a foot on the rope before 3. Tazz argues with the ref and Angle small packages him for 2. German suplex from Angle for 2. He goes for the Angle Slam but Tazz slips out. German from Tazz with an Angle flip upside down sell! Belly to belly. Exploder. Tazz hooks on the Tazzmission. Lawler argues that it's an illegal choke. JR tries to defend it by saying that's Tazz's version of a sleeper. Angle goes out and the ref calls it! Angle doesn't come to and medics run in to check on him. As he gets stretchered out JR acknowledges that maybe that was more of a choke after all. That could easily have been a squash, but even with the short time Angle got a good amount of offense in and continues to improve every time he goes out there, and Tazz still looked like a badass killer in the end. Going toe to toe with "The Human Suplex Machine" Tazz in suplexes is good foreshadowing to Angle eventually taking over as wrestling's suplex master in his prime. *3/4

The Hardyz are in the back and refuse to let manager Terri go to the ring with them because this match is going to be violent and not for the womenfolk.

 

Tables Match: The Hardy Boyz def The Dudley Boyz in 10:17- This is billed as the first ever tag team tables match in WWF history. It's both members of the team have to go through tables rules for this one. Bubba Ray also goes to the sports heat before the match, name dropping John Rocker. If you don't know that name because you didn't live through it I'm not getting into it because it's all pretty stupid. Like John Rocker. As soon as the Hardyz come out the big brawl is on in the aisle. All four guys fight in the ring and Bubba Ray hits the Bubba Bomb on Jeff. Bubba Ray sets the first table up in the ring. Another ECDub chant. Bubba Ray tries to backdrop Jeff through the table but Matt pushes the table aside while Jeff is in the air. Jeff hits a big dive onto Bubba Ray on the floor. D'Von and Matt do a series of counters to avoid going through the table, then D'Von settles for suplexing Matt away from the table. Jeff gets a chair and nails Bubba Ray with it. He goes for his barricade run leap. When he launches Bubba Ray throws a table in his face! The Dudleyz swap and Bubba Ray sets Matt up on the table in the ring. He gets up on the second rope for the kill shot. Matt gets up and low blows him. Jeff comes in and the Hardyz go to double superplex Bubba Ray through the table. D'Von comes in and just gets the table out of the way before he hits! Matt goes under the ring and gets a ladder! We've got tables in the rules, then chairs came out, and now ladders. Hmmmm..... The Hardyz work the Dudleyz over with the ladder. More chairshots on Bubba Ray. He gets set up on a table on the floor. Matt sets the ladder up and climbs it. D'Von tries to stop him but Matt fights him off. Matt legdrop off the ladder! At the same time Jeff came outta nowhere, from the camera's perspective, and both Hardyz hit at the same time to put Bubba Ray through the table! That gets a "holy shit" chant from the crowd. Might want to save that for a bit, they're just getting warmed up. D'Von takes a chairshot. The Hardyz set up a table on the floor that's bridged between the ring apron and positioned upright ring steps. D'Von gets set up on it. Matt goes up top. D'Von dodges and Matt goes through the table! Jeff takes a dive at D'Von. D'Von dodges and Jeff goes through another table that was propped up against the barricade! But, that doesn't count for ending the match. The rules are specific that the table shots must be offensive moves. The Hardyz took themselves out so we continue. That right there is why WWF gimmick matches were almost always superior to WCW ones, they set firm rules and actually stuck to them. The Dudleyz bring both halves of the ring steps in the ring and set a table up on top of them. They avalanche powerbomb Matt through the table! That's one for each side. Both teams go over the barricade and fight into the crowd on hard camera side. Matt takes a chairshot. Bubba Ray sets up a big 2x2 stack of tables up in an arena entranceway. He sets Matt on top of it. Bubba Ray then takes Jeff up into the arena seats with him, and across to the balcony above where the tables are set up. Bubba Ray poses. Jeff low blows him! Chairshot. Bubba Ray wobbles, then goes down through the entire stack of tables! But that's his second time, D'Von still has to go through a table. Fortunately, one table survived the carnage. Matt sets D'Von up on it. Jeff, still up on the balcony, takes his shirt off. Swanton bomb off the balcony putting D'Von through the table! That's the match. Another fantastic gimmick match from the up and coming star tag teams, following up nicely on the superb Hardyz/Edge & Christian ladder match at No Mercy. The groundwork for what would become TLC continues to be laid. ***1/2

Still loopy Angle is in the back getting checked out. He argues that if he was illegally choked out he's still undefeated.

Next up in the ring is the Miss Rumble 2000 bikini contest, I guess in lieu of a women's title match that likely would have been in a similar vein to what they did the month before at Armageddon which was also pure T&A instead of a proper match. It's doubly pointless anyway as they'll never top the very sexy Miss Kitty/The Kat (Lawler's real life girlfriend at the time the bastard) going completely topless on that show. Kat tries by having a bikini made up entirely of bubble wrap, but it's layered so heavily it shows less than an actual bikini. In the end the whole thing is just a giant setup for the punchline of Mae Young crashing the contest at the end, flashing her saggy 200 year old tits and winning. Mark Henry runs in to cover her up. 10+ minutes of PPV time we'll never get back.

After that we cut to the brand new WWF New York, a themed restaurant and store that just opened in Times Square. And it's a double debut, not just of the location but also for one Jonathan "Coach" Coachman, making his first WWF appearance and getting mobbed by the crowd there.

Jericho and Chyna are in the back bickering over who gets to wear the IC belt to the ring. OK, let me explain this one because it's a doozy. Jericho defeated Chyna to win the title at Armageddon. Soon after that, they had a rematch on Smackdown that ended in a double pin. Instead of declaring the match a draw, Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley decided that they would now be co-champions. For equality I guess. This led to both Jericho and Chyna interfering in each other's individual defenses, because if one of them lost the title they both did. Hardcore Holly had title shots end just that way against both of them, hence his inclusion in a triple threat tonight. And I hope you knew all that from watching weekly TV going into this show, because there's nothing to explain it. Nothing from commentary, no video recap, nothing. The segment ends with non-ref Hebner brother Dave taking the belt and bringing it to the ring himself. Naturally Jericho calls him both Dave and Earl.

 

Triple Threat Match for the Undisputed Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (co-c) def Chyna (co-c) and Hardcore Holly in 7:30- Jericho gets a pretty big pop on his entrance. I can't remember if he'd officially turned face yet but he de facto is one tonight as far as the crowd is concerned. Holly pie faces Chyna down after the bell to go after Jericho. Slaps all around for everyone. Holly reverses a corner whip and Chyna does the Trips flip down to the floor. Jericho and Holly do a decent long speed/counter run ending with Holly hitting a dropkick. Lawler is still traumatized by Mae Young's mummified mammaries. Fortunately he reins it in pretty quick and doesn't get super annoying Lawler over the top about it. Jericho and Holly get into a chopfest. Jericho blocks a hurricanrana attempt and hooks on the Walls. Chyna clotheslines him to break it up to a chorus of boos. Holly gets 360 clotheslined to the floor by Chyna. Jericho dodges and Chyna baseball slides Holly. Jericho springboard plancha on Holly! Back in Chyna hits Jericho with the handspring....well, it's supposed to be an elbow but Chyna didn't even put an elbow out, she just flopped onto Jericho. DDT on Jericho. Holly tosses Chyna out. Getting back in Chyna pulls the top rope down on Jericho, sending him tumbling out. Holly gets a chair. Jericho actually stops him hitting Chyna with it and Chyna dropkicks the chair back in Holly's face. Coming back in Chyna and Jericho do a messy double splash onto Holly. They start arguing with each other, which leads to some face punching. Chyna low blow on Jericho. Pedigree on Holly! Holly kicks out! Chyna goes up top. Holly lifts her up on his shoulders. Jericho uses that to come off the top with a crossbody on Chyna! That gets 2. Chyna breaks up a superplex by crotching both guys, then she superplexes Holly, but Holly rolls over into a cradle for 2. Now Chyna gets a chair. She nails Holly with it, then puts on a Boston crab. Jericho bulldog on Chyna! Lionsault! That gets the pin! Jericho is fully IC champion again, mercifully ending the "co-champion" nonsense. The match was eh. As I've said before, Chyna's cleared the bar where she can work believably with the men, but still has yet to clear the bar of being actually good. You're also always only going to get so much out of Holly. **

Michael Cole is in the back with the Rock. He asks who Rock he's worried about most in the Rumble. Rock's answer? Crash Holly and Mosh. Fantastic. It's even better because with Austin and Undertaker both out with injuries Rock is by far the overwhelming favorite to win the Rumble this year. No one else even seems plausible. Cole asks about Big Show, the only guy besides Rock that might have a smidgen of a chance but no one believed it. Rock takes the mic, shoves Cole out of the way, and cuts a standard but still really good Rock promo. This is getting about the time that Rock got all time great, can't miss every time he had a mic because he could riff more and didn't lean heavily on his catchphrases like he had been up to this point. I do wonder why his football jersey is in Detroit Lions colors though.

The very simple, bog standard tag title feud gets a full video package recap, where the extremely complicated IC title match didn't.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The New Age Outlaws (c) def The Acolytes in 2:35- The Outlaws get a big pop and are doing their full prematch routine again despite still being heels due to their association with Triple H. The Acolytes charge in and it's another hot start. During the charge in we got a quick glimpse from a camera that's been set up inside the entrance taxi. Bradshaw takes both Outlaws out. Faarooq powerslams Dogg. Gunn tries to run in and help but Faarooq double clotheslines them. Dogg hits his dancing jabs. Bradshaw pulls him down by the hair from the apron and we're already donnybrooking. Bradshaw dodges Gunn's Stinger splash and hits him with the Clothesline from Hell, getting a 360 sell. Faarooq spinebuster on Dogg. He covers but Gunn pulls ref Tim White out of the ring. Bradshaw charges and takes Gunn and White out on the floor. Acolyte double team powerbomb, but there's no ref. X-Pac runs in and gets taken out. In the confusion Gunn hits Bradshaw with the Fameasser and gets the pin. I'm sure this got cut short due to time. Might have been best if they cut this from the card altogether. Or didn't waste 10 minutes with the bikini contest. 1/2*

WWF pulled off the first major swerve in the post-Russo era at Armageddon with Steph turning on her dad to join her new husband Triple H, who everyone thought had married her against her will. Since then they've taken complete control of the company. Full despotic rampage. One of the few people to stand up them was Mick Foley, still as Mankind. That got him good and fired. The rest of the roster rebelled, demanding Foley be reinstated. The McMahon-Helmsley regime relented, and Trips even promised Mankind a WWF Title shot at the Rumble in a Street Fight. Mankind then changed everything on Smackdown, revealing that Mankind wasn't good enough to face Triple H. He needed to tap into something deeper, darker.....CACTUS JACK! The king of the deathmatch. Foley ripping his Mankind shirt off to reveal Jack is still an all time great SD moment. Trips was figuratively shitting himself. Maybe even literally.

 

Street Fight for the WWF Championship: Triple H (c) def Cactus Jack in 26:48- Steph comes out with HHH but immediately leaves because even more than the tables match this isn't going to be for the womenfolk. HHH is very cautious on his entrance, taking his time getting into the ring. He hands Fink a bag as he goes by. After HHH gets in the ring Jack jaws at him and HHH actually backs off a bit. Jack words turn into Jack fists and it's on. Back and forth slugging to start. Classic Jack beatdown in the corner. Bang bang! Jack hits a swinging neckbreaker on the floor. He legdrops HHH as HHH is trying to get back in the ring. HHH gets bounced of various ringside objects. He takes advantage of that, grabbing the bell and whacking Jack with it! HHH gets a chair and challenges Jack to join him in the ring. Jack gets in, says "come on", charges, and takes a chair in the face. He gets right back up with a clothesline! Jack puts the chair over HHH's head then legdrops it for 2. Back outside HHH gets backdropped over the barricade. Crowd brawl time. They keep it short and head straight for the entrance alley that looks like it comes from the set of an '80s crime movie and is perfect for this match. HHH gets dropped on a stack of bricks. Jack gets a couple of already half broken pallets and sets them up on the street/aisle. He suplexes HHH onto them! When HHH hits it one of the broken pieces of wood goes right into his leg, causing a nasty puncture wound that was not at all planned. Jack gets a trash can and hits HHH with it. HHH does a classic on the knees sell. Then HHH gets whipped into the gate that serves as the entrance. As they're coming back HHH gives Jack a quick back suplex onto the trash can. As soon as that's done he quickly checks his leg, which is bleeding pretty good. Leg's still attached, the match continues. Commentary hasn't even noticed it yet. Jack hits the running knee on the floor against the stairs. Bang bang! Jack goes under the ring and pulls out.....a 2x4 covered in barbed wire! Shit's getting real now. Hebner tries to stop it to no avail. HHH cuts Jack off with a low blow. He gets the 2x4 and works Jack over with it! HHH is noticeably limping from the leg wound but is pushing through it. Jack cuts off another shot. He low blows HHH with the 2x4! Double underhook DDT! But, Hebner decided to get the 2x4 out of the ring and stash it with Spanish commentary. By the time he finally gets back in, HHH kicks out. Jack's upset. Not at the count, because Hebner took his toy away. He goes looking for it and sees Spanish commentary has it. Savinovich won't give it up and Jack punches him out! Cabrera does the smart thing and hands it over. Back in HHH runs Hebner over to take him out for a bit, not that it matters in a match like this. Jack nails HHH over the head with the 2x4! Then he drops the 2x4 right onto HHH's head while he's down! HHH is bleeding properly from the forehead now as well as his leg. Jack covers for a long 2. We get a closer look at HHH's leg wound but commentary's still not fully onto it yet. Another 2x4 head shot. HHH is gushing blood. Jack scrapes his face with the barbed wire! He punches on the cut as Trips goes full crimson mask. Between that and the leg I don't even want to know how much blood he's lost. HHH gets set up on the English announce table. Jack sets up a piledriver on the table. HHH backdrops out! Both Jack and he fall onto the table, and when they do the top of the table breaks in half! I don't think I've ever seen an announce table break like that before. HHH is flopping all over the place as he tries to escape the wreckage. Commentary finally notices and mentions the leg wound and we get a good close up of it after HHH get back in the ring. Pedigree setup. Jack counters into a corner slingshot that HHH puts some serious extra welly on. Bulldog onto the 2x4! HHH kicks out! Cactus Clothesline! Jack charges on the floor and HHH hiptosses him onto the steps! Jack gets whipped into the steps. HHH clips his knee. Both guys wobble back into the ring. Another knee clip. 2x4 shot onto Jack's knee! HHH goes out and gets the bag from Fink. It's handcuffs! Commentary immediately remembers Foley getting his hands handcuffed behind his back at the Rumble last year. HHH tries to do it again. Jack fights back but HHH kicks his knee to get him down again. The cuffs are on and Jack's hands are literally tied behind his back. Beatdown time. HHH gets the stairs and puts them in the ring. He picks them up and charges at Jack. Jack does a drop toe hold and HHH's face goes into the steps! Jack dives down into HHH's crotch! Then he bites HHH. HHH comes back up with a clothesline. More chairshots to Jack's head with the chair back legit breaking off. Another chairshot to the head in the aisle. Jack wants more! While he's screaming for that the Rock runs in and hits HHH with a chair! Then immediately leaves again. Total drive by. The only reason I can see for that happening is interference was so baked into the main event style at the time they felt like they had to do something. While everyone's down a cop comes out and frees Jack from the handcuffs. Jack pounds HHH around ringside a bit more. They set up on the Spanish announce table. Jack hits a piledriver on the table! And the table doesn't give an inch! Very '89 Funk/Flair bit there. As everyone gets back in the ring Jack has a large bag with him. Thumbtacks! A TON of thumbtacks! Steph runs back out to try to distract. HHH gets back up but is extremely wobblelegged. Jack charges. HHH backdrops him into the tacks! Human pin cushion time! Pedigree! Jack kicks out! HHH is furious. He quickly recovers though. Kick wham PEDIGREE ONTO THE THUMBTACKS! Hebner tries to find a safe tackless spot to count and it's all over. Clean as a sheet win for uberheel HHH. A brilliant, well constructed piece of pure violence. All the credit in the world to HHH for gutting through getting his leg punctured barely a third of the way in and still going through the whole thing. The last of his doubters should have been silenced by this performance. Mick Foley once again plays kingmaker while also ably adding on to his own legend. This is absolutely one of the best non-Rumble matches on a Rumble show ever. *****

Jack's got tacks stuck in his forehead after the bell. A stretcher comes out for the WINNER. That's when you know how brutal the match was. Jack chases the stretcher down! He rolls HHH into the ring apron! They get back in the ring and HHH takes one last shot from the 2x4. I have a feeling this isn't over.

The ring crew works frantically to clear the ring of thumbtacks before the Rumble starts. JR and Lawler's announce table is broken in a way that can't be fixed and completely covered in dried blood. The ring mat is also caked with dried blood that will stay there the whole Rumble. Fink starts up the prematch Rumble rules rundown before the cleanup is even finished. He gives this year's interval as "Regularly scheduled intervals of two minutes or less". Think they really had timing issues on this show. Commentary mentioned 90 seconds, which became the standard around this time. Officially.

 

Royal Rumble-

1 & 2. D'Lo Brown and Grandmaster Sexay- Lawler's annoyed his (alleged) kid had a bad draw. Sexay, brain trust that he is, decides to dance and Brown jumps him. A Brown powerbomb is barely countered into a hurricanrana. Sexay makes sure to get that annoying horse braying laugh in a couple of times. He hits a missile dropkick off the second rope. Brown goes over the top but lands on the apron.

3. Mosh- Complete with tit cones. Should he have been in the bikini contest? Also, are those things legal? Kaientai run in! They're just a straight team now of Taka Michinoku and Funaki (future SMACKDOWN #1 ANNOUNCER). They were originally entered into the Rumble but were pulled earlier in the day and are clearly not happy about it. Of course, being Kaientai, as soon as they hit the ring they both get tossed over the top and out. Thanks for coming. Mosh whips Brown and Brown legit runs into Sexay while Sexay wasn't looking. Brown spinebuster on Mosh. The cones are off! Sexay bulldog on Brown. Mosh seems to have tweaked his ankle but shakes it off.

4. Christian- He hits a quick reverse DDT on Mosh. With four guys in we get a couple of pair offs.

5. Rikishi- Backup for Sexay as he was in Too Cool now, and he gets a pretty big pop. Superkick and Mosh is the first elimination. Good thing too, Rock was really worried about him. Christian is eliminated by Rikishi. A Brown neckbreaker and legdrop on Rikishi are no sold. Rikishi Driver. Brown's gone. The factionmates stare down. Sexay tries to talk Rikishi down.

6. Scotty 2 Hotty- Well how about that. All of Too Cool is in now. No one wants to fight. The glasses go on Rikishi and we get a mid-Rumble dance segment with the crowd fully into it. Until Rikishi double clotheslines his partners and dumps them out! Well done. Scotty and Sexay are cool with it, it's just business. The lights go out again and Rikishi dances some more.

7. Steve Blackman- If there's anyone that's guaranteed to end the ha-ha's, it's Steve Blackman. He kicks Rikishi down. Rikishi hits another Rikishi Driver and Blackman's gone. Rikishi is definitely getting the big man push this year. The crowd's all for it.

8. Viscera- Speaking of big men. We get the big guy staredown into a slugfest. Viscera hits a belly to belly suplex and legdrop. Avalanche. Rikishi dodges a second one. He hits a flurry of superkicks, gets Viscera over the top and Viscera is gone. Seven eliminations and all by Rikishi.

9. The Big Boss Man- He may be evil but he's no dummy. Seeing how things have gone he takes his sweet time, never fully getting in the ring and killing the whole period.

10. WWF Hardcore Champion Test- He gets a pretty good pop, still riding the wave of being Steph's beau before she turned evil. As women do. Boss Man is still on the floor so Test jumps him. Boss Man runs Test into the post. Test backdrops Boss Man on the floor. They finally both get in the ring. After they do it's low blows all around.

11. "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith- Another 4 men in pair off. Test hits the big boot on Boss Man. Rikishi goes for the banzai drop but Bulldog low blows him, then he tries to deadlift pure muscle Rikishi over the top.

12. Gangrel- He still gets the blood spit in because that's super important. Kaientai is in again! And out they go again! Rikishi squashes Test and Gangrel in the corner. We get a replay of Taka going over the top again and face splatting right on the floor. Ouch.

13. Edge- He gets a *very* high pitched pop. A panties dropper. Everyone gangs up on him. Jealous? Rikishi hits the banzai drop on Boss Man. Lawler wants to see the replay of the "Chinese guy" (sigh) faceplanting again.

14. Mr. Bob Backlund- Surprise entrant! After his failed '96 presidential bid the story is Backlund is now running for Congress in Connecticut. He's wearing shorts instead of trunks so this might have been a last second thing. Backlund dodges in the corner and Rikishi bounces off. Everyone currently in the ring gangs up to take advantage of the opening, dumping Rikishi out! That gets some boos from the crowd. Backlund has a lot of fun doing some wobblelegged selling.

15. WWF Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho- The first of many double duty entrants tonight. A Jericho dropkick in the back eliminates Backlund. Edge and Jericho exchange some chops. Who could have guessed the future those two would have. Backlund leaves through the crowd in full campaign mode. It's plausible there's some Connecticut residents in the crowd.

16. Crash Holly- Edge quickly gets Crash upside down and spanks him. That's probably top quality content on some website somewhere. More low blows get tossed around. Icepacks will be needed after the match.

17. Chyna- Making the second of her two career Rumble entries. She'd be the last woman in a Rumble until Beth Phoenix in 2010. She knocks Test of the way and goes right for Jericho. Jericho gets Chyna over on the apron. Chyna suplexes Jericho from the apron and eliminates him! While she's letting Jericho know about it Boss Man comes up and eliminates her! The two of them argue all the way to the back.

18. Faarooq- As soon as Faarooq hits the ring the Mean Street Posse run in and jump him! I can't remember what exactly the story was here. Boss Man uses that opening to eliminate Faarooq. Everyone knocks Crash around.

19. WWF Tag Team Champion Road Dogg- He goes right for Test. Test responds by low blowing him. Crash saves himself again.

20. Al Snow- Boss Man eliminates Bulldog.

21. WWF European Champion Val Venus- Test jumps all over him. Kaientai's back again! No, it's just Funaki now. And he's eliminated for the third time. That has to be a Rumble record. JR mentions Taka's been taken to the hospital after his rough landing earlier. Which we get to see again.

22. Prince Albert- Snow and Venus team up to eliminate Edge. Dogg goes to the "wrap up the bottom rope and hope everyone forgets you're there" strategery. JR points out that's right out of the Lawler playbook.

23. Hardcore Holly- Another one goes right for Test. Who'd he piss off? Boss Man and Gangrel try to get Dogg off the ropes. Another Crash save.

24. The Rock- There's the cure for the acute case of jobberitis this Rumble had developed. Rock punches Boss Man over the top and out. Test and Venus get Rock on the ropes. Test powerbombs Crash.

25. WWF Tag Team Champion "Mr. Ass" Billy Gunn- Goes right for Rock. Dogg gets up and NAILS Hardcore from the side. Total blindisde shot that looked pretty legit. Rock hits a DDT and Crash is gone. Dogg gets himself wrapped around the bottom rope again.

26. The Big Show- The only other guy that has a snowball's chance in hell of winning this other than Rock. And I don't like the snowball's odds. Rock jumps him getting in. Show shrugs him off and quickly dumps Test and Gangrel. Test claims the "ironman" run this year such as it was at a bit over 26 minutes. Not exactly threatening the record books. Show gets back on Rock, then press slams Hardcore.

27. Bradshaw- The Mean Street Posse run in again but Bradshaw has better luck with them than Faarooq did. Still it leaves him distracted and the Outlaws take advantage to eliminate him. Faarooq comes back out and the Acolytes and Posse brawl to the back.

28. Kane- Kane *should* be a contender to win this, but he'd been mired in midcard hell for so long no one even thought of it as a possibility. Venus tries to jump Kane. Kane no sells it all and eliminates Venus.

29. The Godfather- With Ho Train, Rumble or no Rumble. They dance slowly all around the ring. Kane eliminates Albert. Here's Funaki one last time! He gets eliminated again right in front of the hos. Embarrassing. Well, it might be if any of them were decent looking. That leads to Lawler asking for one last Taka faceplant replay. Godfather finally gets in right as the countdown starts.

30. X-Pac- Snow eliminates Hardcore. Show eliminates Godfather. Rock hits a Samoan drop on Snow and Snow is gone. Dogg is finally up off the rope again. Gunn sneaks behind and eliminates him! Kane eliminates Gunn.

FINAL FOUR: Rock, Show, Kane, Pac- All of the final four came in at #24 or later this year. The Outlaws pull Kane out to the floor and they all brawl. Rock dodges a Pac spinning heel kick and dumps him out! But, the refs were too busy with the Kane/Outlaws brawl and didn't see the elimination, allowing Pac to get back in. Kane and Pac renew their recent rivalry. Kane hits a big boot on Rock. He goozles Show. Show counter goozles. After a minute Kane fights the chokeslam off. Pac hits the spinning heel kick on Rock this time. Kane enzuguri on Show! He slams Show! Pac comes from behind and eliminates Kane! Mandatory bronco buster spot on Show. I hate that move. Show presses Pac and drops him straight down to the floor, eliminating him for the second time. Final count: Funaki eliminations- 4, Taka eliminations- 2, Pac eliminations- 2, Taka faceplant replays- 4. To the surprise of no one, we're down to Rock and Show. Rock does a double leg takedown. Pad off. People's Elbow. Show blocks an elimination toss. Chokeslam! Show soaks the boos in. He scoops Rock up and makes a big show (no pun intended) of deciding which side to toss Rock out on. He chooses and goes. As Rock's going over he grabs the top rope and barely keeps his feet from hitting the floor, while Show's momentum sends him over the top and out! The Rock wins! As everyone expected. Good finish though. Rock becomes the third man to win the Rumble from #24, which at the time tied #27 for the slot with the most winners ever. Rock takes a mic to do a New Japan style show close promo. While he's doing that Show attacks him and dumps him over the top and out! This isn't over. Like last year things will get complicated before we get to Wrestlemania.

As I've made sure to make clear, going into tonight it was blatantly obvious Rock was winning. I don't know if there was ever a more obvious Rumble winner. But despite that and the fact the match was almost entirely midcarders at best they still managed to put together a pretty fun Rumble. All the Kaientai stuff was great and helped keep the fun factor up. ***1/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- WWF's banner year of 2000 gets off to a superb start with an all time great WWF Title match, a very good and groundbreaking gimmick match, and a very solid Rumble that managed to overcome the obviousness of the result.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A-