by Rick Scaia
Exclusive to OnlineOnslaught.com

Entering at #22, HHH alternately teamed up with and brawled against Stone Cold Steve Austin for much of the final third of the Rumble. By periodically working with Austin, HHH racked up several eliminations en route to his victory, which came when he last eliminated Kurt Angle.

Earlier in the show, Chris Jericho defeated the Rock to retain his Undisputed World Title, meaning that the tentative main event for WrestleMania pits HHH against Y2J.  Still, with 10 weeks and a PPV before WM, a lot can change...

Here are detailed results from the just-completed Royal Rumble pay-per-view:

-   In the opener, Tazz and Spike Dudley retained the WWF Tag Team Titles by defeating the Dudley Boyz.  Things started badly for the champs, as the Duds managed to isolate Spike (who was wearing a neck brace, selling the parking lot attack from earlier in the week).  For several minutes, Spike was beaten like the proverbial red-headed mule (or is that government step-child?) until making a hot tag to Tazz.  It looked like a return of the Human Suplex Machine, as Tazz cleaned house on the Duds.  In the chaos, Spike recovered enough to take Bubba Ray out with a Dudley Dog, while Tazz locked in the Tazzmission on D-Von to secure the submission victory.  A bit on the short side (which is noticeable anytime you try to force the whole "babyface in peril" thing), but pretty effective and fun while it lasted.

-  William Regal took the IC Title, defeating Edge.  Referee Nick Patrick found a pair of brass knuckles on Regal's person before the match and confiscated them, meaning that Edge and Regal worked the majority of this match without any possibility of foreign objects getting involved.  Unfortunately, the match never quite seemed to get on track the way it did between these two last month.  Making up for it, however, were some really cool spots (including a wicked DDT on the ring apron by Edge) that kept the crowd involved leading up to the finish.  The climax came following a ref bump; with the official momentarily out of it, Regal slipped on a back-up pair of brass knucks and KO'ed Edge.  Nick Patrick then came around and made the three count for Regal.

-  Trish Stratus retained the Women's Title with a win over Jazz.  Not unsurprisingly, the emphasis here was on actual displays of wrestling, and not on the T&A factor.  An early match bit of chain wrestling was quite effective (and not just as an excuse for Jerry Lawler to make some ham-handed attempt at passing it off as a lesbian encounter), for instance...  Jazz dominated the start of the match, but things turned around when Trish hit her "Stratus-faction" bulldog.  After that, it was back-and-forth until Trish could hit another bulldog to get the win.  Special ref Jacqueline did get into one minor shoving match with Jazz, but was otherwise a non-factor.

-  Ric Flair defeated Vince McMahon in their street fight.  Early part of this match had Vince establish his physical dominance over Flair; despite Flair's obvious in-ring experience advantage, Vince was physically stronger and more impressive.  Just minutes into the match, Flair was bleeding profusely.  Vince's main target was Flair's left leg, as he wanted to both set Flair up for a Figure Four while eliminating that hold from Flair's arsenal.  Vince was going for the knock-out blow with a lead pipe, but that's when Flair started his rally:  after a low blow to Vince, he took the fight to the outside, where he pummeled Vince with a monitor from the Spanish Announce Table (after which Vince was bleeding from the head, too).  Once the action returned to the ring, Flair clocked Vince with the lead pipe, and then cinched in the Figure Four to get the submission win over his business partner.  Certainly far from the ***** classics we've seen out of Flair over the years, but still about as entertaining and involving a match as you'll ever see out of two guys in their 50's.

-  Chris Jericho once again managed to hold on to his Undisputed Title with another shady win over the Rock.  After a pre-match bit of smacktalking, the Rock kicked things into high gear by assaulting Jericho.  Jericho had moments of offense during this part of the match, but everything was leading up to the Rock putting Jericho in a Sharpshooter.  Y2J actually began tapping out, but the ref was distracted by the arrival of Lance Storm and Christian;   Rock released Jericho and managed to beat on both interlopers, but the damage was done, as Jericho's tap-out went undetected and he got some time to recover.  The match spilled outside, eventually, allowing for the Rock to deliver the match's biggest highspot:  leaping from the Spanish Announce Table, he Rock Bottomed Jericho through the English Language table.  After a ref bump back in the ring, Jericho used one of his title belts to KO the Rock; evil ref Nick Patrick came running out to make the count, but could only get to 2.  Then the Rock rallied, and actually rolled Jericho up into a pinning combination...  but Patrick refused to count.  Rock took it upon himself to lay out Patrick, and then turned his attention to reviving original ref, Earl Hebner.  While he was doing so, Jericho attacked from behind, nailing a low blow and then using his feet on the ropes to gain an unfair leverage advantage that was enough to keep the Rock's shoulders down on the mat for the three count.  Typically good stuff from these two.

-  Triple H won the 30-man Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Kurt Angle.  The match was heavily "back-loaded" it seemed, with most of the top stars entering in the final third of the match...  but there were still some early match highlights, too.  When the Undertaker entered at #8, he immediately began cleaning house, tossing all four of the wrestlers still in the ring at that point.  After that, the Hardys were the next two wrestlers out, and made it clear through their actions that they were back on the same page together, teaming up to pound on Taker (a few times, they also got help from Lita).  However, Taker was more than a match for them, and managed to eliminate both Hardys after a few minutes; but when Taker was distracted with the departing Hardys, he himself was eliminated from behind by Maven, who had just entered the Rumble match.  Maven got a huge pop out of the crowd, but didn't get a whole lot of time to enjoy it; Taker got back in the ring and started beating the living hell out of Maven.  When that grew tiresome, Taker dragged Maven all over the arena, eventually leaving him for dead near a concession stand after putting his head through the glass side of a popcorn machine.

Phase 2 of the Rumble match saw the ring fill-up again with mostly mid-card talent so that there would be a nice-sized group in the ring for Steve Austin, who entered at #18, and immediately began eliminating people.  Austin tossed a bunch of them, and was alone in the ring when HHH entered at #21; due to the length of HHH's entrance, they two barely had time to lock horns before the Hurricane tried (feebly) to interject himself to the mix.  Hurricane wound up being the first of HHH and Austin's joint eliminations.  Kurt Angle and Mr. Perfect also entered late, and were alongside Austin and HHH in the Rumble's Final Four.  Austin, while brawling with Perfect, was eliminated from behind by Angle.  HHH then took out Perfect with a clothesline, leaving HHH and Angle (the two men who fought in a WWF Title match at last year's Rumble PPV) as the last two men standing.  Angle though he had the match won after tossing HHH over the top, but HHH skinned the cat in true HBK fashion, and quickly tossed the surprised Angle out of the ring.

I'm sure many will complain that the WWF did the "obvious" thing by putting HHH over, but the fact is that from crowd reactions and all, it seems like the right move at this time.  And it does not take away from some of the entertaining moments (especially the early Undertaker/Hardys/Maven stuff), either.  A good Rumble match, though not one that'll rank with the handful of truly memorable ones.

"The right moves" were also apparent throughout the show:  keeping the title on Jericho is the right thing to do, especially after his killer promo from SmackDown!...  giving Tazz and Spike a win was a good call, too, as they are a much-needed breath of fresh air in an increasingly stagnant tag division.  I did not think the Fed would do it, but I was also pleased to see William Regal get the IC Title, even if the match itself wasn't as good as I'd hoped.

By virtue of these "right moves" and by having no glaring holes in terms of the in-ring action, Royal Rumble rates as an easy Thumbs Up.  Just my own damned opinion, of course....

Check on back to OO tomorrow for more detailed results and ranting from Scott Keith!  

E-MAIL RICK
BROWSE THE PPV RECAP ARCHIVES

All contents are Copyright 1995-2014 by OOWrestling.com.  All rights reserved.
This website is not affiliated with WWE or any other professional wrestling organization.  Privacy Statement.