January 4th, 1999, was the day that the Monday Night War completely turned in the WWF's favor. Mankind, a beloved Attitude Era icon, finally got his hands on the WWF Championship with help from Steve Austin and D-X, a title change that was spoiled by WCW as that episode of Raw is War was pretaped. Tony Schiavone's "butts in seats" comment, plus the Fingerpoke of Doom later in the night, proved to be the beginning of the end for WCW, which would fold just over 2 years later. With momentum now entirely in his corner, Vince McMahon continued his feud with "Stone Cold", as the two men would begin the 1999 Royal Rumble. The build to this show was intense, but how well does it hold up decades later?
- Royal Rumble 1999 comes to you from the Arrowhead Pond(now Honda Center) in Anaheim, California, a venue that previously hosted WrestleMania 12 about 3 years prior. Jerry "The King" Lawler is joined by Michael Cole for this one, as Jim Ross had suffered an attack of Bell's Palsy late last year and wouldn't return to commentary duties until the main event of WrestleMania 15. Cole is very bland in comparison to JR, but he does better here than in modern WWE, as I get the sense that he has a bit more freedom to say what he likes at this time, making him sound much more genuine.
- Our opening contest sees Hardcore Champion Road Dogg take on Corporation member and one half of the tag team champions, the Big Boss Man, with no gold at stake. The crowd pops early for some of their shtick, especially Road Dogg, who is massively over at this time, but pipe right back down when it comes time for them to wrestle. I can't exactly blame them, as this was a tough match to watch, with Boss Man well past his peak and Road Dogg's selling and bumping are uninspired. His comeback is at least pretty good, as he uses his athleticism to hit some impactful offense, before being caught in the air and planted with the Boss Man Slam for the pin. There are moments here where this match is entertaining, and I like both characters, but neither man was capable of putting on a quality wrestling match.
- Ken Shamrock and Billy Gunn have a much better chance of having a good match, but their clash for Ken's Intercontinental Championship was a dull affair. Neither man has much in the way of charisma and neither tries too hard to get the crowd invested, so most of the contest takes place in silence. There is some good wrestling to be found here, but I found it difficult to care much about anything taking place in the ring before the Val Venis run-in. Billy accidentally clotheslines the official, leading to Val planting Ken with a DDT, as both men have been feuding recently after Val made a "film" starring Ken's kayfabe sister Ryan. Shamrock lifts his shoulder up just before 3, a really great last minute kick out from him there, and after Billy misses a top rope move, Shamrock is able to take him down and tap him out with the ankle lock. The finishing stretch was very good, but everything else here isn't worth watching.
- The European Championship is on the line in our next bout, as X-Pac defends against Gangrel. When X-Pac has someone in the ring with him who can keep up with his pace, he's capable of turning out some very good matches and this was pretty close to being another one. X-Pac is all over the place, nailing Gangrel with several spinning kicks and taking some big bumps to showcase his opponent's power, which the crowd loves. We get a bit of a strange moment when X-Pac hits a crossbody and Gangrel is able to get him into a pinning attempt on the mat, to which referee Teddy Long definitely administers a 3 count, but the match continues anyway. X-Pac gets the win in impressive fashion, as Gangrel runs right into a leaping X-Factor, a really impactful finish there. Big props to Gangrel here, who certainly showed he could go here and probably deserved more of a push than what he got in the WWE.
- Good wrestling wasn't exactly a priority in 1999 for the WWF, which is why we need to follow up that last good match with an effing strap match featuring Sable. I've never been a big fan of the strap gimmick in wrestling, though in fairness, I feel like on this night, even the best gimmick couldn't have saved Sable and Luna Vachon's scrap for the Women's title. This is one of the worst matches I've ever seen, as Sable can't go and Luna just doesn't seem to care at all. The most you get out of this one is Sable occasionally whipping Luna with the strap, before the finish, as interference from the recently debuted "fan" Tori allows Sable to get the win. Let's move on.
- Mankind and The Rock have been fighting over the WWF Championship for quite a few months to this point, and now meet in a gimmick match for the first time, an "I Quit" match. This one reached some level of infamy for the final stretch, as Mick Foley takes 11 sickening unprotected chair shots to the head, a sequence that is incredibly difficult to watch and featured as the climax to the film Beyond the Mat. Those 2-3 minutes are awful and went way past the level of brutality necessary for this match, but everything leading up to that point was highly entertaining. Both guys take turns just being incredibly fun to watch, with the best highlight being Rock banging on the ring bell right next to Mankind's head, before singing the "bells will be ringing" line from the song "Please Come Home for Christmas", which the crowd pops big for. Just in general, the fans seem unwilling to accept Rock as a heel and a section of them start a "Rocky" chant after he sends Mankind flying into an electrical arena in an absolutely ridiculous bump, as Foley just crashes into some massive boxes. But Rock does certainly cement himself as a heel with those chair shots, and even makes me briefly consider whether I even still like Dwayne Johnson as a human being, as he went just way too far here. The finish adds in some actual scripted controversy, as Mankind's voice is heard saying "I quit" but it's obvious he didn't say it live, and it's later revealed to be just a recording on him saying the line on Sunday Night Heat. I really want to like this match, as it is probably the best the two men ever had together, but those chair shots just make the experience of watching it very uncomfortable. Once again, Mick Foley is the toughest man in the business, but he shouldn't have been asked to be this tough on this night.
- Main event time, as it's the 1999 Royal Rumble, pretty much entirely centered around the Austin/McMahon feud. Those two start the match, before brawling to the back, as Austin gets jumped by The Corporation. He does eventually get back in, but most of this match is contested while the fans are concerned more about what's going on with "Stone Cold", and it really brings everything down. There are definitely parts of this that work, with Kane going on a quick elimination spree and a nice continuation of the Shamrock/Gunn feud, as Billy does some great, hobbling down to the ring with no boot on his injured ankle, putting on a selling clinic during his time in the ring. But again, everything's about Austin and McMahon, and the field is very light on legitimate stars, as no one even looks even close to the same level as the two main players. Austin is once again ganged up on by everyone in the match, heel or face, as he has a $100,000 bounty on his head, and the crowd pops big for him tossing out everyone in sight. It comes down to "Stone Cold" and Vince, obviously, and Austin has his third straight Rumble victory well in hand before new champion The Rock makes his way to ringside. The distraction is enough for Vince McMahon to toss out his biggest star and win his one of his own company's biggest matches, because when you're the one booking and competing, why not? Even though the end result is eye-rolling, Vince is a terrific heel, putting together his own beer bash as a victory celebration with Shane, Brisco and Patterson. Everything involving Austin and Vince is pretty entertaining, and most everything else is very skippable from this one.
5/10
Royal Rumble 1999 feels like a very average show to me, with quite a few peaks and valleys. X-Pac/Gangrel was good but could've perhaps used more time, Rock/Mankind was great until the chair shots and the Royal Rumble had it's moments, but it lacked starpower and the booking intentionally made most of the field seem completely irrelevant. The WWF may have been clobbering WCW on Monday nights during 1999, but most of their pay-per-view offerings left a lot to be desired, and while this show was certainly not the worst of the year, it's not anything that really needs to be seen.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View: I was originally planning on covering more 1999 shows, but after this one and St. Valentine's Day Massacre(that review can be found here), I don't feel like doing much more of these. I'm jumping ahead to SummerSlam 1999 next time, and No Mercy after that before moving on to 2000, a much better year for pay-per-views. See you soon.
- Henry
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