7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1997

6. Poor Undercard Matches Hurt The Show

A weak undercard can kill any show. For the 1997 Rumble, it really was a two match show with Shawn Michaels' quest for the WWE Title as the main draw while the Rumble itself was always something the fans loved. When watching the four undercard matches on the PPV portion of the show, the best advice is to just skip them. Hunter Hearst Helmsley (still not referred to as Triple H) defeated Goldust in an Intercontinental Title. It was far from a great feud and Goldust was much better as a heel. WWE foolishly turned him face because he was getting too much of a reaction. Hunter won after a belt shot in a match that was boring and still got 17 minutes. Faarooq and Ahmed Johnson had some issues going into the Rumble PPV. They were fine as characters, but neither man was really known for having good matches. Faarooq was leading the Nation of Domination at the time. Ahmed was the babyface that people liked although he was losing steam. They had an awful 9 minute match that ended when all the Nation guys interfered. There was a six man match featuring with Perro Aguayo, Canek & Hector Garza beating Jerry Estrada, Heavy Metal & Fuerza Guerrera. It was an 11 minute match featuring six guys that had no storylines in WWE. They were brought in because WWE didn't have a lot of talent at the time, so they had to fill up the card with something. Since they were in Texas, they figured a match featuring luchadores would be good. The outcome didn't lead to anything. It was just PPV filler. The other midcard match featured Undertaker and Vader, which will be looked at on the next page.
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John wrote at WhatCulture from December 2013 to December 2015. It was fun, but it's over for now. Follow him on Twitter @johnreport. You can also send an email to mrjohncanton@gmail.com with any questions or comments as well.