7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1999

1. It Was The Most Overbooked Rumble Match Ever

There are probably some fans that think this was a great Rumble because of the ongoing storyline with Austin and McMahon, but it's really a major letdown all things considered. This was at the height of the period where Vince Russo and Ed Ferrara were writing in WWE where matches became shorter, more crazy angles took place and the booking was all over the place. It was still a successful time period, though, so most people look back at it fondly. As much as we loved Austin in those days, we wanted to see him in the ring. This match featured him getting attacked in the bathroom by the Corporation and then we'd get updates on his status during the match. When he returned to the ring, of course he was just fine. When you look at how they followed up, the win by McMahon didn't even matter. McMahon gave up his right to face the champion, so Austin as the runner up was given the match at WrestleMania 15 even though he failed to win the Rumble by the rules of the match. That led to the next PPV where they had a cage match where Austin won. They got people to spend $34.99 or whatever the PPV price was to watch a match and then have the result changed. What a waste. Thankfully there's no Rumble match that is like this one where the winner was outside the ring for 95% of the time. If you're wondering, Austin eliminated the most guys with eight eliminations. http://youtu.be/OWlrAjM9V-Y It's one of the worst Rumble matches ever just because it felt like a waste of an hour when all they really cared about was that angle at the end. No other wrestlers were really booked like threats to win and there were few moments that were that compelling throughout. If you haven't seen the 1999 Rumble in a while, do yourself a favor and don't watch it again. It was disappointing then and even more frustrating now. It's one of the worst Rumble PPVs ever even though it probably made WWE a lot of money just like everything else that year. Thankfully, the Rumble PPV the following year was much better.
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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.