10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 1998 Facts

3. It Marked Shawn Michaels' Last Successful PPV Title Defense

Royal Rumble 1998
WWE.com

Michaels would hold three pieces of gold after his 2002 comeback: the World Heavyweight title in 2002, Raw's Tag Team championship with John Cena in 2007, and the unified Tag Team belts with Triple H in 2009-10. The only instance of Michaels defending any of those belts at a pay-per-view is when he dropped the World title back to Triple H after a four-week reign.

As a result, the win over The Undertaker at the 1998 Royal Rumble was the last time Shawn Michaels successfully defended any belt on pay-per-view.

Additional odd fact: the last time Michaels successfully defended any belt on a pay-per-view with a pinfall victory was when he defeated Vader at SummerSlam 1996. That's almost 14 years before his final match.

Contributor
Contributor

Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.