10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2019 Facts

9. Jeff Jarrett's First WWE Match In 20 Years

Royal Rumble 2019 Becky Lynch Charlotte Flair
WWE.com

That's J-E-Double F, haha, J-E-Double R, E-Double T.

The Royal Rumble 2019 marked Jeff Jarrett's first WWE match for nearly 20 years.

Unlike certain other surprise veteran Rumble entrants over the years, Jarrett had not been retired for any of those years, and he'd instead been patting himself on the back and awarding himself title after title in TNA for a large part of those two decades.

Double J was no stranger to WWE, having had two gold-laced stints with the promotion during the '90s. But whereas so many former WWE talents have made returns to Vince McMahon's sports entertainment juggernaut over the years, Jeff Jarrett remained somewhat on an exception.

By exception, that means that Jarrett was one of the extremely few talents who WWE just outright refused to even consider bringing back into the fold for the longest period of time - as highlighted by Vinny Mac publicly firing the Chosen One live on TV as part of WWE's assimilation of WCW.

The main reason for McMahon's disinterest in Jarrett dates back to 17 October 1999's No Mercy PPV. There, the six-time Intercontinental Champion held WWE up for a reported $200,000 to lose to Chyna, with Jarrett's WWE contract having expired the day prior to that event.

WWE agreed to pay Double J the money asked for, he did the J-O-B to Chyna, and he'd not compete in a WWE ring again until appearing in the 2019 men's Royal Rumble match.

Another fun fact about Jarrett's 2019 outing, is that he wore the exact same gear that he did during his WrestleMania XI match against Razor Ramon.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.