10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE Royal Rumble

3. The 2000 Show Wrecked A UK Partnership

Randy Orton WWE Royal Rumble Record
WWE.com

UK wrestling fans were excited when terrestrial broadcaster Channel 4 inked a deal with the WWF to show Sunday Night Heat and select pay-per-views in late-1999. Seeing the 2000 Royal Rumble air on totally free television was unreal, but C4 execs were less-than-thrilled by some of the company's content.

Namely, shocking moments like Mae Young getting her prosthetics out during a bikini contest and some of the bloody violence in other matches irked them. Clearly, the folks in charge of Channel 4 business hadn't been paying attention to the WWF product, and they wanted out of the agreement pronto.

The relationship soured quickly from there.

C4 was so frightened off by Vince McMahon's promotion that they decided to run April's Backlash show on a 50 minute tape delay. That was a tad excessive, but Channel 4 didn't want to take further chances, or see pensioners get their fake breasts out on TV.

They were totally cool with airing Eurotrash after the watershed mind. Just saying.

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Lifelong wrestling, video game, music and sports obsessive who has been writing about his passions since childhood. Jamie started writing for WhatCulture in 2013, and has contributed thousands of articles and YouTube videos since then. He cut his teeth penning published pieces for top UK and European wrestling read Fighting Spirit Magazine (FSM), and also has extensive experience working within the wrestling biz as a manager and commentator for promotions like ICW on WWE Network and WCPW/Defiant since 2010. Further, Jamie also hosted the old Ministry Of Slam podcast, and has interviewed everyone from Steve Austin and Shawn Michaels to Bret Hart and Trish Stratus.