7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1999

4. The Rock Destroyed Mankind In An Incredibly Violent WWE Title Match

When The Rock challenged Mankind for the WWE Title at the 1999 Royal Rumble, it was booked as an "I Quit" match. Those kinds of matches were rare. Since chair shots and other weapons were used all the time, the expectation was that it would be a very violent match especially since Mankind had no problem putting his body on the line. They had a very good match for 22 minutes, yet if you ask most people that saw it all they really remember is the ending. Before getting to that, there was a huge bump as they started brawling by the entrance and Mankind went up the balcony. He got sent off there and landed on electrical equipment. It was a big bump that we expected him to take because Mick Foley was a crazy man in the most entertaining way possible. The big story going into the match was that Mankind would never say "I Quit" so the evil Rock ended up handcuffing him. That led to the brutal sequence where Rock destroyed Mankind with a dozen chairshots to the head. These were some of the stiffest chair shots we have ever seen and all were unprotected since his hands were cuffed. We later learned from Foley that Rock was supposed to do less chair shots, but for whatever reason felt the need to do more. A final chair shot to the back of the head was probably the most sickening of them all. That led to Rock putting the microphone to Mankind's mouth, but he didn't say anything. An audio tape played saying "I Quit" because it was from the pre-show with Mankind saying he would never say those words in a match. Cheap ending. However, after the violent battle they had we're just happy it ended. Watching that match back again was painful. WWE banned chair shots to the head a number of years ago, which is great. They can really cause a lot of damage as we have learned especially in the last decade. Those kinds of things shortened Foley's career and who knows what kind of effect it has had on his life in terms of memory loss. It's not just that one match, but having those kinds of matches in his career was very damaging. We will never forget Rock/Mankind at the 1999 Rumble because of how violent it was. This was the best match on the show by far, but it's tough to enjoy it considering how it ended.