7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1999

2. Vince McMahon Won The Only Rumble Match He Competed In

It was a shocking moment leading up to the '99 Rumble when Vince McMahon announced his intentions on being in the match. He didn't have matches in his career prior to that. There was the "one hand tied behind Austin's arm" match on Raw in 1998 although that really wasn't anything more than an angle. The Rumble match would be his first real match and there was a lot of curiosity about what he might do. There was a lot of anticipation for it since he was the top heel in WWE at the time. A memorable segment prior to the Rumble was a video of Vince training with his son Shane for the match in a manner similar to a Rocky movie video package. It was done for comedic purposes and it worked. Vince's involvement in the match was minimal even though he lasted the longest along with Austin with 56:38 of time in the match. He ran away as soon as he could in the early going, then stayed outside the ring (often on commentary) while the match was going on. His only elimination? Austin, of course. When it came down to Austin and McMahon, the assumption was that Austin was going to toss him out to win the match in order to face the heel WWE Champion The Rock at WrestleMania 15. Nope. The Rock showed up, Austin grabbed him while he was on the apron and McMahon dumped Austin over the top for the win. It was a huge shock to have a non-wrestler like Vince McMahon win the match, but as the guy that books the shows he can do what he wants. It wasn't a bad idea in theory. It's just that what happened after that really ruined the whole thing.