7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 2002

3. It Was Steve Austin's Last Rumble Match

It was the last Royal Rumble match for Steve Austin, who retired a year after this. Prior to the Rumble match, Austin interrupted a Stephanie McMahon speech and shouted "WHAT?" at her repeatedly. The fans loved it because the "WHAT?" phenomenon was very strong after he started doing it in the summer before. Stephanie freaked out about it while the crowd absolutely loved it. Austin's first Rumble match was in 1996 when he was still new and just another guy known as The Ringmaster. In 1997, he was a heel on the rise that found a way to win the match even though it was cheap. At the 1998 Rumble he was the odds on favorite that won one of the most obvious Rumbles ever. A year later in 1999 he finished second to Mr. McMahon, who had some help from The Rock in order to win. He missed the 2000 Rumble due to injury and ended up returning as a triumphant hero in 2001 as the Rumble winner. http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xu4vhb_wwe-stone-cold-stephanie-mcmahon-backstage-funny-segment_shortfilms The fact that this was Austin's last Rumble match is important because he's the only three time Rumble match winner and by the end of the night his 36 eliminations were an all-time record for the Rumble match. Even though Austin competed in only six Rumble matches, he's clearly one of the most important competitors in the history of the match. He helped make the Rumble feel important as much as anybody there's ever been.