The match was fairly low on big names in the early going, with Ric Flair and Finlay doing the 'veterans' story from one and two and Edge entering at five to put in a one of the great, forgotten all-time Rumble performances. King Booker provided arguably the only entertainment in the middle stretch and there were too many moments where there were too many bodies in the ring, but boy did it pick up in the second half. The final four were Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Edge and Randy Orton. Edge and Orton were teaming as Rated RKO at the time, but they were soon dumped by the two legends. From the moment that Michaels eliminated Edge to bring it down to the final two, the crowd in attendance were in for a genuine treat. A mere taster of what the two would produce in the following two years at WrestleMania, Michaels and Undertaker proceed to have something of a mini-match to end the Rumble, and I cant think of two more experienced performers with better chemistry. Everything was timed to perfection, made sense and ensured that they had the crowd in the palm of their hands. The near 10-minute interaction was as good as any standalone match around in WWE at the time. Undertaker got the win and would go on to defeat Batista at WrestleMania.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
