Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble match in history

8. Royal Rumble 2000 – The Rock

There may have been a couple of better Royal Rumble matches in the Attitude Era, and we’re certainly getting close to those, but I had a lot of fun with the 2000 edition. The lineup wasn’t as stacked as maybe it could have been, as there were some injuries and all, but there were a lot of bit players from the era involved here, one of which was Hall of Famer Rikishi, who owned the beginning of this match by eliminating the first seven entrants by himself after entering the match in the five spot.

Notably absent from this Rumble was Stone Cold Steve Austin, who was out with an injury, and without the two-time winner in the match, the path was finally clear for The Rock to take his place at the top of the company. But it wasn’t without a little controversy.

After an entertaining buildup that saw Chyna enter once again and eliminate Chris Jericho, and a very entertaining spot with Road Dogg clinging to the bottom rope before being eliminated by Billy Gunn of all people, we got down to business with The Rock and Big Show, who were the last two men in the ring. Oh wait, hang on. I almost forgot about Kaientai. You remember Funaki and Taka, don’t you? What you may not remember is that they weren’t even in this match and yet they were both still eliminated a number of times after they just kept trying to insert themselves. And it was really funny until Big Boss Man and Gangrel tossed Taka out and he broke his face on the floor, which I guess in hindsight is still pretty funny after you found out he was okay. There was a lot of comedy in this match but that’s what time we were living in. Okay, now down to business.

The Rock and Big Show were a great twosome to finish this match off and what a finish it was. Following a vicious chokeslam, Show went to toss Rock out of the ring but his momentum took him along as well. Rock hung onto the top rope and the giant went tumbling to the floor below. The Rock wins … or does he? It didn’t get a ton of play immediately following the match but replays would later show that Rock’s feet actually hit the floor first and that Big Show should have been the winner. That parlayed into a feud leading into WrestleMania 2000 which would eventually see both men in a Fatal 4-Way match for the title anyway. Still a good time here though with a very hot Madison Square Garden crowd.