Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

18. WWE Royal Rumble 1998

Match card & results

• Vader def. The Artist Formerly Known as Goldust
• Max Mini, Mosaic and Nova def. Battalion, El Torito and Tarantula
• WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: The Rock (c) def. Ken Shamrock
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The Legion of Doom def. The New Age Outlaws (c) by disqualification
• Stone Cold Steve Austin wins 30-Man Royal Rumble Match
• Casket Match for the WWE Championship: Shawn Michaels (c) def. The Undertaker

The final two matches of the night at the 1998 Royal Rumble were what put this event in this spot. It’s not that there weren’t a few entertaining moments leading up to them but there was really nothing special either. Vader and Goldust was average until the finish when Vader gave Goldust the Vader Bomb with Luna on his back. Nice spot there. The little-people match was armdrag after armdrag but at least Sunny was there. The Rock versus Ken Shamrock was pretty solid but the LOD and New Age Outlaws bout was very disappointing.

Luckily, the night was saved at the end and it started with the Royal Rumble match. There was no chance in hell that anyone besides Stone Cold Steve Austin was going to win this match but there was a lot of fun on the way, highlighted by Mick Foley entering the match as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love. Hilarious. The Rock had a very nice showing as well, lasting more than 51 minutes before being the last man out as Austin solidified his place as the hottest act in wrestling. This was easily a top-10 Royal Rumble match.

The final match of the night was the Casket Match for the WWE Championship featuring The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. This was a very fateful night for HBK as this was the night when he suffered the injury that would cost him more than four years of his career after a back body drop over the casket went awry. It’s actually amazing that he was able to finish the match as this happened fairly early on. As it happened a lot in the Attitude Era, plenty of people were involved in the finish but this was still very entertaining.