Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

7. WWE Royal Rumble 2002

Match card & results

• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: Spike Dudley and Tazz (c) def. The Dudley Boyz
• WWE Intercontinental Championship Match: William Regal def. Edge (c)
• WWE Women’s Championship Match: Trish Stratus (c) def. Jazz
• Street Fight: Ric Flair def. Mr. McMahon
• Undisputed WWE Championship Match: Chris Jericho (c) def. The Rock
• Triple H wins 30-Man Royal Rumble

There was never really any doubt about who was going to win the 2002 Royal Rumble but that doesn’t mean we couldn’t enjoy the return of Triple H anyway. Throw in a good undercard and we’ve got ourselves the seventh-best Royal Rumble pay-per-view in history.

The night started off with a WWE Tag Team Championship Match with Tazz and Spike Dudley beating Bubba Ray and D-Von. The match was a little too short but still got the job done as these guys obviously worked well together after all of their time in ECW. Up next was the Intercontinental Championship Match between William Regal and Edge and this was a fun match. Regal never quite gets the credit for being what he was and his great work as a heel was on full display here as the story with the brass knuckles was done beautifully.

As would happen way too often in the women’s matches, the Women’s Championship bout with Jazz and Trish Stratus was very short, only going about four minutes. They did the best they could with the time they were given but it’s difficult to get invested in a match like that. Ric Flair and Vince McMahon got nearly four times that amount in their Street Fight but it was fun enough, even if Vince had control of the match for too long. As you can imagine, this one got pretty bloody.

The WWE Undisputed Championship was on the line in the penultimate match of the night as Chris Jericho took on The Rock in a very good match. The two have always had great chemistry with one another and giving Jericho the win here made good sense. This kept The Rock on the outside a bit and freed him up to get into his program with Hulk Hogan leading into WrestleMania X8, which obviously worked out well. It also gave a little more credibility to Jericho’s title reign, even if he went the heel route to get the victory.

As I said, the Royal Rumble was built around Triple H, who had returned just a few weeks earlier following that horrendous quad injury that kept him out of action for eight months. The match never really got slow and had some very fun moments, including Tough Enough winner Maven eliminating The Undertaker from the match with a dropkick. BIg surprise moment there and something he can brag about forever.

The final four of the match were Triple H, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Mr. Perfect, which was really fun to see. Surprisingly, Austin was out first and Curt Hennig got a quick chance to shine in a nice nostalgic moment before being tossed. That allowed Angle and Triple H, who were always great in the ring together, to get it on for a few minutes before Trips caught him with a great clothesline to pick up the win. Very entertaining Rumble match that’s in the top 10 of all time.