Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

2. WWE Royal Rumble 2000

Match card & results

• Tazz def. Kurt Angle
• Tables Match: The Hardy Boyz def. The Dudley Boyz
• Triple Threat Match for the Undisputed WWE Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) def. Chyna (c) and Hardcore Holly
• WWE Tag Team Championship Match: The New Age Outlaws (c) def. The Acolytes
• Street Fight for the WWE Championship: Triple H (c) def. Cactus Jack
• The Rock wins 30-Man Royal Rumble Match

With a top-10 Rumble match and a dynamite undercard, the 2000 Royal Rumble pay-per-view comes in at the number two spot. We’re almost there.

The night kicked off with Kurt Angle, who was still undefeated at this time, taking on a mystery opponent who turned out to be none other than Tazz in his WWE debut. Some people were aware of the situation but that didn’t make the moment any less special. Tazz picked up a pretty quick win and Angle letting him do that was pretty great. The Hardy Boyz and Dudley Boyz were up next in a Tables Match and after Bubba Ray got some heat with an anti-New York promo (he was still doing the stutter at this time), these four put on a great match that sometimes gets lost in the shuffle due to the TLC matches that would include Edge and Christian later on. But his was fantastic and the Madison Square Garden crowd was hot for it.

We’re going to go ahead and skip over Mae Young getting topless in the Miss Royal Rumble pageant and move on to the Triple Threat Match for the Intercontinental Championship that saw Chris Jericho become the sole champ in another good match. I’m always amazed that Chyna was able to get in there with the boys and nothing really seemed out of place. The tag title match with The New Age Outlaws and The Acolytes was too short to be good but fit in during the era.

Next up was the Street Fight for the WWE Championship as Mick Foley as Cactus Jack took on Triple h as part of their fantastic rivalry and this was everything it was billed to be. It was brutal, told a great story and proved that Triple H belonged at the top of the card as WWE Champion. It’s not that he hadn’t had good or great matches before but this took him to an entirely new level and Foley was brilliant as alway and was the only one to actually walk away from the match as Trips took the stretcher to the back. This was easily one of the greatest matches in Royal Rumble history and perhaps the best match not to be the Rumble match itself. Classic.

As for the Rumble match, it was difficult to follow up what happened before it but this is still in the top 10. Rikishi, who entered at number five, was the star of the beginning of the match as he eliminated the first seven participants on his own. Pretty impressive and fun to watch. This was also the Rumble match that Taka and Funaki, better known together as Kaientai, tried to infiltrate despite not officially being in the match. They got thrown out numerous times each and it was hilarious until Big Boss Man and Gangrel tossed Taka out and he basically broke his face. Big ouch on that bump.

With Stone Cold Steve Austin on the shelf and Triple H and Foley doing their own thing, the midcard really had to step up here and did a great job. In the end, however, it was still main event players as The Rock and The Big Show were the final two participants. Much like 1994 and 2005, Show and Rock went over the top rope at the same time but The Rock “held on” and was declared the winner. Replays would later show that Rock’s feet actually hit the floor and this played into the Fatal 4-Way at WrestleMania 2000. Excellent show.