Royal Rumble Rewind: 1997

While he obviously had bigger or more historic moments in his career, it could be argued that Stone Cold Steve Austin's dubious win at this year's Rumble was key in turning him into the superstar that he became.

1997 Royal Rumble

Emanating from the Alamodome in San Antonio, TX

Crush has drawn #1 and shockingly Ahmed Johnson is #2. Who would have thought that two men who are at odds with each other would draw the first two numbers? Crush hammers away on Ahmed in the corner, but Ahmed comes right back with a clothesline. Ahmed already appears to be blown up as Crush tries to get him out of the ring. With no countdown or buzzer, “Razor Ramon” comes down at #3. Ahmed meets Razor as soon as he gets in the ring and moments later tosses him out. Ahmed then dumps Crush, but Crush hangs on and brings himself back in. All of a sudden, Ahmed hops over the top rope and eliminates himself. We soon see it was because Farooq came down the aisle. Ahmed chases him to the back and Crush is left alone in the ring. That doesn’t last long as Phinneas Godwinn comes out at #4 (still no countdown). Phinneas immediately tries dumping Crush, but Crush wraps himself around the ropes. As the two slug it out, the glass breaks, which means it’s Stone Cold Steve Austin at #5. Crush holds Phinneas for Austin, but Austin misses and hits Crush instead. Austin then shrugs his shoulders as if to say “Eh, who cares”. Nice! That error, however, allows Phinneas to toss out Crush. As Phinneas celebrates, Austin comes up, stunners him and then harshly heaves him to the floor. Bart Gunn is #6 and tries to gain a quick upper hand on Austin with a Rocker dropper. As Gunn charges at Austin, Austin sidesteps him and clotheslines him out. Austin is making light work of everyone so far, so he does some push-ups while he waits for the next guy. He then hops up into the corner and checks his pretend watch. His wait is finally over as Jake “the Snake” Roberts strolls out at #7. A nice wink back to their King of the Ring final. Jake actually hits the short-arm clothesline, but when he goes for the DDT, Austin backdrops him to the floor. Austin then whips Roberts’ snake bag at him. The PETA people won’t like that, but then again it’s not like Austin refused to feed the snake like Jake did. During Jake’s elimination, the buzzer rang and now we get entrant #8, the British Bulldog, who’s BIZARRE. The Bulldog and Austin have been at odds with each other recently. The Bulldog goes right after Austin and kicks away at him. #9 is Pierroth, who fails to illicit any reaction from the crowd. Pierroth begins to fight with the Bulldog, giving Austin a breather. The Sultan is #10 and he goes after Pierroth when he gets into the ring. Meanwhile, the Bulldog almost gets Austin out.

#11 is Mil Mascaras and these time periods seem to be getting shorter than 90 seconds. Can somebody tell me what the deal is with Mascaras? First, he wears these tights that make him look like he’s wearing a diaper. Then, there’s his legs. Are they detachable? There is such an indentation between where his legs connect to his torso that he looks like an action figure. Maybe he wears a mask all the time to take notice away from the lower half of his body. Anyway, he comes in and goes after the Sultan. HHH is entrant #12 and we do not have one clear-cut babyface in there currently, which is really strange. Everyone pairs as it’s the Bulldog and the Sultan, Mascaras and HHH and Austin and Pierroth. The Bulldog clotheslines the Sultan, and as he staggers to get up, the Bulldog clotheslines him again, but this time it’s to the floor. Austin grabs HHH and tosses him over, but HHH is able to hang on. Pierroth and Mascaras go at it as Owen Hart comes out at #13. Owen and the Bulldog take turns attacking Austin. As the Bulldog tries to eliminate Austin, Owen comes up and dumps the Bulldog out. The Bulldog is furious and Owen pleads innocent. Everything is not well in the land of the tag champs. #14 is Goldust, who is jumped by Austin as soon as he hits the ring. We now have Owen vs. Mascaras, Austin vs. Goldust and HHH vs. Pierroth. #15 is Cibernetico. OK, enough with the AAA guys. We don’t care! Goldust tosses HHH over and again HHH hangs on. Marc Mero comes out at #16 as Pierroth eliminates Cibernetico. Then, Pierroth gets dumped out by Mascaras. Mascaras then stupidly goes up top and jumps into Cibernetico and Pierroth, thus eliminating himself. Well, that took care of the Mexican contingency real quick. Goldust and Mero work together and eliminate HHH thus giving Goldust some retribution for his loss earlier. Just when we think the AAA guys are gone, Latin Lover comes out at #17. Goldust dodges a dropkick by the Latin Lover, but moves right into a clothesline by Owen, which sends him to the floor. Farooq comes in at #18 and makes an immediate impact by backdropping the Latin Lover out of the ring. That’s all Farooq will do because soon after, Ahmed comes out with a big board and chases Farooq out of the ring. Then as the referees try to regain control, Austin dumps both Owen and Mero out, leaving him by himself. In another nice nod to Austin’s past, it is Savio Vega, who comes out at #19. The two brawl until Vega gets the upper hand with a slingshot and spinning heel kick. Austin comes back, however, by hitting Vega with a hot shot and then clotheslining him to the floor. As Austin waves on the next guy, we see it’s Double J Jesse James at #20. He tries his luck, but Austin quickly dispenses of him as well.

Now Austin perches himself in the corner again eagerly anticipating the next entrant. The buzzer sounds and lo and behold it’s Bret Hart, the man he’s currently feuding with. The two go at it and Bret gets the better of the exchange. Bret locks Austin in the Sharpshooter as the buzzer sounds. #22 is none other than Jerry Lawler, who stops mid-sentence, gets up from the announce table and hops into the ring. As soon as he hopped in, Bret comes over and punches him right back out of the ring. Lawler dusts himself off, goes back over to the announce table and finishes his sentence. Classic Rumble moment. Bret continues to dominate Austin as “Diesel” enters at #23. Diesel attacks Bret allowing Austin to rest. Now Austin is able to go back on the attack as he throws Bret chest-first into the corner. Terry Funk is out at #24. He goes after Austin as Bret and Diesel duke it out. As Funk hits a weak piledriver on Bret, Rocky Maivia comes out at #25. Naturally, he goes after Austin because those two are like magnets, only we didn’t know that yet at this point. Mankind strolls out at #26 and just like Rocky naturally went after Austin, he goes after Funk. Some big star-power in the ring right now. Bret locks Austin in a sleeper, but Austin quickly jawjacks him. Flash Funk is your #27 entrant and J.R. quickly notes he’s not related to Terry. Thanks J.R. He comes in and goes up top where he then launches himself onto Diesel and Funk. The buzzer sounds and clearly it’s time for Vader to be #28. Everyone is kinda milling around now, preparing for the end game. #29 is Henry Godwinn and I question why he didn’t come out with the rest of the mid-card during the first half of the Rumble. There are some near eliminations but no one is gone just yet. We now get entrant #30, who is the Undertaker and he’s got a prime spot.

He comes in and goes right after Vader to avenge his loss earlier tonight. Now Taker goes after everyone, including his own brother, err…I mean, Diesel. Flash charges at Vader, who catches him and then tosses him over his head and to the floor. Impressive bump there. Taker whips Henry over, but he manages to hang on. However, a few moments later Taker and Henry tangle again and this time he is able to eliminate him. Bret comes close to eliminating Austin. Rocky comes off the ropes, but Mankind catches him in the Mandible Claw and forces him over the top rope and to the floor. Mankind and Funk begin to brawl and Mankind clotheslines both of them over the top rope, but not to the floor. Before Mankind can recover though, Taker boots him to the floor. Mankind and Funk begin to brawl on the floor. Bret grabs Austin from behind and finally eliminates him. That means your Final Four are: Bret Hart, Diesel, Undertaker and Vader. But wait a second…Austin sneaks back into the ring because the referees did not see him hit the floor as they were all occupied with Mankind and Funk. Austin goes behind Vader and Taker and dumps them both. He then sneaks behind Bret, who had just tossed out Diesel, and eliminates him as well. The bell rings and Austin is declared the winner.

Postmatch: Furious, Bret loses it and beats up the referee. He then goes outside, grabs Vince and begins to yell at him. What a sore loser!

Bottom Line: This Rumble is tough to rate. It started off real slow. Part of the problem was a dead crowd and the other half was nothing interesting going on. However, once Bret hit the ring things really picked up. There was a lot of star power in there, which made it difficult to figure out who was going to win it and then they provided a very creative, yet controversial finish. For me, this is one of my favorite Rumbles as there were some great moments (Austin’s antics, Lawler’s cameo) and a satisfying finish as I loved seeing Bret’s world come crashing down on him. Not the best Rumble, but definitely an improvement over the past couple. *** ¼