Royal Rumble Rewind: 2007

While they had and would have longer and more notable face-offs, the Shawn Michaels/Undertaker mini-match that caps off this Rumble helps it stand out from many of the others in its history.

2007 Royal Rumble

Emanating from the AT&T Center in San Antonio, TX

This year’s Rumble starts off with style as Ric Flair is #1. He’s gone an hour before to win it, but that was 15 years earlier. And things don’t start off easy for him as Finlay is #2. Finlay tries to overpower Flair to begin, but he comes back with some chops. Finlay hoists Flair up, but Flair rakes his eyes before he can toss him out. #3 is Kenny Dykstra and he had issues with Flair at this time. As Dykstra puts the boots to Flair, Finlay comes up from behind him and tries to toss him out. Participating in his second match tonight is Matt Hardy out at #4. We’ve paired off now with Dykstra and Hardy going at it and Flair tussling with Finlay. Nobody’s been eliminated yet, but that may change because Edge is out at #5. He comes in and hits spears on Flair and Finlay. Hardy is able to avoid one and then hits Edge with a Twist of Fate. Flair goes outside and brings a chair into the ring. Before he can use it though, Edge grabs him and throws him to the floor. In response, Dykstra mocks the Flair strut, but Edge grabs him and throws him out as well. Nice! Tommy Dreamer is the #6 entrant and he goes right after Edge. #7 is another ECW representative, Sabu. Before getting in the ring, he sets up a table on the outside. He then comes in and attacks his hardcore brethren, Dreamer. Gregory Helms is #8 and he attacks Hardy, who he was feuding with at the time. Finlay comes close to eliminating Sabu, but he’s able to put on the brakes. #9 is Shelton Benjamin and he tries to make an impact by eliminating both Dreamer and Hardy, but both guys manage to hang on. That table Sabu set up remains untouched, but I can’t imagine that will stay that way for much longer as they’ve already made several elimination teases near it. The ring is starting to fill up, but have no fear because Kane is out at #10 to thin the herd. His first victim is Tommy Dreamer. He backdrops Sabu over the top rope and then chokeslams him off the apron and through the table. See told ya.

It’s clobbering time because C.M. Punk is out at #11. He opts to go right after Edge. Putting the ‘royal’ in Royal Rumble is King Booker at #12. He comes in and immediately dumps Helms. Nobody else is real close to being eliminated at the moment. #13 is Super Crazy. That prompts JBL to start busting out some of his racist jokes. #14 is Jeff Hardy and he teams up with his brother to attack everyone. Even with as many guys in the ring as there are, they’re able to hit Kane with Poetry in Motion. If you’ve begun to smell stale beer, it’s because Sandman has emerged at #15. He starts attacking everyone with a kendo stick, but before he can really get rolling, Booker tosses him out. Looks like we’ve got our Bushwacker winner of the night. Sidenote: it’s probably unfair to keep calling this the Bushwacker award since there have been other guys like the Warlord and Mo who have had far shorter durations in this match than either of those two guys. Eh, who cares. Bushwacker award works. Finlay tosses Jeff Hardy over, but he skins the cat to come back in. Punk manages to do the same thing after Kane attempts to throw him out. Edge’s partner at this time, Randy Orton is the #16 entrant. He teams up with Edge to quickly eliminate Super Crazy and both Hardyz. They could become a force in this match. #17 is Chris Benoit and he attacks everyone in the ring. JBL as an announcer is like a human Wikipedia – providing endless useless facts, only some of which are accurate. Rob Van Dam is out at #18 and he too takes shots at everyone. Kane grabs Booker and throws him out. This displeases the King. Booker comes back in the ring and hits Kane with an axe kick. He then throws Kane over the top rope and brawls with him on the outside. This would be their feeble attempt at starting a feud with these two. As the referees try to separate those two, Viscera comes out at #19. Lawler stupidly asks if anyone can get the 400 lbs. Viscera out despite the fact that he has announced several Rumble matches in which one guy has been able to eliminate him. Johnny Nitro enters at #20 and unsuccessfully tries to throw out RVD. Benoit throws Benjamin over the top rope and he shows some incredible strength by holding onto the bottom rope and avoiding having his feet touch the floor.

Kevin Thorne is #21 and if you don’t remember this guy, don’t worry. This match is only five years old and I barely remember the guy. Pro wrestling was one of the few places where the vampire craze never really took off. RVD hits Viscera with several clotheslines, but cannot get him over the top rope. There are too many guys in there right now and with Hardcore Holly coming out at #22, we’ll have to wait at least another 90 seconds before a mass exodus will take place. Benjamin monkey flips RVD over the top rope, but he manages to hang on. Virtually everyone in the ring works together to try and get Viscera out. No one is paying attention to that, however, because Shawn Michaels is out at #23. He takes on Finlay and makes quick work of him. Michaels then superkicks Viscera, which is enough for the rest of the entrants to then propel him over the top rope and out. Benjamin charges at Michaels, but gets backdropped out of the ring. Man, Benjamin never could catch a break against Michaels. That thins things out somewhat. #24 is Chris Masters and receives zero response from the crowd. At least JBL has enough sense to mock him. Nitro goes up top, which is never a good move. It still holds true here as Benoit knocks him out. Chavo Guerrero is #25 and he goes after Masters. Meanwhile, Benoit continues to do his part in eliminating deadweight by dumping Thorne. MVP is #26 and his theme song tells us (warns us?) he’s coming. RVD dropkicks Masters who falls out of the ring in comedic fashion. Orton gets Punk over the top rope, but Punk does a good job of managing to hang out. Getting the lucky #27 (more guys have won from this spot than any other) is Carlito. Chavo and RVD team up in an attempt to eliminate Michaels. #28 is The Great Khali and I’d imagine we’ll get a mass exodus here. He delivers headbutts to everyone in front of him. Everybody but Khali is now down on the mat. Now he begins to eliminate people starting with Holly. The Miz enters at #29 and immediately gets thrown out by Khali. I think he just took the Bushwacker award away from Sandman. Meanwhile Khali has now also eliminated Benoit, RVD, Punk, Carlito, and Chavo. Before he can toss out anybody else, The Undertaker comes out at #30 to round out the field. Those two slug it out with neither one dropping. Taker blocks a Khali bomb attempt and then clotheslines Khali out of the ring. Taker grabs MVP and connects with Old School. He then dumps him out of the ring.

That brings us to our Final Four of The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, Randy Orton, and Edge. A solid quartet comprised of all legitimate contenders. Taker tosses Edge, but he manages to hang on. Behind him, Orton nails Taker with a chair. Edge starts to go for a spear, but Orton sees him. Orton thinks his partner was trying to double cross him, while Edge claims he was going for Taker. Orton stops bickering with Edge long enough to give Michaels an RKO. Edge and Orton now team up to attack Taker. Taker has been busted open from Orton’s chair shot. Taker manages to comeback and clotheslines both of them. He then hits Edge with Snake Eyes and a big boot. As he attempts to chokeslam Orton, Edge hits him with a spear. Edge then blasts Taker with another chair shot. They attempt to hit Taker with a Con-chair-to, but Michaels gets back up. He backdrops Orton out of the ring and then superkicks Edge out. We’re down to Michaels and Taker. Both of them are down and then situp/kip up at the same time. Michaels attempts a 10-punch count, but Taker shoves him down. Now Taker sends Michaels to the corner and slugs away at him. Taker whips Michaels to the corner where he does his flip, flop, and fly sell. Taker goes for a big boot in the corner, but misses and falls to the apron. Michaels tries to knock Taker off the apron, but Taker blocks it. As they slug it out, the crowd chants for ‘HBK’. Taker drops Michaels with a big boot. Taker lifts Michaels over the top rope, but he hangs on. Both men go to the top rope, but Michaels knocks Taker down. He follows that up with a flying elbow. With Taker down, Michaels begins to tune up the band. He goes for the superkick, but Taker blocks it and then hits him with a chokeslam. Taker picks up Michaels for a Tombstone, but Michaels escapes and connects with Sweet Chin Music. Michaels goes for another kick, but Taker ducks it and dumps him to the floor for the victory.

Bottom Line: After a mostly forgettable effort, that was quite the finish. We got a 10 minute mini-match between two legends. What made it even better is that either guy could have won it, which left the finish in doubt. With that victory, Taker made history by becoming the first guy to win the Rumble at #30. Prior to the Michaels/Taker stuff this was a disappointing Rumble that failed to yield any memorable spots. As is the case with most of the weaker Rumbles, you had too many guys staying in for too long. And it was also frustrating to see them give such a worthless stiff like Khali the ‘Diesel push’ and have him eliminate a fifth of the roster by himself. The finish saves this one, but doesn’t do enough to make it a great Rumble. ***