Royal Rumble 1998 1998-01-18

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Event
Royal Rumble 1998

Date
Sun 18th January 1998 (UTC)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
WWE

Season
1998

Round
3

Status

Location

Video Highlights

Description

Royal Rumble (1998) was the eleventh annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It was presented by MCI's 1-800-COLLECT, and took place on January 18, 1998, at the San Jose Arena in San Jose, California.

In the weeks leading up to the pay-per-view, Ken Shamrock had been facing various members of the Nation of Domination ahead of his booked match against Intercontinental champion Rocky Maivia (The Rock), defeating Kama Mustafa and Faarooq with his ankle lock despite interference from other Nation members. The Raw is War before the Rumble saw Shamrock team up with Mark Henry against Maivia and D'Lo Brown, but just as Shamrock looked set to lock his submission on The Rock, Henry turned on him, joining the Nation in giving him a post-match beat down.

After winning their first tag team title, the New Age Outlaws further humiliated the erstwhile champions, the Legion of Doom, by shaving one of Hawk's mohawks and, with the help of D-Generation X, powerbombed Animal through the announce table, damaging his back. Although he was advised not to compete by doctors, Animal rested through the first few weeks of the year while the Outlaws ran roughshod through the tag division before this pay-per-view.

The build up to the Royal Rumble match itself focused almost entirely on Stone Cold Steve Austin. He declared that before the match he would be living by the motto "Do unto others, before they do unto me" interfering in matches regularly on Raw is War, or appearing just as matches finished, delivering the stunner to anyone in sight as well leaving other wrestlers back stage buried under tables and chairs. In the final segment of the Raw preceding the event, all competitors of the Royal Rumble were in the ring, waiting to draw their number of entry when Austin ran in through the crowd and began throw punches all over the ring, sparking a brawl between the various wrestlers feuding in the ring, and kicking the number generator out of the ring.

The main event for the WWF Championship was a rematch between champion Shawn Michaels and challenger The Undertaker. The feud had begun after Summerslam the previous August after Michaels, who was the special referee in the match between then-champion Undertaker and Bret Hart, hit Undertaker with a chair meant for Hart and counted the pin to cost Undertaker the championship. The first match between the two came at Ground Zero: In Your House the following month, a match that ended in a no contest due to outside interference from Michaels' D-Generation X cohorts, Triple H and Chyna. Michaels and Undertaker resumed the feud at Badd Blood in October 1997 in the first Hell in a Cell match which ended with the debut of Undertaker's (kayfabe) brother, Kane, giving Michaels the unfair win by delivering a tombstone piledriver on Undertaker, allowing the almost beaten Michaels to steal the match. To mock his opponent, Triple H and Chyna brought a casket to the ring only for Michaels to appear from inside and spray paint it in D-Generation X slogans. The following week, while Michaels was delivering a promo, the same casket appeared again but this time Undertaker appeared from inside, grabbing the champion by the throat and dragging him into the coffin. Undertaker made his full presence known the following week, interrupting an interview in which Michaels was claiming to introduce the newest DX member: Kane. Undertaker told his opponent to leave his family out of the feud, before attacking the stable and being outnumbered. Kane made a surprise appearance and helped Undertaker, fighting DX up to the ramp before turning and reaching his hand out in an Undertaker-like salute which his brother returned.

Reports

Result List

Result Description
Singles Match
Vader defeats TAFKA Goldust (with Luna) (7:47)

Six Man Tag Team Match (Special Referee: Sunny)
Max Mini, Mosaic & Nova defeat Battalion, El Torito & Tarantula (7:49)

WWF Intercontinental Title Match
The Rock (c) defeats Ken Shamrock by DQ (10:53)

WWF World Tag Team Title Match
The Legion Of Doom (Road Warrior Animal & Road Warrior Hawk) defeat The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & The Road Dogg) (c) by DQ (7:56)

Royal Rumble Match
Steve Austin defeats 8-Ball and Ahmed Johnson and Blackjack Bradshaw and Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie and Chainz and D-Lo Brown and Dude Love and Faarooq and Henry O. Godwinn and Jeff Jarrett and Kama and Ken Shamrock and Kurrgan and Mankind and Marc Mero and Mark Henry and Mosh and Owen Hart and Phineas I. Godwinn and Savio Vega and Steve Blackman and TAFKA Goldust and The Honky Tonk Man and The Rock and Thrasher and Tom Brandi and Vader (55:47)
- Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie eliminated Tom Brandi
- Chainsaw Charlie eliminated Cactus Jack
- Kurrgan eliminated Mosh
- Kurrgan eliminated Steve Blackman
- 8- Ball, Blackjack Bradshaw, Ken Shamrock, Phineas I. Godwinn and The Rock eliminated Kurrgan
- Mankind eliminated Chainsaw Charlie
- TAFKA Goldust eliminated Mankind
- Owen Hart eliminated Jeff Jarrett
- The Rock eliminated Ken Shamrock
- Owen Hart eliminated sich selbst
- D-Lo Brown and Mark Henry eliminated Ahmed Johnson
- Mark Henry eliminated Phineas I. Godwinn
- Steve Austin eliminated Marc Mero
- Steve Austin eliminated 8-Ball
- Dude Love eliminated Blackjack Bradshaw
- Faarooq eliminated D-Lo Brown
- Vader eliminated The Honky Tonk Man
- Steve Austin eliminated Thrasher
- Steve Austin eliminated Kama
- Steve Austin eliminated Savio Vega
- Goldust eliminated Vader
- Dude Love eliminated Henry O. Godwinn
- Chainz eliminated Goldust
- Steve Austin eliminated Chainz
- Faarooq eliminated Mark Henry
- Faarooq eliminated Dude Love
- The Rock eliminated Faarooq
- Steve Austin eliminated The Rock

WWF World Heavyweight Title Casket Match
Shawn Michaels (with Chyna & Triple H) (c) defeats The Undertaker (20:37)

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