1998 Royal Rumble Review

Austin gets one step closer...

Vader defeated The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust (w/Luna Vachon) (7:47)
Vader pinned Goldust after a Vaderbomb while Luna was hanging on his back.
*1/2
Fun enough.

Max Mini, Mosaic and Nova defeated Battalion, El Torito and Tarantula (w/Sunny as Special Guest Referee) (7:49)
Max pinned Torito after a top rope hurricanrana.
No Rating
Midget match =No rating

The Rock defeated Ken Shamrock by disqualification to retain the WWF Intercontinental Championship (10:53)
Shamrock originally pinned Rock after a belly-to-belly suplex. However, after persuasion from The Rock, the referee found a pair of brass knuckles The Rock had placed in Shamrock's trunks and Rock was given a disqualification win.
**1/4
Was starting to get good before the stupid Russo finish.

The Legion Of Doom (Hawk and Animal) defeated WWF Tag Team Champions The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn) by disqualification (7:56)
NAO were disqualified after Road Dogg hit Animal with a steel chair while Animal was pinning Gunn.
¾*
Bad Bad Bad.

Steve Austin won the 1998 Royal Rumble (55:24)
The final two participants were Steve Austin and The Rock. Steve Austin won the Royal Rumble after giving The Rock a Stone Cold Stunner and eliminating him.
Mick Foley competed in the Royal Rumble match as all three of his aliases: Mankind, Dude Love, and Cactus Jack.

Entrant
Eliminated by
Time

1
Cactus Jack
2
Chainsaw
9:21

2
Chainsaw Charlie
6
Mankind
25:19

3
Tom Brandi
1
Cactus & Chainsaw
0:12

4
The Rock
28
Austin
51:32

5
Mosh
3
Kurrgan
13:09

6
Phineas Godwinnn
12
Henry
28:48

7
8-Ball
14
Austin
30:43

8
Blackjack Bradshaw
15
Dude Love
35:45

9
Owen Hart
10
by Triple H & Chyna[1]
2:00

10
Steve Blackman
4
Kurrgan
5:58

11
D'Lo Brown
16
Faarooq
32:21

12
Kurrgan
5
8-Ball, Phineas Godwinn, Bradshaw & Shamrock
3:38

13
Marc Mero
13
Austin
19:38

14
Ken Shamrock
9
Rock
9:15

15
Thrasher
18
Austin
28:08

16
Mankind
7
TAFKAG
2:07

17
The Artist Formerly Known As Goldust
23
Chainz
26:01

18
Jeff Jarrett
8
Hart
1:05

19
The Honky Tonk Man
17
Vader
19:55

20
Ahmed Johnson
11
Henry & Brown
3:18

21
Mark Henry
25
Faarooq
19:07

22
Skull
-
No showed as he was unable to compete
0:00

23
Kama Mustafa
19
Austin
13:58

24
Steve Austin
-
WINNER
15:58

25
Henry Godwinn
22
himself
11:32

26
Savio Vega
20
Austin
9:29

27
Faarooq
27
Rock
10:03

28
Dude Love
26
Faarooq
7:53

29
Chainz
24
Austin
4:56

30
Vader
21
TAFKAG
2:15
↑ Triple H and Chyna were not entrants in the Royal Rumble Match.
***
Solid Rumble match.

Shawn Michaels (w/Triple H and Chyna) defeated The Undertaker in a Casket match to retain the WWF Championship (20:37)
Michaels won when Kane chokeslammed Undertaker into the casket.
During the match, Michaels took a back body drop to the outside, smashing his lower back on the casket causing him to herniate two disks and crushing one completely, leading to his four year hiatus as an active wrestler from the WWF.
During the match, The New Age Outlaws and Los Boricuas interfered and attacked The Undertaker.
After the match, Kane and Paul Bearer padlocked the casket with Undertaker inside it. They then poured gasoline on the casket and set it on fire.
***1/2
Easily the best Casket Match ever, which isn’t saying much.

~ Not too good of a way to start off the year that propelled them into the stars.