2003: Best Rumble Match since '92?

[Guest The Hollywood Fashion Plate]

As the title indicates, I think that this was unquestionably the best-written Rumble since 1992. The first 20-30 minutes of the match had some of the funniest booking and best moments EVER in a Rumble:

-Christian impersonating Jericho so he could attack from behind

-HBK getting CRUSHED with a chair and tossed over within 4 minutes

-Nowinski staying outside the ring for 3 minutes

-^'s celebration after 'eliminating' Edge/Rey...and subsequently getting stereo missile dropkicks

-^ CONTINUING despite having Edge screw up the timing and kick him in the head

-Christian hastily reforming E+C to double team Rey

-Rey Misterio's incredible offense

-Tommy Dreamer's 60 seconds of hardcore wrestling

-RVD and Jericho battling one-on-one

-Everything Matt Hardy/Shannon Moore did

 

The Rumble's second half also had its share of cool moments

-The Hardyz squaring off

-Team Angle's SICK doubleteam move

-John Cena's prematch promo

-Rikishi selling the 360 clothesline

-Booker T's Spinarumble

-Brock F-5ing Matt Hardy out of the ring

-Taker's entrance

-Maven celebrating his 'elimination' of Taker

-RVD getting doublecrossed by Kane

-Kane getting doublecrossed by Taker

 

I could go on, but my point is that IMO no Rumble since that fateful day in 1992 has been as good as last night's was because there were so many stories being told throughout it and because there were so many memorable moments in it.

 

(Interestling story...Pat Patterson said in an interview that when the Rumble falls on his birthday, he tries to make it especially good.

 

Pat's birthday is January 19?

 

The last Rumble to be held on 1/19?

 

The 1992 Royal Rumble.

[Guest Joejigatame]

For a gimmick match, I thought it was entertaining, and probably one of the best Rumbles I've seen. I think that's because the first half of the Rumble consisted of the talented mid-carders, who held things together. It also seemed that unlike other years, most of the participants were some what over with the crowd. Like you said, there were some storylines interwoven in the match, similar to '92 (Flair-Piper, Savage-Roberts). The second half lost momentum, but it was very watchable. The only gripe I have is that the ring filled up too much...the amount of guys in there at one time should have been reduced.

[Guest The Old Me]

I think I liked 2001 better. If so, this is 3rd place for sure.

[Guest godthedog]

this year's rumble sucked. it started off GREAT: rey flying all over the place, lots of teased eliminations, tons of cool little spots, & a frantic pace. the beginning was probably the best beginning the rumble's ever had, and i was jacked for the rest of it. but after the first 15 minutes or so, they stopped bringing the good workers out and people just kept piling in the ring, with nothing of note really happening. by the last 5 or 6 entries, there were already way too many people in the ring for anything special to happen. i kept waiting for someone to come in and clean house, but it never happened and the ring got more and more crowded. jericho's elimination was complete and utter bullshit, & after that happened i had no interest in the match at all. how could this be the second-best rumble ever when the final 4 were undertaker, brock, kane and BATISTA?

[Guest The Old Me]

It's not supposed to matter WHO eliminated Jericho, just the fact that he wouldn't have been, if it wasn't for HBK.

[Guest kingkamala]

I'd say it's the third maybe fourth best Royal Rumble of all time.

 

1. Of course Royal Rumble 92( Almost every guy in the Rumble had a shot at winning the Rumble).

2. Royal Rumble 90

3. Royal Rumble 2000

4. Last Night.

[Guest godthedog]

It's not supposed to matter WHO eliminated Jericho, just the fact that he wouldn't have been, if it wasn't for HBK.

the fact that test did it doesn't bother me so much as jericho got eliminated way too early. would it have killed them to wait at least till the final 4 when michaels would eliminate him? when you have a guy start early & last a long time, he becomes the glue that holds the rumble together. he's the anchor for the fans watching to build their expectations around. it's like making a movie where you spend an hour & a half building a main character, then just kill him off & have the last half hour focus on someone completely different: it throws the audience out of the experience. after he was eliminated, the match just fell apart.

[Guest The Old Me]

godthedog-

 

I totally agree Jericho should have made it to the final four, and surely thought he would before watching the PPV. Hey, they could have had HBK eliminate him, which I wouldn't put past WWE.

[Guest TUS_02]

I think I pissed off my section with my pro-y2j sentiments at the start of the rumble, but I got a decent sized y2j chant going towards the middle of the rumble. And like everyone said, the place just deflated when Jericho got eliminated. I almost broke my camera I was so pissed. It was a good thing the Raiders won, or else it would have been a LONG ride home.

[Guest bob_barron]

I liked 2001 better but I still enjoyed the RR

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin]

The first half(up to RVD) was some of the best 20 minutes in Rumble history(only being second to the the final 20 minutes of 1992). But then it went downhill. I didn't like the final 4 and after Jericho went out the Rumble started to suck.

 

But the first half, good comedy(Matt Hardy and Maven had me on the floor laughing) and the right guy going over(like it or not Brock had to win) is enough to make this the best Rumble since 97 IMO.

[Guest bob_barron]

1997???? The one with the luchas and the boring action??? Sure it has its moments but that Rumble is BOOOOOOOOOOOORING.

[Guest Just call me Dan]

Bah, Jericho was booked very strong. HBK wasn't going to wait on him to eliminate 25 more guys before coming out. Jericho nearly screwed himself anway, and I think his feet did hit the ground once. He looked great out there, and it wasn't his Rumble to win.

 

I would have loved to have seen him be in the final four, but I can't complain much. He did well.

 

The final four sucked ass in my opinion. Batista looked lost, Kane shouldn't have been in there, and Brock and Taker should have squared off our 5 minutes of signature moves instead of the fluke win.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin]

I think once when Kane whipped Jericho into the corner he went over and out and didn't hold on. I could swear I saw the refs rolling him back in.

 

And 1997 was a good Rumble IMO. Austin's great run, the Owen/Bulldog saga, Austin's face when Bret's music hit, Foley/Funk, the ending, overall it was better than anything between then and 2003.

[Guest HartFan86]

This was a good Rumble (I was there in Boston), but a lot of people included myself thought that there was something missing. A lot of people were pissed off that Austin didn't show up (including myself), but that's how it goes.

[Guest mach7]

92 is still the best in my books. 97 is second, purely for the ending where Austin screwed Bret out of the win. 2003's has to be third for me.

[Guest Kahran Ramsus]

I have yet to see 1988.

 

1) 1992

2) 1990

3) 2000

4) 1994

5) 2003

6) 2001

7) 1989

8) 1991

9) 2002

10) 1995

11) 1993

12) 1997

13) 1998

14) 1996

15) 1999

[Guest Anglesault]

It would have been better if not for the TESTiment to bad booking that was Jericho's elimination.

[LooseCannon25]

Speaking of the Rumble.....something funny i noticed....Did anyone notice that towards the end with Taker Brock going at it when Brock nails the undertaker and he falls against the ropes Taker almost went completely over and the only thing that stopped him was Brock from the ground actually holding Taker's legs in the ring when he tipped over. That was great awareness by Brock IMO. I agree that Batista looked absolutely lost, and when he got in the ring the guy spun around about 3 straight times not knowing who to go after. It was kinda funny to watch. Also, i think Jericho was made to look great at the rumble and dont feel there's anything to complain about with the way he was booked to lose. I think the best performances were JEricho and MAtt Hardy. Good Rumble.

[Guest Mole]

Yeah, but you can't blame Jericho for him being tossed out accidently. There were SO many times that he just grabbed the ropes, and barely made it back in.

 

My brother kept on saying that he is suprised that Jericho kept on grabbing the ropes, from all the sweat and stuff like that. Give the man credit, he SHOULD of been in the final four. It made NO sense for him to be in that long, then all of a sudden get thrown out like that.

 

I haven't seen all of the rumbles, nor do I remember half of the ones I have seen.

 

It's better than 99, I'll tell you that much.

[Guest Anglesault]

and dont feel there's anything to complain about with the way he was booked to lose.

Except that it was to the most worthless wrestler on the Raw roster and started a mini-feud between them

[Guest Lightning Flik]

My only grip about the Royal Rumble was that it should've been Jericho vs Brock as the final two. Which also should've had Jericho actually surviving with Brock. Then have Michaels' hit the Sweet Chin Music on Jericho, allowing Brock Lesnar to F5 Jericho over the top rope.

 

Jericho loses in a screw job fashion, and also it puts a notch in Jericho's belt that he might've been able to beat Lesnar (helping to raise him to Main Event), and then on top of that, also gets that match for NWO against Michaels to actually have a lot of hype for it.

 

Oh well... I'm not terribly disappointed with the Rumble, have to say it was one of the greatest ones I've seen lately. Not THE greatest, but it's up there. Yes.

[Guest eiker_ir]

i marked out las night when Jericho was alone in the ring before RVD came out, it reminded me of 92 when everyone started flying out of the ring leaving Flair alone in there half dead

 

and i also marked for Mattitude's entrance!!!!! OOOOOOhhhhhh Yeeeeeeaaaaaahhhh......

 

great rumble IMO, i was pissed at first about the Jericho elimination but after seeing it again i accep it, i wish he goes over Shawn whenever that might be

[Guest dreamer420]

I loved the Rumble this year. It certainly wasn't my favorite of all time. 1992 gets those honors. The 2003 show was great for a lot of reasons. I was impressed by Jericho's performance, although his exit was rather lame. Matt Hardy put on a great show, as did Shannon Moore, who took more bumps that anyone in the Rumble, or even the HHH/Steiner match for that matter. I was glad to see Shannon getting the airtime and he deserves a break. The ending was too obvious but I'm glad they didn't try some stupid swerve that would see someone less deserving win the Rumble.

[TheOriginalOrangeGoblin]

Here's how I'dc rank'em:

 

1. 1992

2. 1994

3. 1991

4. 1990

5. 2003

6. 1997

7. 2001

8. 2002

9. 1993

10. 1998

11. 2000

12. 1999

13. 1995

 

I haven't seen 88, 89 or 96.

[Guest notJames]

I'd like to think that Jericho's early dismissal was due to him being completely blown up and having to take himself out of the game. All those near eliminations, especially the one where he really fell out and the refs had to cover for him, looked like they took everything out of him, including Dreamer's cane shot to his face. I'd like to think that they originally wanted him in the final four, but had HBK run in early for the distraction, and that Test was just in the right place at the right time and got the fluke elimination.

 

Of course, the next night's RAW threw that theory in the commode and quickly. Thanks a lot, WW_.

[Guest Youth N Asia]

2003 wasn't a bad rumble...but the fact that everyone in the world knew Brock was going to win, and that Taker would be the last out, and there were zero suprises, and the predictable Shawn Michaels run in...

 

I liked 2001 a lot better...2003 probably cracks my top 5 though

[Guest MillenniumMan831]

I haven't seen The 2003 Rumble yet (Damn BW-3), but it sounds REALLY good. I hated last year's because it seemed that after every 3-5 entries, a HOSS would come in and clean house which made everything seem pointless. The Hurricane spot on HHH/Austin was great though. As for 1997, there's no way you can't chuckle at The King's 'Surprise' entry. It takes a king to know a king.

 

Here are my top 5 (EXcluding 2003 and 1988)

 

- 1992

- 2001

- 1989 (Sentimental favorite)

- 2000

- 1993 (At least it was Monsoon/Heenan on commentary and a good start helped it a lot)

[Guest Jack Tunney]

(Interestling story...Pat Patterson said in an interview that when the Rumble falls on his birthday, he tries to make it especially good.

 

Pat's birthday is January 19?

 

The last Rumble to be held on 1/19?

 

The 1992 Royal Rumble.

Plus,the actual RR match was Pats idea. What was with Brock pulling #29 and winning?Usually the winner is like 24 or 25.29 seems too late.

[Guest Choken One]

That was really my only beef with the entire rumble, It would have been better to have Brock in Booker T's spot (24) or even Goldust's (27)...29 was WAY to late...This will HOWEVER be the 1ST time the final Two entrys were the final two men and the 4th time #30 was the last man eliminated (1989(Dibiase), 1990(Perfect), 1993(Savage), 2003(Taker).