Review for WWE Best of Attitude Era Royal Rumble Matches

The Royal Rumble was the genius idea of the late great Pat Patterson and I will forever thank him for that as this is one of my favourite ever match types. Throughout my life the one event I would always stay up until 3/4am until is the Royal Rumble. I am blessed with a horrible memory and because of this (apart from infamous ones) I can very rarely remember who won a match and this makes them hugely rewatchable.

However, the four (five officially) matches here are ones that I watched on repeat for many years, and I feel like I know them move by move, entrant by entrant and exit by exit. This does not necessarily mean that I don’t enjoy them, but as I know who wins all four (five) I don’t have the same surprise as I do if I watch 89 or 2005 etc.

First things first…

If you have never seen any of these Rumbles read the following sentence and then stop reading. These are amazing and all four (five) are some of the best examples of Royal Rumbles in history. Now go away and buy this set, sit back and watch them, then you can come back.

OK. Everyone all caught up. Brilliant weren’t they?

So now it would be impossible for me to discuss these matches without spoiling events and winners and it is surprising that the four (five) matches were only won by three people with Stone Cold winning back to back victories in 1997/98 and then again in 2001. His performances where at the apex of his popularity with the 1998 and 2001 victories leading to him main eventing at Wrestlemania. He won 1997’s but due to the amazing controversy of the match he did not get that chance (but it did lead to the Five Star Submission Match against Bret Hart) and though he was featured in 1999 and did go on to main event that Wrestlemania he did not win and if you had not seen it before the winner is a huge surprise.

Each of the matches have their magical and memorable moments. In 1997 Austin’s performance throughout is perfect and his reaction to Bret Hart entering is one of the best ever. In 1998 the highlight/s is Mick Foley entering three separate times as Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind. This was brilliant and Cactus and Chainsaw Charlie (Terry Funk) with the chairs is a pure ECW moment. For 1999 the sight of Stone Cold and Vince McMahon coming down as One and Two is perfect and the ending was just pitched perfectly. 2000 has a few moments such As Rikishi and Too Cool dancing and the ending was pretty well made, even if the aftermath was a little confusing. For 2001 the dominant performance of Kane, eliminating Eleven people including Drew Carey and The Honky Tonk Man was amazing as was the performance by Stone Cold which resulted in his (at the time of writing) record setting third win.

The two disk set includes all four Royal Rumbles in full from 1997-2000 and then as a Special Feature has the 2001 Rumble. This was hugely disappointing as I expected at least some of the matches or promos from these events which would have made the disk all the more a must-have item. If I am honest I include 2001 as part of the Attitude era anyway (The war with WCW did not officially end until March 2001) and so this was a bit of a tease for more than just the Rumble matches, not that there’s anything wrong with that.


WWE Best of Attitude Era Royal Rumble Matches is perfect for those who love the Royal Rumble. For me this includes three of the best Rumbles of all time (1998, 1999 and 2001) and even the other two are still solid matches that are well worth another watch. It is a shame that they don’t include any other matches or extra features as this would put a lot more context into the feuds (such as Stone Cold/McMahon) and make those who did not live through all that more to go on. However, these are still some of the best matches and I would recommend everyone who has never seen them to check them out and get ready for over five hours of rumbling action.