By Michael Fitzgerald on 31st January Business was down in WWE at the time of this Royal Rumble show, as the Attitude Era was long over and the likes of Rock and Austin were either guest stars or just gone in general, meaning more pressure was being placed on the shoulders of the likes of Triple H, Undertaker and Kurt Angle to both steady the ship and also try to get a new crop of stars over.
Some of them were better at that than others of courseβ¦. Pictures come courtesy of IMDB. We get the usual dramatic opening video package where the wrestlers talk about how important it is to win tonight, be it in the Royal Rumble or in a Title match. Lesnar gets the better of things in the early going until Big Show flings Lesnar over the top rope down to the floor, which is not only a brutal way to cut someone off in a match but it would also constitute an elimination in the Royal Rumble match itself.
Lesnar sells well during the heat, with Big Show mostly sticking to throwing Lesnar around whilst Lesnar does all the bumping and posting. Lesnar eventually gets some more suplexes and then drags Heyman into the ring for good measure too. Lesnar tries to end Heyman with the F-5, but Big Show prevents that with a Choke Slam in a really good near fall, as that was a very viable potential finishing sequence and the crowd bought into it.
Big Show tries to end things with another Choke Slam, but Lesnar manages to slip behind and runs the Heels into one another before getting an F-5 onto Big Show for three to cap off an entergetic opener. Terri Runnels is interviewing Chris Jericho backstage.
Jericho is annoyed that Shawn Michaels is 1 in the Royal Rumble, because Jericho wanted that slot for himself. This was a solid promo from Jericho. Storm and Regal had been lackies for Eric Bischoff and Sean Morley, and it had led to them winning the tag belts. The Dudleyz had reformed in the autumn and were looking to win the tag belts again after not having them for over a year. Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler had been feuding with the Tag Champs during the build to this show, so both Storm and Regal give the commentary team the old stink eye whilst making their entrance.
