From Pro Wrestling
| Royal Rumble 1997
|
|
| Promotion
| WWF
|
| Date
| January 19, 1997
|
| Venue
| Alamo Dome
|
| City
| San Antonio, Texas, USA
|
| Attendance
| 60,525
|
| Last Event
| It's Time
|
| Next Event
| The Final Four
|
Show events
Numbers in parentheses indicate the length of the match.
- Helmsley pinned Goldust after a Pedigree.
- Winner: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (16:50).
- Faarooq was disqualified after the Nation interfered and attacked Johnson.
- Following the match, Ahmed put one of the Nation's members through the French Announcers' table.
- Winner: Ahmed Johnson (8:48).
- Vader pinned Undertaker after a Vaderbomb.
- Paul Bearer came out and interfered on behalf of Vader. Bearer later hit Undertaker with his urn.
- After the match, The Undertaker chokeslammed referee Jack Doan.
- Winner: Vader (13:19).
- Aguayo pinned Metal after a diving double foot stomp off the top rope.
- Winner: El Canek, Hector Garza & Perro Aguayo (10:56).
- The final two participants were Steve Austin and Bret Hart. Austin eliminated Bret from behind to win the Royal Rumble.
- After being eliminated, Mankind and Terry Funk began brawling outside the ring and had to be broken up by referees. As this was going on, Hart eliminated Austin but as the referees were preoccupied with the brawl, Austin's elimination was unseen. Austin then snuck back in and proceeded to illegally eliminate Vader and the Undertaker (who were fighting on the ropes) and then Bret Hart (who had just eliminated Diesel).
- Following the match, Bret protested the outcome and started to shove around the referees and commentator Vince McMahon.
- The match was affected early on with the countdown clock and buzzer not working until the appearance of entrant #6.
- Winner: Steve Austin (50:29)
- Michaels pinned Sid after a Sweet Chin Music.
- Winner: Shawn Michaels (13:49).
Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations
A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds.
Austin was eliminated by Bret Hart, but came back in the ring while officials were distracted by a brawl on the other side of the ring.
Trivia
- Shawn Michaels later vacated the WWF Championship on the Thursday RAW Thursday special. Due to this and the controversial situation over the Royal Rumble ending, Steve Austin, Bret Hart, The Undertaker and Vader were pitted against each other at In Your House 13: Final Four in a Four Corners match for the WWF Championship. As a result, Steve Austin was the first Royal Rumble winner to not receive a WWF Championship shot at the following WrestleMania since the stipulation was introduced in 1993.
- During his stay with the WWF, Scott "Razor Ramon" Hall has only competed at the Royal Rumble pay-per-view in championship matches. "Razor Ramon" competed in the 1997 Rumble match, however by that point he was being portrayed by Rick Bogner, not Scott Hall.
- During the Free For All pre-event match featuring "Mini Vader" and "Mini Mankind", Vince McMahon inquired if there was a "Mini King" (in reference to Jerry "the King" Lawler), to which Lawler promptly reminded him that were, in fact, "mini Kings", in the form of Cheesy, Sneezy, and Queasy at the 1994 Survivor Series.
- This is the only Royal Rumble event to be held in a stadium. All other events have taken place in arenas.
DVD and video releases
External links and references
