I was 5 when this show happened, I remember I had the flu really bad that weekend and my dad ordered this show. I got all my figures and brought them in the living room and it was the best 3 hours ever and made me forget all about being sick
I remember I got back into wrestling in, I wanna say the end of 2018, or 2017(?) When I had Influenza. Looking back wrestling around that time wasn’t great, but I still have fond memories of it.
It always makes me happy hearing non-gaming creators talk about games, and seeing FFX and Square Enix sponsoring WWF for this Rumble is pretty dope. Personally, I'm a sucker for the sprite-based ones so FF6 will always remain my favorite.
That Maven moment taking out the Undertaker forever stands as my favorite in the Royal Rumble. I watched it with my dad and sister, and we laughed our asses off. A truly classic moment
I like hearing Maven talk about it. The respect he has for the business and the veterans is incredible. I think that’s why people like Taker did that sort of stuff for him.
Well now i'm always going to refer to "Foreign Objects" as "Forbidden Machina". Also, very cool to see Curt Henning get a good run and look like an equal to the biggest stars in the company.
Zane's line of "Di.....mond Cutter. Shoulders back, chest out! At ease....." is an all-time classic on Wrestling with Wregret. However, 23:10 is my favorite Brian Zane impression of Diamond Dallas Page. 😊
@@supersasukemaniac how about Zane's "It's luke and butch. The bushwhackers! (In a high-pitch voice)". I'm guessing Z-man is impersonating Jimmy Hart while managing Rhythm and Blue.
25:13 Absolutely one of my favorite spots of all time. And I adore Shane Helms talking about the development of this spot. He's the one who came up with it, but was too nervous to pitch it to Austin and Trips, cause he didn't want to piss either of them off. So he asked Kurt Angle about it, and Kurt told him to tell them, which he eventually did, and both Austin and Trips *loved* it.
Its crazy how big of a year 2002 was looking back: -The nWo come back and disband within the year -Hogan having a WWE Title Run -A new Raw Stage -The Hardcore & European Titles being unified with the IC Title which was then unified with the WHC -Brock Lesnar debuting and winning the WWE Title in a short time -Booker T & Goldust becoming the best tag team on RAW for their comedy -Evolution starting to come together -The Elimination Chamber being introduced -King of the Ring as a PPV being retired -TLC 4 -The Brand Split -Jeff Hardy's star making match with the Undertaker -The Smackdown 6 Matches -and most importantly Test loving his testicles
Let's not forget the debuts of John Cena, Randy Orton and Batista, all of whom would be front and center in the next decade or so. We also saw the debut of Team Angle, with Shelton Benjamin being a solid midcarder for much of the 2000's.
Shane Helms should have been an upper mid-carder or lower end main eventer at his peak. He was so talented and charismatic. I think one of the bigger WWF/E failures from that era honestly. I don't know about being a world champion or anything, but in main events - absolutely.
Fun fact: Stone Cold has a 50/50 win/loss ratio at royal rumbles. He’s only wrestled 6 times at the event and won 3 rumbles and eliminated from 3 rumbles.
@@MrAjking808 It’s a result of me pausing a video one time before walking out of the room and then coming back to notice it stopped on his face looking like he’s doing blue steel from Zoolander lol
You just unlocked so much buried down frustrations by bringing up that chocobo minigame. Perfect comparison Man Wrestling and FFX. It’s feeling like you made this video specifically for me, B Z. 😂
As an overall show 2002 is definitely in the conversation for not only best Royal Rumble of all time, but also one of WWE’s best PPV/PLE’s across the board. It’s one of those rare “all killer no filler” wrestling shows where the matches are good to great and the storyline/character stuff is firing on all cylinders.
I remember watching this PPV live and I was so excited to see Curt Hennig back in the Mr. Perfect gimmick, and seeing him make it to the final four actually felt completely natural; he truly looked like he belonged alongside Austin, HHH, & Angle. Just a shame his second WWF run got cut short by the Plane Ride From Hell, because he still looked amazing in 2002.
I know it has nothing to do with the pay per view itself, but i love the Rocks promo on Smackdown where he mocked how everyone was saying they were gonna win the royal rumble. Thats an underrated Rock promo, and one of the few times i can really remember WWE poking fun at themselves
It was the first wrestling show that I had ever watched. On a video tape in 2002, it started my love of wrestling, which is still ongoing to this very day 😁
Was hoping for a Lightning Plains dodging minigame reference, but fitting that in wrestling context is probably harder than the minigame itself, so understandable.
Wrestling With Wregret- Thanks for the trivia note around 10:20-10:27 that you pointed out about Vince McMahon. I never had so much as a single clue, guess & idea about any of that--literally...
This was the first PPV I ever saw. I must’ve begun watching WWF in late 2001, so this was the first show that my mum bought us to watch, and I was hooked on wrestling from there. And the spot(s) involving Maven eliminating Taker, the following chair shot and Maven’s head going through the popcorn machine… This show holds a special place for me!
May very well be an underrated Royal Rumble even, doesn't get talked about enough like 1992 or 2001. Chris Jericho vs The Rock for the Undisputed Championship is a hidden gem people should check out
Wasn't too obvious. There were a lot of people who hadn't won the Rumble before. HHH, Kurt, Undertaker, Kane, Show... HHH should have won, but it wasn't a sure thing he would.
For whatever reason, i feel like 2002 is a rumble that isnt often talked about at least from what ive seen so definitely excited about this. Edit: for halloween this year you gotta find the triple h denim jacket
RVD comes in with a lot of momentum, then gets snuffed out by Triple H. Sums up his 2002 pretty well. Hard to believe we this would be the last time we saw Stone Cold in a Rumble match. Also, this was the last Rumble to really have entrants come out every 2 minutes, after this it would be approximately every 90 seconds.
0:46 And Chris Breezy, too! 🙂 Thank you for reviewing this show, Brian, as the '02 Rumble Match is also one of my favorites and the PPV itself is pretty darn good. In the future, I hope we'll get to see No Way Out '02 and WrestleMania X8 featured on the Classic PPV Review segment, as well.
The Return Of Mr. Perfect and the shocking moment when Maven from behind Dropkicked The Undertaker over the top rope in the Royal Rumble. I love Final Fantasy X too Brian.
This Rumble brings so many memories. I remember the nonstop "Beautiful Day" U2 package playing for Hunter. I still have the MSG return on VHS. As a 13 year old, Trips was the man to me. Really inspired me to get into lifting weights. This being his peak imo. It's also amazing how he went from the pinnacle of babyface here in January to the company's biggest heel when presented the World Championship in August. Amazing show.
I remember being so hyped for this rumble. It was one of the few I actually got to see live on PPV. I told my friend who didn't see it that Hurricane won before we planned to watch the tape I recorded. He almost believed me until it got to his chokehold spot.
Fantastic review Brian, I’m currently in the tail end of my Attitude Era binge rn I’m in late September 2001 so I’ll be at this Rumble in no time, and it is one of my favorite Rumble PPVs for sure.
I said it in 2002, and I'll say it now. If they were bringing back Mr. Perfect, Val Venis, Godfather and Goldust, I would've liked to have seen Bossman come out with his late 80s/early 90s WWF gear and Hard Times entrance. The Rumble was in Atlanta, so I'm sure at worst it would've got a decent to good pop.
Honestly, that would’ve been a really cool shout to a guy who was a trusted hand for so long in the WWF. You’re right that it would’ve gotten a good pop from Atlanta, too.
Brian vowing to knock out as many FFX references as he can manage already has me calling this my favourite classic PPV review. If there had been a bunch of in show references, HHH rocking Wakka's hair and absolutely pelting a blitzball off of people would have done me just fine.
At 28:19, Angle gets surprised to see Triple H so suddenly just like how suddenly you can get struck by lightning in the Thunder Plains. I appreciate the FFX references in this. It's in my top 10 games of all time.
Wrestling With Wregret- To this day, my dad & I still laugh at Diamond Dallas Page's "The Power Of Positivity" & what you referenced around 22:23-22:28. I was in the first semester of my 6th grade year of middle school when the whole "That's not a bad thing--that's a good thing." started in late-2001 & to this day, I still reference it... I know the gimmick was goofy & stupid to some people, but, I laughed at it, then & it still makes me smile, now.
I popped HUGE for Mr. Perfect returning and held out hope he would be pushed some. Unfortunately was not to be for a variety of reasons, but still a great return here.
@@Musiclover19 I don't mean in the sense that it's disliked, just that the Rumble match itself often gets overlooked in favor of Rumbles like 92, 01, 04, 2010 etc. Not saying those aren't great too, just that this one definitely belongs in the same discussion as those
Oh God, that chocobo clip was instant PTSD. I've played alot of JRPG's and played alot of miserable mini games that had seemed to need frame perfect inputs when you finally get lucky with RPG for it to be possible but that one stood out as a possibly one of the most painful.
This PPV was my birthday gift for my 10th birthday lol one of the best presents of my life. Brings flashbacks to how much I hated William Regal as a kid
royal rumble 2002 was an awesome PPV the opening tag team match was great Stacy Keibler and the dudley Boyz were an amazing pairing maven eliminating undertaker was hilarious undertaker's reaction made me laugh Trish Stratus Vs Jazz was an amazing match their matches were my favorite part of this era the fact that this happened 22-years ago still boggles my mind awesome review brian you're the best.
this rumble is the earliest memory of life i have, i was almost 5 and i remember everything about this show and how my dad used the hacked directv card to get it for free. those were the days.
This is truthfully one of the most underrated Rumble's of all time. 1992, 2001, and 2004 are in my opinion the top 3 rumbles. But 02, 97, and 07 are some of the most underrated Rumbles of all time.
24:08 We still haven't shaken the "WHAT?" chants. Even today, each heel has to speak in long phrases during every promo to keep the crowd from getting into a rhythm shouting "WHAT?" during every word break.
Fun fact is that Triple H actually returned the night before his triumphant RAW return. I saw him at that house show in Springfield, Mass and the surprise return pop was far louder there than what he got on RAW the next night....
@@Speedyreedy1218 it was a tag team match. He and Kane took on Jericho and Angle. My ears rang that whole night from the cheers of his surprise return! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-0a_bD3g2tHY.htmlsi=pq0_Vy8uwzuRIezT
When I was stationed at Fort Polk, LA back in 2000-2002, we got to see most of the WWE PPVs at the on-post clubs. I didn't see this one because we were on a training assignment at Fort Irwin, CA. So thanks for sharing, WWW!
26:17 Fun fact from my experience playing Smackdown: SYM. Usually in my first Playthrough heading into the as Undisputed WWE Champion in the Royal Rumble Rob Van Dam usual ends up becoming the winner of it. Not gonna lie I always thought RVD would have been a cool winner when he was white hot at the time.
Here’s a fun fact that ties into this PPV and Final Fantasy 10; Kazushige Nojima who was the scenario writer for the game managed to get many of the wrestlers who were at the Royal rumble 2002 event sign a copy of Final Fantasy 10. And then a year later; Final Fantasy X-2 would be sponsored on an episode of Smackdown where Tazz and Michael Cole played the game with Tazz going crazy for Yuna
1993-2003 and 2007-2009 were my favorite years in entertainment in general. This Royal Rumble and its build is partly why 2002 is included. Triple H's return, the Kid "I hate Bud Light, but jk not really" Rock theme, the Rumble hype package. 2002 was a fun and wild roller coaster of a year for wrestling.
Well done with ffx integration. One of my favorites. The amount of hours I spent playing blitzball is wild. Great review as well. This was still part of the era that was in my youth wheelhouse.
The "WHAT" chant was kind of my breaking point with wrestling as I was growing up. It was at that moment that I realized it just wasn't for me to the degree it used to be.
The Hurricane spot with Austin and Hunter was so popular, they did it again 19 years later. Hurricane Helms did the same spot with Bobbly Lashley & Big E in the 2021 Royal Rumble.
2008 is during my early fandom. I’m excited to see what you have to say. I always watch the show before watching your review for context and I’m excited to watch that one again
Regal showing toughness and coming back so fast is not a surprise. Many younger folks don’t know, because they only know Regal as the aristocratic persona, but Regal was a legit killer. He cut his teeth getting into the business working the Carnival shows; people got hurt in that unrestrained environment quite often and severely.
Dude also had to shower with random dudes and they would touch his stuff during the showers....Sir Regal went through alot but I think it made him stronger!
Royal Rumble 2002 and 2008 reviews this January, such long awaited videos! I’m wondering if next March will be when you review the respective Wrestlemanias of that year (X-8 and XXIV)
Damn, I forgot about Heel-Taker! Post-Invasion, this is where WWE really started to pick up on the final lap of the Attitude Era. The return of Ric Flair also helped tremendously. 2001 and 2002 Royal Rumble will always be a favorite for me. Excellent review as always. And yeah, I also wanted Triple H’s leather/denim jacket combo…it was a cool look back then! 😂
The worst thing about this show is the removal of “Cocky” by Kid Rock cuz we don’t get Stone Cold Steve Austin saying “What!?” in time with the song during the video package
@@ryankeefe2102 I wouldn’t go that far but it is a very good video package. The only packages I can think of that come close to, or surpass My Way are the Daniel Bryan “Monster” video package, and the Shawn Michaels VS Undertaker “Running Up That Hill” video package
I wondered how his channel blew up so quick as I'd never heard of him. Literally just got done binging all his videos and yeah, I totally get it now, he's an absolute gentleman and very interesting to watch.
@@spotthedogaye2921 Yeah I knew who Maven was but didn't expect him to be such a massive draw, in such a short space of time. But yeah like you say, his charisma and insights on camera are very interesting
My problems with Rumbles from the attitude era is that they often include midcarders from the harcore division and often rely heavily on creating particular moments between certain wrestlers rather than having it be a full on rumble where numerous wrestlers are brawling That said, this one had good stuff like Maven eliminating Undertaker and Triple H telling a good comeback story by winning the Rumble
@IStevenSeagalsome people consider the ruthless aggression era to begin when McMahon gave the speech on raw and the week John Cena debuted on smack down others say wrestle mania 19 it’s so opinion based now.
@IStevenSeagal A new era means a change in the product Undertaker turning heel and becoming a more ruthless character didn’t change the product in any way shape or form Early 2002 wasn’t different from say 2000 or 2001 as it still had the same stars like Rock, Austin, Triple H and Angle feuding
@IStevenSeagal Austin and Rock weren’t full time wrestlers and in the main event title picture in 2003 like they were in the attitude era, that’s the difference Undertaker turning heel didn’t change the product anymore than Stone Cold turning heel did You didn’t even give context as to what was so different about the product other than “we knew” Early 2002 still had the same people in the main event scene, the hardcore division was still a thing and vanished by the time Ruthless aggression era started Just watch the Royal rumbles from the late 90s up to 2002 and compare them to the rumbles from 2003 to 2008 That’s another way you can tell they were different eras as the latter group of rumbles had a combination of wrestlers from different brands thus giving an entirely different feel
@IStevenSeagal Also Hogan being a member of the roster in the 2000s is a bad comparison as well as not only was Hogan not the full on center of attention like the golden era But his look and character was also different, he had a rock jazz entrance them, had the Hollywood hogan name and was a part time attraction by 2003
Oh, all the FFX references are taking me on a very pleasant nostalgia filled trip down memory lane. It was my first Final Fantasy game and first PS2 game. I got all the references for the record.
I was in the third row for this Rumble, you can see the back of my blond head near the middle of the bottom of the screen from the hard camera (2 rows back and a few seats to the right of where Reid & Meghan Flair were sitting). Still have my commemorative folding chair. Probably the most fun wrestling event I’ve been to. Totally marked out for Perfect and Boss Man, two of my favorites from the Golden Era when I started watching wrestling. Last year D-Von Dudley signed a photo I took of him at this show, leaving the ring after his match. And seriously, all the Final Fantasy X references? One of my favorite RPGs ever? Surely Yevon is shining on me this day. Never completed those damn 200 lightning dodges though…
