Royal Rumble (2003) (TV)

Director:

Kevin Dunn

Release Date:

19 January 2003 (USA)

Plot:

The 16th annual Royal Rumble match, with the winner to recieve a WWE or World Title shot at WrestleMania XIX...

Plot Keywords:

WWE | British Man | Hammer | World Wrestling Entertainment | Martial Arts

Cast

Kurt Angle	...	Himself
Chris Benoit	...	Himself
Mark Calaway	...	The Undertaker
Paul Levesque	...	Triple H
Scott Steiner	...	Himself
Lance Storm	...	Himself
Darren Matthews	...	William Regal
Mark LoMonaco	...	Bubba Ray Dudley
Devon Hughes	...	D-Von Dudley
Paul Wight	...	The Big Show
Chris Jericho	...	Himself
Brock Lesnar	...	Himself
Torrie Wilson	...	Herself
Shawn Michaels	...	Himself
Chris Nowinski	...	Himself (as Christopher Nowinski)

Also Known As:

WWE Royal Rumble (USA) (alternative title)

Runtime:

180 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Filming Locations:

Boston, Massachusetts, USA

Trivia:

Fourteen wrestlers made their first appearance in the Royal Rumble match: Christopher Nowinski, Rey Mysterio, Chavo Guerrero, Tajiri, Bill DeMott, Tommy Dreamer, Eddie Guerrero, Rosey, John Cena, Charlie Haas, Jamal, Shelton Benjamin, Batista, and Brock Lesnar.

Goofs:

Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): On a couple occasions, lead commentator Jim Ross refers to this event as the 15th Royal Rumble, when in fact it is the 16th.

Movie Connections:

Featured in Hard Knocks: The Chris Benoit Story (2004) (V)

Soundtrack:

Falling Apart

Contains both the best and worst of 2003

This is an interesting PPV as it contains what I consider to be both the best and worst of the year. In one corner we have the Angle/Benoit match that was so good the entire arena gave it a standing ovation. This is my personal MOTY for 2003, a technical classic up there with all the other greats. We also have the Jericho/HBK feud start to build with Jericho eliminating HBK from the Rumble via cheating, this would climax with a 5-star match at WrestleMania two months later after it simmered a bit. Finally we also have the Rumble match, the first one after the brand extension, which actually made it more interesting as we saw RAW talent "compete" against SmackDown talent in a quasi-brand war.

On the bad side of things, we got a Steiner/HHH match which is great for getting yourself to sleep just by counting the botched moves instead of sheep. Then we have the Torrie Wilson/Dawn Marie match which, thankfully, ended their feud over Torrie's "dead" father Al Wilson but we had to go through this dud of a match.

Then we have the one curtain-jerker match with Big Show/Brock Lesnar and a midcard match with Dudley Boyz/Lance Storm & William Regal to round everything out, resulting in a PPV that is stangely balanced between good and bad.