Royal Rumble (2003 TV Special) User Reviews

Contains both the best and worst of 2003

[VenomX · 6/10 · 1 March 2004]

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.

One great match...

[jonathan_vesala · 7/10 · 17 February 2003]

The only thing that makes this PPV worth watching is Benoit Vs. Angle. A classic match which is in my opinion Match Of The Year quality.

But for the rest of the matches, well...Steiner Vs. HHH was bad, as predicted. The Brock Vs. Big Show match and the Dudley Boyz Tag match were below average at best.

The Rumble match had potential and was good. At least until it came down to the last 6 men. Then it just turned bad and fast. And who ever wrote that finish should be fired. One of the worst finishes in the Royal Rumble history.

Royal Rumble 2003

[wrestlingsitewebmaster · 6/10 · 14 July 2005]

This was not a very exciting PPV.

First match sees Big Show taking on Brock Lesnar. Everyone knew that Lesnar was going to win, so it was no surprise when he won.

Next up the WWE demonstrates it doesn't give two hoots about the World Tag straps as Lance Storm and William Regal defend their titles against The Dudley Boyz in a boring match.

Then Torrie Wilson takes on Dawn Marie in a stepmother vs stepdaughter farce! Please gimme a break!

Next up One of the best matches I have seen in my 13 years as a wrestling fan. Chris Benoit takes on Kurt Angle in a fantastic battle. Even though Angle won and kept his title, Benoit got a deafening ovation from the crowd afterwards!

Then Triple H defends his WWE heavyweight title against Scott Steiner, which just doesn't live up to the billing. This bore the arse off me and I think a Mae Young vs Heidenreich match would have been better.

Then the Royal Rumble takes place. I've seen better. Lesnar won but everyone knew that.

Overall, not good!

Lesnar vs Show - 6/10 Wilson vs Marie - 1/10 Tag Team titles match - 4.5/10 Angle vs Benoit - 10/10 Steiner vs HHH - 2/10 Rumble match - 6/10

An Average PPV with a Match of the Year Candidate

[acdance · 10 April 2003]

Brock Lesner vs. Big Show: Good opener. Short but sweet match. 7/10

The Dudley Boyz vs. Lance Storm & William Regal: Another short but decent match. For those with table fetish, you don't get one. 7/10

Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson: I really didn't think WWE could sink this low. This is, if not the worst, one of the worst angles they ever have came up with. A match like this ruins the whole card. 3/10

Scott Steiner vs. Triple H: This match would bore today's wrestling/sports entertainment fans. Not many fancy or high flying menuvers presented in this match. Being a true wrestling fan, I didn't think it was a bad match. This match resembles Harley Race vs. Dory Funk matches in the '70s with violence. 6/10

Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit: Until I saw this match between these two fine athletes, Steamboat vs. Savage at Wrestlemania III was my favorite match. This match totally stole the show at Royal Rumble! A match of the year candidate, or decade! 10/10

30 Man Royal Rumble: Face paced, as each wrestler shows up every 90 seconds as opposed their two minute gap in the previous Royal Rumbles. Decent rumble overall. Big powerhouses dominate at the end. My least favorite part was WWE Eminem John Cena taking away 90 seconds of rumble match as he does his awful performance. I sincerely hope this fool won't be one of the future main eventers in WWE. 8/10

Average show with some ups and some downs

[morantjavonte · 6/10 · 7 December 2022]

Royal Rumble 2003 Thoughts

Royal Rumble 2003 was the 16th annual Royal Rumble PPV event produced by the WWE. It took place January 19, 2003, at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts with attendence at 15,338 and a PPV Buyrate of 585,000. First ever Royal Rumble event under the WWE name banner and the first to take place during the brand split. Scott Steiner also got his PPV debut on the show.

Here around this time, they were building a new generation with lots of new names such as John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, and Brock Lesnar. Austin was on his way out soon as well as the Rock to do who knows what. So much of the faces of the company were on the rise. I Mention this royal rumble PPV being the first of the brandsplit would make this rumble and future rumbles or interesting and exciting as stars of both Raw and Smackdown would interact at this special time of the year. It also had a minor change where the winner would battle the world champion at the main event of the brand they represented.

The Good - The WWE Championship match was an outstanding match and one of the best Royal Rumble PPV singles matches of all time. Both stars gave it their all and had that awesome chemistry you love to see especially with two technical style athletes. It was a little slow at first which stops it from getting a 5 star from me. The opening and the World Tag Team Championship match were pretty good too.

The Meh - The Royal Rumble wasn't quite the great match it had been years prior to this. It was fun and the audiences were into it from the beginning to the end. It did had it's issues with so many stars in the ring but not much going on. Chris Jericho and Rob Van Dam were very the stars of the match with their timing and good Performances in the ring. Brock Lesnar winning was a great call for the set up of a great feud against the champion Kurt Angle at the time. The ending was pretty cheap as Brock and Taker could have had 5 minutes alone in the ring before elimination.

The Bad - We had a stupid storyline between Torrie Wilson & Dawn Marie which lead to an awful match this night but it wasn't that long. Scott Steiner vs. Triple H was the long dreadful boring match that the crowd did not care of one bit. Perhaps Scott Steiner being a face doesn't work that well and against Triple H who at this time was one of the most overrated/overbooked wrestlers of pro wrestling.

Overall - It was a decent show. 2 good matches, then 2 bad matches, an outstanding match, and a fun but could have been way better special match. Okay show at the end.

Score - 6 out of 10: Decent

0 = Terrible : 1 = Bad/Lackluster : 2 = Decent : 3 = Good : 4 = Awesome : 5 = One of the Best of all Time

1. Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar: Royal Rumble Spot - 3/5

2. The Dudley Boyz vs. Lance Storm & William Regal: World Tag Team Championship - 3/5

3. Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie - 0/5

4. Triple H vs. Scott Steiner: World Heavyweight Championship - 1/5

5. Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit: WWE Championship - 4.5/5

6. 30-Man Royal Rumble Match - 2.5/5

Beat Match - Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit

Worst Match - Triple H vs. Scott Steiner. I know I gave Dawn vs. Torrie a worse rating but that was only 3 minutes and barely was anything.

Most Memorable Moment - Lesnar F-5 of Matt Hardy out of the ring on Benjamin and Haas.

Top 5 Performers

1. Kurt Angle - Outstanding Performance

2. Chris Benoit - Outstanding Performance

3. Chris Jericho - Great Performance

4. Brock Lesnar - Great Performance

5. Rob Van Dam - Great Performance.

Rumble decent and Angle w Benoit awesome!

[amanwhorocks · 7/10 · 17 February 2022]

1. Brock Lesnar Vs. Big Show - Great opener, quick good match with Lesnar's suplexes. I give 8/10

2. Tag Team Championship: Dudley Boys Vs. Champs-Lance Storm/Steven Regal - After average match with almost dead crowd Dudleyz got victory by cheating. 6/10

Quick recap of an awful feud and we have:

3. Dawn Marie Vs. Torrie Wilson - in a worse than average basic match. Torrie won. 4/10

4. World Heavyweight Championship: Champ-HHH Vs. Scott Steiner - That was one waste of potential. I was really curious about this match and it go into oblivion. No electricity in the match, Steiner was supposed to be face in that, I guess, but it didn't work either. Ended in DQ. Waste of potential! 4/10

5. WWE Championship: Chris Benoit Vs. Champ-Kurt Angle - These 2 guys saved the card. Awesome match with clean ending in a breathtaking action. Pitiful, Benoit had to job that time. 10/10

6. Royal Rumble - Honestly, I have nothing to complain about. Good action, great psychoogy of the match, HBK jobbed, Jericho ruled and Lesnasr won, that was obvious. 9/10.

An Entertaining Card, If Perhaps Not For Everyone

[zkonedog · 6/10 · 9 March 2022]

I'll admit that this era of WWE is not my favorite. The Raw/Smackdown bifurcation never thrilled me and I felt like the business at the time was filled with rather generic "stars". Even so, I found this Royal Rumble 2003 PPV to be at least fairly entertaining (if not quite a bit higher for those who grew up in this era of WWE).

Some further thoughts...

-Lesnar/Big Show as a "play-in" match for Rumble participation is an entertaining concept, and both big men put on a great match.

-Dudleyz/Storm-Regal, Steiner/HHH, & Angle/Benoit are not necessarily my cup of tea, but they are decent enough matches and I can easily see where bigger fans of those individuals will find them more entertaining than I.

-The Rumble itself is the best in a few years. The bottom-roster talent might be a bit thin, but the entire narrative builds to a great conclusion that sets up well for the upcoming Wrestlemania.

Overall, I enjoyed this event much more than the previous 3-4 major PPVs. While not exactly "my era stuff", I can see a level of quality here that others may enjoy far more.

Not bad for the start of 2003

[kliko400 · 6/10 · 12 January 2007]

This wasn't really a bad Royal Rumble PPV. The Rumble itself was alright as it could have been better.

FIRST MATCH- BROCK LESNAR VS. BIG SHOW W/ PAUL HEYMAN WINNER ADVANCES IN THE ROYAL RUMBLE just a big man vs. big man match. Most are pretty boring & this one is a bit. It's good to see Lesnar get the win by carrying the big man, Big Show up for an F-5 to get the win & will advance in the Royal Rumble. 3/10 SECOND MATCH- DUDLEY BOYS VS. LANCE STORM & WILLIAM REGAL FOR THE WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP Pretty bad tag team match. But the only great thing is to see the Dudley Boys win to become the new World Tag Team Champions. 3/10 THIRD MATCH- TORRIE Wilson VS. DAWN MARIE Boring Diva match. Torrie Wilson gets the win over Dawn Marie as I hope this ridiculous feud between them has stopped. 2/10 FOURTH MATCH- TRIPLE H W/ RIC FLAIR VS. SCOTT STEINER FOR THE WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP This match was a bit draggy, slow & sloppy at some times. But it picked on okay a little bit near the end. With Steiner almost dominating the whole match, HHH gets himself DQ'd on purpose after Ric Flair interfered. Steiner won by DQ but HHH is still the World Champ. Steiner goes mad on both men & beats HHH on after the match. 4/10 FIFTH MATCH- KURT ANGLE VS. CHRIS BENOIT FOR THE WWE CHAMPIONSHIP Wow, these two men blew the roof off the arena when they stepped toe to toe in the ring together. Both Benoit & Angle seriously know their own techniques & moves in the ring. A lot of reverse by both men but in the end after both men try to make each other tap out, Angle locks in the Angle Lock & after long minutes, Benoit finally taps out giving Angle the win to retain his WWE Championship. What a match. 6/10 SIXTH MATCH- ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH Good Royal Rumble match, not the best of course but it was still alright. The final 4 are Kane, Undertaker, Batista & Brock Lesnar. Undertaker eliminates Batista, then turns his back on Kane & eliminates him as well. Suddenly Brock Lesnar comes behind & eliminates him from the Rumble as Brock Lesnar has won the Royal Rumble & will be going to Wrestlemania XIX to verse the WWE Champion in the mainevent. 7/10 Wasn't really a bad Royal Rumble, but it could have seriously been better if the matches just took a bit longer. The match between Angle & Benoit was just the best as it was plain perfect.

Overall: I'll give it 6/10 & a D+

Angle vs. Benoit, nuff said.

[gridoon · 6/10 · 7 April 2006]

1) Big Show vs. Brock Lesnar. Winner advances to the RR. It's all about power here, and these two have it. **1/2

2) Dudley Boyz vs. Lance Storm and William Regal (tag team titles). Not bad, but forgettable. **

3) Dawn Marie vs. Torrie Wilson. A poor match, made even worse by the disgustingly tasteless storyline on which it is based. *1/2

4) HHH vs. Scott Steiner (WH title). Anyone who still doubts that wrestling is fake should just take a look at Steiner's punches. Draggy match, pathetic DQ finish that the crowd boos heavily. *1/2

5) Kurt Angle vs. Chris Benoit (WWE title). Awesome match, but what else do you expect from the two best (by far) in the business? Mat wrestling, high-flying, suplexes, submission holds, reversals, reversals-upon-reversals, this one has everything. ***1/2

6) Royal Rumble Match. A fair rumble, it has its moments. Good show by Rey Mysterio at the start (when it's easier to notice the individual performances), but in my opinion the MVP of the whole match, considering the time he lasted in the ring and the amount of moves he did, is RVD. ***

Overall, if you just watch matches 1, 5 and 6 you won't be missing much. But definitely watch #5.

royal rumble 2003 (spoilers)

[sharksfan_93 · 7/10 · 21 May 2006]

Royal rumble was a mix of great and very bad, there were two great matches and the rest was very bad.

MATCH 1 - ROYAL RUMBLE QUALIFIER big show vs Brock lesnar(WIN). 6:15. Typical big man match. only good thing was the f-5. 5/10

MATCH 2 - WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH Dudley boyz(WIN) vs regal and lance storm. 7:26. Another boring match, way to short and boring while it lasted. 5/10

MATCH 3 - STEPDAUGHTER VS STEPMOTHER dawn Marie vs Torrie Wilson(WIN). 3:35. One of the worst womens matches ever, stupid storyline and so was the match. 0/10

MATCH 4 - WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH triple h vs Scott steiner(WIN BY DQ). 17:00. This match wasted 18 minutes of my life, it was probably the most boring title matches ever it was slow through the whole 18 minutes. skip it. 1/10

MATCH 5 - WWE HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH Kurt angle(WIN) vs Chris benoit .19:18. This has gotta be the one of the greatest single matches of all time, definitely the best title match, it had plenty of reversals and non stop action through the whole 20 minutes, they used all there moves plenty of times and ended with angle making benoit tap. 10/10

MATCH 6 - ROYAL RUMBLE (Brock lesnar wins). 56:00. This would've been the greatest rumbles ever but it was too predictable and the ending was pretty bad but everything else was great including Michaels getting.screwed and when weapons were introduced. 9.5/10

Royal rumble 2003 is a bad ppv but i would get the DVD for the wwe title match and the rumble but skip the rest.

Skip the first hour of this one & you'll be fairly entertained!

[Krippler · 5/10 · 18 July 2005]

ROYAL RUMBLE 2003 from Boston, MA ratings out of 10

* Brock Lesnar vs Big Show (4) Lesnar wins to gain entrance to the Rumble match later in the show. Pretty much the same as their Survivor Series except with no title on the line in this one. Pretty standard and only memorable for Lesnar connecting the F5 on Big Show.

* Regal & Storm vs The Dudley Boyz (3) Duds win the titles here in a very uninspired match. Lasts maybe 5 minutes. Forgettable despite the title change.

* Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie (DUD) Nuff said about this garbage. Instead of the logical brawl these two should have had, they went out there and tried to wrestle a technically sound match. Not a good idea. Skip this one.

* Triple H vs Scott Steiner (DUD) To quote Randy Quaid in Days of Thunder, this one looked like a "monkey screwing a football". Steiner proves that he is washed up. Helmsley did everything he could to sell his crappy array of clotheslines and suplexes. Crowd quickly turns on Steiner which would have made this match pretty funny had it not been so god awful to watch.

* Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit (9) This is where to start watching the show. One of the best WWE title matches in a while. Couldn't quite give this one a 10 because of some of the headlocks early. Other than that, there are no other complaints about this match. If you're a wrestling fan, you can;t not like what these guys accomplished here.

* Brock Lesnar won the Rumble match (6) Its hard to grade these matches since they are so long and involve so many men. There were many good moments in this particular Rumble including Jericho's attack of HBK and HBK's eventual payback. Not a bad way to spend 60 minutes however I would have liked to a see a more dramatic finish.

Terrible way to start off the WWE

[nightngale_26 · 1/10 · 31 January 2003]

**SPOILERS**



Well, here we are starting off a new year in the illustrious WWE. Haha, to be honest I think WWE has gone straight down the toilet ever since the Alliance came. And the first PPV of 2003 was very unimpressive.

Match #1 Brock Lesnar V. Big Show - Winner has a slot in the Royal Rumble

Very predictable match, although what match isnt predictible with Brock Lesnar? He reminds me of a 2000 Rock, always getting babied, Lesnar suplexes Show quite a few times, which still doesnt seem to impress me, Big Show doesnt know how to "jump"? Lesnar ends the match with a sloppy F-5.

Winner: Brock Lesnar Rating: 4.2

Match #2 Dudley Boyz V. William Regal and Lance Storm

This was the only match that I didnt call or thought was predictable the entire event. I was for sure Regal was going to sneak another win in for this very impressive tag team. This time the Dudley Boyz "turn the tables" on Storm and Regal as D-Von used the brass knucs to take out Lance Storm. NO TABLES by the way...kind of disapointing but an okay match.

Winner and new Tag Champs: The Dudley Boyz Rating: 5.0

Match #3

Torrie Wilson V. Dawn Marie Well now we come to the Al Wilson saga (yippie). I drove down to the Uni-Mart to pick up a gallon of milk for my coffee when this match came on. Later that night, rewinded the tape I record it on, I knew I was going to regret it

Winner: Torrie Wilson Rating: 3.0

Match #4 "Big Poppa Pump" Scott Steiner V. Triple H

I knew I was going to need that coffee for something, and indeed I did. Very boring match the entire way through. Ever since Steiner came to the WWE and started working house shows, the staff has not been impressed with Steiner, and to put him in a headlining match for his first match, and being a world title match, very bad move on the WWE's part. Very slow paced match, Triple H tried to get the easy way out a few times, (some "game") and the match ended up a DQ after Triple H hit Steiner with a sledgehammer, some tough guy. Steiner afterwards hit Triple H with the sledgehammer getting a bad reaction from the fans. Can you blame them for booing? As disgusted as I was with Steiners position in the WWE, and his ring work, I would boo him too...

Winner: No Contest Rating: 1.8

Match #5 Chris Benoit V. Kurt Angle

Phew, 1 word can describe this, satisfying. Something that I wasnt after this terrible event. Bottom line, you have 2 of the greatest technical, well maybe greatest all-a-round wrestlers in WWE history, after many times these guys have fought it out, this match was most impressive, as are pretty much all the Benoit/Angle matches. My thoughts on this match was, there was no losers, these guys are both winners because they put on darn good shows. Kurt Angle won the match fair n square (Can you believe it!?) and proved to Chris Benoit that he is the better man. Benoit got a standing ovation afterwards, which he deserved.

Winner: Kurt Angle Rating: 8.8

Match #6 The Royal Rumble Match

This was the biggest stinker of the night. How predictable can a Royal Rumble get? I thought it couldnt get any more predictable after last years Royal Rumble, but this was down right wrong. Jericho eliminated Michaels in about 35 seconds after getting a cheap shot by coming from under the ring and attacking him with a chair. So long Shawn. Rey Mysterio came in at #4, and he should have stayed in longer, great, but short preformance by Rey Rey. After the 10th entry there was 1 remaining man left, B-2...eh? No, it was Y2J. *Of course* RVD then comes out which gets the crowd going. Blah, blah, blah..boring boring boring lets get to the 29th entry, Brock Lesnar...can you get anymore babied? Lesnar eliminated Team Angle and Matt Hardy. The 20th unknown entry *hmmm I wonder who that would have been* was of course the Undertaker. 1 highlighter of the night was Kane tricking RVD by teaming up..Kane lifted RVD up and it looked like he was going to throw him onto Batista, but Kane makes a U-Turn and dumps RVD out. Final Four, Batista, Lesnar, Kane, Taker...the big guys. Taker eliminates Batista and Kane. Here comes the big let down of the night. Lesnar eliminates Taker to win the Royal Rumble...*nods head*...I dont know what Lesnar is going backstage with McMahon, but it cant be good. This PPV really stunk. Vince, get your head out of your filthy rich bootae. If this is the way the WWE is starting to be in the year 2003, will there even be a WWE?

Winner: Brock Lesnar: Rating: 4.6

My Top 3 Favorite Moments of the Night: 1. The Kurt Angle/Chris Benoit Match 2. Jericho eliminating HBK before the 4th entry even comes in.. 3. JR mentioning Tajiri has a great chance at winning the Royal Rumble *I still chuckle a bit after hearing that*

My Top 3 Least Favorite Moments of the Night: 1. Brock Lesnar winning the Royal Rumble 2. Brock Lesnar beating the Big Show to be in the Royal Rumble 3. *tie* The Angle/Benoit match ending, and The Triple H/Stiener Match.

Not The Best Royal Rumble Ever

[Big Movie Fan · 9 March 2003]

*** SPOILERS***

The 2003 Royal Rumble was an average PPV event; it wasn't thrilling but it had a few moments.

The opening match pitted Brock Lesnar VS The Big Show (or rather, The Big Slow) in a match where the winner would advance to the Royal Rumble. It was a short and decent match.

Next up was William Regal and Lance Storm VS The Dudley Boyz. Nothing memorable about this match and the same can be said for the next match between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie. Two beautiful ladies but a rubbish match!

Then we came to the World Title match between overrated champion Triple H and psycho Big Poppa Pump. I had high hopes for this match and it had been hyped for weeks. Big Poppa Pump had been quite entertaining in the now defunct WCW and I was expecting a good match. Now, it wasn't an excellent match but it wasn't a bad match either. Big Poppa Pump didn't really live up to my expectations and he was full of ring rust. In fact, Triple H was the man who saved this match and made it into a presentable match. The finish was rather insulting though.

Next up, the Smackdown Title match between Chris Benoit and Kurt Angle. These two men are wrestling machines. Their match was the match of the night and we simply couldn't have asked either men for anything more. Great great match which was won by Angle.

Then, we came to the 30 Man Rumble (for so long, one of my favourites). Again, this wasn't anything special but wasn't too bad. My favourite guy Hulk Hogan didn't appear which was quite disappointing and my other favourite Shawn Michaels was eliminated within minutes. One other complaint was that some of the wrestlers who wrestled were of no interest to me (such as John Cena). But the Rumble had it's moments. Wrestlers such as Edge, Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Kane and Rob Van Dam put on some good performances.

The Rumble match was eventually won by Brock Lesnar who entered late and the finish of the match was anti-climatic. Also, the match got me thinking. The Rumble has been so predictable for years because of the winner gets a title shot stipulation. Everyone knew that Brock would win because WWE were building up a match between Brock and Kurt Angle. This made the Rumble very predictable. You just knew that guys like Edge or Shawn Michaels were not gonna win. So, the old Rumble theory that 'Anyone can win' went out of the window.

If you're going to watch this, make sure you rent it. Don't buy it.

The Next Big Thing Is On His Way To Wrestlemania

[evilman574 · 8 July 2004]

The Royal Rumble 2003 sunk even further than 2002 with the low quality matches and very predictable winner of the Royal Rumble Match.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!!

Brock Lesnar def The Big Show to enter the Rumble match. Boring

Stepdaughter vs Stepmother match: Torrie Wilson def Dawn Marie. Torrie always gets over.

Tag Team Championship: The Dudley Boyz def Willam Regal and Lance Storm to win the titles. The Title win was short lived as the face team of the Dudley were screwed over the next night.

World Heavyweight Championship: Scott Steiner def Triple H by DQ Triple H retains. I'm not a big fan of either men. Crappy match. I almost turned it off after this match. Luckliy I didn't

WWE Championship: Kurt Angle def Chris Benoit. The best match of the night and one of the best of the year. I was amazed that this match topped their match at Wrestlemania 17 and Unforgiven 2002. Made the rest of my night enjoyable.

Royal Rumble Match: Brock Lesnar wins after last eliminating The Undertaker. My money was on Lesnar and was 3 for 3 in Rumble matches. Strong showings by Chris Jericho, Shawn Michales, Undertaker and Kane. Watching Christian run in there and hug Edge was a classic. Edge beat his ass. HBK helped Jericho get eliminated by Test. Matt Hardy trying to align with Jeff was funny and resulted him getting a beating. Maven tried to eliminate the Undertaker again, but Undertaker knew what Maven was up to and Undertaker eliminated Maven and showed him who was boss. I guess Maven didn't learn from his ass beating in 2002 a dumb kid I tell ya.

Overall 6 out of 10

Average Rumble apart from Triple H vs Stiener which was dire.

[fluffy_dragon514 · 4 March 2003]

The 2003 Royal Rumble will be remembered for two reasons.. Kurt Angle Vs Chris Benoit was a classic match and the Triple H Vs Scott Steiner was one of the worst matches ever witnessed at a p.p.v. The 'actual' Rumble was quite good but we have seen better in recent years.

7.8/10

[MKFederation · 30 November 2004]

2003 Royal Rumble

My first Royal Rumble, and first WWE PPV, actually. I've only become a WWE fan quite recently, since I've only started getting RAW and Velocity after No Way Out 04. Yet, while I was in NYC, I decided to pick this baby up. It looked like a good card

And quite frankly, it did not disappoint, as some other reviews might lead you to believe.

Opening match: Brock Lesnar vs. The Big Show

It's pretty funny to see the HUGE pop Lesnar gets during this match, and compare it to the GARGANTUAN heat he got at Wrestlemania XX. It's like he went from the most over superstar in the card, to the least over. I don't like him, myself. But the fact of the matter is, this is a pretty cool power match. It's funny to see Paul Heyman on the outside of the ring, going absolutely berserk sometimes. And, the two consecutive belly to belly overhead suplexes Brock Lesnar gave to Show were awesome to see. All the match needed to be perfect was Lesnar giving Show a superplex off the turnbuckle, breaking the ring in half. But, it remains a Smackdown! exclusive moment, I'm afraid. Lesnar wins it, of course, to a huge pop. An entertaining match-up, 7/10

World Tag Championship: Lance Storm & William Regal vs. Dudleyz

Meh. I don't really care about this match. I saw it was, nothing special. The post-match interview by the Dudley is more entertaining. 5/10

Torrie Wilson vs. Dawn Marie

I didn't see this match. I don't care.

World's Heavyweight Championship match: Big Poppa Pump Scott Steiner vs. Triple H in accompanied by Nature Boy Ric Flair

OK. This is a match that really gets on my nerves not because of the match itself, but because of the reaction and criticism a lot of fans give on it. It's a FINE match. It's a cool match, even. Granted, it has some ugly moments, but it has some very impressive bits as well. I loved seeing Steiner (One of my favourite superstars ever) manhandling Triple H. Just seeing Triple H getting manhandled overall was awesome, even though I knew he'd be walking out World's champion anyway all along. Bad moments: Triple H on the outside of the ring, selling Scott Steiner's blows to the head. It was a really crappy way of selling the punches. I can't remember many other bad moments overall, Steiner had a bit of ring rust, definitely, but I really don't think he is to blame for some of the matches' flaws. It just became quite popular to hate on Scott Steiner, and it became quite popular to hate on this match. It also bothered me that during the match, there was a group of people with loud voices chanting ''Triple H!'' and ''Steiner sucks!''. Putting Ric Flair on Hunter's corner didn't help Steiner getting fans, either. Flair needs to be face, period. The fans love him, they just can't hate him or anyone he's associated with.

Great moments: You know in all Triple H matches, when the opponent has the momentum, and Hunter stops the momentum with his facebuster? Steiner was crushing Triple H, and he pulled out the facebuster...but it does nothing to Steiner. In fact, it hurts Triple H. This was an awesome moment, and the crowd went ''Huh????''. I really didn't see this coming, I thought this would be the moment where HHH would stop Scott Steiner's momentum and eventually win with a pedigree. Whenever Scott Steiner did push ups in front of Triple H, especially when HHH is busted wide open, on the canvas, tired as hell, beat up, and Steiner's just relaxing and doing push ups. That was great to see. After Steiner delivers an awesome series of knife edge chops to the chest of the Game, you can see Hunter's whole chest is red as hell.

After the match, Steiner puts on the Steiner Recliner on a...pretty much dead Triple H. All the refs and staff are around him, trying to pull him away, but it takes Bischoff's words to break it up. Very cool. Another great moment is when Scott Steiner has Triple H in a powerslam/Tombstone Piledriver like position, HHH turns it around, Steiner turns it around again but receives a pretty cool looking Neck breaker. The crowd loved this. The finish was of course, very disappointing, especially to myself, since I'm a HUGE Scott Steiner freak. Hail Freakzilla.

Winner: Scott Steiner

Overall, 7/10

WWE Championship: Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit

This is one of the greatest matches I have ever seen in my life. Absolutely incredible, especially if you don't know the outcome. I won't spoil it to you if you don't know who wins, despite the age of the match.

9/10

Royal Rumble match:

A pretty entertaining match-up... Edge 'turning on' Christian after their temporary 'alliance' was VERY cool! The beginning was nice too, with Christian tricking Shawn Micheals into thinking he was Jericho. Who saw HBK's early elimination coming? That was really unexpected.

It was cool seeing Tommy Dreamer bringing in all the weapons, ECW style! And there was a VERY cool double team aerial move by Rey Mysterio and Edge on Chris Nowinski (who did his job as a comedic factor in the rumble). Jericho got tons of near eliminations, very cool. But the finish... honestly, what's so interesting about seeing Undertaker and Brock Lesnar the last two men in the royal rumble match... if they were the last to enter the match anyway? So what if they win? It's not like they actually had much of a challenge. HBK and Benoit, who were both the first men in on their respective royal rumble victories, now they made an impression. Those two athletes, those two superstars made a true blue impact! Lesnar wins the rumble... as the 29th entry. Great...

7/10

Get the DVD if you can. It has a lot of entertaining interviews, promos, and the royal rumble 03 commercial and respective Making Of. Very funny.

Overall event rating: 7.8/10 . Get it on DVD if you can!