The event starts with a video package going over some key moments in Royal Rumble history before running down some of the big entrants this year, including a recently returned Triple H, Mr. Perfect, Kurt Angle, and “Stone Cold” Steve Austin.
Jim Ross and Jerry “The King” Lawler welcome us to the show
before The Dudley Boyz enter with Stacy Keibler, my favourite era of Dudleyz.
Howard Finkel is our ring announcer tonight also. Tazz makes his way out with
Spike Dudley and it’s sad looking at his career over these 2 years, but at
least he got some gold.
SPIKE DUDLEY
& TAZZ © VS. THE DUDLEY BOYZ (WWF Tag Team Championships)
WWF Royal Rumble 2002 (20th January 2002)
The Dudley Boyz meet their opponents with right hands and the bell rings. Bubba Ray sends Spike over to the floor as D-Von Dudley dumps Tazz through the ropes. The Dudley Boyz hit a back suplex/neckbreaker combination on Tazz on the floor. Spike is left in the ring with his brothers and meets the same fate. Bubba Ray Dudley starts this officially with Spike and hits a neck breaker before removing Spike’s neck brace. Bubba hits another neckbreaker and tells Spike to get up, then suplexes him and tags in D-Von. D-Von Dudley connects with an elbow to the back of Spike’s neck and snapmares him over into the neck snap. Tazz is getting to his feet on the apron as Bubba Ray is tagged back in and the fans are chanting for tables. Bubba Ray Dudley hits a brainbuster and JR pulls out the old-timer, namedropping Dick the Bruiser. Spike Dudley counters another brainbuster attempt into a Dudley Dog! They’re both down as Tazz begs for a tag from the apron. D-Von enters, drawing the referee’s attention from the tag and the Dudley Boyz drag Spike back to their corner. They almost release Spike on the flapjack, he gets some height before crashing down.
D-Von goes to the top rope but Spike is able to avoid a diving headbutt. Bubba enters the ring and Spike is on his feet between Bubba and D-Von, he ducks and the partners collide with clotheslines for a double-down. Spike makes the tag as we see a replay of Stacy and I’m not even annoyed about it. Tazz cleans house with right hands and clotheslines. He tries to suplex Bubba Ray, but it doesn’t look pretty. D-Von takes a normal-looking belly-to-belly and Bubba is hit with a T-Bone suplex. Tazz hits D-Von with a Northern Lights suplex and bridges but Bubba breaks it up. Bubba Ray sends Tazz into the corner and I think the referee counts it as a tag as Spike hits a crossbody on Bubba. Tazz knocks Bubba Ray down with a big boot that he sold like hell. Spike hits the Dudley Dog on Bubba Ray who rolls out to the floor. Stacy Keibler is on the apron, which gets Tazz’s attention. Tazz ducks a slap that was nowhere close to him and puts the Tazzmission on Stacy over the ropes, but D-Von Dudley breaks it up before he can get it synched in. Tazz sends D-Von into the turnbuckles and locks him in the Tazzmission for the win.
WINNERS: SPIKE DUDLEY & TAZZ (STILL WWF Tag Team Champions)
This was a nice sprint of a match. The Dudleyz tried to
isolate Spike for the easy win, and it’s easy to forget how good these guys were at getting heat in ECW
(although the methods may not work in more recent times) they worked well and it
was a nice match to start the show. [*¼] 3/10
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