• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (January 19, 1997) – WWF Royal Rumble 1997
On this day in Pro Wrestling history on January 19, 1997, the World Wrestling Federation aired their annual ‘Royal Rumble’ event LIVE on PPV from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas.
This was the first Royal Rumble match out of three (97,98 & 01) that was won by “Stone Cold” Steve Austin, but he won this one in a very controversial way as he was originally eliminated but the referees did not see it.
Results:
– WWF Intercontinental Championship: Hunter Hearst Helmsley (c) defeated Goldust
– Ahmed Johnson defeated Faarooq via DQ
– Vader defeated The Undertaker
– Canek, Héctor Garza & Perro Aguayo defeated Fuerza Guerrera, Heavy Metal & Jerry Estrada
– Stone Cold Steve Austin won the 30-man Royal Rumble match
– WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Shawn Michaels def. Sycho Sid (c)
• The Young Bucks Reveal That WWE Had A “Life-Changing” Offer For Them
During a recent interview with CBS Sports, The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) talked about the offer they received from WWE before they made an announcement regarding All Elite Wrestling.
Below is what they said:
Nick: “For a moment, I thought that we would probably be going to WWE. That was the closest that it’s ever come to us going there, for sure. And they were great. They were respectful, and they told us what our value was.
I think it was really like a wake-up call for us. It was almost like, wow. It’s good to be wanted. These guys, they’re teaching us we are valuable and we’re worth this much. It was definitely something we were considering, and it was hard to turn down, because it would have been life-changing.”
Matt: “We just had to do the best thing for our families. We’re family men, and we just want to take care of them, and we want to make the best decision, and we want to be home. But again, with WWE, they were pretty much willing to do anything.
Any type of concern we had, they had something good to say about it and how they would fix it. I can’t stress enough how friendly and how great they were to us. And I have nothing but good things to say about them.”
According to the Wrestling Observer, Triple H offered The Young Bucks approximately the same amount of money that former 2 time WWE Champion AJ Styles gets paid (and AJ is among the top paid full-time WWE Superstars right now).
Along with that type of money, WWE wanted to make their “Being The Elite” YouTube show a weekly special on the WWE Network.
The contract also included a “6 month window” where they could pull out of their 3 year contracts if they weren’t happy with their booking. The Observer noted that WWE never offered anyone this “6 month window” deal ever.
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