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Was WWE Royal Rumble 2000 botched? When The Rock won the Rumble match even after his feet hit the floor
The Rock’s only Royal Rumble win in 2000 goes down as one of the most controversial victories. Know what exactly happened, how the fans reacted to it and what The Rock had to say about it.
In the last three decades of WWE’s history, some of the storylines and match endings have received severe criticism from the fans.
Whether it's the underwhelming Brock Lesnar vs Goldberg match at WrestleMania 20 or WWE's hasty conclusion of Wade Barrett's Nexus storyline with John Cena at SummerSlam, both instances left fans disappointed.
Among several of these botched-up match endings, The Rock’s win at the Royal Rumble after eliminating Big Show stands at the top. The Rock who had burst onto the scene in WWF (now WWE) in 1998 entered the Royal Rumble 2000 in the last few minutes and eliminated Big Show.
Though The Rock was indeed cheered by the Madison Square Garden crowd, the way the match ended and The Rock won confused the fans.
What happened between The Rock and Big Show?
The contest was ultimately down to two wrestlers; The Rock and the giant Big Show. What was expected to be a clean win for The Rock who was immensely popular then, didn’t turn out the way the creative team wanted it.
The Big Show had held The Rock and was walking towards the ring to throw him out. But before that, The Rock clung to the ring and instead used his feet to grab Big Show’s neck and throw him out at the last moment. 
However, in the process, The Rock’s feet touched the ground, as seen by some fans. This was even put in the storyline by the WWF’s creative team (now WWE) in the next few episodes.
We don’t know whether this was scripted or The Rock’s feet accidentally touched the ground. What we know is that the fans had strong views on it.
Even though The Rock didn’t win the title belt at WrestleMania which was the next milestone for him, he eventually won the WWF Undisputed Championship in 2002. And years after he finally spoke on his botched win at Royal Rumble 2000.
What did The Rock say about his Royal Rumble 2000 win?
The Rock made a surprising special appearance on Monday Night RAW in Miami on January 25, 2016. As he made his way to the arena, he came across Big Show and as we know, The Rock doesn’t hesitate in speaking his heart out, he mocked Big Show for that night, which according to him was won by Big Show only.
While speaking to Big Show about that night’s ending, he said, “ Yes, I agree that you should have won as my feet hit the floor first.” He further mocked The Big Show by saying that The Scorpion Kings director had said that whoever wins the Royal Rumble will be cast as the lead hero of the film.
“That should have been you. You should have been ‘The Scorpion King’,” The Rock tried to embarrass Big Show and it hilariously worked well.
We don’t know whether The Scorpion King’s director had even said that, but what’s clear is that the Royal Rumble 2000 was indeed botched and it did spoil The Rock’s only Rumble win in history.
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