Royal Rumble Rewind 1997: Stone Cold Steve Austin wins ... kind of

In this series, we look back on every Royal Rumble event to date. Up next: Royal Rumble 1997, featuring Stone Cold Steve Austin winning without actually winning.

Event: Royal Rumble 1997
Date: January 19, 1997
Location: Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas
Time: 50:29
Winner: Stone Cold Steve Austin
Last Eliminated: Bret Hart
Iron Man: Stone Cold Steve Austin
Quickest Out: Jerry Lawler
Most Eliminations: Stone Cold Steve Austin

Something was missing from this Rumble match. Perhaps it was the fact that it took place in front of such a large crowd at the Alamodome with an attendance of over 60,000. Or maybe it was because no one really lasted very long within the match.

In fact, only two wrestlers went longer than 20 minutes -- Stone Cold Steve Austin, the winner, and Bret Hart, the man he eliminated to win.

Actually, it was almost certainly the fact that this Rumble managed to feature a smoz finish. Hart had eliminated Austin but the referees were too distracted by a brawl between Mankind and Terry Funk to notice. So Stone Cold simply climbed back into the ring and dumped Hart to win after lasting 45:07 as the match's Iron Man and giving him a record 10 eliminations in one Rumble match.

Hart completely lost his mind over the injustice and this eventually led to the two having a match at WrestleMania 13 later that year, the match you Cagesiders voted the greatest of all time.