Royal Rumble 1999 Royal Rumble 1999 was the twelfth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay - per - view event produced by the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) . It took place on January 24 , 1999 at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim , California . The title of the event was taken from a promise by Mr . McMahon that the first entrant in the Royal Rumble , Steve Austin , had " no chance in hell " of winning the match . The theme song for the event , based on the phrase , would go on to become the entrance music for McMahon ' s stable The Corporation and later , just McMahon himself . The main event was the annual Royal Rumble match , which saw the winner receive a title shot for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania , the pay - per - view two months later . The Royal Rumble centered around the continuing heated rivalry between Steve Austin and Mr . McMahon , with those men entering the main event at # 1 and # 2 , respectively . The penultimate match for the WWF Championship was an " I Quit " match between Mankind and The Rock , which is remembered both for its brutality and its place in the documentary film " Beyond the Mat " . Lower down on the card the WWF Intercontinental Championship and WWF Women ' s Championship were both defended . Background . The overriding theme of the pay - per - view was centered around The Corporation and Mr . McMahon ' s attempts to enforce his notions of how a company should be run on the promotion . Since its inception the night after Survivor Series , the group had mainly come to blows with the irreverent D - Generation X , the Undertaker ' s Ministry of Darkness and McMahon ' s nemesis Steve Austin . When Commissioner Shawn Michaels allied himself with The Corporation , one of the first things he did was to book the Tag Team Champions , Road Dogg and Billy Gunn , in a title defense against Corporate members Ken Shamrock and The Big Boss Man . Despite his interference at they managed to retain their titles but they were not so lucky on " Raw is War " on December 14 . As the feud between DX and The Corporation intensified , the New Age Outlaws turned to singles wrestling as Road Dogg found himself caught up in the hardcore division and became Hardcore Champion on December 21 . Meanwhile , as well as tensions from the tag team feuding , Billy Gunn gained the ire of Ken Shamrock when his sister Ryan appeared at ringside , only to have her sibling affection distracted when Gunn lived up to his nickname by flirtatiously mooning Ryan after Val Venis had already danced for her . Filled with his typical rage Shamrock put his Intercontinental Championship on the line for a chance to honor his notions of sibling protection . After a minor absence , Women ' s Champion Sable returned to Raw with an open invitation on December 28 , but before the match a fan came into the ring , later identified as Tori to give her a rose . A masked wrestler identified as " Spider Lady " came to the ring for the match ( a nod to The Fabulous Moolah ' s screwjob over Wendi Richter in the mid ' 80s ) but it ended in a no - contest when she started whipping Sable with her belt . The masked woman was revealed to be Luna Vachon , who would go on to face Sable in a " Strap Match " at the Rumble . The Rock and Mankind had been feuding ever since Survivor Series in November 1998 , when the two met in the finals of the " Deadly Game " tournament for the vacant WWF Championship . The Rock won the title that night with the help of the McMahons , who had previously been assisting Mankind , and became the chosen Corporate Champion while Mankind began a feud with the Corporation . Mankind faced The Rock again at Rock Bottom : IYH and won the match , but Mr . McMahon stepped in and announced that while Rock lost the match by falling unconscious to the mandible claw , he did not technically submit and thus the WWF Championship would not change hands . Angered at being screwed out of the championship twice , Mankind attacked Shane McMahon on Raw is War and demanded a match . On the first Raw is War of 1999 , January 4 , after interference from The Corporation , D - Generation X and Steve Austin , Mankind won his first WWF Championship . Initially he refused The Rock ' s demands for a rematch , despite Rock offering stipulation after stipulation to appease Mankind until eventually he quit begging , at which point Mankind revealed that he would face The Rock at the Rumble as long as it was an " I Quit " match . The Royal Rumble match featured a number of notable build ups . On Raw is War on January 11 , a Corporation vs . DX mini - Rumble was set up with the winner taking the coveted number 30 spot ; after all the apparent competitors had entered it seemed as if Triple H had won until Mr . McMahon made his way to the ring , entering himself on behalf of the Corporation and throwing a distracted Triple H out of the ring . Again it seemed as if the winner was established until DX ' s Chyna made her way to the ring and won the match . The event would mark the first time a female wrestler took part in the match . Chyna also appeared at the Royal Rumble the following year as well . Chyna became the only woman to enter the match until Beth Phoenix entered the Royal Rumble in 2010 . The most notable aspect of the Royal Rumble , though , was the feud between Mr . McMahon and Steve Austin . Austin had won the Royal Rumble the previous two years and McMahon attempted to prevent him from repeating by putting him in a " Buried Alive " match at Rock Bottom : IYH against The Undertaker with one Royal Rumble place on the line . Austin won , with a little help from Kane and was guaranteed a place in the match , but McMahon continued in his attempts to prevent Austin from winning the match by " randomly " drawing Austin ' s spot at # 1 and entering himself in the match at # 30 . Commissioner Michaels over - rode his decision and put McMahon at # 2 , and set up a Corporate / DX mini - Rumble for the now vacant # 30 position . With Austin and McMahon being the first two to enter , McMahon wanted to guarantee there would be " no chance in hell " that Austin would win by not only training as a competitor , but also offering a $ 100 , 000 bounty for the man who eliminated him . Aftermath . When Mr . McMahon won the Royal Rumble he earned a match against the WWF Champion at WrestleMania , but at the time it seemed as if that champion was fellow Corporate member The Rock . Not a full - time wrestler , McMahon announced on January 25 that he was vacating his place at WrestleMania ( the first time the Royal Rumble winner would voluntarily vacate their place ) only to be informed by Commissioner Michaels that if the winner was incapable of wrestling in the WrestleMania main event then the runner - up would take their place . As the runner - up was Steve Austin , this enraged McMahon and Austin used this to goad him into a match . Austin explained that even more than a WWF Championship match , he wanted another chance to fight McMahon without any legal ramifications so much that he would risk his WrestleMania title shot for the chance . To ensure that there would be no Corporate interference , the match would take place inside a steel cage at . Austin went on to win the match after the debut of Paul Wight , who came through the ring ' s mat and threw Austin into the cage wall , breaking it open and causing Austin to exit the cage before McMahon . Austin proceeded to face The Rock at WrestleMania XV , winning the WWF Championship for the second year in a row . The mystery of Mankind ' s quitting was solved when it was revealed that Shane McMahon had played a voice clip from a prerecorded interview on Sunday Night Heat of Mankind vowing to make Rock be the one " screaming I quit , I quit , I quit ! " when he was actually unconscious . Having been screwed again , Mankind hijacked the $ 100 , 000 bounty money The Rock earned for helping eliminate Austin , and began to throw it in the crowd , holding it ransom for a rematch . The rematch would be a twenty - minute time limit hardcore match , held in an empty arena during halftime of Super Bowl XXXIII on Halftime Heat , where Mankind would win the title back by trapping Rock underneath a heavy payload on a forklift truck . With the Rock claiming it was an unfair win , the two faced each other again , and in hopes of finding a definitive champion the match was booked as a " Last Man Standing " match at St . Valentine ' s Day Massacre . It ended in a draw when both men were counted out , meaning they had to settle it again the next night on Raw is War in a ladder match which Rock won with help from Paul Wight . With WrestleMania so close , Mankind sought to settle the score with Rock by countlessly trying to become a second special guest referee in the WrestleMania main event , alongside Wight . Early in the WrestleMania card , Wight and Mankind fought for the referee position in a match which saw Wight disqualified for chokeslamming Mankind through a pair of steel folding chairs . Mankind was sent to the hospital for his injuries , but returned to officiate in the closing minutes of the match . After making herself properly known , Sable ' s stalker Tori would be humiliated with her , pretending to align herself with Luna Vachon only to help Sable give her a beat down . Tori soon realized how selfish Sable was , though and the two had a match for the Women ' s Championship at WrestleMania XV where Sable retained her title thanks to interference from Nicole Bass . Mabel , meanwhile , was renamed Viscera and became the newest member of the Ministry of Darkness as it assembled its war against The Corporation and Mr . McMahon , making The Brood part of the stable as well on February 1 . The Undertaker would have a " Hell in a Cell " match against Big Boss Man at WrestleMania XV which ended with The Brood passing rope from the roof to hang Boss Man with . The feud between the two stables continued until they joined forces when it became apparent that the " higher power " The Undertaker was answering to was actually Mr . McMahon . One day after her historic appearance in the Royal Rumble Match , Chyna turned heel by betraying Triple H and joining The Corporation . At St . Valentine ' s Day Massacre , the villainous Chyna teamed with fellow Corporation member Kane in defeating Triple H and X - Pac . Chyna turned against Kane and reunited with Triple H at WrestleMania XV , but they would both help Shane McMahon defeat X - Pac later in the event , making Triple H a member of The Corporation . Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations . A new entrant came out approximately every 90 seconds .