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One of the most exciting times to be a wrestling fan is the first quarter of every year. The Road To WrestleMania begins with The Royal Rumble. 30 men and 30 women compete in the over the top rope battle royal with a title shot at WrestleMania on the line. Invented by Pat Patterson, it might just be the most popular match in WWE history.

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Several promotions over the years have tried their hand at creating their own Royal Rumble. Naturally, none of them ever stuck and generally have been lost to time. WCW of course gave it their shot too in the form of The Countdown To Armageddon match. Taking place unannounced on a taped Thunder from Australia in 2000, clearly WCW’s match didn’t do much for the promotion.

Several Stars Of WCW Promised That They Would Win Countdown To Armageddon

Mike Sanders Cropped

The night began with a face off between the two bickering commissioners - The Cat, and Above Average Mike Sanders; the latter of which would lose to Rey Mysterio. Much like early Royal Rumble events, some of the superstars would participate in matches throughout the evening, as well as the big Countdown To Armageddon. Guys like Shane Douglas, Mike Awesome, Jeff Jarrett, and Scott Steiner would also cut promos about how they were going to win the match and earn the title shot on the Nitro following Halloween Havoc. Meanwhile, Goldberg (who was barred from being part of the main event) was stalking the halls looking for KroniK, who he’d face at Halloween Havoc in the worst main event in WCW history. Booker T, the defending WCW Champion, was also part of the big match and said he was going to win, just in case he “slipped on a banana peel” defending the title against Big Poppa Pump at Halloween Havoc.

Countdown To Armageddon Had A Royal Rumble Like Structure

Mike Awesome

The match started much like the night did - with Mike Sanders and The Cat. Every 30 seconds, another superstar would join the fray. Other than the time intervals, structurally speaking, the match was no different from The Royal Rumble. That’s in theory, but in practice, this is latter-day WCW we’re talking about here. That meant a lot of nonsense sizzle with very little steak. It’s not the fault of any of the roster, they were only doing their job.

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The ring was loaded with at least ten guys when Kevin Nash hit the ring. Halfway through the field, The Giant Killer Rey Mysterio arrived. Booker T and Mike Awesome soon followed, and the three superstars worked to eliminate “The Coach.” Sting arrived, and all three men dumped Nash out. The second half of the match saw a few people just come out whenever they wanted to, countdown or not.

WCW Changed Their Plans After The Match

Stinger Splash

Somehow, the field was narrowed down to the tag champs, Mark Jindrak and Sean O’Haire, along with KroniK and Mike Awesome. That 70s Guy survived a brief beatdown from the other four before Goldberg arrived. Goldberg eliminated both the champs and Brian Adams. Then, he and Awesome eliminated KroniK to win the Countdown To Armageddon match and earn a WCW Title shot against whoever the champion was on Nitro, the night after Halloween. Havoc. That was at least the original announced plan, but WCW and its selective memory took charge. The former ECW Champion would get his match with WCW Champion Booker T several weeks later on Thunder instead.

This could have been a real chance to recreate Mike Awesome and showcase the monster the company originally signed away from ECW, but instead of trying to create new top stars, Awesome and Booker T had a good match and that was it. Booker T retained the WCW title and resumed his feud with Scott Steiner. Considering that in less than a year, WCW was sold to the WWE, The Countdown To Armageddon match was no longer needed - it was a Royal Rumble ripoff to begin with.

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Perhaps if the company continued, we might have seen more of these matches. Or WWE might have gotten litigious and demanded a cease and desist, since the match was literally the same as The Royal Rumble, with one big exception; there wasn’t a decent booker in WCW at this time to make the match anything more than just a unique footprint.