15 Years Ago: Rock Regains WWF Title in Infamous “I Quit” Match

From John Cannon: Ever since its creation, the “I Quit” match has been used on occasion to generally bloody and sometimes gruesome ...

From John Cannon:

Ever since its creation, the “I Quit” match has been used on occasion to generally bloody and sometimes gruesome results. Arguably, none have been more bloody and gruesome than the infamous “I Quit” match between Mankind (Mick Foley) and the Rock for the WWF Championship at the 1999 Royal Rumble.

The Rock had picked up the title in November of 1998 by defeating Mankind in the finals of the “Deadly Game Tournament” at Survivor Series after the title had been vacated. This led up to the now legendary January 4, 1999, Monday Night Wars incident that backfired on WCW’s Monday Nitro when announcers let slip that Mankind would beat Rock for the title on the WWF’s RAW is WAR (in a match taped on December 29), causing a multitude of viewers to switch over to RAW.

With Mankind set for his first title defense on January 23, 1999, at the Royal Rumble in Anaheim, California, it was stipulated that the title bout be an “I Quit” match, something that many felt would put the advantage on Mankind. After all, the hardcore style match was right up his alley.

The match went back and forth for most of the first half, with both using brutal moves, including Rock utilizing the ring bell to ring Mankind’s dome, and both men falling through a collapsing announcers table during a power move attempt, it was the second half that would make the first half appear like a walk in the park. With Mankind handcuffed, the Rock beat the holy heck out of him before landing a buttload of undefended chair shots to Mankind, seemingly causing the hardcore legend to utter, “I quit! I quit!”

Turns out the hardcore legend was “unconscious” and the “I quits” were actually taped audio from an interview prior to the match. No matter – at the end of the day the Rock was declared the new champ, hardcore memories had become forever ingrained in our minds, and the match became immortalized in wrestling documentary Beyond the Mat.