Royal Rumble (1998) - Aftermath

Aftermath

By winning the Royal Rumble match, Steve Austin won the right to face Shawn Michaels for the WWF Championship at WrestleMania XIV. Mike Tyson's presence in the director's box was revealed the following night to be because he was taking the role of special guest referee for the event. Following an altercation with Austin, however, he was changed to special enforcer and soon allied with D-Generation X. At WrestleMania, though, Tyson showed his true colors and stepped in when the referee was knocked down making the three-count for Austin which many see as the genesis for the Attitude era and WWF's re-surging dominance over chief rivals World Championship Wrestling.

Moreover, during the match with The Undertaker, Shawn Michaels suffered an injury to his back which would result in his ostensible retirement from wrestling at WrestleMania. As it transpired, during a one-off match with Triple H at SummerSlam 2002, he realized his back no longer hampered him and made a full time return to wrestling. His back injury kept him out of all wrestling until the main event at WrestleMania, despite being billed on the card for the next PPV, No Way Out of Texas. His last-minute replacement was Savio Vega, who appeared in the main event eight-man tag team match which saw a number of high-profile feuds converge on the road to WrestleMania.

The New Age Outlaws would go on to take part in the eight-man main event at No Way Out of Texas, sparring opposite Cactus Jack and Chainsaw Charlie ahead of their WrestleMania title match. Their alliance with Triple H in this match saw them join the newly formed DX Army the day after WrestleMania. Legion of Doom went on to suffer a series of losses, ending in another loss against the Outlaws on February 23 after which they had an in-ring brawl and announced the dissolution of their team. They reappeared in a modified form as LOD 2000 in the opening WrestleMania match with Sunny as their valet.

Rocky Maivia's feud with Ken Shamrock spilled out into a ten-man tag match between the Nation of Domination and Shamrock's team, teaming with Ahmed Johnson and the Disciples of Apocalypse. Shamrock won the match by pinning Rock name and faced him at WrestleMania once again for the Intercontinental title. He originally won the match but would not release his ankle lock and was thus was disqualified.

The Undertaker would not return to action until WrestleMania, where he defeated Kane in a singles match. The feud continued with an inferno match at Unforgiven: In Your House in April. Two months later the two entered a storyline where Undertaker was eventually revealed to be in cahoots with his brother, which concluded with Paul Bearer reuniting with Undertaker and turning on Kane which led to the formation of the Ministry of Darkness at the end of 1998. This also marked the last time he would face Michaels in a singles match until the two met at WrestleMania XXV; he would wrestle Michaels once more at WrestleMania XXVI where he won a "streak vs. career" match.