Royal Rumble Match Guides – Part 1

As we head into Royal Rumble season (Jerry’s favorite time on the wrestling calendar), it’s time to dive into the Network and do another search for worthwhile matches in events gone by. This week, we’re looking at the first decade of Royal Rumbles and the matches you should lock in on. For those looking for the TL;DR version, my list of must-see matches is at the very bottom this post.

1988

Unique show because this wasn’t a pay-per-view but instead a network special on USA Network. It could be compared to a Saturday Night’s Main Event, with a looser format that the company got on network TV. It might even be fair to call it a beefed up episode of Prime Time. While this technically wasn’t the first Royal Rumble match (several had been held on house shows to test the concept), this was the first televised Rumble. Held at the then Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, the WWE wouldn’t return to the area for a PPV card until Breakdown in 1998. The building would however, be a regular scene for television tapings in the 1980’s and 1990’s. 

• Must See Matches
  • Royal Rumble match
  • If you like a series, you’ve gotta see the first. It’s not the Rumble you’re used to. There’s only 20 guys, there really aren’t any main eventers and it’s not even the main event of the special. But its always interesting to see where it all began.

1989

The first Rumble to his pay-per-view emanated from The Summit in Houston, Texas, the now-Lakewood Church of one Joel Osteen. This show also featured the famous Super Posedown between Rick Rude and The Ultimate Warrior which would have been better used as fill on Wrestling Challenge than 10+ minutes of a pay-per-view.

• Must See Matches
  • Royal Rumble match
  • The first 30-man Rumble, this was also the first time they tried to work a story into the match. Multiple stories were worked in throughout the match, from the first two entrants being the tag team champions (Demolition) to Andre/Jake and the continuation of the tension between the Mega Powers that would culminate at Wrestlemania V. While the ending was a little anticlimactic compared to the first two-thirds of the match, it’s still worth a watch.

1990

The 3rd Rumble takes us to Orlando, Florida , which also sees Jesse “The Body” Ventura open the show in Mickey Mouse ears. That’s pretty much all that’s here. The undercard matches are pretty forgettable, the Rumble match proper is relatively uneventful with the most predictable ending possible (spoiler alert: Hogan wins). If you’re watching these as a historical series, I guess you have to watch this one but you won’t miss a thing if you give this show a miss. 

1991

Rumble ‘91 takes us back to Florida, as it emanates from the Miami Arena, which stood for a grand total of 20 years and is now a parking lot. While the Rumble itself isn’t anything to write home about (another spoiler alert: Hogan won), there are a couple of worthwhile offerings here. 

• Must See Matches
  • The Rockers vs. The Orient Express
    • Wait, the job team with the white guy in a mask called Kato is in a must-see match? Yes. If you like tag team wrestling, yes absolutely. This is actually the better of their two PPV matches. It’s an up-and-down affair, a hot opener, Marty sells his ass off. This match is a semi-main event every night in an old time territory.

• WWF Champion The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sergeant Slaughter
  • This was the beginning of one of the more regrettable angles in company history, but the match itself is a solid title match. It’s packed with mayhem thanks to Col. Mustafa, the Macho King and Queen Sherri. Again, I think it’s important to see the matches that have become benchmarks in the company’s overall timeline and this is one of those encounters.

1992

Hey, an event in a building that’s still standing! This year’s event comes to us from the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York, now the Times Union Center. While there may be some lows on this card (you’ll never get back the 15 minutes you’ll waste watching the Beverlys v. The Bushwackers),, we’re about to hit another one of those benchmark matches that I just mentioned. 

• Must See Matches
  • WWF Intercontinental Champion The Mountie v. Roddy Piper
    • This is a short, kinda sloppy match but you can’t say no watching the Rowdy One capture his only WWF gold.
  • Royal Rumble Match for the WWF Championship
    • The culmination of a months-long web of angles surrounding the title, this is one of the most star-studded Rumbles in history. The first time the belt was on the line during the match, Flair did a Flair thing to outlast literally 28 other men to win the title. It’s also one of the better laid out matches as it moves through several phases with the Nature Boy being the thread that weaves it all together. 

1993

The Rumble finally goes west as this year’s event comes from Sacramento, California. This year’s Rumble match is pretty forgettable, featuring a number of tag team wrestlers, a pretty slow pace, some of the event’s more obscure entries (Max Moon, Damien Damento, Repo Man, Virgil) and worst of all, the WWF debut of Giant Gonzales. The quality here is on the undercard.

• WWF Intercontinental Champion Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty
  • A legit four-star match between two of the best workers of the decade at their prime (yes kids, Marty was a hell of a worker). Add the intrigue of Sensational Sherri at ringside and you’ve got a classic I-C title match. You just have to ignore that a major spot that the match revolved around was botched. Shawn posted Marty’s shoulder to work on for the bulk of the match, but he posted the wrong shoulder (HEY YO) and Marty looked foolish selling the wrong side. Oh, and what Marty was wearing. You have to ignore his new gear. I mean, it was the early 90’s, but that stuff is damn near unforgivable. 
• WWF Champion Bret Hart v. Razor Ramon
  • A great hard-hitting, back-and-forth match that told a great story. Despite the fact there didn’t seem to be a ton of buildup coming in. Both guys sold their asses off for each other. In case you only know Scott Hall from his later days in the business, this is a reminder of how good he was in the ring.

1994

1994 saw the Royal Rumble come close to the company’s base at the Providence Civic Center. More than 14,000 people were witness to an all right night of wrestling. None of the night’s offerings really stood out in the ring. There were two notable moments: Owen Hart turning on his brother Bret in the tag title match by kicking his leg out from under his leg and the Undertaker losing a casket match to Yokozuna thanks to 10 guys. He would then make one of his more infamous speeches and ascend from the casket in smoke form. Yeah, even as a kid I was confused by that one. Taker wouldn’t be seen until Summerslam, when he would face himself and that one would take even more explaining. Anyway, no must-see matches on this night. If you want to see the moments I mentioned, I’m sure you can get the idea with a quick search on YouTube. 

1995

The USF Sun Dome was the host for this Rumble. A sold out crowd saw a 5 match pay-per-view card and while a sell out was only around 10,000 people, it wouldn’t be the low point in the series. That would be 1996, when only 9,500 were in attendance at that year’s event in Fresno. Looking back through rose colored glasses, I don’t think we fully understand just how lean the business was from about 1993-1996.

I would like to say that the Rumble match is worth viewing because Shawn Michaels became the first to enter at #1 and win the whole thing. However, I can’t quite recommend it for a few reasons. First, wrestlers entered every 60 seconds instead of the standard 2 minutes. The match moves along but only runs about 40 minutes, which is disappointing for a Rumble. For reference, Bob Backlund went 61 minutes 2 years before to be eliminated in 3rd place. Second, the field was kinda weak. I mean Mantaur was in this year’s Rumble. All I’m saying is if you look at the list of guys in the match, it became pretty obvious who was winning this one. 

I’ll also give the World title match between Diesel and Bret Hart a close but no cigar. It was a solid match but the finish was so screwy, it took me out of the match. 

1996

This year takes us back out west to Fresno, California and this show is a stark reminder of what the WWF was like just before the flip to the Attitude Era. We aren’t quite there yet. We do open the PPV with a viewer discretion warning from Sunny in a bubble bath. A side note here: Mr. Perfect joins Vince McMahon on commentary and he is a great heel color man. He’s the perfect (no pun intended) balance to Vince’s over-the-top face play by play. He is also leaps and bounds better as a broadcaster than he was during his first run at the desk a few years before. The undercard wasn’t anything special really. The first 2 matches could have aired on Raw and given the number of times the Body Donnas and Smoking Gunns fought over the tag belts, they probably were. The Intercontinental title match between Razor and Goldust told a great story, but the in-ring action was good but nothing amazing. This match though should be noted as the debut of Marlena. The Rumble match itself was a repeat of the year before and not just because of the repeat winner. It was full of guys who were clearly never going to win (but damn was it fun to see Dory Funk Jr. in there). The outcome was pretty obviously set up before the match and it wasn’t hidden during the bout. The main event wasn’t bad at all, a good little v. big match, and Bret was always great in those. However, he and Taker would have much better bouts in the future. The second straight year you could sum the show up with: meh. 

1997

This year takes us to the Alamodome and San Antonio, Texas, the hometown of Shawn Michaels. And if you were unaware of that fact, they’ll make sure you know it by the end of the night. To quote Jim Cornette, they had a stadium that needed a show and not the other way around. The opener was a decent I-C title match between Goldust and HHH. Helmsley retained due to chicanery with his new butler Mr. Hughes. The next two matches were solid brawls, Ahmed Johnson v. Faarooq and The Undertaker v. Vader, but neither were worth writing home about. Both also got to points where they slowed way down. The latter is noteworthy for being the night that Paul Bearer started managing Vader. 

Let me add this nitpick too. Multiple times during matches, they cut to Todd Pettengill in the crowd to do interviews. Sure Vader is getting his heat on The Undertaker but let’s go to Todd and a teenage girl from Canada! Just killed the flow of the broadcast for me. 

A six-man lucha match followed and it was a pretty good lucha match. Despite containing legends like Canek, Perro Aguayo, and Fuerza Guerrero and a young Hector Garza, the crowd was dead for this and you got the feeling that these six have had this match dozens of times before. JR tried to explain some background on lucha but he is no Mike Tenay in that area. The Rumble itself was the Stone Cold show, although his was the only well told story in the match. Everybody had their chapters, but his was the best told story. It was the year of the screwy finish that lead us to IYH: Final Four. If you’ve seen the last 5 minutes of this one, you know all you need to about it. And now to the main event and boy, did they have something about giving Shawn the most predictable finishes at the Rumble. A dome show in Michaels’ hometown? Now he’s got the flu? Out to avenge his trainer? Sid did get some decent positive reactions from the ringsiders during his entrance. Shawn did bump his ass off in this one, including taking a powerbomb on the floor. An alright match where you saw the finish coming a mile away and man was it overbooked.

MUST SEE MATCHES

• 1988 – Royal Rumble Match
• 1989 – Royal Rumble Match
• 1991 – The Rockers vs. The Orient Express & WWF Championship – The Ultimate Warrior (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter
• 1992 – WWF Intercontinental Championship – The Mountie (c) vs. Roddy Piper & the Royal Rumble Match
• 1993 – WWF Intercontinental Championship – Shawn Michaels (c) vs. Marty Jannetty & WWF Championship – Bret Hart (c) vs. Razor Ramon