This is my third thread reviewing an old ppv. My WrestleMania VII thread got more than twice as many replies as my SummerSlam 88 thread. Sure it was only seven replies compared to three, but more than twice as many sounds good to me. I've done a SummerSlam and a WrestleMania so far. This week it's time to rumble. Let's take a look back at Royal Rumble 94.
Let's start right at the beginning; before the first match. Vince is standing alone at the announce table when we hear some familiar music. The Million Dollar Man comes out to join Vince for commentary. We hadn't seen Dibiase since SummerSlam 93 and I was hoping this was a one time announce project before his in ring return. Sadly this was not the case. Without the internet back then, I didn't know Dibiase suffered a career ending injury months earlier. Either way it was great to have Ted back. On to the action.
Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow opens the show. This was originally supposed to be Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga. I'm probably the only one on these forums, but I was a big Borga fan. I thought he had a good look and seemed like a legit badass. He got a pretty good rub by ending Tatanka's two year undefeated streak. I was disappointed to learn Borga was injured and unable to compete. I was even more disappointed when I realized he wouldn't return. I haven't seen him since 1993. Bigelow was a decent sub since he had some history feuding with Tatanka in 93. The match itself was nothing special, but a decent opener.
Next up we have the tag title match. Some may find it strange that I was a Borga fan. You may also find it strange that I was a big fan of the Quebecers too. I thought they worked great together and were a very underrated team. The Quebecers would be defending the titles tonight against Bret and Owen Hart. Bret and Owen had a little falling out at the Survivor Series, but since then Owen had apologized. I think any fan over the age of ten could see what was about to happen here. After the Quebecers won, in a good match, Owen was furious at Bret and turned on his brother. This would officially kick off what would be the feud of the year in 1994 and be the turning point in Owen Hart's career. The fact that you saw the double cross coming a mile away didn't hurt the angle any. In fact it may have helped. I'm sure a lot of people were watching that just waiting for the Owen doublecross. It's actually nice to be able to see a doublecross coming weeks ahead of time. This happened to Hogan several times over the years. He had major feuds with Orndorff, Andre, Savage, and Sid resulting in a doublecross. Each time we saw it coming, but it was still a big moment.
Now we move on to the IC title match. Razor Ramon is defending against IRS. Razor had been feuding with IRS for a while and this was going to end the feud. More importantly, this was going to advance the Razor/Michaels feud heading into WrestleMania X. Razor won after the ref reversed his initial decision when he learned Michales had interfered. Why is it a second ref only comes down once in a while the tell the original ref about outside interference? Shouldn't they do this all the time? I guess we're just not supposed to wonder about things like that. So after this match we all knew we were going to get Razor vs. Michaels at Mania. Little did we know they would deliver an all time classic.
Now the World Title. Yokozuna defends against the Undertaker in a casket match. This match was very intriguing. Yoko had become the longest reigning heel champion in 14 years. Now we had the massive Yokozuna vs. the Phenom. How would this play out? Yoko was actually very good in the ring for a man his size. This was a good match between these two. The finish is a whole other story. This was probably the most bizzare finish to a match I've ever seen. Taker was about to close the lid on Yoko when Crush interfered. Then came Bam Bam. Then came pretty much all the heels. A total of ten men were working over the Taker to try to get him in the casket. Apparantly Taker had no friends since not one person came down to help him. Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette took the urn from Paul Bearer. They opened it and some weird green smoke came pouring out. I guess this symbolized the strength draining from Undertaker since he wasn't fighting back. Or he was finally worn out from the ten on one attack. Taker was finally locked in the casket and Yoko won the match. As the heels were wheeling the casket back Undertaker appeared on the video wall. Looks like we had a casket cam. Taker gave some weird speech about how he would not rest in peace. Then lightning hit the video wall and Taker, who had been locked in the casket, floated away to the top of the arena. If you've never seen this match, trust me. I'm not making this up. I don't know what to think of this. I was 14 at the time so I thought it was kind of cool. At the same time I thought it was way too unbelievable even for wrestling. I'm curious to see what others think of this.
Now the Royal Rumble match itself. The idea of the rumble winner getting a title shot at mania makes sense, but it also limits the possibilities. Before this stipulation anyone had a chance to win the rumble. Maybe not anyone, but a lot more than after this stipulation. Now you can usually narrow it down to two or three guys. This year it was obvious either Bret Hart or Lex Luger was going to win. That's ok because the rumble is still an entertaining match. There was a story going in about whether or not Luger should be allowed in the Rumble. Luger failed to win the title from Yoko at SummerSlam. A clause in the contract stated that would be his only title shot against Yoko. Cornette argued Luger should not be allowed in the Rumble because if he won he would get another shot at Yoko. Luger argued that Yoko may not be champion by mania anyway. A compromise was reached. Luger was let in, but Fuji got to pick two guys to let in too. He picked Tenryu and Kabuki from Japan. There sole purpose was to eliminate Luger. They were not inteded to win; just to make sure Luger didn't. This is a decent story except there were times when Tenryu and Kabuki were just fighting random people while Luger was in the ring. That didn't make much sense.
There was a little drama with Bret too. Bret was injured during the tag title match earlier in the night. Everyone wondered if he would be able to compete in the rumble. At one point the clock reached zero and no one came out. It was believed to be Bret's spot. He could not compete. A few spots later the clock reached zero and out came the Hitman to a pretty good ovation. When we got to the end it was just Hart and Luger. Both men went over the top at the same time and declared co-winners setting the stage for two title matches at mania. The finish was done pretty well. You really couldn't tell who hit the floor first. Of course there was no camera on the side the fell on to give us a definate answer. What fun would that be?
Another noteable thing about this rumble was the arrival of Diesel. Diesel had been in the WWF for about six months as Shawn Michaels's bodyguard. He was looked at as a Michaels sidekick and not much more. Diesel entered the rumble early and at one point elimated seven straight wrestlers. What's more impressive is the reaction he was getting from the crowd. They were completely behind him. No doubt Vince noticed this and less than three months later Diesel had the IC title. I wonder if this was planned to get Diesel over or if Vince just capitalized on the situation. What do you think?
Overall I thought the Rumble was a solid show. I think one of the main purposes of the Rumble is to get people pumped for mania and I think that goal was accomplished. As I type this I'm starting to realize there may not be many replies because my threads are too damn long. Oh well. I thank you if you took the time to read the whole thing. I'm looking forward to read your opinions.
Let's start right at the beginning; before the first match. Vince is standing alone at the announce table when we hear some familiar music. The Million Dollar Man comes out to join Vince for commentary. We hadn't seen Dibiase since SummerSlam 93 and I was hoping this was a one time announce project before his in ring return. Sadly this was not the case. Without the internet back then, I didn't know Dibiase suffered a career ending injury months earlier. Either way it was great to have Ted back. On to the action.
Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow opens the show. This was originally supposed to be Tatanka vs. Ludvig Borga. I'm probably the only one on these forums, but I was a big Borga fan. I thought he had a good look and seemed like a legit badass. He got a pretty good rub by ending Tatanka's two year undefeated streak. I was disappointed to learn Borga was injured and unable to compete. I was even more disappointed when I realized he wouldn't return. I haven't seen him since 1993. Bigelow was a decent sub since he had some history feuding with Tatanka in 93. The match itself was nothing special, but a decent opener.
Next up we have the tag title match. Some may find it strange that I was a Borga fan. You may also find it strange that I was a big fan of the Quebecers too. I thought they worked great together and were a very underrated team. The Quebecers would be defending the titles tonight against Bret and Owen Hart. Bret and Owen had a little falling out at the Survivor Series, but since then Owen had apologized. I think any fan over the age of ten could see what was about to happen here. After the Quebecers won, in a good match, Owen was furious at Bret and turned on his brother. This would officially kick off what would be the feud of the year in 1994 and be the turning point in Owen Hart's career. The fact that you saw the double cross coming a mile away didn't hurt the angle any. In fact it may have helped. I'm sure a lot of people were watching that just waiting for the Owen doublecross. It's actually nice to be able to see a doublecross coming weeks ahead of time. This happened to Hogan several times over the years. He had major feuds with Orndorff, Andre, Savage, and Sid resulting in a doublecross. Each time we saw it coming, but it was still a big moment.
Now we move on to the IC title match. Razor Ramon is defending against IRS. Razor had been feuding with IRS for a while and this was going to end the feud. More importantly, this was going to advance the Razor/Michaels feud heading into WrestleMania X. Razor won after the ref reversed his initial decision when he learned Michales had interfered. Why is it a second ref only comes down once in a while the tell the original ref about outside interference? Shouldn't they do this all the time? I guess we're just not supposed to wonder about things like that. So after this match we all knew we were going to get Razor vs. Michaels at Mania. Little did we know they would deliver an all time classic.
Now the World Title. Yokozuna defends against the Undertaker in a casket match. This match was very intriguing. Yoko had become the longest reigning heel champion in 14 years. Now we had the massive Yokozuna vs. the Phenom. How would this play out? Yoko was actually very good in the ring for a man his size. This was a good match between these two. The finish is a whole other story. This was probably the most bizzare finish to a match I've ever seen. Taker was about to close the lid on Yoko when Crush interfered. Then came Bam Bam. Then came pretty much all the heels. A total of ten men were working over the Taker to try to get him in the casket. Apparantly Taker had no friends since not one person came down to help him. Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette took the urn from Paul Bearer. They opened it and some weird green smoke came pouring out. I guess this symbolized the strength draining from Undertaker since he wasn't fighting back. Or he was finally worn out from the ten on one attack. Taker was finally locked in the casket and Yoko won the match. As the heels were wheeling the casket back Undertaker appeared on the video wall. Looks like we had a casket cam. Taker gave some weird speech about how he would not rest in peace. Then lightning hit the video wall and Taker, who had been locked in the casket, floated away to the top of the arena. If you've never seen this match, trust me. I'm not making this up. I don't know what to think of this. I was 14 at the time so I thought it was kind of cool. At the same time I thought it was way too unbelievable even for wrestling. I'm curious to see what others think of this.
Now the Royal Rumble match itself. The idea of the rumble winner getting a title shot at mania makes sense, but it also limits the possibilities. Before this stipulation anyone had a chance to win the rumble. Maybe not anyone, but a lot more than after this stipulation. Now you can usually narrow it down to two or three guys. This year it was obvious either Bret Hart or Lex Luger was going to win. That's ok because the rumble is still an entertaining match. There was a story going in about whether or not Luger should be allowed in the Rumble. Luger failed to win the title from Yoko at SummerSlam. A clause in the contract stated that would be his only title shot against Yoko. Cornette argued Luger should not be allowed in the Rumble because if he won he would get another shot at Yoko. Luger argued that Yoko may not be champion by mania anyway. A compromise was reached. Luger was let in, but Fuji got to pick two guys to let in too. He picked Tenryu and Kabuki from Japan. There sole purpose was to eliminate Luger. They were not inteded to win; just to make sure Luger didn't. This is a decent story except there were times when Tenryu and Kabuki were just fighting random people while Luger was in the ring. That didn't make much sense.
There was a little drama with Bret too. Bret was injured during the tag title match earlier in the night. Everyone wondered if he would be able to compete in the rumble. At one point the clock reached zero and no one came out. It was believed to be Bret's spot. He could not compete. A few spots later the clock reached zero and out came the Hitman to a pretty good ovation. When we got to the end it was just Hart and Luger. Both men went over the top at the same time and declared co-winners setting the stage for two title matches at mania. The finish was done pretty well. You really couldn't tell who hit the floor first. Of course there was no camera on the side the fell on to give us a definate answer. What fun would that be?
Another noteable thing about this rumble was the arrival of Diesel. Diesel had been in the WWF for about six months as Shawn Michaels's bodyguard. He was looked at as a Michaels sidekick and not much more. Diesel entered the rumble early and at one point elimated seven straight wrestlers. What's more impressive is the reaction he was getting from the crowd. They were completely behind him. No doubt Vince noticed this and less than three months later Diesel had the IC title. I wonder if this was planned to get Diesel over or if Vince just capitalized on the situation. What do you think?
Overall I thought the Rumble was a solid show. I think one of the main purposes of the Rumble is to get people pumped for mania and I think that goal was accomplished. As I type this I'm starting to realize there may not be many replies because my threads are too damn long. Oh well. I thank you if you took the time to read the whole thing. I'm looking forward to read your opinions.
It`s also the day I became a huge Bret Hart fan. I haven`t seen it again since, I guess I would not like some stuff as much(like Taker surreal thing) but this is good souvenir.