Defining Moment: Royal Rumble

[Sparky]

i picked others becouse i think shawn michaels winning his first royal rumble is the most defing moment becouse of the finish, and starting from first position. but with that being said some one else tried the same thing a few years before but stuffed up i cant remember who it was though. if that guy had of pulled it off that would off been the defining moment.

My second defining moment would of been the three faces of foley i remember watching that match and watching him come out the second time thinking that he will win it how wrong i was.

 

[richardishere]

I went with maven eliminating taker, it may not have been the defining moment of the rumble, but everytime i see taker enter a rumble, thats what i remember. It was so hillarious, cuz when taker was alone in the ring and tazz was like "i would not want to be the next person to enter" then maven comes out and they start laughing, and he ends up eliminating him, it was just so unexpected.

 

[FlairFan2003]

The defining moment for the Royal Rumble was Ric Flair's win in 1992 - until then the Rumble itself was just a diversion, the stakes weren't that high and although the matches were entertaining they weren't considered to be "big time". Survivor Series, an older more established PPV was seen as a bigger show at the time. Flair's victory was significant for a couple reasons...

First, prior rumbles had been won (mostly by Hogan) by larger guys who came in late. Flair's win proved that the right performer could captivate the crowd with a longer performance, setting the stage for the dramatic rumble performances of Rey Misterio, HHH, and Shawn Michaels in later years

Second, this was the first rumble that meant anything significant to WWE stories as the World Title went to the winner. Since then the rumble winners have been granted titlem shots at WM making the match itself important. Prior to Flair in 1992 that was not the case, making this the truly first rumble match you had to watch to see who won.

Flair's coming to WWE was huge at the time, something that wrestling fans never thought would happen in a million years at a time that top stars did not move freely (or often) between companies. Flair's victory in the rumble nearly put WCW out of business, causing major shakeups in their approach to signing talent and running the company. It's fair to say that Flair's defection to WWE and subsequent title win may have set the stage for the WCW that was to come in a few years as the old guard mgt was repalced and Eric Bischoff moved up in the company, setting up the wrestling rivival circa 1996-1999.

Since 1992, the rumble has been almost required viewing and has set the stage each year for the next 4-5 months of feuds/matches, leading into WM, the biggets show of the year. That might never have happened if not for 1992

 

[BigDaddyKewl]

I cant believe no one has mentioned Royal Rumble 1990. Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior's first encounter. Two of the biggest baby faces at the time leading to one of the biggest main events of all time. The crowed was electric you could hear Tony Shavony saying "There is not a person sitting, this place has gone crazy.

I have the anthology on DVD and one thing I enjoy in the earlyRuble is where they have 20 or 30 stand up promos in a row. Some of them are pretty funny you can tell there was a lot of them were on cocaine.

 

[THe WHoLe FuCKiN SHoW]

i had to go with other on this one as the defining moment of what the royal rumble is all about to me, came just last year when HBK and Taker were the last 2 men standing. that was the best rumble finish in quite some time, if not ever. 2 WWF/E legends fighting to be the last man standing was an awesome rush and a splendid surprise.

there are others that could certainly be mentioned like ric flairs win in 1992 for the championship or the disasterous finish of 2005's rumble.

other notables that werent listed include HBK's 1st to Last royal rumble in 95.
(a match where a lot of people forget how good bulldog performed as well. bulldog should get a lot more credit for how good he was in the early and mid 90's). that rumble loses its luster a bit tho because most of the participants were terrible.

also, when stone cold was eliminated by bret hart but the refs missed it and stone cold ended up eliminating hart for the win. that really gave the rattlesnake some persona and helped build his character.

also, a personal favorite of mine: Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit in 2003. excellent match with 2 excellent wrestlers.