Favorite Royal Rumble Match!

[ProWrestlingFan]

Royal Rumble since debuting in 1988 has been one of WWE's most important PPVs of the year. At Royal Rumble the buildup to the biggest event of the year (Wrestlemania) starts.

Every year 30 wrestlers compete in a Royal Rumble match (except Royal Rumble 2011) to get a chance to headline Wrestlemania (or get a title match at Wrestlemania since they don't headline anymore).

My favorites would be Royal Rumble 1997, Royal Rumble 2003 and Royal Rumble 2005.

Honorable mentions : Royal Rumble 1999, Royal Rumble 2001 and Royal Rumble 2004.

Which is your favorite Royal Rumble match?

 

[Ruthless-RKO]

My favorite is easily 1999!! Loved it! The match had 1 big story and that was Austin vs. McMahon!

No one really cared about the match itself even though it was pretty good, it was just about those 2 and when they weren't in the match, we saw the likes of Edge, Road Dogg, HHH put on a good show, with The Undertaker making an appearance to kidnap Mabel and Kane with his problems.. It was really good, also it followed an epic street fight. That's my favorite Rumble match,

Honorable Mention
1998 - Chainsaw Charlie and Cactus Jack at the start was hilarious! Hardcore Rumble, and also the 3 faces of Foley was good and the crowd just waiting for the glass to shatter!

 

[CrazyChicksDigger]

1992. Flair wins WWF title. Heenan marks out at the end. Gorilla The Mark Monsoon finally has to respect Flair. Post-Match interview from Flair = classic.

You could see the sheer JOY in the faces of Heenan and Perfect -- finally a WWF title picture without a Hulk Hogan.

"... now it's Ric Flair, and y'all pay homage to the man! Wooo!!!! hahaha, I love it! I love it! I love it!"

 

[Boourns]

There's probably other but, the one that springs to mind for me is the 2002 Royal Rumble. Which Triple H one following his return. The main reason is probably Maven eliminating the Undertaker after he dominated the first half of the match only for the Undertaker to pummel everyone in sight and whoop Maven's ass all around the arena, including smashing his head through a popcorn dispenser and then eating a handful of popcorn whilst a bloody and hungry Maven looked on.

The actual PPV was pretty good too and the whole event had a good mix of guys from the late 80s and WCW and guys from the Attitude Era.

 

[Tastycles]

1997 is quite an underrated one, I think, and 1992 is vastly overrated, but I think the best for me is 2001. It had all of the elements you look for in a great Royal Rumble - a win against all odds, a totally dominant run from one guy in Kane, a great house clearing from The Rock and then just lots of nice little bits - Honky Tonk Man getting twatted with the guitar, Drew Carey eliminating himself, all the hardcore people going mental for a while - it was just a really well booked match.

 

[avi01]

2001 Royal Rumble...entertaining from start to finish. There was it`s hardcore portion with Raven and co, kane`s amazing run, The Honky Tonk Man surprise, The Rock, Undertaker , Stone Cold among others. HHH was also involved as he attacked Austin before he could enter the match...superb action all round.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

This is a very good & hard question. Not only is the Rumble a classic & one of the big 4, but it is usually known for delivering pretty well over the years.

First off, I'd like to give an honorable mention to last years, Royal Rumble 2012. Not only did it have a solid Rumble match with a logical, swerve finish at the end but it had the best championship matches & undercard for a Rumble in several years IMO.

Also I agree that the 1992 Rumble is HIGHLY overrated. Don't get me wrong, it was a great rumble but I've heard people claim it as "the greatest PPV ever" or "the greatest match ever". I don't think I'd even call it the best rumble.

I really enjoyed 93 with Bret/Razor & HBK/Jannetty. 2005 had a very good rumble & solid undercard. Also, i believe it was 1991? that Rude, Perfect, & Hogan were left at the end, classic rumble! And even though it had a Double Count out ending, the Last Man Standing match between HBK/HHH at 2004 was amazing!

But I think I would have to go with the 1998 Royal Rumble! The best Rumble main event ever IMO, featuring HBK & Taker in the casket match that almost ended Shawn's career. & the classic 3 faces of Foley is still one of the most memorable rumble moments to date.

Honorable Mention:
2011: Just for Bryan & Punk starting the rumble & Morrisons ridiculous hand stand!
2010: One of the best overall rumbles in the last decade. Also HBK's last rumble.

 

[KingOfKings249]

I love the Rumble. It's my favorite match and PPV (that and WrestleMania). Can't choose one.
1992, 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2011

Honorable Mentions:
- 1996, intersting fact how every Kliq member appeared during the rumble (Scott Hall/Razor Ramon making a run in)
- 2012, I liked it. But it wasn't anything special. Only great thing was seeing Y2J and Road Dogg back in the match

 

[Moneyinc]

Can't believe no one has mentioned the 1990 royal rumble. I am definitely partial to the ones from 1988-1992 because the list of talent, but the 1990 royal rumbles start was one of the best ever. So many great guys come out within the first 10 draws. Debiase, Jannety, Jake the Snake, Macho man, Bret Hart, Roddy Piper. Haven't really seen a rumble crowd go that crazy, at least during that era.

I'm watching this rumble now actually thanks to youtube. Bushwackers vs Rogeau boys(who I barely remember). Had to fast forward that match. Watched the end of the Barber Beefcake hair cut match vs the Genius and Mr Perfect saves the day. Attacks Beefcake while Beefcake is holding the scissors, and hits him with an awesome perfect plex. Then they proceed to break his ribs with the chair. There have been great promos already with Debiase talking about drawing the number 1 pick, and Mr Perfect drawing the 30th. Also Macho Man delivers one of his many classic promos. I think he is easily the best/funniest promo shooters ever. Warrior has a classic promos well with the vitage "stack all these men on top of eachother and they won't amount to the warrior" line.


But yea the rumble itself doesn't disappoint with not only the great order in the rumble but a nice finish with Hogan vs Warrior for the first time and Hogan vs Perfect at the end.

 

[Just Do It]

1992 by a mile, with Flair coming face to face with the folks from all the former territories (NWA, WCCW, Georgia, St Louis...) It was brilliant.

 

[Leveller]

Mine has to be 2000. It was the first one I saw and it was the first time I thought "wow that was great"

Baring in mind this was the first PPV I had seen I was pretty amazed at some of the matches.

 

[HBKperfect23]

Can't believe no one has mentioned the 1990 royal rumble. I am definitely partial to the ones from 1988-1992 because the list of talent, but the 1990 royal rumbles start was one of the best ever. So many great guys come out within the first 10 draws. Debiase, Jannety, Jake the Snake, Macho man, Bret Hart, Roddy Piper. Haven't really seen a rumble crowd go that crazy, at least during that era.

I couldnt agree more with the 88-92 time frame. 1990 isnt the greatest but its certainly worth mentioning.

I can believe all the hate for 1992. Hennan was at his best, I still think Hennan/Monsoon are the best duo ever on commentary. Flair went the distance pretty much brand new in the WWF. It was also when the roster was at its best ever. Ric Flair said it best "the greatest cast of wrestlers ever in one ring at one time"

1995 is worth mentioning. So is 1997, 1994, and 1996.

 

[relentless1]

1990, 1991 two hogan won rumbles, great for a huge 80s/90s hogan fan .;..1992 awesome rumble for the WWF title, 1998 was my fav attitude era rumble, as someone said earlier, everyone was waiting for austin when the glass broke, awesome stuff

 

[Psykohurricane55]

Personally, i'm really loved the 1989 royal rumble, not really because of who won this match but mostly because of the beginning of it. Just that image of seeing Ax coming out first then he's force to wrestle his own tag team partner Smash for 2 minutes. That something that never was done before and to put Andre the giant at number 3 for pure genius.

 

[#heel420]

I really enjoyed the 2002 Royal Rumble match. This was the 1st year stars from ECW and WCW were involved. Maven eliminating The Undertaker was a great underdog moment. This rumble also included awesome returns like Mr. Perfect, Goldust, The Godfather, and Triple H.

 

[WWEvsJosh]

My favorite Royal Rumble match would have to be 2005. The match was never boring to me and the ending was also fun.
2001 is also a great one. Very fun and alot of action

 

[Little Jerry Lawler]

My favorite is easily 1999!! Loved it! The match had 1 big story and that was Austin vs. McMahon!

No one really cared about the match itself even though it was pretty good, it was just about those 2 and when they weren't in the match, we saw the likes of Edge, Road Dogg, HHH put on a good show, with The Undertaker making an appearance to kidnap Mabel and Kane with his problems.. It was really good, also it followed an epic street fight. That's my favorite Rumble match,

Honorable Mention
1998 - Chainsaw Charlie and Cactus Jack at the start was hilarious! Hardcore Rumble, and also the 3 faces of Foley was good and the crowd just waiting for the glass to shatter!

You're joking, right? I hope you are.

My favorite was 2004. Ric Flair telling Benoit that he could never win the big one led you to think that it wis predictable that he was going to win. However, you forgot that during the match. I thought the Rumble was great from top to bottom without a lot of dead spots. It had potential winners in Benoit, Angle, Jericho, and Big Show. Benoit using Show's weight against him in getting that last elimination was awesome to see.

 

[HBsam31]

I am surprised that 92 is getting all the hate that it has. I personally liked all the rumbles from 88 to 92. It really had that special feeling to the match. (2 is going to be my favorite. Watching the newcomer Flair go through the whole thing, and classic Bobby "the Brain" commentary just made it feel huge. It helped to that the title was on the line, and the shock of Hogan being elimanated. I gotta give credit to the 2004 rumble match to with Chris Benoit going all the way through from number one. Like Little Jerry said it was predictible, but you forgot that as the match went on.

 

[Wolf Pac]

2004. I have my own copy of Royal Rumble 2004 on DVD and I can't count how many times I've watched it over & over again. As pointed out already, Benoit winning seemed predictable at first but the WWE did such a good job with shifting the focus away from him as the match went on, that I found myself forgetting all about that and thinking anyone will win until the very end. There was also that nice little continuation of Orton & Foley's feud, Ernest Miller's entrance was hilarious, Goldberg's spear on Nunzio was brutal and I marked out for Brock's interference and his F5 on Goldie, the final four showdown between Jericho, Benoit, Show & Angle was awesome and it may be my favourite final 4 in RR history, and Benoit's elimination of Big Show was great. I hadn't seen much of John Cena prior to this PPV, so I don't actually know when I say this but this event may have been the beginning of Cena's rise to the top because he was such a huge hit with the crowd on this night, he got a solid pop when he entered and the fans booed so loudly when he got eliminated.