Watching Through the Royal Rumble 1988-2013 (with LINKS!)

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I'm going to be doing a TOP TEN list of the best Royal Rumble matches this year. Because why not. I made it through 88 and 89 before I realized I should make this a thread.

Here's the first two, in case anybody wants to catch up:

[YOUTUBE]HTWWoJ98W0k[/YOUTUBE]
[YOUTUBE]R_JQ6VDYzRo[/YOUTUBE]

I still think Hogan should have won the 1989 Royal Rumble match. Big John's win just feels totally pointless in retrospect. I guess you can look at it as a "crowning achievement" to end his career, but after they used to to shotgun Jim Duggan into relevancy, Studd felt like a waste to me. Hogan-Savage and the collapse of the Mega Powers was THE story for the next several months, and it was the highlight of this Rumble match anyways. The Rumble lost steam after they were gone.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I'm about 23 minutes into this one. Randy Savage just arrived.

[YOUTUBE]Rokmn60xXec[/YOUTUBE]

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Boy this match just isn't grabbing me like the last one. Demolition are over pretty huge in this, even eliminating Andre, but that's about the only interesting thing that's happened. Oh, the Rhodes-Savage drama was pretty good. Anything with Dusty Rhodes is a perk for me.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Hogan and Warrior were the first interesting thing to happen in this match. And again, they have Hogan go over by "not really" eliminating his opponent. It was cooler when he did it to Savage.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Hulk Hogan no-sells the Perfect Plex and tosses Hennig over the ropes to win. Cool finish. At least Hogan won this time, but again I ask, why didn't they finish the show with him going over his WrestleMania opponent? Even if they still kept the "cheap" babyface elimination, a stare-down between Hogan and Warrior would have been a great way to end this PPV.

Whatever. On to the next one...

[YOUTUBE]1LaeTTXmlIY[/YOUTUBE]

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

Nothing touches 1992. Just stop after that.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

[YOUTUBE]QP0AfWLeDok[/YOUTUBE]

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

19:35 - LOL at Ric Flair and Shawn Michaels having a sell-off.

 

[Dowdsy McDowds]

Nothing touches 1992. Just stop after that.

2000 had Lawler get overly excited about Taka from Kaientai face planting the outside mat when he was eliminated. Simpler times.

 

[Mr. Artistic guy]

2000 had Lawler get overly excited about Taka from Kaientai face planting the outside mat when he was eliminated. Simpler times.

Nowadays it'd be, 'Taka has been taken to a local medical facility with a suspected broken nose'.

Then it was 'Haha, funny little asian guy smashed is head on the floor and now he's bleeding everywhere. Haha. What's a concussion?'

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Giant Gonzalez debuting is the only interesting thing to happen in this match so far. Pretty boring honestly. Hogan was finding his smile during this period right?

[YOUTUBE]cT5zin9ymGw[/YOUTUBE]

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

It's a shame that the state of today's big man wrestlers like Great Khali have made me immediately disinterested whenever I see a giant that isn't Undertaker, Kane or Andre the Giant. And sometimes Big Show. Yokozuna was awesome, but having been 3-years-old during this Rumble, it's hard to really get into him winning.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

I'm excited for this one. I don't remember it being great, but I liked the roster from around this period of time. Steiner Bros. are out first, so that's a really good sign, I think. Also, Owen just turned on Bret, and they're saying "Bret won't compete in the Rumble" so I'm anticipating something there.
[YOUTUBE]4eANIojEsNA[/YOUTUBE]

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Coming back to 94 for the second half now. Man I really enjoy this roster. So many new wrestlers and gimmicks that had never seen a Rumble match before. This was around the time the revolving door between the WWF and WCW started up. I think Diesel had like...one more year in him before he jumped with Razor? This is a really underrated match in my opinion. Maybe just for nostaglia's sake though.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Ah yes, I had forgotten why people disliked this match. The Luger-Hart split decision. I feel like it's much easier to hate that outcome today, but in 94 people really weren't as accustomed to screwey finishes. Those who actually watched it live and remember it tell me they didn't hate it back then.

Bret was the real story. I still think he should have come out, eliminated Owen, eliminated Shawn and won the match solo. The whole thing took away from Bret, who the people wanted to see. Just listen to the reaction at the end. Luger was supposed to be the new pretty-boy face of the show, but by that point his feud with Yokozuna had been going off and on for like 7 months. At the very least, a triple threat would have made more sense. Or at least having Luger go over clean to finish the rivalry. Instead they decided to cram everything into one PPV, and have the Owen-Bret, Yoko-Luger, and Yoko-Hart feuds all play out at WrestleMania. I don't know, just my two cents, but I feel like it's needlessly complicated.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

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First Rumble with Jerry Lawler on commentary.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

God...10 guys in and it's immediately obvious to me why they decided to do 60-second intervals for this match. And why WCW got super popular.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

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This was the first year they really started using surprise returns. I assume, because the roster wasn't that great. Already 10x better than Rumble '95.

I remember being really young, and Jake Roberts scaring the shit out of me. This may actually have been my first Rumble, and the first time I ever saw Jake. I had zero clue who Dory Funk, Jr. was. Not many WWF fans at that point did, I would gather from that reaction.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Oh man guys... The Squat Team.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

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I'm a fan of the Alamodome. Hit and miss crowds for WWE events in the past, but I just like the way the arena is laid. out. It's nice going back through some of these older Rumbles because I honestly don't remember who won them, or who's in them. This was about 10-11 months before Bret left and the Attitude Era got started, so the roster was in a much better place than it had been the last few years. I honestly don't remember who wins this one. Is it too early to be Austin?

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Ah yes, the fake Razor Ramon. Maybe I spoke too soon about the roster being in a better place. This was the year Austin won, if I'm remembering correctly.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

Vader, Terry Funk, The Rock, The Undertaker, Steve Austin and Mankind all in the ring at the same time right now. Scary amount of talent. Also, Luke Godwin. This took awhile to get going, but I'm kind of into it now. This crowd hasn't reacted to anything yet though. Fake Diesel and Fake Razor were kind of buzzkills for me, personally.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

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Before we get to the actual Rumble match, I loved Shamrock-Rock for the IC title. Rock screws over Shamrock with the knucks, so he puts the Ankle Lock on Mike Chioda. Crowd goes absolutely bonkers.

Steve Austin was a marked man going into this Rumble match. Everyone wanted a piece of his ass. Attitude Era in full swing now. Should be a fun match.

 

[Big Nick Dudley]

The Rumble's Austin won were a lot of fun.

 

[The 1-2-3 Killam]

That Rumble was just absolute chaos. Attitude Era mode activate. From the implosion of the Nation, to Austin and Rock brawling around everywhere, to Mike Tyson looking on from the owner's box, to three faces of Foley...madness. Super fun. It's a toss up between 92 and 98 for my favorite Rumble matches so far.