WWE Royal Rumble: A Retrospective Look

[Dagger Dias]

Unlike my Wrestlemania and Summerslam editions of this thread series, I want to take a look at the Royal Rumble brand as a whole. Over the years there have been winners that we have agreed with WWE's decisions on, and others that we have not been as pleased with. This is something I'm sure we all have in common. So in this special Royal Rumble edition of my Retrospective Look thread topics, let's look back on the Royal Rumble matches. None of the filler matches from these events, just the namesake match from each year.


For a breakdown of the past events' winners and locations, click the spoiler tag.

Spoiler

1. Royal Rumble (1988)
January 24, 1988
Hamilton, Ontario
Copps Coliseum
Jim Duggan won at #13


2. Royal Rumble (1989)
January 15, 1989
Houston, Texas
The Summit
Big John Studd won at #27


3. Royal Rumble (1990)
January 21, 1990
Orlando, Florida
Orlando Arena
Hulk Hogan won at #25


4. Royal Rumble (1991)
January 19, 1991
Miami, Florida
Miami Arena
Hulk Hogan won at #24


5. Royal Rumble (1992)
January 19, 1992
Albany, New York
Knickerbocker Arena
Ric Flair won at #3


6. Royal Rumble (1993)
January 24, 1993
Sacramento, California
ARCO Arena
Yokozuna won at #27


7. Royal Rumble (1994)
January 23, 1994
Providence, Rhode Island
Providence Civic Center
Bret Hart & Lex Luger won at #27 & 23 respectively


8. Royal Rumble (1995)
January 22, 1995
Tampa, Florida
USF Sun Dome
Shawn Michaels won at #1


9. Royal Rumble (1996)
January 21, 1996
Fresno, California
Selland Arena
Shawn Michaels won at #18


10. Royal Rumble (1997)
January 19, 1997
San Antonio, Texas
Alamodome
Stone Cold Steve Austin won at #5


11. Royal Rumble (1998)
January 18, 1998
San Jose, California
San Jose Arena
Stone Cold Steve Austin won at #24


12. Royal Rumble (1999)
January 24, 1999
Anaheim, California
Arrowhead Pond
Mr. McMahon won at #2


13. Royal Rumble (2000)
January 23, 2000
New York, New York
Madison Square Garden
The Rock won at #24


14. Royal Rumble (2001)
January 21, 2001
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans Arena
Stone Cold Steve Austin won at #27


15. Royal Rumble (2002)
January 20, 2002
Atlanta, Georgia
Philips Arena
Triple H won at #22


16. Royal Rumble (2003)
January 19, 2003
Boston, Massachusetts
Fleet Center
Brock Lesnar won at #29


17. Royal Rumble (2004)
January 25, 2004
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Wachovia Center
Chris Benoit won at #1


18. Royal Rumble (2005)
January 30, 2005
Fresno, California
Save Mart Center
Batista won at #28


19. Royal Rumble (2006)
January 29, 2006
Miami, Florida
American Airlines Arena
Rey Mysterio won at #2


20. Royal Rumble (2007)
January 28, 2007
San Antonio, Texas
AT&T Center
The Undertaker won at #30


21. Royal Rumble (2008)
January 27, 2008
New York, New York
Madison Square Garden
John Cena won at #30


22. Royal Rumble (2009)
January 25, 2009
Detroit, Michigan
Joe Louis Arena
Randy Orton won at #8


23. Royal Rumble (2010)
January 31, 2010
Atlanta, Georgia
Philips Arena
Edge won at #29


24. Royal Rumble (2011)
January 30, 2011
Boston, Massachusetts
TD Garden
Alberto Del Rio won at #38


25. Royal Rumble (2012)
January 29, 2012
St. Louis, Missouri
Scottrade Center
Sheamus won at #22


26. Royal Rumble (2013)
January 27, 2013
Phoenix, Arizona
US Airways Center
John Cena won at #19


27. Royal Rumble (2014)
January 26, 2014
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Consol Energy Center
Batista won at #28

Now, here are some discussion questions concerning the matches:

What were some of your favorite Royal Rumble events, and why did you like these the most? What about the worst Royal Rumble events, why did you like them the least?

If you could change a few things about any of the past Royal Rumble matches, what would you change and why? You may change one match or every single one if you wish. Just be sure to include reasons behind why you are making these changes.

You may only use wrestlers who were available at the roster at that time or make changes that could have realistically taken place in the year of the Rumble(s) you are changing. Please keep in mind the situations going into the show such as who could actually have participated (let alone won) the match, and so forth.

You may only discuss Royal Rumble matches of the past in this thread. The 2015 edition has its own threads over in the WWE section, any posts regarding this year's show and not pertaining to the subject matter of the older Royal Rumble events will be considered spam and you risk getting an infraction.

Discuss!

 

[Aquaman6686]

My personal favorite Rumble match is the 2012 Rumble. In terms of in-ring action, I'd never been so excited for the Rumble match, and Sheamus winning was a HUGE shocker that nobody saw coming. I don't know if another Rumble match will ever be as exciting in my book. This Sunday is the first one I'm attending, and I hope it's at least AS good as the 2012 edition.

 

[Goldie]

The early Rumbles stick by the 'Anyone can win it Philosophy' as Hacksaw and John Studd, midcarders at the time.... won them.
Ever since the winner has been a main event status guy, or a guy who is in line for the next big push.
Understandable since we had the stipulation of the winner getting a title shot at Wrestlemania

My favourite is the Ric Flair show from 1992. The WWE title (when it still meant something) was on the line, so the stakes were never higher.... Flair put on a magnificent one man show, being the first guy to stay the distance too drawing #3 (with the exception of Ted Dibiase who was the one eliminant beforehand).

There were no comedy entrants into the Rumble (as we tend to get every year now)... and the field of participants was a who's who in wrestling at the time:
Hogan, Flair.... the Ying & Yang of Pro Wrestling.... all time legends in Savage, Bret, Shawn, Taker .... former/future WWE champions in Slaughter, Sid.... classic wrestlers in Dibiase, Davey Boy, Jake, Santanna, Martel , Snuka, Valentine .... and that all time personality Rowdy Roddy Piper!

It was fun, action packed and no-nonsense. It truly established Ric Flairs arrival in the WWE

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

Just to point out that Bret Hart wasn't in the 1992 Rumble, but I digress...

The best Rumble match for me was 2001. Since the move to give the winner a Wrestlemania title shot, the build-up booking has rarely been ideal, often focussing on one or two 'favourites', of which one (or two, in 1994) invariably wins. Yet in 2001, with WWE blessed with probably the strongest roster depth they've ever had, they promoted 5 wrestlers (Stone Cold, the Rock, Rikishi, Kane and the Undertaker) as serious winners and a second rung of wrestlers (like the APA) who were treated on tv as serious threats.

Of the 5 most promoted, they spaced them out well in the match itself: Kane at #5, Rocky #13, the others throughout the twenties. It was simply a well-promoted and well-booked Rumble and you genuinely couldn't pick a nailed-on winner, especially (before the event) with the show's title match being Kurt Angle v Triple H AND another ppv in between - with 7 potential competitors in the frame for the WM main event, which combination would they go for?

On top of this, the 2001 Royal Rumble match had pretty much everything you'd want from a Rumble: painful looking eliminations (the Hardys took a heavy bump eliminating each other), a brief comedy segment with Drew Carey (I don't hate that as much as most seem to, as most relevant wrestlers got on the show anyway), a hardcore 10 minutes, surprise returns from legends (Honky Tonk Man), OVW (the Big Show) and the reigning WCW Hardcore Champion (Haku) and barely any filler between #s 20 and 30 - K-Kwik (R-Truth) came out late but other than that I think the lowest ranked wrestler in the final 10 was Billy Gunn, the Intercontinental Champion.

A brilliant Rumble match leading on to the greatest ppv ever held on American soil IMO, Wrestlemania X-Seven.

Other than that, 1990-92, 94 and 98 are all very very good Rumble matches, and without a doubt 1995 is the worst, with WWE's weakest ever roster forcing them to reduce the time between entrants to a minute, which diminishes Shawn Michaels' record of going 'coast to Coast' as the whole thing took only about 40 minutes. Although it did have one of the Rumble's best ever endings though

 

[Goldie]

Just to point out that Bret Hart wasn't in the 1992 Rumble, but I digress...

Whoops got carried away. Bret had lost the IC title the Mountie 2 days beforehand and was written out of the show.

The best Rumble match for me was 2001. Since the move to give the winner a Wrestlemania title shot, the build-up booking has rarely been ideal, often focussing on one or two 'favourites', of which one (or two, in 1994) invariably wins. Yet in 2001, with WWE blessed with probably the strongest roster depth they've ever had, they promoted 5 wrestlers (Stone Cold, the Rock, Rikishi, Kane and the Undertaker) as serious winners and a second rung of wrestlers (like the APA) who were treated on tv as serious threats.

2001 is up there.... though I found Drew Carey entering a little silly, and the Honky Tonk man singing was an air-filler

1995 is the worst, with WWE's weakest ever roster forcing them to reduce the time between entrants to a minute, which diminishes Shawn Michaels' record of going 'coast to Coast' as the whole thing took only about 40 minutes. Although it did have one of the Rumble's best ever endings though

Agreed. Vince sold it as the 'most fast paced' rumble ever.... 7 of the entrants were thrown out within 25 seconds! almost worthless booking them on the show!
I understand that the talent pool was thin (50 yr old Dicky Murdoch being one of the last few in there??) but why have Owen and Backlund, then 2 of the major heels.... get thrown out right away? Sure they had screwed Bret earlier in the title match... but at least having 2 over wrestlers staying in a while, being in the mix at the end of the Rumble would have been better than some of the dead wood.

Some of the particpants were not under contract and simply came in for a brief payday (Martel, Valentine, Murdoch)

 

[The Fabulous Rougeau's]

When I think of the Rumble, the first major moment that sticks out is in 90 when we had the stare down between Warrior and Hogan that foreshadowed their upcoming Mania match. Besides that moment, I really don't think of the Rumble too much up until 92.

92: Won't go into detail because this is one of those universally loved events, but the fact that this was the one and only Rumble with the title on the line was special as was the field in the match which included Hogan/Flair/Sid/Savage/Piper/Taker.

93: The Bret/Razor match is one of the more underrated matches of this time period. This match was ahead of its time in terms of the style as it looked and felt almost like an attitude or pre-attitude era match. The Rumble was nothing to go crazy over, but Yoko winning the event was the first guy to get a title shot at Mania as a result of winning the match (Hogan won in 91 and challenged for the title but it wasn't part of the Rumble stipulation).

94: Loved the double elimination of Luger and Bret, and we have the very beginning of Shawn looking like a future main eventer being in the final four.

95/96: Wish they would have flipped these and had Shawn win the Rumble as the #1 entrant in 96 on his way to facing Bret.

97: Great idea and execution to have Austin win the Rumble by screwing Bret. Just one of the more subtle things that ultimately lead to the double switch at Mania.

99: Great I Quit match between Rock and Mankind that probably saw the most vicious use of chair shots ever.

03: This was Brock's show. From beating Show to get into the match to dominating the Rumble itself. Great way to make a guy seem like a big deal.

05: Again we get a double elimination but this time it wasn't planned. Cena and Batista gave us a glimpse of the future but at that time WWE thought it was Batista 1 and Cena 2. That would of course change by the summer. Also Vince tearing his leg sliding into the ring was something to behold.

07: Probably the greatest end spot in a Mania between Shawn and Taker going at it for about 15 minutes before Taker eliminated Shawn.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Boy it seems like this group of people REALLY favor the older Rumbles over the newer ones. That's surprising to me because I just re-watched every Rumble PPV over the past month, and I found all the early Rumbles to be either bad or downright terrible, except for 1992. 1992, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2013 are the only good Rumbles in my opinion.

 

[Vader]

The early Rumbles stick by the 'Anyone can win it Philosophy' as Hacksaw and John Studd, midcarders at the time.... won them.
Ever since the winner has been a main event status guy, or a guy who is in line for the next big push.
Understandable since we had the stipulation of the winner getting a title shot at Wrestlemania

My favourite is the Ric Flair show from 1992. The WWE title (when it still meant something) was on the line, so the stakes were never higher.... Flair put on a magnificent one man show, being the first guy to stay the distance too drawing #3 (with the exception of Ted Dibiase who was the one eliminant beforehand).

There were no comedy entrants into the Rumble (as we tend to get every year now)... and the field of participants was a who's who in wrestling at the time:
Hogan, Flair.... the Ying & Yang of Pro Wrestling.... all time legends in Savage, Bret, Shawn, Taker .... former/future WWE champions in Slaughter, Sid.... classic wrestlers in Dibiase, Davey Boy, Jake, Santanna, Martel , Snuka, Valentine .... and that all time personality Rowdy Roddy Piper!

It was fun, action packed and no-nonsense. It truly established Ric Flairs arrival in the WWE

This. Flair's win at the Royal Rumble was my favorite. Unfortunately for the ending of the Rumble, it set up a Hogan vs. Sid feud, whereas it should have been Hogan vs. Flair at Wrestlemania. It would have made more sense for Hogan's arm to be held by Perfect, or Heenan and then get dumped. I felt like they take that the wrong direction. I believe at the time WWF was skeptic about Hogan's future in the company and awarding him the title at Rumble or Mania could have had negative implications during the steroid scandal.

 

[Judah's Lion]

When I think of the Rumble, the first major moment that sticks out is in 90 when we had the stare down between Warrior and Hogan that foreshadowed their upcoming Mania match. Besides that moment, I really don't think of the Rumble too much up until 92.

92: Won't go into detail because this is one of those universally loved events, but the fact that this was the one and only Rumble with the title on the line was special as was the field in the match which included Hogan/Flair/Sid/Savage/Piper/Taker.

95/96: Wish they would have flipped these and had Shawn win the Rumble as the #1 entrant in 96 on his way to facing Bret.

totally agree with these above points. didn't wanna comment on all the ones you made, but i'll add on to these ones and give a few of my own.

totally loved the showdown between Hogan and Warrior. Jesse Ventura calling it is just as iconic to me. and really, you can almost see where this match, as in the Rumble Match itself, set up the Main Event of Mania. these two for Mania 6, Hogan winning the Rumble next year and going after Slaughter at Mania 7, etc. so before 93, you don't have the stipulation of the winner getting a title shot at Mania, but you do have a glimpse of that here. really love this moment. probably my favorite pre-92.

92 is of course amazing. "it's not fair to Flair!" enough said.

OMG, Yes!! they needed to switch the 95/96 Rumble Matches with HBK going in at #1 in 96. it would have made the Iron Man Match at Mania 12 make so much more sense since it would built Shawn up as a 60-minute man. the 95 Rumble, outside of the great finish between HBK and Bulldog, is the absolute worst of all-time. just my opinion.

one of my all-time favorite Rumble events is 2000. just really loved the whole card and Rock winning at MSG certainly was cool.

also agree with Wrestlingaholic in that the 2001 Rumble was really unique because you weren't really sure who was gonna win. easily 5 guys were built as possible winners, not including Triple H and Angle who were in the World Title match. so it was really impossible to guess the Main Event of Mania, or at least it was for me. and it set up what is arguably the greatest main event of the greatest Mania of all time, so that's pretty special.

2004 with Benoit used to be great, but now, obviously, has kind of a huge freaking asterisk by it. wish i could enjoy that one more today.

personally, i would have booked a few of the winners differently...

Punk wins the Rumble in 2011, not Del Rio, setting up Punk vs. Orton for the WWE Title in the Main Event of Mania. Cena/Miz was a bad choice.

Y2J wins the Rumble in 2012, not Sheamus, setting up Y2J vs. Punk for the WWE Title in the Co-Main Event of Mania. same storyline, but actually give Y2J some momentum so it at least looks like he has a chance of winning the match.

and probably my biggest and most obvious change would be to have Daniel Bryan win the Rumble last year. Batista winning was really stupid. again, just my opinion. even just looking at multiple Rumble winners: Hogan, HBK, Austin and Cena. and now Batista. it just seems like his name doesn't quite belong there. and i like the guy. but still, last year was Bryan's. or it should have been.

Taker winning in 07 was terrific. not only was it a well-earned, long-overdue honor and "notch in his belt", but it also gave us a preview of his amazing matches to come with HBK at Mania in the following years, one of which is perhaps the greatest match in the history of wrestling.

great thread, Dagger. always love these Retrospective Looks.

 

[Wrestlingaholic]

1992: one of my favourite ever wrestling quotes, from Ric Flair's post-match interview, really putting over the importance of the match, the title and even the company - something WWE regularly fail to do these days.

"With a tear in my eye, this is the greatest moment of my life!"

So short, so succinct. Way better than the scripted promos of today (even the good ones!)

 

[CrucifiedRaven]

1997 is my favourite Royal Rumble by a long shot, and for many reasons:

1. This was the coming out party for Stone Cold Steve Austin. In my opinion, this is where he started turning from a heel to a face. The entire sequence where he was in the Rumble for a while by himself and was pretty beat up, and one guy after the other kept coming out and Austin kept eliminating them. To the point where he was getting overly cocky and confident. Until.... Bret's music hits and the "Oh Shit" look on Austin's face is classic!
   
   
2. At one point towards the end of the Rumble, you probably have the most star-studded collection of superstars and future superstars all in the ring at the same time. At one point they had Steve Austin, Bret Hart, The Undertaker, Kane (as Diesel), Vader, Mankind, Terry Funk and The Rock all in the ring at the same time.
   
   
3. The ending is, in my opinion the most creative ending to the Rumble they've had to date. Austin getting eliminated but no one seeing it, only to come back in and eliminate Undertaker, Vader and Bret to "win" it was one of the most controversial and creative endings at the time. This is as "rattlesnake" as you can get, and it fit his character perfectly. But it didn't just fit Austin's character, it was perfect for Bret's heel turn as well. Really, Bret Hart had won and this was the catalyst for their double turn at WrestleMania. The submission match is where the double turn became official, but the seeds were planted at the 1997 Royal Rumble.

 

[HBKistheHOF]

Favorites:
1992 - The only rumble that was for the title, one of the best rumble rosters ever & a stand out performance from Ric Flair.
1998 - My favorite rumble PPV in history & I loved the idea of Austin being a marked man that night, it was truly a foreshadowing to the Austin Era to come.
2002 - Great rumble PPV, great rumble match/roster & a great emotional win by the returning Triple H.
2010 - Great rumble roster, a very deserving win by Edge & probably the last time the rumble match really had me emotionally invested with HBK's story of redemption heading into the PPV.
2014 - A very underrated rumble IMO. Not only is it unforgettable now & will definitely go down in infamy, but with the exception of no Daniel Bryan, the rumble match itself was actually pretty good. The Shield made their rumble debuts (with Roman making a rumble record), as of now it's CM Punk's last WWE match ever & since Bryan eventually ended up getting everything we all wanted in the end, I can look back now & appreciate not only the ending with Reigns vs. Batista but Batista's win overall. Also if nothing else, it just makes me chuckle that WWE's plan was Dave to presumably be the top babyface & beat Orton for the title at WM 30 but instead the rumble ended with Dave screaming "Deal with it!" & flipping people off lol.

Least Favorites:
1988/1989 - The first couple of years were pretty dull.
1994 - One of the worst rumble rosters & I didn't care for having double winners, it should have just been Bret's win.
2008 - A rather forgettable rumble until John Cena returned, which just made it even worse for me since I was at the peak of my Cena hate.
2009 - The worst rumble PPV of the modern era IMO.
2013 - A very lackluster rumble that wasn't even the main event. Also once again Cena won, which I actually wouldn't have minded nearly as much if Punk was also in the main event that year & we didn't get stuck with "Twice In A Lifetime".

 

[THTRobtaylor]

The Rumble traditionally has been a big thing... I can see why, but it's actually my least favourite part of the WWE calendar and has been since 95...

The original concept was great, it was a match anyone could enter and win, with the "random" element of the luck of the draw AND the chance to see opponents who normally wouldn't face off go at it.

Look back to those early Rumbles, I think it was 89, where #1 and 2 were Ax and Smash... it showed why they never went for a feud between them but the atmosphere even on video was immense in that moment. Likewise, every year without fail in those early Rumble's Tito Santana would enter and got at Rick Martel or vice versa, same for Shawn and Marty... you'd get reminded of "issues" between guys and the "everyman for himself" concept could be properly tested.

Hogan tended to win as the Champion a lot, but it was to be expected... we also got that first Warrior/Hogan face off in a Rumble...

Traditionally there were guys who were given good roles who didn't win, guys like Davey Boy Smith could easily be seen as Rumble standouts... always in the final four or there abouts, or in there for a very long time making the match competititve.

Then it changed...

Flair in 92 was the right move, it was a great Rumble with brilliant performances from many of the guys in there... but Flair's departure arguably ruined that concept. There would have been no better outcome than Flair entering again as champion and defending that... but they needed to elevate talent quickly. Bret was new as champ and they were needing to get Razor, Lex, Yoko, Shawn AND Bam Bam all over at the same time... hence the concept changed and we started getting title matches at the Rumble (Razor in 1993) and the winner of the Rumble going to Mania along with a "big" debut. That became the new formula with several talents debuting over the years at the Rumble, from Lex Luger to Tazz...

It was here the Rumble lost me... as a fan. For 2 years I stuck with it, Yoko was an interesting winner if not the right guy...again it got messed up thanks to Hulk... and the following year was just about the best put together of them all with it's disputed finish and strong showings for Diesel and the Bret/Owen storyline running through. Then they started messing with it, One minute between entrances making Shawn the most worthless #1 to winner ever and Davey's #2 to runner up equally worthless and it got progressively worse to the point where the stipulation of going to Mania killed interest for me and clearly hamstrings the entire booking team for 3 months.

Logic holes have always been an issue, such as Davey having Flair over his head in 92 and not pitching him into the crowd for example... we know that he's not "allowed to" but it is a major flaw in the Rumble concept... are we really supposed to believe that once in 25 years someone hasn't gone into business for themselves?

Even the "surprise entrants" have lost lustre... They started in 1993 with Jerry Lawler, Carlos Colon, Tenyru and Bob Backlund and the following year The Great Kabuki... these were guys you never got to see but you might read about or watch on tapes... seeing them at the Rumble made the event bigger... indeed Backlund's turn in 93 was a special moment in his life and career, his performance not only convinced them to hire him full time but also led to another WWF title run, albiet a short one.

Over time it's regressed to the "Legend of the year return"... for every Mr. Perfect style return in 02 or Booker and Diesel in the same Rumble you have a Superfly, Jim Duggan etc which falls flat... Of course none will ever top Jericho a while back, arguably the biggest pop in a Rumble EVER for an entrant... This year it's looking like the Dudz and DDP...which will be good to see, but predictable... Can they shock us and bring a John Morrison etc back?

The other problem now is there are always the "spots"... like Kofi's annual escape spot... every year it happens and is now part of the fabric... if they weren't so obsessed with the Rumble going to Mania, Kofi could have used one and WON the rumble, been pushed as a result etc... but no, it always has to be this shortcut booking.

I want to like the Rumble, but I can't any more... it's dull because of the damn stip... get rid of it...and the Mania Battle Royal and make THIS the big one of the year.

 

[Aquaman6686]

The Rumble traditionally has been a big thing... I can see why, but it's actually my least favourite part of the WWE calendar and has been since 95...

The original concept was great, it was a match anyone could enter and win, with the "random" element of the luck of the draw AND the chance to see opponents who normally wouldn't face off go at it.

Look back to those early Rumbles, I think it was 89, where #1 and 2 were Ax and Smash... it showed why they never went for a feud between them but the atmosphere even on video was immense in that moment. Likewise, every year without fail in those early Rumble's Tito Santana would enter and got at Rick Martel or vice versa, same for Shawn and Marty... you'd get reminded of "issues" between guys and the "everyman for himself" concept could be properly tested.

Hogan tended to win as the Champion a lot, but it was to be expected... we also got that first Warrior/Hogan face off in a Rumble...

Traditionally there were guys who were given good roles who didn't win, guys like Davey Boy Smith could easily be seen as Rumble standouts... always in the final four or there abouts, or in there for a very long time making the match competititve.

Then it changed...

Flair in 92 was the right move, it was a great Rumble with brilliant performances from many of the guys in there... but Flair's departure arguably ruined that concept. There would have been no better outcome than Flair entering again as champion and defending that... but they needed to elevate talent quickly. Bret was new as champ and they were needing to get Razor, Lex, Yoko, Shawn AND Bam Bam all over at the same time... hence the concept changed and we started getting title matches at the Rumble (Razor in 1993) and the winner of the Rumble going to Mania along with a "big" debut. That became the new formula with several talents debuting over the years at the Rumble, from Lex Luger to Tazz...

It was here the Rumble lost me... as a fan. For 2 years I stuck with it, Yoko was an interesting winner if not the right guy...again it got messed up thanks to Hulk... and the following year was just about the best put together of them all with it's disputed finish and strong showings for Diesel and the Bret/Owen storyline running through. Then they started messing with it, One minute between entrances making Shawn the most worthless #1 to winner ever and Davey's #2 to runner up equally worthless and it got progressively worse to the point where the stipulation of going to Mania killed interest for me and clearly hamstrings the entire booking team for 3 months.

Logic holes have always been an issue, such as Davey having Flair over his head in 92 and not pitching him into the crowd for example... we know that he's not "allowed to" but it is a major flaw in the Rumble concept... are we really supposed to believe that once in 25 years someone hasn't gone into business for themselves?

Even the "surprise entrants" have lost lustre... They started in 1993 with Jerry Lawler, Carlos Colon, Tenyru and Bob Backlund and the following year The Great Kabuki... these were guys you never got to see but you might read about or watch on tapes... seeing them at the Rumble made the event bigger... indeed Backlund's turn in 93 was a special moment in his life and career, his performance not only convinced them to hire him full time but also led to another WWF title run, albiet a short one.

Over time it's regressed to the "Legend of the year return"... for every Mr. Perfect style return in 02 or Booker and Diesel in the same Rumble you have a Superfly, Jim Duggan etc which falls flat... Of course none will ever top Jericho a while back, arguably the biggest pop in a Rumble EVER for an entrant... This year it's looking like the Dudz and DDP...which will be good to see, but predictable... Can they shock us and bring a John Morrison etc back?

The other problem now is there are always the "spots"... like Kofi's annual escape spot... every year it happens and is now part of the fabric... if they weren't so obsessed with the Rumble going to Mania, Kofi could have used one and WON the rumble, been pushed as a result etc... but no, it always has to be this shortcut booking.

I want to like the Rumble, but I can't any more... it's dull because of the damn stip... get rid of it...and the Mania Battle Royal and make THIS the big one of the year.

Wow...I have NEVER heard this opinion before. I'd never thought I'd see the day where someone complained about the best part of the Rumble and called it the worst.

 

[THTRobtaylor]

It's not that uncommon a view... and let's be honest, it's a shortcut and lazy booking at best to have the winner of the Rumble ALWAYS go to Mania... they killed King Of The Ring off for the same reason, MITB will likely soon recede too, so why not the Rumble and actually BUILD Mania feuds over the year rather than wait for the traditional "Road To Wrestlemania".

The thing I didn't mention so much was the guys who have never won a Rumble and can't cos of that stip... someone like a Chris Jericho or a Dolph Ziggler or Barrett... For a Y2J type it could be the final "crowning glory" of a career, it doesn't need to go to Mania for it to be meaningful.... likewise a flat out Rumble win could do wonders for a Ziggler or Barrett, doing more than an inevitably losing trip to Mania's main event could do for them.

 

[Aquaman6686]

Without the WrestleMania main event, winning the Royal Rumble doesn't mean anything. It's a glorified Battle Royal that serves no purpose.