As announced yesterday and as I went over, the Royal Rumble up it's wrestler count from 30 to 40. It's arguably the most excited event of the year for the WWE and I am fortunate enough to see every one. I actually seen just about every live from 1991 to present with the exception of 2008. With that said, I still seen the other ones on DVD or on VHS at some point. I'm going to present you with a retrospective of the big event.
The first Royal Rumble was in 1988, but it wasn't broadcasted on PPV but on the USA Network. This one also only had 20 contestants. It's the guinea pig for the match, and obviously it was a hit. Jim Duggan holds the honor of being the first winner of the Royal Rumble. Jessie Ventura's reaction is pretty funny when Duggan wins.
1989 would be the first time the Royal Rumble was featured on PPV, and would be to this day. I can't think of any standout moments, it was treated as a spectacle. No stakes on the line for it. Hall of Famer, Big John Studd would win the match. It should be pointed out that the first two winners never won the WWE Title.
1990 and 1991 are both jumbled together for me. 1991 was the first I seen live, I believe, but not certain. Both were won by Hulk Hogan. In 1990, 1990 Hogan was the champ and in 1991 he was not. He did go to Wrestlemania that year to challenge for the title, but I'm not sure if the title shot stipulation was enforced yet.
1992 was a great one, and one I seen several times. This is the first and only time the WWE Championship was on the line in the match. No other Royal Rumble had stakes this high, and for what it's worth Ric Flair went on to Wrestlemania to defend his title. Flair was great in the match, he came in confident he would win, but the odds were against him coming in at 3. Bobby Heenan was also great on commentary. He was like a fan rooting for his team in the Superbowl with Flair. Flair took advantage when Hogan was tossed out by Sid. Hogan was upset that he wasn't immune for 'every man for himself' and tried pulling Sid out, and Flair assisted by dumping him out.
"With a tear in my eye, this is the greatest moment in my life.' -Ric Flair
1993 was a transition era rumble as Hogan was seeing his last days in the WWE. The stipulation of the winner going to Wrestlemania was put back into place with this one and has been every year since then. A new face this time around, Yokozuna, won the match using his massive size to advantage. I'll always remember when Randy Savage was pushed out because he tried to pin Yoko(!?).
Bret Hart and Lex Luger were the co-winners in 1994. It was almost as if they used it to poll the live audience on who should be the man going into Wrestlemania 10. Lex Express was pretty much the Real American version 2, but it didn't catch on quite as expected. Bret was more popular and right choice on who won at WM. Really can these two be any different? Bret is Canadian and Lex is made in the USA. Lex is built like a machine and Bret like a human. Bret was great in the ring and Lex wasn't at all.
1995 is regarded as the worst of the bunch, no surprise considering that the intervals were only 60 seconds making it rushed. Also 1995 wasn't a prosperous era in the WWE. But there is some good in it, Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog went wire to wire in the match. The Bulldog tossed out HBK and went on to celebrate and even played his music. But he or just about everyone watching live didn't see that BOTH of Michael's feet didn't hit, but just one. HBK pushed out Davey Boy to net his first Rumble win. That's still one of my favorite endings yet. HBK lost at Wrestlemania in a match against Nash that isn't a Mania classic. And the presumed winner, British Bulldog, opened Wrestlemania with the previous year's co winner, Lex Luger, to fight the Blu Brothers. Talk about a fall.
HBK rebounded and won the 1996 Rumble for the 2nd straight year, this time as a face. I like this era because they didn't have the roster to fill 30 spots so they got wrestlers from the outside. I particularly enjoy the Headhunters or as Vince called them the SWAT Team.
3...2...1... HONK
Vince: That's... a member of the SWAT team!
Vader then beat them both up at once. You know? I really wish Vader had a better run in the WWE.
1997 also had a cool ending. Steve Austin dominated the match, and he came up as a bully and a badass. I like when he taunted whoever was the next one to come out after he cleared out the ring, and then Bret's music hit. The look on Austin's face is "Oh Shit!" and then he then calls Bret Hart to bring it. The end had Bret throwing Austin out, but in the mean time the refs were occupied breaking up a fight between Mankind and Terry Funk. Austin snuck back in and cleaned out the ring, including Bret. Declaring him the winner despite cheating.
Austin, like HBK, bounced back and won a second straight year as a face. It was pretty obvious he would win since he kept guaranteeing it leading into the match.
2000 was the year of the Attitude Era that Austin was missing. Filling the void was The Rock, who worked nicely as the top of the company. He went on to win this year at the Garden.
2001 was a still standing record of a 3rd win from Austin. This was a fun one to see live. It had Haku, Drew Carey, and Honkey Tonk Man getting smashed with his own guitar. It even had a hardcore portion in it.
In 2002, four superstars from the past made their return. The most notable was Mr. Perfect, who looked great. It's a shame what happened to him after that, but at least we got to see him one more time. My favorite part was when Maven eliminated Undertaker, the crowd went nuts. Predictably, HHH won this one after coming back from a serious injury.
2003 was the year of Brock Lesnar. 2004, however, was the year of Chris Benoit. This was one of my favorite Rumble matches, but now I can't watch it without getting a creepy vibe. Still an overall enjoyable match, a lot of emotion. Obviously, it's tainted, which is unfortunate.
2005 to me marks an important transition to a new era of stars personified by the final two wrestlers, Batista and John Cena. Bastista won, but not without controversy. I think the ending was messed up and both guys hit the ground, shades of 1994. Except I don't think it was supposed to end that way. An irate Vince McMahon came out to clear up business, but severely hurt both knees for his trouble. He still managed to call for sudden death, where Batista ended it quickly with no dispute.
I was not a fan of Mysterio winning 2006, say what you will, I hated it. I respect him and think he is a good worker, but I can't help but get annoyed by him. I was also not a fan of him going wire to wire, especially after it was done two years prior. In retrospect, it's for the best because they don't have to beat around the bush of having Benoit being the record holder for being in the match the longest.
2007 was great because one: being a fan of the Undertaker as a kid and wanting him to win, it was finally cool to see him add a Rumble victory to his resume. Two: the last sequence between him and HBK was really good. A teaser for two future epic Wrestlemania matches.
I missed the 2008 Royal Rumble live, breaking my long streak, because I was occupied down at school. I was admittedly surprised when I read Cena made a surprise return to win it. The WWE did a good job swerving their fans with that. 2009, sticks out because of the awesome one time return of RVD. Orton winning was kind of vanilla to me. He wasn't a top face at the time, and he wasn't a heel looking for his big break. He's already been established at this point, but I didn't hate it either.
And leads us to last year, that had a Cena-esque 2008 surprised with Edge returning to win it all. I didn't care for how this one was booked. The ring never really filled up. It was every entrant got a couple minutes to do some offense and then got tossed. CM Punk was great though.
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