Royal Rumble

The Rumble of the Royal Rumble- 1988

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Hello and Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to the new launch of thedailyspotlight.com for the year of 2017.  I appreciate everyone checking us out and promise that while, 2016 was just a really hectic year for me, and honestly a really tough year,  I’m ready to jump back into this website full tilt during 2017 and give this a real go. One of the big things that I plan on doing is the countdown to the Royal Rumble series.  It just so happens that the 30th annual Royal Rumble takes place on January 29th and so that gives us 29 days of January to look back at all of the other Royal Rumble events and present them in as grave detail as I can.  We’ll look back at the events from a historical perspective citing quotes and information from Dave Meltzer’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter among other sources while also giving you guys full results and thoughts of some of the highlights from the Rumble show itself.  Then as we get deeper into our month long discussion of the Royal Rumble through the years, I’ll give you guys a bit of backstory as to what I remember about the shows, watching as a fan.  We’ll get into some of my personal memories of the shows including 3 different Royal Rumble events that I attended live and some other shows that I came damn close to attending which have some fun backstories attached to those as well.  Of course, I did get this idea from the Lapsed Fan Wrestling Podcast which I have waxed poetic about and cannot recommend enough to any type of wrestling fan that there is.  They have covered every Starrcade and Wrestlemania at length (each podcast generally runs between 4-9 hours and is totally worth checking out) and with Wrestlemania they did one podcast per week about each one of the Wrestlemanias leading up to Wrestlemania 31.  What it did for me that year was really provide an unprecedented trip down memory lane and also provided a ton of great hype for Wrestlemania that year.  That’s what I hope to accomplish here for the Royal Rumble.  Of course, I don’t want this to be this to be all about me, moving forward I’d like you to get involved too.  Go ahead and send me your Royal Rumble feedback over on Twitter @TommyOnTheSpot or in the comment section below.  I’ll update this section of the post each day to let you know the different ways to get involved.

The Rumble has always been my favorite WWE show of the year.  While it may not have some of the glitz and glamour of a Wrestlemania, the Royal Rumble is the reason that I became a wrestling fan.  30 of the top WWE superstars taking turns coming into the ring at evenly timed intervals for usually over an hour long match was just as good as it got.  You never knew who was going to win or, in most cases, who was even going to show up.  I have so many memories of sitting with a group filled with 10+ family and friends crammed into a living room all shouting the “10-9-8…” countdown while anticipation for the next superstar grew with each second.  Without any further ado let’s get this month long celebration started by taking a look back at the Royal Rumble 1988.

Royal Rumble 1988

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January 24th, 1988- Copps Coliseum Hamilton, On

Results

Ricky Steamboat defeated Rick Rude by disqualification

The Jumping Bomb Angels (Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki) defeated The Glamour Girls (Judy Martin and Leilani Kai) (c) (with Jimmy Hart) in a Two out of three falls match for the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship

Jim Duggan won by last eliminating One Man Gang in the 20-man Royal Rumble match

The Islanders (Haku and Tama) defeated The Young Stallions (Paul Roma and Jim Powers) in a Two out of three falls match

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Before we get started with the actual event.  It’s probably important that we look back at a bit of a history on the Royal Rumble.  For those who don’t know, the Rumble was a concept created by WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, while there was actually one other Rumble held at a live event in 1987, the Royal Rumble 1988 was the first one to be televised and it wasn’t on pay per view but rather aired live on the USA Network.  The story goes that in November of 1987, the NWA ran Starrcade 1987 live on pay per view.  When Vince McMahon heard this, he decided to present the first ever Survivor Series on the very same night.  Furthermore, McMahon told the pay per view companies that if they aired Starrcade over the Survivor Series, they would not be able to air Wrestlemania 4 the following spring.  This was coming fresh off the heels of the success of Wrestlemania 3 and so many of the pay per view companies didn’t want to lose the rights to air Wrestlemania 4 and so few aired Starrcade.  This did, however, upset many of the pay per view companies and the companies urged both the WWF and the NWA never to air pay per views on the same night again since it would split the audience that the companies were going after to buy pay per views.  Fast forward now 3 months later and the NWA is running the Bunkhouse Stampede 1988 live on pay per view on January 24th, 1988.  Knowing that running a pay per view live on the same night would upset the pay per view companies, the WWF decided to run the first ever Royal Rumble on cable TV up against the Bunkhouse Stampede.  This gave wrestling fans, in essence, a free alternative if they didn’t want to pay for the pay per view.

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As for the Royal Rumble event itself, I mean look up at the results above, the show left a bit to be desired if you’re comparing it to the loaded Rumble show that’s going to air later this month.  This was actually a show that I don’t think was even available for purchase until 2007 when WWE released the Royal Rumble Anthology and so I didn’t even see this show until that set was released (it seems that Coliseum Video did make a VHS of the tape but I never recall seeing this at any Blockbuster Video or Palmer Video, remember Palmer Video?).  The Royal Rumble match only had 20 participants and the match took place before the main event, which was a largely forgettable 2 out of 3 falls tag team match between the Young Stallions and the Islanders.

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The main focus on the show moreso than even the Rumble match, was the contract signing between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant promoting their Wrestlemania 3 rematch that the main event live on NBC some two weeks later.  The rematch was a big deal because at the time Andre had been saying for months that he actually pinned Hogan during their Wrestlemania 3 match on Hogan’s failed bodyslam attempt and there was a good amount of controversy about the finish that was played up on WWE television over the next 9 months.  It sounds crazy to think that a contract signing would be built up as the focal point of a show, with signings taking place so often nowadays and with the signings almost always resulting in a brawl.  That said, at the time, Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan were such big stars and there wasn’t too many big TV shows so a promoted appearances by both men at the same place at the same time was a big deal.  Of course the signing would result in a big melee but this did lead to Andre The Giant winning the title at The Main Event and selling it to Ted Dibiase leading to the tournament for the belt at Wrestlemania 4.  I guess even back in 1988, the Royal Rumble really did lead to the road to Wrestlemania.

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As for the Rumble match the most surprising thing for me the first time I saw the match was that the Ultimate Warrior was in the match.  I had never even realized that the Warrior was in the WWF so early in 1988 and looking back at the match he’s a complete after thought.  Warrior comes in and is quickly disposed in under 4 minutes by The One Man Gang and Dino Bravo.  Since this Rumble did not provide the winner with any actual reward like it does today, via a world title match at Wrestlemania, I’m surprised that the Warrior wasn’t the guy chosen to the win the Rumble as it would have highlighted him in a big way.  The winner of the match ended up being Hacksaw Jim Duggan who won the match when the One Man Gang ended up eliminating himself.  I’d say that Duggan and Jake Roberts were the two guys that people were into the most.  If there’s one takeaway from the match, it was probably that this was first time that Bret Hart was highlighted as a singles talent on WWE television.  He lasted the longest in the match and had the first of many long runs for the guy who drew number 1 that we would see for many years of the Royal Rumble.

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One last thing I really remember from this show was the silly Bench Press Challenge that featured Dino Bravo trying to break the bench press record of 715 pounds.  This was pretty hokey (nothing compared to the bodybuilding posedown at the next year’s Rumble but we’ll get to that tomorrow) but I remember being interested in this because it explained why Bravo was always referred to “Canadian Strongman” Dino Bravo during my first memories of watching in 1990-1991 when Bravo was mostly an enhancement talent.  It was nice to see that they put so much effort into character development back then and the segment really showed Jesse Ventura at his best as a heel commentator in how much he helped to enhance some of the villains.

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Well that’s going to do it for me here today as for the first day of the Rumble of the Royal Rumble…tomorrow we’ll travel back to 1989 where we had the most surprising rumble winner in history.  Until then, what are your favorite memories of the Royal Rumble 1988?

The Spotlight On The 2016 WWE Royal Rumble

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Well the 2016 WWE Royal Rumble is in the books and what else can be said?  We are on the road to Wrestlemania! I really enjoyed the heck out of that Royal Rumble show last night and felt that it was top to bottom a really good show.  I’m going to go through everything in the order of which it took place so i can point out what I enjoyed about everything.

Highlights:

1) Preshow- It really seems like WWE is behind Byron Saxton as he is now the commentator for Raw, Smackdown and Pay Per Views.  While I like Saxton and think he works really hard, there was something really nostalgic that I enjoyed abut Jerry Lawler calling the pay per views.  That said, with Lawler and Booker T now both a part of the pre show panel, it instantly adds importance and credibility to the panel as the two legends work nicely with Corey Graves and Renee Young.  As for the four way match, I thought it was a lot of fun and it felt really important as all 8 superstars involved showed a sense of urgency that they really wanted to be a part of the Rumble.  I really also liked how into Damien Sandow the crowd was, they loved the guy and this is despite him not really being on tv for about 9 months.

2) Dean Ambrose vs. Kevin Owens-  At first i didn’t understand why Kevin Owens and Dean Ambrose were the first match out but seeing that they were also in the Rumble, following a last man standing match, this was the only spot for them.  These two tore down the house and lived up to the other last man standing matches in Rumble history (Foley-Rock 1999, Triple H-Shawn Michaels 2004, John Cena-Umaga 2007).  The two kicked the show off with a bang destroying the timekeeper area almost immediately.  My favorite spot of the night had to be when Kevin Owens took out Michael Cole out of desperation when he was sent flying over the announce table.  I didn’t think the loss hurt Owens at all as he continued to come back throughout the match.  On the other hand, it was good to see Dean Ambrose get a big win and he was one of the MVPs of the whole show for me.

3) The New Day Vs. The Usos- The New Day continue to grow on me more and more throughout their run in WWE.  they have tremendous personality and it looks like it’s becoming harder and harder for them to remain a heel group as the crowd loves them just as much. The new Francesca was incredibly over with the crowd and i was happy to see the trombone back in full effect.  As for the match itself, these four all busted their ass and continue to revitalize the tag team division.  it was good to see the New Day keep the titles as they’ve now held those title for over 200 days.  Keep your eye on Xavier Woods, by the way, I wonder if over time he’ll continue to show more of his athleticism because he’s really good in the ring.

4) Kalisto vs. Alberto Del Rio-  I could watch these two go at it all the time here but to me, I would have held off on the first title change until this show as I felt it would have meant more for Kalisto to get it on a big stage.  Kalisto is a joy to watch in the ring and it looks like WWE may have found their new Rey Mysterio type of luchador for the kids to get behind.  As for Alberto, while i believe he could really benefit from having a mouthpiece or his own ring announcer, I don’t think he’s ever really had a bad match.

5) Charlotte vs. Becky Lynch-  both of these ladies looked great in the ring and had a good match but the big story here in the end has to be the return of Sasha Banks.  Other than AJ Styles, Sasha Banks got the biggest pop of the night from the live crowd.  WWE has done a good job in keeping Charlotte and Sasha away from each other since both of them debuted on the main roster last August.  I felt that last night was a great time to reintroduce their feud to WWE fans especially to do in in NXT country where fans love all of the talents who performed down in NXT.  It’ll be great to see a high profile Divas title match on Wrestlemania, as I expect that’s where this is going.

6) Royal Rumble Match- There’s been a lot of criticism over the last few Royal Rumble matches but let me tell you, they got it right last night.  First let’s start with AJ Styles who looked great and got a heroes welcome from the Florida crowd who couldn’t wait to see him. Styles got instant credibility by showing up and going toe to toe with the current WWE World Champion.  He also lasted nearly 30 minutes in the Rumble match and WWE was really smart to have Kevin Owens (who has a similar fanbase as the phenomenal one) be the one to eliminate him.  Speaking of Kevin Owens he looked tough as hell to stumble his was down the aisle to enter the ring because there was no way he was missing out on the Rumble.  Of course this led to our second big return of the match as Sami Zayn returned and immediately reignited his feud with Owens.  While people I was with were hoping that Finn Balor would be the NXT entry this year, I thought Zayn was the clear choice and the right choice.  It was nice to see the little comedy spots from Kofi Kingston (who looked rather confused like it was supposed to be Xavier Woods in the match) and R Truth as there’s always room for some comedy during the Rumble. As for the finish of the Royal Rumble, I was a big fan of it.  First of all if you watched that Rumble and saw Roman Reigns get taken out and walk to the back a beaten man, logic would say he was coming back at the end to win the match.  I feel like if that happened (especially since Roman wasn’t brought to the back by a stretcher) then people would have a right to be a little frustrated.  But the fact that Triple H returned, won the title and it came down to Hunter and Dean Ambrose (not Roman) that made for a very exciting finish.  Personally, I would have went with Ambrose and had Roman cost Triple H the title but that’s not because I don’t think Triple H deserves a run with the title but rather that I don’t think Roman and Triple H need the title for their feud and that I think it would have been a good time to propel Dean Ambrose by giving him a run with the title.  That said I think that by Triple H stealing the title from Reigns this puts a lot behind there feud.  I also wouldn’t been too surprised to see a little tension between Reigns and Ambrose being that Ambrose outlasted Reigns in the Rumble.

Closing Thoughts:

Overall, I thought this was a really enjoyable Royal Rumble event and my favorite since the 2010 show which saw Edge return and win the rumble.  The match had so many twists and turns along the way and it made for a really exciting watch.  The three big surprise entrants (four if you include Kane) worked as they added to the match and each one, AJ Styles, Sami Zayn, Triple H, meant something to the match as a whole.

 

The Spotlight On The History Of The Royal Rumble-2008

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Whereas Royal Rumble 2000 ended with the disappoint of not being able to attend the event live, I was hoping for a different outcome come 2008 when the Royal Rumble returned to Madison Square Garden in 2008. In the years leading up to 2008 I had became pretty good friends with my biggest wrestling friend growing up who i had drifted apart from during my early college years. In 2006, I noticed that he and his girlfriend had become really big wrestling fans and were attending conventions and shows almost weekly. We ended up going to a smackdown taping together in 2006 and I remember we had an absolute blast booing Tatanka during his ill fated return. We ended up becoming good friends again from this moment and literally started attending local wrestling shows regularly. Whether it was Ring of honor, Dragon Gate USA, WWE, TNA or even local independents on the tip of New Jersey to see Hardcore Holly, we were finding ways and reasons to attend wrestling events live. I had to give my buddy credit too because we often had good seats to WWE events which weren’t always easy to get as a three pack. When Royal Rumble 2008 rolled around, it seemed we had really met our match as tickets for that event sold out instantly.
Something that was really cool back then, was that the WWE was doing a tour of their Axxess fan festival events in the surrounding areas of the live events leading up to Wrestlemania. In New York that year there were a series of Axxess festivals running out of South Street Seaport. The events were hosted by HillBilly Jim and had appearances by WWE superstars as well as different types of contests, games and WWE memorabilia. My friends weren’t working at the time and so they attended every Axxess event prior to the Rumble that weekend as these festivals were also free. I went to work on Thursday and Friday that week and was unbelievably jealous as my friend texted me photos with Matt Striker and the like. I attended Axxess with them on Royal Rumble Sunday. My buddy’s girlfriend and I had pretty much accepted that we were not going to be attending the Rumble as the cheapest seats on the secondary market were $500 each. My buddy on the other hand was hell bent on going to the show and wouldn’t accept no for an answer.

Also at Axxess that day Ric Flair was signing autographs from 12-2 which was huge not only because it was Ric Flair but this was during the last leg of Flairs active wrestling career for WWE. Unfortunately with the line so long for Ric ( people were lined up outside since 6am) we didn’t make it anywhere close to see the Nature Boy. Thus, at 2pm, while we were on the line,Ric was replaced with The Highlanders. Though this could be viewed as about as bit of a downgrade, as you could imagine, the highlanders were some of the nicest superstars I could remember. They asked us if we were ready for the Rumble that night and if we were going. I said “I’m afraid not, we can’t get any tickets”. I remember Rory specifically encouraging us and saying don’t give up you can make it and telling us to go to the venue and sometimes tickets were released prior to the show.

Before we got to that point, there was a wrestler impression contest where five people were picked from the crowd to do impressions and the winner got two tickets to the Rumble while second place got the new Steve Austin DVD. (This reminded me of a similar contest that the WWF did for Wrestlemania 13 but that’s a story for my Mania retrospectives) In any event I was chosen to participate in the contest and after three people were awful, I got up and did my very best Jim Ross. The crowd loved it and ate it up. My friends were going bananas mouthing ” Holy Shit you’re going to win”! Then the final contestant went up and did a picture perfect Joey Styles that he couldn’t even finish his impression without people going absolutely nuts for him. He won the contest and I got the Austin DVD for my troubles.

Upon the completion of Axxess, in which HillBilly Jim refused to take a photo with me and only took one with my buddy’s girlfriend. It was off to the races as we raced to Madison Square Garden to hope for the best in getting tickets for the Rumble.
It was absolute torture waiting on that line, as we waited for about three hours with tickets getting released little by little up to the show. To add insult to circumstance, we all noticed one of our friends at the show passing us by who had stopped watching wwe years earlier. Finally tickets were released, for $156 a pop. My friends were excited but I knew I couldn’t pay for it. I had left my debit card at home and didn’t have enough cash.

Dejected, I made my way back to the train and called my parents to order the show. I waited on the train about five minutes feeling like I wasted the whole day and all I got was a highlanders autograph. Just then my phone rang and it was my friend, he explained that while he didn’t have the money to cover my ticket, his girlfriend did and couldn’t let me watch from home. I couldn’t believe it, it was truly one of the nicest things someone had done for me and so I ran off the train and all the way back to the arena. I was so excited I forgot to tell my family to cancel the event order on ppv. I was finally going to the Royal Rumble!

What a Rumble this was too, I remember the great Rumble commercial and poster that took place in a New York City subway. The big story other than the Rumble that night was Jeff Hardy challenging for the world title against Randy Orton. I loved the story going into this match as Jeff was finally getting a shot at the big title. Unfortunately, Jeff lost that night and I honestly thought he could have been given a run with the title. He was had a ton of momentum going into this match and I think a moment on this show at MSG would have been great for him. It sadly was not to be and to add insult, this was the night Mike Adamle called him “Jeff Harvey”.
As for the Rumble, this was probably my favorite Royal Rumble match. The talk before the match amongst my friends were we had no clue who was going to win the Rumble because John Cena was injured at the time. As for surprises that year, this Rumble had some of the best ones ever when you consider the MSG connection. You first had Mick Foley who grew up going to shows at the Garden. From there you had back to back surprise entrants as SuperFly Jimmy Snuka came out followed by Rowdy Roddy Piper who were on opposite sides of the first Wrestlemania which took place at MSG and then came time for Number 30.

The big rumor of the night was that the Big Show was returning after an 18 month absence. We were so prepared for Shows return that we were prepared to do the big chokeslam hand as we counted down with the countdown. When the clock struck zero it was huge pause and then a familiar rattle. It was John Cena! Now typically, the MSG crowd was pretty hard on Cena booing him time and time again during his run on top. Well, on this night it became clear that everyone forgot they were supposed to hate John. This was by far the biggest pop of the night and the biggest I’ve heard in my history of attending shows at MSG. The crowd went nuts as it was a huge return as Cena was supposed to be out of action another nine months. Cena went on to win the rumble to celebrations from the crowd that included grown men hugging each other. Such a great live experience.

After the show, we went to the area where the superstars were leaving and it was a who’s who of people we saw. Anyone from John McEnroe to Darryl Strawberry to Mean Street Posse’s Pete Gas to R Truth who didn’t re debut for WWE until later that year. Then as Ric Flair exited the building, a small child ran under the barricade right at the Nature Boy. Flair put his hand out to stop the youngster and said “control your child” while walking passed the kid no selling the kid entirely. The crowd began to boo Ric until he let out a signature “Whoo” and got a huge pop. Only in wrestling!

Well that’s gonna do it for now but next up I’ll be traveling live to Atlanta, Georgia for the Royal Rumble 2010.

The Spotlight On The History of the Royal Rumble- 1996-1999

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As we continue down the path on the history of the Royal rumble we’re going to take a look at the last Royal Rumbles of the 1990s.  At this point in my life I was just about to  enter  my teenage years.  In October of 1996 I turned 10 years old and then by the time Rumble 1999 rolled around I was 12 years old.  It’s amazing to look back at these shows and not only see how I was changing as a wrestling fan but also how much the landscape of the WWF was changing at the same time.  Let’s get right into it…

1996–  For whatever reason this Royal Rumble is a bit of a blur for me.  If there’s one thing that they did that year was they had a match on the Free-For-All in which Triple H took on Duke The Dumpster Droese and the winner of the match got the number 30 entry in the Rumble while the loser got number 1.  Duke ended up winning the match (Hunter’s come a long way, eh?) but I liked the concept of having something on the pre show that impacted the Rumble later that night.  In many ways it’s similar to the four way tag matches two spots in the Rumble that they’re doing on sunday.  As for the show itself, the two things I remember most about this Rumble was that this was the first Royal Rumble that had entrance music between entrances which I thought really added to the show and overall kept the tempo up throughout the night.  From there, it was also the first Royal Rumble that didn’t close the pay per view, which I thought was weird especially because the world title match ended in a disqualification.

1997-  Are you enjoying the posters for each Rumble as much as I am?  In any event one thing that really stuck out in my mind immediately was remembering how awkward the promo that Terry Funk cut on Shotgun Saturday Night the night before the Rumble.  I had slept over my friends house and just like we did every time we had a sleepover we stayed up late to watch Shotgun (This show was so unique and really fun for its time, I wish it was on the Network) and ECW (which aired at 2:05AM in New York).  I’ve attached a link to the promo below and remember just how uncomfortable everyone looked with Funk going off the rails on the show, even Austin who literally looked like he was trying to get Funk to stop.  Of course, Funk would be gone from the WWF immediately following the Rumble due to the incident.

As for the Rumble 1997, this was one of my favorite Rumbles in that Austin winning came out of nowhere to me.  I remember being stunned but liking the twist as I was sure Bret Hart would win the match and take on Shawn at Wrestlemania 13.  I also remember Shawn getting a hero’s welcome this time around as the Royal Rumble took place in his hometown, at the AlamoDome in San Antonio, as opposed to Survivor Series 1996 where the Garden crown turned on Shawn completely.

1998-  I don’t know why exactly but I remember how cool it was that they continued to show Mike Tyson watching the Royal Rumble with Shane McMahon in a private suite throughout the entire night.  This was before Shane was really much of a character on WWE television and the two looked to be having a great time.  This was the night before Tyson was officially announced as being the enforcer for WrestleMania 14.  As for the Royal Rumble, the winner here was never really in any doubt as this was Steve Austin’s time.  This was actually the one time where the Rumble being on before the title match seemed ok to me as Shawn and Undertaker in the Casket match seemed to mean a lot more.  This was the second Rumble, by the way, that the Undertaker seemed to have died in a casket as Kane set the casket on fire to end the show.  The difference being that now the WWF had changed from the wholeso

1999-  I can’t lie this was one of my favorite Rumbles because Mr. McMahon won.  I don’t think anyone saw that coming and it made for a great twist, in my opinion.  The whole build to that match really was a lot of fun with all of the Shane and Vince training vignettes and the win was great for the characters.    I actually remember this was at the time when WWF would go live on the Home Shopping Network immediately after the pay per views and I watched the entire special just to hear the post match comments from the McMahons.  This was also the show where the Rock nearly killed Mick Foley with like 12 chair shots in their title match that’s heavily featured on the Beyond The Mat documentary.

That’s gonna do it for my look back at the first decade plus of the Royal Rumble.  I’d love to hear your Royal rumble feedback and memories! Tomorrow I’ll start to break down the Royal Rumbles in my area or that I attended live, by first looking at the Royal Rumble 2000!

The Spotlight on The History of The Royal Rumble 1992-1995

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I’ll tell you Royal Rumble Season is the one time when everyone who I know who used to follow wrestling gets in touch with me to see what I’m doing for the show.  It’s just a fun show as it’s unpredictable and a great time to start watching if you haven’t in a long while.  Let’s continue with our look back at Royal Rumbles Past

1992- This was the first event I remember actually writing down all of my favorites to win it.  Looking back, this was probably the best Royal Rumble and as a fan today I can really appreciate it.  The amount of talent involved in the match from Undertaker to Ric Flair to Hulk Hogan to Roddy Piper, this rumble match is beyond stacked and it makes sense as this was the only rumble (until this year) that was for the WWE title.  I was actually really shocked when Flair won the title as back in the day heels rarely won to finish a WWF pay per view.  When Flair came out, we were so sure he’d be quickly tossed as he was the third entrant and back then Rumble marathon performances wouldn’t go all the way.  Being a straight up WWF fan (I was raised on WWF, we ordered one WCW show in 1991 and my family hated it), we all hated Flair and so him winning was just so out of left field as we didn’t take him seriously as a main eventer.  As a final aside, To this day, Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon’s commentary in this match is the best I’ve heard. 

1993- Royal Rumble 1993 was the first time that the classic Wrestlemania stipulation was added on for the Rumble winner.  Rumble 93 featured my favorite, non Rumble, Royal Rumble pay per view match as Shawn Michaels took on Marty Jannetty.  I was always a huge Jannetty fan and thought those two had great in ring chemistry.  In a case of when hokey 90’s stuff works for nostalgia purposes, I actually thought Caeser and Cleopatra arriving to read the scroll was great.  That was very “theme” Wrestlemania with all of the togas and it was WWF’s unofficial kickoff of WrestleMania.
Funny personal story here, I remember as a six year old being absolutely petrified when the Giant Gonzalez debuted in this match to attack the Undertaker.  I thought Taker was the guy in this match and would have won so it was shocking to me that he was beat down by the legitimate Giant.  My fear ran so far, mind you, that I actually ran upstairs and had my parents call me down when Gonzalez was gone.  On the tape, my dad even wrote “Royal Rumble 1993- Yoko Wins, Big Scary Guy, DO NOT WATCH” due to how afraid of Giant Gonzalez I was.  Looking back he looked a lot more silly then scary.

1994- This was the year in which both Lex and Bret won the match and I remember as a kid being so happy because they were my two favorite wrestlers.  I also remember my father being pretty upset that they didn’t restart the match as he paid for a pay per view to see one winner.  Looking back though, the two winners really set wrestlemania 10 up nicely.  This was also the Rumble that you could call a 900 hotline and find out who was going to be next.  I remember we called and it was Diesel saying he was ready to make his mark.  That cost us $1.49 and was the last call we made.

This was also the second straight Rumble in which I have a personal “scaredy cat” story and it occurred right before the Royal Rumble match itself, during the Casket match between the Undertaker and Yokozuna for the World title.  The idea of a casket match always made me a little uncomfortable as a kid but I was now seven and feeling a little better.  I was finally understanding that the person put in the casket would be back just a few weeks later.  but then Rumble 1994 and I was scarred for months!  See in this match undertaker was put in the casket and then suddenly a casket cam lit up and display live footage of the undertaker in the casket, looking eerily similar to any person you’ve seen at any wake.  I mean jeez look at him in that picture above and tell me you’re not a little spooked even today, 22 years later! But it got worse, Undertaker then turned completely holographic on the titan tron and began to raise to the heavens and literally fly around the arena.  That’s it I was done!  At seven years old, it was the scariest thing I had ever seen!  As an interesting footnote, it wasn’t actually the Undertaker flying around, but one Marty Jannetty!

1995-  This was the first show in which someone came over to watch other than my immediate family as my Uncle joined us. My Uncle wasn’t a fan at all but he was into it and got a kick out of the Rumble concept. I remember being really annoyed at the time between entrants in the rumble being cut down to one minute as it made the match fly by.  As an 8 year old, I also remember Pamela Anderson being my first crush and I thought for years that she was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.  This was also the match that made me a huge Shawn Michaels fan as he put on quite a show nearly being eliminated throughout the match but finding a way to get back in the ring.  The finish here is still one of my favorites with only one of Shawn’s feet touching the floor and him getting the win, such an iconic image in Royal Rumble history!

 Alright another side story and I have to come clean about something.  I’m petrified of mice.  I know this is quite the segue way but I hate everything about mice, they are the worse and I believe the reason for that was because of a scarring experience following the Royal Rumble 1995.  I went to bed that night and suddenly I nice a mouse come scampering across my bedroom floor and run under my bed.  I screamed as loud as my 8 year old self would allow me.  What was that?  How could it get in here?  My parents came running in to see what was wrong and my father convinced me that it was likely a dream.  We looked under my bed and saw nothing.  Still my mom agreed to run and buy mouse traps.  We set one under my bed and I went to sleep on the couch to get the heck out of my room. Well the next morning my dad call me up to my room and there it was fighting for its life stuck to the mouse trap!  Awful stuff!
Well that’s going to do it for now but I’ll be back later tonight as we finish off the 1990’s. We’ll look at the rise of Stone cold Steve Austin and the WWF in general!