The First-ish Royal Rumble

January 24, 1988 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

Copps Coliseum

This is a project I’ve wanted to tackle for a long time. This year, the Royal Rumble has come and gone, but maybe by next year's offering, I will have plowed through these. My goal here is to just review the actual Royal Rumble match, and not the entire card. I will review parts of the card if they are pertinent to the Royal Rumble match itself.

Also, I have always wanted to keep track of how many entrants in each Royal Rumble did I think actually had a chance to win it. When I turn on random Rumbles to watch, a mental tally I seem to keep in my head when each guy (or gal) comes out, is did he actually have any chance to win this. I think that could be a good indicator of how good I view a Rumble at the end, but I don’t think it’s the only factor. Since this is the start of what I plan to do, I don’t know everything yet, so I will most likely be changing things up as I go, but at the end of the day, I hope to have watched every Royal Rumble, and have a pretty comprehensive idea of which ones were the best and which one were the worst based on a criteria I don’t even have mastered yet.

The “ish” in my title comes from the fact that the very first Royal Rumble happened in a house show in Kansas City, in 1987. Pat Patterson was the creator of this type of match, but he was not in attendance for whatever reason for the first “test” Rumble, which bombed at the box-office. It also didn’t help that the ring announcer announced the winner of the match before it even started. He did this by saying that the next time WWF is back in KC Hulk Hogan will defend the belt against One Man Gang. Before the Royal Rumble that evening they announced that the winner of the Royal Rumble would challenge Hulk Hogan the next time they were back in KC. The winner of that inaugural 12-man Royal Rumble was One Man Gang.

Vince hated the Royal Rumble idea, but Patterson and more important television producer Dick Ebersol thought it would make for great tv, which leads us here. The first Royal Rumble was not a Pay-Per-View event, but aired on the USA network.

I’m already going to break my own rule and talk about the undercard. The Jumping Bomb Angels were so cool and so much better than any women’s wrestling the WWF was offering at the time, though that’s hardly saying anything at all. Also worth noting, is that this show has some pretty historic WWF moments that have nothing to do with the actual Royal Rumble. It’s where Dino Bravo had “just a pinky” of help from Jesse Ventura while attempting to break the all-time bench press record and also the contract signing between Hulk Hogan and Andre The Giant, setting up the rematch from their Wrestlemania match.

This was the first Royal Rumble match, as far as WWF canon is concerned. It features 20 men for this first-ish match. The time limit between wrestlers coming to the ring for this match is 90 seconds. The participants of this match aren’t wrestling for a title shot at Wrestlemania, or anywhere else for that matter. I’m guessing at this point it really was still in testing mode, being on free tv, and maybe serving as getting a mid-carder over.

One problem that may arise from me figuring out who had a chance and who didn’t relies on my knowledge of wrestling from that era. For this era, it’s pretty strong, six years from now, not so much. I may sound like I’m speaking in current tense at some points and past tense in others because for some of these matches it will be the first time I’m seeing them, and others I have seen numerous times. I hope this makes a little bit of sense regarding what will be going through my head while watching and commentating.

An answer to the question of a quiz you will most likely never take to who the first ever entrant to a Royal Rumble is Bret “The Hitman” Hart. That’s pretty cool being in Canada and all. The second is Tito Santana.

Hart - No real chance here. He was still a tag-teamer with The Anvil
Santana - Three years removed from an IC title run and current tag team champion. But I feel he also has no chance.

You can see why they would choose these two to start the match. They can both work and you can trust them both.

I’m not going to do play-by-play here, just going to be too much going on in the long-run. I will speak on cool spots and things like that.

The first wrestler to ever come down the aisle? The Natural Butch Reed (no chance).

Jesse, as always, was so good at explaining the importance of things regarding a match. As in this one, the freshest wrestlers have the best shot of doing damage. It sounds dumb now, but back then, unless you were one of the 1700 people in Kansas City in 1987, you had never seen this type of match before.

Next on down is Jim Neidhart (no chance). Making it three vs. one pretty much for Tito. In the meantime, Jesse is talking about enchiladas in regards to Tito. 1988 was a different time folks.

Coming next to a huge pop, is Jake The Snake (I’d say a decent chance) who immediately dumps Reed over the top, making him the first wrestler ever eliminated from a Royal Rumble. Ish.

The King Harley Race (I know they gave him the title of King of The Ring, but based on what I know about his WWF run, I don’t think he has much of a chance here).

Next out is Killer Bee, Jumpin Jim Brunzell (No chance).

Here comes Jakob The Snakob’s real-life half-bro Sam Houson (odds of winning = 0) Ring is filling up here, with seven in the ring. As I say that, Tito gets eliminated by The Hart Foundation. Jesse says “now he’s back selling rotten tacos.” Yikes.

Danny Davis, the crooked ref turned wrestler is out next and what has to be one of the worst wrestling outfits ever (white tight shirt, black and white striped tights, and no chance to win this match).

Boris Zhukov next to the ring (Also another no chancer). Him and Race start to fight, giving us the first of one million times you’ll hear “every man for himself” over the next 30 years, when it comes to a heel vs heel or face vs. face confrontation in the Rumble. In the case of Boris and Race, I don’t think they knew what the hell else to do. Unless i’m forgetting this being the start of the legendary Zhukov vs. Race rivalry.

Next out comes Don Muraco and Volkoff. Huh? Muraco eventually gets in the ring (No chance) while Zhukov gets eliminated. Volkoff in the meantime is just chilling at the ringside with two refs trying to explain to him why he can’t come in the ring yet.

Next into the ring Volkoff (lol, no). I love the idea that he came to the ring early on accident. Harley Race is taken out by “The Rock.” Ventura says in regards to Race, “he ain’t happy,” and McMahon immediately yells “STOP WITH THE DOUBLE NEGATIVES.” That would 100 percent be a thing Vince would lose his mind over.

Here comes Hacksaw to a huge pop. Race pops Duggan while he’s on the way to the ring. Duggan pretty much no sells it. Listen, I obviously know who wins this Rumble but looking at the remaining entrants I would have honestly said I think he has a chance to win, though I can’t honestly say he would have been my one seed.

Ron Bass comes out in what seems way shorter than 90 seconds. All I know about his run in WWF is that he eventually gets his hair shaved off by The Barber Beefcake before given his walking papers. I don’t think he’ll fare too well here. Jim Brunzell has been eliminated by Volkoff.

Here comes the other Killer Bee, B.(ee) Brian Blair. His partner could have used him about twenty seconds ago. Hart is still in which is cool. Also a few times during the match the crowd has begged for the DDT but they haven’t gotten it yet. I would have guessed Jake was the favorite to win going into this, I think.

Here comes Hillbilly Jim (eh). The Anvil is gone. Hitman is still in, and McMahon won’t give him any credit, which is sort of funny. This feels a lot like a battle royal with so many men still in the ring.

Dino Bravo, “Strongest Man in The World,” according to Jesse gets to the ring just as Houston was leaving it. Bravo getting a big spot on the undercard would have made this mark mind of mine to believe he had a decent chance of having a good showing here.
Here comes the Ultimate Warrior just as Hart was eliminated. Already second guessing myself here as Warrior got a huge pop and it would have made sense for them using the Rumble to get The Warrior (more) over.

One Man Gang comes to the ring. He already won one of these things (sort of) and at least got a title shot out of it, so why would he even care about this one? Either way, he just knocked Jake out, and we got to see exactly zero DDT’s.

What seems like 30 seconds later, Junk Yard Dog comes out. In the practice Rumble, OMG, eliminated JYD to win the RR, much like I eliminated most of the alphabet in using those abbreviations. If you saw the first ever Rumble in KC and then watched this on TV, you might have been telling yourself around now you know how this is gonna end. You would have been wrong, but it would have made sense to think that.

Couple interesting things. Jesse asks Vince who he thinks will win. Vince says JYD or OMG. Perhaps a callback to the KC Rumble? We also get the first of “WHO EVER WILL ELIMINATE THIS GUY?!?!,” in regards to The Gang.

JYD was the last entrant at 20. Ten men remain in the ring. Now nine, with Volkov being eliminated. There goes Hillbilly. With how fast the last few competitors came out and the ring clearing quickly, I have to think they were starting to worry a little about TV time remaining. There goes Davis.

Gang and Bravo eliminate Warrior. Ron Bass has eliminated JYD. Rock takes out Bass. Nowadays, “The Final Four” seems like a big thing, but it doesn’t feel that important in this one. Those final four are Gang, Muraco, Bravo and Hacksaw. Actually, I’m not sure Jim Duggan was Hacksaw here yet, with Butch Reed still in the company.

Gang and Bravo tag-team to eliminate The Rock. A minute later Gang clothesline Bravo out of the ring, on accident. Final two = Gang and Duggan.

They are calling him Hacksaw by the way, so what do I know. More questions by both announcers asking how they will ever eliminate the large man. Vince says “Hacksaw will have to find a way for Gang to use his own momentum to eliminate himself,” which is precisely what happens, as he pulls down the top rop, allowing Gang to fly over the top rope.

Nowadays, there would be some kind of celebration, pointing to wrestlemania signs, fireworks, etc. Well, 1988’s winner got a quick announcement followed by a commercial break. When they come back, it’s time to talk to Hogan, and of course end the show with him.

Not much push wise came out of this historic victory for Big Jim. He was one of the 14 wrestlers in the 14-man World Heavyweight Championship Tournament at Wrestlemania, which led to a feud with Andre The Giant. He also challenged Honky Tonk Man for the IC title, winning by DQ. Those are things that would have happened without this victory, most likely.
Not a bad way to introduce the world outside of Kansas City to this match. Of the 20 wrestlers who participated I thought that only three to five of the men had a chance to win (Roberts, Duggan, Warrior, Gang, or JYD) Gang and JYD is based on knowing how they did in the test rumble and also if WWE was going to use the Rumble to really promote “OMG how can you beat the OMG he’s so big,” and JYD, was still a pretty recognizable name. I obviously knew Hacksaw was winning, but forgot that the Warrior was in this. His time would come soon enough, when he defeated Honky Tonk Man for the IC title in 27 seconds at the first ever SummerSlam, about seven months later.

Thinking that 15 to 25 percent of the wrestlers in the Royal Rumble could win it feels a little low, but I’d bet it falls on par with what we see as we go through the years.

Remember, the 1989 Rumble is the first to be on PPV. While it doesn’t feature the winner getting a shot at a champion yet, it does include some moments that are now apart of one of the most popular storylines in WWF/E history.

Cool idea, looking forward to following.

Good stuff, TH. Duggan felt like an odd choice for first winner, but frankly less odd than the choice of winner in 1989, who parlayed the win into never wrestling on PPV again.

Royal Rumble 1989 - Bigger Stars But Still No Big Stakes

Houston, Texas

The Summit

Being the first Royal Rumble to be on pay-per-view this automatically feels like a bigger deal than the first one last year. While the winner of this match still doesn’t win anything, it does feel that in the year since the first Rumble, Vince, and company, realized that this match could do a lot to further storylines.

Production wise, WWF has really improved between the years of 1988 and 1989, which I often think is one of the underrated reasons the WWF really took off. Of course, Vince raided all the territories and took the best talent, but it also helped that they took the production side of things seriously. If you look back at NWA events that were televised and on PPV, the difference is night and day. Night, as in most NWA sets, is completely dark. Additionally the segues between interviews and going to the ring were often very awkward on old NWA telecasts. By this time, WWF really had these things down.

I know I said I wouldn’t spend much time on the undercards of these shows, but it’s worth noting that “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan will not be participating in this years Rumble, leaving him no chance to go back-to-back. Instead he tags with The Hart Foundation to defeat The Rougeaous Brothers and Dino Bravo in a two-out-of-three falls contest.

Also of note, Haku and Harley Race battled for the “King of The Ring Crown,” in preliminary action. Imagine for one second that this match was a shoot for a second. It would feature the two people that most in wrestling consider the most legit toughest badasses the sport has ever seen. However, most people have Haku wayyyyyy higher than anyone, including Race. Either way, thinking of the real toughness both of these guys had did make it slightly more interesting to watch. This match and a match for the women’s title were the only matches that anything was on the line. So,The actual Rumble match is still not a huge deal yet for the federation, but we are getting there.

Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse Ventura on the call.

This year it’s every two minutes a new wrestler will come to the ring. I always really liked the start of this match, it really gave an “anything can happen feeling,” Ax and Smash of the tag-team champions Demolition. These two both get their theme music as they walk to the ring individually, which I think added to the surprise for the crowd. No real chance for either to win, but still, a great start.

Ax and Smash go at it the entire two minutes until number three comes out, Andre The Giant. Normally you would think Andre has a good chance to win, but coming at number three sort of hurts that idea. Demolition wisely teamed up to take on Andre.
Gorilla says he Andre has probably won more battle royale’s than anyone in history, and Jesse says, “Yeah, I think he has me by one or two,” lol.

Mr. Perfect, rocking plain blue trunks is the next out. He’s Mr. Perfect in name at this point, but not the Mr. Perfect that will go down as one of the better characters in history. Andre eliminates Smash.

Perfect takes a chest first turnbuckle bump that Bret Hart would go on to make famous.

Next out is former NWA Heavyweight Ron Garvin (No chance). A real life tough guy, but he never had a very serious run here in WWF, though he did have a good midcard feud with Valentine. However, in one of those matches with Valentine it was a submission match, and I remember them trying to pin each other like 20 times during the match. It was really sort of quite silly.

Speaking of Valentine, he’s out next (no real chance). It’s now basically four against one vs. Andre. Andre had enough of that mess, and tosses Garvin over the top.

Here comes Jake The Snake, and he goes right after Andre. Valentine lands some running forearms on Andre and Andre totally no sells them while he continues to choke out The Snake.

Here comes Ron Bass, with the buzzed hair I mentioned in the last write-up that he received from Beefcake. I thought he was pretty much out of the WWF after the haircut, but I guess they needed another body to fill out this one. Andre tosses out Roberts, who lasted just over two minutes.

Just a note, other than the first two (Demolition), no wrestler is coming down to his theme music.

Here comes Shawn Michaels. Being in Texas, you would think he has a chance, but here is still a member of The Rockers. His time in a Rumble in Texas is coming soon enough, but not quite yet. Big pop, though.

Ax has been eliminated by Mr. Perfect. Perfect attempts to throw out the future HBK, but HBK skins the cat to save himself. Of course, this is a spot we will go on to see 100s of times in Rumbles, but this is the first real cool “save” spot in a Rumble, and it’s pretty cool that it was done by Michaels, who goes on to have a pretty good career in these.

Valentine once again tries to work on Giant, who once again absolutely no sells it, lol.

Number 10 is Bushwacker Bush, who is my overall one seed to win this entire thing, said no one ever.

Jake “The Snake” Roberts comes back out with a bag full of snake, which he tosses in the ring. This causes Andre to eliminate himself due to the angle of him being deathly afraid of snakes, which included an angle where he had a “heart attack.” Anyways, Damien the snake becomes the first reptile to earn an elimination in Rumble history. Perhaps it was dumb for Andre to eliminate himself, but Jake was really a sore loser here. He comes into the rumble, gets his ass handed to him for two straight minutes and gets eliminated, all within the confines of the rules of professional wrestling. A few minutes later he brings a snake to the ring? Pff. The crowd loves it because they love sore losers. Andre won’t sell for Valentine but he will sell the hell out of a snake.

Honky Tonk Man trots down to the ring with Jimmy Hart.

This event really did make sure to really pound the idea for “every man for himself,” which is of course a good idea. I just wish they would have given us and the wrestlers to have a reason to fight their friends. I guess in kayfabe you can say if they think they can win this they think they will get noticed more, but it’s a hard sell to have fans follow that line of thinking.

Tito Santana is out at 12, no real chance but he has a good pop. I think Santana is pretty underrated for his contribution to WWF. He was a two time IC champion right before the federation really took off. As it’s taking off he was a tag champ with Rick Martel. He then settled into a role over the rest of “The Golden Era” and even into “The Next Generation.” He really was never in a bad match, and lasted more time in the WWF/E than most.

Bad News Brown, at 13. No real chance of winning this, but for some reason he is one of the first heels I ever really liked as a kid. I once read, maybe in Hart’s book, that by the time Brown was in WWF, his favorite type of match was one where he never hit the ground because his knees were so shot by now it took a lot of effort to get up.

Honky is eliminated.

Marty Jannetty is next out, giving both Rockers in the ring. They immediately work some double team moves on Rob Bass, and eliminate him.

Here comes Savage, the WWF champion. He enters the ring with his bandana and sunglasses still on. He’s a big favorite to win this, as the champion, but the smart mark in me may have thought, “he already has the title, why does he have to win this.” As I teased in the last review, this Rumble appearance will lead to one of the bigger angles in WWF history.

Savage and Hulk were known at this time as “The Mega Powers.” In my opinion when The Mega Powers Explode, is some of the best stuff the WWF ever did. However, I always felt like Hogan just had to be apart of Macho Man’s career every time Savage held a title in WWF or WCW. Savage’s run as champ, even though it lasted a year, isn’t that memorable from a singles standpoint because of all the times he was hooked up with Hogan and then of course, fighting Hogan. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of one person he really feuded with over the title during this time, though I’m sure he did. Either way, it wasn’t memorable.

Valentine finally sneaks up on someone (Macho), and THEY SELL IT! Gorilla seems just as surprised as me when he announces Bushwacker Butch is still in this.

Valentine is out, and the floor no sells his elimination, just as Arn Anderson is heading to the ring. Surprisingly, AA and Savage team up to eliminate Michaels.

There are a few spots in this match when one wrestler is trying to shoot another wrestler into the corner and they run pretty much full speed into someone who was crossing from one ring to the other. I feel this is also something they work out fairly soon, I as I don’t remember this happening too often in modern day Rumbles.

Here comes Tully Blanchard, joining his partner in the Brain Busters, double A. Not they they are bad by any means, but it’s always weird seeing Tully and Arn in a WWE ring. As I say that AA lands his awesome Spinebuster.

Cool spot with Jannetty hanging on by just his toes, but he eventually gets eliminated, just as Hulk Hogan makes his way to the ring, who has to be a huge favorite. He immediately eliminates Mr. Perfect. He then saves Macho Man from being eliminated when he goes after the Brain Busters. This seemingly not that important moment will mean a lot more in a few minutes here.

Santana is quietly eliminated, while Bad News and Tully attempt to eliminate Hogan. Here, Gorilla makes it very clear where we are heading when he says “I don’t see Macho coming to the Hulk’s aid.”

Here comes Luke, giving double the odds of them winning the Rumble. LOL, JK, there goes Butch. Randy and Hulk team up momentarily to try to eliminate Brown.

Here comes Koko B. Ware. I think Frankie the Parrot had a better chance of becoming the second animal to eliminate someone than I think Ware has of winning this.

Bushwhacker Bush really spends a lot of time going after Hulk Hogan here which is a weird visual. Hogan in short order eliminates Ware and Luke. He then eliminates both Brainbusters at the same time as Warlord comes to the ring.

I remember this Warlord spot coming up, he poses on the apron, steps in the ring and Hogan eliminates him with a clothesline in two seconds. Then Hogan, seeing Brown trying to eliminate Macho, goes over and eliminates them both. Uh-Oh, Macho isn’t gonna like this, BROTHER!

Macho jumps back into the ring and pushes Hogan from behind. Here comes Elizabeth to try to calm The Mega Powers down. A lot of times, and even in a future Rumble, I think Hogan has acts of cowardness. It’s hard to put the blame on him here though. Macho had a chance to help out Hogan, and he didn’t. Hogan did help Macho out once. And, as we are reminded 1000 times a Rumble, it’s every man for itself. I’m not saying WWF did this intentionally, but with the pairing of good guys fighting good guys and bad guys fighting bad guys all match, it really does make you feel confused here on who did wrong, if anyone. Being confused as a wrestling fan isn’t always bad. Of course Savage would eventually turn on Hogan making him the heel, but once again during this entire feud he has some pretty valid points when against Mr. “lust in his eyes,” Hulk Hogan.

After Hogan and Savage shake hands and make up, The Big Boss Man makes his way to the ring. It’s easy to forget sometimes that Bossman and Hogan had one of the most lucrative house circuit runs during this era. The crowd here was pumped to see them one on one here, as well.

Next to the ring is Akeem, joining forces with his tag team partner in The Twin Towers Bossman, Akeem was formerly known as One Man Gang, who won the first “test Rumble” and was runner up in the first real Rumble. Despite seeing this before, I was still shocked when these two eliminated Hogan rather unceremoniously and without any tomfoolery.

Jesse was always good at calling out Hogan’s crap. He pulls down the top rope and eliminates Big Boss Man. Jesse tells Gorilla, “That’s illegal,” and Jesse responds “So What.? Be A Star. Cheating Bossman out of a Rumble win isn’t good enough, but he has to beat him with the sound equipment on the way back to the dressing room.

Here comes The Red Rooster. It feels weird to have a lack of real star power in the ring this deep into it.

Barbarian is next to the ring, the other half of The Powers of Pain. He gets to the center of the ring, already outlasting his teammate.

Here comes Big John Studd, Gorilla calls him one of the odds on favorites to win it all. I would not have agreed with him. Studd got into the ring to push The Rooster out of the way to go after Akeem. Honestly, based on the reaction of the crowd, I have no idea if Studd was a heel or face here.

Number 28 is Hercules. This thing has really petered out since the Hogan and Savage stuff.

Number 29 is Rick Martel, who had a good run in the first Rumble, if I recall. Since coming into the ring, Studd has spent the whole time choking out Akeem in the corner.

Finally at number 30 is Ted DiBiase, The Million Dollar Man. The story is he paid for number 30, as earlier in the show he was shown selecting his number and being angry with it.

Speaking of money, with the remaining wrestlers left in the ring, I would have bet on DiBiase to win. It really makes the most sense out of everyone left and knowing that Ted will hang around the upper parts of the card and (sort of) around the title picture. IDK, it just seems like a spot they would have given him the victory here.
Eight wrestlers remain when DiBiase hits the ring. About a minute later, he makes it seven, when he eliminates The Rooster. As far as I can tell, Damien is still the only animal to eliminate a wrestler in this Rumble, though Rooster did have a long run.

Last year's Rumble really went quick once we got to this point. I would take some of that here, honestly. As I whine, Beefcake and Herc are sent to the showers.

Martel eliminates Barbarian, though it was pretty much a self elimination.

Your final four are Akeem, Studd, Martel, and DiBiase.

Martel is gone, courtesy of Akeem. Akeem/One Man Gang, really is the early MVP of these Rumbles. He is given the win in the test rumble, he makes the final two in the real Rumble, and follows that up with a 3rd place finish here, before being eliminated by a super weak looking elbow to the back by Studd.

DiBiase and Studd are the final two. Ted tells him he will pay him off, and Studd tells him there will be no bribery today. Two seconds after Ventura says don’t count DiBiase out, he is eliminated. OK then. What’s sort of funny is that The Fink doesn’t announce Studd as the winner until he has thrown Virgil over the top rope after he jumped in the ring after the match.

I never would have seen this coming back then and it’s still sort of hard to believe even though I knew the outcome beforehand. The only memory I have of Studds career is being in a bodyslam challenge with Andre. That was at least a few years before now.

My final thoughts are that this match had a lot of stars, but like the first rumble, there were only a few people who you (or me) really thought could win. In this one, out of the 30 competitors I would have Savage, Hulk, and DiBiase as favorites to win. Of course that doesn’t even include the actual winner, Studd. If I include Studd, which I wouldn’t have, that’s only 13.3 percent of the 30 that had a real chance of winning. If WWF did anything right during these first two Rumbles is that is gave the perception that anyone can win, as Duggan wouldn’t have been anyone’s pick for the first Rumble.

This match was really made to start the break-up of Savage and Hogan, which is fine. However, it did absolutely nothing for Studd’s career. Studd would be on to be a special guest referee for Snake and Andre at Wrestlemania V, and that was literally about it.

The 1990 Rumble would once again not be contested for any kind of prize, but was once again used to further some storylines.

I feel like WrestleMania V has to be when he got into a singlet, just given the announcer reaction to his outfit when he comes out. He goes without an entrance theme for too long.

I dunno, it seems like it would be easy enough for Jesse or someone to raise the notion of strategic alliances and how that really doesn't go against "every man for himself."

...you may be asking this again soon.

I believe he worked the house shows with DiBiase in the aftermath of WrestleMania IV, and then he had a program with Bad News Brown sparked by the (incredibly racy for its time) promo BNB cut about Miss Elizabeth and Jack Tunney on The Brother Love Show.

I enjoy the post-Rumble promo by Savage, primarily because he reveals his love for The Godfather by saying, "A man in my position can't afford to be made to look ridiculous, I'm the WWF Champion."

Studd is a garbage winner. I guess the only value of it was that it did reinforce their talking point of "how are you going to get that big of a guy out?!"

Stupidly stared at this for 15-20 seconds thinking "Huh? That dude wasn't even Papa Shango yet"

He wasn't even Sir Charles yet. (I don't think Sir Charles ever made it onto TV.)

The 1990 Royal Rumble - Building New Stars (Just Kidding!)

Orlando, Florida

Orlando Arena

I knew I said I wouldn’t be mentioning the undercard that much, but I think it’s noteworthy to point out that despite the Royal Rumble PPV being considered one of “The Big Four,” PPV’s they have every year, the whole card doesn’t have a really big feel. Heck, The Royal Rumble match itself still feels like it isn’t that important. The winner of the 1990 Royal Rumble will once again receive nothing for their efforts. Last year’s winner, Big John Studd is already out of the company just one year later. This card featured four undercard matches, none of which included a title match. So virtually, the entire card holds no stakes.

That isn’t to say that the WWF isn’t learning how to use this as a tool to progress storylines. Last year showed us the very beginnings of Macho Man and Hulk Hogan breaking up, and this year also features a fairly iconic moment, also involving Hulk Hogan.

Also, an idea I’ve had -if I ever make it to the end of these rumbles I think it would be fun to make a Royal Rumble Hall of Fame (30 entrants, of course) and maybe even book the match. It gives me something else to think about when going through these. Like, for example, I know Duggan won the inaugural event, and Studd the second, but do they really deserve a spot in the RRHOF? It’s so early, but at this point I think I’d almost pick the One Man Gang/Akeem over them. Why? He won the test run, and has a 2nd and 3rd place finish so far. By the end of this I imagine that he won’t make the final cut, but the fact that he has made it this far in my newly formed RRHOF is still a bit of a surprise.

Tony Schiavone and Jesse Ventura on the call. Ventura is dressed in Mickey ears and a Mickey Sweatshirt, yet it's somehow one of his least ridiculous outfits that make it on to PPV over the years.

This year the wrestlers will be entering the ring every two minutes. Fink reminds us “That in the Royal Rumble it’s every man for himself.”

Last year's number 30 is this years number one, The Million Dollar Man, Ted Dibiase. Koko B. Ware is number two. DiBiase has his Million Dollar Belt, but no theme music left. Koko comes to the ring with Frankie The Parrot (sounds like a mob name).

There goes Koko before the number three man even comes out. Also of note, this is the first year the wrestlers come out to their entrance music, which I really think adds something special. Jennetty is the next one out to the ring. He’s also the next one out of the ring, as once again The Multi-Million Dollar Man is alone in the ring.

At four is Jake “The Snake” Roberts. Jake honestly hasn’t had the best run in these so far. His snake Damien has more eliminations than he does. Will we finally get to see a DDT in a Rumble? 0 for 2 so far.

“Macho King” Randy Savage is out next, followed by Roddy Piper. Man, the crowd always loved him. Four hall of farmers in the ring at the same time is pretty cool. Maybe they weren’t wrestling for much, but the star power in the next few Rumbles is off the charts.

Here comes The Warlord, the two second man from last year’s Rumble, and he pairs off with Roddy.

Bret “The Hitman” Hart is number eight. He’s a guy who I think might crack the 30 man RRHOF when this is all over.

What’s also different this year is that all of the managers are allowed to stay at ringside. So outside the ring at the moment is Mr. Fuji, Sensational Sherri, and Virgil.

Bad News Brown is next to the ring. I’ve had this thought before, and didn’t share it in the last write-up for whatever reason. I really feel like Bad News Brown is an early prototype for Stone Cold Steve Austin. Yes, Brown was a “heel” but he didn’t even like other heels. In fact in one of the early Survivor Series matches he just abandons his teammates. He pretty much said, “There is no reason for me to fight with you guys or defend you.” Much like these early Rumbles, the prize for winning a Survivor Series match was also nothing. That’s not to mention that Brown wore the all black ring gear and had the DTA attitude way before Mr. Austin perfected it. Anyways, during this random though, Roberts is eliminated by Savage. Another Rumble and no DDT.

Cody Rhodes dad is the next to the ring, adding to the parade of managers outside of the ring, with Sapphire joining them. Dusty eliminates Savage with a big over the top rope sunset flip. I guess that means Sherri is gone, as well.

It’s Andre with Bobby The Brain. I was just wondering when Brain was going to make his way out.

Andre eliminates Warlord in short order. Fuji and Heenan get into it on the outside.

Here comes The Red Rooster. Once again, if he eliminates anyone he will tie Damien in the Animal’s who have eliminated someone in the Rumble.

Piper eliminates Brown who then reaches up and eliminates Piper. This sets up there watch where Piper makes the really weird decision to pain his body half black for their match that this is setting up. However, making the better decision was Andre The Giant who stole the solution that was supposed to get the black paint off, meaning Piper had to walk around like that for a week before getting new stuff.
Here comes Ax. He goes right after Andre, because Demolition was in a feud with Andre and Haku at this time (The Colossal Connection, who are the current Tag Champs) Speaking of Haku, he’s out next.

I just realized I forgot to give my opinion on who I think had a chance to win this as they come out. While this has a ton of star power so far, I don’t think I can say I thought anyone here had a big chance of winning. Once again Andre is too early. Maybe DiBiase because they allude to him paying people off, but it’s not really a storyline. Lots of people are getting huge pops, however.

Here comes Smash, so both sides of the tag-team feud are now in the ring. Ventura and Schiavone are really playing the “How can anyone get Andre out,” card, which makes sense being the only one who has ever eliminated Andre from a Rumble by this point is Andre himself.

Here comes Akeem, perhaps the inaugural member of the RRHOF. Andre has now been eliminated by actual people, Ax and Smash. Somewhere in there Bret Hart was eliminated quietly. His performance in Royal Rumble’s would be paid attention to a lot more in the upcoming years.

Next to the ring is Jimmy Snuka. Snuka then eliminates Akeem, saddening me greatly.

Here comes Jimmy Hart with “The World’s Strongest Man,” Dino Bravo. Bravo is number 18, this thing is really moving along after it felt like it took three hours to get through 18 last year.

Here comes The Canadian Earthquake, soon he will drop Canadian. Earthquake takes out Rhodes and Ax. Earthquake is legit one of my favorite wrestlers ever. The dude was a genuine beast. I know he has “fat guy” vibes, but he was a legit athlete. An often overlooked moment in wrestling is Big Boss Man doing a crossbody off the top rope and Quake catching him, without taking a single step back. I think it was during a Survivor Series. Every member of The Rumble teamed up to eliminate Earthquake, who I would have thought had a chance to win this based on how he came out blazing. Somewhere in this, Neidhart came to the ring.

DiBiase is still in, quite the feat.

Here comes The Ultimate Warrior. “The Crowd Goes Banana!” Warrior takes out Bravo. Warrior is a favorite to win.

Rick “The Model” Martel is out next to the ring. It’s worth noting, that nowadays when a new competitor comes down to The Rumble they get all their spots in, probably land their finisher, and all that. That wasn’t really a thing here yet. Haku eliminates Smash.

Next out is Martel’s former Strike Force partner, Tito Santana. Santana goes right for The Model.

I like that Schiavone actually gives credit for DiBiase still being in this. Gorilla and Vince would have just made a bunch of excuses to why he was still there, which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but a nice change to have a face announcer point out the accomplishments of a heel.

The Greatest Intercontinental Champion of All-Time, Honky Tonk Man, is out next. Anvil is eliminated. Moments later, Warrior eliminates DiBiase with a clothesline. Honestly, a great performance by Teddy.

Hulk Hogan, The World Wrestling Federation Champion is out next. He eliminates Superfly, then Haku. Warrior eliminates Tito. It’s like their emptying the ring so just two of these guys can have a big moment, or something.

Shawn Michaels, still of The Rockers enters the ring as Honky Tonk is leaving it. Warrior then tosses Shawn Michaels and Martel out, leaving just Hogan and Warrior in the ring.

This moment is pretty much what this Rumble was set up for. They push and shove, and do the weird criss-cross spot which Ventura marks out for and then they double clothesline each other. Honestly, if you are a fan of this period of wrestling at all, this is a pretty hard moment not to mark out for.

Barbarian heads to the ring, dropping elbows on Hulk and Warrior,maybe he can make a big enough impact that he can shoehorn himself into the main event of Wrestlemania and make it a triple threat match!? Just kidding, obviously.

Rude comes out about 20 before he’s scheduled to come out. Warrior saves Hogan from being eliminated. Of course, Hogan is an *******, so he double clotheslines Rude and Barbarian while they were trying to toss Warrior over the top, knowing full well he would eliminate Hogan. Hogan might make the RRHOF but he will also make whatever hall I make for the biggest *******s in Rumble history. Warrior goes back in the ring after being eliminated and lands some half hearted blows on Barb and Rude and then sprints back to the dressing room for no apparent reason.

Next out is Mr. Perfect, at number 30. He’s know wearing the singlet he becomes synonymous with. Hercules, in the meantime, takes out Barbarian.

The Final Four, doesn’t feel like a huge thing yet, but worth nothing, are Hulk Hogan, Mr. Perfect, Rick Rude, and Hercules. Hercules is eliminated by Rude. Rude and Perfect team up to beat up Hogan. Perfect pulls the rope down maybe by accident and eliminates Rude. This sort of makes me sad we never got to see a full Hogan vs. Perfect program. Anyways, Perfect does the Perfect Plex to Hogan, Hogan Hulk’s up, and throws Perfect over the top.

The writing was on the wall who was going to win once Warrior was eliminated. I had mentioned in the last Rumble write-up that there is no reason to have the WWF Champion win the Rumble because he’s already a star. That aged poorly, and it will continue to age poorly based on next year's Rumble result.

There was only a few people that really had a chance to win this - Warrior, Hogan and maybe DiBiase. That makes only 10 percent of the wrestlers given a real chance to win. A really low number, but once again, the prize for this match at this point was zilch.

Next year, for the final time, will feature a Royal Rumble where the winner gets nothing. However, WWF finally starts to see that the Royal Rumble can be a whole card event, as it featured a World Title match for the first time on the undercard. Despite these Rumbles not meaning much they really hit every nostalgia button for me.

This brings back so many happy memories from my childhood. I used to love the Royal Rumble..

I tend to disagree with this re: Gorilla. Whenever he worked with Jesse, he tended to work to the middle to make concessions; trying to hold a homerish babyface line would just result in Jesse destroying him repeatedly. I'm sure you'll talk about his live reaction to Royal Rumble '92 versus what made it to tape.

No better time to make the case for that than this 1990 show, since it sounds (very credibly) like they wanted to give the win to Perfect and Hogan wasn't having it.

I mean, the program happened. It just didn't make it to PPV. I'm always fond of the fact that Hogan lost via countout to The Genius on SNME.

LKJ is the real MVP of this thread.

I like where I'm approaching this in the sense that I know the basics of everything I'm writing about, but I'm also viewing (writing) like I'm really examining each match for the first time, which is true. I do have the power to research of course, but I already feel like I'm putting a lot of time into this, and don't want to make it too much more of an encyclopedia. I hope that doesn't come off to you LKJ that I don't want you to add the tidbits. I absolutely do! You filling in the blanks is maybe doing the work I'm too lazy to do this go around, lol.

Also, you mentioned Gorilla's real commentary vs what made the tapes and wwe network. That is an example of something I didn't know about and would like to hear more.

Also, I remember Perfect vs. Hogan on SNME but wasn't it Hogan who put an end to it a lot quicker than planned because he thought Perfect was too small to be a serious threat, and in turn taking a lot of money out of Perfect's pocket? Honestly, Perfect was a great opponent for Hogan based on the way he sold his ass off for anyone. I know Hulkamania followed a pretty exact formula, but this is one where both guys could have came out looking good, but Perfect wasn't a big old fat guy so Hulk "couldn't work with him." So frustrating.

Oh yeah, I certainly buy that Hogan sabotaged Perfect and kept him from coming out of that feud looking stronger. No question, and I don't mean any of it to be a defense of Hogan, always a selfish *******. The thing is that Hogan only really had one PPV defense per year at this point, and I don't think Perfect had reached a level where he could viably main event WrestleMania yet, so I'm not sure how high of a ceiling that feud ever had.

As for the Gorilla commentary in 1992...I don't actually immediately know which rendition is on the network/Peacock. Probably the same one that was on VHS? But we can wait to get into that until after you get to that one.

The commentary on Peacock for Rumble '92 is the original commentary.

I'm guessing most people know about OSW Review, but they have the first Rumbles through '95 and then some after (mostly modern ones).

I'm planning to read through Tragic's description then watch the corresponding OSW review.

To be mentioned alongside a OSW review is pretty awesome! I'm sure they do a better job (in fact, I'm positive) but still pretty sweet!

That is actually pretty impressive.

https://youtu.be/hwknYeFfXzA?t=280

In for this one!!!

My Continued Quest to Watch Every Royal Rumble Match Ever...Continues

Sorry for the delay in this series. It’s been a rough couple of months for my family, not to mention, my least favorite friend, Depression, coming to make another stay in my head. Well, writing about wrestling makes me happy, so let’s get to it.

Royal Rumble 1991 - Miami, Florida

Again, this is a Rumble that the winner of the match receives nothing. So, why don’t they use it to get a young guy over? LOL, JK.

Couple thoughts before we get into the match. While I don’t write on the undercard, this one features one of the better WWF PPV matches to date, and a World Heavyweight Title change. The match that’s super good that is probably worth going out of your way to watch is The Rockers vs. The Orient Express. It might be nostalgia speaking, but it’s legit one of my favorite matches ever. At the very least, if you watch you, you probably won’t think it sucks.

Finally, This was right in the middle of Operation Desert Storm, and WWF was in full patriotism mode here, except that they put the title on Sgt. Slaughter, an Iraqi sympathizer. The reason they did this though is so that Mr. America, Hulk Hogan can swoop in and win the title and single handedly win the war at Wrestlemania. The WWF severely overestimated how many people would care about this match. During the show they advertise that Mania would be held at The Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, which seated 75,000 plus at the time. Due to poor ticket sales (and not security concerns which is what WWF lied about at the time) it was switched to The L.A. Memorial Sports Arena (Capacity 16,700).

Also, I can’t start without mentioning my lowkey MVP for the first few Royal Rumble matches -Akeem/One Man Gang. Akeem left the company three months prior to this years rumble, after making deep runs in every previous rendition. If I do a mock Hall of Fame Royal Rumble at the end of this series (which at this rate will be done in 2107) I don’t know if Akeem the Gang will make the final 30, but he will always have a special place in the place of my heart that cares about Royal Rumble history. Plus, we share a birthday.

OK, let’s get to it -

Gorilla and Hot Rod on the call. I feel I like Roddy as an announcer more than most, for whatever that is worth. I love his call when Virgil turns face during this show.

First to the ring, co-holder of the Tag Team Titles, Bret Hart. He has lousy number picking luck in these early Rumbles.

The next out is fellow Canadian, Dino Bravo. New wrestlers will head to the ring every two minutes.

Number three is Greg “The Hammer” Valentine, who goes immediately after Dino Bravo, who seems absolutely stunned that Valentine would attack him in a “every man for himself” match. Valentine makes Bravo’s stay a short one, then pushes Hart off the apron. I don’t think this was a real face turn, just something that sort of happened.

Number four is the most famous Four Horseman ever, Paul Roma. I kid of course. My favorite Roma work is with Power and Glory. Their finisher was a banger. Roma and big Val work together for a moment on Hart, before fighting each other. Then they go back to Hart. Valentine accidentally sold a punch to Roma in a blink and you’ll miss it, moment.

Kerry Von Erich comes in next, and beats up both heels. Slick is at ringside, and I really don’t know who he’s managing here.

Number six is Rick “The Model” Martel. Only Dino has been eliminated, so far. The crowd is really behind Hart here, as he is on the verge of his singles career really taking off.

Saba Simba is next to the ring, who is beating up everyone. I know Simba was Tony Atlas, and an incredibly racist character, but I have no idea if he was a good guy or a bad guy. I think he was a face.

Kerry Von Erich has the claw on Paul Roma, as Bushwacker Butch makes his way to the ring to the legit loudest pop of the match. WHen he came into the ring he does the Butchwacker walk thing around the whole ring before Valentine basically looks at him like “WTF,” and lands a stiff chop. Saba Atlas has been eliminated by Martel.

Fun fact - Butchwacker Butch never found gold in the WWF, but in my action figure federation he was usually my TV Champion. I don’t know why. Also, Virgil was my longest reigning heavyweight champion of all-time. Folks, I was serious about my federation. I had daily shows, and wrote down angles and cards for the PPV’s. Good times.

Only two eliminations so far. In modern Rumbles I would think they are filling up the ring for someone to go toss a bunch of people over but, I’’m not sure that was a thing at this time.

Jake the Snake comes out and goes right to The Model, who he was in the middle of a program with, which included The Model “blinding” Snake with his perfume, Arrogance. I know their blindfold match gets poo poo’ed on a bit, but this is a great example of a mid-card feud that was highly over at the time. The crowd is super into it. Meanwhile, we are all still waiting for Jake to finally land a DDT during a Rumble. He teases it here, but Model escapes the ring by going under the bottom rope to get away from him.

Hercules comes out next, who immediately comes to help his teammate, Roma. Butch is still in this thing, making him the longest surviving Bushwacker in a Rumble, ever. Hercules takes a spinning discus punch from Von Erich, but basically no sells it, even though it’s his finishing move. If you want to see someone sell the discus punch, check out Mr. Perfect taking it.
Here comes Tito Santana. Worth noting, wrestlers still aren’t coming out to their music. As Santana enters the ring, Roma is leaving it, as a crossbody to Snake misses, and he virtually eliminates himself. I think that was only the third elimination, leaving eight guys in the ring.

Here comes The Undertaker with Brother Love. Maybe this is why the ring is full? He immediately eliminates Bret Hart, the number one entrant. Hammer is now the longest survivor.

Next out is Jimmy Snuka, Undertaker’s first WrestleMania victim. Undertaker tosses my former TV Champion, Butch, out of the ring. Taker and Von Erich are spending a lot of time squaring up, which is just pretty much Taker choking out Kevin.

The British Bulldog sprints to the ring, next. I just remembered that one of the things I did in my first three write-ups was write how many people I think actually had a chance to win this thing. I feel that an added special element to a Rumble is when you don’t really know who will win. It’s hard to play that game when you know who won most Rumble’s, but I can still try to pretend to go back in time and try to surmise who I thought had a real chance. To this point, I can only really say The Undertaker. Hart was over, but not yet a main singles guy. Jake was over, but he doesn’t feel like a Rumble winner. The Bulldog is over big here, and I think I’d put him in the “maybe could win” pile, though I can’t remember where he was on the card at this time. Also, it’s really hard to guess who’s going to win a match where they aren’t really wrestling for anything. As we’ve learned, WWF isn’t necessarily using this match to put new people over, and instead is not opposed to putting the most over person in wrestling history over. Anyways, I digress.

Still a ton of people in the ring at once, with nine. I wonder what the record is for most people in the ring at once, legally, in a Rumble. This feels it has to be close, up to this point.

Next out is Smash. Gorilla says “Smash is fresh.” Roddy responds “That’s what his girlfriend tells me.”

Jake the Snake is eliminated from Martel. Snake doesn’t have good luck in these. I think he’s been eliminated by every person he is in a feud with at the time. About 30 seconds later, Hawk from Legion of Doom, makes his way to the ring. He’s met by four different heels, to cool his hot-tag of a Rumble entrance.

It’s The Franchise, Shane Douglas out. I feel like he was jumping back and forth between WWE and WCW at this time. Time for some house cleaning, as Taker takes out Von Erich, and Hawk takes out Superfly, within seconds of each other.

He’s no One Man Akeem The Dream, but this is a hell of an effort by Gregory Valentine.

So the next man out is…nobody? This spot (18) was reserved for Macho Man Randy Savage. So, I guess the official line of WWF is that Warrior chased Savage out of the building. The real reason is still unknown. He could have been nursing an injury, which has also been speculated.
I mean, Randy Savage later goes on to try to pin a guy in The Rumble, so he probably wasn’t going to win this thing, anyway. Honestly, Savage would have probably made my “has a chance to win” list.

Animal is now the 18th man out, at the 19 position. About a minute later the Legion of Doom eliminates Taker. Hawk, while celebrating, gets clotheslined out by Martel and Hercules. Meanwhile, Valentine has been in this match for 30 minutes, or so.

Here comes Crush of Demolition. He finds Smash, and they go to work on The Bulldog. While there is lots of talent in the ring, I’m not sure even in 1991 you would guess any of these guys would win the thing.

Here comes Hacksaw Jim Duggan to one of the biggest pops of the match. Hacksaw I guess maybe has a chance to win this being he won the first one, but being that neither announcer mentions that, I’m guessing that’s not a storyline for this one.

For most of this Rumble there has been 8 plus people in the ring at a time. Next out is someone big enough to count as two people, Earthquake. Earthquake is legit one of my favorite wrestlers ever. Like Butch winning my TV title, I don’t know why. I do know he just eliminated Animal.

Mr. Perfect, The IC champ, is out next, accompanied by Bobby Heenan. Now, this is an example of a guy that could have shot up to main event status with a win here. Immediately, Hacksaw throws Perfect into the corner, who bumps into a front flip from it, garnering a LOL out of me.. Perfect also gets a laugh, as he tosses out Hacksaw, a second later.

Lots of endurance being shown in this match. Valentine, Martel, Hercules, have been in this for ages.

Here comes The Hulkster. I think it’s fair that this guy has a chance to win. Smash is eliminated after a boot from Hogan.

Now, if The Rumble were a shoot, I’d say the next guy to the ring would be the winner, but since it’s not, I’m guessing Haku won’t win.

Valentine has been eliminated by Martel, ending what I think is the best run in a Royal Rumble. Martel is right behind him now, though.

Jim Neidhart is out next. Earthquake tosses Tito out of the ring. Still ten guys in the ring. Haku saves Hogan for some reason from Mr. Perfect and then Haku lands one of the hardest chops I’ve ever heard across the chest of Perfect. Seriously, it woke me up from a min-Rumble slumber.

Here comes Luke. The rest of these guys are in trouble if he can last as long as Butch. Just kidding, Earthquake tosses him out ever so gently in about three seconds. Ranks up their for one of the funniest eliminations.

Nasty Boy Knobbs is out next. It’s sort of funny, as everyone - good or bad - attacked him as soon as he made the ring, like he was some huge beast or something. I may have mentioned this by Knobbs and my uncle buy beer in the same convenience store in Florida, and are now friendly with each other. Knobbs tosses Hercules out of the ring.

Here comes Stone Cold Steve….wait no, it’s Warlord! Warlord holds Hogan for Perfect to chop him, and Perfect really laid them in. Welp, there goes Warlord. The 29th and final man in the Rumble is Earthquake. The announcers find out that Macho is the missing competitor.

So, with no more entrants to come, there are nine guys remaining, with one of them being the overwhelming odds on favorite to win this thing…Knobbs. /s.

It Tugboat wins this thing it would be a real Shocker.

Model has lasted about 50 minutes so far. Tugboat almost eliminated Hogan, which was a big shock to the fans. But, when Hogan saved himself from being eliminated, he goes and eliminates Tugboat. I know I give Hogan crap for his heel like tendencies, but Tugboat had that coming.

Perfect is eliminated by British Bulldog after going to the top rope but getting dropkicked for his efforts. There goes Neidhart, courtesy of The Model. Bulldog takes out Haku. Must be getting close to curfew. Five left. Now Martel is going to the top rope, and is eliminated by Bulldog. They’re calling Martel’s final time 53 minutes

Holy S—, is Knobbs really gonna win?

We are down to three after Knobbs and Quake eliminate the Bulldog. This showing is surely to catapult Knobbs’s single career to new highs. What would be a good name for a Brian Knobbs Earthquake tag team?

Earthquake gives Hogan the Earthquake, who no sells it. He boots Knobbs out of the ring, leaving Quake and Hogan. A boot for Earthquake, a punch for Jimmy Hart. Hogan goes to bodyslam Earthquake but Earthquake falls on top of him. I’ll be honest, that surprised me. Earthquake goes to work on Hogan. He lands a huge powerslam and……tries to pin Hogan. Hogan kicks out and starts to Hulk up. Can Hogan only Hulk Up from a pin attempt?

Anyway, Hogan does his entire spiel, including being able to slam the big man. He clotheslines him from behind over the top, and gets the win. I really think this win could really help this guy’s career.

As far as Golden Age rumbles go, this was probably the worst. It did nothing to further any storylines or to get anyone else over. I get that they wanted to send the crowd happy during Operation Desert Storm, and this was probably the safest way to do it.

The 1992 Royal Rumble is unquestionably my favorite Rumble ever. Not only does it feature what feels like 20 Hall of Famer’s, it is also the first time that the winner of The Rumble actually wins something. In this case, The winner will receive The WWF Heavyweight Championship. WHOOOO!

Sorry to hear things haven't been going well. Your posts are always appreciated around here, and I hope you keep enjoying the work you put into this.

I hadn't remembered this moment, but certainly it was the beginning of a face turn; Valentine was face by WM VII. I believe the face turn was formally executed at an MSG show when Valentine attacked Jimmy Hart for accidentally clocking him with the megaphone. I vividly remember them putting over this face turn on one of those weekly Update segments they did on Superstars, when Lord Alfred Hayes strangely pretended that Hart had hit Valentine with the megaphone on purpose when it was clearly played out as a kayfabe accident.

Alright, I started writing about it and then decided to fact-check myself. Here's what Wiki says:

Per thehistoryofwwe.com, 1/7/91 segment didn't air until 1/28, so the timeline here seems to be that Valentine had taped a face turn prior to the Rumble but it hadn't made it to TV yet and therefore wasn't part of the canon yet. Not that fans actually cheered for him or anything after it did become canon.

I was remembering right about that Lord Alfred Update segment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QAN-DvcMXeQ

Slick managed Power and Glory, so he would have been out there for Roma.

He was. Just because I can never resist a chance to post this clip, here's Roddy Piper completely burying the gimmick on commentary alongside Vince as the gimmick debuted: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KG5LI168rBo

I don't know this for sure, but I think this doesn't start until 1996.

At least in the days before the title shot was at stake, I feel like it would have been very helpful if I had been aware of the fact that Hacksaw Jim Duggan won the damn thing first, because it feels like that would open it up to pretty much any midcarder who was over. I can't imagine there were ever any designs on seriously putting him in the main event mix.

Maybe this isn't your reason, but it certainly helped with me: Earthquake was awesome to play on the WrestleFest arcade game. I would pick him most of the time.

IIRC he can also hulk up if his own tag team partner hits him with a flying elbow off the top rope.

LKJ - I think you could go toe-to-toe with Cornette when it comes to wrestling knowledge.

To answer your replies (or reply to your replies, I guess).

Makes sense I don't remember Valentine's face turn, as he was out the door. But, he really did have a good run here, all things considered.

I finally gathered that Slick managed P and G. I don't know why I didn't go back and add that part. I don't know why I don't go back and edit my work sometimes in general.

I remember Piper burying TOONEEE Atlas now. Like, that wasn't a live show, so they clearly went out of their way to bury that thing on Arrival. If I recall, Atlas had some real bad problems between his first run and the Saba Simba run, so to go out and say "Hey welcome back, but your DOA" is sort of a slap in the face. However, I'm currently reading the Jim Ross book about when he had surgery and that same night they end a Raw by making fun of Ross.

Earthquake and Big Boss Man was the meta tag-team in Wrestlefest. I download this emulator a few times a year just to play it. Great game. Still is today.

LOL at that Hogan clip. That's the dumbest thing I've ever seen. As one of the comments said though, maybe we should talk about Macho Man's elbow having the power to bring people back to life.

The whole Saba Simba thing seems really shitty, but Tony Atlas has given interviews about how he had fallen into homelessness and how he feels this return really saved his life.

Mind you, that immediately conjures images of Ted DiBiase handing out money for people to do humiliating things, so I wouldn't want to compliment it too much. But it's nice to know that it seemingly really did have a positive impact on someone's life.

My Go-to Wrestlefest team was Jake and DiBiase. The million dollar dream was a great finisher.