1990 Royal Rumble
Live from Orlando, Florida
Once again, just a stream of thoughts
Probably already mentioned in previous reviews, I wish Finkel was still announcing today.
“Orlando loves WWF” sign printed out on the old school printer with the fringe stuff on either side you have to pull off was a nice moment of “back in the day”
Tony Schivone? I don’t remember him in the WWF at all
Entrant # 1 – Million Dollar Man
Drew #30 last year, apparently it was a down year for Ted’s finances, couldn’t buy his way out.
Entrant # 2 – Koko B. Ware
The Hall of Famer (what?) makes his way down with his signature bird and signature colorful hair.
Koko counters Dibiase, and gets some offense, but is eliminated when he decides to run at Dibiase from across the ring.
Entrant # 3 – Marty Janetty
Quite the pop for Marty, I heard they initially thought he would be the singles star from the Rockers, seems silly knowing what we know now.
Janetty wins moron of the day for trying a crossbody near the ropes and basically jumps over the rope to be eliminated.
Entrant # 4 – Jake the Snake Roberts
A big LOL to Janetty trying to give Jake a high five as he goes to the back after being eliminated.
Dibiase comes out the bottom of the ring to attack Jake outside, nice little touch.
Entrant # 5 – Macho King Randy Savage
Savage full on sprints down to the ring to attack Jake the Snake.
Scary Sherri and Virgil are both at ring side, guess they changed the rule about managers being down there.
Entrant # 6 – Roddy Piper
The nut job comes down the aisle with the crazed look in his eye and runs roughshod over the heels.
Sherri screaming was the original “EXCUSE ME” I feel, so annoying.
Entrant # 7 – Warlord w/Mr. Fuji
I really like his look, seems like generic heel though.
Virgil with the low key cheating trying to help Savage and Dibiase eliminate Jake.
Entrant # 8 – Bret Hart
Judging by the sound, the Hart Foundation has turned face.
Entrant # 9 – Bad News Brown
We are approaching the “full ring, not a lot of spots to watch” moment of the Rumble.
Jake the Snake is eliminated by Savage and Dibiase.
Entrant # 10 – Dusty Rhodes
The polka dot wearin, bionic elbow droppin fan favorite, comes in to a HUGE pop, even more so when he eliminated the Macho King.
Entrant # 11 – Andre the Giant
Andre is moving very slowly, has to be getting close to being done. Doesn’t prevent him from eliminating the Warlord.
Heenan and Mr. Fuji get in a little altercation outside, my money is on Fuji.
Entrant # 12 – Red Rooster
Poor poor man, stupid stupid gimmick.
Piper eliminates Bad News, who delivers some bad news to Piper, and pulls him out after getting eliminated.
They fight towards the back….is this the lead to the Piper half black face match? I get years confused.
Entrant # 13 – Ax
Red Rooster was eliminated by the Giant so I’m told.
Andre gets stuck in the ropes and gets a beating from Ax and Rhodes.
Entrant # 14 – Haku
Andre’s partner at the time, goes in to help the big man.
I always liked Haku/Meng. Probably helped that he was infamously a badass.
Entrant # 15 – Smash
Demolition is now in the Rumble, they immediately team up on Andre.
Jesse Ventura is doing a great job putting Dibiase over as still being in the match.
Entrant # 16 – Akeem
There is some weight in that ring at the moment.
Andre is eliminated by Demolition, which is better than being eliminated by a snake I suppose.
Entrant # 17 – Jimmy Snuka
Knowing that he pretty much murdered someone and got away with it, really ruins
watching him for me now.
That being said, he eliminates Akeem after the original Funkasorous decided to put on a dance show.
Entrant # 18 – Dino Bravo
Always thought it was interesting he didn’t bring the Canadian flag with him, maybe it was to color coordinate.
Entrant # 19 – Canadian Earthquake
I don’t remember him with the Canadian part of his name, but to each his own.
Screw that guy, he eliminated Dusty Rhodes, and he made me cry as a small child because I thought he almost killed Hulk Hogan.
He also eliminates Ax, back down to 6 people in the ring.
Entrant # 20 – Jim Neidhart
I was thinking it was good timing for him to come help Bret Hart, then realized I missed him being eliminated earlier.
Earthquake eliminated by a load of guys.
Entrant # 21 – Ultimate Warrior
WWF’s reigning 100 meter dash champion runs down like a wild man and immediately eliminates Dino Bravo, albeit a little rough.
Entrant # 22 – Rick Martel
I love being able to show him to random people now and tell them his gimmick was that of a model. 90’s beauty at its finest.
Smash eliminated by Haku.
Million Dollar Man still going strong 40 minutes in.
Entrant # 23 – Tito Santana
Bad news for the Model, “Chico” goes right after him, has him 90% eliminated and can’t quite get the last 10.
Entrant # 24 – Honky Tonk Man
Elvis Wrestley makes his way to the ring
Jim Neidhart eliminated by a few people.
Ted Dibiase finally eliminated with a running clothesline by the Ultimate Warrior.
Creative seems to want to keep the ring about 6 people full for the most part.
Entrant # 25 – Hulk Hogan
Is Jimmy Snuka a heel? Immediately goes after Hogan, not a good decision, eliminated.
Hogan eliminated Haku with a bad spot, still with his shirt un-torn.
There the shirt goes.
Tito Santana eliminated by Ultimate Warrior.
Entrant # 26 – Shawn Michaels
Honky Tonk eliminated by Hogan
Micheals eliminated by Warrior, that was quick.
Martel eliminated by Warrior
Leaves us with Hogan and Warrior in the middle of the ring, people going crazy, maybe
they should have a match at some point.
They run back and forth after trying to show who is stronger, a double clothesline puts both men down.
Entrant # 27 – Barbarian
Either he is the luckiest man or the unluckiest depending on how you view it coming in while Hogan and Warrior are both down.
Begins by working over both Hogan and Warrior.
Rick Rude comes out of nowhere, no countdown. it shows up for a second then goes away. So I guess
Entrant # 28 – Rick Rude
Rude goes after Warrior with success, doesn’t eliminate him though.
Rude and Barbarian eliminate Warrior with help from Hogan, Warrior doesn’t like it and comes back in for a moment, just to run away.
Entrant # 29 – Hercules
Entrant # 30 – Mr. Perfect
Perfect wastes no time, sprints down and attacks Hogan.
Ventura pushing the Hogan vs. Warrior narrative.
Hercules eliminates the Barbarian.
FINAL FOUR (important to me)
Rick Rude – Believable winner, good heel, could always use the push.
Hercules- Not believable, generic generic generic
Hulk Hogan – Of course believable
Mr. Perfect – I’m split 50/50 on whether I think he could win it, I know it was in the plans initially but I just don’t know if they would give it to a “mid-card lifer”
Hercules eliminated by Rude.
Hogan being double teamed, HOW WILL HE EVER OVERCOME THE ODDS!?
Rude hits Perfect on accident, Hogan throws Rude into a rope which Perfect was using to get up, Rude tumbles over.
Perfect vs. Hogan
Perfect gets some offense in, hits Hogan with the Perfect Plex, Hogan no-sells it
Hulking up, close to ball game here
Hogan eliminates Mr. Perfect
WINNER – Hulk Hogan
MVRP – Ted Dibiase: 40+ minutes is always a good candidate
LVRP – Shawn Michaels (strange) Under a minute gets you this spot almost everytime.
Overall Thoughts – I like that almost every big name they had was in this Rumble, most of the matches prior to suffered because of it, but that’s fine with me. So far they keep getting better as they go along. This one goes to the top for now.
Rankings
1. 1990
2. 1989
3. 1988
Last edited by soonereagle; 10-26-2017 at 06:08 PM.
Reason: Formatting