It looks like there is mild interest in this so let's give it a shot.

I think we can start this off in a similar fashion as the Wrestlemania thread was. We can take a week to watch and review the Royal Rumble Match starting with the first one in 1988. I'm only requiring that the match itself be watched, reviewed, and ranked, but if you want to do the whole show, feel free.

I guess we will open things up now with Royal Rumble 1988. I'm on my phone so if someone wants to post a picture or something, please do. This will stay open until next Sunday so that should be plenty of time. Also don't feel as though you are obligated to do every single year. If there is a certain one or few you would like to review, don't hesitate to submit. I just request that you wait until that particular year opens up officially before submitting.

This should be fun, and I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes.

Watched 1988 the other night and took some notes, will get it written up soon.

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I have a few on my PC. Probably going to start with 1990. In for 1992, obv.

I remember catching the 1988 Rumble on a random weeknight, on a local station that carried wrestling on Saturdays. Quite a chore to sit through, the bench press record in particular took for-****ing-EVER. Women's tag match was the best part of the show.

1988 Royal Rumble


It’s my first time doing a write up, so I just had a stream of thoughts I jotted down. We’ll see how it goes.


Entrant # 1 - Bret Hart


Young Bret Hart seems to = Fat Bret Hart, at least compared to later.


Entrant # 2 - Tito Santana


I will always laugh at Jesse Ventura calling him “Chico”


After it turns 3 on 1 for the heels with Butch Reed and Neidhart joining to help Bret, Tito finally gets some help in the form of Jake The Snake.


The pop that Jake always seems to get never ceases to amaze me.


Not a big fan of the early production value….not that it’s a surprise, but when Sam Houston entered at # 8, I had to check wikipedia to see his name because I never saw or heard it.


Danny Davis seemed like someone everyone loved to hate, although I will admit I liked his “ref striped” pants.


Spot where Jake Roberts has Harley Race stuck in the ropes, knocking Race down, only for the ropes to pop him back up to get hit again was a fun moment.


Entering at #11 was Don Muraco...oh boy, the man never missed upper body day did he? Don’t think he’d have been a good witness for the defense at Mcmahon’s steroids trial.


Muraco and Nikolai Volkoff came down at same time, Volkoff had to wait until #12….they didn’t have a conflict in the ring, so I wonder if that was just botched.


Jim Duggan enters at #13 to a good pop…..5 year old me would have been happy to see him, current me judges the hell out of that 5 year old.


B. Brian Blair, aka part 2 of the Killer Bees and immediately goes after Danny Davis. Had a vertical stripes vs. horizontal stripes battle going.


Hillbilly Jim comes out at 16…..big props to anyone that can wrestle in denim overalls.


Bret Hart is finally eliminated after about 25 minutes. Impressive run, wonder if they already had plans for him in the future.

17 - 19 are Dino Bravo, Warrior, and One Man Gang.


Entering at #20 is Junkyard Dog, aka the human equivalent of a 1 star match.


One Man Gang plays the monster heel and plays it well.


Final 4 (which to me is a big deal because I feel like the last 4 need to be believable winners)


Duggan (sadly believable)

One Man Gang (believable)

Muraco (big guy, so believable)

Bravo (less believable)


Muraco is eliminated and it’s nice to see that Canada and Africa can team up to beat up Duggan.


Duggan eventually overcomes the odds and eliminates both to win….to this day, not really sure why.


MVRP (Most Valuable Rumble Participant) Bret Hart - Lasted the longest and looked strong even though he only eliminated 1 man.


LVRP - JunkYard Dog…...draw the last spot and are still eliminated with 5 people left? Shame


Overall


1988 was the best Royal Rumble up to date…..solid start to my favorite match/PPV.


Rankings


1988





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My recollection might be off, but I think he was still on the juice at this point. He was noticeably puffy in his early WWF days.

Yes, puffy seems like a great description.

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Very nice start, TN. I'll get mine up hopefully tonight. It's written up, I just need to type it.

Watching 1988 now. Jim Duggan was so over. Same with the DDT (Jake)

Young Bret Hart looks T H I C.


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No entry music is so weird. Loses a lot of the pop.


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I actually like that lack of theme music for each entrant. It's a different time though and that wouldn't work since we are all conditioned to cheer or boo when we hear theme music.

As for my write up, I'm going to have to do a bullet point style write up for this one. I have a detailed write up for the match but the family had to pack up suddenly and travel to NJ, because my grandmother passed yesterday. I'll get that up tonight hopefully.

Condolences.


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Sorry for your loss

will be going through 89 soon

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Are you guys still doing this? If so, I would like to join.

Yeah, it's been a rough couple weeks for me, but I will get my write up for 88 done. Feel free to join in whenever

Oh sorry, I just read the thread. Hope you're doing better and I am sorry for your loss.

Yea I've seen 1989, just trying to get it coherent and legible

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Ok I just watched the 88 rumble match. A lot of my thoughts were very similar to sooners, there wasn't really much to see in this match though so that could be why. I will post my review a little later either tonight or tomorrow.

ROYAL RUMBLE 1988

We are live from the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton Ontario Canada. When I first purchased the Network back on HoF night before WM 30, the very first on demand program I watched was this show. I know that I am only going to review the actual Rumble match, but for this show I was dying to watch the whole show again, so that's what I did. I remember,bear watching this live and the bench press segment always stood out.

Anyway, on to the Rumble match. Jesse and Vince are on the call. Howard Finkle gives us the rules to this brand new match and then introduces the first two participants. At #1 it's Bret Hart and at #2 it's Tito Santana. Basic back and forth action to start, and we get our first countdown clock in Rumble history. Out comes #3 The Natural Butch Reed. We also get our first "Chico" reference from Jesse. Hart and Reed take advantage of the two on one and give Tito a real beat down. Out comes #4 Jim Neidhart. Poor Chico is really going to get a beat down now. While the countdown clock is on the screen for #5 all three heels are trying to eliminate Santana togethe. This prompted Vince to exclaim, "If these idiots would back off and let one man do it, they could eliminate him!" For whatever reason that really tickled me.

Anyway, they remained idiots until #5, Jake Roberts came out. I guess he was a face at this time because the crowd pops big time for him and he eliminates Butch Reed making Reed the first wrestler ever eliminated from the Rumble. Then Jake fires up and takes on the Hart Foundation. This gives Chico time to comeback, but by the time Harley Race comes out at #6, both Jake and Tito are lying on the mat. Man, Harley wasn't moving well at this point in his career. Jesse even talked a shot at him when he says, "Look at the speed the King is moving down to the ring with!" Its 3 on 2 but the faces are able to mount a comeback but are cutoff again until Jumpin Jim Brunzell comes down at #7. Things are now evened up and the faces are in charge.

#8 is Sam Houston, and I completely forgot he was in the WWF. I guess this was after marrying Baby Doll and getting fired because of it. The Hart Foundation eliminate Chico and we are even up again. #9 comes down at its Dangerous Danny Davis. Jesus Christ, he sucks. Sam Houston works him over and I can't help but marvel at the awfulness of his ring attire. He is wearing a long sleeved white T shirt and black and white striped pants. He then has black and white striped trunks over the pants, but the stiles dont match up, so he just looks horrific. At least the stripes are horizontal, you know, they are slimming.

Fun spot with Harley Race sitting on the middle rope and his arms draped over the top rope. Jake is punching him in the face, and every time he gets hit, Race bobs up and down like one of those inflatable punching clowns. #10 comes out and it's Boris Zukoff. Sigh. #11 is Hall of Famer Don "The Original Rock" Murdock. This was during his brief face run after the Fuji Vice years. But also in a spot that I couldn't tell if was planned or not, Nikolai Volkoff also came down at #11 but wasn't allowed in the ring until the buzzer went off for #12. Before that though, Brunzell and Roberts eliminate Zukoff. Jesse proceeds to drop a Barry Bloom reference and Vince plays it off like he is a wrestler. Brunzell is saved from elimination when Muraco dumps Race over the top. Out comes #13 and it's Hacksaw Jim Dugan, 2x4 and all. BefOre he can get to the ring, Race gives him a few shots as he heads to the back.

Dugan goes right for Neidhart and I forgot how over Duggan was in he WWF. Outlaw Ron Bass enters the ring at #14 and Volkoff dumps Brunzell over the top rope. The two minutes seems to fly by as B. Brian Blair is in the ring at #15. They must have been running long because these entrances are coming quicker every time. Hilly illy Jim is our 16th entrant. He comes and and eliminates Jim Neidhart. An extreme close up of Duggan as he screams "Hoooo!" into the camera. Of course he has a giant gob of spit in his beard, because Duggan. Out at #17 is The Strongest Man in the World, Dino Bravo. Sam Houston is tossed out at this time.

Sprinting down to the ring at #18 is The Ultimate Warrior. What a douchenozzle! Bret Hart is finally eliminated when Muraco deposits him on the floor. One Man Gang lumbers to the ring as our 19th contestant. He racks up two quick eliminations by sending Blair and Roberts on to the floor. Junkyard Dog is our 20th and final wrestler, and the match is now set. Duggan ducks a punch Fromm volkoff and eliminates him from the match. OMG racks up his third elimination by sending Hillbilly Jim to the showers. Duggan screams "Ho!" again and rids us of Danny Davis with a clothesline. It's takes two big men, OMG and Dino bravo to eliminate Warrior. Then Ron Bass deflates the crowd a little by getting rid of JYD. He then follows that up by over selling a punch from Muraco and eliminates himself. I mean he literally just leapt over the top rope.

And we are down to the Final Four. Duggan, Muraco, OMG, and Dino Bravo. Now that, my friends, is a Final Four. Muraco nails Gang with a drop kick and then gives one to Frenchy Martin who was on the ring apron for no reason whatsoever. Then Bravo gets a hold of The Rock and The African Dream comes with a running clothesline that actually hits Bravo but Muraco sells it and eliminates himself. Down to 3. Bravo and Akeem devise a plan but Duggan "outsmarts" by attacking them both. They get control and work Duggan over for a while. Eventually they try to recreate the spot where Muraco was eliminated, but Duggan moves and Bravo is eliminated. Duggan then mounts a comeback but is cutoff. Then in the most telegraphed spot ever, Gang runs at Duggan but Duggan drops down and grabs the top rope. This causes Akeem to tumble out and Duggan is our inaugural Royal Rumble Match winner.

That was a lot to type, and I don't know if I'm going to keep the same format going forward. But for now I'll keep doing it this way. Our first RR match is in the books so naturally it's the best one so far. I will be judging each show on booking, work rate, quality of the participants, and entertainment value. At least that is the plan now, but I reserve the right to alter this as we go on.

For this first one, it held up a lot better than I thought it would. The match was booked well enough as there wasn't anything that jumped out as terrible. The quality of wrestlers was good as I expect a lot of these early ones will be. Of the 20 entrants, 10 of them are WWE Hall of Famers, and 2 more, B Brian Blair and and Jim Brunzell are Lou Thesz HoF members. All in all, a really good effort for the first go of this match.

Match Rankings

1988

1989 Rumble

Live from The Summitt in Houston, Texas.


Howard Finkel should be announcing until he dies, if I had my way.


Entrant # 1 – Ax


Can’t tell if he has sweat or glitter on his body….what a nice touch to go with the S&M ring attire.


Entrant # 2 – Smash


Teammates decide to go at each other, will always blow my mind, kayfabe or not.


During a rest hold, referee on the far side of the ring just leaning up against the ring like he’d rather be anywhere else.


Entrant # 3 – No music for entrants after the first two……Andre the Giant w/Bobby Heenan


As soon as Andre steps in the ring, Demolition realized they shouldn’t attack each other.


Ventura mentioning that Andre has won “one or two more” Battle Royals than himself was a funny moment.


Entrant # 4 – Mr. Perfect, pre singlet


Andre eliminates Smash


I feel like in a match that is not 100% scripted, I would be afraid at making Andre mad on accident.


Entrant # 5 – Rugged Ronnie Garvin


Andre’s arms get stuck in the rope. That seemed to happen to him frequently.


3 mere mortals team up to eliminate Andre, to no avail.


Entrant # 6 – Greg “The Hammer” Valentine


Now 4 on 1 against Andre, he doesn’t care and eliminates Garvin.


Entrant # 7 – Jake “The Snake” Roberts


In a feud with Andre, so he goes right after him


Ventura - *“Look at Valentine, trying to hammer at the Giant." Puns man, puns.


Entrant # 8 – Outlaw Ron Bass, who is apparently had his head shaved from Brutus


Jake the Snake is eliminated, camera barely caught it.


We seem to have hit one of the slow parts of the rumble, lots of rest holds.


Entrant # 9 – Shawn Michaels…this kid has potential.


Mr. Perfect eliminates Ax, not a terrible showing.


Michaels with the patented almost out of the Rumble, I will just pull myself back over the top rope to stay in.


Entrant # 10 – Bushwacker Butch


Here comes Jake the Snake with the Snake!


Andre says “F this noise” and eliminates himself.


Jake goes back to the back with the snake.

Nice way to eliminate Andre in my opinion.


Entrant # 11 – Honky Tonk Man

Man he was hated, big boos.


Bushwacker Butch seems to be wasting energy with his signature walk, may come back to hurt him later in the match.


Entrant # 12 – “Chico” Santana


Entrant # 13 – Bad News Brown

I always wondered why he wasn’t given more of a push….seems to be a good heel.


Honky Tonk eliminated, didn’t see by whom.


Entrant # 14 – Marty Janetty, the future window diver.


Ron Bass eliminated by a Rockers double dropkick.


Entrant # 15 – Macho Man (WWF Champion)


Was still face at the time, really enjoyed fact he didn’t take off bandana or glasses before he attacked BNB.


Coming out a lot quicker than 2 minutes now…..


Entrant #16 - Arn Anderson


Valentine eliminated by Macho Man


Michaels eliminated by double clothesline by AA and Macho Man.


Entrant # 17 – Tully Blanchard


Brainbusters immediately work together, like all tag teams should in this, leave it up to the heels to do things the right way.


Entrant # 18 – Hulk Hogan


Dash and Daw..er..I mean Brainbusters eliminate Marty Jannetty


Hogan comes in on fire, eliminates Mr. Perfect, who lasted for almost 28 minutes, a new record at the time.


Tito Santana was eliminated


Entrant # 19 – Bushwacker Luke


Two tag teams are in there, until Butch was eliminated.


Entrant # 20 – Koko B Ware


The Hall of Famer(what?) comes in and delivers a few drop kicks before settling in


Koko tried to go after Hogan, bad decision, he’s eliminated.


Bushwacker Luke eliminated by Hulk Hogan


Brain Busters eliminated at same time by Hogan


Entrant # 21 – The Warlord


Warlord eliminated by Hogan in 2 seconds or so.


Bad News Brown and Savage eliminated by Hogan. Hogan now alone


Savage comes back in, pissed at Hogan, as he should be. Elizabeth comes down to help, eventually gets Macho Man to leave.


I love this year long burn from the moment Savage won at Wrestlemania IV until their match at V.


Entrant #22 – Big Boss Man


Hogan working over Big Boss Man


Reversal into an avalanche in the corner


Big Boss Man piledrives Hogan, that move looks so much more brutal now that it’s not used in WWE.


Entrant #23 – Akeem the African Dream


Apparently switched over to Akeem after last year’s Rumble.


Hogan can’t overcome the odds; eliminated by both.

Hogan shows greats sportsmanship and pulls Boss Man out of the ring.


Entrant # 24 – Brutus Beefcake Comes to Hogan’s aid as they fight on the outside


Hogan tries to get back in the ring, sore loser.


Big Boss Man eliminated by Hogan as he pulls down the rope, yep folks, he’s a face.


Akeem and Brutus in the ring, apparently, we wouldn’t know since they show Hogan attacking

Boss Man into the back.


Entrant # 25 – Red Rooster


RR clucks his way into the ring and attacks One Man Dream


Entrant # 26 – The Barbarian enters and immediately improves on the time of his tag team partner.


He breaks up the guys trying to eliminate Akeem, and then attacks Akeem. Gorilla Monsoon – “that was stupid!”


There is great dancing, and then there is Akeem’s dancing.
It's a thing of beauty, and racism.


Entrant # 27 – Big John Studd


Entrant # 28 – Hercules! Hercules!


Big John Studd has thrown Rooster to the side at least twice when he’s just trying to help eliminate Akeem.

Pride cometh before the fall John.


Entrant # 29 – Rick Martel


This time frame was just before I started watching, never knew Martel as a face, and just doesn’t seem right.


Entrant # 30 – Million Dollar Man Ted Dibiase


Apparently Ted spent a lot of money to get the # 30 spot; everybody apparently did have a price in 1989.


I feel like Dibiase was one of the best heels in WWE history. Shame he never was able to have the title in my opinion.


Rooster eliminated by Ted Dibiase.


Dibiase and Barbarian eliminate Hercules and Beefcake.


Martel eliminates Barbarian on worst excecuted dropkick ever.


Final 4 (I like believable winners)


Rick Martel – No way in the world


Akeem – Slight chance, mostly due to monster heel


Big John Studd – Best chance for faces, size helps


Dibiase - If I was watching live, he would have been my guess, one of top heels in company at time.


Back to action, Martel eliminated by Akeem after he attempts a cross-body on the African Dream.



Big John getting worked over in a double team.


Akeem listening to instructions barked out by Dibiase, backfires as Dibiase gets pulled in front of an avalanche


Akeem eliminated by Studd


Million Dollar Man offers money, Big John Studd doesn’t have a price.


Dibiase selling moves like a pro


Big double arm suplex by Studd, very well done


Big John Studd eliminates the Million Dollar Man


Virgil comes in and attacks Studd from behind, doesn’t work well.


Virgil gets “eliminated” as well.

Winner – Big John Studd


Fans seem to like it, early on in the event, makes sense to build someone of a bigger size as winners of the Rumble.

MVRP – Hulk Hogan: I know, I know but 10 eliminations is hard to do, even if 1 was after you were eliminated

LVRP – Warlord: 2 seconds, enough said

Overall


I liked this one, it had some underlying stories in it, helped progress what will be the main event at Wrestlemania V, and had a believable winner.

Rankings

1. 1989

2. 1988

I am going to be behind guys, keep going without me. I will post the reviews when I have time. And will eventually catch up with you guys lol.

He was New Jack before New Jack. Couldn't trust him with a push.

I enjoyed the writeup, and I'm not someone who's usually into Rumble writeups.

That makes sense to me, I was 3 when this happened so I knew the big stuff but not tons about the mid carders.

Thanks for the compliment

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Bret Hart told a story in his book about Bad News getting Stampede Wrestling kicked out of their home at the Stampede Pavillion for a few weeks when he went too far in a turn on Archie Gouldie, stabbing him with a fork and leaving him a bloody mess. It was a huge angle Stu was counting on to turn business around, too.

1988 Royal Rumble Review

This match was taped in Hamilton Ontario at the Copps Coliseum. Unlike the future Royal Rumble matches this was aired for free on the USA Network as part of a television special and was not shown on closed circuit television or ppv.

Interesting that although WWE tells us this is the first royal rumble match; it isn't. The first royal rumble match actually took place months earlier and featured One Man Gang as the winner. As far as I know, that royal rumble was never televised. As we know though, WWE gets to write their own history so for all intents and purposes this is the first royal rumble match.

The match starts off with Bret Hart and Tito Santana who work an entertaining two minutes; next we get a couple of heels who enter (butch reed and Neidhart) so santana gets triple teamed for a while.

Next we get Jake the Snake Roberts who comes out to a HUGE POP! And cleans house by eliminating Reed knocking the rest of the heels to the ground with a flurry of punches. I found this whole start to the rumble very well done, I found myself much more entertained than I thought I would be at the start because it is clear at the time the WWE didn't know what it had on its hands and didn't really know how to book this match.

Next we get Harley Race followed by one of the killer bees. I have noticed two huge differences between this rumble and ones that follow. 1) the heel vs face dynamic is much different. We see much more "every man for himself talk" in future rumbles and 2) there is no countdown when the clock hits the screen. C'mon guys!

Next we Sam Houston (not sure who this guy is, quick google search, ahh, jakes brother.. Didn't even know he had a brother) next comes Danny Davis who wins the worst wrestling outfit of all time award. Jake and Harley Race engage in this fun little spot where Race is stuck on the ropes and gets teeter totered back and forth against the ropes while Jake punches him. It looks cartoonish but in an entertaining way.

Next we get zhukov at 10. Then this weird spot where Don Muraco comes out followed by volkoff. This appears to be a work because the refs immediately surround Volkoff and prevent him from entering the ring. I think it was supposed to give us the impression that either Volkoff wants to cheat or that he is just a dumb Russian. Either way, the intentions were not clear.

#13 Here he comes ladies and Gents Hacksaw Jim Duggan! He gets a very welcomed reaction by the crowd. You can tell Duggan is super over at this point.

Our next three entrants are Bass, hilbilly Jim and Brian Blair (the other killer bee) at 14, 15 and 16 respectively. It is at this time that Ventura mentions how the luck of the draw becomes important. This would become a reoccurring theme in the years to come and is an excellent point by Ventura.

At #17 Dino is next.. Then we get the Ultimate Warrior whom I was suprised did not get a bigger reaction by the crowd but he was only about 6 months or so into his WWE carrer and was no where near as over as he would be in the following years.

Finally we see Bret Hart eliminated. It was clear Vince had big plans for this man even this early into this tenure with WWE.

Next we get One man gang and to wrap up the final entrant we get the Junk Yard Dog.

When we get to our final four we have Duggan, One Man Gang, Dino Bravo and Muracco. Its interesting to note none of these guys would have much success in the WWE at any Main Even level. Aside from arguably Duggan who would become an upper mid carder.

Muracco goes out and we get a two on one against Duggan who eventually evens the score by eliminating Dino Bravo. Then as One Man Gang runs at Duggan, Duggan grabs the ropes and One Man Gang uses his momentum to eliminate himself. Duggan Wins!

Match was an ok start to what would become WWE's second biggest show every year. I have a feeling this will drop down on the list rather quickly and would have preferred to start the review at 89 because it is clear this match is a different breed then what we would see in the future. The intention at this point appeared to be like most battle royals. Just an excuse to get a bunch of midcarders on the show where as the Royal Rumble in the future would be an attempt to push a few guys to the main event card.

All in all though I did enjoy some parts of this match. Most notably the first 10 mins or so.

I will be keeping a running count of a few things as we journey through reviewing every Rumble.

* Longest time in the rumble: Brett hart 25:42
* most eliminations: One Man Gang: 6
* number of former champions in this match: 0
* number of future champions in this match: 2 (hart and warrior)

And most importantly the rankings!

Best Royal Rumble

1) 1988