The Royal Rumble is one of the most ingenious booking inventions in the history of the industry. Hat tip to the late Pat Patterson, widely credited as the inventor. This match has been the cornerstone of what has been one of everyone's favorite shows of the year since 1988. The product would go up and down over time in overall quality, and fan interest would wax and wane accordingly, but the Rumble was a constant. Even if you weren't that into the product right then, you wanted to watch the Rumble.

The foregoing created a dynamic in which, even during the past decade, as wrestling has descended into one of its lowest points in quality, many of us would still turn up for this show, the most jaded among us bringing sincere optimism to the table as we fired it up. There was a promise that, for one night, wrestling would be great again.

At this point, it should be acknowledged that - with the exception of the 2020 Royal Rumble, probably the only actually good one in the past decade - we are offered no such promises anymore. We usually end the show in an angry grumble. Not from nitpicking, but from a very reasonable assessment that most of the shows simply did not deliver in the way that it felt like the Royal Rumble always would.

In fairness, as unwatchable as weekly TV is, WWE PPVs have not generally been in terrible shape. They deliver good shows sometimes. This could be one of them. I hope it is. However, "it's the Rumble, it's gotta be good" is simply no longer true, and the built-in optimism that accompanies it must be violently thrown into the dustbin of history, as the company has taken it upon themselves to break that long-held trust. This show might be good. It very well might ****ing suck. But hey, at least there's a betting pool.

At the 1988 Royal Rumble, Jesse Ventura applied only two pounds of finger pressure as Dino Bravo broke the world record and earned the moniker of "World's Strongest Man."

At the 1989 Royal Rumble, Harley Race stepped up to the plate for one night and boldly grabbed the mantle of "world's most awkward babyface." Somewhere in the back, Greg Valentine sat on a bench and pounded his fist, saying, "Game on."

At the 1990 Royal Rumble, Jacques Rougeau debuted a beard. And then he wisely disappeared into private life for multiple years.

At the 1991 Royal Rumble, the Hulkster singlehandedly put an intense standoff in Iraq to rest, showing future nWo stablemate Dennis Rodman how world diplomacy is done.

At the 1992 Royal Rumble, Randy Savage randomly lost his mind and jumped over the top rope to the floor, self-eliminating. He was supposed to be in the final four, so he was simply allowed to re-enter on the basis (never used before or since) that "nobody threw him out" Whoops.

Of course, as the 1993 Royal Rumble showed, Randy Savage was just not big on knowing what the **** match he was in at any given time.

The crowd positively loved it at the 1994 Royal Rumble when Diesel became the first notable monster to carry out a huge number of eliminations, allowing him to hold the ring at length. And this was the first time that wrestling fans were taught a harsh lesson: if you pop for Kevin Nash at the Royal Rumble, he will then be afforded a lengthy, high-profile opportunity to make wrestling fun again. That Bulldog vs. Diesel Great White North match? That's on these Rumble fans.

The 1995 Royal Rumble had a cold open. Pamela Anderson disembarked from her limo and stared into the face of abject horror. She had taken a big bag of money, and she was going to pay dearly for it.

I'm on the fence about subscribing through Mania. Thankfully, the determining factor will likely be my laziness and the minor effort it would take to sign up.

The 1996 Royal Rumble match featured Duke "The Dumpster" Droese in the #30 position, having earned the honor by defeating some schlub named HHH in the pre-show. Nobody has ever been explain what possible purpose there was to building a match so that Duke ****ing Droese could round out the Rumble field in the last spot.

In 1997, HHH jerked the curtain as the blueblood snob, accompanied by his new bodyguard Mr. Hughes, and strutting to the ring to Beethoven's 9th. He was about nine months away from gratuitous crotch chops and bathroom humor.

As seen at the 1998 Rumble, Dustin Rhodes REALLY hit a flailing point in his quest to remain a relevant performer.

Alright that will do, I can't possibly rattle off 35 of those.

I was hoping to see them all. Bummer.

Ugh, $29.99 for the year deal. I guess I'm suckered in.

You didn't like 2018?! Probably a toss-up between that and 2001 for my favorite Rumble of all time.

I know this is an unpopular opinion, but I didn't like the 2020 Rumble at all.

2018 did not anger me in the way that those Batista/Reigns ones did, but I'm struggling to remember much aside from the results and the quick post-match promos by the winners. I did like Nakamura and Asuka winning.

I basically stopped when I ran into the point where I started my run of years where I no longer got to watch them as they happened (or had gotten to watch the tapes ad nauseum), and there are some I've just never seen. In 1999 I was a freshman in college and that sweet gravy train of free PPVs (free to me, not to my parents) had stopped.

I've seen a number of the shows, but I lack knowledge of the minutiae.

I remember paying as much as I did for 2nd-row seats for the 2003 Rumble as I did nosebleed seats for the 2011 Rumble

One of them had Lesnar winning his first Rumble and Benoit/Angle WWE Title match

The other one had a Diesel appearance and white people screaming ALBERTO DEL RIO in their worst Ricardo Rodriguez impressions the entire train ride home

Paid extra for #'s 31-40. It was a special Rumble. Made even more special when ADR and Edge opened WM 27.

I can't believe the words "Mountain Dew" are in a match stip. And never forget that KO beat RR at the 2021 Rumble because of botched Paul Heyman. Roman's entire reign is illegitimate because of that match.

Alright, I'm in.

Haven't really been paying much attention since last Royal Rumble. Vaguely following The Bloodline storyline and it seems legitimately good. Maybe this show can win me back over a little bit on WWE.

In though have not watched it for the last year mostly.

Who the **** is Hardy?

Few things make WWE look as low-rent as an association with CreditOne.