[1992-01-19-WWF-Royal Rumble] Royal Rumble

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

In some ways, this may be the pinnacle of the era. This is possibly the most star-studded match in wrestling history. It's not really something I'd call a great match, but that's really irrelevant -- it's everything it needed to be. It hit every note perfectly. Heenan almost worked as hard at the booth as Flair did in the ring. Flair's post-match promo is a classic.

[goodhelmet]

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on individual performances besides Flair's in the match. Break down the 30.

[Loss]

I'd really like to hear your thoughts on individual performances besides Flair's in the match. Break down the 30.

No offense, but no way.

 

I don't think a battle royal is really a place where you're going to see great performances. You're going to see a bunch of guys hanging upside down over the top rope for an hour trying not to get eliminated. If you have a roster of guys that are over, the Rumble is going to be fun to watch. It's all about the entrance pop, who gets eliminated and who wins. The person who goes longest was always sort of the "unofficial" Rumble winner that year as well.

 

If you have a roster where only 2-3 guys are genuinely over, the Rumble isn't going to be as enjoyable.

 

One reason I see this match get praised is because they did a great job of keeping the dead weight cleared out of the ring, but I'm not sure how much that really means. I don't know what's exemplary about it. Where this one stands out is the under-the-surface story of the NWA champ taking on the entire WWF roster and winning, going an hour to do so. Flair gave the closest I've ever seen to a great Rumble performance, but it's more impressive as a cardiovascular performance than as a wrestling performance. He never showed any signs of fatigue, was still taking bumps and running the ropes at the same speed toward the end, probably took 10+ press slams, etc.

 

So to me, that's really the only standard you can measure performance on, when you don't have normal match tools like pinfall, submission, blood and weapons, etc. at your disposal. The hanging-by-a-thread and getting back in is the equivalent of a nearfall in a real match, I guess.

 

But since you asked, here are the participants that stand out for whatever reason:

 

* Davey Boy Smith - It gets sort of forgotten, but Flair/Davey Boy was the story of almost the first half of the match. This was around the beginning of the time they started positioning him strongly, I think because they wanted him to be a draw on foreign tours. There's a Flair match later in this set with him getting a big win as well.

 

* Roddy Piper - Notable because I can't recall a Piper singles match ever going as long as his 30 minute-plus time in this match. So it's a good chance to see what he can do when given time.

 

* Shawn Michaels - Shawn was probably in somewhere around 20 minutes. I wish a bigger deal had been made of his elimination. I felt for him trading blows with Flair because he was put in a default babyface position just after turning heel. But they seemed to be having fun working spots with each other.

 

* Pat Patterson - The Rumble was extremely well-booked. This is the strongest Flair was ever put over during this run, and they spread out the star entrances enough that there was a headliner in the ring the entire time.

 

* Bobby Heenan - As I said before, Heenan worked his ass off at the announce booth putting over Flair. Heenan is always funny, but at times, I've felt like the humor distracts from the wrestling side of the show. That's not the case here. He has an investment in who wins the match, which gives him plenty of material to work with, and Gorilla for whatever else I've said about him is a good foil here.

[goodhelmet]

Asking for all 30 was me trolling you the way that I trolled Dylan about HHH in 2000. The in-depth stuff you gave in your post was excellent and more than enough. I just felt your quick recap was selling the match short even though that was not your intention

[glea diddy]

This is a hard match to rate. Growing up as a wwf fan your almost conditioned to consider this the greatest rumble of all time. While its still a contender I'm not sure if if it still hits that mark. Flairs performance is great and it does a long way to getting him over with the northeast fans but it stills feel incomplete. As good as Heenan was on the mic you almost stilll wish Flairs history wits guys such as Valentine and Kerry was brought up but you know you're not getting that from the wwf.

[Tim Evans]

This is a hard match to rate. Growing up as a wwf fan your almost conditioned to consider this the greatest rumble of all time. While its still a contender I'm not sure if if it still hits that mark. Flairs performance is great and it does a long way to getting him over with the northeast fans but it stills feel incomplete. As good as Heenan was on the mic you almost stilll wish Flairs history wits guys such as Valentine and Kerry was brought up but you know you're not getting that from the wwf.

They still had Valentine and Flair beat each other up for about 5 minutes. Valentine giving Flair the figure 4 is one of my favorite spots in the match.

 

Besides Heenan and Flair were had career making performances, my favorite thing was probably Jake vs Savage. Jake getting near the ropes everytime the horn blew was great.

[flyonthewall2983]

Flair gave the closest I've ever seen to a great Rumble performance, but it's more impressive as a cardiovascular performance than as a wrestling performance. He never showed any signs of fatigue, was still taking bumps and running the ropes at the same speed toward the end, probably took 10+ press slams, etc.

That raises a question I've had for quite awhile. Would a match like this take out more physically, than any one single Broadway he did in the 80's? I could see how it's more disorientating mentally, because you would have to adjust a little bit to the styles of 29 other men. And I would imagine even that wouldn't have been too big a problem for Flair because he'd already worked with or knew personally probably 90% of the other guys.

[Loss]

At least in a broadway you can sit in holds for large chunks of it. He couldn't really do that here.

[flyonthewall2983]

For my money, this is definitely the best Rumble ever. It took what was essentially a big gimmick match and raised the stakes to a penultimate level by putting the belt up for grabs. It's also kind of a swan song for the WWF's first golden era, and the last high-profile match for a lot of guys (Haku, Barbarian, Valentine, Warlord, Hercules, Snuka, Volkoff) who had a thankless job of being part of their mid-card for so long. And it's probably Flair's most watchable performance during his first run for Vince.

 

That all said, the ending was anti-climactic. The Hogan-Sid rift almost took the wind from Flair's sails. The interesting thing about the aftermath is that you saw pretty clearly that some fans were tired of Hulk's act. Sid pointing to the sign saying "Hulk Who?" was classic.

[KB8]

Watched this with a few friends not long ago and I still thought it was a ton of fun. Loss' recap does a great job covering it, but I also agree with Tim in that the Savage/Jake stuff was really good as well. Loved Sarge taking his signature corner bump for his elimination and Piper might've been my favourite guy in the match besides Ric.

 

Post-match promo might be my favourite ever. "Y'all better pay homage...to the man!" And I totally forgot about Gene doing the "Put that cigarette out!" bit. That had all of us laughing like a bunch of idiots.

[stunning_grover]

62 min. Great match. The winner of the match would win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been vacated. Shawn Michaels, who had recently turned heel, was interviewed by Sean Mooney before the match. Ric Flair was interviewed by Lord Alfred Hayes in a Coliseum Video exclusive interview where Flair revealed that he had drawn number 3. It was followed by promos by Randy Savage, Sid Justice, Repo Man, Davey Boy Smith, Jake Roberts, Ric Flair, Undertaker and Hulk Hogan. The line-up for this Royal Rumble was definitely the greatest Royal Rumble line-up ever. Basically all 30 participants were top superstars. The match turned out to be the best worked out Royal Rumble ever with many different stories going on and many great moments. A wonderfully booked match. The participants of the Royal Rumble Match were:

#1 Davey Boy Smith. He gave a very good performance. His main opponent was Flair. He lasted 23 minutes until he was eliminated by Flair. Davey Boy played a big role in the match for the first 10 minutes or so, but he became less noticeable when the ring started to fill up more and more. This match was the first of many times he would be able to show how well he could work with Michaels and they showed nice chemistry together.

#2 Ted DiBiase. This was during the final weeks that DiBiase was managed by Sensational Sherri. He would form the Money Inc tag team with IRS soon and Sherri would go on to manage Shawn Michaels. DiBiase lasted one minute in this match and didn’t play much of a role in this match. He did a nice job of making Davey Boy look very good before Flair would enter though. Too bad that he got eliminated before Flair entered, but it made sure that Flair got all the attention that he needed and that the stories would be worked out correctly.

#3 Ric Flair. The man of the match, quite obviously. The performance he gave in this match was one of the greatest performances he has ever given (and that says a lot!). He lasted an hour in this match and worked with 28 men (the only man he didn’t work with in this match was DiBiase, who was eliminated before Flair entered). He took many bumps and dished out a lot of punishment. He was the main man in his match and his story was the main story of the match. The many great things he did in this match are just way too many to list.

#4 Jerry Sags. He lasted a minute and was eliminated by Davey Boy. He basically added nothing to the match. By the way, his partner Brian Knobbs was injured and wasn’t in this match.

#5 Haku. He helped out Flair for a little bit until he started attacking Flair. The Flair vs Haku stuff was great, even though it was pretty short. He would eventually be eliminated by Davey Boy even before the next participant had entered. I wished he would have stayed a bit longer in the match.

#6 Shawn Michaels. This was his first televised match as a heel in the WWF. He did some of the stuff he would later be famous for. For example, the overselling and wild bumping. He gave an excellent performance. He wasn’t as smooth and comfortable as a heel as he would later become, but it was a nice preview of what an amazing superstar he would eventually become. His superkicks didn’t look all that great here though. The Flair vs Michaels stuff was fun to watch. Michaels and Santana eliminated each other at the same time after Michaels had been in the match for 15 minutes.

#7 El Matador Tito Santana. He brawled a bit with Michaels, who would be his opponent at WrestleMania VIII. He also brawled quite a bit with Flair. Michaels and Santana eliminated each other at the same time after Santana had been in the match for 13 minutes.

#8 The Barbarian. The Barbarian lasted 12 minutes, which was a cool thing. He didn’t give a performance that was all that memorable (although he gave a pretty good performance), but he sure was a nice addition to the match. He was eliminated by Hercules.

#9 Texas Tornado Kerry Von Erich. He immediately went after Flair, who had a long history with him, of course. Michaels sold discuss punch hugely. He lasted 9 minutes until he was eliminated by Flair, one of his main rivals throughout his career.

#10 Repo Man. Demolition Smash had been repackaged and now known as Repo Man. He did his usual Repo Man stuff and played his Repo Man character quite well in this match. He lasted six minutes until he was eliminated by Big Boss Man.

#11 Greg Valentine. He was a babyface around this time. I thought the Flair vs Valentine stuff was really good stuff. They gave each other some stiff chops. Valentine executing the figure four on Flair was also a nice thing to see. He only lasted 4 minutes, but he was great while he lasted. He was eliminated by Repo Man.

#12 Nikolai Volkoff. He wasn’t the greatest, but he was a well known WWF superstar and a former WWF Tag Team Champion. So him participating was a nice addition to this line-up. He only lasted a minute in this match and he basically didn’t do anything. He was eliminated by Repo Man.

#13 Big Boss Man. He showed a lot of energy during the three minutes he was in the match. He added some nice intensity to the match while he was in there. As soon as he entered the ring, people started to get eliminated really fast. He was eliminated by Flair.

#14 Hercules. He didn’t even last a minute and was eliminated by Big Boss Man.

#15 Roddy Piper. His entrance was a great moment. Just look at the look on Flair’s face and listen to the crowd reaction. He played a big role in this match. Piper had won the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship from The Mountie earlier that night, so he had the chance to win two championships in one night. He lasted 34 minutes before he was eliminated by Sid.

#16 Jake Roberts. He was awesome heel in this match. He double-crossed Flair to prove that you can’t trust a snake. The Jake vs Flair vs Piper interactions was about the half-way point of the match. It had already been a great match up until that point and there was still a lot of things to come. Jake constantly was looking who was entering, because he wanted to see when Randy Savage would enter. Jake and Savage had a great feud at the time. Jake lasted 10 minutes in this match before he was eliminated by Savage.

#17 Jim Duggan. Things started to slow down in the match around the point Duggan entered and the ring would slowly fill up more and more. He lasted 20 minutes before he was eliminated by Virgil of all people. He didn’t do all that much during those 20 minutes though.

#18 Irwin R Schyster. IRS was always a gimmick I loved. It’s such a typical early 1990s WWF gimmick. He lasted a long time in this match. He lasted 27 minutes before he was eliminated by Piper.

#19 Jimmy Snuka. He wasn’t much of a factor in this match, but it was nice to see yet another legendary superstar. He was eliminated by The Undertaker after a couple of minutes.

#20 The Undertaker. He was one of the favorites to win this match. He made quit an impact in this match, but he was eliminated by Hogan after 13 minutes.

#21 Randy Savage. One of the top performers in this match. As soon as Savage entered, Jake slithered out of the ring. Savage was looking around and couldn’t find Jake. Eventually Jake attacked Savage, but Savage fought back and eliminated Jake. Savage was so intense and crazy that he accidentally eliminated himself by jumping over the top rope. Undertaker tried to cover it up and threw Savage back in. Savage went back out again and brawled a bit with Jake until Undertaker threw Savage back in again. Commentators Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan tried to explain that Savage was allowed back in because of the fact that apparently you can’t eliminate yourself during this edition of the Royal Rumble. After 22 minutes, he was officially eliminated by Flair and Sid. He was one of the final four participants left in the match.

#22 The Berzerker. He lasted 9 minutes before he was eliminated by Hogan. He did okay in this match and his eliminated got a nice reaction (mostly because he was the second worker to be eliminated by Hogan in a matter of seconds).

#23 Virgil. He lasted 7 minutes before he was eliminated by IRS. He didn’t play much of a role. The announcers mentioned that he had lost the Million Dollar Championship, which was a storyline from late 1991.

#24 Col Mustafa. This was a weird gimmick where the legendary Iranian superstar Iron Sheik had to pretend to be an Iraqi wrestler known as Col Mustafa. He would still work as Col Mustafa for another four months after this match. He basically added nothing to this match, but was eliminated after only a couple of minutes anyway.

#25 Rick Martel. I just realized that whenever he was wearing his pink outfit (which was mostly throughout 1992), he wasn’t all that over anymore (he used to be quite over otherwise). He lasted 12 minutes in this match before he was eliminated by Sid. The announcers mentioned the fact that he stayed in a very long time in the 1991 Royal Rumble Match.

#26 Hulk Hogan. The biggest favorite to win this match. Things had slowed down considerably before Hogan entered. Things started to get hot again as soon as he entered. Hogan was just being Hogan, which was a good thing. He eliminated Undertaker, which was a nice way to get revenge on Undertaker (Hogan vs Undertaker was one of the many feuds going on at the time). The crowd loved it. Hogan’s elimination by Sid during the final moments of the match turned out to be one of the big stories of the match and the upcoming weeks in the WWF.

#27 Skinner. Steve Keirn with a weird gimmick. His gimmick was basically that he was a dirty guy who liked to hang around alligators and swamps or something like that. He didn’t do anything special and lasted only a couple of minutes before he was eliminated by Martel.

#28 Sgt Slaughter. He took a huge bump over the turnbuckle into the ringpost to the outside after Sid threw him in the corner. That was also his elimination. Other than that, he didn’t add much to the match. He lasted four minutes. It was nice to have another former World Heavyweight Champion added to the already incredible line-up though.

#29 Sid Justice. He played a big role during the final moments of the match. His feud with Hogan started here, because he had the audacity to eliminate Hogan. He was the final man to be eliminated when he was eliminated by Flair. After the match, Hogan was threatened with death by Sid.

#30 Warlord. Him being the final participant was a little bit anti-climactic and the crowd didn’t really react to him that much. He only lasted a minute though and was eliminated by Hogan and Sid.

After the match, Flair cut an awesome promo. Mr Perfect and Bobby Heenan joined the celebration. Gene Okerlund told someone in the room to “put that cigarette out!” in a moment that had me and my sister laugh out loud back when we were kids. Heenan’s commentary throughout the Royal Rumble Match was amazing, by the way.

[rainmakerrtv]

This is is a match I've watched a fair number of times over the years, I watched the first broadcast on PPV, a few things stood out for me this time 'round :

 

* I know it's hard for perfect execution in a battle royal, but there were a surprising number of badly botched moves, notably an horrific Shawn Michaels superkick where Flair took it in his hands that were held out a foot from his face but he sold it anyhow, I think this one was Flair's fault.

 

* was it just me, or was the mic under the ring amped up extra loud? any time anyone was slammed or ran across the center of the ring, there would be a huge boom.

 

* I was interested to see if this would have the original sound or the post-match remix where they switched the boos for Hogan and cheers for Sid, hard to tell, the reaction was kind of muted from the way I remember it but the crowd seemed to be clearly on Sid's side. No matter what they might have done to the sound to try to change the story, it's quite clear from the background shots that the crowd was visibly on Sid's side.

[flyonthewall2983]

Hogan coming out got a big pop, but I don't think that was reciprocated when he was thrown out. I'm sure the match played better on PPV than in the arena, because 50% of the energy was coming from Bobby Heenan. I'm unsure if Flair was the household name in New York state that Vince's other guys at the time were.

[Kevin Ridge]

Still the best Royal Rumble to date. Don't think we will be getting another fully shown Rumble on a yearbook. This match had a lot going for it with the winner becoming WWF Champion. Rumble was loaded with star power and some quality mid carders to fill things out. Flair obviously was the man the of the match, surviving a bunch of finishers and delivered a super post match promo. Davey, Piper, Michaels and Savage had pretty good performances also. Heenan was probably the second MVP of all this with one of the best commentary jobs. Savage eliminating himself was dumb but they did what they could to try cover this gaff since he was going to be in the final four. Hogan came off as such a heel in the closing moments when he got eliminated. He pulled the same stunt on his friends Savage and Warrior in previous Rumble be eliminating them from behind. Hogan had the look on his face when he realized the live audience wasn't full behind him.

[MikeCampbell]

Thank you, Will, for adding the Flair/Hayes promo where Flair reveals his draw before the match proper started. I really have nothing to say that hasn't already been said. Flair puts on a great showing, Heenan is priceless in the booth, and I'm at a loss for any other Rumble with such a stacked and talented roster. I do like that Hogan eliminated UT, symbolically closing the book on that feud before moving onto another with Sid.

 

Sidenote: I'll never understand why they didn't run with Hogan/Flair at Mania (aside from maybe Hogan not being around afterwards). It's certainly fresh, and it's a rare case of a Hogan opponent who can pull his own weight with promos, and, if booked right, it'd certainly have drawn. Hogan/Sid, to me, reeks of Vince not wanting to leave his comfort zone of Hogan taking on monster heel.

 

Looking at the crowd, you could definitely tell that at least a good chunk were elated when Sid tossed Hogan. And this is another case where Hogan makes himself look bad. He gets legit eliminated, fair and square, and when Sid won't take the bait on the handshake, he just grabs him and pulls.

[Zenjo]

The greatest Rumble of them all? It's certainly right up there.

 

Epic performance from Ric Flair in the ring and Bobby Heenan in the booth. Excellenly booked with the Superstars spread out well. I don't think they could've done it much better. From a technical standpoint the action was repetitive and got bogged down at times. But from a storytelling perspective this was top notch and my #1 WWF match of '92.

[flyonthewall2983]

It has probably the best exit from a battle royal I've ever seen, the bump Slaughter took to the post before being thrown out.

[Ricky Jackson]

Slaughter's bump was great, but don't forget Bossman's awkward elimination where he almost snaps his neck on the bottom rope.

[WingedEagle]

Classic Rumble and with good reason. A ton of highlights which have most mostly already been touched on. The star power was certainly off the charts. It may be the Flair show but I'd forgotten how incredible a call Heenan provided here. A few things that stood out to me: Flair & Valentine trading stiff chops all these years later, the Flair/Michaels segment early on that was probably a highlight for HBK and fun to see in retrospect andSlaughter taking by far the bump of the night on the way out.

 

The finish was incredibly well booked to set up the Hogan/Justice pairing which felt bigger than it ended up being, and Flair's classic "tear in my eye" promo backstage with the belt. Just awesome.

 

Tough to rate something like this, but ****1/4 feels about right.

[PeteF3]

I'd say this is easily the best of the pre-00s Rumbles. Ric cuts a much more low-key Coliseum Video promo before the match, which was a pleasant addition. Meanwhile we get a montage of other promos, and Repo Man hilariously sticks out like a sore thumb in-between shots from Undertaker, Jake, Savage, Sid, et al. It's an historic performance from Flair, who probably has never had a 60-minute broadway like this--no chance to work armbars or chinlocks for 5 minutes at a time. Literally every two minutes a new guy was coming out who was going to toss Flair around. On top of that, you had a few other subplots like the big Jake/Savage showdown and Hogan more or less blowing off the Undertaker program. And afterward, the first major crack in Hulkamania appears, as Hogan is roundly booed during his confrontation with Sid--and for good reason. Sid only played by the rules and Hogan threw a fit the same way he always did whenever he lost.

 

Is this the Rumble with the most potential favorites, at least from a kayfabe standpoint? It wasn't inconceivable for any one of Hogan, Flair, Savage, Sid, or Undertaker to walk out with the title, which seems like a lot. Not to mention other dark horses like DiBiase, Piper, and Jake. I even love Monsoon going nuts for Martel's draw, getting a number in the 20's after going 53 minutes the previous year. I miss things like that.

[flyonthewall2983]

The more I think about it, you're right. Hogan helping Sid get tossed out was a total bitch move. And an anti-climactic ending to an otherwise stellar Rumble.

 

As to the question, I'd think so. If I try to think with the mark mindset, my money would have been on Hogan winning just because. Flair would certainly have been a possibility. But if I watched it today I'd say that Flair would absolutely have won it. The early draw makes for a compelling story, and the win would set up a big title match at WM for whoever it was to beat him.

[Quantum]

Best Rumble ever. Will always be. One of my favorite matches of all time.

 

-Flair going 60 + minutes

 

-The stacked Rumble

 

-The Flair/Bulldog 1st half

 

-The Roddy Piper story as the IC champ trying to win 2 title in one night and make history.

 

-Piper again with his #15 spot and DESTROYING Flair for 2 minutes.

 

-Warlord/Wear the beef line from Heenan before being tossed out.

 

-New Heel HBK being awesome.

 

So much to this match. The re watch-ability is amazing.

[C.S.]

If I try to think with the mark mindset, my money would have been on Hogan winning just because.

 

No "mark" actually thought this when I was a kid. Me and my friends all strongly suspected Flair was winning, but the Piper "dare to dream" stuff right before the Rumble did sway me a bit. However, as soon as I saw Piper in the I-C Title match at the PPV, I knew right then and there he had no chance of winning the Rumble and it was going to be Flair's night. The WWF had always been incredibly predictable, and this Rumble - as awesome as it was (best Rumble ever IMO) - was no different in that regard.

 

The more I think about it, you're right. Hogan helping Sid get tossed out was a total bitch move.

 

Agreed. It never made sense to me. Hogan looked like a spoiled, whiny bitch to me for doing that to Sid, even back then. It was such an odd piece of booking.

[Zoo Enthusiast]

It has probably the best exit from a battle royal I've ever seen, the bump Slaughter took to the post before being thrown out.

I just watched again the other night and came to post just this. Was awesome.