[1992-01-25-WWF-Superstars] Royal Rumble Report

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Now that it was pointed out that Flair is always wearing his wrestling gear in the WWF -- match happening or not -- I can't help but notice it. Flair recaps his performance in the Rumble and he and Perfect gloat over Flair winning the title.

[shoe]

I always dug that cover to the Rumble with the participants painted on. Flair's delivery seems a bit off as in the cadeance of his catchphrases.

[MikeCampbell]

I'm sorry if I sound like I'm just parroting him here, but Loss nailed it. Flair does this promo in his gear too, and it stands out so much to me that it's almost distracting. It really wasn't noticeable at the time to me, because I'd only been watching NWA/WCW from '89 onward. But watching it now, I can't help but constantly notice it. I'm hoping I get used to it soon.

[WingedEagle]

One of the all time great PPV posters. Some pretty heavy star power up front.

[PeteF3]

Love that Royal Rumble poster--I know they brought it back for 2001, they need to do it again. Flair and Piper are new champions, while the LOD has a "successful title defense," an interesting euphemism for "loss by countout." Speculation abounds about Flair's challenger at WrestleMania VIII. Flair and Perfect gloat, with Flair oddly underselling his own performance--"We wrestled for 54 minutes!"

[flyonthewall2983]

They did it the previous year too.

[garretta]

How in the world is losing by countout a successful defense for the LOD? Either someone forgot to give Okerlund the right finish before he taped this or they didn't know the finish except for the LOD retaining.

 

Flair was great here, and his blunder over how long he was in the ring didn't bother me at all. But Curt did it again. Who was the first person he put over on camera? Not Flair for winning the title, but himself for predicting it. I've long had a suspicion that when it came down to cases, Vince saw an injured, inactive Hennig as still more valuable than Flair for the simple reason that Vince created the Mr. Perfect character himself, and nothing I've seen so far with these two contradicts that. That's par for the McMahon course, I suppose, but I still wish that Curt and Ric hadn't been paired under those circumstances.

 

If Vince wanted to use Curt (or, more specifically, the Mr. Perfect character) as a mouthpiece while he was recovering, there were lots of other heels he could have put Curt with. What about the Beverly Brothers as "The Perfect Tag Team"? How about Rick Martel, who was still floating around? Better yet, how about Sid as an instrument of revenge against Hogan at Mania? From what I remember of Downtown Bruno/Harvey Wippleman, he did nothing at all to add to Sid's turn, nor to anyone else he ever managed on the WWF stage. Curt may not have been a good fit with Flair, but I think he'd have been an asset to a musclehead like Sid.

[soup23]

Good promo by Flair here although it can't hold a candle to the post Rumble all timer. This was just there to put a bow on the Rumble for those that didn't get the PPV.

[dawho5]

Flair busts out my favorite Flair-ism to finish, but with the strangest delivery possible. I'd agree that this isn't on par with the post-Rumble promo or some of his work in the weeks before the Rumble.