[1990-01-21-WWF-Royal Rumble] Royal Rumble

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Kevin Ridge]

I figure this will probably just the finish. Anyways Hogan is his normal unsportsmanlike self in this one. Back to back years of him eliminating his friends from behind before blowing a cow in 92 for it happening to him. Perfect or Rude should have won this.

[BruiserBrody]

Really Hogan and Warrior being dumped by Perfect while locked in combat would set up the SNME tag nicely.

[Loss]

We start with 10 seconds to go before Hogan's appearance. The Hogan/Warrior standoff is something iconic. I know it's the popular point, but I don't think there was any reason to put Perfect over in this match when he was drawing poorly against Hogan on the road. I do see value in putting Warrior over, though.

[PeteF3]

We start with a footnote moment here in the little Hogan vs. Snuka exchange. That might be the only "match" the two ever had against each other.

 

It also sticks out how meticulously this was booked to set up a babyface-babyface main event match without turning either guy heel, between Warrior saving Hogan from elimination and then coming back to only hit Rude and Barbarian when he gets eliminated himself.

 

I don't think there was ever anything to the idea of Perfect winning besides made-up Scott Keith horseshit--once Warrior goes out the result is pretty much a foregone conclusion. Hogan works a whole lot with Rude here for a guy supposedly "afraid" to work with him, by the way.

[Kevin Ridge]

Managers allowed at ring side. They seemed to never be consistent with that rule over the years. Michaels has a very brief appearance. Fans are really into the Hogan/Warrior exchange. Rude completely jumps the gun on his entrance. Even with Hogan in there crowd seemed to deflate after Warrior got the boot. Perfect Plex as a run in move doesn't really work and same goes for in the Rumble. Perfect seemed to have zero chance when it was down to him and Hogan.

[soup23]

This was not as good as I remembered. Even the Warrior/Hogan exchange didn't seem as magical although that could just be a numbing of the impact due to the amount of times I have seen that sequence. Hogan vs. Perfect at the end was sad and a foregone conclusion on who was going over.

[Cox]

Man, Snuka couldn't wait to feed himself to Hogan. He must have really wanted out of there.

 

The setup for Hogan/Warrior is done extremely well and their brief time together in there does a great job of teasing a match between the two of them for Wrestlemania, and that's really all this Rumble is about. Nice to see Hogan act like a jerk and eliminate Warrior after Warrior had saved him moments earlier, which provides more fodder for the "Hulk Hogan is an asshole" thread.

[JerryvonKramer]

I was vaguely amused by the face that Shawn is eliminated in about 20 seconds by the Warrior.

 

Hogan vs. Honktonk Man looks like a massive mismatch.

 

"The moment", for whatever reason, seems to lose something here.

 

Barbarian and Rude used to be in Paul Jones's army together in another life.

 

Everyone always talks about Perfect winning this rumble, but what about Rude?? He was the guy to go on to have the main event run with Warrior anyway, so why not put him over here to set that up?

 

After Warrior has gone the brief face team of Hogan and Hercules is funny. It's like Hogan will take any help he can even someone as low down the card as him. He's also started his "I don't care about the rules" back scratches.

 

Can't believe Herc eliminates Barb, can't believe Herc is in the final four! Can't believe Jesse isn't picking his favourite, Rude, as the winner.

 

I think Rude should have won, personally.

 

Liked the fact that Jesse talked up DiBiase's iron-man run and pointed out that Hogan drew #25 during the posing.

[Johnny Sorrow]

This was cool. I'm pretty sure I had never seen this before now and it was fun. I still fucking hate the Warrior but him sprinting to the back after being eliminated is some unintentionally funny shit, though.

[Rock_Of_Jericho]

This is probably my third favorite Rumble, behind 1992 & 2004. The whole match was great, though it slowed down a little in this segment after the Warrior-Hogan stuff. I must have watched this entire match about a hundred times when I was a kid. Still holds up well, IMO.

[Laney]

As a whole this is a pretty good Rumble. Some strong stories in this one with Roberts/Dibiase and Savage/Dusty continuing their feuds and build to the Piper/Bad News match for Mania. Some other notable matchups in this are Colossal Connection going at it with Demolition and the former Strikeforce team colliding. The middle of this match started to lag put it picked up with the Hogan/Warrior confrontation. Warrior sprinting to the back after being eliminated was goofy. Unnecessary win by Hogan here, but still an enjoyable Rumble.

[flyonthewall2983]

Kayfabe-wise I like to think that Bobby Heenan got The Barbarian because he liked the job he did beating up both Hogan and Warrior when they were down and out when he came in. Perfect winning probably would have been a good scenario, but Hogan winning just made him look stronger going into Toronto I think.

[bradhindsight]

We start with Hogan's entrance at 25. Not much to add, but Ventura is gold just slagging on Warrior for his stupidity in the match. "He's an idiot!" as Warrior charges to the back is hilarious.

 

The thought the crowd ate up the big Hogan/Warrior showdown. Worked for me and I always chuckle at the running of the ropes. Good bumping around by Mr. Perfect, especially that elimination one over the turnbuckle to the outside.

[Cross Face Chicken Wing]

Warrior climbing back in the ring, clotheslining two dudes who had nothing to do w/ him getting eliminated, then sprinting to the back was fucking hilarious.

[garretta]

This was on the yearbook mainly for the Hogan-Warrior confrontation, which still delivers today.

 

Nice of Jesse to come to the Ultimate Maniac's defense. Even at the time, I was wondering if they were going to turn Warrior heel. They probably should have, using Hogan's elimination of him as the main issue between them. Of course, there were no faces outside of Hogan who could realistically measure up to him, so it might have been just as bad for business as what happened in real life. Still, a Heenan-led Warrior as champion would have been something different between Manias VI and VII.

 

Tony was good, and The Bod was at his serious best. This is the Jesse that Bill Watts wanted to see more of in WCW. His one big mistake was saying that Curt could have pinned Hogan after the Perfectplex, but that's forgivable in the heat of the moment. Nice to see Curt use the Ax to set Hogan up.

 

As for those who say that Curt should have gone over: Maybe that's true if Hogan-Hennig was your Mania main event and you wanted to keep him perfect, but all Curt was going to do at Mania was lose to Beefcake. What would have been the point of building him up just to cleanly lose to an upper midcarder? If anyone besides Hogan should have gone over, it was Warrior, to establish that Hogan can indeed be vanquished. Other than that, Vince made the right call here.

[Dooley]

As for those who say that Curt should have gone over: Maybe that's true if Hogan-Hennig was your Mania main event and you wanted to keep him perfect, but all Curt was going to do at Mania was lose to Beefcake. What would have been the point of building him up just to cleanly lose to an upper midcarder? If anyone besides Hogan should have gone over, it was Warrior, to establish that Hogan can indeed be vanquished. Other than that, Vince made the right call here.

 

The Rumble wasn't what it would come to be in later years. '88 had Duggan winning and he went on to lose to DiBiase in the first round of the tourney at Mania 4. '89 had John Studd winning who was a guest referee at Mania 5. Winning the Rumble didn't do anything for Hulk, it might have done something for someone else.

[drew wardlaw]

I still love the stalemate between Warrior and Hogan. I say "still" but this is only my 2nd time watching this one. WWF has always felt like such comfort food. I wasn't a WWF kid but it's still got such built in nostalgia.

[Zenjo]

I rewatched the whole match and would definitely recommend doing so. If you want a quick guide then both the 90 and 91 Rumbles are really good. 92 is obviously a classic. 93 to 99 inclusive all suck to varying degrees with a weaker roster and mind bogglingly atrocious booking. Dual winners, the human pinball, the winner being eliminated, the winner doing commentary instead of wrestling. The early 90's Rumbles compared to the rest of the decade are like night and day.

 

The opening phase of the '90 Rumble was terrific, and propelled the match until well into the middle stages. Dibiase was first man entered and put in an epic 45m, twice as long as anybody else. Definitely the best performer. After tossing a couple of bodies it soon had Ted, Jake, Randy and Roddy mixing it up. I don't even need to write surnames do I? It was an electric atmosphere having 4 big names fighting it out so early. The crowd was great throughout. They were even excited about the Red Rooster!

 

Realistically it could never maintain the early level throughout. The important thing was that it didn't drag. Plenty of bodies in the ring, which I like to see. Interestingly in the first half it was all faces vs heels. The second half became every man for himself. Hogan entered at 25 and along with the Warrior cleared the ring for their Clash of the Titans. Unforgettable. The Warrior fights with heart and instinct. Hogan is smart. They should've saved the elimination until the final 4 as it was just a matter of time after that. Hogan wins! Yeah! The finish was certainly weak, but overall it was one of the better Rumbles.

[DeanColes1987]

Inconsistent Rumble with a Hot opening, a dull middle, a hot sequence with Hogan/Warrior and an anticlimactic end.

 

Watching the TV from the time there's no way in hell that Perfect was ever considered a winner, he was already planting the seeds for the Beefcake feud.

[GSR]

We join the Rumble just as participant number 25 is about to make their entrance, and it's Hulk Hogan to a pretty loud pop. He eliminates Jimmy Snuka almost immediately, although sadly not by posing and flexing his muscles, but by a weak looking clothesline. Haku is next to go as he propels himself backwards and over the top rope to the floor after a big boot to the face from the Hulkster. The Ultimate Warrior eliminates Tito Santana and we’re down to four. Shawn Michaels is entrant 26 but he doesn’t last long. Hogan gets rid of the Honky Tonk Man, Warrior dumps Michaels after a whopping 12 seconds and then immediately tosses out Rick Martel leaving just two men in the ring and the confrontation we’d been promised. The crowd are pumped for this! A couple of shoulder blocks and neither man budges. A criss cross, a double clothesline and both go down. It looks like that’s it as far as the confrontation goes as both sell the effects of the clothesline until the next man enters, who is the Barbarian. He goes to work on them both and Rick Rude makes a premature appearance as entrant 28. Rude and the Barbarian have Hogan teetering on elimination, but instead of helping them, the Warrior attacks Rude. It’s a different story when the two of them have Warrior on the verge of elimination, as Hogan hits a lame double clothesline on them both, but the momentum sends the Warrior over the top rope and to the floor. Warrior then gets back in the ring, clotheslines Rude, clotheslines the Barbarian and sprints to the back! Only the Warrior!

 

Hercules is the penultimate entrant, followed by Mr Perfect two minutes later. Hercules eliminates the Barbarian and then Rude gets rid of Hercules not long after. We’re down to the final three and Rude and Perfect start double teaming the Hulkster. A miscommunication sees Hogan duck out the way and Rude nail Perfect who takes a fall backward through the middle rope and on to the apron. Hogan whips Rude into the ropes, but as Perfect grabs the tope rope to help him back to his feet and Rude goes careering over it to the floor. It’s down to two and with Perfect in the ascendancy he decides to hit the ‘perfect plex’ (in an even more bizarre moment than when he used it in a post-match attack on Brutus Beefcake earlier in the card). It has zero effect bar leading to Hogan ‘Hulking up’, and shortly after tossing Perfect over and out to become this year’s winner.

 

I thought that this was a hot closing stretch to the Rumble. Whilst the action wasn’t much (or even that impressive) we got the Hogan/Warrior confrontation that we’d been nigh on promised, and Hogan helping to eliminate him will surely be the catalyst for the Wrestlemania VI main event. Rude, Perfect and Barbarian all worked hard, although it’s a shame that they didn’t switch the positioning of Michaels and Hercules around and have Herc dumped after 12 seconds (although with Hercules being in so late may explain why he got the promo time in that final Royal Rumble report on 1/20). Guessing no-one is seeing Michaels as anything but a tag wrestler at this point. Some great bumping from Rude and his elimination was very nicely done. I had forgotten as well that all the managers were allowed at ringside for the Rumble back then.

[wrestlingchick]

A fun, well booked Royal Rumble for the most part. Of course, the big spot is the Warrior/Hogan face off, which had the crowd going wild and immediately putting the seal on the planned main event for WrestleMania. Hogan probably didn't need the win, already being WWF Champion at the time. A win for Perfect at the end would have been huge for him, but he was moving down the card once his title feud with Hogan was finished up so I guess it didn't make sense for him to win in the long run (what with him already getting involved with Beefcake earlier in the night). The no-sell on the Perfectplex was a bit much though.

 

I'd argue that a Warrior win would have been a better decision here to really drive the point home that he was coming for the champion, but I guess Hogan needed to win the Rumble after getting eliminated last year. Either way, the confrontation during the match served its purpose in getting people talking for the ultimate challenge to come.

 

I loved DiBiase's performance through the match as he was in there for about 45 minutes and at numerous times throughout managed to avoid elimination. It felt like a big deal when he was finally thrown out. The early part of the match was loaded with stars as well which only added to the hot crowd. We got some solid build for Piper/Brown and Savage/Dusty heading into Mania as well.

 

All in all, a decent Rumble match.

 

Grade: ***1/2

[Stiva]

Fun final moments of this Rumble as Hogan comes in and eliminates Haku with the daintiest big boot you ever will see. For all I despise Warrior and Hogan as characters/promos, you look at the reaction for the staredown and it's so clear that they had to run with them at Mania. It's funny seeing Michaels getting dumped like he's Paul London or some shit, though in modern day Rumbles, he'd at least get a chance to hit a decent spot before getting dumped. I agree that it's hilarious how Warrior acts after getting eliminated, even more so that in about 2 seconds, Barbarian and Rude are back working on Hogan.

[DMJ]

Just watched this whole thing and thoroughly enjoyed it.

- Talk about star-studded. DiBiase, Roberts, Savage, Piper, Dusty, and Andre all in the first half of the match and all mega-over, even if not at their "peak." This one is definitely in contention for most "star-studded" Rumble ever by the time its all said and done (and that's without counting future stars Bret and Shawn). 

- Maybe the connection has been made already, but with the way Piper and Bad News start their feud here, was the intention to basically re-do the They Live dynamic that Piper had with Keith David? On commentary Ventura notes that they're having a "street fight in the aisle" and I couldn't help but think that Vince had watched They Live, seen the legendary street fight with Keith David, and a lightbulb went off that he could basically do something similar with Bad News. Or was it just that Piper and Bad News, personality-wise, made sense? Just curious if anyone else sees a connection there or if I'm reading way too much into it.

- Obviously we get not-so-subtle "preludes" to a bunch of the WM6 matches, but whats also cool are the (only slightly) more subtle seeds to future programs too. For example, we don't just get some more build towards Savage/Dusty and DiBiase/Roberts, because of how much Savage seems to be helping the Million Dollar Man, Tony suspects collusion. I'm not sure if that was played up prior to the match, but it would make a little bit of sense as the Savage/Dusty feud eventually leads to the Dusty/DiBiase feud (and Sapphire "selling out"). Obviously Andre was already being fazed out, so its cool to see them essentially give his spot to Earthquake, his elimination requiring nearly everyone in the ring to work together. Again, I wouldn't necessarily call it subtle, but Earthquake is made to look like a monster and they don't spoil any square-offs with Hogan or Warrior, wisely protecting him for his big push in the summer.

- The match does have a bit of a lull in the middle, but, to me, part of that is due to the Warrior already being somewhat exposed here. His entrance doesn't get that big of a pop (Jake's is much bigger, as is Hogan's later on) and instead of having him clean house, after an initial flurry, he fades into the match a bit. He just doesn't command the ring or draw your eye the way Hogan does. Granted, few ever have and its hard not to become a background player when there's 6-7 other dudes in the ring (many of whom are equally gassed to the gills), but still, for the guy who was set to take the mantle of being the company's top star, its not the big coming out party one would think. Once we get the Hogan/Warrior staredown it is an undeniably big moment so that was clearly the money match going into Wrestlemania VI (and Warrior clearly needed the win there to have any shot of becoming THE top guy), but its not like he was dwarfing Hogan in popularity (at least not on this night in Orlando).

 

A really fun, interesting, and breezy Rumble. Solid 4-out-of-5.