LogFAQs > #871636898

Royal Rumble 1992:

A while ago, I said something like "Bobby Heenan is a great color commentator." Now, you probably didn't actually need any convincing on this. Well, if you haven't seen this Royal Rumble, you would be wrong. Stop reading immediately before I spoil this, and go watch it first, and see peak Bobby the Brain Heenan in all his glory.

Now that out of the way... I remembered this being great, and well, turns out, it is great. It's one part Flair, one part Heenan's commentary, and one part all the chaos of the WWF working against the two. Storyline coming in is that Flair is making the claim that he's "the real world champion," and well, somehow the title was vacated between Hogan and Undertaker I think? I honestly don't even remember. Point is the Rumble is for the title, and as such the stakes are higher than ever.

Well, sucks for Flair (and Heenan, who REALLY wants flair to win the match) cause he draws #3. So basically the recurring theme of the whole match is Heenan freaking out about how this "isn't fair to Flair" and Flair being in peril damn near the whole match as Monsoon is like "give it up he's doomed no one numbers 1-5 is ever here at the end!!"

There are two truly great moments this contributes to. The first being mid rumble, just after Hercules comes out... somehow pretty much everyone ends up tossing each other out. You're left with Big Boss Man and Flair. Boss Man then rushes at Flair, dives, and eliminates himself, leaving Flair alone. Flair walks to the center of the ring, does the Flair Flop and collapses in exhaustion, alone. Then who comes out next to have Flair all alone but ROWDY RODDY PIPER and Flair is like "oh god why"

It's an amazing moment and placed perfectly in the middle of the match. The second of course, is the finish, where it goes down to Sid, Hogan, Savage, and Flair. Sid tosses Hogan and Savage out while they're messing with Flair, leaving him alone with an exhausted Flair. BUT Hogan is a sore loser and a dick, so he tries to pull Sid out from the outside as Sid taunts him-- Flair is no fool, capitalizes on Hogan and Sid being more interested in each other, and dumps Sid out from behind to win the match. Then Hogan and Sid are STILL squabbling with each other even after Flair has won the match-- only a little after that does Hogan realize "hey wait that Flair guy hoodwinked us..." and then they both rage at Flair who is already outta there and gloating with Heenan and Mr Perfect backstage.

God what a match. So great. All these cartoon characters are fighting each other while Flair just picks his spots and hangs on for dear life the whole time.

Now... the undercard on this show was awful aside from the opening tag (Owen + Anvil vs Orient Express-- not a great match mind but not awful)-- particularly the cringeworthy and frankly kinda offensive Bushwhackers (with JAMISON) vs Beverly Brothers match which may be in contention for worst match I've ever seen on a PPV. Worse than Jenna vs Sharmell for sure. It did have some clips of the infamous Barber Shop scene with Michaels and Jannetty which I guess was fairly recent cause it was the explanation for why Jannetty wasn't here so that was a cool piece of history. But who cares. Fantastic Rumble heals all wounds.

Rumble Rankings:
1992 > 1990 > 1988 > 1989 > 1991
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