Board 8 > Lopen watches and talks about all the Royal Rumbles. And ranks them. TURBO.

(+) Yeah! (+)

aw 1995 is my favorite Rumble! But I'm also a huge HBK fan and it's the show that got me into wrestling, so I know I'm heavily biased. I do think the match looks much better if you only watch what Shawn is doing
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Yeah I've never been a huge HBK guy. I mean I don't dislike him or anything cause he's really good at what he does how could you, but pretty low on the totem pole for me relative to everyone else's love for him and vs other legends.

Anyway poll to readers who actually have a preference one way or another should I jump ahead to the 2017 write up and resume with 1997 after, or just shelve it till it's time.
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I vote shelve it
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I say do a rewatch after the fact and then do the write up.
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I'd say keep going with 1997 and just do 2017 when you get to it.
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Shelve it wins. Will probably rewatch too.

God this Rumble is annoying I'm having to switch to something else for all the highlight packages cause don't wanna potentially spoil myself (even though I've seen a lot of em)
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Wanted to sleep that rumble off before continuing.

Royal Rumble 1997:

Man so many cheesy promo videos in this PPV. Think they technically started last year but they were much more prolific here.

Anyway, onto the Rumble. This match starts off ugly, with Nation Member Crush (he's always Crush but this guy's gimmick changes as much as Kane's) vs Ahmed Johnson into Fake Razor Ramon into a hog farmer. Luckily Stone Cold Steve Austin is #5, gets rid of the guys in the ring before #6 hits, and the real rumble begins.

After tossing out Bart Gunn pretty easily, an old friend of his who was fond of bible verses comes out, Jake the Snake Roberts! Poor Damien can't even get out (I suspect he was not actually in the bag here) as Austin beats the hell out of Jake and gets rid of him before the next guy.

This continues as Austin overcomes more guys who hate him-- most lasting more than a number unlike Jake but you know. British Bulldog, Owen Hart, even Savio Vega show up at just the right times-- this all culminates just before #21, when the field eliminates each other and Austin is again left alone. He collapses in the middle of the ring, exhausted, but waves the next guy in from the floor. The buzzer sounds, and it's BRET HART. Austin gets some energy back and the two furiously battle each other

Shortly after this leads to the first comedy spot I actually found funny (unless you find Mil Mascaras eliminating himself funny) in the Rumbles, when King's music hits and he enters at #22. "I told you McMahon! It takes a King..." he leaves to the ring, goes to attack his old nemesis Bret Hart-- Bret turns around, punches him, and knocks him right out of the ring in like 2 seconds. "... to know a King!" he finishes as he returns to the announce table. It's awesome.

Anyway so the Rumble proceeds, we're eventually left with Fake Diesel (yess), Bret Hart, Vader, Undertaker, and Austin. Bret clotheslines Austin over the ropes, then squares off with Diesel as Taker and Vader are fighting on the opposite side. The referees are tending to some sorta drama with Mankind on the side of the ring far from Austin, and a recovering Austin realizes the refs didn't see him hit the floor, so he slides back in, dumps Taker and Vader from behind, then Bret and DIesel. Stone Cold! Stone Cold! Wins! Bret is LIVID. What a travesty! The Tunney administration would've never allowed this to happen!

Undercard wasn't really anything worth talking about. I will note I'm really glad that WWE has learned from their errors with just haphazardly throwing random completely unbuilt AAA guys on PPV, as they had a 6 man all AAA match that was completely dead. Thank goodness our lightweight competitors of these days like TJ Perkins and Rich Swann don't have this issue on PPV, huh?

Royal Rumble Ranking:
1992 > 1997 > 1990 > 1994 > 1996 > 1989 > 1988 > 1993 > 1991 > 1995

Very good Rumble. It was similar to 1992 in a lot of ways, in that this was Austin's story, and was basically the Rumble to really start the ball rolling in establishing Stone Cold Steve Austin as a big deal. Even the Bret vs Austin spot was very reminiscent of the Piper vs Flair spot. In some ways I'd consider it better than 1997 in that I feel Austin gained more from this than Flair gained from 1992, which is a big deal, and the in ring action was a bit better. There are two big things that put 1992 over this: 1. There is no Bobby the Brain Heenan at ringside pulling for Austin. King sorta is cause he hates Bret but yeah, not nearly the passion. 2. While this wasn't a field of jobbers by any means, the star power of 1992 was still on a level above this-- also the AAA guys really drug it down they seemed so out of place.

(Kane was Yankem last year, Fake Diesel this year. I hope he enters as Kane in 1998 that would be fantastic.)
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Jack Tunney would have shot that s*** down, vacated the belt and held a tournament for it
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Well, the belt got vacated anyway and they had a four-way for it
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That much I actually knew.

Fake Diesel was robbed though. Should've been a 5 way.

I guess technically Bret elim'd him though so I see why he was robbed.
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The AAA thing was Vince seeing the success WCW was having with the Cruiserweight division and thinking he could replicate it with random lucha matches
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Yeah.

It is funny how similar it was to Raw's Cruiserweight division though.
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Also the Rumble debut of rookie Rocky Maivia, the blue chipper!
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I was highly amused that Rock went straight to attack Austin when he showed up. Destiny man.
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I remember HBK vs Sid being pretty good. Deserved to go on last with that crowd
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Oh something I forgot from 1996:

I loved when Marty entered, him and Shawn just started having a brawl. Great callback.

Every Rumble that has both Tito and Martel features the same callback too.
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Yeah, Tito and Martel have been feuding for 30 years and if they randomly come out of retirement to do a show, they'll still be feuding
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Jakyl25 posted...

I remember HBK vs Sid being pretty good. Deserved to go on last with that crowd

Literally my favorite match growing up.

I hated HBK do much though thanks to liking Janetty and Bret more than him.

It took a really long time for me to get over Mania XII
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Yeah. This happened in 1994 as well despite that feud being over (I assume) at that point. Kinda makes me sad Jannetty was the Jannetty-- always liked that dude.

As for HBK/Sid I actually forgot to watch that cause it was on after and I finished the Rumble late-- whoops! I'll watch it later today when I continue these.
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And yeah I'm reasonably certain the main reason I don't like HBK more is because I was always behind the other guy in his earlier career feuds too.

Hell even his minifeud with Crush in 93 I wanted Crush to kick his ass. Then again I like Crush more than like, probably any longtime wrestling fan does.
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I totally thought Crush was going to be the one to slam Yokozuna on the damn ship, not Lex
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Yes me too dammit

Just between you and me, I think they paid Crush to take a dive there
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Well Crush did join Yokozuna later. Could have been a scheme!

Also Luger gets all the glory after Yoko had been tired out from fighting off slam attempts forever. He was fatigued! What an opportunist.
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Absolutely I was referring to that dastardly Fuji. What with his schemes to... make Yoko look heavier than he is.
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I loved Kona Crush u really felt like he was on the verge of being huge
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Jakyl25 posted...

Well, the belt got vacated anyway and they had a four-way for it

And I was at that PPV! Only PPV show I've ever been to.

The best (read: worst) thing about that whole deal is that Sid literally won the belt from Bret the next night on Raw after that PPV. But I guess I can say that I got to see the entirety of a Bret Hart title reign, which is cool because he's perhaps my favorite wrestler ever.

Also, I really liked Crush back in the day, too.
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Meh, I really REALLY don't like the 97 Rumble. Like I said though, most people I know like it and the next few rumbles and I really do not.
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Not to spoil, but if memory serves that's the only attitude era rumble I'm particularly fond of

Kind of a big if though it's been quite a long time
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Then I'm definitely interested in seeing your take on the next 5 or so.
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2001 Rumble is legitimately one of the best, but the next few vary from merely good to OH GOD WHY.
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Beyond this, I can't remember specific years for Rumbles. Which one was the year Vince won?
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LeonhartFour posted...

Beyond this, I can't remember specific years for Rumbles. Which one was the year Vince won?

1999
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Vince won in 1999
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I really like 1998, despite it being literally the most predictable Rumble ever
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Honestly, at least 75% of Rumbles were just as predictable as 98 was.
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Appreciate the spoiler tags-- there hasn't been a Rumble I didn't know the winner yet (1989 and 1996 I wasn't 100% on) but they will come. I know there are a few in the mid 00s where I won't actually know.

Just (re)watched HBK/Sid. It was fine but nothing great to me. Well I guess it was great compared to most matches on these, but yeah-- probably was a lot better in the moment though for the EMOTION behind the build or whatever.

I will say this though Sycho Sid's entrance is one of my favorites. The music and the SID pyro are so good.
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_SecretSquirrel posted...

Honestly, at least 75% of Rumbles were just as predictable as 98 was.

Disagree, but this probably isn't the place for this discussion.
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So far super predictable winners have been... 1990, 1991. 1994 kinda if you were metagaming the on PPV build, though the finish was weird and not one I'd imagine anyone predicting. 1995 given how weak the field was when you think about it kinda was too despite Michaels drawing #1.

I feel like it's more of a recent development more than a long term thing-- less depth on the rosters = less viable winners.
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Well, the first few Rumbles before there was anything on the line don't really factor into the discussion, as it's the Wrestlemania main event title shot that reduces the playing field down to a sole few possibilities each year. Mind you, it's not really a bad thing, as it's the stakes involved that make the match so fun, and that there's other stories going on in the really good Rumbles that aren't related to the final outcome.

Also, 1996 was pretty damn predictable as there's no way it wasn't going to be Shawn vs. Bret at Mania.
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Royal Rumble 1998

I'll start with the positives from this thing: 4 Boricuas hitting the ring at once, D-Lo randomly picking fights with nation members for no reason, and Mick Foley cheesing with 3 entries (this would've been hilarious if Dude Love won), and The Rock in general.

Now that I've got that out of the way, let's talk about this match. I could go on about minor things that annoyed me about this, like it beginning as a hardcore match in the dumbest opener to a Rumble ever, or that Vader was in for like 5 seconds off #30, or that Owen Hart can never actually enter a Rumble without getting attacked.

Or I could go with things that aren't exactly unique to this royal rumble, that the ring kept getting overcrowded, or that there wasn't much in the way of wrestling moves mostly just people punching each other all over (which in terms of time killing techniques in a Rumble, is better than just lying there, but worse than tying up in the ropes and trying to throw the dude over), or that there were so many low leverage entries-- the first 20 entries were a total snoozefest more or less (while not quite the jobbers of 1995 since these guys were actually on RAW, hog farmers, headbangers, and doa members are pretty whatever)

But let's just really cut to the chase and explain why this Rumble really sucked. The whole storyline of this thing was AUSTIN HAS A TARGET ON HIS BACK!!! We even had several backstage segments with guys trying to take him out before the match. The announcers will not shut up about Austin whatsoever for the entire match, and the guy doesn't get there till number 24, so you've got the first 23 numbers feeling like they mean even less as a result-- imagine if in Royal Rumble 1992 Flair came out at #24, but Heenan and Monsoon were talking about Flair as much as they did. It would be awful.

So 24 hits, marked man Austin's music hits. The whole ring waits for him. Austin throws Marc Mero out with a surprise attack-- some dudes punch him, then they disperse, and Austin is basically just another guy. This irritated me to no end. He was not a marked man whatsoever. Nation members are literally prioritizing fighting nation members over taking Austin out. I guess if you were really drinking the Austin kool aid this wouldn't bother you, but yeah this just felt like I got 2 hours of hype, much of which encroached on the earlier parts of this match, for no payoff.

Oh, and Austin wins. Yeah, sorry _SecretSquirrel_ but you're wrong. This one crushes every other Rumble in terms of predictability because the announcers and backstage segments were practically holding a neon "hey, Austin is going to win" sign.

On the plus side, Taker vs Michaels was good until the finish which was dumb, and Rock vs Shamrock was fun. Also Vader vs TAFKA Goldust had an awesome finish (TAFKA Goldust is the worst). No idea why minis got a match slot on PPV but they got more of a reaction than the random AAA guys at least. Battalion looked awesome.

Royal Rumble Ranking:
1992 > 1997 > 1990 > 1994 > 1996 > 1989 > 1988 > 1993 > 1991 > 1995 > 1998

I remembered not liking this one much, but it aged a good deal worse than I expected. Internally I expected it to fit in the 1989/1988 bracket but this felt like the grotesque hybrid of the worst aspects of 1995 and 1991.

Also no Kane in the rumble. Too busy trapping taker in a casket and setting it ablaze I guess. :(
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Oh right this was the one where mil mascaras refused to job, so he threw himself out instead

Lawler was pretty good for the minis
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Lopen posted...

and Mick Foley cheesing with 3 entries (this would've been hilarious if Dude Love won)

That's pretty much the ONLY thing I liked about the actual Rumble itself, and yes he really should have won after that.

i'm glad to see you put 98 in last, however I would have put 97 down there as well. It probably helps because I really didn't like Austin during his early years. I couldn't stand him really.
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If there's one thing I actually like out of 1998, it was Rock doing one of the more underrated performances in Rumble history, logging 50 minutes after a 10 minute IC title match.
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The triple Mick Foley special is the only thing I remember about that Rumble.
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I really liked 1996-1997 Austin. His feud with Bret was amazing.

1998 Austin sorta flips between good and overexposed. This is Rumble is one of the best representations of the latter you'll ever see. Honestly if you play the Rumble out the same but remove the HE'S A MARKED MAN hype it's probably pretty middle of the road-- I'd imagine slightly better or worse than 1993 as the Rumble felt similar to that in a lot of ways (mostly the extended dead period of entrants with some more interesting spots at the ends), but it was really grating.
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Loved Rock's strategy to retain the IC Title

RIP HBK's back
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It took me a while to warm up to Austin, probably not coincidentally until Bret stopped being his biggest rival.
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Ha yeah. Dude had plans beyond plans. Hit em with knucks, plant em in the other dudes trunks in case it doesn't work and whine to the ref if you need to. Kinda dumb that the ref actually listened to him and flipped it as I feel like 9 times out of 10 they wouldn't, but it was a cool plot.

Also was a bump on the casket what ruined his back or what. I did notice a nasty one there!
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Austin vs bret>rock vs Austin

Though wwe sure likes to push the reverse.
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Bret vs. Austin felt nastier than Austin vs. Rock, no doubt.
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