With the Royal Rumble approaching its 30th show it this special Royal Rumble Week, Old Skool View, in classic Rumble fashion is going to look at my own personal favourite moments from Royal Rumbles gone by.
#1 – Hacksaw Jim Duggan wins the first Royal Rumble match in 1988. Sure the Rumble match itself was only 20 participants but still it was Hacksaw that won the match. An interesting fact or two from this Rumble match, the first ever elimination was Butch Reed and Bret Hart lasted over 25 minutes in the match.
#2 – Tag Team Champions Ax & Smash enter #1 & #2 in the 1989 Royal Rumble match. I was a huge Demolition fan back in the day, so the first team I watched the 1989 Royal Rumble I got pretty damn excited when the Demolition theme boomed out twice in a row.
#3 – Ted DiBiase lasts 44 minutes in 1990. Obviously in later years this got bettered, but this was 1990, and Ted DiBiase entered at #1, and managed to eliminate 4 men before finally being put out by Warrior.
#4 – Sgt Slaughter becomes WWF Champion in 1991. Slaughter went from a decent face to the ultimate heel with his Iraqi sympathiser gimmick. He won the title from Warrior with the help of Macho King, but I loved seeing this massive turncoat wear the gold, even if it was for a short period of time.
#5 – Ric Flair wins the WWF Title in the Royal Rumble match in 1992. Ric Flair, dubbed the real world champion, entered the Rumble match at #3, lasted over an hour and stopped Hogan winning 3 in a row, legendary stuff.
#6 – Giant Gonzalez takes out the Undertaker in 1993. Here we have it, The Undertaker looking dominant and Harvey Whippleman appears with this massive man, he takes out Taker and they go on to have a stinker at WM, however it was one of those holy shit moments, well for the early 90’s it was anyway.
#7 – Undertaker rises from the casket in 1994. A casket match between Taker and Yokozuna, where Master Fuji got his friends to help Yoko retain the title, post match Taker seemingly rose from the casket as a beam of light, weird moment but it’s one of those I remember fondly.
#8 – HBK goes coast to coast in 1995. Now 1995 was a short rumble, 38 minutes or so in total but that doesn’t take away from HBK entering #1 and winning, for what it’s worth Davey Boy Smith aka The British Bulldog entered #2 and was last eliminated too.
#9 – Goldust becoming Intercontinental Champion in 1996. This match was with Razor Ramon. I just love the chemistry and psychology this pair had for the match and for the feud on the whole. If you watch anything from the 1996 rumble, make it this match.
#10 – Faarooq eliminates himself in 1997. So here we have the fearless leader of the Nation of Domination eliminating himself after Ahmed Johnson, who was in a feud with Faarooq chased him off with Jim Duggans 2×4 haha.
#11 – The three faces of Foley in 1998. Mrs Foley’s baby boy entered the Rumble match at #1 as Cactus Jack, #16 as Mankind and #28 as Dude Love, brilliant stuff.
#12 – The Ministry kidnaps Mabel in 1999 – Mable got himself into the Rumble by attacking one of the Headbangers, and the Ministry attacked and kidnapped Mable thus turning him into Viscera. I do like the random things huh?
#13 – Taz debuts and beats Kurt Angle in 2000 – Kurt Angle, undefeated, and the debuting Taz just destroys him in 3 minutes, what a debut.
#14 – Chris Jericho vs Chris Benoit Ladder Match in 2001 – This match was for the Intercontinental Championship and the pair pulled off some fancy moves involving the ladder. These two certainly brought out the best in eachother and had some awesome matches.
#15 – Maven eliminates Taker in 2002 – The tough enough winner eliminates the Deadman and gets a royal arse whooping for it, so for all you Maven fans out there, this one is for you.
#16 – Kurt Angle vs Chris Benoit in 2003 – If you haven’t seen this match, please, please, please go and do so, as you won’t be disappointed . I must revisit the Angle/Benoit feuds as they really were very special.
#17 – Lesnar F5’s Goldberg in 2004 – Need I say more? Sure it lead to the worst match in WM history (I’m sure they’ll make it up) but this was one of those did that really just happen moments.
#18 – Vince tears both quads in 2005 – So the finish was botched, but Vince…tearing both quads by botching a ring entry? Classic stuff.
#19 – Undertaker makes ring collapse on Angle in 2006. After Angle retained the World Heavyweight Championship against Mark Henry, Taker appeared and well the rest is as it says. The biggest shame is we didn’t get Angle vs Taker at WM.
#20 – John Cena vs Umaga Last Man Standing Match in 2007 – Hard hitting and superb. Cena still gets a lot of hate for his in ring work but he’s actually pretty damn good at what he does and this match shows it.
#21 – John Cena’s return in 2008. Nobody, and I mean nobody saw this one coming. The look on Triple H’s face said it all, and that return does beat the rest of the Rumble returns hands down.
#22 – Santino’s 1 second appearance in 2009 – Move over Warlord, Santino is in the house. Fits the character so well, so thank you for this unbreakable record Santino.
#23 – Beth Phoenix eliminated Great Khali in 2010 – Well what can one say? She planted a lip lock on him and eliminated him, was still a great Rumble moment.
#24 – Alberto Del Rio wins biggest Rumble ever in 2011 – The 40 man experiment only lasted a year and thank god for that right? Twas far too long and too many filler talent, but Bertie won it not that he did much with the win.
#25 – Michael Cole enters the 2012 Rumble – We all hated the whole Cole wrestling experiment, but we all tuned in to see him get battered right?
#26 – Rock ends Punks reign in 2013 – I utterly despised this outcome and Punk should have held until Wrestlemania, but I can’t help but admit it was one of those Rumble moments i’ll remember, albeit for the wrong reasons.
#27 – Kofi’s athleticism in 2014 – Kofi gets in the Rumble match just to see what he can come up with to avoid elimination but in 2014 he had two moments haha. I look forward to see what you can do this year Kofi.
#28 – Roman Reigns gets booed out of the building in 2015 – WWE made the mistake of bringing Daniel Bryan back then going with Roman for the win. This is when it started to become the in thing to hate on Reigns.
#29 – AJ Styles debut in 2016 – Man of the year in 2016. I know the cameramen kind of screwed it up a little by focusing too much on Roman Reigns but my word the best Rumble debut ever.
#30 – A stacked 2017 Rumble match. Now I know this hasn’t happened yet but with Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, The Undertaker, Seth Rollins, Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, Sheamus, Dean Ambrose & The Miz already announced that is 9 former World Champions already entered. It should be a cracker!
So there we have it. As always you can discuss my favourite moments with me on twitter at any time. Come and share your own favourite moments too as I do enjoy interacting with our readers.
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