Best Royal Rumble Ever

[Buddy Lee]

With this being the weekend of WWE's latest Royal Rumble event, I thought we could try and look back at some of the best Rumble events of all time.

What is your favorite Royal Rumble?

My favorite Royal Rumble was the one in 1992. After Tuesday in Texas, Hulk Hogan defeated the Undertaker to win back the WWE title. However, Ric Flair had interfered and the match was mired in controversy. Then President Jack Tunney stripped Hogan of the title and announced the winner of the 92 Royal Rumble would become the undisputed world champion.

And, it was a classic Rumble match with Flair drawing #3. He would outlast some of the greatest talent in wrestling such as: the aforementioned Hogan and Taker, Intercontinental champ Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Hacksaw Duggan, IRS, Ted DiBiase, Greg Valentine, Randy "Macho Man" Savage, Rick Martel, Barbarian, Haku, Big Bossman, British Bulldog, and Sid Vicious.

It was the most entertaining Rumble I had ever seen complete with a laugh-out loud commentary from the late Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan.

[Ordinary Guy]

If were talking the Royal Rumble match itself then.

I can't remember the year of this Rumble nor who won it, but I remember one of the ongoing fueds that went on at the time was between Jake " The Snake" Roberts and the late Andre the Giant.

For weeks Jake Roberts had been tormenting Andre with his fear of what else snakes.

Leading up to the Rumble Andre was the odds on favorite to win.

In the match Jake "The Snake" had already been in the ring for a while until the Giant's number was called. The first person the Giant eliminated was Roberts, Jake went back to the locker room then about 5-10 minutes later Jake returned to the ring with his friend in bag. Andre was beating up someone in one of the far corners of the ring. Jake entered the ring and opened up the bag and pulled out his snake Damien. Everyone else left the ring under the bottom rope not Andre. He saw that snake and jumped over the top rope therefore eliminating himself.

One of the worst Rumble moments was the year the had all 3 of the Foley characters (Cactus Jack, Mankind, Dude Love) entered into the Rumble.

[EinBebop]

Depends on whether you're talking about the Rumble match itself, or the overall card. 92's always a strong favorite, but WWF has done a great job the last three years. Even last's years was good despite the WWF being in a slump at the time. I think I'd have to rank them top this way:

Royal Rumble PPV's as a whole:
1. 2001 - completely solid card save for Chyna/Ivory
2. 1992 - not as strong of an undercard, but the best Rumble match ever
3. 2000 - Another good card top to bottom, but not quite as solid as 2000 despite a better rumble match... which still wasn't anywhere near as memorable as 1992.

Top Rumble matches
1. 1992 - Really, what do I have to say about this?
2. 1995 - I was a huge Shawn Michaels mark in the day, and had to call up my fellow wrestling fan disappointed that Shawn had drawn #1. She laughed at me because she hated Shawn. She would call every ten minutes for an update, and I would tell her what had happened, and add in sarcastically, "Shawn's still in it! I think he's going to go all the way!" Shawn actually lasting until the end and the surprise win was one of my top moments as a wrestling fan.
3. 1990 - JUST BARELY edging out 2000. 1989-2000 was a solid run just as 2000-20001 was. The confrontation between Ultimate Warrior and Hogan sends 90 over the top.

[Buddy Lee]

EinBebop, those are some great mentions. I forgot how great the 1990 RR was with the Ultimate Confrontation setting up the Ultimate Challenge at WM 6. One of the better WM's.

What did you think about the 94 RR? That was the one where Diesel went berzerk and chucked all the mid-carders out of the ring and Bret Hart and Lex Luger threw each other out in the end.

Bro Man, I think you are referring to the 1989 RR. The one where Andre (in one of the lowlights in his great career) eliminated himself because he was scared to death of snakes. I think the late John Studd won eliminating Ted DiBiase and Virgil to win.

[EinBebop]

Originally posted by Buddy Lee
What did you think about the 94 RR? That was the one where Diesel went berzerk and chucked all the mid-carders out of the ring and Bret Hart and Lex Luger threw each other out in the end. Diesel eliminating everybody, then waiting for the next victim to throw out of the ring? That moment made his career; how could you say anything bad about it? Unless you hate Kevin Nash, then you'd probably have a lot of bad things to say about it... :) It's probably in the top five Royal Rumble moments if I were to try to figure that.

From the Steiners and the just-turned Owen, to Diesel, to Savage/Crush, the first two-thirds was pretty strong. But most of the 20's were guys that I didn't care about, save for Shawn and Bret. Much as I was a Michaels fan, I knew that it was going to be either Luger or Bret to take it, most likely Luger since he seemed to be on the same path as Brock is now; Bret had a built-in excuse with the knee injury.

And then, of course, was the screwy ending which didn't work for me either. As screwy Rumble endings go, I much prefer Shawn's '95 "feet didn't touch the floor" (obviously!) or Austin's elimination not being seen by the referees. Because as a general rule, I hate any PPV that leaves me unfulfilled until I see Raw the next day.

As for the rest of the card, the only thing worth mentioning was the Harts/Quebecers match, and the heel turn afterward. Undertaker's resurrection was just plain stupid. And I was not a big fan of Razor Ramon (until WCW), IRS, Tatatatatanka, or Bam Bam Bigelow, so everything else was a blow-off for me.

So call it an average Rumble on a below-average PPV, for my tastes.

[Buddy Lee]

Don't get me wrong I liked the 94 RR. The Diesel performance alone was well worth the price of the PPV. The ending was complete BS though.