By: Ben Taylor

Originally this was supposed to be a part of the piece about our writer’s favorite Royal Rumbles; but the Royal Rumble I have chosen was such a significant event, and I love it so dearly that my writing about it.. I got carried away and the next thing I knew I had an essay in front of me. Which Royal Rumble did I choose? Which Royal Rumble is so significant that it stands out to me so?

Royal Rumble 1992.

Held on: January 19th 1992 . Knickerbocker Arena, Albany New York.

Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan on commentary

Why am I picking the Rumble from ’92 when I had picked ’95 as my favorite moment? Well there are a LOT of reasons. Between the undercard the eventual outcome of the Rumble and so much more. In fact this Rumble pays forward things that really started to percolate at SummerSlam in 1991.

Let’s start with the 4 matches on the undercard.

First up you had the New Foundation Vs The Orient Express. The New Foundation had exploded on ot the scene not too long before this event, the team of Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart and “The Rocket” Owen Hart (The younger brother of Jim’s former tag team partner Bret “The Hitman” Hart”) had momentum on their side. The Orient Express however were the wily veterans led by the devious Mr Fuji with experience, teamwork, and numbers on their side. This was an EXCELLENT match, running around 17 minutes, the ending came when the New Foundation executed their finish, The Rocket Launcher and got the 1-2-3.  Now as I am fond of saying the match wasn’t all Hugs and Puppies however, a missed spot or 2, and Owen basically no selling a spot where he was sent shoulder first into the the corner, snapping Mr Fuji’s cane that had been hung over the ropes mar what was an otherwise excellent tag contest.

Next out you had The Mountie Vs “Rowdy” Roddy Piper for the Mountie’s Intercontinental Championship. Before the match, in my opinion the greatest of all time announcement team put over the fact that this is the first time in history that anyone has had an opportunity to win both the IC and World titles on the same night in different matches. A small side note here: This match raises quite a few opinions in me. You see, The Mountie had won the title days earlier from Bret Hart at a house show, where the “kayfabe” reason was that Hart was wrestling with a 104 degree temperture against Doctors orders. But it’s clear that The Mountie was really only given the belt so that he could carry it into the Rumble to give it to Piper. Which is sad; The Mountie was an entertaining heel who probably could have had an excellent run with the belt had circumstances been different. Then we come to Piper, who after slapping his patented sleeper hold on, won the IC title in this match. The Only Singles title Piper ever held in the WWE, which we now know he only really got because he wanted to give the rub to Bret at Wrestlemania. That is a damned shame. Piper may be just as, if not more responsible for putting the WWE on the map than Hulkamania (after all there are no heroes without villains to beat.) He deserved more accolades on a singles level. Then again, one might argue he didn’t need titles to be huge. Fair, but I WANTED him to have more. So the sheer fact of seeing Piper walk out of this match with the IC strap, My favorite title.. automatically makes this amazing for me.

Third on the Undercard you had The Bushwhackers Vs The Beverly Brothers. The best thing about this match was getting to hear The Genuis read us a poem. No, seriously. it really was. If it weren’t for Heenan making fun of the bushwhackers, I might have fallen asleep. Just a stinker. NEXT.

The final undercard match was The Natural Disasters Vs The Legion of Doom for the Tag Team Titles. This was one of the through lines that had come out of SummerSlam ’91 where The Natural Disasters had started to menace Andre The Giant who at the time was on Crutches, and the LoD had come out and barred their way. This also lead to one of my favorite moments in Promos ever, where Hawk turns around and says “Well Mean Gene, Do you know what makes us sick other than EVERYTHING?” The Match overall was sloppy, lots of rest holds, but in the end the Natural Disasters won the match Via countout, and since Titles can only change has by pinfall or submission, meant that LoD retained the belts. This lead to no end of frustration for the Disasters.

Then we get to the Rumble match itself. In which the WWE title was on the line for the last remaining man in the ring.

Prior to the Rumble, WWE president Jack Tunney had announced he was stripping Hulk Hogan of the title due to the nature of the title matches at Survivor Series in 1991 and the “Tuesday in Texas”event. Also, in 1991 one of the biggest names in the wrestling industry Ric Flair, left WCW and joined WWE. Appearing on television with what had become known as the “Big Gold Belt” proclaiming himself the ”Real World’s Champion” and the WWE had been distorting the belt whenever it was seen on TV. In England we’d not really had access to NWA/WCW programing so the only exposure I had to Flair was pretaped stuff. I was a huge fan. so when he appeared in WWE, I was over the moon. I’ve never cared if a guy was a Face (good guy) or a Heel (bad guy) just if they were good, and Flair is, arguably, in the top 3 in ring performers of all time. Also at Summerslam 1991 we saw the debut of Sid Justice.

Throughout the night on commentary, Heenan, who was part of Flair’s camp alongside Mr. Perfect, had been talking about slipping away to find out what number Flair had drawn, as at what point in the 30 entrants you enter is usually random. It turned out that Flair entered at number 3. Monsoon instantly started to taunt his broadcast colleague “You know Brain, No-one who has entered in the first five has ever been there at the end of the Royal Rumble.” Damn was he wrong. The whole night fresh wrestlers would come into the ring and go straight for Flair.. and unlike many who have done the beginning to end since, he never stopped moving, fighting, wrestling, or bumping. I added bumping at the end there because it’s important to note that Flair wasn’t some destructive force, he was getting his ass beat the whole time, and making whoever he was working with at the time look like a million dollars. When the smoke cleared, the final 4 in the ring were Sid Justice, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage. I had been wishing beyond hope that Flair would win but seeing this final four my heart sank. Flair was in the ring with the 3 biggest baby faces in the company.

Then there was a flurry of activity; Randy was out and Hogan was tossed over the top by Sid Justice. And then something happened.. Hogan revealed how much of a cheater he was. Now, Hogan had always been known to rack peoples eyes and back or use his T-shirt to his advantage, and people always cheered for some reason. But then, he held out a hand to Sid to shake it as if to say well done, and when he got Sid’s hand, he held on and pulled him down towards the floor allowing Flair to slide in and eliminate Sid; leaving Flair as the last man in the ring that night and the NEW WWE World champion. The crowd revolted as Sid and Hogan swapped insults as Flair headed to the back to be crowned. And the rest.. is history. Topped off by an amazing promo including the legendary  “I can tell you all.. with a tear in my eye….”

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x18saw9_1992-royal-rumble-ric-flair-victory-speech_sport

Apart from Ric Flair now being champion in both major companies, apart from Hogan showing his true colors, and aside from the history making moment that happened at the end of the Rumble; the ’92 edition is also the start of the world title being involved in the Rumble match. From here on out, the winner of the Rumble got a word title shot at Wrestlemania. It seems especially relevant this year as some  24 years later, this Sunday Roman Reigns enters the Royal Rumble at #1 with his WWE title on the line. Who ever is the last man in the ring on Sunday will, like Ric Flair in 1992, be crowned WWE World’s Heavyweight champion.

Who do you think it is going to be? Who is walking out of Royal Rumble the champion?

Let us know in the comments.