The Royal Rumble is always my favorite wrestling event of the year. The unpredictability of 30 men in one match filled with complete surprises and randomness makes it so special. Plus because it only happens once a year and treated with such regard by WWE, it has kept its aura as something special.
This year marks the 25th consecutive year of the Royal Rumble, which is an incredible milestone. This year marks the 20th anniversary of arguably the greatest Royal Rumble in history, Royal Rumble 1992. In 2007 the company hyped that year’s Royal Rumble match as the “most star-studded ever.” While that hype job was nice, but there should be no question in anyone’s minds what was really the most star-studded Rumble ever – Royal Rumble 1992. It was the only event where the winner became the new WWF Champion and was the precursor to the whole “winner gets a WrestleMania title shot” thing that has carried on since 1993.
Therefore it is only logical take a look back and review the 1992 Royal Rumble match, just hours before the 2012 Royal Rumble unfolds live on pay per view.
My favorite match…
Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan.
The match opens with “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith and “Million $ Man” Ted DiBiase. It seems as if this would be a big opening to the match, but Bulldog gets rid of DiBiase quickly, before the opening two minutes is even up. It was believed that DiBiase was legit injured at this point, and so it was imperative that he needed to get in and out quickly without killing too much of his heat. The buzzer rings for number three, and Ric Flair walks out as DiBiase heads back to the dressing room. Monsoon immediately writes off Flair’s challenges as Heenan is outraged, claiming it’s not “fair to Flair.” Flair and Davey Boy do battle until Nasty Boy Jerry Sags hits the ring. Bulldog eliminates Sags in short order, and Haku follows soon after. Haku battles both Bulldog and Flair, before Bulldog eliminates him as well. Davey Boy is starting off on the right foot to say the least.
Shawn Michaels comes out as number six, fresh from his break-up of The Rockers. Shawn and Flair go at it in early glimpse of the magic they have later on. Heenan has already begun to lose it on commentary as everyone attacks Flair. Tito Santana is next and of course goes right after Flair as well. Next up as Barbarian, which prompts Monsoon to ominously say “Barbarian doesn’t like Flair.” Heenan retorts with, “Barbarian doesn’t like anyone. When I managed him be barely liked me.” Kerry Von Erich comes out as number nine, to big pops from the crowd. Flair meets him center ring and they brawl in a nice throwback to their old feud in Texas in the mid ‘80s that of course I had no recollection of when watching this as a young nine-year-old. Heenan claims the next man out should bring a “big crescent wrench” with him to help even the odds.
Repo Man follows up next as the ring begins to fill up. His cartoon-ish gimmick stands out from the talent currently in the ring. They keep refreshing the crowd on how long Bulldog and Flair have been in the ring, as Greg “The Hammer” Valentine comes out. Naturally he and Flair start trading sick chops, as the ring is filling up ghosts of Flair’s past. Monsoon and Heenan hype up Hammer’s stamina and the length of time he was in the Rumble last year. The next man out is Nikolai Volkoff, who I believe was the replacement for the injured/fired/relapsed Marty Jannetty. Young Shawn Michaels is working in some “tall cotton” amongst all these veterans. Valentine slaps Flair in the Figure Four in the middle of the ring to a huge pop, the same time as Repo Man eliminates Volkoff.
Big Boss Man is out as lucky number 13, and gets a big pop from the crowd. Repo also eliminates Valentine during the excitement of Boss Man’s entrance. Boss Man hits everyone in the ring and then throws out Repo. It’s a pretty stacked roster in there right now. Flair then backdrops Davey Boy and Von Erich almost back-to-back to clean out the ring some more. As Hercules makes his entrance, Santana and Michaels eliminate each other. Flair is now in the ring with a bunch of monsters like Barbarian, Boss Man and Hercules. Flair begging of Barbarian after double-crossing him with a chop still cracks me up. Then as Barbarian tries to dump Flair, Hercules sneaks up from behind and tosses him. Boss Man then does the same to Hercules, leaving Flair and Boss Man alone in the ring. Crowd is rabid at this point. They duke it out until Boss Man misses a cross-body and eliminates himself.
Flair is left alone in the ring as Heenan screams that “Flair is the Champion of the World.” Flair gets a much needed ten second breather, until the buzzer rings and number fifteen “Rowdy” Roddy Piper runs to the ring like a madman. Flair immediately begs off, as Piper is a “house of fire.” The crowd is nuts at this point, as they brawl around the ringside area. Piper then puts Flair out with a sleeper hold as super evil Jake “The Snake” Roberts slides into the ring and coolly just watches Piper put Flair to sleep. Roberts and Piper brawl with each other as Flair is laid out in the middle of the ring. Heenan continues to excel on commentary as he thanks Roberts for helping Flair, and then takes it back moments later for turning on Flair. He then sucks up to Piper for saving Flair, only to chastise him seconds later. Hacksaw Jim Duggan is out next as Heenan claims Flair was “jobbed” in the number drawing and claimed Hulk Hogan had something to do with it. IRS is out at number eighteen and draws a healthy round of boos. He too goes right after Flair. It just dawned on me…are all these guys going right to Flair to call spots from the back? The announcers begin hyping up how The Snake is paranoid of “Macho Man” Randy Savage’s impending arrival, finally giving the match a secondary storyline. The next guy out is Superfly Jimmy Snuka, and guess who he attacks first. The announcers start hyping up all the main event talent we have yet to see in order to kill time. They also make note that Hogan and Undertaker, as the last two WWF World Heavyweight Champions, got preferential treatment in the draw and could only pick from numbers 20 – 30.
Sure enough Undertaker is out next at #20. He takes Snuka out immediately before turning his attention to Flair. Heenan decries it’s all down the toilet as ‘Taker chokes out Flair, and then thanks Duggan in the same breath for the save. There are a lot of heels in there now so sure enough The Macho Man is out next to even up the odds. He sprinted down the aisle to get to Roberts, but gets intercepted by Undertaker and IRS as Roberts high-tails it out of the ring. Savage finally gets a hold of Roberts, kicks his tail all around the ring for a while and then eliminates him. Savage then jumped over the top rope to continue to attack The Snake. Oops, he shouldn’t have done that. Undertaker then rolls out to save things by getting Savage back in the ring and saving Roberts. On the fly Monsoon and Heenan make a save for Savage’s over-the-top rope botch by claiming that a man needs to be propelled over the top by someone else in order to be properly eliminated. Savage is back in like nothing happened as Berzerker is out as #22. They hype up Berzerker’s penchant for throwing people over the top rope in regular matches, and the possibility of Piper, the current Intercontinental Champion, becoming a dual titleholder. Virgil is the next entrant; oh yeah he will clean up the dead wood. Heenan makes me laugh by wondering how many bags Virgil went through in the back while waiting for his number to be called. The hits keep coming as Col. Mustafa is number #24. The match slows down as the crowd is getting restless waiting for Hogan to appear. And next up is Rick “The Model” Martel as Heenan laments the late draws for other main event stars like Hogan, Sid and Sgt. Slaughter. Savage eliminates Mustafa to little fanfare during the chaos. The match is definitely in a slow period, so Duggan wakes up the crowd with some U-S-A chants.
Finally Hulk Hogan makes his appearance and the crowd goes crazy. He goes for Flair right away, but then gets ganged up on by Berzerker, Undertaker and IRS. Meanwhile Heenan is praying for a Flair victory. Then just like that Hogan clotheslines out Undertaker and backdrops Berzerker to the floor in quick succession; all before ripping off his t-shirt. During Hogan’s celebration Virgil and Duggan eliminate each other as the dead wood continues to go. Just as I say that thought, Skinner comes out as #27. Heenan continues to pray for Flair’s victory, as they announce hat Flair has surpassed he all-time Rumble longevity record set my Rick Martel the previous year. Sgt. Slaughter is out, just as Martel eliminates Skinner. Sarge naturally goes after Flair as they announcers make note that four former World Champions are all currently in the match. They are now just killing time awaiting the next guy’s arrival, who happens to be Sid Justice. Sid, not surprisingly, gets a huge pop. Both Gorilla and Heenan are doing a great job of putting over Flair’s effort here. The crowd freaks when Sid gets a hold of Flair, hoping for an elimination.
The Warlord is lucky number 30, leaving him, Sid, Slaughter, IRS, Piper, Martel, Savage, Hogan and Flair as the last nine participants. Flair and Hogan brawl on the outside of he ring. Sid gets rid of Slaughter with Slaughter’s famous “hit-the-buckles-too-hard-and-sail-over-the-top” spot that he did in every battle royal I ever saw him in. Piper then pulls out IRS by yanking on his tie, which draws a big pop. Sid and Hogan double team Warlord and send him packing. Sid cleans out the rest of the jobbers by dumping both Piper and Martel.
Which leaves the greatest final four ever with Sid, Savage, Flair and Hogan. Sid sets Savage up on the ropes, only to catch a knee in the back from Flair. The momentum causes Justice to dump Savage to the floor. Flair then goes to back to work on Hogan. Hogan takes control and starts putting the boots to Flair, so Sid comes up behind and throws Hogan out. Hogan, naturally throws a sh!t fit on the floor, like the good babyface he is. Hogan then grabs Sid to pull him out so Flair comes from behind and dumps him.
Flair is announced as new WWF World Heavyweight Champion as Bobby Heenan is beside himself in the broadcast booth. Naturally Hogan and Sid end up back in the ring arguing, taking away from Flair’s victory. Meanwhile Flair goes to the back to get his Championship from President Jack Tunney and delivers the promo of his lifetime alongside Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan. He delivers the infamous “with a tear in my eye” line, and then namedrops Hogan, Savage, Piper and Undertaker as his next legitimate contenders. Meanwhile Gene almost steals the interview by telling someone off camera “to put that cigarette” out as the trio continues to celebrate his victory.
It should be noted that while Flair put on the match of a lifetime with some of the most famous wrestlers in history, Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan should be commended for their fantastic announcing duty. They put over ever talent that came through the curtain as a viable contender, but made sure to keep the heat on the Flair going the distance storyline. They also kept fire on the other storylines like Savage-Roberts, Piper’s quest to dual titles and the longevity reign. They natural witty banter kept the match flowing during the few slow spots and just completely added to the entire experience, the way commentators should.
It was the event that showed Ric Flair wouldn’t just be a legend to the fans of the NWA and WCW, but to a whole new generation of fans in the cartoon world of the WWF. And he did by battling a host of top quality talent that any wrestling promoter would kill to have all under one payroll. This doesn’t even include all the talent included in the undercard, like Owen Hart, Bret Hart, “Mountie” Jacques Rougeau and The Road Warriors. At this point WWF really did have the best of the best under one roof. I mean, The Bushwackers versus The Beverly Brothers? That really is a main event anywhere in the country.
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