Royal Rumble Past Royal Rumble Rate Thread

[Jacob Fox]

Royal Rumble 1994 ***

This Rumble was a bit better than the year before. This was the year of Diesel and this was the match that made him a contender. For seven entries he dominated the ring. He was the first person to do this and it would be replicated later by other wrestlers such as Steve Austin, Rikishi and Kane. It doesn't happen often but when it does happen it is fun and this was the first time.

The double winner thing was pretty neat. However, it was awful as the ending of a PPV. I mean, a PPV usually gives closure but this one had none. It was weird. It was nice how it translated to Wrestlemania though. DIbiase was good as a color commentator. Not much more to comment on. This was Diesel's Rumble despite him not winning and his run is the best reason to watch it.

 

[Jacob Fox]

1995 Royal Rumble **1/2 I have to give this a low score for a couple of reasons. The major reason is the inane idea to have only 60 seconds between entrants. 90 seconds is okay, but 60 was just awful. So they had the first man, Shawn Michaels, win from number one but he lasted less time than plenty of other wrestlers in the past. Ric Flair, Bob Backlund, Rick Martel, Ted Dibiase all had longer times. Having the first number one winner win by only going 40 minutes was a bad idea. The match itself wasn't horrible. It was enjoyable, but there were no really legendary moments other than having number one and number two both be the last two left. The best part was having HBK only have one foot hit the floor, which many of us knew was going to happen before the match even began. WWF was really playing up the two feet rule and emphasizing it more on TV than ever before. This let us know that it would play into the ending.

1996 ****1/2 This is one of my favorite Rumbles. The arena looks nice. We have good commentary from Mr. Perfect and even Vince McMahon isn't as awful as usual. He played well off of Perfect. There was so much to enjoy in this match. Triple H as Hunter Hearst Helmsley had a long run in the ring. Vader's fit when he was eliminated was great and even Gorilla Monsoon had to get involved. It was an interesting story. But nothing beat the moment when HBK eliminated Diesel and everyone thought Diesel was going to kill him. It was a great moment, which of course led to Diesel hanging around and getting into a fight with the Undertaker. Top notch match. I can watch it over and over.

1997 **** This is another one of my favorites and a very important lead in to the Attitude Era. This match was all about Stone Cold Steve Austin and Bret Hart. Austin came in early to a dead crowd. Despite WWE's retroactive claim that Austin got mega popular right after King of the Ring 1996, he didn't get the cheers they felt he did. Austin dominated the match. He twice cleared the ring and eliminated opponent after opponent. Of course, it was great how scared he looked when Bret Hart returned to the ring. But the story at the end was perfect. Bret eliminated Austin while the referees weren't looking and Austin eliminated Bret to win the match. Bret's fit afterwards was legendary and it led directly to the most important match maybe in WWE history: the Wrestlemania 13 Submission match. This match made Austin a fan favorite and was the turning point of the Monday Night War. This Rumble was more of a set up for that than for anything else. Even despite that this was the main point, the whole thing is worth watching. It's an excellent Rumble.

 

[Solidus1]

Well I am watching them out of order so I hope it doesn't get confusing. After posting ratings for the ones I have written so far, I'll go back to 1990 and try the rest in order. I am watching the 2000 one as we speak. Interestingly enough, it is my second favorite Rumble ever after 1992.

Royal Rumble 2000 ***** This was an example of WWE doing everything right. There was so much in this match. We had the one guy who dominated the ring for a while in Rikishi. We had great commentary from Jerry Lawler and Jim Ross. There was story telling with Kai en tai coming into the ring over and over. I thought it was great how Taka Michinoku's famed moment will probably be Jerry Lawler asking to watch his being thrown out of the ring over and over again. Even the controversial ending made for more story telling on Raw. This was, in my opinion, as near to a perfect Rumble as you can get after 1992. The headbangers were fun, Rikishi was great. I regret not watching it live.

I loved Rikishi as a kid and remember the moment Viscera came out. 10 year old me who thought wrestling was real was very nervous.
I'm wondering if you'll enjoy Kane's destruction in '01 as much as me, the best Royal Rumble performance ever from my favorite ever.

 

[Jacob Fox]

I loved Rikishi as a kid and remember the moment Viscera came out. 10 year old me who thought wrestling was real was very nervous.
I'm wondering if you'll enjoy Kane's destruction in '01 as much as me, the best Royal Rumble performance ever from my favorite ever.

Well I've seen 2001 plenty of times. I've actually seen every Royal Rumble ever multiple times but I wanted to do this before the big show. But I won't tell you what I think until I watch 2001 again.

 

[Jacob Fox]

1998 Royal Rumble ***1/2 This was around the time the WWF began to pull themselves out of a serious slump. This Rumble really wasn't one of the best, but it was enjoyable. Having Mick Foley appear as all three of his incarnations was pretty creative. But in spite of this, the whole match was really about the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin separately. The Rock's seeds of eventually taking over the Nation of Domination had been planted and they sprouted a bit in this match. But Steve Austin was given a nigh impossible task of winning the match despite being a "marked man." When Austin was announced, everyone turned toward the entrance and it seemed likely he would get eliminated quickly. However, he appeared throughout the crowd and beat everyone off of him. He eventually won and moved on to Wrestlemania to win the match.

There wasn't a whole lot special about this match. It was as fun as an average Rumble can be and was nothing more than a way to push Austin to the main event. Enjoyable, don't get me wrong, but not memorable really.

 

[Jacob Fox]

1999 Royal Rumble **** I don't know why I love this one so much but I just all around like it. I like the whole story with Austin and Vince and just loved how the two interact. I also liked how the Rock tricked Austin and gave Vince the win!

2001 ****1/2 This was just great for many reasons. I know why Solidus probably mostly liked it, because this was dominance for Kane. That was great! I also liked the interaction with Kane and Taker, I like the interaction with Triple H and Steve Austin. Drew Carey was silly but his reactions were still enjoyable. This was just from beginning to end. If Kane had won this, it would have to go down as the all around all time most dominating Rumble performance. But then Roman had to break his record. But still, he is the reason to watch it and it's enjoyable from point to point. I had to love Raven getting the bowling ball to the crotch too, as a fan of the low blow. Oh and Haku coming back was great too. If only they let him be himself....

2002 **** Another Rumble that just did so much right. It was great to see Mr Perfect back. I also enjoyed Rikishi a lot in this one. But of course, this was the story of the come back of Triple H. Of course there was also Maven eliminating Undertaker and then getting completely destroyed. I can watch that a million times over.

2004 **** Despite the fact that this is contraversial because of Chris Benoit, I still think this was an excellent Rumble. Benoit did put on a great performance but it wasn't just that... this was the first Rumble I watched when I began watching wrestling again so it still means something to me. The way everyone went after the Big Show late in the match was pretty cool. It can be hard to watch due to the Benoit stuff though so I will comment no more.

2005 *** I watched this one out of order because I wanted to see Daniel Puder get his ass kicked and I really enjoyed it. Other than that, the most memorable part was Vince McMahon hurting himself when trying to get into the ring. You got to give it to him, he is a tough old guy to suffer such a painful injury and keep his face straight while sitting in the ring. Ironic how Batista was the winner and yet it was John Cena who went on to be the bigger star. You gotta love how Ric Flair tried to eliminated Batista and failed miserably

I probably won't make it through all of the Rumbles but I will keep trying!

 

[Grievous 3D]

2001 ****1/2 This was just great for many reasons. I know why Solidus probably mostly liked it, because this was dominance for Kane. That was great! I also liked the interaction with Kane and Taker, I like the interaction with Triple H and Steve Austin. Drew Carey was silly but his reactions were still enjoyable. This was just from beginning to end. If Kane had won this, it would have to go down as the all around all time most dominating Rumble performance. But then Roman had to break his record. But still, he is the reason to watch it and it's enjoyable from point to point. I had to love Raven getting the bowling ball to the crotch too, as a fan of the low blow. Oh and Haku coming back was great too. If only they let him be himself....

Second.Best.Rumble.Ever!