All right I just finished 1988. The winner, of course, was Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Given his popularity at the time, I think this was a good choice.
The biggest problem is that the match was completely overshadowed by Andre and Hogan. Doing the contract signing right before the Rumble really took something away from it.
But here are my thoughts.
Winner: I will give this an 8/10. Winning the Rumble didn't really mean much of anything yet. Hacksaw actually put on a good performance and this is probably one of the best moments of his career.
Match: 7/10. It was still a novelty at the time. But it is enjoyable on the rewatch to see a lot of the old guys out there.
Surprises: 0/10 This was before they started doing that. I will have to go through a lot of Rumbles before I get to those.
But it is worth a watch. I enjoyed it.
Now on to 1989. One of my all time favorites, Big John Studd makes his only Rumble appear ever.