1992 WWF Royal Rumble
January 19, 1992
Albany, NY
Reviewed on January 23, 2015
The more things change, the more they stay the same.
1991 was an interesting year for the WWF. They lost a major top star in The Ultimate Warrior, but created two others in Sid Justice and The Undertaker. They also signed the biggest non-WWF name in professional wrestling: Ric Flair.
That’s what makes this Royal Rumble so interesting. The WWF could have went in a number of directions here. Recapping This Tuesday In Texas, Hulk Hogan regained the WWF Title from The Undertaker…only there were murky circumstances regarding the finish. Jack Tunney held the WWF Title up…and made it the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. There are five conceivable winners, three that were likely and two that were less likely. They each represented a different direction for the WWF. They were:
Hogan: It would be the “status quo”. Hogan winning here would have gotten a big pop, but Hulk’s star had been fading ever so slightly at this point. It would only get worse with all the steroid issues surrounding him.
Sid: Considered to be the next Hogan and had clearly been on Hogan’s side back at Summerslam where he was a ref.
Flair: Other than Savage, Flair would be the first “wrestling” WWF Champion in the Vince Jr. era. A showdown with Hogan would be assured for Mania though (of course, that’s not what happened). It would also give a huge sense of legitimacy to WCW.
And the two who had a chance, but not a great one.
Undertaker: Basically the transitional champion to lead to this situation. His gimmick was crazy over though, and he could have been the top heel at Mania. He’s already established as a main eventer (and would be forever) because of his win over Hogan for the title at Survivor Series. I’m sure there was a scenario out there that could have had Taker vs. Sid for the title five years earlier than it actually happened.
Randy Savage: The face route that isn’t Sid or Hogan, but he should be facing Jake at Mania (which he didn’t, but that would be the logic).
Let’s see which way the WWF went.
The Card
Vince’s announcement of who is in the Rumble is hilarious.
The Orient Express vs. The New Foundation
The New Foundation is Owen and Neidhart. I have no idea what the point of making them look ridiculous was. When they teamed up in 1994 they were a lot more badass since they dressed just like the original Foundation.
The Express is Pat Tanaka and Kaito…who is really Paul Diamond.
Owen was always really good. Frankensteiner was nice.
Owen becomes the face in peril. He was great at that too.
Pat Tanaka screws up an Owen bulldog by falling too quickly.
Awesome suicide dive from Owen!
The New Foundation win when Owen pinned Tanaka in 17:18. Rocket Launcher for the win. Good match that seemed a bit long, but it’s Owen, so no problem there. Anvil and Owen played the opening match babyface role well, I just don’t get why they had to wear Doink’s pajama paints.
Story about Bret Hart defending the IC title against The Mountie despite a 104 degree fever. This would be the Mania VIII set-up for Bret and Piper. Piper is Bret’s replacement here.
Amazing Piper promo. He points out that he’s here to win two titles. How crazy would have that been?
Intercontinental Championship: The Mountie© vs. Roddy Piper
There’s not much to say here, it’s a bad match but Piper as the crowd in the palm of his hand.
Roddy Piper wins the title when the Mountie passes out in 5:22. Crowd reaction here is nuts. Piper puts the Mountie to sleep and that does it. Except for a bulldog, all of Piper’s offense was punches and the sleeper. But who cares really?
The Bushwackers vs. The Beverly Brothers
I don’t know who the Bushwacker manager, Jameson is, but he sounds ridiculous and he’s eating his tie. I hear this is an infamous match, so I’m curious to see what happens here.
The Genius recites a poem about Jameson. I have a bad feeling about all of this.
A lot of wasted time early on. A lot of the Bushwackers swinging their arms and licking each other and stuff.
The Genius slapping Jameson is the highlight of the match. Jameson is insufferable as he complains to Butch.
The Beverly Brothers win when Blake pinned Butch in 14:56. Illegal double axehandle off the top for the win. It wasn’t even entertainingly horrible, it was just horrible. The match had no heat whatsoever and nothing of significance takes place at all. The finish was out of nowhere too. Jameson gets his revenge on the Genius by kicking him in the shin at the end. Just horrible everywhere.
World Tag Team Championship
The Legion of Doom© vs. The Natural Disasters
I can’t help but feel like this should have been a Wrestlemania match or something. Earthquake, Hawk and Animal were all huge names, and Typhoon was a big deal cause of Quake.
Match is mostly Hawk as the face in peril. Seems weird seeing LOD be dominated in 1992.
The Natural Disasters win by countout in 9:24. All four men end up on the outside, but Typhoon gets back into the ring. LOD just didn’t care at this point did they? Or at least Hawk didn’t. Second terrible match in a row here. Unsurprisingly, LOD dropped the belts on a house show shortly afterwards.
We get a ton of interviews. Shawn Michaels seemed surprisingly good on the mic pretty quickly. He had JUST turned on Jannetty at this point.
The 1992 Royal Rumble
The British Bulldog draws #1 and Ted Dibiase didn’t bribe anyone at this point as he draws #2. The Bulldog gets rid of Dibiase really quickly.
Bobby Heenan basically goes ballistic on the air as Ric Flair draws #3. Bulldog whips him too.
Jerry Sags is #4. Bulldog wastes to time getting rid of him too.
#5 is Haku. He sides with Flair at first, but then he turns on Flair.
“It’s not fair to Flair!”
Bulldog dumps Haku as HBK comes out as #6. Huge boos for HBK.
Flair and HBK go at it 17 years before Flair’s last WWF match.
Flair, HBK and the Bulldog is an interesting trio in there considering all the interactions HBK would have with both over the years.
El Matador is #7. He too goes after Flair.
The Barbarian is #8.
HBK was already doing the near eliminations all over the place thing.
The Texas Tornado: Kerry Von Erich is #9. Of course he goes after Flair. There is good history there.
Repo Man is #10.
Greg Valentine is #11. He was in the Rumble for 44 minutes in 1991.
#12 is Nikolai Volkoff. Crowd is growing restless…but it’ll pick up soon.
Big pop as Valentine locks Flair in the Figure Four. Repo Man takes out Volkoff.
#13 is the Bossman. Nice pop and he of course attacks Flair.
Valentine is gone thanks to the Repo Man.
Repo Man is gone due to Flair.
Flair gets rid of the British Bulldog. Von Erich also goes out due to Flair.
#14 is Hercules but the Bossman takes him out in a minute.
Hercules takes out Barbarian, and Bossman takes out Hercules. Bossman hilariously eliminates himself with a missed flying body block.
#15 is Piper, and the crowd goes nuts. Flair tries to beg off. Piper kicks Flair’s ass for the whole two minutes before #16, Jake The Snake comes in.
Jake tells Piper to continue what he’s doing, then immediately attacks him from behind. Jake was awesome.
I can’t get over Heenan’s commentary. Amazing.
Jim Duggan is #17. Huge reaction for him as he goes for Flair.
IRS is #18.
Superfly Jimmy Snuka is #19. This was near the end of the Superfly.
#20 is The Undertaker. This was actually bad luck for Taker. Tunney allowed Taker and Hogan to have a number between 20 and 30, and he drew 20.
Heenan: “Death takes a holiday!”
Snuka jobs to Taker again!
#21 is Randy Savage and he wants Jake. Undertaker cuts Savage off. Taker getting involved in Jake-Savage was weird as it seemed Jake had a hold on Taker…until Taker turned face.
Savage throws Jake, then jumps over the top rope to continue attacking. Savage gets to stay though…for some reason. He must be winning!!!
#22 is The Beserker. I feel like he never gets enough Wrestlecrap credit.
#23 is Virgil. He goes right after IRS. I miss those long standing rivalries that would surface in the Rumble.
#24 is Col. Mustafa. Always thought it was weird that the Iron Sheik would change names and all.
Monsoon randomly uses Rick Martel’s name when talking about Flair. Odd.
#25 is Martel. I assume Monsoon just got confused.
Here comes Hogan at #26! He surprisingly takes out Undertaker early. Beserker goes next.
Duggan and Virgil take one another out.
#27 is Skinner. I guess #27 wasn’t lucky yet.
Flair sets the longevity record. It would stand I believe until Benoit.
#28 is Sgt. Slaughter. All the heat died with Slaughter after the heel turn. No one would care about Slaughter again until he become commissioner in 1997.
Piper and Martel take out Skinner.
#29 is Sid. He doesn’t really do anything though, which I find odd.
#30 is the Warlord. Ah, the days where #30 wasn’t guaranteed to be a big star.
Sid sends Slaughter out. About time Sid did something.
Piper eliminates IRS by his tie. That was awesome.
Sid and Hogan dump the Warlord.
Piper, Hogan, Savage, Flair, Sid and Martel.
Sid gets rid of Piper and Martel. Lame ending for Piper.
Flair nails Sid in the back, which causes Sid to shove Savage out. Down to three.
Ric Flair wins the WWF Championship in 1:02:02. Sid dumps Hogan to HUGE cheers. Hogan grabs Sid’s arm, and Flair dumps Sid to win the title. Heenan goes nuts. This was one of the first signs of the fans turning on Hogan here. Flair leaves while Sid and Hogan argue. We get some Sid chants too…although some feint Hogan ones are audible.
Flair cuts an awesome interview as the new WWF Champion. He also takes a big shot at WCW by saying this is the only world title that matters.
Anyway this Rumble is basically an hour long Flair match. It’s the 2nd greatest Rumble of all time in my opinion. All the big stars were in there. A lot of the stories played out as well. There were great moments with Piper and Flair, and Hogan and Sid.
The opener was solid and Piper winning the IC title was a cool moment. The show went downhill fast after that. But the amazing 1992 Royal Rumble made up for it. There was a lot of history here as well. Nevermind it being Flair’s 1st WWF Title win, but also this was a big match that showed the WWF needed to get past Hulkamania. Vince wouldn’t learn for another 18 months though.
It’s the Rumble that matters, right? I just wish those tag matches weren’t so bad.
Final Grade: A-