Royal Rumble '92

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '92

January 19, 1992 from the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY

 

Commentary: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan

 

Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker traded the WWF Championship between each other at the last two PPVs in matches that both ended in controversial fashion (as in Ric Flair interference), so President Jack Tunney held the belt up and declared the winner of this year's Royal Rumble would become the new and undisputed WWF Champion, the first time there's ever been real stakes in a Rumble match.

 

In the opening rundown Monsoon and Heenan mention the Mountie's win over Bret Hart for the Intercontinental title at a house show just before the Rumble, which was also announced on the last editions of WWF weekly TV before the show, and that the IC title match would now be Mountie defending against Roddy Piper. 

The New Foundation def The Orient Express (w/Mr. Fuji) in 17:18- The New Foundation's ring gear is some of the worst ever. Heenan: "They just got out of bed, they're still wearing their pajamas!" The Express tore the house down with the Rockers in the opening match of the previous year's Rumble. Owen and Kato start. Arm wringer tradeoff. Owen flips out of a hammerlock and goes for a roll up but Kato blocks it. Owen is unfazed and hits a deep armdrag, then bridges out of a pin attempt. Owen leaps on the top rope and flips over lucha style, then hits a hurricanrana! Anvil hiptosses Kato across the ring. Tanaka tries to slam Anvil which doesn't go as planned. The Foundation hit a nice spinebuster/elbow off the second combo for 2. Commentary talks about the IC title change and mention Bret wrestling "against doctor's orders" with a "104 degree fever". Heenan: "I wrestled with a 113 degree fever once!". Owen flips over Tanaka in the corner and hits an enzuguri. The Express try to double team Anvil and get a double clothesline instead. Owen crossbody off the top on both guys for 2! Spinning heel kick from Owen. Tanaka hits Owen from behind to bait him and Fuji whacks him in the throat with his cane to send Owen pajamas in peril. Owen does a Bret bump! He reverses a corner whip but Tanaka catches him with a superkick for 2. Owen ducks a couple of Kato clotheslines and crucifixes him for 2. Tanaka kills another comeback attempt with a flying forearm. Owen gets a boot up in the corner and faceplants Tanaka, but Kato distracts the ref so he doesn't see the tag. While Anvil's arguing the Express whip Owen into the corner and his shoulder goes right through Fuji's cane, breaking it in half! Kato covers but Owen just gets a foot on the rope. The Express target Owen's shoulder. Owen catches Tanaka running with a flash belly to belly suplex! Kato breaks the pin up. More Express double teams after suckering Anvil in. It finally backfires on them when Owen hits them both with a dropkick. Hot tag! Owen slingshots Anvil into a tackle on both heels! Owen whips Anvil into Kato, sending him to the floor, then Anvil whips Owen into a TOPE SUICIDA! That's Kato done for. They hit the rocket launcher on Tanaka and it's over. Fantastic tag team wrestling, almost as good as last year's opener. This would be the Express' last major appearance as Tanaka left the company in February. Kato (Paul Diamond) would move on to the infamous Max Moon gimmick later in the year. ***1/2

 

In a Coliseum Video exclusive (not on the original live broadcast) we see video footage of the IC title change. Mountie attacks Bret with the belt after the match and Piper makes the save leading to the title opportunity.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: "Rowdy" Roddy Piper def The Mountie (c) (w/Jimmy Hart) in 5:22- Commentary puts over the fact that Piper is the first person ever to have a shot at two different titles in the same night. Mountie mocks Piper's kilt. Piper charges in, wraps the kilt over Mountie's head and goes to work. Mountie grabs the top rope and slides out for a breather. Piper has none of it, following and hitting him from behind on the floor. Mountie hides behind Hart and sucker punches Piper. Back in Mountie goes for a monkey flip. Piper hits the brakes and drops a five knuckle shuffle like fist on him. Bulldog. Piper plays around and gives the Mountie the two finger eye poke. Slugfest. Mountie dodges a dropkick. He puts Piper in a half nelson and gives him some buckle shots. Piper sunset flip for 2. An atomic drop sends Mountie over the top, but he skins the cat back in. Piper dodges and Mountie runs into Hart! Sleeper! Three arm drops and it's over! Hart charges in with the cattle prod after the bell. Piper takes it and gives the Mountie a shock (with a silly buzzer sound added from the truck). Fink really lays into the AND NEEEEEEWWWWWWW to kick off a huge, iconic celebration for Piper's first (and only) WWF title win. It's a wonderful moment. The match was OK for the time. They had pretty good chemistry and I'd be curious to see if they'd be able to do better with more time, or if it'd just be another Mountie stall fest. *1/4

 

The Beverly Brothers (w/The Genius) def The Bushwhackers (w/Jamison) in 14:56- The best way I can describe the strange entity that is Jamison is to think of him as a live version of Kyle's annoying cousin Kyle Schwartz on South Park. He had been a character on Prime Time Wrestling for a few months, annoying Heenan and eventually teaming with the Bushwackers. This is, thankfully, his only PPV appearance. As the Bushwackers go down the isle doing their head rubbing and face licking Heenan says "Don't touch them, children! You don't know where they've been!". I have to agree. I wonder how many of the kids the Bushwackers licked have come down with some kind of strange disease in the past 20+ years. There should be a study. Jamison chews on his tie and has a sock in his jacket pocket. By far the best part of this match is Heenan's Jamison one-liners. "His parents wanted to get divorced but couldn't because neither of them wanted custody!", etc. Endless stalling and posing to start. Butch tries to start a chant but no one understands him. Some double teaming, and Luke bites Blake's ass. Move and stall, move and stall, rinse and repeat. Butch is face in peril. About 10 minutes in the Genius finally goes over and pops Jamison. Hot tag to Luke, but the Beverlys double team to get the win. The Bushwackers hit the Battering Ram on both Beverlys to get their heat back, then hold down the Genius for Jamison to.....kick him in the shin. Heenan: "He can't hurt you, he can only infect you!". Whoever booked the Bushwackers for a 15 minute match should be cattle prodded and locked in a room with Jamison for 15 minutes. 1/2*

 

Hawk gives us another classic Hawk promo. "You want to know what makes us sick, besides everything?" "You want to throw your weight around? That's OK. We want to throw your weight around too!" "When it's over your tongues are gonna be sticking out like dead deers!"

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Natural Disasters (w/Jimmy Hart) def The Legion of Doom (c) by countout in 9:24- Hawk and Typhoon lockup stalemate and shoulderblock standoff. Hawk staggers him with a forearm, goes straight to the top rope and drops Typhoon with a diving clothesline! Quake breaks the pin up. Everybody stares and shoves with palpable intensity. Quake flat no sells a Hawk dropkick. Fantastic. Hawk baits Quake into trying a dropkick! He dodges and drops a fist on Quake. Now Quake and Animal stare down. Slugfest. Animal hits the ropes a bunch of times to get a huge head of steam and they double clothesline! Animal tries to slam Quake but Quake falls on him for 2. Typhoon avalanche. He goes for a second but Animal gets a boot up and kills him with a clothesline. Hawk and Typhoon double clothesline with a double no sell. Tyhpoon catches a Hawk crossbody and backbreakers him multiple times. Huge Quake elbow drop on Hawk's back for 2. Hawk goes in peril for a bit as the Disasters continue to work his back. He fights out of a bear hug but gets caught by Typhoon coming off the second rope. Hawk tries to fight back again in the corner so Quake flat squashes him. After another bear hug Hawk dodges a Quake avalanche, hits an ax handle off the second rope and gets the hot tag. Huge Animal tackle on Quake, but then he gets squashed between both Disasters. All four guys go to the floor as the full on donnybrook commences. Hawk hits Typhoon with a diving clothesline off the apron. Animal gets slammed on the floor. The ref gets to 10 just as Typhoon gets back in the ring and LOD are counted out. Jimmy Hart for some stupid reason thinks the Disasters win the titles and gives them the belt. LOD take them out with a chair and reclaim their property. Before the flat finish that was a tremendously fun power vs superheavyweights match. Give them 5 more minutes and a definitive finish and you'd likely be talking about a really good match. **1/2

 

Intermission time in the arena means promo time on TV. Jimmy Hart says he's calling his lawyer because the Disasters wuz robbed. Piper celebrates as only Piper can while keeping an eye on the second title he has a shot at tonight. Sean Mooney catches up with Shawn Michaels and we get a full recap of the famous Rockers breakup. Janetty should have seen it coming, Shawn is wearing all black. After that is the traditional pre-Rumble promo montage.

 

Royal Rumble- Standard two minute intervals here. Due to the title situation and their status as most recent champions both Hulk Hogan and the Undertaker were allowed to draw from numbers 20-30 only. Before the match President Tunney makes a small "may the best man win" speech and gets some boos but manages not to get Roger Goodell NFL draft heat. 

 

1 & 2. "The British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith and "The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase- Commentary puts over Bulldog winning the Coliseum Video exclusive battle royal from the Royal Albert Hall a few months back. DiBiase is still paying karmic penance for buying #30 a few years ago. Fast start. DiBiase breaks out the suplexes. He throws Bulldog over but Bulldog lands on the apron and clotheslines DiBiase out. 

3. Ric Flair- Heenan has an absolute meltdown. Monsoon: "You can kiss it goodbye, Brain. Sit down before you have a heart attack!". There's some audible WOOOOOOOOOs from the crowd. Flair works some of his basic big man playbook with Bulldog and begs off.

4. Sags- In an impressive show of roster depth, Sags is the only tag team wrestler filler in this year. Sags and Flair double team Bulldog, but he fights them off and eliminates Sags. Flair begs off again. 

5. Haku- Flair and Haku start out double teaming Bulldog, but much to Heenan's chagrin Haku attacks Flair! Every man for himself. After Haku piledrives Bulldog Flair grabs him in an eye rake and gives him a kneedrop. Bulldog and Haku brawl by the ropes during the countdown and Bulldog dumps Haku out. 

6. Shawn Michaels- Fresh off his big heel turn and in his first PPV as a singles wrestler. Shawn and Flair have their first encounter 18 years before Wrestlemania 24. Bulldog clotheslines Shawn over the top so fast it seems like there's no way Shawn can keep himself from being eliminated, but he does it. Shawn manages to do his favorite move from his early days- crotching himself on the top rope. 

7. "El Matador" Tito Santana- Goes right after Flair. Shawn's had himself thrown over the top rope onto the apron about four times already. Flair hits a low blow on Bulldog. Monsoon reacts like Flair took out a gun and shot him. Santana hits the flying tortilla on Flair.

8. The Barbarian- Monsoon: "Barbarian doesn't like Flair." Heenan: "Barbarian doesn't like anybody! When I managed him he barely liked me." 

9. "The Texas Tornado" Kerry Von Erich- He goes right after Flair and they renew their old rivalry for a bit. Flair Flop! Shawn is still bumping around like a pinball.

10. Repo Man- Takes his time sneaking his way into the ring. Santana keeps saving Bulldog. Nice guys get nowhere in the Rumble.

11. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine- Valentine and Flair trade some good old NWA chops. Flair starts a flop then changes his mind. Repo takes a Naitch low blow.

12. Nikolai Volkoff- Heh, Volkoff is still getting boos despite his face turn. Valentine and Flair are still chopping the bejeezus out of each other. Valentine puts the figure four on Flair! Repo eliminates Volkoff.

13. The Big Boss Man- He goes after everyone. Everyone. Repo eliminates Valentine. Two eliminations for Repo, I'm sure no one had that in their pool. The mid-Rumble cleanout commences. Boss Man eliminates Repo. Flair eliminates Bulldog, then eliminates Tornado. Santana and Shawn eliminate each other. 

14. Hercules- Goes right after Flair. Flair high fives Barbarian then chops him. Bad move. I think Heenan actually crapped himself there. While Barbarian is trying to eliminate Flair Hercules eliminates Barbarian, then Boss Man eliminates Hercules. It's just Flair and Boss Man in there. Flair ducks a dive by the Boss Man and Boss Man flies over the top and is eliminated. Flair's all by himself. Flair Flop 2! Heenan tries to argue Flair's already won.

15. New WWF Intercontinental Champion "Rowdy" Roddy Piper- Renewing Flair's initial WWF feud. Piper goes nuts with a backdrop and kneelift. Flair takes a powder, but Piper follows and they fight outside. Back in Piper blocks an inverted atomic drop and gives Flair the old airplane spin, then locks in the sleeper. 

16. Jake "The Snake" Roberts- Trust me. After lulling Piper into a false sense of security he goes after him to break the sleeper. Flair says thank you and Roberts nails him with the short clothesline. Piper breaks up a DDT. Flair hooks the figure four on Roberts. Piper stomps both of them while they're down.

17. "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan- Goes right after Flair. By this point it's getting obvious that Flair keeps jumping right into the middle of the fray and throwing out offense instead of trying to rest. Heenan hates it but also says that's what a champion is made of.

18. Irwin R. Schyster- Goes right after Flair. Duggan grabs IRS tie and pounds away on him. Flair Flop 3!

19. "Superfly" Jimmy Snuka- Goes right after Flair. Duggan stands in the corner and poses for the crowd. He's already rested more than Flair has the whole match. Now Flair and Piper are in a chop-fest. 

20. The Undertaker- Really bad luck for Taker here, as this was the earliest number he could have drawn. As soon as he gets in Taker eliminates Snuka, then goes right after Flair. Taker hits a reverse kick low blow on Duggan! Pure Flair style.

21. "Macho Man" Randy Savage- Savage tears for the ring to get to Roberts, but he bails and Roberts' partner in darkness Taker gets a hold of Savage. Roberts then gets back in and beats on Savage for a bit. Savage ducks a short clothesline and tries to murder him. A high knee from Savage eliminates Roberts! Savage then jumps over the top rope to beat on him some more! Savage should have been eliminated, commentary even says so, but Savage wasn't supposed to go yet so commentary covers by saying he's still in because no one threw him out. They'd get that rule cleaned up in future years. Flair low blows Taker, and Taker kinda sorta sells it.

22. The Berzerker- HUSS! HUSS! Taker chokes Flair, Piper chokes Flair, then Taker chokes Piper! Whole new definition of a triangle choke there. Or is that just a three way? 

23. Virgil- Immediately gets pounded down like a jobber now his DiBiase feud is done. Things are settling in before the stretch run now.

24. Col. Mustafa- The Iron Sheik still running with this gimmick even though Slaughter has turned back face. He's still very committed to his silly walk. Wonder if he got government funding to develop that?

25. "The Model" Rick Martel- The current record holder for longest time in a Rumble from the previous year. It won't last much longer. Piper eliminates Mustafa. 

26. Hulk Hogan- Business is picking up, folks. Hogan goes after both Flair and Taker without even taking his shirt or bandanna off. Hogan eliminates Taker, then eliminates Berzerker, and we get the shirt tear. Virgil and Duggan eliminate each other. Hogan and Flair pair off. 

27. Skinner- I feel safe saying #27, still the most common winning number to this day, will not be winning this year. By this point even Monsoon is putting Flair over for still getting offense in and refusing to take a breather. 

28. Sgt. Slaughter- Goes right after Flair. Martel eliminates Skinner. Hogan and Piper slug at each other, renewing their legendary feud. Flair officially sets the record for the longest time in a Royal Rumble, and he's barely taken a minute off all night. Time wise, this is just another NWA world title house show 60 minute draw to him. 

29. Sid Justice- Big pop for Sid. Hogan and Flair continue to find each other, with Flair clearly working his old Sting match formula with him. Sid knocks Flair around a bit too.

30. The Warlord- Hogan slams Flair off the top. Flair slides out and drags Hogan with him. Hogan suplexes Flair on the floor! Justice eliminates Slaughter, with Slaughter going 100 MPH into the buckles face first, bouncing off them and flying outside. DAMN! Piper eliminates IRS by pulling his tie. Hogan and Justice team up to eliminate Warlord. Justice eliminates Piper and Martel. 

FINAL FOUR- Flair, Savage, Hogan and Justice. Justice picks up Savage, then Flair runs up and knees Justice in the back to drop Savage over the top and eliminate him. Hogan no sells Flair's chops. He gets Flair over the top and on the apron, but Justice comes up from behind to eliminate Hogan! Justice gets a pretty big pop for it too. Hogan, that champion of fair play, throws a full on hissy fit and grabs Justice's arm to try to pull him out. That allows Flair to sneak behind and eliminate Justice! Ric Flair wins the Royal Rumble from #3 and is the undisputed WWF Champion! Bobby Heenan celebrates by inventing the YES chant 25 years early. Hogan chases Flair off, then Hogan and Justice have a massive staredown and shove fest with a gaggle of WWF officials trying to stop them. Justice is clearly getting cheered more than Hogan.

 

You could not ask for a bigger or better showcase for Ric Flair early in his WWF run. The whole match was booked around him and naturally, as the greatest of all time, he delivered. But it wasn't just him, it was also paced to perfection, with big moments and elimination runs coming at just the right times to always keep it interesting and not let it get bogged down. There's been great Rumbles since, but this is still the greatest of them all, as we all pay homage to THE MAN. *****

 

Backstage, President Tunney presents Flair, flanked by Perfect and Heenan ("We hate to say we told you so, but we....TOLD YOU SO!"), with the belt. "WITH A TEAR IN MY EYE, this is the greatest moment of my life." Okerlund yells at someone to "put that cigarette out!"

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: The greatest Rumble match ever, two good tag matches, and a great moment with Piper's title win. The only blemish is the the awful Jamison/Bushwhacker stuff and Heenan at least makes it worth watching. In fact, Monsoon and Heenan are so on fire the entire show I could literally make three quarters of the review nothing but reciting their quotes. The whole show is worth watching just to listen to them. This isn't just a contender for the best Royal Rumble ever, it's a contender for greatest WWF/E PPV ever period.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A