Royal Rumble '94

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '94

January 22, 1994 from the Providence Civic Center in Providence, RI

Commentary: Vince McMahon and Ted DiBiase

 

Pretty cool opening graphic this year. DiBiase gets an on air entrance, making his WWF return to begin his run as a commentator and manager.

Tatanka def Bam Bam Bigelow (w/Luna Vachon) in 8:12- Tatanka was originally scheduled to face Ludwig Borga before Borga's WWF career killing ankle injury. Bigelow's a suitable substitute as he and Tatanka feuded much of the previous year. Both these guys are scheduled for the Rumble later on. Bigelow charges for an avalanche before the bell and Tatanka dodges. After some back and forth Tatanka staggers Bigelow with shoulderblocks and dropkicks, then hits a crossbody for 2. Bigelow goes for a backdrop but Tatanka counters it into a huge DDT. Bigelow dodges a Tatanka dive off the top rope and he splats on the mat. The avalanche hits. Tatanka tries a sunset flip off the top rope but Bigelow drops down on him. Bigelow cuts off Tatanka chops with a sloppy half dropkick/half enzuguri thingy. Bear hug of time killing. After a bit they do the arm drops and Tatanka chops out. Bigelow kills his momentum with a shoulderblock. Tatanka with a scoop powerslam! That gets a 2 count. Double crossbody collision! Tatanka starts dancing up. Bigelow cuts him down with an enzuguri and mocks the dance. He goes up top. Moonsault! Tatanka dodges! Tatanka hits a crossbody off the top and that's that. **

 

Recap of the Hart brothers' family issues, starting with Survivor Series. After that is Owen's interview with Vince in December where he says he's been in Bret's shadow long enough and challenges him to a match. The next week Vince is with Bret, who says no way no how under any possible circumstances no matter what will he ever face off with his own brother in a match, not happening, end of story. Through the magic of Christmas (thanks Ice Cream Bunny) the Harts made up and challenged the Quebecers for the tag titles. Meanwhile, earlier in January the Quebecers were upset for said tag titles by the 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Janetty on Raw. They recovered and won the titles back at an MSG house show barely a week before the Rumble.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Quebecers (c) (w/Johnny Polo) def Bret & Owen Hart in 16:48- Bret and Pierre (PCO) start. Good back and forth start. Owen and Pierre also hit the jets, with Owen getting a hiptoss with nice floatover for 2. Pierre pulls hair to get away and tag. Owen kips up and Jacques mock applauds, followed by the usual insincere handshake offer. Owen and Jacques have a miscommunication on what looked like should have been an Owen flip over a backdrop attempt. After some fumbling Owen hits a suplex to get back on track, followed by an enzuguri for 2. Hart Decapitation Device for 2. Bret rolls through some Ricky Steamboat-like quick pin attempts. The Quebecers eye rake to take over and double team. The Harts reverse whips and Owen gets a spear roll up. The Quebecers go outside to hug and recover. Once they get back in Bret goes right back in control. Owen hits a diving clothesline and gutwrench suplex. Pierre with a powerslam on Bret to switch momentum. The heels choke Bret with the tag rope and put him Hart in peril. Hothead Owen keeps running in and inadvertently allowing double teams. Bret gets a boot up on Pierre's dive off the second rope and tags. Owen cleans house. Sharpshooter on Pierre! Bret and Jacques get into it, and while the ref is getting Bret out Jacques bulldogs Owen. Double hot shot on Owen for 2. Owen ducks a double clothesline, hits a double dropkick and tags. Bret cleans house. Johnny Polo (Raven) sneaks up, holds the ropes open, and Bret tumbles down to the floor, hurting his knee on the landing. The Quebecers go to work on it on the floor. Chairshot on the knee. They work Owen around to whack the knee with Polo's putter. Owen rolls Bret back in. More knee work. Jacques puts on a Boston Crab. Owen breaks it up. Pierre with a legdrop to the back of Bret's head off the second rope. The Quebecers load up their finisher. Bret dodges but he doesn't tag. Instead he tries to wrap Pierre up in the Sharpshooter but his knee gives out. The ref's seen enough and calls for the bell, giving the Qubecers the win via ref stoppage. Good match, and good and important piece in a sensational long term angle. The Quebecers, usually not ones to peg the workrate meter, stepped their game up for who they were in there with. ***1/2

After the match Owen is furious. He yells at Bret for not tagging him while Bret's clearly just trying to stand back up. Finally Bret uses the ropes to get vertical again. Owen kicks his leg out! NUGGET RAGE! As he leaves he yells in the camera that Bret is too damn selfish. Pat Patterson chases off Raymond Rougeau's interview attempt as Bret's loaded onto a stretcher. As he's wheeled out Todd Pettingill's with Owen on the tron. Owen has a complete meltdown, berating Bret for being selfish, all he had to do was tag out, and capping with the legendary "That's why I kicked your leg out of your leg!" botch. Pettengill asks Owen about the Rumble and Owen says he doesn't give a damn if Bret can be in it or not, all he cares about is winning it himself. The heel turn is complete and the stage is officially set for the Hart family drama that will dominate WWF off and on until Bret's departure after the Montreal Screwjob in late '97.

 

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon (c) def Irwin R Schyster in 11:30- In the build for this match IRS stole Ramon's gold necklaces in lieu of back taxes. JR and Gorilla Monsoon switch over to TV commentary for this match. Ramon toothpick flips, IRS slaps and stalls. Ramon goes into punchy offense and Rotunda (shock) stalls again. Ramon atomic drop/clothesline combo for 2. IRS uses Ramon's momentum to send him flying over the top rope and out and follows up with a stair shot. IRS goes up top. Ramon puts a boot up but IRS sees it, lands away from it, and drops an elbow instead. Ramon tries to come back with buckle shots. IRS cuts it off with a back elbow. To the chinlock! With the usual Rotunda rope leverage game. Ramon comeback and slugfest. Fallaway slam. After a whip reversal in the corner we have a ref bump and an open door for overbooking shenanigans. IRS gets his briefcase. Ramon steals it and IRS takes the shot. Ramon cover, but the ref is still out. He hoists IRS on the top turnbuckle and hits the back superplex. Razor's Edge setup. Shawn Michaels runs in and whacks Ramon in the back of the head with his own IC belt! The wrestlers are down. The ref is down. Finkel and commentary are probably down. Everyone's down. IRS crawls over, covers, and gets a 3 count! No bells rings, a telltale sign it's about to get even goofier. Right on cue, Hebner runs in and points out to Marella that there's *two* IC title belts here! While they discuss Ramon hits the Razor's Edge. Marella says screw it and counts 3 for Ramon. An uninteresting match with severe overbooking, but the crowd was into it at least. *1/4

Recap of the WWF title feud, with a montage of the pretty good weekly TV vignettes from Taker's workshop while he custom built Yokozuna's double wide, double deep casket. Good chuckle line from Bearer as he says "While you try your 1994 model" like a car salesman. We also get in arena clips setting up Yokozuna as absolutely terrified of all things Taker related.

 

Casket Match for the WWF Championship: Yokozuna (c) (w/Jim Cornette and Mr. Fuji) def The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) in 14:20- Nose to nose standoff. Taker dodges a charge and rocks Yokozuna with clotheslines. The diving clothesline takes him down. Yoko tumbles to the floor. Taker no sells a stair shot. Back in, Taker does the rope walk punch. Another diving clothesline attempt is dodged and Taker rolls to the floor. Yokozuna gets a chair but Taker steals it and uses it. Yokozuna responds with salt in the face (Watch the funny reaction of the guys in the front row that also get sprayed. The first two rows will be seasoned). Taker takes chair shots, including one that should have been in the back but ended up more in the back of the head that I have to think there was a receipt for later. Yokozuna calls for the lid to be opened and rolls Taker over. Taker lands on his feet in the casket and grabs Yokozuna's foot to get out. Slugfest. Yokozuna belly to belly. Zombie situp and goozle. Choke slam! Yoko got a whole two inches off the ground on that. Taker DDT! He calls for the lid and rolls Yokozuna in. But as he's closing the lid, Crush runs in and stops him! Taker fights him off. Now here's The Great Kabuki and Genichiro Tenryu. Taker double clotheslines them. Bam Bam Bigelow is in. The numbers are starting to catch up to Taker. Meanwhile, Yoko's still out in the casket and sometime off camera Fuji stole the urn from Bearer. Bearer gets it back, takes out both heel managers, and uses the POWER OF THE URN to get Taker back on his feet. Adam Bomb's in. Jeff Jarrett's in! No guitar shot, we're years away from that. The Headshrinkers are in! It's the rumble before the Rumble. There's a bunch of weak brawling with most guys standing around wondering what to do, and Yokozuna in a corner by himself sucking in oxygen from the entire floor section. Diesel's out! Taker finally goes down and gets rolled into the casket, but he stops the lid from closing and fights out again. Yokozuna gets a hold of the urn and takes the lid off. Green smoke billows out from it. Taker lays dead in the ring, all his power gone as the gaggle of heels hit big moves on him. Finally they drag Taker over, Yokozuna rolls him in with one foot, and the lid closes to end the match. 1/2*

The heels lock the casket shut and leave with it. Undertaker's Dong! More green smoke, this time from the casket. The lights go out. A shot of Taker in the casket comes up on the tron. His eyes open! Taker gives a very Ultimate Warrior like spiel about spirit living on, eternal flame, etc. "Soon mankind will witness the rebirth of the Undertaker, and I will *not* rest in peace." Thunder and Frankenstein monster style electricity. The casket on screen explodes and Taker goes negative like he's just been shot by a Dalek. Slowly he floats to the top of the screen, and in sync rises from behind the tron in the arena (in actuality Marty Janetty in Taker's gear). He "floats" all the way to the top of the arena and end scene. Well then. A lot of people absolutely hate this. Others think it's entertaining in its own unique way. You know I never shy away from strong opinions on wrestling, but for me I'm firmly in the "it is what it is" camp. It's all part of the whole package that was the legend of the Undertaker, good and bad. All this was to give Taker time off to heal a back injury, causing him to miss Wrestlemania for the first time. He'd come back for Summerslam and the (in)famous Undertaker vs Undertaker feud.

To transition into the main event we get the classic pre-Rumble promo montage. For the first time the interval is cut down from two minutes to 90 seconds due to "time constraints". The crowd is awfully subdued. I think the whole Taker bit killed them.

 

Royal Rumble

 

1 & 2. Scott Steiner and Samu- Immediate slugfest. Samu corner clothesline. Scott Steinerline and double underhook slam. Samu fights off an elimination attempt.

3. Rick Steiner- Thanks for coming, Samu. The Steiners double team and Rick hits a belly to belly suplex. Steinerline! This is surprisingly plodding along. They're all going at about 50% speed. During the countdown for #4 Samu misses a wild dive, gets hung in the ropes by the neck, gets out and is eliminated.

4. Kwang- This is Savio Vega in a mask making his WWF in-ring debut. As soon as he gets in the ring he green mists Rick. Uh, Great Kabuki is in this match. Did they have a discussion about gimmick infringement? The crowd starts to get restless at the rather listless action.

5. "The Rocket" Owen Hart- Gets booed out of the building. He goes right for the blinded Rick, slowly gets him over the top and eliminates him.

6. Bart Gunn- Scott deadlifts Kwang and inverted atomic drops him. Vince says something's happened in the back and they're trying to get cameras there.

7. Diesel- Goes after everyone. Bart's eliminated. Scott's eliminated. Owen's eliminated! During the countdown Diesel clotheslines Kwang 360 and out to stand along in the ring. Damn what a run.

8. Bob Backlund- He mat wrestles low and lifts Diesel by the legs. Diesel fights out and dumps Backlund! With time to spare to brag and get ready to boot.

9. Billy Gunn- After a little Billy offense Diesel hits a big boot and eliminates Billy! The crowd is starting to get behind Diesel. With nothing happening in the ring Vince cuts to footage from the locker room of Kabuki and Tenryu beating up Luger. Well Bret's already hurt, might as well have both face favorites come in wounded.

10. Virgil- He tries to stick and move but Diesel makes short work of him. DiBiase loves it.

11. "Macho Man" Randy Savage- He's the first guy to get sustained offense on Diesel and last the whole period.

12. "Double J" Jeff Jarrett- He jumps Savage, beats him down and struts while Diesel cools off after his big run. Savage skins the cat to avoid elimination, hits Jarrett in the back with a high knee (also ricocheting him into Diesel) and eliminates him.

13. Crush- He and Savage were still feuding so Savage jumps all over him as only Savage can do. Double ax handles off the top. Crush comes back and the heels double team Savage.

14. Doink the Clown- Lame face Doink. As he's walking in Crush unceremoniously eliminates Savage. Crush and Diesel brawl on the ropes and the camera catches Diesel saying "Elbow me", which Crush does. Doink stands in the corner and watches them fight until they realize he's there. Both heels get water squirts from his flower and foot stomps. Lame face Doink.

15. Bam Bam Bigelow- Diesel and Crush invite him in to murder Doink. Bigelow doesn't mind if he does, press slamming Doink to the floor. Diesel and Crush take advantage and jump him from behind.

16. Mabel- That's a lot of beef in the ring. Diesel takes his straps down and goes after him. Mabel avalanches everyone.

17. Sparky Plugg- This is Bob "Hardcore" Holly making his WWF debut in his original gimmick as a NASCAR driver. Really. Bigelow squashes Mabel in the corner. Crush goes over but lands on the apron.

18. Shawn Michaels- He and Diesel go face to face. Shawn backs off. Diesel messes with him before offering a handshake. Everyone else in the ring takes advantage to jump Diesel, get him over, and with a final sneaky push from Shawn, eliminate him. There's a small ovation and Diesel chant as he leaves a newly made man.

19. Mo- There's a near legit collision when multiple guys do whip spots at the same time. Shawn skins the cat.

20. Greg "The Hammer" Valentine- Making his official WWF return (after working under a mask at Survivor Series) following a short WCW run, and he gets a nice reaction from the crowd. Men on a Mission double team Bigelow.

21. Tatanka- Goes after Shawn. Shawn gets his first 360 sell in. Valentine gets Shawn over but he lands on the apron.

22. The Great Kabuki- Everyone finally gangs up to eliminate Mabel. Shawn gets in near elimination trouble again.

23. "The All American" Lex Luger- Business has picked up. Luger doesn't bother to sell any of the backstage beatdown earlier. He takes a shot at everyone and eliminates Kabuki.

24. Genichiro Tenryu- The future IWGP Heavyweight Champion is in no rush to get to the ring. When he does get there he chops the bejesus out of Luger. They also have a "fumble around we forgot what to do" moment before more chops.

25. No one- Vince speculates this must have been Bret Hart's spot.

26. "The Model" Rick Martel- Goes right for Santana....oh, yeah. Lots of brawling going on with nothing much of note. Luger and Tatanka have a spiffy face on face slugfest.

27. Bret "Hitman" Hart- BAH GAWD BRET HART MADE IT! Huge pop from the crowd. He's limping the whole way down because unlike some people you know Bret's going to sell the hell out of an injury. Crush goes right for the knee.

28. Fatu- Crush presses Bret and moves to throw him out. Luger makes the save. Tenryu works on Bret, which would be a pretty big dream match. A gaggle of guys eliminate Crush.

29. Marty Janetty- THE ROCKERS EXPLODE....again! Huge Shawn/Janetty brawl. Tenryu wanders in the middle of their sequence and quickly gets shooed away. Another Shawn near elimination.

30. Adam Bomb- Janetty has a sleeper on Shawn. Bret eliminates Plugg. Vince says Bastion Booger was the no show at 25 because he "got a little sick". Har har har. Shawn and Bret find each other. Tenryu stands around wondering what to do. After the shorter intervals this part of the match goes on for too long with too little happening. Get a move on. Martel eliminates Valentine. Tatanka eliminates Martel. Luger eliminates Bomb to the shock of commentary. Quite a comedown from his Survivor Series run. Bigelow eliminates Tatanka to get revenge for losing earlier in the night. Bret's still getting worked over. Bigelow does a flip in the corner and Luger eliminates him. Shawn eliminates Janetty. Tenryu does a double noggin knocker on Shawn and Fatu. Shawn sells. Fatu doesn't. Shawn and Fatu get whipped into each other. Bret and Luger eliminate Tenryu.

FINAL FOUR: Shawn, Luger, Bret and Fatu. For the first time the final four get a bit of a setup moment with all four guys in different corners. Shawn jumps Bret while Luger and Fatu pair off. Shawn spins out of a slam. Bret slips and counters an elimination attempt. Fatu superkick on Luger and he hits a headbutt off the second rope. The heels lift Luger onto the apron but he fights off. Fatu 360 sells a clothesline. The heels are whipped toward each other. Shawn leapfrogs Fatu, but as they hit the corners they're both simultaneously eliminated by Bret and Luger! We're down to two, the top two babyfaces in the company (excluding perhaps Taker). The crowd's awake again too. Huge slugfest. Luger lifts Bret. Bret gets back down on his feet, pushes, and both guys tumble over the top and onto the floor! Who won? The refs are confused and consult to debate/argue. Fink announces Luger as the winner to a mild pop and some boos. Hebner stops it. Fink announces Bret as the winner to a MASSIVE pop. The refs shut it down again, each raise a guy's hand, and argue in the ring. OK, only one way to settle this. Hebner vs Marella, one on one match, the winner gets to decide the Rumble winner. Wait, the President is here! Tunney makes his way to the ring (what a shame No Chance In Hell wasn't entrance music then). He manages not to blow his quads out like a certain other authority figure in a similar situation years later. The replay confirms what we saw: they pulled the spot off perfectly and hit at the same time as planned. Fink builds up an announcement and pulls out (insert your own dirty joke here). Big "Bret" chant from the crowd. Finally Fink announces the winner.....s are Lex Luger AND Bret Hart! The crowd's not pleased. Bret and Luger have a handshake.

The final four was a strong finish and the Diesel elimination run was fun, but otherwise this was an extremely underwhelming Rumble. The deteriorating roster was starting to show, and Vince's awfulness on commentary did it no favors. The tie finish was also a questionable call. That's what most people remember here, but don't sleep on the fact that this is also the match that made Kevin Nash a star. **3/4

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS: Like most every other WWF show from this period anything involving the Hart family was great, the rest was take it or leave it. The Rumble's not a great one but is one that should be watched for historical purposes. DiBiase had a good debut in the booth, which helped the show.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: C+