WWF Royal Rumble 1992
- Let's keep on trucking along with the 1992 Rumble PPV. The 1992 Rumble marked the first and last time the Royal Rumble Match had the added bonus of the winner becoming the WWF Champion, thanks to a bunch of shenanigans between Hogan, Undertaker, and Ric Flair at Survivor Series and Tuesday in Texas a few months prior. For the last time, we've got the Coliseum Video here, but IO don't think anything of importance was clipped out.
- Live from the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, NY, held on January 19th, 1992, and with Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan pulling the commentary train this year. For the last time ever, Vince McMahon runs down the list of participants before we begin: Jake Roberts! The Barbarian! Rick Martel! The Berzerker! Roddy Piper! Jim Duggan! Jerry Saggs! Repo Man! Sgt. Slaughter! Ric Flair! Hercules! Col. Mustafa! Randy Savage! Skinner! The British Bulldog! Ted Dibiase! Haku! Shawn Michaels! The Warlord! El Matador! Sid Justice! I.R.S.! Nikolai Volkoff! The Texas Tornado! Virgil! The Undertaker! Big Boss Man! Greg Valentine! Jimmy Snuka! and the Immortal Hulk Hogan! It's time to rumble! It's time for the Royal Rumble!
- The New Foundation vs. The Orient Express (w/ Mr. Fuji):
(Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart vs. Kato & Tanaka)
The New Foundation formed sometime after the 1991 Survivor Series, following a beating on Neidhart at the hands of the Beverly Brothers. The Express had been on solo job duty for the last few months, but here they are as a team again. This is Owen Hart's first WWF PPV since WrestleMania V, and his first as himself (he was previously known as the Blue Blazer). The running joke of the New Foundation is they appear to be wearing pajamas. Common knowledge: Anytime a team is the New ANYTHING, they fail at getting over. Owen and Kato lockup to start. Owen applies a wristlock, and Kato counters. Owen does his kip-up counter and goes back to the wristlock. Kato counters into a hammerlock, and Owen counters again into a waistlock. A roll-up fails, and a crisscross leads to an Owen arm drag and into a hammerlock. Owen applies an armbar and switches off back to the wristlock. Kato escapes and takes Owen down with a knuckle-lock for a series of two counts. Owen bridges back up to counter and bounces off the top rope to lead into a hip toss counter. Hurricanrana by Owen gets a two count, and he goes back to working the arm. Neidhart tags in for the first time and quickly applies an armbar. Kato tries fighting free, but Neidhart no-sells and hip tosses him across the ring. Irish whip to the corner, and a Kato hip toss is blocked with a shoving throw thing. Tanaka tags in for his shot at the Anvil. He tries for a slam, but Neidhart is too big. Tanaka gets knocked down trying to do a shoulder block, and Owen tags in for an elbow drop from the top rope for a two count. Side suplex by Owen for another two count. Owen with headbutts and Tanaka comes back with thrusting blows in the corner. Irish whip to the corner, and Owen catches Tanaka coming out with a back body. Owen feeds a leg to Tanaka and nails an ezniguri. Irish whip to the corner, and the Foundation do the whip each other into the opponent spot. Kato comes in to save, but Neidhart floors both men with clotheslines, and Owen comes off the top with a double cross body press for simultanious two counts! Irish whip, and Owen nails a spinning heel kick on Kato for a two count. Snap suplex by Owen gets another two count, then quickly goes into a reverse chinlock. Owen gets the crowd to go clappy while the Express stall. Side headlock applied to Kato, and Tanaka kicks Owen in the back of the head as he bounced off the ropes. Fuji nails Owen with the cane for good measure, and Kato chokes away. Reverse chinlock applied by Tanaka. Kato tags back in and nails a reverse crecent kick for a two count. Irish whip and Kato connects with a diving back elbow for another two count. Owen gets choked across the top rope as Neidhart bothers the referee. Irish whip to the corner and Owen does the Bret bump. Whip to the corner is reversed, but Owen runs right into a crescent kick. That only gets a two count, though. Kato tags back in to snapmare Owen over and apply a chinlock. Owen fights free with elbowd to the midsection and takes over Kato with a crucifix for a two count. Kato pounces on Owen before he can tag out, and Tanaka comes back in to hammer away on Owen. Gorilla Monsoon makes a "Midnight Express" reference, but not the wrestling team. Tanaka applies a reverse chinlock to slow it up a bit. Owen fights free again, but Tanaka nails him with the twisting diving forearm out of nowhere for a two count.Irish whip to the corner, and Tanaka runs into a boot. Owen takes Tanaka down with a bulldog type maneuever, but Kato causes the referee to miss the hot tag. The Express double team Owen and wihp him into Fuji's cane for a two count. Kato stomps away on Owen and takes him down with a hammerlock slam. Tanaka tags back in to connect with a diving headbutt on the left arm of Owen. Irish whip to escape, and a crisscross leads to Owen taking over Tanaka with a release belly-to-belly suplex for a two count. Kato cuts off another hot tag, and the Express put Owen down with a double clothesline. Owen continues taking a shit kicking from the Express, and we get their special double team leap-frog maneuever. Irish whip, and Owen comes back with a double dropkick! Neidhart gets the long-waited hot tag and nails a launching clothesline from the apron on both men! Neidhart with scoop slams all around and a back body drop on Tanaka. Neidhart with a clothesline, followed by a shoulder tackle to send Kato out. Irish whip series from the New Foundation sends Owen flying with a suicide dive on Kato! Back in the ring and the Rocket Launcher on Tanaka puts him out of his misery at 17:19. ***1/4 Good old-school formulatic match with the faces dominating the first 10 or so minutes, the heels taking over for 5-6 with non-stop ass-kicking this-match-should-be-over moves, and the big face comeback. The resting hurt it a little bit, but still a pretty good match by the WWF's standards at the time.
- Sean Mooney ("who?") is backstage to interview Jimmy Hart and the new Intercontinental Champion, the Mountie. The Mountie stupidly asks what Roddy Piper's win-loss record is. Of course, we all know Piper had never been pinned or made to submit on national television in his entire run with the WWF. We cut to Mean Gene with Roddy Piper, who gets a chance to win the IC and World Title on the same card.
- WWF Intercontinental Championship Match:
The Mountie © (w/ Jimmy Hart) vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper:
Piper is a last-minute substitution for Bret Hart, who was suffering from a "104 degree temperature" when he lost the IC Title to the Mountie less than 48 hours ago (from the time of the Royal Rumble PPV, that is). Piper attacks Mountie before the bell with his kilt and stomps away. The Mountie tries running, but Piper follows him out and floors him with a charging right. Mountie hides behind Jimmy, and cheap shots Piper. Back into the ring, and the Mountie chokes Piper against the ropes. Irish whip, and a crisscross leads to Piper droping a fist across the forehead of Mountie. Piper rams the Mountie into the turnbuckles and connects with a running bulldog. Mountie puts his foot on the ropes to escape a pinfall, so Piper does a splash across the ankle just because he could. Piper works in his eye poke, but Hart distracts Piper long enough for the Mountie to try a comeback. Piper goes for a dropkick, but misses. Mountie applies some kind of chicken-wing type move to ram Piper a few times into the buckle. Irish whip, and the Mountie nails a diving back elbow for a two count. The Mountie dumps Piper out of the ring, but that doesn't go anywhere, and Piper comes back into the ring with a sunset flip for a two count. More stuff happens, but nothing too exciting. Irish whip and Piper nails the Mountie with a big right. Irish whip again, and he takes the Mountie over with a back body drop. Irish whip part III, and Piper with a fist to the midsection, followed by an atomic drop. The Mountie skins the cat back in, but gets rammed into Jimmy on the apron, and Piper applies the Sleeper Hold, and wins his only WWF gold at 5:19 to a monster pop. Jimmy tries shock-sticking him, but Piper avoids it and uses it on the Mountie instead. The winner and NEW World Wrestling Federation Intercontinental Champion, Rowdy Roddy Piper! * Match kinda sucked, but it's pretty historic, and it was kept short, so that gets bonus points from me.
- Mean Gene Okerlund interviews the Bushwackers and their manager for the day, Jameson. I need to keep my sanity after listening to Tugboat's 1991 Rumble Promo three times, so I'll be skipping over this one like my life depended on it.
- The Bushwackers (w/ Jameson) vs. The Beverly Brothers (w/ The Genius):
(Butch & Luke vs. Blake & Beau Beverly)
Oh sweet Jesus, if you've seen one bad match between these two teams, you've seen them all. Adding in Jameson (a dork who was featured primarily on PrimeTime Wrestling) just makes it worse, but at least the Heenan/Gorilla commentary is going to be pretty kick-ass. Choice sign in the crowd: On the 8th day, God created Gorilla Monsoon. How the Bushwackers remained over sitll puzzles me. You'd think people would hate being licked by two middle-aged weirdos. Gorilla on the Bushwackers: They've been licking and whacking their way through the competition. Heenan on Jameson: It looks like he hasn't washed his hair in six years. Apparently Jameson's parents didn't want a divorce because neither wanted custody of him, and they used to wrap his lunch in a road map. Jameson, tough guy of the century, throws a piece of bread at the Genius. Heenan makes fun of him for blowing his nose on a sock. You can tell when the Bushwackers are around because there's usually 400-500 cats around the arena. I obviously am not bothering with doing PBP for this suckfest, so I'm just enjoying the commentary. Basically a comedy match so far, and not a good one, either. The Bushwackers are living proof that the Three Stooges had children, according to Heenan. Gorilla accusing Heenan of wanting to manage to Bushwackers gets a nice reaction from him. Oh, and Jameson needs to be put to sleep and vacuumed. Heenan's pissed that his $200 in taxes is going into the pocket of Jameson, and accuses him of wearing green trashbags as underwear. The Genius nails Jameson with a bitch-slap, but sadly he's still breathing. The match finally ends after Beau nails a double axehandle from the top rope at 14:58. DUD Painfully bad match, but since the commentary was pretty good, I will be nice and not dip into the negative star scale. The Bushwackers clean house afterwards, and Jameson gets his revenge by kicking the Genius in the shin.
- Okerlund is back again, this time with the Legion of Doom, the current (1992, that is) Tag Team Champions. It's their typical screaming promo, so I fast forward since I'm starting to get burned out doing all of these reviews so close together.
- WWF Tag Team Championship Match:
The Legion of Doom © vs. The Natural Disastors (w/ Jimmy Hart):
(Road Warrior Hawk & Animal vs. Earthquake & Typhoon)
I pray that this match is short. The problem with packing in all the top stars into the Rumble means a lot of shitty undercard matches, and God damn was the WWF Tag Team Division shit in 1992. Hawk and Typhoon lockup, but no one budges. Side headlock applied by Hawk, but shoulder blocks don't do anything. Hawk heads up to the top rope and nails a flying clothesline for a two count. Earthquake tags in for a face-to-face, and Hawk casually nails a dropkick. Earthquake no-sells it and misses his own dropkick. Monsoon with a Sky Low-Low referenece, which is the most out-dated of the night so far. Animal tags in to exchange blows with Earthquake. Irish whip and a double clothesline puts both men down. Animal goes for a slam, but Earthquake is too fat and lands ontop for a two count. Irish whip to the corner, and Typhoon nails an avalanch in the corner. They try again, but Animal boots Typhoon in the face and floors him with a clothesline. Animal applies a wristlock and Hawk comes off the top with a sledge to the arm. Irish whip and a double clothesline doesn't budge anyone. Hawk tries a cross-body, but Typhoon catches him and nails a series of back breakers. Irish whip to the corner, and Hawk bounces out hard. Earthquake comes in with a snapmare followed by a massive elbow across the back for a two count. Typhoon tags in to work over the back of Hawk and choke him across the middle rope. Typhoon applies a bearhug to allow me to fast-forward. Earthquake comes back in to squash Hawk in the corner and make juice of the liquids he squashes out of him. Earthquake with his own bearhug now. Irish whip to the corner and Quake misses his avalanch. Hawk comes off the second turnbuckle with a bionic elbow, putting Earthquake down. Animal gets the hot tag and cleans house of Earthquake. Typhoon comes in to get pounded on. Animal floors both Disastors with a double clothesline, and the action spills outside. Hawk with a diving clothesline from the apron onto Typhoon! Quake slams Animal on the outside and bearhugs Hawk while Typhoon rolls back in the ring to win the match by a lame Count-Out at 9:23. *1/2 I expected this to be much worse, so I'll be a bit on the generous side. Afterwards, Animal cleans Quake's clock with a steel chair for trying to take their Tag Team Titles, despite only winning by Count-Out.
- Interview-o-Rama! Sean Mooney interviews the Natural Disastors, who feel they got screwed out of the titles (especially since they prevented the LOD from getting back in the ring). Roddy Piper is rambling incoherently about getting a chance to win a second belt. Mooney is back with Shawn Michaels, who recently turned heel and was still searching for a real personality, and we get highlights of the Barber Shop incident from the week before. ROYAL RUMBLE PROMOS! Randy Savage! Sid Justice! Repo Man! The British Bulldog! Jake Roberts! Ric Flair & Mr. Perfect! The Undertaker & Paul Bearer! And, of course, Hulk Hogan!
- WWF World Championship Match:
30-Man Royal Rumble Match:
Before the match begins, Jack Tunney comes out to talk. He screwed Hulk Hogan out of the title, so the fans probably aren't too interested in his cock and bull story. Again, we've got two minute intervals, unless someone falls asleep at the buzzer. The lucky starts of the match are The British Bulldog (#1) and Ted Dibiase (#2), starting the Rumble match for the second straight time (second straight time being in the actual match, that is). Bulldog pounds away to start, but runs into an elbow in the corner. Dibiase with chops, followed by a clothesline. Dibiase takes the Bulldog over with a suplex and connects with a gut-wrench suplex. Fist drop by Dibiase, followed by another suplex. Dibiase dumps Bulldog, but he holds on and clotheslines Dibiase out at 1:18 (Ted Dibiase - #1 Eliminated). #3 is Ric Flair, and Bobby Heenan proceeds to have a heart attack while Gorilla Monsoon gloats. The clock is a bit fast, as it's only been 1:47 before Flair comes out. Lockup, and Bulldog shoves Flair down. Flair with a thumb to the eyes, but Bulldog catches him off the ropes with a press slam. Too bad he didn't toss him over the top rope like any sane person would've done. Irish whip to the corner, and Bulldog comes charging out with a clothesline. Flair with a low-blow to take control again. Irish whip, and Bulldog puts him down with another clothesline. Bulldog tries dumping Flair as we get the next guy. #4 is Jerry Saggs, and he goes for the Bulldog. The heels double team the Bulldog for a while. Irish whip to the corner, and Bulldog comes out with clotheslines to both men. Saggs gets dumped on the apron, and Bulldog dropkicks him off and out at 5:24 (Jerry Saggs - #2 Eliminated). Bulldog goes back to work on Flair in the corner and connects with a powerslam.
#5 is Haku (Sub. for Jannetty or Knobbs) and he pounds away on the Bulldog in a flashback ot their feud from 1988 over Matilda. Haku decides to go after Flair now and no-sells before chasing him out of the ring. Haku goes back to stomping away on the Bulldog and nails a wicked piledriver. Flair pounces on Haku with a vicious rake of the eyes followed by a knee drop across the forhead. Haku gets back up to hammer on Flair in the corner and exchange shots with the Bulldog until the Bulldog back drops him out at 7:59 (Haku - #3 Eliminated). #6 is Shawn Michaels and he goes after Bulldog probably. Woah. Flair goes for Shawn and they exchange shots. Michaels whips Flair across the ring and takes him over with a back drop. Michaels with a shitty-ass crescent kick, and Bulldog comes back into the match to press slam Michaels. Bulldog with a series of clotheslines, but Michaels hangs on and whiffs on another crescent kick. Flair hammers on Michaels and tries dumping him out. Michaels comes back and goes for Bulldog, but gets his ass kicked for doing that. Flair chops away on Michaels and tries dumping him again. #7 is El Matador Tito Santana, and he goes at it with Flair in the corner. Michaels makes the save and attacks his soon-to-be WrestleMania VIII opponent. Bulldog tries dumping Michaels while Flair takes Matador down with a suplex. Flair with another low-blow on the Bulldog. Santana rams Michaels to the buckle a few times then saves the Bulldog from elimination. Santana nails the flying jalupeņo on Flair, but that isn't the best move in this match.
#8 is The Barbarian, and he stands around before going after the Bulldog. Flair chops the skin off Santana's chest then hammers away on DBS while the Barbarian tries dumping him. Flair knees Michaels from behind and chops away on Santana. Michaels goes to the second turnbuckle, but everyone move saway from him, so he just comes back down. Santana tries dumping Michaels and Flair tries dumping Santana. Santana chokes Flair until the Barbarian saves. #9 is The Texas Tornado. He goes after Flair in a little old-school hardcore fan wet-dream sequence. Tornado pounds on Flair in the corner with rights and nails the discuss punch, allowing Flair to do his signature face-first pump for the first time. Bulldog with a double leg sweep and slingshot of Michaels into the corner, followed by a clothesline. Flair with an inverted atomic drop to the Tornado. Tornado fights back with rights and Flair does his bump again (#2). Santana comes over to stomp on Flair while Tornado pairs up with the Barbarian. #10 is the Repo Man, and he does his sneaky little bit before getting into the ring. Repo goes after Michaels in the corner while Flair tries dumpnig the Bulldog. Santana with a cross body press on The Barbarian, then tries going for the cover. Tornado and Bulldog double team on Michaels for a few seconds, then Bulldog applies a Sleeper on the Repo Man. Flair chops away on the Tornado in the corner. #11 is Greg Valentine in his Hulkamaniac in Training tights. He goes after the Repo Man with chops, then has an exchange with Flair. Valentine with a series of chops on Flair, followed by a bionic elbow. Valentine continues chopping the hit off of Flair's chest until the Repo Man makes the save. Flair goes back on the Hammer with chops of his own and a low blow to the Repo Man. Flair continues pounding Repo while Valentine tries dumping the Barbarian.
#12 is Nikolai Volkoff, and no one cares, since he hasn't been seen in over a year. Nice heel reaction for him, too, despite being a face. Volkoff hammers away on Repo Man with his usual shitty offense. Flair and Valentine pair up again in the corner. Repo Man gets his revenge shots in on Volkoff while Valentine applies the Figure-Four on Flair! The Barbarian quickly breaks it up while Repo Man back drops Volkoff out at 21:27 (Nikolai Volkoff - #4 Eliminated). Santana and Bulldog pair up again on Michaels. #13 is the Big Boss Man, and he takes shots at everyone in his path. Repo Man continues is path of destruction, dumping out Greg Valentine at 22:30 (Greg Valentine - #5 Eliminated). Michaels goes after Bossman, but gets his clock cleaned for his troubles. Boss Man then dumps out the Repo Man at 22:57 (Repo Man - #6 Eliminated). Bulldog goes back to work on Flair in the corner with a series of headbutts. Flair then back drops the Bulldog out of nowhere out of the match at 23:36 (The British Bulldog - #7 Eliminated). The Tornado goes after Flair again, and he suffers the same fat as the Bulldog at 23:46 (The Texas Tornado - #8 Elimianted). Santana and Michaels exchange blows and tumble out of the ring together at 24:06 (Tito Santana & Shawn Michaels - #9 and #10 Eliminated). #14 is Hercules, but no one cares about him anymore. Herc' goes after Flair with clubbing blows. The Barbarian goes after Flair and press slams him, but not out of the ring. Barbie tries dumping out Flair, but here comes Hercules to dump out the Barbarian at 25:14 (The Barbarian - #11 Eliminated). Boss Man then clotheslines Hercules out at 25:17 (Hercules - #12 Eliminated). Boss Man nails Flair with a clothesline, followed by a series of weak shots until he misses a cross body and goes tumbling over the top at 25:52 (Big Boss Man - #13 Eliminated), leaving Flair by himself for about 5 seconds, and do the 3rd face-bump of the match.
#15 is Roddy Piper, and the crowd, of course, goes berserk. Piper does a little dance before lunging at Flair in the corner and beating the shit out of him. Piper with a running knee lift sends Flair running out of the ring. Piper follows and drops him with a clothesline. Back into the ring, and Piper no-sells being hung-up across the top rope. Piper with mounted punches in the corner, then a poke of the eyes after blocking an atomic drop. Piper with a clothesline, followed by an airplane spin. SLEEPER HOLD! #16 is Jake Roberts, and what a threesome of talent in the ring this is... He pretends to let Piper do his thing, but once he turns his back, Roberts pounds away. Roberts hammers away on Piper in the corner and chokes him down with his boot. Roberts nails Flair with a short-arm clothesline out of nowhere, getting a face pop in the process. Roberts goes for the DDT, but Piper makes the save, which causes Heenan to PRAISE Piper and forgive him for calling his kilt a skirt. Then Piper stomps away on Flair and Heenan takes it all back and makes fun of his kilt being a skirt. Everyone trades blows with each other until Roberts tries dumping out Piper. #17 is Jim Duggan and he hammers away on Flair in the corner. Irish whip to the corner and Duggan puts Flair down with a clothesline. Duggan goes to work on Roberts now until Piper makes the save. Duggan with a series of shoulders to the midsection of Piper. Flair takes Piper down with a back suplex, and Roberts puts Duggan down with an inverted atomic drop. Flair and Piper exchange blows until Duggan interupts and takes Flair into the corner.
#18 is Irwin R. Schyster, and he takes his sweet time to get to the ring. I.R.S. goes after Flair for a few seconds, then gets clobbered by Duggan, who uses the tongue... I mean tie, for leverage. Roberts and Flair try dumping out Piper until Duggan saves with a double noggin' knocker, and Flair does the bump for a 4th time. Flair and I.R.S. double team Piper, but Duggan keeps ruining everything by sucking so much. #19 is Jimmy Snuka, and he'll probably go for Flair, too. Snuka with a big headbutt on Flair, followed by a big chop. Duggan beats Flair up some more, then helps Snuka double team Roberts. Flair rakes the eyes of Snuka then goes back to work on Piper. Snuka chops away on I.R.S. while Piper works over Flair more. Roberts tries dumping Flair now, but he's clinging on like grim death to the ropes. #20 is The Undertaker, and it's time to eliminate someone. For those that don't remember, Undertaker and Hogan drew their numbers between #20-30 because of their World Title situation thing. Undertaker quickly attacks Snuka and dumps him out without much trouble at 37:11 (Jimmy Snuka - #14 Elimianted). Undertaker works over Flair and chokes him down in the corner. Duggan makes the save for a second until Undertaker kicks him in the balls. Undertaker stalks I.R.S. for a while until choking him in the corner. Flair tries chopping the Undertaker, but that's being no sold, so he double chokes Flair and Duggan.
#21 is Randy Savage, and Jake Roberts runs away like a bitch. Undertaker clobbers Savage from behind and chokes him down. Roberts comes back in to work over Savage. Savage ducks the short-arm clothesline and hammers away on Roberts with crazy punches. Savage with a double axehandle, and a running high knee eliminates Roberts at 39:30 (Jake Roberts - #15 Elimianted). Savage, stupidly, jumps over the top rope to go after Roberts, but the referees rule him to go back into the ring since the rules change every year about that sort of thing. The Undertaker tries dumping Savage back in a few times, but Savage keeps going after Roberts in the aisle. Duggan pulls Undertaker off Savage to pound away, but he can't pick him up, since being 320 pounds is too heavy all of a sudden. The clock seems a bit slow for this period, since I've been rambling a lot, and it's been over two minutes since Roberts was eliminated. Flair low blows the Undertaker, but it's no sold again. #22 is The Berzerker, and he goes after the Undertaker, then anyone else who he can reach. Duggan with an atomic drop on the Berzerker, and Undertaker is choking Piper down in the corner. I.R.S. and Flair double team Savage for a while. Flair tries to suplex Savage over the top rope, but he blocks and takes Flair back into the ring with one of his own. Undertaker and Piper double choke Flair, then Undertaker chokes Piper with his free hand. Berzerker choke lift slams Savage quite sloppily. Virgil is #23, and he goes for I.R.S. since Dibiase isn't around. I.R.S. and The Berzerker double team Virgil, then Undertaker comes over to get some chokes in. Piper and Savage double up on the Berzerker, but he hangs on. Flair chops Undertaker, so Underaker chokes Flair. Berzerker whips Virgil to the ropes and nails him with a big boot. Lots of hugging going on right now, thank God.
#24 is Col. Mustafa, but he sucks, so I don't pay attention to him. Mustafa goes after Duggan, since he loved the U-S-A, and it was his fault they got busted by the cops back in 1987. Flair and Piper manage to pair up with each other again, until the cross-eyed idiot breaks it up again. Too many people are in the ring now. Piper with mounted punches in the corner on Flair, and Savage nails everyone he can with sledges. #25 is Rick Martel, and I doubt he's cleaning out his closet. Flair and Martel go at it just for the hell of it. Savage dumps out Mustafa at 48:46, but the announcers don't bother to pay attention because he sucks so bad (Col. Mustafa - #16 Eliminated). Undertaker goes back to work on Savage with choking while Irwin takes a shot at fellow heel Martel, who continues to choke Flair. Undertaker with a choke lift on Savage, and Duggan saves again. #26 is Hulk Hogan, and hopefully he dumps some bodies out. Hogan noggin' knockers Flair and Undertaker, then rakes both of their eyes. Hogan unloads on Flair until Undertaker saves. Berzerker comes over to hold Hogan back so everyone can gang up. Hogan fights off everyone possible to clothesline the Undertaker out at 50:56 (The Undertaker - #17 Eliminated). The Berzerker is back dropped out in short order at 51:06 (The Berzerker - #18 Eliminated). Hogan chokes down Martel with his t-shirt, which is what Martel did to Hogan at the last years Rumble. In the meantime, Virgil cross body presses Duggan, but the momentum takes both over and out at 51:26 (Virgil & Jim Duggan - #19 & #20 Eliminated). At least that cleans out some of the dead wood that had no chance of winning.
#27 is Skinner, with no hope in hell of winning a match with Flair, Hogan, Savage, Piper, and Sid Justice still in the match. Hogan tries dumping Flair, bur he holds on until Irwin makes the save while wearing Hogan's shirt around his neck. Hogan saves Piper from Skinner, then Flair saves Skinner from Hogan. Skinner claws away at Hogan's face while Piper holds off being eliminated once more. Flair whips Hogan to the corner, and Hogan comes charging out with a clothesline. #28 is Sgt. Slaughter, past the point of being useful in the WWF. Martel dumps out Skinner at 54:16 to end his night for an easy paycheck (Skinner - #21 Eliminated). Hogan and Piper go at it for a few momtns, but the camera takes focus on Slaughter trying to eliminate Flair. Savage chokes I.R.S. with Hogan's shirt. Damn, that shirt was used as a weapon a lot in these matches. Slaughter takes some shots at Hogan because of kicking his ass at WrestleMania VII and SummerSlam '91. #29 is Sid Justice and it's time to clean house again. Sid hammers away on I.R.S. and stomps away at the midsection. Sid then turns his attentions to Martel. Flair and I.R.S. double team Hogan while Piper and Martel double team Sid. Flair snapmares Hogan out of the corner but gets caught by Sid before he can do anymore damage. Sid kips up from a takedown and clotheslines Flair out of his boots.
Final Field: (#3) Ric Flair, (#15) Roddy Piper, (#18) Irwin R. Schyster, (#21) Randy Savage, (#25) Rick Martel, (#26) Hulk Hogan, (#28) Sgt. Slaughter, (#29) Sid Justice, (#30) The Warlord:
The Warlord gets a great number for the second year in a row, and smart money says he gets dumped out in short order. Flair and Hogan brawl outside the ring, and Hogan takes him over with a suplex. Back in the ring, and Sid whips Slaughter across the ring to do his signature bump out of the ring to be eliminated at 58:54 (Sgt. Slaughter - #22 Eliminated). Back inside, Hogan puts Flair down with a big boot. I.R.S. tries dumping Piper, but he hangs on and yanks I.R.S. out by his tie at 59:48 (Irwin R. Schyster - #23 Eliminated). Hogan and Sid double up on the Warlord and slam him out after doing nothing at 1:00:11 (The Warlord - #24 Eliminated). Piper and Martel hug near the ropes, so Sid dumps them both at 1:00:36 (Roddy Piper & Rick Martel - #25 & #26 Eliminated), giving us out final four of Sid, Hogan, Savage, and Flair. Sid scoops up Savage to dump him out, and Flair bumps into them both with enough force to eliminate Savage at 1:01:00 (Randy Savage - #27 Eliminated). Hogan pounds away on Flair in the corner with chops and whips him across the ring, but he's too tired to bump onto the apron. Hogan sends him over the top, but Sid dumps Hogan out at 1:01:29 to the surprise of everyone! (Hulk Hogan - #28 Eliminated) Hogan yanks Sid by the arm because he's a cry baby, allowing Flair to come up from behind and eliminate Sid at 1:02:00 to win the World Championship and to a big pop. After the match, Hogan and Sid argue in the ring until we cut backstage. ****3/4 Great rumble match, and the second best of all-time. It's that reason alone I won't go with the full monty 5-star rating, since then it would be tied for the best of all time instead. Very little dead spots made this one pretty entertaining, and everyone beating the shit out of Ric Flair is always a plus out of me. And I stand corrected: This is the PPV Version, since the crowd is Pro-Sid, and are chanting "Sid" and not "Hogan."
- Backstage we go as Ric Flair, with Mr. Perfect and Bobby Heenan in tow, is presented with the World Championship Belt by paper-President Jack "Glug Glug Glug" Tunney. We all know what he talks about, so I skip this so I can end the review.
Final Thoughts: A very good opener and an awesome Rumble match makes this an easy thumbs up. Roddy Piper winning the Intercontinental title is also a plus, even though the match was crappy. The other matches (Bushwackers/Beverly's, LOD/Disastors) were quite shitty themselves, but not enough to hurt the rest of the show. Blah blah blah, I ramble on and on... Strong Recommendation for the 1992 Royal Rumble.