WWE
– Royal Rumble 1994
1994 was a strange time for the WWE.
They were transitioning out from the Hogan 80s era style and heading into a new
generation with wrestlers such as Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart who were more
athletic in the ring. The event starts with a very 90s graphic and Vince
McMahon’s over the top announcing. I believe he said 1994 Royal Rumble at least
a half dozen times before the first match even begins. The Million Dollar Man
Ted DiBiase comes in as his co-announcer, interesting choice. Throughout the
show Dibiase would throw jabs at certain wrestlers he feuded with in the past
and talk about how much money he had. It was a nice touch to have a former heel
wrestler as announcer, still in character.
Tatanka vs Bam Bam Bigelow with Luna
Vachon
For a man his size, Bam Bam was very
athletic. He moved quickly and could do a moonsault, something hardly anyone
did at the time. Tatanka was a fairly big guy too. He was more of the steroid,
muscle bound freak kind of big but he too moved well. This match had a good
pace and some good action. It never slowed down to take a breather. A good
opener to a pay per view.
Winner:
Tatanka
Tag Team Championship: The Quebecers
(Jacques Rougeau and Pierre Karl Ouellette) (c) with Johnny Polo vs Bret and
Owen Hart
Before the match there is a segment
about Bret and Owen’s tumultuous relationship over the last few months but it
seems like they are now ok with each other. The match itself is awkward. It
feels like there is a lack of communication between the participants. And is
that Raven? Was he once known as Johnny Polo? The point of the match however
was to focus on the Bret and Owen relationship. After having his leg attacked
the entire match, the ref calls for a stoppage and awards the match to the
Quebecers. Owen gets frustrated at Bret and hits Bret in his leg, injuring it
further. There is no possible way Bret can compete in the Royal Rumble later
tonight!!!
Winners:
The Quebecers
Intercontinental Championship: IRS vs
Razor Ramon (c)
This is an ok match but let’s be
honest, did anyone expect IRS to win? The finish gets a little screwy, with
Shawn Michaels interfering and hitting Razor with the fake Intercontinental
belt and IRS pinning Razor. Then another refs comes, points out what happened,
then Ramon hits the Razor’s Edge on IRS and gets the real pin. The kind of
finishes are frustrating because they point out the lack of consistency in
wrestling. Why does the decision get overturned this time, but not the hundreds
of other times there’s interference?
Winner:
Razor Ramon
Casket Match
WWF World Championship: Yokozuna (c) vs
The Undertaker
This encounter itself wasn’t much to
scream about. Most of it was The Undertaker bouncing around and attacking the
champion Yokozuna. Undertaker could really move fast back in the day; I was
surprised by his athleticism. The story here is what happens at the end. About
a dozen other heels show up to beat down The Undertaker and eventually weaken
him up enough to put him in the casket and give Yokozuna the win. As they cart
the casket away, The Undertaker appears on the screen and all kind of magic and
theatrics happen, ending with what appears to be The Undertaker ascending to
heaven.
What happened here was definitely
over the top but not excessive, especially for the time period. It gave The Undertaker
a good way to disappear for a bit while still remaining strong even in defeat. Looking
at it now, yes, it is ridiculous, but you can look at it with a nostalgic view
and enjoy it.
Winner:
Yokozuna
Royal Rumble match
Winner gets a World Championship
title shot at Wrestlemania X
The early parts of my favorite match
of the year were dominated by Diesel. He looked like a star, eliminating
everyone for a while until he ran into the Macho Man Randy Savage. From there
the match went its normal route. There were a lot of punch and kick spots in
order to allow the ring to fill up. When Bret returned, it was a great moment and
he did an excellent job selling the leg injury from earlier in the night. The
most exciting part of the rumble happens once all 30 participants are inside
because every elimination means you are one step closer to finding out who the
winner is. One of my favorite spots is when they get down to the final four and
they stare at each other and give the crowd a moment to take in that we are
near the end. For the finale, Lex Luger and Bret Hart tumble out of the ring at
the same time. After conferring with then “President” of the WWE Jack Tunney,
it’s determined that both Luger and Hart are winners. This created a new
interesting scenario for the Wrestlemania world title match, something that had
never been done before. It also gave the company room to change their minds if
either Luger or Bret did not turn out to be what they wanted for Wrestlemania.
Winners:
Bret Hart and Lex Luger
Overall this event was good but not
great. The Tatanka vs Bam Bam match was good, but the other preliminary
contests were not that thrilling. The Rumble match itself was good, middle of
the road quality and it gave us a finish that had never happened before. It
also made Diesel look like a star, using the rumble to show him as a badass. It
lacked a bit of star power since they were in a rebuilding phase at that time
with many of the stars of the 80s having already left the company. They did
what they could to push the new generation forward but there was a little
something lacking to make it spectacular.
Score
: 7/10
