Reviews #1 - WWE Royal Rumble 1994

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