Royal Ramble 1988

30 years ago, the first Royal Rumble took place on the USA Network. It would eventually become a popular concept in wrestling and the first stop on the “Road To Wrestlemania” that everyone likes to promote. (I myself circumvent that whole road and take the shortcut that skips all the bullshit stops along the way, but that’s another story.)

Today, we look at this historical first show and then over the next four days, I’ll be watching random Royal Rumbles and giving them quick little write-ups. And then maybe next week, I’ll do a post on this Sunday’s event.

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Royal Ramble 2017

Apparently, this Royal Rumble is a big deal because it has a bunch of old guys in it. Undertaker, Goldberg, Bork Lazer, Big Slow,… maybe a couple NXT guys might show up for good measure.

As per the case with these PPVs, I generally don’t watch the pre-shows. I did catch the Holy Foley marathon that was playing early during the day and I regret having done so. As much as I enjoyed Mick Foley’s antics during his prime years, modern-day Foley is about as entertaining as a root canal. A truly dreadful show in every sense of the word… even Total Divas is much more entertaining than this (and that show is also the equivalent of an anal evacuation.)

But I digress. I’m not here to talk about WWE’s horrible reality shows. I’m here to muse on the Rumble. So here’re my post-show thoughts and, as a bit of an added bonus, I include my “live notes” that I took during the Rumble match in progress. So that’s something… I guess.

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Royal Ramble 2007

Based on a recent viewing of the show from the Royal Rumble anthology DVD set that came out around 2007-ish, it’s time to share some ramblings on the 2007 iteration of the Royal Rumble spectacular. But this one’s going to be somewhat different because in addition to more modern thoughts on an ancient event, I will also include my old “blog” entry (from the old DTM Blog) that was being written as the Rumble was taking place. Sort of like a running commentary of sorts, but done in single sentences and stuff. That makes it interesting to compare and contrast my thoughts for what it’s worth.

Anywhoo… on with the show.

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Royal Ramble 2006

The 2006 Royal Rumble… fuck me… this is the one where Eddie-sploitation is in full swing, isn’t it?

Well, that might be jumping the gun here, but for those who want context…

November 2005 saw the passing of beloved WWE wrestler and eventual Hall of Famer Eddie Guerrero. WWE paid tribute by dedicating two shows to him. They then had an Eddie tribute match at a later WWE show which featured Randy Orton blowing up one of Eddie’s lowriders with the Undertaker in the trunk. Then Rey Mysterio would dedicate himself to celebrating Eddie’s memory by (spoiler alert) winning the Royal Rumble and eventually the World Heavyweight title at Wrestlemania 22. He would go on to have one of the worst reigns as World Champion in wrestling history. Even Vince Russo had a more dignified reign as WCW champion than Mysterio’s stint as World champion.

But, again, that’s jumping the gun here. Let’s check out this rumble show.

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Royal Ramble 2003

So, for reasons that are beyond me, I decided to go back and revisit this 2003 iteration and hopefully offer some more timely observations and whatnots, since the original write-up comprised a hodgepodge of “vintage” 2003 commentary and then-contemporary reflections. For those wondering, you can find the original write-up here, but that will no longer be linked on the menu page. Expect a similar treatment as I occasionally go back to revisit previous PPVs… at least the ones I still have access to.

Anyway, the only noteworthy things I seem to recall about this show is Brock Lesnar winning his only Royal Rumble match and the horrible World title match… and, oh yeah, it’s also boasted the original Suplex City, Bitch as orchestrated by then-mayor and master of the English Language, Scott Steiner.

Yes, this will be fun.

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Royal Ramble 1992

Yeah, so after a horrid Royal Rumble showing, let’s go back in time to 1992 and check out that year’s edition of the Royal Rumble, considered by most old-school fans to be one of the finest Rumbles in Rumble history. Most folks would probably know this as the show where multi-time NWA World champion Ric Flair won the Royal Rumble match to win his very first WWF World title, as the Rumble was for the vacant title at that time. And I will shoot with you here right off the bat; if you absolutely need to watch a Rumble match done exceptionally well, this is the one to watch (along with a couple others, but baby steps).

That having been said, how’s the rest of the show? Let’s check it out.

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Royal Ramble 1999

The 1999 Royal Rumble… Holy Living FUCK!

To sum things up, this show sucked. You don’t realize it watching it back then because the WWF was such a hot thing at the time and the overarching storyline of Austin Vs. McMahon was somewhat compelling, but when you remove the context from the equation and pull the show out of the moment, there is not one single good thing to be had here, save for maybe one or two things here and there. For the sake of brevity and my own state of mind, my comments here will be short and sweet.

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Royal Ramble 1998

So it’s the 1998 Royal Rumble, the next step on the WWF’s sizable road to reclaiming the wrestling crown from rival promotion World Championship Wrestling. For whatever that’s worth…

I didn’t start following WWF or wrestling in general until a few months afterwards and thus my first exposure to this show wouldn’t be until late-98 or early-99 when I bought the VHS tape at an old Music World store. The DVD Anthology is basically the VHS showing, but with all the WWF logos and mentions bleeped out.

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Royal Ramble 1997

Since the Rumble is about a couple weeks away, I’d figure it’d be the best time to revisit some older, more ancient iterations of one of the WWE’s big events every so often. Unlike the Ramblemania series from years past, the Royal Ramble is done in completely random order. For example, today’s on the 1997 version, while the next one could jump ahead several years or even back. In any event, all of these will eventually be linked on the Wrestling page for anyone who cares.

From the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas comes the 1997 Royal Rumble where Shawn Michaels comes home to a mostly papered audience and try to reclaim his WWF World Title from reigning champion Sid. Meanwhile, we have a Royal Rumble match featuring the hottest rising star in the WWF. I am, of course, referring to the youngster known as Terry Funk… My vaguest recollection of this show was renting the VHS tape years ago. This current write-up is based on my viewing of the show as presented on that Royal Rumble Anthology set, which was released in 2007-ish.

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