Category: WWE PPV Musings

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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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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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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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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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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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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