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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RAW (Jan. 4th, 2016) – Roman Reigns To Defend WWE Title In Rumble Match? Yes, Please.

So it’s been announced on RAW that Roman Reigns will be defending his WWE World Heavyweight Championship thing against twenty-nine other men in the 30-man Royal Rumble match at the upcoming PPV. This would make it the first time since 1992 that a Rumble has been for the WWE championship itself, as well as the first time since 1990 that a WWE World champion has participated in the Rumble. However, this is the first time in which the reigning WWE World champion is actually DEFENDING the title in the Rumble match itself.

You know what? I don’t know about anybody else, but I actually like this idea. I always felt that if they really wanted to do something really different with the Rumble, they should have the champion defend his title in the Rumble match itself. A title shot at Wrestlemania is all well and good, but means nothing when the match itself could potentially play second-fiddle to whatever bullshit old-timer match they have going on. Remember, we’ve had Rumble winners get title shots at Wrestlemania in the OPENING MATCH, making the prize about as worthwhile as winning Tough Enough.

A Rumble match where the champion is defending, on the other hand? That sound interesting. And who knows? Maybe Roman might triumph, maybe someone else will get the win. But one thing’s for sure. It’ll be a fun ride. And thus, I approve of this.

I may have jinxed the whole thing, haven’t I?

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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The Winners And Losers Of 2015

NOTE: Yeah, I know. It’s a little late, but shit happens. So this is being posted now. Sorry, everyone.

In what has become something of an annual tradition for my web presence, I figure we do a year in review. For those joining for the first time, I do this thing at the end of the year where I would post a list of winners and losers of that year, otherwise known as the high points and low points of that year… along with some middle-of-the-road mentions. It’s something of an annual tradition and… it started off as a written form on the old blog and it continues to be that here, since after a couple days, I’ll post the written version for those who want to read it or understand what I’m trying to say in these rambling sessions. And sometimes, those written versions will have slight revisions or additions, but… in any case, let’s check out the Winners And Losers of 2015.

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