Royal Rumble Opinion

The Royal Rumble, one of the premier events for the WWE, started with humble beginnings. The Royal Rumble as an event concept we all recognize aired on the USA network back in January of 1988. A variant of a Battle Royal, instead of having all the competitors start the match at once, competitors came down to the ring in timed increments. The 1988 Rumble match did not end that card, but instead was the second to last match. In addition, the 1988 Rumble was the first, and only Rumble to have 20 competitors. From 1989 on, with the exception of 2011, when the WWE tried a 40 participant Rumble match, the number of competitors has been 30. Over the years, there has been some tinkering to the Rumble event, from placement of the Rumble match itself, to the time between competitors. Perhaps the best known tinker to the event that we take for granted today is that the Royal Rumble lays the foundation for Wrestlemania. In the formative years of the Royal Rumble, it was its own standalone event.

In 1992, the stakes were raised big time. Prior to the 1992 event, there was no Road to Wrestlemania. The idea prior to '92 was the winner received a handsome payday, and got to boast of how they outlasted 29 other competitors. In 1992, the story leading to the Rumble was that the World Heavyweight Title had been vacated. The winner of the Rumble match would win more than a payday, or an ego boost. He’d go home with the title. The winner that year, Ric Flair, made history. Not only for winning the title, but he started the match as the third entrant. He broke the record up to that point for remaining in the Rumble match, which was held by Rick Martel, who set it the year before. Going forward, the Royal Rumble solidified itself as not just a gimmick event, but one of the most important ones of the year. To this day, the winner has either gone on to main event at Wrestlemania, or, in the case of 2016, win a title that was vacant (Triple H).

As a young wrestling fan, I loved the Royal Rumble. It was unpredictable. You got to see battles between tag team partners, face against face, heel against heel. It was always exciting trying to follow who was in the ring, who had been eliminated, and who had yet to come out. The Rumble match was often used to push storylines (see Hogan and Savage in 1989), and was where feuds were born (Roddy Piper and Bad News Brown in 1990). The Royal Rumble usually had very good and entertaining undercard matches. The Rockers vs. The Orient Express tag match from the 1991 immediately comes to mind. That match, to this day, stands as one of my favorite tag matches of all-time.

I have certainly enjoyed the Rumble over the years, despite weaning in and out of varying levels of fandom. There have been plenty of moments that make the Royal Rumble a must-see event. Steve Austin’s 1997 showing, which solidified his rise to the main event scene. Kane’s high number of eliminations from 2001. Vince McMahon blowing his quad running into the ring in 2005, and all three commentators participating in 2012. For the most part, it has retained some degree of surprise. In recent years there’s a surprise entrant, usually a legend. However, some of the surprise element has been ruined by the internet, in addition to overly predictable booking. Also, I wish they didn’t play the wrestler themes as they come out. Just let the buzzer sound, and let us see who comes out from behind the curtain.

With the 2017 Royal Rumble just a few weeks away, I very much plan on watching it. Despite how I feel about some of the recent editions of the event, the Royal Rumble is the only event of the year where you get a potential mixture of lower-card, mid-card and main-event scene competitors in the same ring at the same time. The format of the match stands the test of time, and while the WWE can put on a bad Wrestlemania, or any PPV for that matter, it is very difficult for them to put out a bad Royal Rumble.