WWF Royal Rumble 1994

Last year, I did a super-topical Royal Rumble post on the day of the event, so decided it'd be an idea to do one again this year. As I'm in the middle of my 1994 Raw project, I thought it'd make sense to do the 1994 Rumble, the first one I watched when my parents got Sky

Tatanka vs Bam Bam Bigelow

This was supposed to be Tatanka vs Ludwig Borga, but Borga was injured. Probably an upgrade to get Bigelow here, with the result being a decent little PPV opener. It kicks off at a high tempo, as Bigelow tries to jump Tatanka before the bell, but Tatanka uses his speed to avoid the attack, and manages to take control. Nice DDT by Tatanka, but he misses a big crossbody. Bigelow hits a corner splash on Tatanka, getting real nice speed on it. Bam Bam slows things down with a bearhug, but it’s a bit embarrassing as he initially tries to hold Tatanka in the air, but has to put him down right away. Bigelow doesn’t even bother working the bearhug, so it’s a dull period of the match. There’s a double crossbody spot where both guys fly into each other at full speed. Bigelow stops Tatanka hulking up with an enzuigiri, which is a nice touch, but he misses a moonsault. Tatanka hits a top rope crossbody for the win.

Bret Hart & Owen Hart vs the Quebecers

I was interested to revisit this match because, as memorable as the match-ending angle is, you don’t really hear much said about the match. On the whole it’s quite fun, though not as memorable as you’d hope from these two teams. I really liked Jacques’ heeling it up after Owen gets the best of him, hugging Pierre and cowering on his knees. Bret going for flash pins early makes sense, given that he and Owen still had the Rumble to come. The Quebecers briefly get control of Bret, and Owen keeps doing more harm than good by trying to get in the ring, as it draws the attention of the ref away from the Quebecers cheating. This is an ongoing theme throughout the match, which builds up Owen’s hot-headedness and desperation to win for the final angle. Loved Owen’s beautiful overhead belly-to-belly on Pierre when he does get in. Then the big match-changing spot occurs, as some Johnny Polo interference causes Bret to crash through the ropes to the floor, injuring his leg. The Quebecers focus on this injury, including a nasty looking leap off the ringsteps to the knee. All the time, an impetuous Owen is trying to get to Bret and distracting the referee. Even as Owen brawls with Pierre, Jacques is hitting Bret in the leg with a foreign object. Pierre goes for the top rope cannonball to the leg, but Bret moves just in time. Bret opts to try the Sharpshooter rather than tag Owen (a stupid move, though you could justify it by pointing out that Bret is the wrong side of Pierre), but can’t hold the move due to his injury. The ref instantly calls off the match (though the Fink is keen to point out “Bret Hart DID NOT submit” on his announcement), and a furious Owen kicks out Bret’s leg. Fun match to start off a great angle.

Razor Ramon vs IRS

Both guys exchange some nice punches early, nicely surprised by IRS. Razor takes a huge bump over the top running the ropes. I was really happy to see someone reverse the “heel leaps off the top rope to hit unknown move, only for the face to get his boot up” trope, as IRS grabs the foot and hits a big elbow to Razor. Unfortunately, this is the highlight of IRS’ offensive run, as the rest is pretty pedestrian. It also includes a really long chinlock. A ref bump sees the end, as Shawn Michaels runs in to level Razor with his phony IC title, and after a loooong time, IRS crawls over to cover Ramon for the win. However, a 2^nd ref comes in to advise what happened and the match gets restarted. Rather unfairly, as IRS is still celebrating his win on the 2^nd rope, and he gets planted with a Razor’s Edge for the victory. An uneventful bout.

The Undertaker vs Yokozuna

Another match that’s more famous for the post-match angle. The match itself is pretty lacklustre, and painfully slow. After the two exchange some chairshots outside the ring, Yoko thinks a clothesline is enough to conquer the Undertaker, so really takes his time putting him in the coffin. It’s not. Taker hits a sloppy chokeslam, that looks more like Yoko slipping on a banana, and a big DDT to roll Yoko into the casket. You can see Taker desperately killing time for the first outside attacker to stop him closing the lid, before Crush turns up, followed by the Great Kabuki, Tenryu, Bigelow, Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, both Headshrinkers and Diesel. We all know what happens next (urn blows green smoke, heels close Taker in the coffin, Taker talks to the audience from the coffin and rises to the ceiling), but the boring match is often forgotten about as a reason to hate this whole deal.

Royal Rumble

Scott Steiner and Samu start off, which is pretty fun as neither is afraid to lay in their blows. Owen is brought back as an early entrant, earning major heat. The heel turn definitely worked. Diesel gets his first vestiges of a big push, as he gets to go on an elimination spree. He clears the ring (with Owen’s elimination getting a big pop, and clears the ring one-by-one of the next entrants…Bob Backlund, Billy Gunn, Virgil (much to the delight of Ted DiBiase on commentary). This conveniently gives enough time for them to cut to the back where Jim Cornette’s hired guns Tenryu and Kabuki are beating up Lex Luger. Back in the ring, Randy Savage comes out and is a big enough star that Diesel doesn’t get to eliminate him. We get glimpses of a potentially great Savage/Jarrett match, which I don’t think ever took place (but I’d love to be wrong), but Jarrett is quickly eliminated. Loved the ferocity of Savage’s attack on an entering Crush, you can really feel the hate between the two. Savage gets eliminated, and we get a Diesel/Crush segment. Doink enters and stands back, laughing at the two heels fighting, until they look over and spot him. They rightly batter him, then present him on a platter for an entering Bam Bam Bigelow. Bammer hurls him over the top to the floor. Loved that.

Shawn Michaels soon enters and, after facing off with his bodyguard Diesel, shakes hand with him. However, Shawn does nothing to stop his friend being eliminated, setting the tone for a year of tension between the two. Both Mabel and Mo from Men On A Mission end up in the ring at the same time, but seem to be idiots as they barely work together. You’d think Mo would be desperate for Mabel to help him. Instead, when all the entrants gang up on Mabel, Mo is left standing idly by like a moron until Shawn attacks him. The way Mo was just gormlessly staring, he needn’t have bothered. Luger comes out to a decent pop and swiftly eliminates the useless mercenary Kabuki. Tenryu is out next and, though he’s also being paid to make sure Luger doesn’t win, he doesn’t actually spend much time fighting Lex, which was surely the point of him entering. A non-entrant is believed by the commentary team to be Bret. Bret does come out a couple of entrants later, earning a massive pop. However, he gets no offence on getting in, as Crush goes right to the leg. I liked the continuity of Marty Jannetty going right after Michaels upon getting in the ring. Reminds me of how Tito and Martel would always square off in the Rumble. Somehow, fucking Mo is still around at the end of the Rumble, and takes a shitty elimination – he gets superkicked while facing away from the ropes, then spins round and dives over the top. So bad. The final four is Bret, Lex, Michaels and Fatu, going down to just Bret and Lex as they simultaneously eliminate the other two. The two exchange blows and both end up going over at the same time to be crowned joint-winners. A memorable end to a decent Rumble match.