Royal Rumble Rewind: 1988

This years marks the 25th Royal Rumble, my favorite match in pro wrestling. In honor of this distinction over the next two weeks, I'll be looking back at the previous years' matches leading up to this year's event on January 29th. So that each of these posts are not too long, I'll only be recapping/reviewing the Rumble match itself from each year. Most of these reviews will be the same as the ones I wrote for the website Online Onslaught. If you enjoy these, feel free to head over there and read my reviews of all the old pay-per-views. So let's get this started with the innaugural edition...

1988 Royal Rumble

Emanating from the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario Canada

About the only difference between this match and the one we know today is that there were only twenty participants in this one. #1 is Bret Hart and #2 is Tito Santana; a fine pair to kick things off. Bret starts off by beating down Santana in the corner. Santana comes back and delivers some rights of his own. As Bret goes to eliminate Santana, Butch Reed comes out at #3. He naturally goes after Santana. Get it, naturally? Santana retaliates with a double noggin knocker on the heels. Things get worse for Santana as #4 is Jim “the Anvil” Neidhart. They triple team Santana, but do not eliminate him before Jake “the Snake” Roberts comes in at #5. He comes up behind Reed and eliminates him. Jake attacks the Hart Foundation and soon Santana helps him. Harley Race is #6, as the Harts go back on offense. Everybody dukes it out with nothing special happening until Jumping Jim Brunzell arrives at #7. We’ve paired off now with Brunzell battling Race, Santana hammering Bret, and Jake and Neidhart going at it. #8 is Sam Houston and he goes after Neidhart. The Harts team up and toss Santana out of the ring. Dangerous Danny Davis is the #9 entrant and he immediately brawls with Houston. Jake has Race teetering on the ropes. The ring is starting to fill up as Boris Zhukov enters at #10.

#11 is…is…well, both Don Muraco and Nikoli Volkoff come down to the ring. The referees let Muraco in and hold back Nikoli. As he argues with the refs, his partner, Zhukov is eliminated. It’s time for #12 and now they let Nikoli enter. They could have played that better and had it where Nikoli just missed out on saving his partner. Meanwhile, Muraco throws Race out of the ring. As Race argues with the refs, Hacksaw Jim Duggan comes out at #13. Those two exchange shots before Race eventually runs away. Jake teases about his fourth or fifth DDT of the match, but still doesn’t hit it. Outlaw Ron Bass is #14 and the ring is still pretty crowded. Nikoli picks up Brunzell and dumps him to the floor. And what poor timing as B. Brian Blair now enters at #15. It’s your typical run of the mill brawling from everyone as Hillbilly Jim comes out at #16. He makes an immediate impact by eliminating Neidhart. #17 is Dino Bravo who earlier tonight ahem ‘broke’ the bench press world record. Bass gets Houston up on his shoulders and then tosses him to the floor. Charging out at #18 is the Ultimate Warrior. Soon after, Muraco grabs Bret and throws him out. Good showing by Bret going about 25 mins. in this initial Rumble. #19 is OMG! I’m not surprised; it’s just the One Man Gang. He grabs Blair and quickly disposes of him. Now the Gang eliminates Jake. The field is complete as Junkyard Dog comes out at #20.

Duggan ducks a clothesline and flips Nikoli out of the ring. The Gang continues to dominate as he now gets rid of Hillbilly. Duggan charges and clotheslines Davis out of the ring, much to the delight of the crowd. Bravo and the Gang team up to toss out the Warrior. They’re dropping like flies now. As JYD attacks the Gang, Bass comes from behind and throws him out. That’s followed by Muraco clotheslining him out of the ring. That means the inaugural Final Four are: One Man Gang, Don Muraco, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Dino Bravo. Muraco holds his own against the heels until he dropkicks Frenchy Martin. That allows Bravo to attack him. He then holds Muraco and allows the Gang to clothesline him to the floor. Duggan’s divide and conquer against the Gang and Bravo only works briefly. The heels try the same move they just did on Muraco, but this time Duggan moves and the Gang accidentally eliminates Bravo. The Gang charges at Duggan, but Duggan drops down and the Gang falls out and to the floor. Hacksaw is going to Wrestlemania!! Oh wait, nevermind. Actually, Duggan did have a chance of winning the title because he was part of the WWF title tournament that was held at Wrestlemania that year. Who knew they inadvertently had the “winner gets a title shot as Wrestlemania” stipulation in since the beginning.

Bottom Line: Given all the other Rumble matches since then, this one is far from one of the best. Still, it was inventive enough from the beginning that it was able to endure and become a classic tradition. I would have preferred more eliminations throughout the match, but they were still ironing out the kinks here. Having Duggan win wouldn’t have been my first suggestion, but since a win here really meant nothing, I won’t let it bother me too much. *** (out of a possible five)