Royal Rumble Rewind: 1989

- As we continue on, this is the first Rumble to appear on PPV. We're also up to the tradition 30 participants here.

Royal Rumble 1989

Emanating from The Summit in Houston, TX

Historical moment right from the get-go as Ax is #1 and Smash is #2. It’s a good thing they never split and feuded because their action here is not worth noting. Thankfully Andre is #3 and the Demos turn their attention to him. Jesse says Andre is up by 1 or 2 on him on Battle Royal wins. Ha! More punching and kicking as Mr. Perfect strolls in at #4. Perfect slugs everyone as Andre casually tosses Smash out. Ax sends Perfect CRASHING into the corner. “Rugged” Ronnie Garvin is #5. Andre gets triple teamed but fights back. Perfect oversells like only he can to Andre’s offense. Greg Valentine is #6. Andre continues to be the focus of attack. This angers the Giant as he sends Garvin to the floor. Jake Roberts is #7 to wake up the crowd. Jake who actually has a beef with Andre can’t attack him as Andre beats him to the punch. Jake is getting squashed in there! Cueball Ron Bass is #8 as Andre tosses out Jake. Off to the bars for Roberts. Valentine and Perfect take over on Andre while Ax and Bass square off. Shriek! It’s Shawn Michaels at #9. Perfect perfectly launches Ax out. Perfect and Michaels face off and now I’m interested. Butch is #10. Man what a POP for Butch! Oh wait, never mind, it’s for Jake who is back out with Damian. Jake chases Andre over the top rope and out.

Honky is #11. Everyone is squared off: Butch and Bass, Perfect and Honky, Michaels and Hammer. Fans squeal over the prospects of Honky getting pitched. Tito is #12. He goes straight for Perfect. Butch bites Honky; nothing new there. Bad News is #13. Ring is getting crowded now. Honky finally gets tossed by Tito and Butch. Marty Jannetty is #14. Rockers join forces to eliminate Ron Bass with a double dropkick. Jannetty bashes Perfect’s head in the top, middle, and bottom turnbuckles. Talk about driving home a point. Macho Man is #15 and immediately goes after Bad News. Arn Anderson is #16. Savage eliminates Valentine. Double A and Macho team up (talk about strange bedfellows) and eliminate Shawn Michaels. Anderson goes up top but gets crotched. Have no fear Arn because Tully is #17 to help you out. The Brainbusters soon work over Jannetty. Jannetty, on the brink of elimination, eventually gets shoved out by Blanchard. Hogan is #18 and I think we’re going to see some spring-cleaning. Bye Perfect! Bye Tito! Hogan gets into trouble and Macho doesn’t help. Hmmm… Luke is #19. As he hits the ring, Bad News and The Hulkster eliminate Butch. Koko B. Ware is #20. Anderson goes up top again and gets caught again. Think Arn! Koko gets dumped by Hogan. He’s got the record tonight for shortest appearance. Luke gets tossed by Hogan now too. We’re down to the Busters on Hogan and Bad News fighting Macho Man.

Here comes Warlord at #21. Hogan has now eliminated Tully and Arn. Warlord steps in and goes right back out via a Hogan clothesline. Spoke too soon about Koko, congrats Warlord. Now Hogan runs over and dumps Bad News AND Macho Man. “Uh oh, Savage is hot” so says Ventura. And I would be too. Elizabeth comes out to play peacekeeper. She gets Savage to agree to shake hands and Hulk is reluctant. What should he be reluctant for?!? Hulk then shakes and hugs. AWW! Before the lovefest can continue the buzzer sounds and here comes the Bossman at #22. Man, Bossman was huge back then. It’s all Hogan to start off with. Avalanche slows Hogan down. Akeem waddles down at #23 to even the sides against Hogan. Yes, I said even the sides. Towers eventually get the upper hand and eliminate Hulk. Whaaaa? Brutus Beefcake is #24. As the Towers double team Beefcake, Hogan pulls the top rope down to eliminate the Bossman. Our Hero! Hulk and Bossman fight to the locker room. Meanwhile, Akeem works over Beefcake in the corner. You’ll notice Brutus looks to the cameraman to see if he’s filming and then shouts in pain as if he was a nervous young girl filming her first porn video. The Red Rooster is #25 and struts and pecks his way down to ringside. Akeem gets double-teamed by the Barber and Taylor. The Barbarian is #26. Crowd is beginning to realize there isn’t much left in the way of star power. Big John Studd is #27. Studd shoves the Rooster down so he can have Akeem all to himself. Hercules is #28. Nothing of note happening. Rick Martel is #29 and Jesse wonders how he got such a high number. I have my suspicions as well. Million Dollar Man is #30. Man, I don’t know why Ted was so upset at the drawing earlier in the evening. I’d be thrilled with #30. But hey, that’s me. Virgil stays at ringside. Just to spectate I assume.

Dibiase makes an immediate impact by tossing the Rooster out. Sleeper by Brutus on Hercules is costly as Dibiase and The Barbarian dump them both. Barbarian charges but misses and Martel eliminates him. Down to the Final Four, consisting of Dibiase, Martel, Studd, and Akeem. Eh, could be worse. Martel doesn’t learn from the Barbarian though as a charge gets him tossed by Akeem. Dibiase then begins directing traffic, ordering an Akeem attack on Studd. Studd says no more and uses Dibiase as a shield. He then dumps Akeem leaving Dibiase all alone. Studd toys with him for a few minutes before eventually vanquishing him. Virgil then tries his luck and gets tossed too. Crowd politely cheers.

Bottom Line: Fairly entertaining Rumble. They did a nice job of continuing the slow boil that led to the MegaPowers exploding. Booking Studd as the winner came as a shock. Obviously, this was before they used the Rumble as a method for determining the #1 contender. *** ½