Royal Rumble (1992)

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Royal Rumble
Royal Rumble 1992.jpg
Promotional poster featuring various WWF wrestlers
Promotion World Wrestling Federation
DateJanuary 19, 1992
City Albany, New York
Venue Knickerbocker Arena
Attendance17,000
Tagline(s)Every Man for Himself!
Pay-per-view chronology
 Previous
This Tuesday in Texas
Next 
WrestleMania VIII
Royal Rumble chronology
 Previous
1991
Next 
1993

The 1992 Royal Rumble was the fifth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. It centered on the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.

Contents

Six matches were contested at the event, including one dark match. The main event was the 1992 Royal Rumble match. This Royal Rumble match was notable as for the first time, the winner would win the WWF Championship, which had been vacated in December 1991. Ric Flair would start at number 3, Sid Justice would enter at number 29 while The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan would enter at numbers 20 and 26 respectively. In other featured matches on the undercard, The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) had a WWF Tag Team Championship match against current champions The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal), The Beverly Brothers (Blake Beverly and Beau Beverly) took on in a tag team match The Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch), and Roddy Piper took on current WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion The Mountie with the title on the line.

Production

Background

The event was held at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. Times Union Center 2011.jpg
The event was held at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York.

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four". [1] It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 1992 event was the fifth event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. [2] [3]

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Prior to 1992, there was no prize for winning the match. However, as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship had been vacated, the vacant title became the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. It was the first of only two times in which the promotion's world championship was the prize of the Royal Rumble match—the second occurred at the 2016 event. [2] [3]

Storylines

Prior to the event, it was announced the winner of the Royal Rumble would win the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been stripped from Hulk Hogan after two controversial title switches between Hogan and the Undertaker, first at the 1991 Survivor Series and later at the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event. Hogan and The Undertaker were among the 30 entrants in the event. WWF president Jack Tunney gave Hogan and Undertaker an advantage in the random draw to determine the order in which wrestlers would enter the ring, promising them numbers between 20 and 30. [4]

Event

Other on-screen personnel:
Role:Name:
Commentator Gorilla Monsoon
Bobby Heenan
Interviewers Gene Okerlund
Sean Mooney
Lord Alfred Hayes
Ring announcer Howard Finkel
Referee John Bonello
Danny Davis
Earl Hebner
Joey Marella

The event comprised five matches, including the Royal Rumble match. The Royal Rumble match helped begin Justice's slow-building turn into a villain. Justice – who was returning from a recent injury – entered at No. 29 and was among the final four wrestlers, along with Hogan, Randy Savage, although he jumped outside the ring to hit Jake the Snake Roberts and Flair. Justice eliminated Savage and then Hogan, leaving himself and Flair in the ring. During the initial live pay-per-view broadcast, Justice's elimination of Hogan was loudly cheered by the audience in attendance even though, as per storyline plans, Sid "sneaked up from behind" to throw Hogan out. As such, the original reaction was edited out of future television replays of the event, with play-by-play announcer Gorilla Monsoon adding new comments condemning Sid for his actions (Monsoon had originally said Justice's elimination of Hogan was fair). Hogan, who was still at ringside after being eliminated, grabbed Sid's arm and distracted him long enough for Flair to eliminate him to win the match and become the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Sid and Hogan got into an argument in the ring and had to be separated by security.

In his book, To Be The Man, Ric Flair mentions not knowing he was going to be winning the Royal Rumble (WWF Title) until arriving at the arena the day of the event, and also felt he was brought in at number three in order to showcase his skills and endurance to the WWF audience, who may not have watched his work in Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling. Bobby Heenan mentioned in his autobiography, Bobby The Brain, that it was his initial suggestion that Flair enter the Rumble at number one for dramatic purposes, and that Vince McMahon changed it to number three and claimed it as his own idea.

Reception

The Rumble match is often considered the greatest Rumble in history. [5] [6] [7] In particular, the commentary by Heenan was particularly praised, with some calling it "one of the greatest color commentary performances in pay-per-view history". [8]

Aftermath

The confrontation between Hogan and Justice was played out over a series of future WWF television programs. On the Superstars program aired January 25, 1992, WWF President Jack Tunney held a press conference, where he announced that Hogan would face Flair for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VIII. Justice, who was also in attendance and began standing up as if Tunney were about to proclaim him the top contender, was outraged and termed the announcement "the most bogus act Jack Tunney has ever pulled off." Sid later apologized and Hogan accepted, but on the February 8 Saturday Night's Main Event XXX , Justice abandoned Hogan during a tag-team match against Flair and The Undertaker, completing his heel turn and leading to a match at WrestleMania VIII.

Flair, meanwhile, began feuding with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had a previous relationship with Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth in which Flair had himself superimposed. This culminated in a title match at WrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second (and final) WWF World Heavyweight Championship. [9] [10] [11]

This was the first Royal Rumble in which stakes were involved for the winner—the stipulation in which the winner would face the WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania first took place at the following year's event. It would be 24 years before the Royal Rumble was again for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. [12]

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes [13]
1D Chris Walker defeated The Brooklyn Brawler by disqualification Singles match
2 The New Foundation (Jim Neidhart and Owen Hart) defeated The Orient Express (Kato and Pat Tanaka) (with Mr. Fuji) Tag team match 17:19
3 Roddy Piper defeated The Mountie (c) (with Jimmy Hart) by submission Singles match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship 5:21
4 The Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake) (with The Genius) defeated The Bushwhackers (Luke and Butch) (with Jamison)Tag team match14:57
5 The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) (with Jimmy Hart) defeated The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) (c) by countout Tag team match for the WWF Tag Team Championship 9:24
6 Ric Flair won by last eliminating Sid Justice 30-man Royal Rumble match for the vacant WWF Championship 1:02:02
(c) – the champion(s) heading into the match
D – this was a dark match

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.

DrawEntrantOrderEliminated byTimes [14] [15] Eliminations
1 The British Bulldog 7Ric Flair23:333
2 Ted DiBiase 1The British Bulldog01:180
3 Ric Flair -Winner01:00:02 ^ 5
4 Jerry Sags 2The British Bulldog01:060
5 Haku 301:510
6 Shawn Michaels 10Tito Santana15:461
7 Tito Santana 9Shawn Michaels13:551
8 The Barbarian 11Hercules12:550
9 The Texas Tornado 8Ric Flair09:200
10 Repo Man 6Big Boss Man06:232
11 Greg Valentine 5Repo Man04:120
12 Nikolai Volkoff 401:030
13 Big Boss Man 13Ric Flair03:382
14 Hercules 12Big Boss Man00:561
15 Roddy Piper 26Sid Justice34:061
16 Jake Roberts 15Randy Savage10:550
17 Jim Duggan 19Virgil20:451
18 Irwin R. Schyster 23Roddy Piper27:010
19 Jimmy Snuka 14The Undertaker02:270
20 The Undertaker 17Hulk Hogan13:511
21 ^ Randy Savage 27Ric Flair and Sid Justice22:262
22 The Berzerker 18Hulk Hogan09:000
23 Virgil 20Jim Duggan07:291
24 Col. Mustafa 16Randy Savage02:360
25 Rick Martel 25Sid Justice12:391
26 Hulk Hogan 2811:294
27 Skinner 21Rick Martel02:130
28 Sgt. Slaughter 22Sid Justice04:370
29 Sid Justice 29Ric Flair05:556
30 The Warlord 24Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice01:430

^ Randy Savage eliminated himself shortly after eliminating Jake Roberts by jumping to Roberts over the top rope. However, he returned to the ring and resumed his participation. [16]


^ Ric Flair broke the longevity record for lasting 1:00:02. This record would stand for one year before it would be broken by Bob Backlund (Lasting 1:01:10) in Royal Rumble (1993). Ric Flair also became the first person in history to last more than one hour.

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