That Was Then 01.07.06: WWE On PPV In January
Posted by Sam Caplan on 01.07.2006
Stu's Reviews Of Pay Per Views returns with a year-by-year look at WWE on PPV in the month of January.
Welcome back to 411, and I hope everybody had a terrific holiday season. We get back into the action with Stu's Reviews Of Pay-Per-Views for the WWE in January, which includes every Royal Rumble and also New Year's Revolution 2005. If you've read the first two installments, you know the drill: instead of a full play-by-play with star ratings and the works, each show gets a paragraph where I list the highlights and throw in my own comments. So without any further ado…
1988-Okay, this was broadcast on the USA Network and wasn't technically a PPV, but being the first Rumble show, I felt it warranted inclusion. However, it was a pretty unremarkable show other than the first Rumble match, which included only 20 participants instead of the usual 30. Still though, a very innovative idea whose longevity is a testament to how popular it would go on to become. The winner of that first Rumble match was Hacksaw Jim Duggan, but thankfully it was all uphill from there.
1989-The PPV debut of the show, with the match now bumped up to the standard 30 participants. Interesting booking here, with unusual stuff happening like Demolition drawing #1 and #2 and being forced to fight each other, Hulk Hogan being eliminated cleanly, and Big John Studd actually getting his hand raised on PPV, winning the Rumble by last eliminating Ted DiBiase, who had bought his way into the #30 spot. This was an important show in that it continued the build to the Hogan-Savage main event at Wrestlemania 5 when Hogan "accidentally" eliminated Savage in the Rumble. Another Wrestlemania match was set up when Rick Rude brought an early end to his posedown with the Ultimate Warrior by attacking Warrior with a workout pipe, and Rockin' Robin successfully defended the Women's Title against Judy Martin in what would be the last PPV appearance of the Women's Title until 1994.
1990-A surprisingly good show considering how pedestrian it appeared on paper. Hogan won an excellent Rumble match, and again his Wrestlemania opponent was set up in the match, this time against the Ultimate Warrior, as the two fought to a stalemate in the middle of the match. On the undercard, Mr Perfect set up his own Wrestlemania match with Brutus Beefcake by interfering in Beefcake's match with the Genius, and Ronnie Garvin basically finished up his stint in the national spotlight with a win over Greg Valentine in a submission match.
1991-Although this was in the midst of a rough period for the WWF, this is a decent show with a terrific Rumble match (again won by Hogan) and Virgil's long awaited turn against Ted DiBiase after the two defeated Dusty & Dustin Rhodes. Also, the Ultimate Warrior's ten-month WWF Title reign was cut short by newly-turned Iraqi-sympathizer Sgt Slaughter, with some help from Randy Savage.
1992-A lot of people consider this among the best Rumble shows ever. Owen Hart made his PPV debut, teaming with Jim Neidhart in a win over the Orient Express, Roddy Piper won his only WWF title ever, beating the Mountie for the Intercontinental Title, and the Legion of Doom were counted out against the Natural Disasters, but kept the WWF Tag Team Title to set up the rematch that never happened. Without a doubt, though the star of the show was Ric Flair. After months of boasting about being the "Real World's Champion", he finally had the opportunity to prove it, entering at number three and lasting over an hour to win the Rumble match, set a new longevity record in the Rumble, and walk away with the vacant WWF World Title.
1993-This wasn't actually a bad show, but for some reason was just really boring. Rick & Scott Steiner made their WWF PPV debut with a squash win over the Beverly Brothers, Big Boss Man made his last WWF PPV appearance for almost six years with a loss to Bam Bam Bigelow, Shawn Michaels successfully defended the Intercontinental Title against former partner Marty Jannetty in a very underwhelming blowoff to their feud (for the time being), and Bret Hart retained the WWF Title with a win over Razor Ramon. 1993 was the first year where the Rumble match winner would officially get a title shot at Wrestlemania, and the man to get that title shot was Yokozuna, last eliminating Bob Backlund (who had come close to reaching Flair's time record set the year before) and Randy Savage.
1994-I know this show gets blasted a lot for having some dumb stuff on it, but I personally found it very entertaining. Of course the main complaint is the handling of the Casket Match for the WWF Title, where Yokozuna retained the title after 10 guys jumped in and helped beat down the Undertaker and throw him in the casket. The aftermath of this match showed a video on the wall of Undertaker in the casket delivering a monologue where he basically said he wouldn't rest in peace, then levitated to the ceiling of the arena, presumably dying and going to heaven. This of course led to the critically acclaimed Fake Undertaker angle later that summer. Also on this show, Razor Ramon lost the IC Title to IRS after interference from Shawn Michaels, only to win the match after it was restarted. The long-awaited breakup of Bret & Owen Hart finally happened as Owen, frustrated at Bret's injury costing them the WWF Tag Team Title, kicked Bret's leg out of his leg (those of you who have seen the show will understand), but Bret was able to come back later in the evening and tie Lex Luger as the winner of the Rumble match when both went over the top at the same time, which then led to the two WWF Title matches at Wrestlemania 10.
1995-One of those shows that seemed much better on later viewings. Jeff Jarrett won the IC Title from Razor Ramon, Diesel's WWF Title defense against Bret Hart ended in a no-contest due to constant outside interference, and Undertaker defeated IRS, but was beaten up and had his urn stolen by King Kong Bundy. The 123 Kid and Bob Holly defeated Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow in the finals of the tournament for the vacant Tag Team Title, and this of course led to the infamous "Lawrence Taylor laughs at Bam Bam Bigelow for losing so Bigelow knocks him on his ass" storyline that led to the main event of Wrestlemania 11 being won by a football player. Shawn Michaels won the Royal Rumble, which everybody knew was going to happen, but he did it from the #1 position, which most people didn't know was going to happen. This wasn't as impressive as it might have been if the entrance intervals hadn't been shortened to 1 minute, but he was still the first guy to do it.
1996-Shawn Michaels again won the Rumble to set up his long-awaited first WWF Title win at Wrestlemania 12. His opponent at Wrestlemania, Bret Hart, retained the WWF Title on a DQ finish against the Undertaker when Diesel broke up Taker's winning pinfall just to piss him off. I don't care what anybody says, Nash was so cool. In other Clique news, Razor Ramon lost his last IC Title to Goldust in the culmination of the "Goldust Is Gay For Razor Ramon" storyline.
1997-This was a kind of unremarkable show whose results were totally forgotten by Wrestlemania. Shawn Michaels won his second WWF Title by beating Sid, and Steve Austin won his first Royal Rumble (albeit due to chicanery on his part) to set up a Michaels-Austin match that didn't end up going off until Wrestlemania the next year. Bret Hart, who was illegally eliminated by Austin, continued to build his character as the whiny ex-champion who can't get it done anymore. Due to being in San Antonio, they were able to fit in a lot of lucha talent to fill in the holes on the depleted roster and fill out the show. Vader defeated Undertaker with help from new manager Paul Bearer, and the Hart family's tradition of classic lines at the Royal Rumble continues when Davey Boy Smith declares that he will win the Royal Rumble "Because I'm bizarre!"
1998-Austin won the Rumble again this year, this time clearly plowing through everybody for a decisive win. His match at Wrestlemania would again play out to be against Shawn Michaels, who successfully defended the WWF Title against Undertaker in a Casket Match when Kane, who Undertaker thought was on his side, turned on his brother, tossed him in the casket, then set the casket on fire with the Undertaker still inside. The New Age Outlaws retained the Tag Team Title after a DQ finish against the Legion of Doom and Shamrock pinned Rock to win the IC Title, but the decision was reversed when the ref found knucks that Rock had planted on Shamrock.
1999-Steve Austin seemed a lock to win the Rumble for the third year in a row, but after interference from the Rock, this year's Rumble victory went to…Vince McMahon! Yes, Vince McMahon is a former Royal Rumble winner. Go back in time three years before this and people would have thought you were nuts if you said that, but it happened. The other highlight was the Rock regaining the WWF Title in a brutal I Quit match against Mankind that ended when Rock, who had handcuffed Mankind behind his back, bashed him in the head with a chair 10 times and still needed a tape recording of Foley saying "I quit" to walk out with the win. This was also the "make DX look like idiots" show, with Road Dogg losing to the Big Boss Man, Billy Gunn losing to Ken Shamrock, and X-Pac clearly being pinned in the middle of the ring by Gangrel, only to have the three count ignored and wind up with the win anyway.
2000-This was a special "Foregone Conclusion" edition of the show, as like Michaels in 1995, everybody knew Rock was winning this year, albeit in a disputed finish against Big Show. In other matches, Triple H retained the WWF Title in another brutal streetfight against Cactus Jack, Tazz made his WWF debut with a three minute submission victory over Kurt Angle, and Chris Jericho finally became the undisputed Intercontinental Champion with a Triple Threat win over co-champion Chyna and Bob Holly. OF course, I would be remiss in not pointing out that this is the infamous "Mae Young exposes herself" show. The less said about that the better.
2001-What can I say about this show except that it rocked the house? Although including participants like Drew Carey and the Honky Tonk Man, Steve Austin won a great Rumble match to become the only three-time Rumble winner. Also, the Dudleys won another Tag Team Title from Edge & Christian and Chyna popped me huge at the time by getting paralyzed in her bid for Ivory's Women's Title, but that unfortunately turned out to just be an angle. Now for the really good stuff: Kurt Angle successfully defended the WWF Title against Triple H and Chris Jericho won the Intercontinental Title from Chris Benoit in a Ladder Match that was one of the best matches at the Royal Rumble ever.
2002-It was pretty clear at the time that this entire show was designed to put Triple H back where he was before he went down with the quad injury. He won his first Royal Rumble match while his eventual Wrestlemania victim, Chris Jericho, retained the Unified World Title with a win over the Rock. Also, Ric Flair carried Vince McMahon to a watchable match. Not exactly the most remarkable show of all time.
2003-A big comeback for the Rumble show, Brock Lesnar avenged his Survivor Series loss with a win over the Big Show to gain entry into the Rumble match, which he went on to win. The two World Title matches were in as much contrasy to one another as you can possibly get. Triple H retained the World Title over Scott Steiner in one of the worst matches I've ever seen, then Kurt Angle retained the WWE Title with a submission victory over Chris Benoit in one of the best matches I've ever seen. Really, this show is worth picking up for the Angle-Benoit match alone.
2004-Chris Benoit was again the Man of the Hour…literally, as he went over an hour to be the second guy to win the Rumble after entering at #1, and the first man to do it going with the full two minute intervals. Benoit finally broke Flair's 12 year-old longevity record in the Rumble, and Big Show became the first ever two-time runner up in the match. Brock Lesnar squashed Hardcore Holly to retain the WWE Title, Eddy Guerrero beat nephew Chavo to get that formality out of the way and pave the way for his WWE Title win the next month, and Triple H and Shawn Michaels went to a draw in a Last Man Standing match for the World Title.
New Year's Revolution 2005-The first WWE PPV ever to take place in Puerto Rico. Eugene blew out his knee in the opener as he and William Regal successfully defended the World Tag Team Title against Christian and Tyson Tomko, Lita blew out her knee and lost the Women's Title back to Trish Stratus, Shelton Benjamin beat Maven twice in one night, Muhammad Hassan made his PPV debut with a win over Jerry Lawler, Kane beat Snitsky to blow off their feud (for the time being), and Triple H won the Elimination Chamber to regain the World Title despite stiff competition from Batista and Randy Orton. Some pretty interesting stuff happening here.
2005-Another one of those foregone conclusions, as everybody knew Batista was walking out the winner, but they tried swerving us with a repeat of the tied finish in 1994 when Batista and Cena went over the top at the same time. The match was restarted and Batista won, even though Vince McMahon blew out both quads powerwalking to the ring after the false finish. Cena ended up getting his WWE Title shot at Wrestlemania anyway, and Benoit again was the ironman, coming in at #2 and lasting past #30 to become one of the last six men in the match. Edge scored a cheap upset victory over Shawn Michaels, Undertaker beat Heidenreich to FINALLY win a casket match at the Royal Rumble, JBL beat Big Show and Kurt Angle in a three way to retain the WWE Title, and Triple H caused brain damage to Randy Orton, which we all figured he had before then anyway, and retained the World Title in what was supposed to be the main event of Wrestlemania 21. Tough break for Orton, huh?
And that's a wrap. Unlike most recent years, we don't seem to be going into the Royal Rumble with any clear winner ahead of time, although Randy Orton looks as good a pick as any right now. As for New Year's Revolution, the Elimination Chamber returns this year, as John Cena gets to defend against all the top non-Triple H and Edge talent. As much as I'd like to see Angle or Michaels walk out with the WWE Title here, I think it's going to remain around the waist of John Cena until at least Wrestlemania. After this month though, we'll most likely have a clearer picture of what Wrestlemania's going to look like.
We return next week with the first part of a series that I hold very dear to my heart, as it relates to the promotion that restored my faith and interest in wrestling. Come back next week as we begin a year-by-year retrospective of Ring Of Honor, starting with their inception in 2002.
