Shining a Spotlight 01.04.07: A Royal Retrospective (PART I)
Posted by Michael Weyer on 01.04.2007
Starting a two-part look at the history of the Royal Rumble as we head to the 20th card. Plus, reader mail.
Hope you've all had a Happy New Year and things went well. It always seems a bit fresh for wrestling at this time as a new year promises a fresher slate. And WWE always makes sure to kick things off right with the one PPV that always ends up entertaining.
The Royal Rumble has always been one of my favorite matches of the year. I'm a battle royal fan to begin with so you can imagine how much the Rumble appeals to me. For 20 years, it's been a bout that's always mixed great action and some good character stuff in a unique setting. It's pretty ironic considering it was created to take out a show that was doomed to fail anyway.
If you read my Survivor Series retrospective, you'll recall that back in 1987, Jim Crockett made a massive mistake moving Starrcade to Chicago, a town that wasn't as attuned to the NWA product. Crockett had hoped his first PPV effort would put the NWA on the map but Vince McMahon countered with the first Series and Crockett took a bath.
You would think that after striking out so big in the North where costs for everything were higher, where audiences weren't as open for the Southern-style product and with Vince ready to cut any effort at taking on the PPV arena that Crockett would think twice about a similar effort. You would be very, very wrong.
The Bunkhouse Stampede had been a creation of Dusty Rhodes, a series of battle royals where wrestlers would come in dressed in street clothes and bearing weapons. The winners of the various battles would meet in one big Stampede with the winner getting a cowboy boot filled with cash.
This was a Dusty invention and thus the fact that Dusty won the first two Stampedes shouldn't be much of a surprise. Still, they were popular in the usual NWA towns so Crockett though the Stampede would make a good PPV show, which wasn't too bad an idea. Having it take place at the Nassau Coliseum in New York was downright baffling. Even more so than Chicago, this was a town more attuned to the WWF style. Once again, Vince decided to hit back by convincing USA to give him a two-hour special highlighted by the first ever Royal Rumble.
The irony of it all is that Vince needn't have bothered sabotaging Crockett. In the list of the worst PPVs of all time, the 1988 "Bunkhouse Stampede" has to rank pretty high. First, due to a ticket misprint, a few hundred fans showed up only to discover that the show had started a half-hour or even hour earlier than the ticket time. Overall, about 8,000 (less than half the people the arena could fill) showed up to see a horrible card. How bad was it? The best they could do for a challenger for Rick Flair for this big show was Road Warrior Hawk. Larry Zybsko beat Barry Windham for the Western States Heritage Title and proceeded to run it into the ground. The Stampede was the main event with Dusty, the Barbarian, the Warlord, Arn Anderson, Road Warrior Animal, Ivan Koloff and Lex Luger going at it in a steel cage. Yes, that's right, a steel cage battle royal where you had to shove your opponent through the small door to win.
To the shock of roughly no one, Dusty won the match and the money. Even in Greensboro, this would have been a bad card but before the indifferent New York audience, it came off even worse. As already noted, the attendance was bad and the buy rate was abysmal. The backstage mood was worse, culminating in the now infamous comment by Tully Blanchard "Dusty should just book himself against Dusty." So one of the most imaginative bouts in wrestling owes its creation to one of the worst PPVs ever.
That first Royal Rumble was unique. The undercard had the Jumping Bomb Angels defeating the Glamour Girls for the Women's Tag Team Title (yeah, they really did have one once) while Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant had a big contract signing for their upcoming "Main Event" rematch. The highlight of it all was the Rumble itself and we have Pat Patterson to thank for thinking the whole thing up. We all know the rules of course: the competitors draw numbers with 1 and 2 starting the match. Two minutes later, number three comes in, followed by four and so on while men can be eliminated by being tossed over the top rope and to the floor. The last one left after all the men have entered is the winner.
Butch Reed has the dubious honor of being the first man ever eliminated in a Rumble, by Jake Roberts. Bret Hart set the first longevity record, drawing number one and lasting over 25 minutes before getting tossed out by Don Muraco. Harley Race really set a future tone for the Rumble when he broke the typical "heels vs faces" stuff to attack Boris Zukhov and Jesse Ventura put over "it's every man for himself." One Man Gang set the first elimination record, dumping out six guys before being thrown out by the winner, Jim Duggan.
The show was a huge hit, drawing a massive 8.2 rating and Vince knew he had something. So in 1989, the Rumble became the final of the "big Four" PPV of each year, one for each season, which helped WWF with storylines. McMahon also made the wise decision to extend the Rumble from twenty men to thirty, thus ensuring an hour of action. The undercard wasn't too big, a Woman's Title match, Harley Race vs Haku and the Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude having a "pose down" to set up their IC title match at Wrestlemania V.
The Rumble itself kicked off with a classic moment: Demolition members Ax and Smash, then the tag team champions, drew numbers one and two. Rather than spend the first two minutes resting and discussing strategy, the two threw themselves right at each other, each coming close to eliminating the other. When number three, Andre the Giant, came in, the two immediately became a team again to attack him. It would be notable for being the only time the two Demos fought each other. Another great moment occurred when Andre eliminated Jake Roberts who came back to throw his snake Damien into the ring and Andre threw himself over the top rope to get away.
Curt Henning broke the longevity record, coming in at number four and lasting almost half an hour before being thrown out by Hogan while the Warlord set a record that still stands which is the shortest time ever in a Rumble, a mere two seconds before Hogan eliminated him. Hogan set a new elimination record by tossing out nine men. At one point, Tully Blanchard and Arn Anderson had Randy Savage at the ropes, Hogan rushed to attack them and knocked all three out. Savage was incensed, arguing with Hogan and Elizabeth had to calm them down, another nail in the coffin of the Mega-Powers. To the surprise of many, Hogan was eliminated by Akeem and the Big Boss Man minutes later. The eventual winner was Big John Studd who threw out Ted DiBiase (who had apparently bribed his way to number 30) to get the win.
Again, the PPV was a big hit and so the Rumble was earning a reputation as a way to find who the toughest guy in the WWF was. The 1990 version took place before a very hot Orlando crowd. Again, the undercard wasn't too much with Duggan beating Boss Man by DQ and Ronnie Garvin beating Greg Valentine in a rather long submission match. But the Rumble was what people wanted to see anyway and WWF delivered with what may be one of the best Rumbles ever. In a nice continuity note, DiBiase found himself drawing number one. Number two was Koko B. Ware, who DiBiase eliminated before the end of the first two minutes. Number three was Marty Jannetty and he too was gone before the two minutes were up. The streak ended when number four was Jake Roberts, who got a huge pop upon his entrance as the two rivals went at it.
Some other great moments included Demolition combining forces to clothesline Andre out. When Earthquake started to toss out a few guys, everyone in the ring joined together to throw the big man out. The Ultimate Warrior ended up putting DiBiase out with a big clothesline, ending his forty-minute run. But the moment that made the match occurred when Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior found themselves alone in the ring with a minute and a half to go before anyone else came in. The whole arena was on their feet as the two shoved each other, gave each other shoulder blocks and knocked each other out with a double clothesline. In the end, Hogan knocked Warrior out when he attacked Rick Rude and Barbarian, who were hanging Warrior over the ropes. Warrior rushed in to hit Rude and Barbarian before running back to the dressing room.
Originally, Curt Henning was going to win but Hogan exercised some of his backstage muscle so he got it instead. I do think Hogan made a good move as the crowd was mega-hot after the Warrior encounter and having a heel win would be too much of a downer for them. As it was, Hogan tossed out Henning to win and sent the crowd home happy while sowing the seeds for his big Wrestlemania encounter with the Warrior.
The 1991 Rumble changed things a bit by beefing up the undercard. For the first time ever, the WWF title was on the line with the Warrior defending against Sgt. Slaughter. Seeing as the Rumble happened to be occurring the day after the first Gulf War began, the heat on Slaughter's "Iraqi sympathizer" act was intense. The Warrior spent a while smacking Slaughter around before getting waylaid by Randy Savage. Warrior did make a comeback but while Slaughter distracted the referee, Savage smashed the Warrior over the head with his scepter, allowing Slaughter to get the pin and the title. Needless to say, this did not make the crowd happy so the WWF wisely gave them something to lift their spirits in the next match. Ted DiBiase and Virgil teamed up to face Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. At one point, Virgil hit DiBiase by accident and DiBiase laid out his hired help. After DiBiase pinned Dusty, he got on the mic and berated Virgil, demanding he wrap the Million Dollar Belt around his boss. Virgil first threw the belt at DiBiase's feet and DiBiase ordered him to pick it up. Virgil bent to do so and DiBiase turned to laugh at the crowd. When he turned back, Virgil walloped him in the face with the belt sending the crowd (and commentator Roddy Piper, who'd been backing Virgil for a while) into wild cheers.
As for the Rumble itself, Bret Hart got his first tryout for his singles push as he drew number one. Rick Martel set a new longevity record, drawing number six and going for 52 minutes. For the first time ever, there was a Rumble no-show as when number 18 came up there was no entrant. When all the wrestlers were in, Piper and Gorilla Monsoon realized Randy Savage was the no-show and quickly theorized that he'd high-tailed it out of the building to escape the enraged Warrior. For the second straight year, Hogan won, throwing out Earthquake after a high-powered fight and giving the crowd a good moment.
It was in 1992 that the Rumble began to gain greater importance for the WWF. For the first time, all three belts would be on the line. The Natural Disasters beat the tag champs the Legion of Doom by countout. The IC title bout was interesting. Bret Hart had been champion but his contract was coming up and WCW was making him a big offer. In an eerie foreshadowing of what would happen five and a half years later, Vince made Bret drop the belt rather than risk him jumping to WCW with it. Bret had to job it two days before the Rumble at a house show to Jacques Rogeau who was the cartoonish Mountie. Vince did allow Bret to save face by putting out the story that Bret was suffering a severe flu and was wrestling against doctor's orders. After small packaging Bret for the title, the Mountie attacked him but Piper came out to defend Bret. That set up the title match at the Rumble, a five minute quickie with Piper beating the Mountie with a sleeper. While the match may not have been good, the pop from the crowd when it was announced Piper finally had a title was terrific.
The Rumble was what fans had come to see. Due to a controversy over a Hogan-Undertaker title match, the WWF title was held up and it was decided it would go to the winner of the Rumble. Some people criticized this decision, saying it was too much luck of the draw to really sell a new champion. But WWF blasted those doubts aside as Ric Flair put on the single greatest Rumble performance ever. Davey Boy Smith and Ted DiBiase began the match but DiBiase was eliminated before the end of the first two minutes. Number three was Ric Flair and Bobby Heenan, on commentary, practically had a heart attack upon seeing that.
Flair spent the next hour taking on every other guy in the ring, not backing down, always fighting no matter what. At one point, he was alone in the ring only to have Piper be the next entrant. Adding to the fun was when old foes like Kerry Von Erich and Greg Valentine would come in and immediately target Flair.
The joy of watching the match now (it's on in its entirety on the Ric Flair DVD set) is hearing Heenan, who reaches the height of his commentary skill, going crazy every time Flair is pummeled, cheering him on and going from confident to worried to pessimistic to outright suicidal as the match goes on and the odds stack against Flair. Monsoon was also good, rubbing in how things are against Flair, noting how every competitor doesn't like him and driving Heenan closer to a full nervous breakdown. It came down to Flair, Hogan and Sid Justice with Hogan coming close to throwing Flair out. However, Justice came over and instead tossed Hogan over the top. An interesting bit was that the crowd was cheering Sid when he did this but on their TV shows, WWF would edit the clip to make it sound like they were booing him so they could keep Hogan a face (the DVD version has the original sound). An angry Hogan grabbed Justice's arm, allowing Flair to flip Sid over the rope and win his first WWF title with Heenan practically collapsing in joyful tears.
Topping that Rumble would be hard but WWF tried in 1993 as they introduced the idea that the winner of the Rumble would get a shot at the WWF champion at Wrestlemania. The undercard had Shawn Michaels defending the IC title against his former partner Marty Jannetty, who showed up obviously drunk. It ended with Sheri Martel trying to hit Michaels with her shoe but getting Janetty who was pinned and subsequently fired. Bret Hart defeated Razor Ramon in a good match to retain the title. In the Rumble, Flair drew number one this year but only lasted twenty minutes before being eliminated by Mr. Perfect. Bob Backlund drew number two and actually lasted longer than Flair had the previous year. However, a good portion of that was him lying outside the ring after being knocked out and sent through the ropes so it wasn't as notable as Flair's effort had been. The Undertaker seemed to be doing well until Giant Gonzales made a non-Rumble entrance to pull him out of the fray. Yokozuna drew number 27 and faced off against Randy Savage. Savage hit him with his flying elbow and then foolishly went for a pin. Yokozuna kicked out so hard, Savage went flying right over the top to give Yoko the distinction of being the first heel to win the Rumble.
The '94 Rumble had some very interesting developments that would pave the way to huge changes for the WWF. First, Owen and Bret Hart challenged the Quebecers for the tag team titles. At one point, Bret seemed to have an injured leg but kept fighting without tagging to an eager Owen. The referee stopped the match, saying Bret was too injured to continue. Owen berated Bret for being so stubborn and then kicked his injured leg. Owen then did a wild promo bad-mouthing Bret, setting up the heel turn that would lead to their wild feud. Another feud that was built on was the IC match when Shawn Michaels almost cost Ramon the title against IRS, setting up their classic ladder match.
Then there was the Undertaker-Yokozuna match, which has earned itself a rather infamous reputation. It was a casket match for the title as the setup was Yokozuna was terrified of the casket and the Undertaker's whole act. Undertaker appeared to have the match won when a slew of heels raced into the ring to attack him. At one point, the urn held by Paul Bearer was taken away and opened to let billowing smoke flow out. Eventually, Taker was rolled into the casket and it was nailed shut to give Yoko the win. As the casket was wheeled away, the arena darkened and the screens showed the Undertaker, inside the casket, give a goofy "I will not rest in peace" speech. The Titan Tron then showed an outline of the Undertaker rising up and then someone (reportedly Marty Jannetty) was carried by wires over the screen and to the rafters. Today, the match-up is the very definition of "Wrestle Crap."
The Rumble was marred a bit by the decision to cut the time down between entries from two minutes to 90 seconds. As such, the longest time went to Shawn Michaels, who was number 18 and went half an hour. An interesting moment occurred when Kevin Nash, then Diesel, who up until then had been just a bodyguard for Michaels, came in at number 7 and proceeded to eliminate seven guys in a row. For several points, he was all alone in the ring as he tossed guys out only seconds after they entered and the crowd actually chanted his name and thus put him over. Eventually, five guys had to gang up to drop him out but that night made Kevin Nash a star and one can only wonder how vastly different the business today would be had that not occurred.
The Rumble had a unique ending and if you think about it, it was inevitable something like it would occur sooner or later. While Lex Luger had been fading a bit in the fan's eyes, Vince still wanted to push him but was also aware of how popular Bret Hart was. So it came down to Lex and Bret (still selling the leg injury) going over the top rope at the same moment. At first, Luger was declared the winner, then Bret was as the referees argued and the replays couldn't decide who hit first. So it was announced both men were the winners and would set up a complicated situation for Wrestlemania where Bret would win the belt.
The 1995 Rumble was arguably the poorest of them all. The undercard wasn't too bad as Jeff Jarrett beat Razor Ramon for the IC title. Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid beat Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow in the finals of a tournament for the vacant WWF tag team titles. Afterward, Bigelow saw Lawrence Taylor laughing at him from the front row and shoved Taylor back, setting up their media-grabbing match at Wrestlemania. The fans were more hot for the WWF title match as Diesel defended against Bret Hart. They had a good match until Owen Hart and Bob Backlund raced in to attack Bret. The referee decided the match would continue after throwing the two men out. After a few more minutes, Michaels and Jarrett came to attack Diesel but again it continued. Finally, all the heels raced in and the officials had no choice but to declare a draw, spoiling what had been shaping up as a good fight.
As for the Rumble, for some bizarre reason, WWF decided that there would be only one minute intervals between entrants. Thus, while Shawn Michaels made history as the first man to draw number one and win, it wasn't as amazing an achievement as it could have been. The match had some highlights like Bret attacking both Owen and Backlund during their entrances which led to quick eliminations for both. At the end, Davey Boy Smith, who had drawn number 2, threw Michaels over the top and celebrated. However, Michaels had grabbed the top rope and only one of his feet hit the floor so he was technically still in, racing in to push Smith out.
After the bad buzz that Rumble had generated, the WWF wisely decided that the 96 Rumble would return to the 2-minute intervals. The undercard was good as for the second straight year, Ramon lost the IC title, this time to Goldust. Unique was the fact that for the first time, the Rumble itself was not the main event. That went to Bret defending the WWF title against the Undertaker where Taker had Bret pinned after a Tombstone but Diesel pulled the referee out and got Bret disqualified.
For the Rumble, a great early moment occurred when Jake Roberts, gone from mainstream wrestling for over three years, came out and opened his bag to let a huge snake out. The only one who didn't immediately race between the ropes to escape was Jerry Lawler, who was grabbed by Roberts and had the snake draped on him. Lawler snuck out of the ring and spent the next half-hour hiding under the ring. Another memorable moment came when Vader, making his WWF debut, fought with Yokozuna by the ropes and with one big leap, Michaels knocked them both out. For the second year, Michaels got the victory, superkicking Diesel out of the ring, although Diesel would come back in high-five him on the win. Of special note is that this was the first Rumble where every entrant got their theme music to play when their number came up.
The 1997 Rumble was held before a huge crowd in San Antonio which actually added a unique factor the big match. The undercard was mostly forgettable with HHH beating Goldust to retain the IC title and Vader beating the Undertaker. Once again, the Rumble was not the main event as Michaels beat Sid to regain the WWF title in his own hometown. In the Rumble (which, due to a technical glitch, didn't have a countdown or buzzer until number six), Steve Austin instantly made his name known, drawing number four and would last forty-five minutes and eliminate ten men. At one point, Austin was alone in the ring, looking at his wrist as if checking a watch and yelling "Bring me more!" The look on his face when Bret Hart entered was priceless. The ending was marred in controversy as Bret threw Austin out but the refs were busy breaking up a fight between Terry Funk and Mankind outside and thus didn't see it. Austin snuck into the ring, pushed out Vader and Undertaker (who had been fighting by the ropes) and then Bret to get the win. Afterward, the first seeds for Mr. McMahon were planted as an angry Bret had a confrontation with Vince at the commentator's table, knocking the headphones off him. Austin would become the first Rumble winner not to compete for the WWF title due to the ultra convoluted situation that would follow with Shawn Michaels vacating the belt.
So as you can see the first decade of the Rumble was pretty hot…but the second would just add on to it. Which we'll discuss next week. For now, let's turn to the reader mailbag which has been light lately, making me wonder yet again how many people really read my stuff.
First we get Justin Petellier on my TNA column:
Top notch stuff as always. Don't worry about the lack of feedback. This is a really busy time w/ X Mas coming. Plus a vast majority of readers are college students and finals are here so that ties up a lot of time.
As far as TNA goes, I have to totally agree on the negative effect Russo has had on the show. I was a fan of Russo's crash tv for the WWE but it just seems so out of place now a days. Hot shotting the titles is a bad idea as is breaking up AMW. The Joe/Angle feud has been a let down and the "shoot" stuff with Abyss doesn't make sense. There are just some guys who should be used in shoot angles.
Matches are getting no time, pushes are dying off and the company is pretty much a mess. I agree that it's sad because like you I'm a TNA fan.
My question to you is: Do you think there is any chance Russo's run in TNA will get cut short or are we in for the long haul? I hope they see what he's doing to the company and get rid of him.
Like WCW, Russo could always be cut short if the ratings and PPV numbers drop low enough. However, TNA wasn't doing huge business beforehand and thus they'd want to stick with him for a while yet. I'm a TNA fan too and I hope they can improve but the lack of time for good matches and the bad pushes is hurting while Russo's "insider" stuff isn't helping get fans either.
NYGroover has a quick note:
I totally agree with you on this. I think russo is doing this because he knows tna's biggest fan base is the internet fans. I think russo's whole philosophy in wcw was to piss off as many fans as he could, disgust them, hoping that they will constantly come back and watch to see what he will do next week. sadly i think its just going to get worse. i thought there old team was doing well. hell even dusty rhodes was doing better than russo.
I don't know about that much better as Dusty's booking can be pretty erratic too (especially his decision to turn Monty Brown heel, killing his push). I do think Russo is in the camp of "make it wilder so fans will want to see what happens next" and while that was okay when Vince could rein him in, it doesn't work as well now. Just look at how WWE's own such attitude backfired on it. They were big enough to survive it but TNA might not be as lucky.
Frank Castellon has another of his nice letters:
I hope you are doing well and are having a good Christmas. I actually liked your last article you hit almost every nail in the head. I like TNA as well but I am not too glad that you are being so negative about them since you have never attacked the Juggernaut of the WWE as often as TNA. Of that of course I am talking about RAW since smackdown is the B show. It has been seen that if anyone gets over in Smackdown they are transferred to RAW. Like Angle, Edge, Benoit, MNM, Carlito and most likely Kennedy in the future and so on. When they become stale they are send back to Smackdown. So Raw is the number one show with countless money to waste and a 2 hour PRIME time slot. Now I may knock you off your socks and you may think of me as a Mark and I hope you don't think I am one because I am not but looking at things fairly I would have to say that the TNA product is better than the Raw product right now by a little bit, the ECW product by a lot and the Smackdown product, just about even. It's hard to argue otherwise. So it would be cool if you could write more about RAW or WWE and their product mishaps than harping on TNA who is doing pretty good right now.
I actually like LAX even though before I hated them. The VKM stuff is silly but even you have to admit it is funny at times. Is it eating away precious time, yes so for that I think I think they should cut it off. But if we can not forget that Controversy creates Cash! That is all they are doing by all those skits but they have to stop. The X division needs help and I think the Nash thing is getting old and they need to get back to real wrestling and bringing in some new guys or guys we have not seen in a while like Skipper, or Red. As for the Joe/Angle being too soon I think everyone has forgotten about Team 3D vs. AMW and how awesome that would be but TNA waited too long and now no one would be interested in that match, even if AMW got back together. So the Angle/Joe match was a good way to go so as to strike the iron while it was hot. Injuries, bad booking could have made the match less worth it than what it was.
Over all TNA PPV's have been better than WWE PPV's over the last 3 months. Can you argue otherwise? Let us all know and write some more critical things about Raw, brake it down like you did for TNA and see which side of the coin looks better. Just be fair. Thank you and sorry for being negative but I think you are a great writer and it would be good to see your thoughts of the Mega Bucks WWE vs. we are little TNA.
I have a full run of TNA PPVs from Victory Road '04 to Genesis '05 and I agree they were top-notch. However, they have been slipping overall the last year or so in great quality. Maybe I don't attack WWE that much but as I noted, I try to be more positive than many. Besides, whatever else, WWE has survived while all competitors have died out. I do like TNA but am concerned that the only competition out there could fall apart because of these bad moves. I guess getting Angle/Joe out of the way is a good move but we've yet to get the "dream match" we always thought these two could produce. Maybe the coming year will help TNA make some good moves but for now, they're still a distant second.
On my column on what wrestling gave fans in '06, Catherine Smerjian adds this one:
I've been a big fan for a while and I thought I'd toss in a gift for the column.
Johnny Nitro, Singles Star: When MNM started, everyone thought they were really good, but made it clear that Mercury was the workhorse of the duo.
Then Nitro moved to Raw and something shifted. Ever since he got drafted over to Raw, he's been shining, unlike a few other Smackdown imports. The
guy is the epitome of the cocky heel and his athleticism and charisma are really something to watch. And with his recent slew of matches, he's proven
that he's very versatile in the ring. Having Melina at his side, possibly one of the most hated managers out there today, certainly doesn't hurt
matters either.
Frankly, he's just one big match or big moment away from being cemented in the lower part of the main event scene and that moment could well come
at New Year's Revolution - you know he and Hardy are going to pull off some insane moments in that cage.
Anyway, just wanted to chime in with my two cents.
Yeah, I did overlook Nitro, which I shouldn't have as he really has improved as a singles star better than I thought. Not sure now if they'll keep him at that or reunite MNM but he is taking off and could be a nice choice to face Cena soon.
Finally, Jeff Bathurst has this on that column:
I was reading your article and when you talked about Montreal forgiving Shawn Michaels, I'm not quite sure. As a Montreal resident, I could'nt be at the show but I watched it and I don't know if you have it on tape or remember, but when DX came out the first time they had a great pop and I did realised "Hey the fans arent booing HBK!" but in their match when Shawn got the tag and started to wrestle, there was some "You screwed Bret" chants and it was becoming a bit louder but it did'nt last to long cause HBK taged soon after or something like that happened, but let me say this, At Survivor Series 2007 in Montreal, you can bet the fans won't have forgotten and it's going to be exciting to see how the fans are gonna respond to HBK if he's in the PPV. I plan on being there this year and probably plan on chanting "YOU SCREWED BRET"! really loud! Hahaha!
Yeah, still some boos but it's not as bad as it once was so I do think fans are letting it go a bit more now. Of course, they will no doubt remember come Survivor Series this year, especially if Vince decides to recreate it somehow to mark the occasion.
Also on 411:
I missed being part of the Year-End Awards but feel free to check out how the more elite of the 411 staff deal with the last year.
Stu takes a look at how his predictions from last year turned out and makes new ones for '07.
Ripple Effect talks about Wrestlemania booking.
High Road/Low Road tackles John Cena.
Evolution Schematic examines Eric Young.
Quick Talkdown talks about TNA in 2007.
Column of Honor is so big Ari has to break it up into four segments.
Larry C looks at PPVs in 06
Meehan wraps up his look at the business in 2006.
Julian Williams does the top 10 Gimmicks of all time.
Don't forget Triple Threat, 3 R's, Fact or Fiction, the Shimmy and the rest.
Next week continues this Rumble retrospective. For now, the spotlight is off.
