WWE Royal Rumble 1993 (1993)

the audience applauded

That was an excellent one.

Perfect cast and a good story

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Live from Sacramento, CAAttendance: 16,000Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby HeenanThe Steiner Brothers Vs The Beverly BrothersThe Steiner's win after Scott hits a frankensteiner. This was an above average opener. I felt this was a good debut match for The Steiner's to really strut their stuff. You can't ask for much more than you got here.**3/4Intercontinental ChampionshipShawn Michaels (C) Vs Marty JannettySensational Sherri is gonna be in a neutral corner. Shawn wins with a superkick after Sherri accidentally nails Janetty with her shoe. These two stole the show with this match! Jannetty starts off like a house of fire like any intense feud should. Shawn and Marty also gave us some excellent psychology before the match turned into one near-fall after another. It's an excellent match. Thankfully, all the Sherri drama didn't detract from the match****Shawn Michaels confronts Sherri backstage and tees off on her. Marty runs in and brawls with Shawn. The Big Bossman Vs Bam Bam BigelowBigelow wins with a diving headbutt from the top. These guys were doomed to fail after the clinic Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty put on, but it still wasn't a very good match. It moved at a pretty slow pace and lacked excitement. Both of these guys are good wrestlers for their size. They just didn't click here.*1/2WWF ChampionshipBret Hart (C) Vs Razor RamonBret wins with the Sharpshooter. This is an underrated match. Bret proved he was the best wrestler in the world at the time, and Razor held his own as well. This is one of those matches that doesn't get talked about enough as far as great Rumble matches go.***3/4Bobby Heenan unveils "The Narcissist" Lex Luger. It's worth watching simply for Bobby Heenan's performance. He's magnificent here.Royal Rumble MatchYokozuna wins after eliminating Randy Savage. This is an average Royal Rumble for the most part. It does have some standout moments. Mr. Perfect eliminating Ric Flair garnered a big pop from the crowd. Bob Backlund lasted all the way until the end and got a standing ovation for his efforts. The crowed booed when he got eliminated. Giant Gonzalez debuted and eliminated The Undertaker. (That was more dubious than standout) One thing that made me shake my head was how Yokozuna won the rumble. Savage hits the flying elbow from the top and goes to pin him. Yokozuna simply powers him off over the top rope and to the floor. It made Savage look really stupid. **1/4Aside from the Royal Rumble match itself, this was a really good card. Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty and Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon are both fantastic matches. If the Rumble match wasn't so forgettable, this could have been a classic PPV.6.5/10

Well Hogan's gone, the Ultimate Warrior's gone, Flair's about to leave and Savage is drifting into the background. The times certainly were changing as the 1993 Royal Rumble rolled around, and this was reflected in the WWE Championship match later that night as Bret Hart made his second title defence taking on Razor Ramon who'd only been in the WWE a short length of time.The night kicked off with the Steiner Brothers defeating the Beverly Brothers in a very entertaining opener. Scott Steiner was one of the most agile workers in the world at this stage and the Beverley's were a good foil for anyone. Good back and forth action as the two teams attempted to show who were the better brothers on the roster.Next comes a heated match for the Intercontinental Championship between Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty. These two had been tag team partners in a pretty sweet tag team named the Rockers. But Shawn had memorably turned on Marty, throwing him through a barbershop window (shown on a montage here, but it actually occurred sometime in early 1992). Sensational Sherri stood at ringside unsure of her allegiances. In the end she does the right thing and comes into knock out Shawn, but he ducks and she cocks Janetty instead. Shawn wins a good match.Next up came the BIg Bossman taking on Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow was versatile for a big man and Bossman was pretty over back in 1993. They put on a nice match here.Brings us to the big WWE title match with Bret putting his title on the line against Razor Ramon. I don't know exactly what the story was here, but Razor had been one of Flair's cronies when Hart beat Flair for the title in late 1992. There were some good promos in the lead up and here they have a great match. It starts off even. The middle of the fight is Razor kicking Hart's backside all over the ring, only for Hart to rally and hit the sharpshooter for the win. Good match.The 1993 Royal Rumble was an interesting match with a lot of story lines going in. THe most important one here being that the winner would become the No.1 contender for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania IX. The fight started off with two huge stories as Flair, who would fight and lose to Mr Perfect a "Loser Leaves Town" match the following night on RAW came in at No.1 and then former WWE Champion (for five consecutive years!) Bob Backlund, making a comeback at 42, came in at No.2. Flair went early compared to last year, but Backlund went for nearly an hour and was the second last man eliminated.Another big story going in was the Undertaker's rivalry with scrawny manager Harvey Wippleman. Undertaker had defeated Harvey's biggest client Kamala in a coffin match at Survivor Series 1992 and Wippleman vowed revenge. The Undertaker came it at No.15 and cleared the ring, only for Wippleman to unearth his latest discovery: The massive Brazilian Giant Gonzales. Gonzales destroyed the Undertaker and left him looking weak and pathetic. Anyone making Taker look like that in 1993 was a rare thing indeed.Anyway, Yokozuna came in at 27, eliminated six people, including Bob Backlund and then went toe to toe with Randy Savage for five thrilling minutes before eliminating Savage as the Macho Man attempted a pin after hitting a flying elbow. And so the Giant Yokozuna was on the way to Wrestlemania!!! So it appeared that we'd be getting Hart/ Yokozuna for the WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania. Could the Canadian Hart beat not only Yokozuna, but the Japanese cronies of his manager Mr Fuji, or would it take a real American to get the job done? And could the Undertaker possibly triumph over WIppleman and his newest monster?

*SPOILERS*The Royal Rumble seems to follow an inverse proportion: the better the Rumble, the worse the undercard. The exception is 1991, which had a great undercard and the best battle royal yet. Nowadays, the undercard is always fantastic, while the battle royal is just short of pathetic.In 1993, the undercard was fine, while the battle royal started off well and just ended horribly. The Steiners had about as good a match as was possible with the Beverly Brothers. The Big Bossman and Bam Bam Bigelow, the two best superheavyweight performers ever, did quite well.The two title matches were outstanding. Few remember that Razor Ramon was actually favored to beat Bret Hart. This match showed us that Bret was not a fluke champion and solidified him as one of the better champions. Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty put on a great match. Remember, later that year they would wrestle in 1993's Match of the Year. The aftermath of this match is a treat, as Sensational Sherri gets really emotional and Gene Okerlund uses language that is still WWE taboo.The battle royal was mixed. Curt Hennig was impressive, eliminating three legends (Ric Flair, Jerry Lawler and Skinner). The Undertaker also accounted for himself well. Bob Backlund performed none of the heroics of Ric Flair from the year before and probably should not have broken iron man record. Backlund's record will never be broken. Once Yokozuna showed up, it was downhill. The match had a really boring ending, and they probably could have done better. Still, it was a good surprise having him win. So see it if you can.

This Royal Rumble was quite mediocre. The Rumble match itself wasn't the best ever and the undercard was quite average.The Steiners battled the Beverly Brothers in an average match. The same can be said for Big Boss Man VS Bam Bam Bigelow. Shawn Michaels battled Marty Jannety in a reasonable match. The WWF Title match pitted Bret Hart against Razor Ramon. This was quite good.(SPOILER AHEAD) The Rumble itself was okay. The late Yokosuna won the Rumble-in fact everybody knew he would win. Unlike previous events where you never knew who the winner was going to be, this Rumble was quite predictable. The most memorable part of this Rumble was the debut of Giant Gonzalez who was billed as being 8 foot tall. He was probably closer to 7 foot but he was real mean looking. He beat the stuffings out of the Undertaker at this event. That was the best part of the Rumble.