WWE Royal Rumble 1990 (1990)

Simply Perfect

Good movie but grossly overrated

Best movie ever!

Absolutely Brilliant!

The Royal Rumble from 1990, is a classic event and only slightly disappointing in that 2 of the matches that took place before the Main Event failed to live up to my expectations. Hulk Hogan was being rivalled by the rise in popularity of The Ultimate Warrior in 1990 and their rivalry was highlighted during the Rumble event. I enjoyed the Main Event, it had a few twists and turns along the way. Other story angles were highlighted, such as Dusty Rhodes and the Macho King, Demolition and The Colossal Connection, Tito Santana and The Model Rick Martel. Personally, I was thrilled at who won the Rumble. It was good in seeing all those different wrestling personalities give their opinions on winning the Royal Rumble. The 2 matches I didn't like, are the tag team and singles match between Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake and The Genius. Beefcake was always a limited and stiff worker and his opponent was similar, although he at least was athletic. The ending completely ruined their match. The tag team match was far too long and it took about 5 minutes to really get going. The grudge match between Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Big Boss Man was a real slug-it-out street brawl. The best match on the card by far, was the submission match where Rugged Ronnie Garvin took on Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. It is 17 minutes of wrestling joy and it built to a frenzied conclusion. I like it that bits of footage shows the different participants in the Royal Rumble, it adds to the occasion.

For fans of old-school (early 1990s) WWF wrestling, this tape will really bring back some memories. Despite falling a bit flat in the main event portion (at least compared to the 1989 edition), it is still quite entertaining to watch and features Hulkamania at its apex.One caveat: Go ahead and skip the preliminary matches and get on with the Rumble itself. They are quite boring and only serve to advance plots forward to Wrestlemania.

"Hogan and Warrior are the only men in the ring." And that was the iconic image of this Royal Rumble. The two hottest stars in the company standing toe to toe and then going at each other for the next couple of minutes.The 1990 Royal Rumble was a decent show, the Rumble match itself was good enough, but the long teased match between Garvin and Valentine was the only noteworthy match on the undercard.The night kicked off with Butch and Luke The Bushwhackers defeating the Fabulous Rougeaus Jacques and Raymond. This seemed to be quite a long match. The crowd was into the Bushwackers, who capitalised on a Rougeau mistake to hit the battering ram and Butch to pin Jacques.Next up we have the Million Dollar Man drawing his number. DiBiase had drawn a low number in the 1989 Royal Rumble but sold it to get the No.30, but there would be no buying up this year. He drew No.1 and that's where he would be coming out.Next up sees Brutus Beefcake, barber shears in hand, taking on Mr Perfect's ally The Genius. If Beefcake wins he gets to shave the head of the Genius. Beefcake should have won the match but the ref was unconscious. Perfect came out and hit Beefcake with the Perfect-plex. The match ended in a double disqualification.Next up comes the biggest match on the undercard with Ronnie Garvin defeating Greg Valentine in an entertaining submission match. This match came around because Garvin had gotten Valentine disqualified in his match with Hercules at Summerslam 1989. Garvin was wearing a shin protector, making him impervious to Valentine's main submission move the figure four leglock, poking his tongue out at Valentine as he applied it. They go back and forth, it's fun stuff, Garvin wins it with a Hammer Jammer. God stuff, nice end to a nice feud.Brother Love comes out next to interview Macho King Randy Savage's first lady Queen Sherri and Dusty Rhodes' favourite female Sapphire. Sean Mooney talks to Hacksaw about his next match with the Big Bossman, which Duggan won by DQ after being knocked out with a night stick.We get a few words from the Rumble contestants and then it's time for the big match. Ted DiBiase came in at No.1 and became the first man to go over half hour in a rumble match, eventually getting eliminated after 45 minutes. The Ultimate Warrior came in at 21 and leveled everyone, and was joined by Hogan coming in at 25. They clear the ring and are left to go at each other. Warrior gets eliminated and it all comes down to Hogan vs Rick Rude and Mr Perfect. Perfect eliminates Rude and it's left to him and Hogan. Hogan and Perfect had recently had a high profile match at Madison Square Garden for the WWE Champinship. Perfect had won by DQ on that occasion, but this would be the Hulkster's night. He had the most eliminations with 5 and threw Perfect over to win the 1990 Royal Rumble.So what was next for the Hulkster? Who was left? Had that brief encounter with the Ultimnate Warrior been a prelude to something bigger, like a distant thunder, or was it just a coincidence that the world seemed to stop for that brief moment? We would have to wait till Wrestlemania to find out.

This was the third annual Royal Rumble and like the two events before it, it had plenty of entertainment.The undercard matches were nothing memorable but the Rumble was exciting enough. Watching the Rumble was exciting because you had the big bad WWF superstars going at it with each other. This Rumble was just as exciting. Back in the 1980's and early 1990's the WWF had a lot of giants such as Andre the Giant and The Warlord. The WWF stars of that era had muscles like ancient warriors.(SPOILER AHEAD) Hulk Hogan won this Rumble after going through the competition like a knife through butter. When he won this event the fans were so pleased.Great event!