Rating the Rumbles - 1988
In 1987, Pat Patterson came up with a match type that would go on to become one of the annual staples of WWE: the Royal Rumble. In all honesty, the Royal Rumble is easily my favorite match type of all time. There's a lot to like about it, and its almost always fun to watch, so I have decided to watch and review every main Royal Rumble MATCH. I am not going to concentrate on the rest of the Pay-Per-View cards, just the Rumble matches themselves. I will take into account the general storylines going into the match, as well as their aftermath, but mainly, this is about the matches.
On October 4, 1987, the first Rumble match took place in St. Louis, Missouri, in front of a crowd of less than 2,000 people. One Man Gang won by last eliminating Junkyard Dog. No footage of this exists, and WWE forgets this ever happened. The REAL story of the Royal Rumble begins on January 24, 1988 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
Another thing WWE likes to sweep under the rug is that the first Rumble event was not a Pay Per View. It was available on cable, on the USA Network, in fact. But enough revisionist history, lets get to the action.
This Rumble is a bit different from future Rumbles, in that it only has 20 men as opposed to 30, and the contestants enter every two minutes. But we can consider this a case of Early Installment Weirdness. This match has a lot going for it early on. Bret Hart and Tito Santana start the match, Jake "The Snake" Roberts makes the first elimination, and "The Natural" Butch Reed gets the dubious honor of being the the first man eliminated from the match. The inaugural Royal Rumble clocks in at 33 minutes, and is won by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, last eliminating One Man Gang.
This first Rumble is definitely experimental, but it is still an engaging and satisfying match to watch. The storytelling is rather simple: faces and heels go after each other. The heel-face balance is kept pretty even throughout, with the heels getting the advantage in spots where it made sense. Its basic psychology, and it works.
The only problem I can see with the match is purely retrospective: Jim Duggan never really goes on to any great success after this. He would lose in the first round of the WWF Championship tournament at WrestleMania IV, and whatever title opportunities he would have, be it for the Intercontinental or WWF Title, would usually end in a disqualification or count-out. He would go to WCW in 1994 and win the US Title there, but he lost it pretty quick. Still, his American Patriot gimmick is a classic, and this will always be a feather in his cap.
Overall, my final rating for this match is a 7/10. It doesn't do anything particularly wrong, but it really isn't anything special aside from being the first one. Still, its a fun match, and a great starting point for the Rumble concept. From here, the Rumble will only get bigger and better, with the 1989 match gaining some real star power...