My Favorite Year, Part Four: Ready to Rumble

The WWF ended 1991 without a champion.

President Jack Tunney ordered the WWF Championship vacant after reviewing the end of Tuesday in Texas. Hulk Hogan, in the closing moments of the event, reclaimed the WWF Championship from the Undertaker, albeit with the aid of a foreign substance--in this case, ashes from the Undertaker's urn.

In response to this illegal action, Tunney stripped Hogan of the title.



Granted, this wasn't the first time the Hulkster had been involved in a championship controversy. In 1988, Andre the Giant won the title from Hogan thanks to a plot involving identical twin referees, only to vacate the title when he tried to sell it to the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase 47 seconds later. Instead, the championship was contested by a 14-man tournament at Wrestlemania IV. This time, Tunney made an unprecedented decision: the WWF Championship would be the grand prize at the 1992 Royal Rumble.


The Royal Rumble deserves an explanation of its own, as it is one of the WWE's most popular and enduring events, based around its main event, a 30-man over-the-top rope battle royal. The concept of a battle royal wasn't new: common battle royal matches saw at least 20 men try to throw each other over the top rope and onto the arena floor, with the last man as the winner.

But it was Hall of Famer Pat Patterson (as legend goes), the first man to ever win the Intercontiental Championship, who came up with a different way to do the battle royal. Rather than having twenty men begin the match in the ring and try to throw each other out, two men would begin the match, with another man entering every two minutes, until all twenty had entered the ring. Beginning with the following year's Rumble, this number was increased to thirty! Not only was the match more of an endurance test, it was also a potential moneymaker. Twenty years later, the Rumble has been just that, becoming a huge staple for the company.

At first, the winner of the Rumble match simply received the prestige and bragging rights associated with outlasting 29 other WWF wrestlers. Even Hulk Hogan, as a reigning WWF champion, competed in several, winning the 1990 and 1991 Rumble matches. But 1991 saw the WWF changing, with new wrestlers clawing their way to top to battle the old guard, and stars from other promotions finally testing themselves in a WWF ring. The talent roster had never been bigger, so the Rumble had to be bigger. This time, it was for all the gold.

There was no better showcase for the depth of the roster at the time than the 1992 Royal Rumble. Many, including Ric Flair, regard the thirty participants as the greatest lineup of all time. In a single match, fans saw the "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, "El Matador" Tito Santana, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Rowdy Roddy Piper, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, the Undertaker, Shawn Michaels, the Big Boss Man, Sid Vicious (as Sid Justice), Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair.


In a way, this match was really the passing of the old guard (in as much as they ever pass the torch in professional wrestling; most of the elder performers still worry about "their spot" and try to remain in the spotlight). The stars of wrestling's "golden age"--guys like Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair and Randy Savage--did battle with men who would change wrestling in the '90s, men like Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker.

Appearing on the undercard were also major stars of wrestling's past and future. Opening the show was a tag team match between the New Foundation and the Orient Express. The New Foundation was a revamp of the Hart Foundation, this time with Jim "the Anvil" Neidhart and Bret's younger brother, Owen, who would become a star in his own right before his tragic death. Also, the Legion of Doom, one of the most successful tag teams in the history of the industry, defended their WWF Tag Team Championship against the Natural Disasters, continuing the feud which began at Summerslam. In other tag team action, the lovable, sardine-breathed Bushwhackers sought to avenge their manager Jamison's honor against the Beverly Brothers, managed by the poetic Genius (Randy Savage's brother Lanny).



The always entertaining Rowdy Roddy Piper challenged the Mountie for the Intercontinental Championship. Originally, Bret Hart was set to defend the title against the Mountie, but two days before the event, he lost the title to his Canadian foe at a house show. According to the storyline, Bret was suffering from a fever that night, allowing the Mountie to take advantage. (In truth, Bret was renegotiating his contract, therefore he was booked to drop the belt in case things fell through.) Piper delivered one of the funniest pre-match promos I've ever heard (when told the Mountie planned to "steal his integrity," Hot Rod barked, "That's like Jacques Cousteau looking for a dry spot at the bottom of the ocean. I ain't got no damn integrity! How do you think I got so far?"), and subsequently won his title match. He went into the Royal Rumble match with the unique opportunity to win two titles in one night, and a chance to even the score with Ric Flair.

Other angles going into the Rumble included the continuation of Macho Man Randy Savage's vendetta against Jake "the Snake" Roberts, and Shawn Michaels' new solo career following his breakup with Marty Janetty. Yes, the Rockers broke up before the Rumble, with Michaels superkicking Janetty through a plate glass window on Brutus Beefcake's "Barber Shop" interview segment.

But the most interesting bit of backstory, in my opinion, belonged to the man who entered the Rumble match at number three, the man who had received such hype and hoopla prior to his arrival, the alleged "real world's champion."


By 1992, the "Nature Boy" Ric Flair had cemented his legacy as one of the greatest professional wrestlers ever. He and Hulk Hogan were the biggest stars in the business, wrestling for rival promotions throughout the 1980s. As I mentioned in earlier columns, the plan was to have Hogan and Flair ultimately battle it out in a "dream match." As Ric Flair had gotten involved in Hogan's feud with the Undertaker, the two of them were on each other's radar in a big way (as if it took anything for the two biggest stars in the wrestling world to take notice of each other).

Flair defected from World Championship Wrestling in the first place because of difficulties with WCW management, in the person of Jim Herd. Herd was a former television station manager in St. Louis whose biggest notoriety in wrestling came from the show Wrestling at the Chase, known as one of the most successful wrestling programs of its time, which was broadcast during his tenure. Later, he worked as an executive at Pizza hut, before joining WCW. He gained great criticism for his lack of knowledge about the business and disrespect towards the talent and fanbase. During his time at WCW, notable personalities such as Jim Cornette, Stan Hansen, and the Road Warriors left the company for other opportunities.

Herd particularly bashed heads with Ric Flair. Herd's sensibilities ran toward the cartoonish fare of the WWF, which didn't sit well with the purist WCW fanbase or its talent, especially Flair. The executive attempted to get Flair to change his image (such as cutting his trademark blond locks and wearing an earring), and even tried to repurpose him in an entirely different gimmick, as a gladiator called Spartacus. Finally, disagreements between the two men got in the way of contract renegotiations and title changes. Herd saw Sting and Lex Luger as the new faces of the company, despite Flair being one of its biggest draws. When Flair refused to back out of a previous agreement with Herd to drop the belt to Sting (in favor of dropping it to Luger as Herd changed his mind) and take a pay cut, Herd let him go and stripped him of the title without him actually losing it onscreen.


The only problem was that Flair was still NWA World Heavyweight Champion (WCW was still a member of the National Wrestling Alliance). The World Heavyweight Champion had to put up a $25,000 deposit (which accrued interest) to carry the belt, which would be repaid upon losing the gold. As Herd had no intention of honoring the commitment and returning the deposit with interest (a total of $38,000), Ric Flair kept the belt. He then called Vince McMahon, who had contacted him before about possibly working up north, told him he accepted the offer and would bring the belt along as well. The acquisition was a huge coup for the WWF, and an embarrassment for WCW and the NWA, which suffered the indignity of having their championship belt paraded around and buried on a rival program.

After all of this behind the scenes drama, who do you think won the 1992 Royal Rumble?

I won't go into too many details, only because I truly believe this is a pay-per-view you should see for yourself. Currently, it is on DVD as part of the Royal Rumble Complete Anthology (available as one big set or four smaller sets). Thirty men all vying for what was undoubtedly the most prestigious prize in all of professional wrestling. The drama, the egos, the anger, the athleticism. In one match, wrestling's past and future met to create one of the greatest events in the history of the sport. This rests at the top of my shortlist of single matches to enter the vault.