Austin101

Austin101's "WWF Royal Rumble 1992" Review:


Live on PPV from Albany, New York.

Gorilla and The Brain do there first ever Rumble together (and it's about time.) Piper should stay as a wrestler and whenever you got a guy like Heenan or Jesse in there with Monsoon you can always expect greatness and a lot of laughs.


1) The New Foundation (Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart) vs The Orient Express (Pat Tanaka and Kato) (w/Mr. Fuji)

The second straight year the Orient Express start off a Rumble PPV with a tag match. This time around they do it against the short lived "NEW FOUNDATION" who surprisingly had a lot of chemistry. Can't stop laughing at Heenan calling the Anvil "Nuts" over and over throughout the match. Owen Hart was so gifted athletically and showed that skill early on with his leverage on the ropes and flipping around the ring. This match went long just like last years tag team match with the Rockers and the Express did, and that's a VERY GOOD THING. The Orient Express dominated the entire 2nd half of the match and kept Owen in there corner through most of the match. Still though the NEW foundation turned things around by the end and Owen Hart pinned Tanaka after a Rocket Launcher at 17:18 for the win, and the crowd is happy.

Such a great match, the Orient-Express were an overlooked team.

*** 1/2




2) "Rowdy" Roddy Piper vs The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) for the WWF Intercontinental Championship

Piper cuts a hillarious promo before the match about the Mountie wanting to seduce him (along the lines of it anyway)Piper was a substitute for Bret Hart, who was originally scheduled to face the Mountie for the belt. 2 days prior to the pay-per-view, the Mountie pinned Bret at a house show to win the title. This was explained by claiming Bret competed with a 104ºF fever at the house show he lost the belt at. Piper won by TKO when he applied the sleeper hold on Mountie at 5:22 to win his first Intercontinental title. After the match, Piper took the cattle prod from Jimmy Hart and shocked Mountie with it.

Just like last year they don't follow up a hot tag match with one of the best singles matches but it still is decent. Piper was great as was the commentary as always.

* 3/4



3) The Beverly Brothers (Blake and Beau) (w/The Genius) vs The Bushwhackers (Luke Williams and Butch Miller) (w/Jamison)


Holy jumping Jesus Christ is this "Jamison" manager of the Whackers the most annoying face character of all time? VERY CLOSE. Hell scratch that, HE IS. I don't even want to talk about him anymore though. The Beverly's have done better jobs then they do in this one (especially the next year against the Steiners, more on that next review.) And once again with the Whackers, it's to be expected. A decent tag match at the very best highlighted by Heenan's quotes about how you need Special attention after you touch the Whackers. Hysterical. The Beverlies ended up winning when Blake pinned Butch after a Double Axe Handle from Beau at 14:56. After the match, The Bushwhackers held down The Genius while Jamison kicked him. Yeah he kicked him while he tried to make a fist for a good minute, the crowd hated it...I'm glad this character was short lived, unfortunately the match wasn't.

*



4) The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) (w/Jimmy Hart) vs The WWF Tag Team Champions The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal)

The third tag match of the night, this time around for the gold. This match was actually pretty good as to be expected by the Road Warriors, and Earthquake/Typhoon knew there parts as big men. The Natural Disasters won the match by count out. Because of this, the Legion of Doom retained their titles at 9:24.

**




5) Main Event- The 1992 Royal Rumble Match

Now I love Royal Rumble's as do we all. But this time around everything was booked so perfectly and it came off so smoothly that this is the greatest one ever. It starts with the Bulldog and Dibiase, and Davey Boy eliminates him before Flair comes to the ring at #3 with a clothesline over the top rope. Flair comes to the ring and Heenan is outraged as he wants Flair to win obvioussly.

This Rumble was stacked talent-wise, and like I said the booking made it so much better. HBK, Tito Santana, Piper, Sgt. Slaughter, Hogan, Sid, Flair, Bulldog, Snuka, Undertaker, IRS, Dibiase, Macho Man, Bossman, Valentine, Jake the Snake, The Model were all in the Rumble match among others.

The Hulkster comes out at #26 and having won the last two rumbles, half the crowd was a little tired of him and half the crowd still wanted him to win. He still got the biggest ovation in the Rumble match though quite obvioussly. He only eliminated the 30th entrant, the Warlord and got thrown out by Sid Justice which some of the crowd liked, but most were shocked.

In the end the final two were now Flair and Sid. The "Nature Boy" Ric Flair broke the record for the longest lasting participant in a Royal Rumble, lasting 59:26. Ric Flair also won the 1992 Royal Rumble and the WWF Championship itself at 1:02:02 by eliminating Sid Justice who was being held out with one arm by Hogan. Flair wins what is my favourite Rumble ever, and most definately the best Rumble ever and probably the greatest indivudal performance in a Rumble ever. Fantastic, they don't come much better then this.

**** 3/4



--------------------------------------------------------

Final Rating for Royal Rumble 1992= 7.5/10

A tremendous rumble, a great opener, and a decent match gives this edition a very high rating.


Up Next from Austin101: Royal Rumble 1993 (stay tuned...)

Feedback like always if you want to discuss.....