Ask 411 Wrestling: Will MJF Be a Transitional Champion If He Loses To Brody King?

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TaylorMade may be here for a good time, but he’s not here for a long time:

While I think it’s about time Brody King was in the Main event title picture and he should be a champion soon (he has the looks, skills and connection to the fans already)  I can’t see them taking the belt off MJF so soon at Grand Slam.

However, IF THAT DID HAPPEN would that make MJF a transitional champion having the belt for less than 2 months and only 1 title defense?

What is the criteria for being a transitional champ? Length of time or number of title defenses or . . . something else?

There aren’t hard numerical criteria as to what makes a transitional champion. The reign is normally on the shorter side, yes, but that’s not the main consideration. The main consideration is that the intention behind putting the belt in the champion is just to get it from one person to another person without having those two people meet in the ring.

The classic example is the Iron Sheik. Bob Backlund had turned down the notion of turning heel, and in that territory in that era you weren’t going to do a babyface/babyface Backlund vs. Hulk Hogan match, so you needed a third party to get the championship off of Backlund and in to Hogan.

THAT is the definition of a transitional champion. The Sheik becoming the champion was not seen as being a good business move in and of itself, even though he managed to have 16 title defenses before his time holding the belt came to an end. His title reign was a means to a different end.

A more recent example would be the second WWE Title reign of Mike the Miz. The whole point was getting the title from Drew McIntyre to Bobby Lashley without wasting what could be a big McIntyre/Lashley match. There was no other compelling business or storyline reason to hand the belt over to Mike.

For those reasons, I wouldn’t consider MJF to be a transitional champ if he loses to Brody King, because he’s clearly being promoted as a star in his own right as opposed to being the guy in between champs.

Normally I get a lot of questions about the Royal Rumble match in the month leading up to the Royal Rumble. However, Matt B sent this one in after the 2026 Rumble:

Royal Rumble 1989 is my favourite rumble probably because it was the only tape I had so would watch t endlessly.

My question is what was the last match and date that each of the ’89 Royal Rumble participants had in WWF – excluding WM17 gimmick battle royal – and what was the last match and date they had in the business? I like the idea of there being a career Royal Rumble winner from that match.

Of course, when we’re talking about the 1989 Royal Rumble, we’re talking about the first Royal Rumble to be held on pay per view. (The inaugural Rumble the year prior was a television special on the USA Network.) Thus, we’re getting into a lot of classic names here . . . but who is the “career” winner as Matt puts it?

To make this even more fun, I’ll be putting them in the order of their “elimination,” with the elimination date being the date of their last career match.

1. The winner of the ’89 Royal Rumble was none other than Big John Studd, but he’s the first eliminated here. He had his last match in the WWF on June 2, 1989 as a babyface, teaming with 1988 Royal Rumble winner Jim Duggan to defeat the Colossal Connection of Haku and Andre the Giant in West Palm Beach, Florida. He only had one recorded match in his career after leaving the WWF, and it was on February 9, 1990 in Greenwood, South Carolina on the local television show of indy territory the North American Wrestling Association. He defeated a wrestler named Jack Lord – no relation to the star of Hawaii Five-O.

2. Andre the Giant had his last WWF match on May 11, 1991 as one of several competitors in a battle royale on a house show in Detroit’s Joe Louis Arena. Kerry Von Erich was the winner. His last match overall came on December 4, 1992 in the Budokan for All Japan Pro Wrestling. At the time, AJPW had a tradition of putting its old timers in to six man tags low on the card, and this is one of those matches, with Andre’s partners being Giant Baba and Rusher Kimura. They defeated Haruka Eigen, Masanobu Fuchi, and Motoshi Okuma.

3. The Mighty Hercules went out on his back in his last WWF match, losing to The Berzerker on February 24, 1992 in Worcester, Massachusetts. He kept wrestling until November 7, 1997, getting win in his last match by defeating Jerry Flynn in Gainesville, Florida for NWA Florida.

4. Though we’re mainly talking about the 1989 Royal Rumble match, the 1995 Royal Rumble match was the last WWF appearance for Rick Martel, where he was eliminated by Headshrinker Sionne, a.k.a. the Barbarian. Overall, the Model’s final pro wrestling bout was on March 20, 1999 in Kailua, Hawaii for the Hawaiian Islands Wrestling Federation. He beat the Metal Maniac on that card. Given that Martel didn’t wrestle for almost a year before that show and hasn’t wrestled since, methinks he likely just did it for a free trip to Hawaii.

5. Bad News Brown exited the WWF at Summerslam 1990 when he got disqualified in his match with Jake “The Snake” Roberts that featured the Big Bossman as guest referee. He continued to wrestle until May 10, 1999, on which date he defeated The Jackyl (Don Callis) in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada for the indy group International Wrestling Alliance.

6. The last WWF match for Arn Anderson was actually the same year as the 1989 Royal Rumble. On November 23, he bid farewell to the WWF at that year’s Survivor Series as part of a Heenan Family team that lost to a crew captained by the Ultimate Warrior. Double A’s last match was on May 16, 2000, as he and Ric Flair teamed to defeat Crowbar and David Flair in a match taped for the May 17 episode of WCW Thunder.

7. One half of the Bushwhackers, Butch last wrestled for the WWF (outside the Gimmick Battle Royale) on September 15, 1996 in Nashville, Tennessee, where he and Luke defeated Freddie Joe Floyd (Tracy Smothers) and Zebekiah (Dutch Mantel). The final match of his career came on September 8, 2001 in Farmville, Virginia (the city, not the Facebook game) where the Bushwhackers lost the tag team titles of the indy group Ultimate Championship Wrestling to the team of Carnage and Mr. Big Stuff. Who did he think he was?

8. Many reading this will remember that Mr. Perfect made a return to the WWF in 2002 at that year’s Royal Rumble. He had exactly one match in the company after they rebranded to WWE later that year, and it was his final bout for the promotion. He came up on the losing end against Matt Hardy in Hartford, Connecticut on May 6 in a match taped for Sunday Night Heat. His last overall match was on January 8, 2003 in Nashville on TNA’s 27th weekly pay per view event, besting David Flair in an axe handle on a pole match. (Why, yes, Vince Russo was booking at the time. Why do you ask?) The very next month, on February 10, 2003, Mr. Perfect passed away.

9. I often forget that the Big Boss Man was still with WWE in the early 2000s, and his last match with the company was a loss to Tommy Dreamer on May 20, 2002 in one of sports’ most ridiculous venues, the Pyramid in Memphis, Tennessee. That match was taped for Sunday Night Heat. The Boss Man’s last match overall was at Yoyogi National Gymnasium #2 in Tokyo, Japan on the 10th anniversary show of IWA Japan, held on August 31, 2004. The show featured a tournament for the vacant IWA World Heavyweight Title, and Boss Man’s final match was a loss to Jim Duggan in the finals of that tournament. Unfortunately, he would die the next month, on September 22, 2004.

10. There has been much rumor and innuendo over the years as to why Randy Savage never came back to the WWF after finishing up his run in WCW. I don’t know why he didn’t, but I do know his last match for the Fed was on September 13, 1994 in Rostock, Germany, where he teamed with Bret Hart to defeat the New Foundation of Owen Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. His last career match was in TNA on their 2004 Turning Point pay per view, partnering with Jeff Hardy and AJ Styles in a victory over Jeff Jarrett, Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash.

11. Terry Taylor worked as an announcer and backstage executive for quite a while after ending his full-time wrestling career, which lead to him occasionally filling in on shows when an extra body was needed. This means his last WWF match was on September 23, 1999 in Oklahoma City, where he lost of Joey Abs. On November 25, 2006, he had the last match of his career, a win over Adrian Lynch for Packerland Pro Wrestling in Menasha, Wisconsin.

12. The African Dream Akeem has an interesting final WWF match, a it’s actually during the Attitude Era. On February 3, 1998, back under his One Man Gang persona, he defeated Flash Flanagan in a dark match held before a taping of Monday Night Raw. (This is not counting the Gimmick Battle Royale per Matt’s instructions.) His final career match was over a decade later, on March 28, 2009 in Franklin, Pennslyvania, where he was defeated by Jim Duggan on a “Night of Legends” show promoted by indy group the International Wrestling Cartel. Other legends wrestling on the card included Mr. Hughes, Sgt. Slaughter, Kamala, Jimmy Snuka, Bob Orton Jr., The Patriot (Tom Brandi), and “Wrestling Superstar” Virgil.

13. It’s a pretty well known fact that Hulk Hogan had his last WWF match at Summerslam 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts, where he defeated Randy Orton. His last career match quite was quite a bit more obscure, occurring on a house show for TNA on January 27, 2012. The Hulkster partnered with Sting and James Storm to pick up the victory over Bobby Roode, Bubba Ray Dudley, and Kurt Angle in the MEN Arena in Manchester, England, England . . . across the Atlantic Sea.

14. Ron Bass finished up with the WWF in 1989, not long after the Royal Rumble. He exited with a loss to the Blue Blazer on March 19 of that year in Denver, Colorado. (There was a Brutus Beefcake/Ron Bass match that aired on a July 1989 episode of Prime Time Wrestling, but it’s not clear from available records when that was taped.) Bass wrapped his career with a DQ loss to Bushwhacker Luke on February 23, 2013 in Walsrode, Germany for the German Wrestling Alliance.

15. A guy who always seemed out of place in the WWF is Ron Garvin. Miss Atlanta Lively last wrestled for the WWF on November 4, 1990 in Daytona Beach, Florida, grabbing a victory against “Playboy” Buddy Rose. Garvin last popped into the ring on September 20, 2014 in Farmville, Virginia (the second time we’ve seen that small town in this column) for the Bruiser Wrestling Federation. The match saw him team with Iron Cross to beat Dustin Daniels and The Sunworshipper #1. I’m not making that last name up.

16. There was plenty of struttin’ and cuttin’ in the WWF for Brutus “The Barber” Beefcake until August 6, 1993, when he had his last match for the company on a European tour. Specifically, he defeated Terry Taylor in South Yorkshire, England. The last time he set foot in the ring was at the 2015 Wrestlecade convention on November 28, where he was part of a battle royale to crown a number one contender for the main championship of indy group “America’s Most Liked Wrestling.” I swear that is the name. Ultimately, Ethan Carter III won that battle royale.

17. A man of many gimmicks, Barry Darsow was Demolition Smash at the time of the 1989 Royal Rumble. He last wrestled in WWE on December 10, 2007 on Monday Night Raw in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was in his Repo Man persona for that match, which was a battle royale celebrating the 15th anniversary of Monday Night Raw (a few weeks early). He was Smash again for his very last match, which occurred on March 18, 2017 for the North Carolina Wrestling Association in Clayton, NC. In a legends six man, Bobby Fulton and the Rock n’ Roll Express beat George South and Demolition (Ax and Smash).

18. Even though he had health issues that caused the WWF to bring in Crush as part of Demolition in 1990, the in-ring career of Bill “Ax” Eadie lasted longer than that of his younger partner Smash. The Axer’s last WWF match was at the 1990 Survivor Series, where all three members of Demolition and Mr. Perfect lost to the Ultimate Warrior, Kerry Von Erich, and the Road Warriors. That being said, Ax didn’t actually hang up his boots until 2017, when he wrestled on August 12 in Canton, Georgia for Georgia Premier Wrestling, teaming with Torque and QT Marshall to defeat Brandon Collins, Cyrus the Destroyer, and Gil Quest.

19. Marty Jannetty last wrestled for WWE on October 19, 2009 when he was brought in for a one-off bout against Mike the Miz on Monday Night Raw in Jacksonville, Florida. Believe it or not, Party Marty lost that one. His final career match was nine years later on June 16, 2018 in Harrison, Ohio, on a show promoted by a group called Battle on the Border. Only partial results appear to be available for the bout, which was an eight-man Survivor Series style affair. Jannetty’s team won, defeating a crew captained by indy wrestler Eddie Gonzales.

20. If you want to talk about the mighty falling, look no further than Jake “The Snake” Roberts who participated in some of the WWF’s most memorable angles but then had his last match in the company on March 1, 1997 in Alexandria, Louisiana, where his opponent was, of all people, the Goon. Even more obscure than the Goon is Roberts’ last career opponent, a guy called IamThePROVIDER, which reads more like a YouTube handle than a ring name. Jake beat PROVIDER on September 2, 2018 in Eagle, Colorado for Bad Boys of Wrestling.

21. Shawn Michaels is the only person on this list whose last WWE match is also his last match overall, and it’s a pretty infamous one too. Of course, it came on the 2018 Crown Jewel pay per view in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where he and Triple H defeated Kane and the Undertaker.

22. Ted DiBiase is up. His last WWE match is actually the same Monday Night Raw battle royale on December 10, 2007 that we looked at in connection with Demolition Smash. DiBiase was the winner of that bout, too. His last overall match was also a battle royale which he also won (probably because he could not be safely thrown out of the ring for an elimination), occurring on May 31, 2019 for Adrenaline Championship Wrestling in Halethorpe, Maryland.

23. A man who had a very prolific indy career after his run in the big leagues, thanks to a gimmick that allowed him to wrestle very easy matches, was the Honky Tonk Man. His final time in a WWE ring was at the 2008 Cyber Sunday pay per view in Phoenix, Arizona, where fans chose Honky, the greatest Intercontinental Champion of all time, to receive a shot at that title against then-champion Santino Marella. HTM won by DQ. He kept wrestling for a decade after that, last competing on November 3, 2019 in a battle royale for WildKat Pro Wrestling in Kenner, Louisiana.

24. I have a hard time believing this, but Greg Valentine‘s last WWF match was on October 17, 2005, when he lost to Rob Conway via disqualification on an episode of Sunday Night Heat taped in Sacramento, California. On November 15, 2019, the Hammer’s last career match took place in Franklin, New Jersey at the local elementary school gym for East Coast Pro Wrestling. He teamed with Andrew Anderson in a winning effort against Pete Nixon and The Executioner, who I doubt was one of the WWWF Executioners.

25. On November 5, 1989, Tully Blanchard last wrestled in the WWF, losing in a shot at the Tag Team Titles with partner Arn Anderson against Demolition in Waukegan, Illinois. The former Brainbuster last set foot in the ring on March 3, 2021 at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida for AEW where he, manager for FTR at the time, teamed with his men in a six man tag against “Jungle” Jack Perry, Luchasaurus, and Marko Stunt.

26. Arriba! Let’s talk Tito Santana. El Matador last wrestled in the WWF on August 13, 1993, picking up a win against Damien Demento in Wildwood, New Jersey. Tito’s real final match was on November 25, 2022 in East Burwood, Australia, where he traveled to win a match against a wrestler whose ring name was literally just “This Guy.”

27. Now it’s time to do the bird with Koko Ware! Like Greg Valentine, his last match in the WWF/WWE was against Rob Conway. It took place on October 24, 2025, the week after the Valentine match, from Fresno, California and also aired on Sunday Night Heat. As far as non-WWE matches go, Koko’s last bout was actually on October 11, 2025. Yes, within six months of when I am writing this column. He was in a battle royale for DREAMWAVE wrestling in Peru, Illinois, which was won by female wrestler B3CCA. (Side note: As of this writing, Cagematch lists a singles match for Koko on October 17, 2025, but on further research that was actually indy wrestler Deon Johnson, who was doing a version of the masked Stagger Lee gimmick that Koko used on and off throughout his career.)

28. Believe it or not, Koko is not the wrestler from the 1989 Royal Rumble who has had a match most recently. Eight days after Koko’s last match, The Warlord wrestled on October 25, 2025, teaming with his old partner the Barbarian as the Powers of Pain to beat the four-man team of Larry Legend, Myron Malone, Robby Illuminati, and Ruckus in a handicap match. This was for Battleground Championship Wrestling in Philadelphia. Oh, and the Warlord’s last WWF match was a loss to Virgil on April 18, 1992 in Birmingham, England.

29. Even the Warlord is edged out by Bushwhacker Luke. Luke’s last WWF match was the same as that of his partner Butch, which we looked at a bit down the list. However, Luke’s last career match overall came on November 29, 2025, when he was in a battle royale that occurred as part of the Wrestlecade event in Wiston-Salem, North Carolina. Ultimately, that match was won by JBL. This was actually Luke’s THIRD match of 2025, making him, at age 79, a more active wrestler than several members of the AEW roster.

30. Guess who beats Luke by just a week? It’s The Barbarian. Barbie’s final WWF bout was on June 22, 1995 under the name Sionne as part of the Headshrinkers, teaming with Fatu in a loss to Men on a Mission at Royal Albert Hall in London. On December 6, 2025, he wrestled for Universal Championship Wrestling in Anderson, South Carolina, teaming up with Josef Von Schmidt and picking up a win against Conner Drake and Luke Fury.

And there you have it. By Matt’s criteria, the Barbarian is the “ultimate winner” of the 1989 Royal Rumble match, though with four of the competitors all having matches in 2025 and it now being February 2026, I don’t know that I would consider this contest to be over just yet.

We’ll return in seven-ish days, and, as always, you can contribute your questions by emailing [email protected]. You can also leave questions in the comments below, but please note that I do not monitor the comments as closely as I do the email account, so emailing is the better way to get things answered.