Dark Pegasus Video Review: Batle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall

Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall by J.D. Dunn October 3, 1991 Live from London, England. Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan. The Nasty Boys (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Rockers. The Rockers were about two months away from dissolving at this point, and the Nasties were in between their peak as tag champs and turning face, so both teams are just treading water at this point. Thankfully, the hot crowd seems to energize them. The Nasties stall for a *long* time before the Rockers’ doubleteams kick in. Shawn baits the Nasties into chasing him, and then Janetty comes off the top with a crossbody on both Nasties. The Rockers do a lot of cheating to the delight of the crowd, but Knobbs yanks down the ropes spilling Shawn to the floor. Shawn plays face-in-peril for a while, which doesn’t get too boring because he bumps around like a rag doll. At one point, he dives into the tag, but the ref is tied up with Saggs. Well, they really deserved that one, considering all the cheating they did early. Finally, Marty gets the hot tag and cleans house. Shawn press slams Marty on top of Saggs, but Jimmy Hart jumps up on the apron, distracts the ref, and tosses the megaphone to Knobbs. Knobbs knocks out Marty for the win at 17:21. Much better than their work at the Survivor Series later in the year. **3/4 Ric Flair vs. Tito Santana. This was pre-Matador for Santana. This has the potential for greatness because Tito is probably the second greatest babyface wrestler behind Ricky Steamboat., and we all know what Flair is capable of with Steamboat. Flair takes a few shots early and ducks to the floor for a breather. Back in, Santana sunset flips Flair for two. Tito starts working Flair’s hamstring in between slugging him right in the face. Finally, Flair hits an atomic drop to come back. Flair gets a few nearfalls with his feet on the ropes and picks a fight with the front row. Tito clotheslines him off the Flair Flip and suplexes him back in the ring. Flair begs off but gets backslid for two. Flair goes to the eyes and locks in the figure-four. The fans go crazy as Flair uses the ropes behind the ref’s back. Tito fights against the pain and turns it over. An uppercut sends Flair tumbling over the top. To the floor, Flair goes to the eyes and tosses Tito back in. Flair goes up but (you guessed it) gets slammed off. ONE, TWO, THRE-NO! Tito fires back and hits the FLYING ELBOW! ONE, TWO, THRE-foot on the rope. Tito tries an O’Connor Roll, but Flair reverses with a handful of tights at 16:15. Wow! For just a second, they even had me believing that Tito could win. This felt like one of those epic NWA main events between Flair and Steamboat, but it had more of an even keel pace instead of the rollercoaster ride of those matches. ***3/4 The Big Bossman vs. Earthquake (w/Jimmy Hart). Apparently, the British named their policemen after Bobby Heenan. Bossman had outlived his usefulness, having failed to wrest the Intercontinental Title from Mr. Perfect, so he decided to rip through Jimmy Hart’s guys (who were always the heel B-Team when compared to Heenan’s guys). Bossman tries to wrestle, using a headlock early. Quake overpowers him and hits a powerslam. He refuses to pin him, though, opting instead to “methodically” knock him around for a while, including a horrible bear hug. He knocks Bossman to the floor and won’t let him back in. Bossman fires back but gets avalanched in the corner. He comes back for real with an enzuigiri for two. Hart interferes again, but Earthquake accidentally knocks him off the apron. The Mountie, who had been feuding with Bossman through the Summer comes down and trips Bossman up, allowing Quake to drop an elbow for the win at 15:47. Who on earth decided to give this as much time as Flair vs. Tito?! Bossman was game, but Earthquake’s offense made this a chore to watch. 1/2* The Mountie (w/Jimmy Hart) vs. The Texas Tornado. Odd moment as Von Erich backs Mountie into the ropes and tries to take a cheapshot, but Mountie blocks and punches him back. Normally, it’s the babyface doing that to the heel, not the other way around. Mountie stalls *forever*! Seriously, for like five minutes, he just walks around the ring and complains. Finally, he gets back in and picks things up with a…sleeper hold. The only fun is Gorilla thinking it’s a chokehold and Heenan explaining that it’s legal because he’s a Mountie. Of course, Tornado reverses to his own sleeper, and Heenan screams, “It’s a choke!” Tornado goes right into the post as Gorilla gets bored and wonders if Brain will go get him some fish ‘n’ chips. To the floor, Tornado misses a Discus Punch and hits the post. Back in, he tries a monkey flip, but Mountie blocks and puts his feet on the ropes for the win at 13:16. Mountie was such a boring wrestler during his singles run. * The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer) vs. Jim Duggan. Taker actually gets a live organist in a Phantom of the Opera mask to play him down. It’s no Motorhead, but it’ll work. Taker gets knocked to the floor early and seeks some power from the urn. Duggan tries to pull him in but gets his neck snapped on the top rope. Long, boring match with Taker trying to smother Duggan throughout. Duggan finally gets bored and hits him with the 2×4 at 6:19. Taker no-sells, so Duggan clotheslines him over the top with it. Taker still doesn’t sell and just walks out. 1/2* Roddy Piper interview. He either calls Ric Flair a “feather-wearin’ faggot freak” or a “feather-wearin’ fucking freak.” Either way, it gets bleeped. Since it this is the British broadcast, I don’t know if they care about the word “faggot” in that context, so I’ll assume it’s “fucking.” Gene Okerlund apparently caught a case of Piper’s Potty Mouth because he says Jimmy Hart has a “lot of balls” before catching himself and saying “nerve.” Power & Glory grace us with an interview. WWF Tag Team Titles: The Legion of Doom vs. Power & Glory. Hercules and Roma had a weird quasi-homosexual vibe going on where it wasn’t over-the-top enough to be overt, but I think it gets heat on a subconscious level. There’s your Freudian wrestling interpretation of the day. They fare much better here than they did at WrestleMania VII. Hawk plays face-in-peril until he no-sells a Roma piledriver and tosses him into Hercules. His flying clothesline misses, though, and he tumbles to the floor. Animal gets the hot tag and finishes Roma by catching him on a crossbody attempt and powerslamming him at 9:09. ** The British Bulldog vs. The Barbarian. Obviously, the Bulldog is over huge here. He works Barbarian’s arm in between power moves. Barbarian boots him to the floor, though. Barbarian drops him on his head with a piledriver, but it only gets two. They brawl to the floor where Barbarian misses a clothesline and posts his own shoulder. Back in, Davey gets two off a clothesline and two more off a suplex. The powerslam finishes at 10:09. Can’t argue with the clean finish here, but I would have had something happen to DBS to generate suspense for the Battle Royal. * Battle Royal This is for the vaunted Samivar (sp?) Trophy, which, according to Lord Alfred Hayes, is a Russian pot made of solid silver. We get individual intros for *everyone*. The Rockers, the Nasties, Barbarian, Power & Glory, Ric Flair, Tito Santana, the Big Bossman, Earthquake, Typhoon, Jim Duggan, the Legion of Doom, the Texas Tornado, the Mountie, the Undertaker, Roddy Piper and Davey Boy Smith are your participants. Piper makes a beeline for Flair, and WE’RE UNDERWAY! Piper chases him to the floor and strangles him with a camera cord. Quake gets Bossman on the ropes, and Typhoon, ever the great partner, decides not to help Quake and wanders around instead. Bossman slips back in. Hercules and Texas Tornado get tossed. Piper pushes Knobbs out with a hilarious fingerpoke. Marty Janetty gets tossed. Tito sends Barbarian out but gets eliminated by Earthquake. Quake and Flair team up against Piper. Saggs backdrops Hawk over but gets knocked out by Animal. Shawn gets sent out trying to skin the cat. Animal press slams Flair, but it’s in the ring. Well, they can’t have Davey Boy acting that stupid in his own country. Earthquake eliminates Duggan, so Duggan hits him with his 2×4 to send him out. That’s one of those “we decided to allow that this time.” Piper backdrops Flair to the floor. Paul Roma goes. Animal charges at Undertaker and gets backdropped. Piper backdrops the Undertaker over, so Taker yanks him out by the hair. That leaves Bossman, Mountie, Typhoon and Davey as your final four. Bossman slides to the floor and pastes Jimmy Hart, but Mountie lowbridges the ropes, and Bossman tumbles to the floor. That leaves Davey alone in a 2-on-1 because the heels are both Jimmy Hart boys. They opt for the Dibiase/Akeem strategy that worked *so well* in the 1990 Royal Rumble. Typhoon accidentally crushes Mountie. They try doubleteaming again, and Typhoon accidentally clotheslines Mountie to the floor. The announce crew is hilarious with Heenan rooting on Typhoon and Lord Alfred Hayes screaming advice to Davey Boy. Davey dips his shoulder and backdrops Typhoon to the floor at 15:40. The Natural Disasters try to squash Davey Boy, but Andre the Giant limps down (Earthquake broke his leg) and chases them off. About what you’d expect from a Battle Royal, but I liked the stuff with Flair & Piper. **

The 411: This is a good example of a B-show with mostly B-list talent (yes, Flair was at *this* point in his WWF career). The first two matches are good, but then the 1991 talent pool kicks in and it's all downhill. The atmosphere is great, though. The Royal Albert Hall is an excellent venue, kind of like the Manhattan Center is in the States. I can't recommend it for the wrestling (although Tito vs. Flair is a keeper), but it's mildly diverting. Very mild thumbs up for The Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall

Final Score:  6.0   [ Average ]