wrestling / Video Reviews
Leighty’s Retro Review: WWF Royal Rumble ’94
Image Credit: WWE
Loading...-Written: 11.28.25
-Source: Peacock
-Run-Time: 2:42:05
-We start the WWF side of 1994 and we have two favorites for The Royal Rumble. I assume they have a brilliant plan to figure this one out. Away we go!
-Announce Team: Vince McMahon and Ted Dibiase
-Jan. 22, 1995
-Providence Civic Center, Providence, RI
-Attendance: 145000
-PPV Buys: 200,000
Tatanka vs. Bam Bam Bigelow (w/ Luna Vachon)
-Bigelow tries a splash before the bell, but Tatanka avoids and they start trading blows. Tatanka with a cross-body for two and then he goes to work on the arm. Bigelow goes to the eyes to escape, but gets caught with a single arm DDT. Tatanka misses a splash off the top as Bigelow drops low. Bigelow with a whip to the corner and this time he is able to hit the splash. Vince notes both men will be in The Rumble later. Tatanka blocks a charge by getting a boot up. He comes off the top and tries a sunset flip, but Bammer just drops down and squashes him. Tatanka tries to fight back but an enziguri stops that comeback. Hearing Dibiase on commentary is different. He did one show for WCW as well and it was also a Jan PPV (Souled Out). Bigelow hooks a bear hug and the crowd is staying with them. Ted throws out the idea that Tatanka should just give up and save himself for the Rumble. He kind of has a point as that match is for a WWF Title Match at Mania. Tatanka starts to fade, but fires up and breaks with chops. He makes the mistake of running at Bigelow and gets knocked down with a shoulder. Bigelow charges and Tatanka catches him with a nice power slam for two. They each go for a cross-body and collide in mid-air. Bigelow up first and he throws some strikes, but Tatanka starts to War Path up. Bigelow cuts it off with another enziguiri and mocks Tatanka to a big pop from the crowd. Funny! Bigelow all the way up but the moonsault misses. Tatanka heads up and this time the cross-body connects for the pin at 8:12.
Winner: Tatanka via pin at 8:12
-Good opener as it was energetic and had the crowd going. The reaction to Bigelow was interesting. ***
-Video recap of the issues between Owen Hart and Bret Hart. Owen wants a match against Bret, but he refuses and they reconcile and put their focus on the Tag Titles. Owen’s promo where he is happy but takes small digs at Bret is hilarious. “Hitch yourself to The Rocket and we are going to the top.”
-More video as we see Marty and the 1-2-3 Kid win The Tag Titles from The Quebecers, but they lost them back at MSG only a week later.
-Todd is backstage with The Harts and Owen is again, so great at his over the top excitement as he is just so darn happy to have a chance to win Bret the Tag Titles.
WWF Tag Team Titles: The Quebecers (c) (w/ Johnny Polo) vs. Bret and Owen Hart
-JOHNNY POLO RULES! We start with Bret and Pierre and they lock up. Nothing doing, so they go again. Bret off the ropes and tries a roll-up, but Pierre blocks and gets a slam. Bret buries a knee to the abs and brings on Owen, who comes off the top with a double axe. Pierre runs Owen with a shoulder, but gets caught with a hip toss. Owen goes to the arm, but Pierre escapes and tags in Jacques. He tries to play to Owen’s ego and how he is better than Bret. Owen doesn’t fall for it and hits a dropkick. Jacques scurries to his corner and hugs Pierre. Jacques catches Owen’s foot and taunts him, but Owen lands an enziguiri. Bret in and he gets a two count and then a small package for another two count. Sunset flip gets two. Roll-up gets two as Pierre breaks up that one. All four men in the ring and The Harts avoid being tossed into each other as Owen hits a spear for two. The Quebecers bails to the floor to regroup for Polo. Jacques back in and Bret fires off right hands. He brings Pierre into the match and sends him face first into Owen’s boot. Owen in off the tag and he hits a leaping clothesline for two. Snap suplex gets two! Owen drops a leg and that gets two. I dig Bret and Owen going for the pin at every turn. Bret back in and ducks a clothesline, but gets caught with a powerslam. Pierre uses the tag rope to choke as Jacques taunts Owen. The kids in the crowd are rather annoyed by that. We get a “go Bret go,” chant. Owen tries to run in to help, but that just takes the ref away and lets the Quebecers cheat. Bret blocks a move and crawls to make the hot tag to Owen. He runs wild with dropkicks. Backdrop to Jacques and an overhead throw to Pierre. He continues with a spinning heel kick and he goes for The Sharpshooter, but Pierre decks him from behind as the ref was getting Bret back to his corner. Nasty looking double stun-gun from The Qubecers. That looked great and painful at the same time. Owen ducks a double clothesline and hits a double dropkick. Hot Tag to Bret and he gets to run wild. Dropkick to Jacques and a Side Russian Leg Sweep to Pierre. Back breaker and he runs The Quebecers into each other. An atomic drops sends Pierrer to the floor. Bret spills over the top as Polo pulled the rope down and he damaged his knee. Pierre sends Bret knee first into the railing and Owen makes the mistake of running in and taking the ref away as The Quebecers go after the knee. Another shot into the railing and Bret is selling the crap out of the knee damage. Owen goes out to protect his brother, but Pierre pulls him away which lets Jacques go after the knee. Owen runs Pierre into the steps, but the damage has been done. Jacques stomps the knee and Pierre in to go after the knee as well. The crowd is begging Bret to get a tag. Half Crab from Jacques, but Owen runs in and boots him in the face. Pierre off the top and Bret is ou! Quick tags by the Champs as they continue to destroy the knee. Top Rope Cannonball misses and Bret goes for a Sharpshooter instead of making a tag. He gets the hold from the mat but the knee can’t take it and he collapses. The ref waves off the match at 16:48.
Winners and Still WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers via ref stoppage at 16:48
-The Fink make sure to note there was no submission and instead it was a ref’s stoppage. Fun match with a good story that Dibiase was hammering home repeatedly. The ref stoppage finish was kind of weird, but they needed it for the story and a Quebecer wasn’t getting a pin on Bret. ***1/2
-Bret struggles to his feet and Owen yells at him. The crowd lets Owen know that he sucks, so he kicks Bret in the knee and now the crowd is really pissed. Dibiase’s cackle makes the moment even better. Owen celebrates on the ropes and again, this crowd hates him. Owen tells the camera that all Bret had to do was tag him, but he was selfish. “Why didn’t he just tag me. He’s too damn selfish.” I mean, he has a point there! He even noted Bret had a bad leg and should have just tagged him.
-They try to get word on Bret’s condition, but Pat Patterson just notes he is hurt.
-Todd is backstage and Owen cuts the money promo about Bret being selfish and not wanting to tag him because he is too selfish. We get a great shot of Bret, in pain, being wheeled away on a stretcher as he watches Owen’s comments on the video board. Outside of the famous “leg” flub, this was a great strong from Owen.
WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon (c) vs. IRS
-Gorilla Monsoon and Jim Ross get to handle commentary duties for this one. I was kind of looking forward to Dibiase calling a match with his former Championship tag partner. IRS immediately starts stalling which leads to Irwin chants. Oh yeah, there was a story to this one as IRS had stolen the gold chains that Razor wore around his neck and the announcers assume it’s in IRS’ briefcase. Razor is rocking the Carolina Blue tights and pads this week. Funny how in my mind he is always in the black or red ones. Razor with a side headlock but gets shoved off. He runs Irwin down with a shoulder and then hits an atomic drop for two. IRS uses leverage to side step a charging Razor and propels him over the top and to the floor. He runs Razor into the steps/post and drops him with a clothesline. Back in the ring IRS heads up top and something seems off as Razor gets a foot up to block, but IRS just ignores and opts to drop an elbow after landing for two. I guess they can sell it as IRS saw the boot coming and avoided, but it just looked wonky. Loud “Irwin” chant! Razor gets one comeback cut off as IRS gets a leg drop for two. He hooks a reverse chinlock and at least makes sure to be in a position where he can use the ropes for leverage. Good on the crowd for staying with them, but this chinlock has gone on longer than needed. Razor finally fights to his feet and hits The SOS Slam for two. Ross works in a football reference as he notes this is the kind of heat Joe Montana will feel against The Bills tomorrow. Oh yeah, AFC Championship Game where Buffalo beat KC to get to their 4th straight Super Bowl. That means I was a sad boy as my Niners lost later in the day at Dalls for a second straight season in the NFC Title Game. My Niners would get their revenge the next season. The ref gets wiped out and IRS tries to use the briefcase, but Razor avoids and uses it himself. No ref to count though. Razor hits a belly-to-back suplex from the top, but again, no ref. Razor’s Edge, but Shawn Michaels is out and he blasts Razor with his IC Title. All three men are out in the ring for a good bit. IRS stirs first and crawls over to get a pin at 10:40. We have a New Intercontinental Champion and this crowd is heated. Hebnar is out to tell the original ref what happened, but that’s kind of a dick move to Irwin. Razor hits The Razor Edge on a celebrating IRS and gets the pin at
Winner and Still WWF Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon via pin at 11:41
-IRS was screwed there as he didn’t do anything wrong. Where was the ref when Razor uses the briefcase? Why was there no announcement that the match would continue. Instead poor Irwin was just celebrating with his newly won Championship on the ropes and Razor hit him with a Razor’s Edge for the pin. Match was okay, but that Hebnar really screwed Irwin over there and I doubt he will ever do something like that again. **1/4
-We get clips from the various videos of Taker building a casket for Yokozuna, who is just a little freaked out. Taker pops out of the casket to send Yoko running.
WWF Championship: Casket Match: Yokozuna (c) (w/ Mr. Fuji and Jim Cornette) vs. The Undertaker (w/ Paul Bearer)
-They come face-to-face to start and Yoko backs off first. He charges and Taker runs him into the corner. He lands a clothesline and another and then a leaping one knocks Yoko off his feet. A thrust to the throat sends him to the floor and Yoko staggers into the post. Taker follow and Yoko sends him into the stairs, but he no sells that and runs Yoko into the steps. Back in the ring Taker goes Still in School, but misses a round house and spills to the floor. Yoko out after him and tries to use a chair, but Taker blocks. He cracks Yoko in the back with it and then a shot to the head. Taker pushes the time keeper away and grabs his chair (one of those plastic ones you see in schools) and hits Yoko with that. They have been using chairs like that in WCW as well. Yoko grabs salt out of his bucket and throws that in Taker’s face. Taker gets sent into the steps and Yoko cracks him with a chair. A second one is pretty sick as it rocked Taker in the back of the head. Yoko rams Taker’s head off the steps a few times as this has been a solid fight. Back in the ring Yoko hits a running clothesline as the crowd starts a USA chant. Yoko pushes Taker into the casket but the lid can’t close and Taker grabs Yoko by the ankle. They start trading blows back in the ring and Taker wins this exchange. Yoko goes back to wrestling and hits a belly-to-belly, but Taker sits up and hits a chokeslam. DDT from Taker as this has been a rather good 6 minute brawl. Yoko gets rolled into the casket, but Taker can’t slam the lid as Crush rushes out and attacks. He throws body blows but misses a clothesline. Taker decks him and a thrust to the throat sends him to the floor. Kabuki is out next and here’s Tenryu. Taker hits a double clothesline as he fights both of them. Bigelow in next and Crush is back in the ring. It’s a four on one beating as Yoko is still out cold in the casket from a DDT. Fuji has possession of the urn which has Bearer freaking out. Yoko finally wakes up. Bearer kicks Fuji and regains control of the urn, so Taker starts fighting four men off at once. Adam Bomb is the fifth man in and Taker starts beating people with the salt bucket. Jeff Jarrett is 6 and he comes off top, but gets punched on the way down. Salt Bucket shots for everyone! Samu and Fatu are out to help the Bloodline and that gives us 8 on 1 (9 since Yoko is back in the ring). Taker sits up again and is back on his feet. Diesel is the 9th person to run in and 10th personal overall. Taker gets rolled into the casket but fights out again to pop the crowd. Yokozuna decks Paul and takes control of the urn, so Taker is toast now. Green smoke starts pouring out of the urn. Crush with a suplex as Vince talks about the power of the urn escaping. Jarrett drops an elbow from the middle ropes. Diesel with an elbow to the back. Bigelow with the top rope headbutt. Samu off the top with a splash. Fatu with a splash off the top. I mean, Taker did have teammates just a few month ago at Survivor Series. Nobody wants to help? Taker is limp and gets rolled into the casket and the lid is shut to end this one at 14:24.
Winner and Still WWF Champion: Yokozuna via casket closure at 14:24
-That six minutes before all the run ins was rather good and I kind of wanted to see what else they could have done. The ending was crazy, but it was no disqualification and we had a smart heel who took advantage. The stuff after the match shouldn’t affect the rating of the actual match in my opinion. **
-Now to that stuff after the match. The heels wheel the casket up in the aisle in celebration, but the green smoke starts to come out of the casket now. Taker (live from inside the casket) shows up on the video board and gets poetic on us. “Be not proud. The spirit of The Undertaker lives within the soul of all Mankind. The eternal flame of life that can not be extinguished. The origin of which can not be explained. The answer lies in the everlasting spirit. Soon all mankind will witness the rebirth of The Undertaker. For I will not rest in peace.” The screen then goes to black and white x-ray feel and “Taker” ascends from the video board up to the heavens. You know what, we’ve actually seen hokier and more absurd things in wrestling since this. I found all the mentions of Mankind interesting knowing what was coming a few years later. Paul Bearer has the urn back and that would set up something even sillier later in the summer.
-We get a run of guys cutting a brief promo about winning The Royal Rumble Match. These were always fun!
30 Man Royal Rumble Match
-Winner gets a WWF Title Match at WrestleMania X. The story is Luger had it in his contract against Yoko at SummerSlam that it was his only chance at Yoko’s WWF Title. This would be the loophole to get around that. We also have the question of if Bret Hart will be in the Rumble after the knee injury and attack by Owen. The Fink goes over all the rules and what’s at stake. Scott Steiner is out at #1 and Samu is #2 as The Steiners/Bloodline just can’t get away from each other. Vince lets us know this year it is 90 second intervals thanks to a ruling by Jack Tunney. Samu beats Scott down in the corner, but Scott rebounds out of the corner with a clothesline. Butterfly suplex! He tries to lift Samu out, but he hangs onto the ropes. Nasty clothesline from Samu! That was sweet! The countdown is on and Rick Steiner is #3. Rick in and he saves his brother, who was teetering on the ropes. Rick with a belly-to-belly suplex. Scott with a snap suplex as they take turns beating on Samu. Steiner-line from Rick! The timer is about 98 seconds as Kwang is our fourth entrant. Samu was eliminated in picture-in-picture at 3:10. Kwang with The Green Mist to Rick Steiner and that’s one way to eliminate any double teams. Scott with suplex after suplex in between trying to help Rick. Owen Hart is #5 and the crowd is not happy to see him. He goes after a blinded Rick, who is swinging wildly. Kwang fires off kicks to Scott in one corner with Owen trying to toss Rick in the other. Rick gets tossed at 5:48 by Owen. Bart Gunn is #6 and he saves Scott from being eliminated. Scott with an inverted atomic drop on Kwang. More laying on the ropes to tease eliminations. Vince has been told something has happened in the back and believes a camera is heading back there to find out what’s happening. While we wait, Diesel is #7 and this would be a rather famous sequence. Diesel wrecks shop immediately and tosses Bart at 8:55. Scott is next at 9:01. Owen is gone at 9:09 to a big pop. KWANG misses a spinning heel kick and is clotheslined out at 9:22. Bob Backlund is #8 and I wonder if these two will ever have any history together? He nearly gets Diesel out, but the big man goes to the eyes to stop that noise. Back is tossed as I missed the time. The crowd starts a Diesel chant. You mean booking a monster to dominate gets them over? Shocking! Billy Gunn is #9 and is gone only a few seconds later as the Diesel run continues. Virgil is #10 and it’s not nWo 4 Life yet, so he gets destroyed. Virgil is apparently an alternate for Kamala. We also saw the backstage incident as Luger was taken out by The Great Kabuki and others trying to collect a bounty. Virgil gets bounced at 13:17. More “Diesel” chants! Randy Savage is 11 and that is a step above for Diesel. Also another future nWo member! Savage ducks a clothesline and goes crazy with right hands. He runs Diesel into the corner and hits a clothesline. He nearly gets Diesel out as Jeff Jarrett is 12 and he saves. That makes another future nWo member. I wonder what Rumble ended up having the most members? Jarrett off the middle ropes with a knee and he hits a nice dropkick. Jarrett struts and I would have laughed if Diesel tossed him in mid strut! Jarrett off the top to Savage and another strut. Savage is tossed but pulls a Ricky Steamboat and skins the cat. Cool! Jarrett gets run into Diesel and is tossed at 17:15. Crush is #13 and it’s on sight with him and Randy. Double axe off the top to Crush! Slam! Back up top and another double axe. Oh, Adams is another future nWo member. The numbers catch up to Savage and Crush hits a backbreaker followed by an elbow from Diesel. Doink is #14 and that stops the run of nWo guys. Savage gets tossed at 19:12 by Crush in a rather anti-climactic end to his final Rumble. Diesel laughs at Crush and Diesel fighting. They turn their attention to him and he uses the water from his flower to blind both men. It doesn’t last as they team up and hit a double clothesline. Bam Bam Bigelow is 15 and if this was ECW we would be getting a “Kill The Clown” Chant. Diesel and Crush open the ropes and watch as Bammer destroys Doink. He Gorilla Press Slams him to the floor at 21:14. Crush and Diesel then immediately go after Bigelow. Crush then turns on Diesel and everyone starts hitting everyone else. Cool! Mabel is #16 and try explaining to someone in the crowd that Mabel vs. Diesel would be headlining SummerSlam in 19 months. Mabel is no future nWo member at least. Cough! Mabel splashes all the heels in the corner. Spraky Plug is #17 as he is taking The 1-2-3 Kid’s spot. Crush is nearly out, but slides under the rope and back into the ring. Just some laying on the ropes with punches being thrown as Shawn Michaels is #18 and technically, yes, he is a future member of the nWo. Shawn backs away from Diesel and tells the big man to take it easy. They shake hands and everyone gangs up on Diesel and tosses him at 26:00. Shawn certainly didn’t help and Vince notes he offered a push at the end. Diesel gets a great reaction from the crowd on his way back up the ramp. One more Diesel chant and I assume Vince was seeing dollar signs (small ones as it turns out). Mo is #19 as we get Shawn bouncing all over the ring to tease being eliminated. He skins the cat back into the ring. Mabel drops a leg to the back of Bammer’s head. Shawn actually tries to slam Mabel and that goes as you would expect. Greg Valentine is #20 after having a run in WCW. We have certainly hit a lull now that Diesel’s run is over and Macho is gone. MOM team up on Bammer in the corner. We roll along with Tatanka at #21. Shawn takes Gorilla Press Slam, but not to the floor. Bammer just showed everyone what to do when he tossed Doink. Shawn continues to find ways to tease being tossed but making sure he hangs on and stays in the match. The Great Kabuki is #22 and until this show, I forgot he was in the WWF. Dibiase notes Kabuki is not here to win The Rumble as he was paid to make sure Luger doesn’t win. Mabel out at 32:34 as it took a group effort. Lex Luger is 23 and the crowd pops. Lets clear some dead wood please! Kabuki gone at 33:38! Oh, and yeah, another future nWo member. Luger lays the boots into Crush and then pounds away on Mo. Clothesline from Luger to Bigelow. Tenryu is 24 as Vince notes he will team up with Kabuki and Crush to take out Luger. Vince then realizes Kabuki has already been tossed. Tenryu does go right after Luger and hits a LOUD chop in the corner. Not much happening so 25 is up next and nobody shows. Vince assumes that was Bret’s spot. Again, nothing of note happens. Rick Martel is 26. Tatanka and Luger trade blows in the middle of the ring to give us something of note happening. Just way too many people in the ring at the moment. Bret Hart hobbles out to a big pop and he is 27. Another future nWo member just to keep the tally going. Crush chokes Bret in one corner and Shawn is upside teasing an elimination in another. Fatu is 28 as we really need to start getting bodies out of the ring. Fatu works over Luger and it’s just a bunch of punching and laying on the ropes. We finally get an elimination as Crush is gone at 42:40. Marty Jannetty is 29 and he goes right after Shawn. The place explodes as they fire off punches at each other. Shawn misses a superkick, but mart hits his. Shawn over the top but back in under the ropes. Shawn with a backdrop to Marty. Adam Bomb is 30 and Vince is sure he is going to win The Royal Rumble. We learn that Bastian Booger was #25 and got sick from eating too much, so he didn’t show. Okay then! I liked it better when Savage didn’t show because he pissed off Warrior so much, he left the arena to avoid dealing with him. Sparky is gone at 46:00 or so. I think we have about a dozen people in the ring so that means 13 at one point. Way too many! Just waiting for some eliminations as I don’t know what else to describe. Vince feels this is the most grueling Rumble of all time. Shawn goes to work on Bret’s knee which is at least interesting. Shawn gets sent shoulder first into the post. Hammer gets dumped by Martel at 49:15. Martel gets tossed by Tatanka at 49:38. Bomb misses a clothesline and is gone at 49:52. Mo is done at 49:55! Tatanka gone at 50:16! It’s just rapid fire elimination time now. Marty with a clothesline on Shawn. We are down to seven! Bigelow misses a charge in the corner and ends up on the apron. Luger punches him off at 51:08. Tenryu runs Shawn into Fatu and that has Shawn taking a back flip bump while Fatu just stares at him. That’s kind of funny! We lost someone off camera and I didn’t want to go back and find out. I’ll check later. Tenryu is tossed by Bret and Lex at 52:34. That gives us a Final Four of Shawn, Bret, Luger, and Fatu! Bret and Shawn go at it and tease eliminations while Luger eats a superkick from Fatu. He drops a head-butt from the second rope onto Luger. Shawn and Fatu team up to put Luger on the apron, but he fights his way back into the ring. Running clothesline to Fatu who does the 360 sell. Fatu and Shawn get backdropped out within seconds of eahc other at 54:49 and 54:50. Bret and Luger got at it and fall over the top to the floor together at 55:08.
-The two ref’s disagree as to who won as they were out of position. Luger’s music plays so guess he is the winner and you can hear the boos over the people cheering.
-Fink tries again and this time, Bret’s music plays, so he hobbles back to the ring. The ref’s continue to argue as raise the man’s hand who they feel won. It’s a cool social experiment as Vince can hear in real time who the crowd is behind. Hint: It’s Bret!
-Jack Tunney is out and we try to get this settled. We see a replay from an angle that doesn’t show anything. Another angle and again, we are blocked out from seeing their feet touch. Vince and Ted can’t agree either to add to things. Fink goes to announce but still isn’t sure and that ticks off the crowd. We get another crappy view that shows nothing. We finally get the announcement that we have co-winners
Co-Winners: Bret Hart and Lex Luger at 55:08
-Not a fan of this one as once Diesel’s run ended and Savage was eliminated there was nothing here. Just way too many bodies in the ring and then they rushed to the finish. Then we had the unsatisfying finish as the crowd was invested into a match that went nearly an hour and were rewarded with co-winners. The first half was kind of fun, but that second half killed things for me. Only The Rockers exploding and Bret/Shawn gave me something interesting. **1/2
-Bret and Luger shake hands after the match. I give them credit for trying something new and thankfully, this never happened again. Vince even gave up both his quads to make sure it didn’t happen again. Thanks for reading!
