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The 411 Wrestling Top 5 1.11.12: Week 156 – The Best Royal Rumble Matches

January 11, 2012 | Posted by Larry Csonka

Hello everyone and welcome to 411 Wrestling’s Top 5 List. What we are going to is take a topic each week and all the writers here on 411 wrestling will have the ability to give us their Top 5 on said topic, plus up to three honorable mentions. Most of our topics will be based on recent events in the Wrestling World, looking at those events that make us think of times past.

So, on to this week’s topic…

TOP 5 BEST ROYAL RUMBLE MATCHES

Matches that took place at the Royal Rumble event, not necessarily the Rumble match itself.

Greg DeMarco
HM – Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho (Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match, 2001)
HM – Hardy Boys vs. The Dudleys (Tag Team Tables Match, 2000)

5. Royal Rumble Match (2006) – I experienced this Royal Rumble match live, sorta. I was at my local Hooters, and the entire place was sucked in by the drama at the end of the match. Rey Mysterio (#2) logged 62 minutes in this match, and seemed to be a solid runner-up to Randy Orton, who entered at #30. However, Rey Rey had a great reversal that sent Orton flying over the top and to the floor, sending Hooters into a frenzy and making Rey’s first WrestleMania main event a reality.

4. Triple H vs. Cactus Jack (2000) – This match is long considered the match that legitimized Triple H. Triple H dealt with barbed wire for the first time in his career, and he took some serious punishment. I really enjoyed the elevation of Triple H here, and it continued through No Way Out and WrestleMania.

3. Royal Rumble Match (2001) – This Royal Rumble match had everything. It had entertainment specific moments (Drew Carey, anyone?), it had history (Kane eliminating eleven people), a Honky Tonk Man appearance, and much more! Steve Austin picked up the win, and went on to face The Rock at WrestleMania X-7.

2. The Rock vs. Mankind (1999) – This famous match is covered in heavy detail by The Rock himself in his book, released by the WWE. The Rock absolutely destroyed Mankind with unprotected chairshots in this match. Destroyed. To the point that Mick Foley is likely still hurt by the fact that The Rock didn’t come and check on him afterwards. The build was great, and this match is one of the reasons that people miss the Attitude Era.

1. Royal Rumble Match (1992) – I mean, c’mon! This is where it’s at, right here! An amazing line-up, a great build, and the best stipulation to date: winner gets the WWF Championship! Ric Flair entered at #3, and was standing tall in the end. This was a great match, highly underrated and just a joy to watch.

Wes Kirk
HM – Royal Rumble 1999: MCMAHON WINS! MCMAHON WINS! MCMAHON WINS!
HM – Royal Rumble 1989: The first official PPV Royal Rumble and 2nd Royal Rumble in WWF history.
HM – Royal Rumble 2011: The first and likely only 40 man Royal Rumble.

5. Chris Jericho vs. Chris Benoit, Ladder Match for IC Championship – RR 2001 – I know all about the hideous incident with Benoit in 2007 but that doesn’t mean all of his matches suddenly sucked. This particular match was a damn good one-on-one ladder match with Jericho upping his game in the same year he’d become Undisputed Champion and Benoit showing he could hang with the top talent of the day. On this particular night, Jericho shoved the ladder and Benoit fell outside the ring in a heap for Jericho to walk away with the Intercontinental Title Benoit had coming into the show after an intense matchup.

4. The Rock vs. Mankind – “I Quit” Match in 1999 – How could this not be on the list? Such a hardcore and vicious beating taken by Mankind thanks to about a dozen unprotected steel chair shots made probably the most frightening visual in any match of that year and a lot of people massively concerned for Mick Foley’s health afterwards, although apparently not The Rock which caused a legitimate beef between the two. Rock and Foley delivered a very good match with an at-the-time unpredictable ending of the recording from Sunday Night Heat when Foley yelled “I WILL NEVER SAY I QUIT, I QUIT, I QUIT!” and Shane McMahon recorded the three I Quit statements, playing them over the loudspeaker to enable Rock to become victorious. The match will probably forever be remembered for the handcuffed Mankind being eviscerated with steel chairs to the head at the end although the remainder of it was quite good as well.

3. Royal Rumble Match – 1992 – This was the very much anticipated Royal Rumble in which for the first time, the winner of the match would become the WWF Champion! Obviously a lot of people had pegged Hulk Hogan as the winner first thing but this was not exactly going to be Hogan’s night. At first, it looked like Ric Flair was doomed when he came out with a horrible #3 draw but as the match went on, people began to notice Flair was able to withstand all the punishment and stay in the match using whatever tactics he had setting a record at the time for the length of time in the Rumble, or the Ironman of the Rumble award. The unthinkable occurred when Sid Justice eliminated Hogan and then Flair took advantage of Hogan pulling Sid over the ropes by dumping the big man over the top and became the brand new heavyweight champion, the first major NWA player in the 1980’s to become both NWA and WWF Champion.

2. Royal Rumble Match – 1996 – The reason this particular match is so important is because it was the main event launchpad for the man we all know and love as “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels. A year earlier, Michaels had eliminated The British Bulldog and won a shortened Royal Rumble to fight with Diesel in the main event of WrestleMania for the title, but lost. This time, he competed in a full-length Rumble and eliminated everybody to take his 2nd victory in back-to-back Rumbles, going on to a sixty-minute Iron Man match with Bret Hart at WrestleMania. It was at this point that Shawn truly started his push to become a main eventer for life, and a champion as well.

1. Royal Rumble Match – 1997 – The same way that in 1996 a new star was made for the main event scene, 1997 is the year that Steve Austin truly became a huge star. It began with the Royal Rumble match itself, which is when Austin ended up getting eliminated but the referees didn’t notice as they were breaking up a Mankind/Terry Funk altercation instead. Austin slid back in and then tossed Bret over the top rope, which gave him the victory although later on WWF President Gorilla Monsoon put the last four guys in the Rumble into a match for at first the #1 contendership but later the belt when Shawn Michaels forfeited it. Austin’s victory led him to the famous double-turn at WrestleMania and later in the year he would also issue a challenge to Shawn Michaels for the WWF title and the rest was history in the making.

David McGregor
HM – Royal Rumble 1992: It is a classic match and really does feature a whos who of wrestling but seen as everyone else will be putting this near the top thought I would be different.
HM – Kurt Angle v Chris Benoit – 2003: Great match but the whole Benoit thing makes it a little hard to watch, more so that number 2.

5. Dudley Boys v Hardy Boys – 2000 – This was the definition of a spotfest but my god did I love this match at the time. There is barely a moment to catch your breath as every man goes through multiple tables! For me this is the best Tables match we have ever seen, that isn’t very hard I know. Being the best out of a bad bunch may make this one sound a little poor but for pure nonstop action you don’t get much better. I know people will say Cactus Jack v Triple H is the much better match, and yes in most ways it is, but when I finished watching the PPV all I could remember was Bubba Dudley falling off of an entrance way.

4. Royal Rumble 2001 – If there was a Royal Rumble match that epitomized the Attitude Era it was in 2001. With the hardcore elements and just the utter insanity of it all there was no more entertaining and fun Royal Rumble match in the history of the event. This one really had a bit of everything, there was hardcore wrestling, strong push for a favorite in Kane, numerous possible winners, surprise entrants and Stone Cold Steve Austin making history by winning for a 3rd time. It was like a Royal Rumble highlight reel and it worked and worked very well.

3. John Cena v Umaga – 2007 – I really liked Umaga as soon as he debuted in the WWE, he got the monster push and it worked well. His first match with Cena was fine and to be honest I didn’t see their rematch being anything special. I was so wrong! Their Last Man Standing match is one of the best matches of that style I have ever seen and was (and for me possibly still is) the best match of Cena’s career. It was just a barbaric brawl with Cena and Umaga just destroying each other and showed the audience that both men were capable of great things in the WWE.

2. Chris Jericho v Chris Benoit – 2001 – In a PPV that was filled with highlights with one shone brighter than all of them. I can still remember the sick chair shot that Jericho nailed Benoit with while he performed a diving head butt, for me it’s one of those moments that stick in your mind which means the match is just unforgettable. Fantastic match and sadly slightly tainted.

1. Royal Rumble 2007 – I will be honest this is primarily here for the last 8 minutes of this match. Undertaker and Shawn Michaels created the greatest end to any Rumble match ever. There may have been shocking endings like Vince McMahon winning or emotional endings like Rey Mysterio in 2006 but no one has or will top 2 of the greatest of all time going toe to toe as the last two of the Royal Rumble 2007. Both brought their A game and were able to overshadow the whole event with that little snippet of a match between both. The rest of the match was very well done and didn’t disappoint, Orton and Edge being two guys who really shined in the match as well. I love the Royal Rumble match as most do and this one for me just ticked every box, great match and classic finish.

SCOTT RUTHERFORD
HM – The Ultimate Warrior vs. Sgt. Slaughter: No one predicated Slaughter was leaving champ. Not a great match but a great WTF! moment.
HM – Bret Hart vs. Razor Ramon: Guilty pleasure to be sure but Bret pulled a great match from Scott Hall and gave him main event cred.
HM – Bret Hart vs. Diesel: This match gave Kevin Nash a tremendous shove in the right direction when he became champion.

5. Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin – I Quit 1990 – I’m sure people will think I’m crazy for putting this in here. Intellectually I know the match is not great and sits only around decent in terms of quality but this is a tremendous match for my growth as a fan. This two where products of the NWA system and they went out and had a hard hitting and brutal NWA-style brawl. It was extremely new to me and opened my eyes to other styles outside of the WWF style at the time. Keep in mind that as a fan in Australia we only had access to Wrestling Superstars and PPV’s so we had no idea what else was out there. Watching this match back a couple of hours ago, I can honestly say other than the slower pace, this match holds up much better than other matches from that time because the psychology is strong and the motives of each man was simple. It translates to the watcher regardless of age and era that you are watching it in. Of course, Valentine was a tremendous worker and knew how to lay this match out to get maximum bang for the limited Gavin.

4. The Glamour Girls vs. The Jumping Bomb Angels – 2/3 Falls – The Angels where a bright shining star in the WWF around 1988, a breath of fresh air that not only sent a charge through the women’s division but through the whole federation. They were different, not only that but talented as well. So talented that they managed to drag two fossils Judy Martin and Lelani Kai to some exceptionally great matches. To be far, the Glamour’s were great workers for their time but they were clearly a few steps behind at this point but the J.B.A’s were just so talented they could cover anyone weaknesses. This match was 15 minutes of great tag wrestling and was so far ahead of its time in North America that everything holds up today, even the pacing and moveset. Just awesome.

3. Royal Rumble Match – 2001 – People talk about the Flair ’92 Rumble as being the high water mark for this match but personally speaking, I think that’s more because of the history of Flair winning the title than the actual match itself. The 2001 version is a vastly superior match that had a bunch of different threads and phases. I loved how it went from a standard rumble opening, to teasing a Hardy Boyz confrontation, the Drew Carey entry and Kane confrontation, the hardcore rumble stretch, the confirmation of The Undertaker and Kane now being back together, the surprise return of The Big Show, the Austin/Rock confrontation and the eventual win of Austin be eliminating Kane who nearly went the distance and eliminated nearly 1/3 of the participants. It rarely stagnated and an hour just flies by.

2. The Rockers vs. The Orient Express – 1991 – These guys had history dating back to the AWA when the Express was better known as Bad Company. Not much I really need to say about this except it was a great tag team formula match done by a bunch of guys that really know how to work together. It does receive praise as one of the great PPV openers of all time but funnily enough you could say that’s extremely underrated as it was just a match with little build and almost no fall out. Seriously, if you want to see a great tag team match that is literally non-stop from start to finish from four good workers, go watch this now.

1. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho – Ladder Match 2001 – This is one of my all time favorite matches although it does make me sad to watch it now. These are two of my favorite wrestlers ever and this match was, to me, the essence of what a great gimmick match should be…intense. It had a couple of high spots involved including the awesome visual of the Walls of Jericho being done on top of the ladder but this was more about two men at war than showing off fancy move. It was survival by attrition and you could feel the hatred involved from both men as they just pounded the living shit out of each other. Granted, the sight of Benoit’s dive through the ropes and taking an unprotected head shot in mid-air makes me queasy the rest of the match is just a great fight to the end.