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The DVD Lowdown Reviews...
WWE Royal Rumble - The Complete Anthology, Vol. 2
2007, WWE Home Video
5-Disc Boxed Set
Total Run Time: 825 Minutes
Vol. 2 of the Royal Rumble Anthology presents five events (1993 - 1997) on individual DVDs. Each disc contains the event in its entirety. There are no special features.
Disc 1: Royal Rumble 1993
The Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott) VS The Beverly Brothers (Beau & Blake)
A solid opening tag match. Nothing spectacular, but fun to watch. The Steiners were such a great team back in the day, they could probably have had a fun match with anyone.
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Shawn Michaels VS Marty Jannetty
The story here was that Jannetty, Michaels' former Rockers partner, had returned after almost a year away from the company. The last time Jannetty had been seen, he was sent through the "Barber Shop" window by Michaels. Jannetty made a surprise return on one of the WWF's syndicated programs and went after Michaels. Jannetty had grabbed the large mirror that Michaels brought to ringside with him and went to nail Shawn with it, but Shawn pulled Sensational Sherri into harm's way and she got creamed with it. So we have the Intercontinental title on the line and Sherri in an ambiguous corner. This was a fun match. If only Jannetty wouldn't have kept getting fired, we could have had a nice long program with these two. The finish is a little screwy, but the brawl after the match was great.
The Big Boss Man VS Bam Bam Bigelow
Boss Man was on his way out of the company and Bigelow was being brought in as a monster heel. Predictable match... and somewhat boring as well.
Bobby "The Brain" Heenan reveals "The Narcissist"
What follows here is Part 1 of the Failed Lex Luger WWF Run. WWF brought in Luger as a heel with the "Narcissist" gimmick, where he was in love with himself and his "perfect" body and carried mirrors with him anywhere. God bless Bobby Heenan who sold the whole thing huge. Hell, you would have thought Heenan would have made love to him right then and there the way he sold it. This was a silly segment.
WWF Champion: Bret "Hitman" Hart VS Razor Ramon
During Bret's initial run as WWF Champion, they set up a fairly simple storyline for him: He's a great wrestler, he has tough challengers, and he triumphs over them. The Razor match was just another chapter in Bret's first WWF title run. It was a good match, but if you've seen any Bret Hart match before... this one doesn't deliver any huge surprises. Solid.
30 Man Royal Rumble Match featuring: The Berzerker, Bob Backlund, Carlos Colon, Damien Demento, Earthquake, Genichiro Tenryu, Headshrinker Fatu, Headshrinker Samu, IRS, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Koko B. Ware, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Max Moon, "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase, Mr. Perfect, Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs, Nasty Boy Jerry Sags, Owen Hart, Papa Shango, Repo Man, Ric Flair, Rick "The Model" Martel, Skinner, Tatanka, Terry Taylor, Tito Santana, Typhoon, The Undertaker, Virgil, Yokozuna
This is the year that the Rumble match started taking a downward turn, in my opinion. While the winner (Yokozuna) was a surprise to me at the time, and it was fun to watch Backlund's marathon performance... for the most this was a boring Rumble match. Plus there was the silliness in the middle of the match with Giant Gonzales attacking The Undertaker. You people think Great Kahli is bad? Gonzales makes Khali look like Ricky Steamboat.
What to watch on Disc 1: The Intercontinental title match for sure. The opening tag match and the WWF title match are solid. The Rumble itself you can skip.
Disc 2: Royal Rumble 1994
Tatanka VS Bam Bam Bigelow
Ludwig Borga was originally the opponent for Tatanka, but he had been injured and Bigelow was his replacement. Which, for the sake of the fans anyway, was a good thing because I don't remember Borga being worth anything in the ring. This was solid, but forgettable.
WWF Tag Team Champions: The Quebecers (Jacques Rougeau & Pierre Oulette) VS Bret "Hitman" Hart & "The Rocket" Owen Hart
In an era of the company when the programming bordered on the unwatchable, the WWF developed the awesome Hart Brothers feud. It all started at the previous Survivor Series when Bret Hart inadvertently caused Owen to be the only Hart Brother eliminated from the Survivor Series match against Shawn Michaels and the Knights. Soon afterwards Owen challenged Bret to a match one-on-one, which Bret refused. Over the holidays the brothers "patched things up," leading to them teaming in a challenge for the tag championship. This match is very good, but that's not what's important. When Bret, who was injured early in the match can't continue, the ref stops the match and awards it to the Quebecers. Owen, frustrated at the loss, blames Bret for "being selfish" and not tagging out and proceeds to take Bret out by kicking his injured leg out from under him. Simple, but effective, booking that led to Owen's most successful run with the company.
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon VS I.R.S.
Much like the opening match, this was a solid match, nothing to complain about... but nothing to write home about.
WWF Champion: Yokozuna VS The Undertaker - CASKET MATCH
Sigh. This was so silly. While early in the match there was some OK brawling by the two, for the most part the match was a little on the slow side. Towards the end of match, a slew of midcard heels hit the ring to attack 'taker and effectively place him in the Casket. The Great Kabuki and Genichiro Tenryu, who were brought in for the Rumble, helped Jeff Jarrett, Bam Bam Bigelow, Crush, Adam Bomb, the Headshrinkers AND Yokozuna finally defeated the The Undertaker. I could have understood this booking if it was say, Jeff Jarrett vs The Undertaker because Jarrett is significantly smaller than the Dead Man... but this was Yokozuna... a 500+ pound MONSTER and he needed the help of other monsters to beat one man. On top of that he was the CHAMPION. They really made Yoko look weak in this match. Anyway, Yokozuna and the entire heel roster rolled the Casket away... then things got stupid. The Undertaker "rose" from the "dead" on the video screen and floated "out" of the screen and up to the arena roof. If all this sounds asinine... it was.
30 Man Royal Rumble featuring: Adam Bomb, Bam Bam Bigelow, Bart Gunn, Bastion Booger, Billy Gunn, Bob Backlund, Bret "Hitman" Hart, Crush, Diesel, Doink The Clown, "Double J" Jeff Jarrett, Genichiro Tenryu, The Great Kabuki, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine, Headshrinker Fatu (Rikishi), Headshrinker Samu, Kwang, Lex Luger, Mabel, "Macho Man" Randy Savage, Marty Jannetty, Mo, Rick "The Model" Martel, Rick Steiner, "The Rocket" Owen Hart, Scott Steiner, Shawn Michaels, Sparky Plugg (Bob Holly), Tatanka, Virgil
The infamous Rumble with the screwy finish. In actuality, except for the ending, this was a fun Rumble match. WWF certainly planted the seeds of Diesel/Kevin Nash being a huge star for the company as Diesel eliminated 7 men in a row, setting a new Rumble record. There was a point where he was alone in the ring and people would just come down just to get tossed out. On top of that it took 5 guys to eliminate him. That was a fun moment. As we all know we got the infamous double elimination at the end where the refs couldn't decide whether Lex Luger or Bret Hart won (even though if you have just the most basic understanding of physics it was clear that Luger won). Of course none of the cameras caught a good angle of the elimination, so what does President Jack Tunney do? Co-winners of the Rumble. Because that makes more sense than just making Hart and Luger wrestle sudden death.
What to watch on Disc 2: The tag team championship match and the post-match angle is great. The Rumble is fun to watch, despite the screwy finish.
Disc 3: Royal Rumble 1995
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon VS "Double J" Jeff Jarrett
Jarrett was accompanied to the ring by The Roadie, who went on to greater fame as Road Dogg/BG James. This was a 20 minute match that was, for the most part, very dull. Jarrett wins the Intercontinental Championship through the usual nefarious means. This was the start of a very uninspired feud.
The Undertaker VS I.R.S.
Actually a solid match as it had two very good workers. However it was bogged down by a ridiculous storyline premise: Death and Taxes. Ugh.
WWF Champion: Diesel VS Bret "Hitman" Hart
The Diesel run as WWF Champion wasn't a COMPLETE failure. He did manage to have quality matches against opponents like Bret Hart. Only problem was, as good as this match was (and it was just good, it wasn't great) any positive attitude I have towards is completely marred by the screwy finish. At one point Owen Hart interfered. Then Bob Backlund. Then Shawn Michaels. Jeff Jarrett. The Roadie. The ref kept restarting the match. Finally after all the heels attacked together, the ref through the match out. Pretty much a waste of a half hour of decent wrestling.
Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly & The 1-2-3 Kid VS Bam Bam Bigelow & Tatanka
When Diesel won the WWF Title and turned face, he and Shawn Michaels vacated the WWF Tag Team Championships that they held as a team. So a weeks-long tournament was held for the vacant straps and this was the Final match. This was pretty decent, with the story of the underdog team triumphing over the monster heels. But it is not Holly and Kid's tag title victory that makes this match historic, it's the post-match events that transpired that cements this match in wrestling history. After the match, Bigelow is walking around ringside as he is teased by the fans for losing. Finally he makes his way to Lawrence Taylor, sitting at ringside, who good-naturedly teases Bigelow, then offers a handshake. Bigelow famously shoves LT down and the build for WrestleMania XI begins.
30 Man Royal Rumble featuring: Adam Bomb, Aldo Montoya (Justin Credible), Bart Gunn, Billy Gunn, The Blu Brothers (Ron & Don Harris), Bob Backlund, "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, Bushwhacker Butch, Bushwhacker Luke, Crush, Dick Murdoch, Doink The Clown, Dr. Tom Pritchard, Duke "The Dumpster" Drose, "Gigolo" Jimmy Del Ray, Headshrinker Fatu (Rikishi), Headshrinker Seone (The Barbarian), Henry Godwinn, King Kong Bundy, Kwang (Savio Vega), Lex Luger, Mabel (Big Daddy V), Mantaur, Mo, Owen Hart, Rick "The Model" Martel, Shawn Michaels, Steven Dunn, Timothy Well
I'd like to say that after a pretty boring undercard that the Rumble delivered. But it didn't. First off, this is the famous Royal Rumble where Michaels and Bulldog came in 1 and 2, and were the last two men. It's also the Rumble where Michaels was thrown out, but only 1 of his feet hit the floor, he returned and tossed out Bulldog for the win. What everyone forgets is that this Rumble SUCKED. First off, the intervals were only about 1 minute long, so you had Rumble that was about a half hour long. That's lame enough. But then you see all the wrestlecrap that filled out this Rumble: Aldo Montoya? Kwang? Well Dunn? The Blu Brothers? Mantaur? Freaking Mantaur! Ugh. There were only 3 names in the whole damn thing that had a chance at winning the match: Bulldog, Luger and Michaels... and since Michaels and Diesel had a history... it wasn't hard to figure out. Oh yeah, Pamela Anderson was there too, watching the match from ringside, because she would "escort" the winner of the match to the main event at WrestleMania.
What to watch on Disc 3: The Bigelow/Taylor angle. Seriously, that's it. This is the worst Rumble ever, which makes sense because it took place during the WWE's lowest creative point in the last 20 years I've been watching wrestling (in my opinion.)
Disc 4: Royal Rumble 1996
Ahmed Johnson VS "Double J" Jeff Jarrett
There's not much to this one. It's about 6 minutes of Johnson dominating Jarrett, then Jarrett going El Kabong on Johnson's head his Gee-Tar off the top rope. I admit, however, that I popped for the guitar shot... I couldn't stand Ahmed Johnson back in the day. Talk about marble mouth.
The Smokin' Gunns (Billy Gunn & Bart Gunn) VS The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip)
The best thing I can say about this match is that Sunny looked hot. It wasn't a bad match, but it was very dull.
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Razor Ramon VS Goldust
This is shortly after Goldust debuted with the company, and WWF was really pushing the "gay" angle hard. The storyline was basically that Goldust used his homo-erotic mind games to get inside Razor's head, which infuriated the "Bad Guy." Actually, this is a pretty fun match, but it's marred by a run-in by the recently-turned-heel 1-2-3 Kid that costs Razor the match. Still, an entertaining bout.
30 Man Royal Rumble featuring: 1-2-3 Kid, Aldo Montoya (Justin Credible), Barry Horowitz, Bob Backlund, Bob "Spark Plugg" Holly, "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, Diesel, Dory Funk Jr., Doug Gilbert, Duke "The Dumpster" Drose, Fatu (Rikishi), Hakushi (Jinsei Shinzaki), Henry Godwinn, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Isaac Yankem (Kane), Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Kama (The Godfather), King Mabel (Big Daddy V), Marty Jannetty, Owen Hart, The Ringmaster (Steve Austin), Savio Vega, Shawn Michaels, The SWAT Team (The Headhunters), Takao Omori, Tatanka, Vader, Yokozuna
After the previous year's Rumble laid a huge egg, this Rumble redeemed the event. Not the best Rumble, but still a far better Rumble than 1995. For one thing, we went back to 2 minute intervals. There was some great stuff here and a lot less filler. One cool thing they did was a gimmick where two wrestlers drew "blank" numbers (HHH and Duke Drose) and those two had to wrestle a match on the Free-For-All (not included on the disc) where the winner got #30 and the loser got #1. HHH got 1 and he played the "iron man" for the bout. Feuds from earlier in the card continued as Razor hit the ring at one point to go after the Kid for costing him the championship. There was also the classic bit where Lawler leaves the match and hides under the ring for most of the match making him one of the longest lasting entrants. You had the great moment where Michaels and Jannetty go at it after Jannetty's entrance. Plus it marked the debuts of Vader and Steve Austin. The better of HBK's Rumble victories.
WWF Champion: Bret "Hitman" Hart VS The Undertaker
Hate to say this folks... but Bret Hart had boring matches. Not all the time. It was rare when he did. But he did have them every now and then. Case in point. This was long and it just did not click at all. Add to that the lame finish of Diesel interfering causing a DQ. The fans didn't know who to root for and was dead for everything except the entrances and the screwy finish (which they hated). It was probably a mistake to put this one AFTER the Rumble match which they were appropriately excited for.
What to watch on Disc 4: The I/C title match was fun for what it was and the Rumble was a lot of fun as well.
Disc 5: Royal Rumble 1997
WWF Intercontinental Champion: Hunter Hearst-Helmsley VS Goldust
The story here was HHH had been hitting on Marlena, which Goldust took exception too... prompting a bizarre Monday Night Raw interview with Jerry Lawler where he denied the King's accusation that he was a "queer." So Goldust turns babyface by NOT being gay. That's screwed up. But I digress. Anyway, during a Raw match between Goldust and Lawler, HHH came to ringside and tried carrying Marlena away with him, distracting Dust and costing him the match. Helmsely came to the ring for this match with Mr. Hughes (and Hughes didn't stick around long after this appearance) and used lots of chicanery to beat the newly baby-face Goldust and retain his title.
Ahmed Johnson VS Faarooq
At this point, Faarooq was deep into his "Black Power" gimmick. Faarooq had claimed Johnson was an "Uncle Tom" and he wasn't from "the streets" like he was, which led to all the bad blood between the two. Yes, the WWF went there. Um, this wasn't much of a match. It ended in a DQ and afterwards Ahmed put a nameless Nation member through a table.
The Undertaker VS Vader
There wasn't really much build-up to this match. Kind of a slow match that built to a mini-feud between Taker and Vader. Only thing of interest is that Paul Bearer came to ringside and help Vader beat Taker by giving him the urn to smash him with. Vader and Bearer were then in cahoots. I said it about Yokozuna at the '94 Rumble, but Vader is a MONSTER. He shouldn't need cheap tactics to beat the Undertaker, and Undertaker wouldn't lose any heat with the fans if he had lost to a 400 pound "mastadon."
Hector Garza, Perro Aguayo & El Canek VS Jerry Estrada, Heavy Metal & Ultimo Guerrero
The beginning of the failed WWF Lucha experiment. I think this was WWF's response to the surprise success of WCW's ever-growing Cruiserweight division. WWF has NEVER known how to properly push this type of wrestling, and it showed at the '97 Rumble. The fans couldn't have cared less (which is odd, considering they were in San Antonio) and the 6 guys worked a strictly Lucha match. It was fun, but it fell flat on its face on TV.
30 Man Royal Rumble featuring: Ahmed Johnson, Bart Gunn. Bret "Hitman" Hart, "British Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith, Cibernetico, Crush, Faarooq, Fake Diesel (Kane), Fake Razor Ramon, Flash Funk (2 Cold Scorpio), Goldust, Henry Godwinn, Hunter Hearst-Helmsley, Jake "the Snake" Roberts, Jerry "The King" Lawler, Latin Lover, Mankind, Mil Mascaras, Owen Hart, Phineas Godwin (Mideon), Pierroth, "The Real Double J" Jesse James (Road Dogg), Rocky Maivia, Savio Vega, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, The Sultan (Rikishi), Terry Funk, The Undertaker, Vader, "Wildman" Marc Mero
The 1997 Royal Rumble match should have just been called "The Steve Austin Show." This was a fun match from different perspectives. It had a lot of top stars in the match that had a good shot at winning (Austin, Bret, Vader, Undertaker), guys that were breaking out (Helmsley, Maivia, Mankind, Mero, Johnson) and potential dark horses (Davey Boy, Owen, Goldust). Plus as a Lucha fan I popped for Cibernetico and Pierroth making into a Rumble match. Oh it also had some guy you probably never heard of... Terry Funk. Don't know whatever happened to that dude. This match was instrumental in launching Steve Austin into the top tier of the company, making him look completely dominant, even though he had to cheat to win. This Rumble match had a lot of good action, great moments and a unique ending.
WWF Champion: Sycho Sid VS Shawn Michaels
I always hated that they spelled "Sycho" like that. It's PSYCHO. "Sycho" isn't a word. Sigh. This San Antonio crowd was pretty dead all night with the exception of the last 15 minutes of the Rumble and this match. WWF really hyped the "hometown boy" aspect of the match, and the crowd LOVED Michaels. Which is a far cry from how the crowd crapped all over him at Madison Square Garden when he lost the title to Sid in the first place at Survivor Series. Michaels carried Sid to a fun match and won the title back.
What to watch on Disc 5: The undercard isn't great. If you like
Lucha then check out the 6 man because it's entertaining. The Rumble is a
lot of fun and the Championship is good as well.
Top 5 Reasons To Buy or Rent WWE Royal Rumble Anthology Vol. 2
Availability
Amazon.com = $34.99
Bestbuy.com = $49.99
Circuitcity.com = $49.99
Highspots.com = $42.99
Overstock.com = $34.41
Walmart.com = $34.88
Netflix.com = All 5 Discs
available to rent
Last Word:
This set is nowhere near as good as Vol. 1. The WWF started screwing
around with the event during these years and messed up what originally made it
great. Disc 3 is outright horrendous. If you are a completist,
you'll probably buy this set in addition to Vol. 1. But there is more bad
than good on these discs. There was some bad stuff on Vol. 1 as well, but
at least all 5 Rumbles were entertaining. In this set, the '93 Rumble is
weak, the '94 Rumble has a screwy ending and the '95 Rumble just plain sucked.
If you could buy the discs individually I would say get 1996 and 1997, but you
can't so I'll leave you with this: I would rent and NOT buy this one. Oh
and if you put this in your Netflix queue, skip Disc 3 entirely.
-Adolfo Acosta
Questions? Comments? Insults?
email me at adolfojacosta@gmail.com
