WWE Royal Rumble 1993 (1993)

So much average

Good movie, but best of all time? Hardly . . .

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

Live from Sacramento, CAAttendance: 16,000Your hosts are Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby HeenanThe Steiner Brothers Vs The Beverly BrothersThe Steiner's win after Scott hits a frankensteiner. This was an above average opener. I felt this was a good debut match for The Steiner's to really strut their stuff. You can't ask for much more than you got here.**3/4Intercontinental ChampionshipShawn Michaels (C) Vs Marty JannettySensational Sherri is gonna be in a neutral corner. Shawn wins with a superkick after Sherri accidentally nails Janetty with her shoe. These two stole the show with this match! Jannetty starts off like a house of fire like any intense feud should. Shawn and Marty also gave us some excellent psychology before the match turned into one near-fall after another. It's an excellent match. Thankfully, all the Sherri drama didn't detract from the match****Shawn Michaels confronts Sherri backstage and tees off on her. Marty runs in and brawls with Shawn. The Big Bossman Vs Bam Bam BigelowBigelow wins with a diving headbutt from the top. These guys were doomed to fail after the clinic Shawn Michaels and Marty Jannetty put on, but it still wasn't a very good match. It moved at a pretty slow pace and lacked excitement. Both of these guys are good wrestlers for their size. They just didn't click here.*1/2WWF ChampionshipBret Hart (C) Vs Razor RamonBret wins with the Sharpshooter. This is an underrated match. Bret proved he was the best wrestler in the world at the time, and Razor held his own as well. This is one of those matches that doesn't get talked about enough as far as great Rumble matches go.***3/4Bobby Heenan unveils "The Narcissist" Lex Luger. It's worth watching simply for Bobby Heenan's performance. He's magnificent here.Royal Rumble MatchYokozuna wins after eliminating Randy Savage. This is an average Royal Rumble for the most part. It does have some standout moments. Mr. Perfect eliminating Ric Flair garnered a big pop from the crowd. Bob Backlund lasted all the way until the end and got a standing ovation for his efforts. The crowed booed when he got eliminated. Giant Gonzalez debuted and eliminated The Undertaker. (That was more dubious than standout) One thing that made me shake my head was how Yokozuna won the rumble. Savage hits the flying elbow from the top and goes to pin him. Yokozuna simply powers him off over the top rope and to the floor. It made Savage look really stupid. **1/4Aside from the Royal Rumble match itself, this was a really good card. Shawn Michaels vs Marty Jannetty and Bret Hart vs Razor Ramon are both fantastic matches. If the Rumble match wasn't so forgettable, this could have been a classic PPV.6.5/10

Well Hogan's gone, the Ultimate Warrior's gone, Flair's about to leave and Savage is drifting into the background. The times certainly were changing as the 1993 Royal Rumble rolled around, and this was reflected in the WWE Championship match later that night as Bret Hart made his second title defence taking on Razor Ramon who'd only been in the WWE a short length of time.The night kicked off with the Steiner Brothers defeating the Beverly Brothers in a very entertaining opener. Scott Steiner was one of the most agile workers in the world at this stage and the Beverley's were a good foil for anyone. Good back and forth action as the two teams attempted to show who were the better brothers on the roster.Next comes a heated match for the Intercontinental Championship between Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty. These two had been tag team partners in a pretty sweet tag team named the Rockers. But Shawn had memorably turned on Marty, throwing him through a barbershop window (shown on a montage here, but it actually occurred sometime in early 1992). Sensational Sherri stood at ringside unsure of her allegiances. In the end she does the right thing and comes into knock out Shawn, but he ducks and she cocks Janetty instead. Shawn wins a good match.Next up came the BIg Bossman taking on Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow was versatile for a big man and Bossman was pretty over back in 1993. They put on a nice match here.Brings us to the big WWE title match with Bret putting his title on the line against Razor Ramon. I don't know exactly what the story was here, but Razor had been one of Flair's cronies when Hart beat Flair for the title in late 1992. There were some good promos in the lead up and here they have a great match. It starts off even. The middle of the fight is Razor kicking Hart's backside all over the ring, only for Hart to rally and hit the sharpshooter for the win. Good match.The 1993 Royal Rumble was an interesting match with a lot of story lines going in. THe most important one here being that the winner would become the No.1 contender for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania IX. The fight started off with two huge stories as Flair, who would fight and lose to Mr Perfect a "Loser Leaves Town" match the following night on RAW came in at No.1 and then former WWE Champion (for five consecutive years!) Bob Backlund, making a comeback at 42, came in at No.2. Flair went early compared to last year, but Backlund went for nearly an hour and was the second last man eliminated.Another big story going in was the Undertaker's rivalry with scrawny manager Harvey Wippleman. Undertaker had defeated Harvey's biggest client Kamala in a coffin match at Survivor Series 1992 and Wippleman vowed revenge. The Undertaker came it at No.15 and cleared the ring, only for Wippleman to unearth his latest discovery: The massive Brazilian Giant Gonzales. Gonzales destroyed the Undertaker and left him looking weak and pathetic. Anyone making Taker look like that in 1993 was a rare thing indeed.Anyway, Yokozuna came in at 27, eliminated six people, including Bob Backlund and then went toe to toe with Randy Savage for five thrilling minutes before eliminating Savage as the Macho Man attempted a pin after hitting a flying elbow. And so the Giant Yokozuna was on the way to Wrestlemania!!! So it appeared that we'd be getting Hart/ Yokozuna for the WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania. Could the Canadian Hart beat not only Yokozuna, but the Japanese cronies of his manager Mr Fuji, or would it take a real American to get the job done? And could the Undertaker possibly triumph over WIppleman and his newest monster?

*possible spoilers*This was a very good and solid pay-per-view event. I really like it. Around this time (1993) we're starting to move out of the golden years of the Royal Rumble (Hogan's departure from the WWF being one of the key factors, obviously), but that doesn't mean it's not exciting anymore. It definitely is.The opener of the night is the Steiners (in their pay-per-view debut) vs. the Beverly Brothers, it's a decent match, lots of agility and great techniques by both teams, and the crowd really got into it.There's also the Big Boss Man against the "Beast from the East," Bam Bam Bigelow, in a battle of the big boys. Bossman gets some good offense in throughout the match, but Bam Bam prevails in the end with a flying headbutt off the top. Not a really good match, but it was ok.One of the best regular matches on the night, Shawn Michaels vs. Marty Jannetty, his former tag-team partner, really got things going. Some spectacular and high flying moves make this really something to watch. Jannetty controls the first few minutes, then Michaels manages to bang up Marty's shoulder a bit, but could not pin him. Jannetty at one point comes tantalizingly close to pinning Michaels, but in the end, it is Shawn who stands victorious. Great match.There's also a segment in which we get our first look at "the Narcissist" Lex Luger in the WWF, who is unveiled by Bobby "the Brain" Heenan. Heenan is so excited and anxious to show him off to everyone, silly stuff.Then the main event, Razor Ramon against Bret "Hitman" Hart. Another great match, for the Intercontinental Championship. Typical good guy/bad guy match. Bret gets control fairly early (after the taunts and toothpick flinging), then Razor really owns him from the middle on up towards the end, where Bret clamps on his infamous Sharpshooter finishing move and makes Ramon submit. Second best match of the night.Now the rumble match. Winner gets a title shot at Wrestlemania IX. Guess who has the #1 spot this year? Yep, Wooooo! Ric Flair. Everyone knows what happened in '92 but this year, Flair was expected to jump to WCW, and on Monday Night Raw, the day after the rumble, he and Mr. Perfect squared off in a "loser leaves the wwf" match. He lost. Flair didn't last as long in this one as he did in '92, but he was in for a good 18 minutes, when Mr. Perfect eliminated him. The man who drew #2, Bob Backlund, started with Flair, and hung on in the match for an incredible 61 minutes. He was the 28th overall man eliminated (by the 27th entrant, Yokozuna).About halfway into the match, Giant Gonzalez strolls down to ringside, and steps over the ropes and confronts the Undertaker, who had just cleared the entire ring. This guy was billed 8 feet tall but was actually 7'8". He chops the Dead Man over the top rope, and continues to beat on him outside the ring. This set up their match at Wrestlemania IX, which was a dud. The rumble match slows down dramatically here. The first half was excellent.When Yokozuna entered the match, he simply dominated. No one wanted anything with him, except for Earthquake. They collided, but Yoko tossed him out. And it was clear who was the winner was going to be. At one point, everyone in the ring all ganged up on Yoko, trying to eliminate him, but he fought them all off. Near the end it was Yokozuna, Bob Backlund, who was still there, Rick Martel, and Randy Savage. Backlund knocked Martel over the ropes, the crowd is going insane for him now, he already has the longevity record. But he made a mistake and charged at Yokozuna and was thrown out right at 61 minutes. WOW. So it's down to the sumo wrestler and Savage, they fight for a long time, Savage gets the crowd riled up, I mean REALLY riled up. But Yokozuna got the last laugh, as he tossed Savage out from lying on his back, AFTER being hit by a Flying Elbow Drop. This was the 2nd longest rumble ever at 66+ minutes, and it was excellent from the start, but it died down the 2nd half.

This Royal Rumble was quite mediocre. The Rumble match itself wasn't the best ever and the undercard was quite average.The Steiners battled the Beverly Brothers in an average match. The same can be said for Big Boss Man VS Bam Bam Bigelow. Shawn Michaels battled Marty Jannety in a reasonable match. The WWF Title match pitted Bret Hart against Razor Ramon. This was quite good.(SPOILER AHEAD) The Rumble itself was okay. The late Yokosuna won the Rumble-in fact everybody knew he would win. Unlike previous events where you never knew who the winner was going to be, this Rumble was quite predictable. The most memorable part of this Rumble was the debut of Giant Gonzalez who was billed as being 8 foot tall. He was probably closer to 7 foot but he was real mean looking. He beat the stuffings out of the Undertaker at this event. That was the best part of the Rumble.