by Chris Vint!
“Every man for himself” was a phrase I always remember Gorilla Monsoon saying in the earlier Royal Rumble matches.
The Royal Rumble in 2017 will have been around for 30 years and now we have a way of looking at some of the memorable matches and moments throughout the years.
Pat Patterson was the brains behind the Royal Rumble match and it wasn’t until he mentioned it to Dick Ebersol at NBC who thought it was a great idea for TV and that’s how it started!
No doubt if you are a wrestling fan you have some Royal Rumble memories and I’m going to hopefully cover some of them in my review!
In my eyes the best Royal Rumble was in 1992 where Ric Flair won the vacated WWF world championship. The only time the championship was up for grabs….until 2016 when Triple H becomes the 14 time champion!
The Royal Rumble started giving the winner title shots from 1993 onwards and 13 times the winner has won the title at the grandest stage of them all…Wrestlemania!
What makes the Royal Rumble special? Unpredictability is the big factor here! How many returning superstars have garnered a huge response from the crowd? In 2010 Edge returned to action after a horrible injury…the crowd reaction was insane and better yet Edge won the royal rumble that year. Very much like Triple H did in 2002. Coming back after tearing his quad and headlong Wrestlemania X8 with Chris Jericho was a personal highlight for me!
With the internet now it’s very hard to keep anything a secret but some of the returns like Chris Jericho in 2013, John Cena in 2008 and this years surprise entrant was the pick of the bunch. Finally after many years of wondering “When will he come to WWE?” AJ Styles made his debut to the sheer delight of the crowd!
The Royal Rumble had 30 entrants (yeah we won’t talk about the 40 person one they did once) and you’ll have some superstars face off that you haven’t seen for a long time or not seen at all! Hulk Hogan faced off against The Ultimate Warrior in the 1990 Royal Rumble which was something to savour. Then in 2007 we had The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels as the last two competitors…wow. This was before their Wrestlemania matches but again, this made you lick your lips with how awesome this was!
You’ll notice I said entrants above. That’s because in 1999 Chyna became the first female competitor to enter the Royal Rumble. She eliminated Mark Henry which is no mean feat! Beth Phoenix and Kharma would be two other females who would enter the Royal Rumble match years later.
This blu-ray set gives us a fascinating insight into the Royal Rumble and hearing from Superstars past and present is very much welcomed. It is also great to see Roddy Piper talk about his time in the Royal Rumble before he passed. As always, the blu-ray set gives you some added extras.
If you want to know more, head to https://www.wwedvd.co.uk/true-
This for me was a good watch and I loved hearing from the older superstars and saying to myself “oh I remember that” or “i forgot about that”. It’s not as strong as the True story of Wrestlemania and i would have rathe that this set had more structure rather than going from 1988 to 2016, back to 1993 and just jumping year to year. If you’re new to wrestling or a lifelong fan, there is something here for everyone!
That’s it from me, I’m off now to stand and point to a Wrestlemania sign!
