Post by hbkjason on Dec 12, 2019 5:19:22 GMT -5
Wrestling Memories: Battle Royal at the Royal Albert Hall
Today I am talking about the UK exclusive event, The Battle Royal at the Albert Hall. The WWF was so popular over here at this time that they did a full UK Rampage Tour (that I already talked about) earlier in 1991. Then they did this European Rampage Tour which this event featured on in October and then in 1992 they came to the UK for a tour in April and then again for SummerSlam, so in the span of like 12 months, the WWF was in the UK four times!
This event was the only one that I did not actually attend. I did though watch the event on Sky TV when it aired. This was a huge deal and it was heavily advertised during the run-up to the show. For those that do not know, The Royal Albert Hall is a very, very historical building here in the UK. These days it is mostly known for its New Year's Eve parties, but a performance here for many years was seen as a big deal. The WWF was so popular at this time they probably had no trouble getting inside here at all!
One of the things that I love about this show is the way it looks. This looks unlike any other WWF event and even now I think it has a real charm to the presentation of it. My personal memories of watching the show have to do with a new kid at school called Martin. He and I hit it off and he came around to my house to play after school and he stayed for dinner. He ended up staying as the show started and I was supposed to be taking him home around 30 minutes after it started! I did not want to do this. One reason is that I was having fun hanging around with him and this was his first taste of the WWF……... the main reason is that I did not want to miss any of the show. My mum was having none of it and insisted that I take him home, thankfully I was taping the event so the four or five minutes I missed were not a big deal.
As an actual event, the whole thing was themed around this Battle Royale for a trophy. They acted like this trophy was a big deal and as a kid I believed it was. Before the Battle Royal took place there were matches with the participants. The opening match between The Nasty Boys and The Rockers is a lot of fun and really the last high profile match The Rockers had without any major tension leading to their split. A hidden gem on this show is Tito Santana vs Ric Flair, this is a really solid match and one of the first times I saw Ric Flair actually wrestle a competitive match in the WWF when he first arrived.
His arrival came at a great time. You see this huge event that the WWF was putting on was happening without Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage or The Ultimate Warrior! The Legion of Doom, Roddy Piper, Texas Tornado, Hacksaw Jim Duggan, Undertaker and Big Boss Man were on the card so the event was not without star power, but it is interesting that none of the big three (well Warrior was canned and Savage was retired to be fair) were here.
The actual Battle Royal is rather anticlimactic in all honesty. I remember my grandfather saying that he was sure it was going to come down to The British Bulldog and Roddy Piper as the last two in an England vs Scotland thing which would have been cool. In the end, The British Bulldog won the battle royal by lastly eliminating Typhoon of all people. It was probably the most predictable win in the history of wrestling, but it was still fun to watch.
Do you guys have any memories of The Battle Royal at the Albert Hall? It is a pretty fun show and as I said the Tito Santana vs Ric Flair match is a bit of a hidden gem so give it a watch as it is on the Network.
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