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Post by hbkjason on Jan 15, 2020 16:07:54 GMT -5
Wrestling Memories: Royal Rumble 1991
I have a huge smile on my face as I write this as this is one of my all time favorite PPV events the WWF/E ever produced. The 1991 Royal Rumble was huge for me and an event that I watched so many times that the tape I had recorded off Sky Movies here in the UK (WWF PPV’s were on Sky Movies in the early days) that the tape gave out on me. I love the intro to this Rumble and while it was done on other Rumbles, 1991 did it best in my opinion. When the 1991 Royal Rumble took place, I had been back at school for a short while after Christmas break of 1990. I would soon get two extra weeks off school, which I spent most of that extra time playing with the WWF Hasbro ring I got for Christmas, along with the remaining figures I needed and watching Royal Rumble 1991 on a pretty much daily basis! Two things, one Hasbro figures were 100 percent available in the UK in 1990. I have had people debate this with me until they were blue in the face, but I 110, no 210 percent know that I had the full set by the end of 1990. Second, I was off school as I did a cartwheel in the living room and smashed my foot off the side of our old huge console TV and broke three of my toes! Anyway, Royal Rumble 1991 was such a fun event. The opening match with The Rockers and The Orient Express is my all-time favorite opening match of any show. These two faced each other many times and I was lucky enough to even see them compete live later in 1991 at the UK Rampage. Their match here though was them at their absolute best. I loved The Rockers and thought that they were awesome and The Orient Express and The Brain Busters were my favorite opponents of theirs. The ending sequence of this match is really creative and it blew my mind as a kid. I would rewind the tape over and over again to figure out how they did it! It always bugged me that I never got wrestling figures of The Orient Express when I was a kid! Another match on this show that is far better than you would think is Big Boss Man vs The Barbarian. These two went at it like two bulls and it was a lot of fun to watch. I really enjoyed the Boss Man’s feud with the Heenan Family and for me, this is the best of all the matches he had with the Heenan Family members. This match also had a really creative finish and I thought it was super cool the way the Boss Man revered the cross body block. The next match I want to talk about is actually the last before the Rumble and that is Ted Dibiase and Virgil going against Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. The actual match to be honest with you is pretty good, but it is the way Virgil after the better part of half a decade said that enough was enough and decided to stand up for himself that was awesome. The people went nuts for this and so did I at home…. And I freaking hated Virgil! They did such a great job here with Roddy Piper talking about how he was friends with Virgil and it kind of “humanized” him a bit before they gave him the face turn.The main event of the Royal Rumble 1991 was Ultimate Warrior vs Sgt Slaughter for the WWF Championship. I have said it many times, but Ultimate Warrior was my hero as a kid and there was no way in hell that he was losing the title to Sgt freaking Slaughter! I was 100 percent sure that Warrior would kick his butt. Before this, though we get this super weird and uncomfortable interview where Sensational Queen Sheri tries to get the Macho King a championship match. As a kid I found this whole thing, very, very, very strange and watching it now it is just as strange, but seeing Savage lose his mind backstage and running out was something I thought was cool. To be honest, as a 9 year old kid I never for one minute thought anything about this and that Savage would get involved with the title match later. Slaughter and Warrior had a great match and it is another example of the Warrior being a far better wrestler than people give him credit for. I was on the edge of my seat for this match and he was just beating the hell out of Sgt Slaughter. When Sheri came down and distracted him I was mad as hell and it was great to see him chase her away… until the Macho King came out of nowhere and put a real beating on the Warrior. This was very well done, but the Warrior was still out. Many people remember the Warrior getting smashed in the head with the scepter, but I thought the knee Slaughter gave Warrior in the back before this happened looked super stiff and even more brutal than the shot from the pesky foreign object he got. I just kind of sat there in shock as Slaughter was announced as the new WWF Champion! The actual Royal Rumble was a great deal of fun and while many prefer the 1992 Royal Rumble, 1991 is my favorite. My pick to win the match was Texas Tornado. I was a huge fan of his and felt that after his run as Intercontinental Champion, he had what it took to win the Royal Rumble, ah to be young and actually believe “anyone can win the Royal Rumble”. One thing that I loved is how the managers were allowed at ringside, this made things even more fun and I liked the management roster the WWF had at this time. I thought that the British Bulldog had a hell of a run during this Rumble and after Kerry Von Erich was eliminated, he was my hope to win! Of course, it would be Hulk Hogan that would win (after Savage failed to enter, I consider this a tainted Rumble win!) for the second year running. We also had the hilarious spot of Butch the Bushwhacker walking in and getting thrown straight out. Which because of this I feel for the last 15 Rumbles or so the WWE has been trying way to hard to have a comedy spot in the Rumble match. I love this show and I have probably watched this event more than any other. Right from the start with that iconic Royal Rumble intro, this is a PPV that does not slow down. It is just so much fun to watch and it is an event that I will never get tired of. What are you guys' thoughts on the 1991 Royal Rumble and where do you rank it in your top Royal Rumble events? |
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Post by The Brain on Jan 15, 2020 16:31:12 GMT -5
The opening match between Rockers/Express was fantastic. The best opener in the events history IMO.
The Virgil face turn was well done. Piper going nuts on commentary just adds to it.
Boss Man/Barbarian was a decent big man match. I really liked the feud between Boss Man and Heenan Family. Long one as well as it started in the Fall of 90 and lasted until March 91.
The World Title match was ehh but great story telling with Savage costing Warrior the belt after Warrior told Sherri ''NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! on a title match request earlier in the show.Nice touch with Warrior running Savage out the building.
Rumble match was solid overall.To me its ranked 3 behind 92 and 90. I'll never forget Piper's line on Martel being in there a long time'' Forget Arrogance, He's modeling in endurance!''
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Post by MKSavage on Jan 15, 2020 16:50:52 GMT -5
This was one of my favorite PPVs from when I was young. All of the matches were very good with the Rockers/Express being the best. The babyface turn for Virgil was great and the crowd popped really loud for it. My only gripe with the event is that Savage wasn't in the Rumble. It would have been nice if he was in the Rumble match and then have Warrior come down, eliminate him, then chase him out of the building for all to see. I'm with The Brain , I think this is probably my 3rd favorite Rumble behind 1992 and 1990 but ahead of 1994 and 2002. It may have been higher had Savage entered. Also, compared to 1990 and 1992, this one had a weaker final four (1991-Hogan,Quake,Knobbs,Bulldog, 1990-Hogan,Perfect,Rude,Herc, 1992-Hogan,Savage,Flair,Sid). |
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Post by LA Times on Jan 15, 2020 19:58:30 GMT -5
The Royal Rumble match itself was really well done and I was glad to see Shane Douglas last a while in there even though he was a curtain jerker at the time. hbkjason Texas Tornado shouldve been allowed to reenter the Rumble after getting thrown out because both feet have to touch the floor  |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 15, 2020 20:08:28 GMT -5
great write up again brotha!
was a good event, but not one of my favs. just wasnt into the whole year much. alot changed from 89/90. the rockers/orient ex match was awesome. virgil turn was cool. i did think this was one warriors better performances and he looked great in the usa colors. was kinda shocked sgt won the belt tho. kinda made realize they were gonna give hogan the rumble win to build up america vs iraq thing. prior to that i thought maybe mr perfect or earthquake, possibly savage were gonna get the rumble win. after warrior lost i knew it was gonna be hogan. which i liked too, but wanted someone else to get a rumble win since he won last year.
i rate this rumble #7 behind 92,90,89,93,02,94
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Post by hbkjason on Jan 16, 2020 2:05:48 GMT -5
Thanks for all the comments guys, was very interesting to read your thoughts and rankings of your Royal Rumbles. Also, I love the idea of Savage entering the Rumble and Warrior chasing him out. As far as ranking Royal Rumble events goes my order would be this, Royal Rumble 1991 Royal Rumble 1992 Royal Rumble 1990 Royal Rumble 1996 Royal Rumble 2002 Thanks again for taking the time to read my post and comment |
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Post by The Brain on Jan 16, 2020 18:00:40 GMT -5
Couldn't resist.... 
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Post by hbkjason on Jan 17, 2020 2:11:22 GMT -5
Couldn't resist....
It's the way he doesn't even break his stride that I love  |
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Post by hbkbigdaddycool on Jan 17, 2020 12:40:30 GMT -5
Royal Rumble 91 is a great event!
Every match on the card had a meaning to it. Even the Mountie vs. Koko B. Ware. That match was to show that the Mountie was to be taken as a threat.
Just a fun show over all. I watched it more times than I care to admit when I was a kid on my VHS tape.
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Post by The Brain on Jan 17, 2020 16:48:58 GMT -5
Royal Rumble 91 is a great event! Every match on the card had a meaning to it. Even the Mountie vs. Koko B. Ware. That match was to show that the Mountie was to be taken as a threat. Just a fun show over all. I watched it more times than I care to admit when I was a kid on my VHS tape. I remember being disappointed when Coliseum Video axed the Mountie match haha |
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Post by Deleted on Jan 19, 2020 0:06:17 GMT -5
great write up again brotha! was a good event, but not one of my favs. just wasnt into the whole year much. alot changed from 89/90. the rockers/orient ex match was awesome. virgil turn was cool. i did think this was one warriors better performances and he looked great in the usa colors. was kinda shocked sgt won the belt tho. kinda made realize they were gonna give hogan the rumble win to build up america vs iraq thing. prior to that i thought maybe mr perfect or earthquake, possibly savage were gonna get the rumble win. after warrior lost i knew it was gonna be hogan. which i liked too, but wanted someone else to get a rumble win since he won last year. i rate this rumble #7 behind 92,90,89,93,02,94 My top 5 Royal Rumble events... 1) 1992 2) 1989 3) 1988 4) 1994 5) 1991 The show on topic happened a couple of months before I became an avid wrestling fan so I didn’t see it as it happened. It was a great show! Not much bad on it. The Randy Savage figure with his attire from this show is now out. |
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jason1980s
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Post by jason1980s on Jan 19, 2020 13:12:53 GMT -5
This was such a great time to be a fan. I do think the star quality was down considerably from the year before but it was still good. I wish every year had interviews with almost all the participants like 1990 did. Just a few guys did short segments in 1991 and just a few in 1992. Then after that it seemed less and less you would see the segments.
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PVA
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Post by PVA on Jan 20, 2020 10:31:22 GMT -5
I like the 91 undercard a good bit but the rumble itself wasn’t that good.
1990 & 1992 rumble matches are top 5 all time rumbles.
Warrior/Slaughter never gets a lot of praise because it isn’t a great match but it was entertaining and setup wrestlemania main events
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