Royal Rumble Eras

Just watched the ‘96 Rumble, empty seats everywhere.

I’m sure that’s been mentioned on Prichard’s podcast, can you sum up for me the reasons why business was bad? Is it as simple as loosing big names to WCW? 

Didn’t you have a huge conspiracy theory post about this on the main board either last year or the year prior?

After Summerslam 1991, when Ultimate Warrior was fired and Hulk Hogan left to make movies, to many, that was the end of the Hulkamania Era. Vince McMahon's steroid scandal made headlines and that was the only thing mainstream news would report about wrestling. The TV product was awful and guys like Duke the Dumpster and Isaac Yankem represented everything that was wrong with the New Generation Era. King Mabel was a headliner for multiple PPVs in 1995, Diesel was champion for almost the whole year and damn near put the company out of business.

I have been doing a re-watch of WWF and WCW starting January '95, and I just finished 1995 last week.  It was really interesting watching with fresh eyes vs what I remembered as a kid at the time.

You're spot on about the lack of compelling heels.  As 1995 wraps up, your title feud is Bret/Taker/Diesel, who are all still solidly babyfaces.  Michaels was basically a tweener or babyface the entire year, even though he was treated as a bit of a heel early in the year.  So beyond that?  You have Sid, a rushed and incoherent turn from Davey Boy, and Owen (who had been pushed through 94, and then sort of forgotten about until late 95, losing all momentum).  Yoko was still a top heel, but had put on too much weight to be able to wrestles in singles matches or do much beyond rest holds and one or two spots.  They tried and failed to build a new monster in Mabel.  Bam Bam went from main eventing WM as a heel to a random face turn, and then out of the picture in a matter of months.  And beyond that you had a rogues gallery of heels that popped up but were never built, who made up Bret Hart's year - feuds with Hakushi, Lawler, Yankem, Jean Pierre Lafitte.  It's a testament to how great a worker Bret is that he put on some really good matches with Hakushi and Jean Pierre.  Really good workers, but their characters had zero build to get over with the crowd.

The talent roster wasn't super deep, but the booking was also pretty bad and they misused a lot of the talent they had.  Diesel was pushed as this white meat babyface who gave these long-winded, morally righteous promos and was shown in packages at celebrity softball events.  Totally off-brand for the character.  There were too many wrestlers turning, and doing so with little to no build.  Hakushi, 123 Kid, BamBam, and Davey all had poorly executed turns that were tough to follow at times.  And they spent a ton of tv time and energy pushing guys like Savio Vega, Mabel, Henry Godwin.  PPV cards were filled with matches that didn't even have a feud behind them, and just felt thrown on the card, or were built exclusively on Superstars.  

Vince was using his same playbook that he had used for years, but the talent wasn't there to make it work or cover up the flaws.  By comparison, WCW's show felt fresh and still holds up decently today in terms of production, presentation, etc.  They were giving away free matches every week with top talent (Sting, Flair, some Hogan) with decisive finishes, were WWF was still doing a lot of DQ, count out, etc finishes in their weekly main events to build to PPV.  There were a handful of matches that I would call "good" on RAW throughout 95, and most of them didn't have a clean finish that really dinged the match for me.  But most of the show was straight up squash matches with jobbers still. WCW had good, competitive, matches with name wrestlers, solid undercard storylines, and an overall decent product that was bogged down at the top by the tail end of Hogan and the Dungeon of Doom feud.  But on the whole the show felt cool, energetic, and were airing live shows from all over the country with hot crowds.  WWF was taping 3/4 weeks at a time in some really small arenas with crowds who basically only came to life for Bret, HBK, and Burger King chants.  And you can totally feel that energy through the tv.

As a kid, 1995 WWF has a lot of fond memories for me.  But it was legitimately tough to re-watch.  It's bad tv.  And in that light, it's sort of amazing how much things turn around by 96/97.  

Agreed, WWF felt like they were still using the old formula of not showing too much on TV, which makes sense, but they didn't have the roster depth they use to have, and WCW was trying something new. I think things could have been better if Diesel was a heel champ and you had guys like HBK, Hitman, Davey Boy, and Luger chasing him, it may have been a little better. I also think they should have tried to push Bam Bam as a monster heel, I would have put him in Mabel's place. I really didn't see the WWF/Raw getting better until the summer of 1997, by then they had some new stars to go with their past stars and the storylines were getting better. The roster also seemed a little more balanced. 

I think the last Royal Rumble I truly enjoyed was the one where Austin and Triple H were gabbed by the Hurricane for a double choke slam before they tossed him.

2002.

1st signs HHHs reintroduction as a face character was starting to wear off(IMO).  Good RR though even though the winner was heavily telegraphed....the card itself was pretty great IIRC. Loved Flair vs McMahon

The last RR I really really enjoyed was RR2007...the final few moments between HBK & Undertaker were fantastic. Really loved the 2004 RR too. Love the ones where the winner isnt obvious.

Vince tearing his quads at the RR 2005 after Cena & Batista screwed up the ending was rolled gold....absolutely fantastic stuff LOL

Yeah that's a fair point but some years do offer some mystery.

1992
1994
1997
2004

Spring immediately to mind.