WWE Royal Rumble '89

WWE Royal Rumble ‘89
January 15, 1989
The Houston Summit
Houston, Texas

1989 was one of my favorite years ever for pro wrestling, and my only regret is that I was a fan to see it while it was happening, but as I mentioned in the previous recap, my mom wasn’t having any of it for a long time. This would be the first Royal Rumble held on PPV as the escalation of the inevitable breakup of the Mega Powers continues with this show. Some feuds though are in full force as the WrestleMania V card starts to take shape, like Snake-Andre, Rude-Warrior, and Demolition-Powers of Pain.

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and Jesse “The Body” Ventura

6 Man Tag Team Match – 2/3 Falls
Hart Foundation (Bret “The Hitman” Hart and Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart) and “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan vs. Fabulous Rougeaus (Jacques Rougeau and Raymond Rougeau) and Dino Bravo w/ “Mouth of the South” Jimmy Hart and Frenchy Martin

God I love the Rougeaus and Hart Foundation. This is one of my favorite matches for entertainment value as all 6 guys were bringing the goods. It’s 2 out of 3 falls so they get plenty of time here and they do not disappoint. Just the epitome of a fun match as the heels take the first fall, but the baby faces make the comeback in the 2nd fall, until finally it turns into a pier 6 brawl and Duggan nails Bravo with the 2 x 4 (I don’t know why I’m entertained by that foreign object spot so much) and Dino gets pinned. Crowd was loving every second of it and Gorilla and Jesse were at their absolute best on commentary. This one had a little bit of everything. ***1/2

Super Posedown
Ultimate Warrior vs. “Ravishing” Rick Rude w/ Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Not really a match, just a posedown here. I make mention of it because it sets off a feud that lasts for the better part of the next year and half between these two. It runs a little long, but it is very entertaining between Jesse giving a running commentary of the poses and Bobby kissing the crowd’s ass. It predictably ends with Rude attacking the Warrior and bingo bongo, you have your IC Title feud for the next 8 months. It’s basically what you might see on RAW or Smackdown these days, but just pure gold.

WWE Women’s Championship
Rockin’ Robin (champion) vs. Judy Martin

Sensational Sherri comes out at the beginning of the match and challenges the winner. She then graces us by joining Gorilla and Jesse on commentary for this match. I have the coliseum video version and this match is clipped down significantly and for good reason. Match was ok but it just goes on and on and on and on. Goes on for way too long. This would be the last women’s title match on PPV for several years as women’s wrestling was pretty much died off in North America at this time. ¼*

Crown Match
King Haku w/ Bobby Heenan vs. Harley Race

This would be King vs. Former King, and the irony of course is that Heenan managed both of them. Race had suffered a serious abdomen injury early in 1988 in match with Hulk Hogan and pretty much ruined his career. Race was King of the Ring at that time so Heenan crowned Haku in Race’s absence. Race came back and wants it back. For some reason this match is completely omitted from the coliseum video version of the show, but is included on the full PPV broadcasts of the anthology version. This is a pretty good match but the crowd is dead as it usually is in these heel vs. heel contests. Seeing Bobby cheer for both men during the match is funny though. Haku hits Race with his version of sweet chin music and pins him clean. This is Harley’s last hurrah in the WWE as his career was just never the same after the injury. ***

Main Event
Royal Rumble

This rumble is basically split up into thirds. Each third features 1 or 2 of the big players in 1988. The first third is dominated by Andre the Giant as he comes out #3, but not before Ax and Smash of Demolition come out #1 and #2 respectively. That was a very important moment in Rumble history because it truly establishes the main concept of the match which is that it’s every man for himself. The crowd is just loving every second of this match and explodes when Jake Roberts finally comes out and he goes after Andre, but gets eliminated right away. He would come back and throw in the snake and Andre eliminates himself progressing their feud. The 2nd third of the Rumble features the Mega Powers angle and it is brilliantly booked as Hogan and Savage are able to play off of Savage’s mini-feud with Bad News Brown. Hogan goes to eliminate Brown, but eliminates Savage in the process. Savage is understandably pissed and Miss Elizabeth has to come out and keep Hogan and Savage from killing each other. It’s some of the best storytelling of all time. For them to get to that edge of explosion but pulling back is the mark of 2 of the greats. One of the things that happened before the match was that the Million Dollar Man seemed to have bought himself a good number and it had something to do with the Twin Towers. Now I’m not sure how logically this would have worked but perception is reality and sure enough, the Twin Towers are out next and they work over Hogan and eliminate him. Almost as if Dibiase knew he had no chance of winning without getting rid of Hogan, so he paid off the Towers to do it for him. Anyway, Hogan and Bossman are still feuding so Hogan eliminates him and they brawl to the back. This brings us to the final 3rd of the match which of course features Ted Dibiase himself, who in fact, bought #30. The match gets down to Rick Martel, Ted Dibiase, Akeem, and the returning Big John Studd. Martel gets dumped quickly, and Akeem then starts to work Studd over with Dibiase basically just standing here. Crowd at this point is pretty burnt out and the match does lose some steam after the Mega Powers get eliminated. Anyway, Studd is able to eliminate Akeem, and have his way with Dibiase to with the Rumble. Kind of an underwhelming finish but I think they were hoping to do more with Big John Studd than they were able to. Still the first two thirds of the Rumble are absolute gold and brilliantly booked. The finish is underwhelming but it doesn’t take that much away as far as I’m concerned. Good rumble. ****

Final Analysis: Even watching it today I’m still entertained and amazed at the storylines and feuds. Unlike other PPV’s that feature way too many matches, this one could have stood to have another match on the undercard. They were forced to have a women’s title match for way too long (ok so it was about 7 minutes but it felt like 17), and the posedown probably lasted a bit long too. Those are very small complaints though. This is definitely a show worth checking out.