WWE Royal Rumble '93

WWE Royal Rumble ‘93
January 24, 1993
Arco Arena
Sacramento, California

By 1993 as a fan I was finally starting to get used to the WWE without Hulk Hogan. Little did I know that he would be back soon enough anyway, but in January 1993 I was an excited young fan for some of the newer stars. I had always been a Bret Hart and Randy Savage mark, but I was beginning to enjoy some of the great matches from Shawn Michaels and was very wary of the monster Yokozuna and what he might bring to the table. This was the first PPV I ever ordered and watched live so naturally I was pumped. My hope going in was that someone other than Yokozuna would win the Rumble.

Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan

Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott) vs. Beverly Brothers (Beau and Blake)
Incidentally this would be the last WWE PPV that Heenan and Monsoon would commentate as a duo. This saddens me today, as they were my favorite commentating team and it’s such a breath of fresh air to watch these old shows as opposed to having to listen to Michael Cole and Jerry Lawler fumble through a 3 hour show. This was the PPV debut of the Steiner Brothers. I watched a lot of WCW at this time too, and they were my favorite WCW tag team. From 1989-1992, I’m not sure there was a better tag team from a work rate standpoint. They were unbelievable with their athleticism particularly Scott, and they could match power for power in a believable way with some of the bigger teams as well. The Beverly’s were pretty much all but done at this point so they were being fed to the Steiners. Match was ok, but seemed like both teams were dogging it a little here. The Steiners just never were the same awesome team they were in WWE although they had some nice moments. Scotty hits a frankensteiner for the finish here. *1/2

IC Championship
Shawn Michaels (champion) vs. Marty Jannetty
Shortly before Shawn won the IC title off of Davey Boy Smith, Marty made a surprise return. He took Shawn’s mirror that he would admire himself in from Sherri and try to blast Shawn with it, but ended up hitting Sherri instead. This added to the Shawn-Sherri breakup because Shawn pulled Sherri in front of him to protect himself. So Sherri is in a neutral corner for this match and none too pleased with Shawn. This was a match a year in the making and quite honestly, this match would have been hyped up better with today’s hype machine (assuming they hadn’t already screwed the pooch on the angle and actually remembered that these guys were former tag team partners). The match was rather disappointing considering the two guys involved. Legend has it that Marty was pretty much coked out of his mind and was fired almost immediately after the match by Vince. The ending was pretty predictable as Sherri took off her shoe and went to blast Shawn, but he ducked and she nailed Marty instead which allowed Shawn to get the win and retain. They would go onto have a couple REALLY good RAW matches in May and June of 1993. The one in May would win the Wrestling Observer’s match of the year (even though the one June was better and also Hart vs. Perfect at King of the Ring was supremely better than both, as were a number of WCW matches). This match was just the first of many. Really disappointed that they couldn’t tap into the raw emotion here. ***1/4

Bam Bam Bigelow vs. Big Bossman
Bossman was on his way out and Bam Bam was just back in here so this was a nice way to put Bam Bam over as a big time heel. Bam Bam would be carrying house show main events with Bret Hart through much of the latter parts of the winter so he had to be kept strong. Decent little big man vs. big man match here as Bam Bam is incredibly athletic and Bossman isn’t a slouch either. Sad to think that both guys are no longer with us now. Bam Bam wins here with his flying head-butt. *3/4

WWE Championship
Bret “The Hitman” Hart (champion) vs. Razor Ramon
I always thought that even in defeat here Razor would come out pretty good. He was being pushed as the #1 heel (a spot being warmed for Yokozuna) and he did a nice job building this match as being big. He insulted Bret’s family, and attacked Owen, so going into the match, it had some nice heat. Everyone says that Razor was still “green” here, even though he had been a pro for a long time before he entered WWE. This was a nice match, but could have been a lot better. Like the IC title match, I came away rather disappointed. Bret won by submission in the sharpshooter in a rather cool way. He locked his legs while they were both on their backs and then twisted him over. I was marking out as a youngster. Match had so much more potential. ***1/4

30 Man Royal Rumble
This match already had the tall task of trying to follow the greatness of the 1992 Rumble. It was a feat that many of the Rumble’s in the 90’s failed at doing. Going into the Rumble I viewed Randy Savage and Undertaker as the only possible winners besides the mighty Yokozuna. I also thought Ric Flair had an outside chance as well to have a big rematch with Bret at WrestleMania, but without the internet I had no idea that Ric was going to be in WCW shortly after this. Mr. Perfect was another possibility as well. Flair came out #1, and Bob Backlund came out #2. Backlund would be in the final four setting a record that would last for several years. Flair put over Perfect by getting tossed out by him. Interestingly enough it looked like a lot of guys didn’t like Jerry “The King” Lawler who was making his PPV debut, as they all took cheap shots. Lawler was going after Flair, which made no sense whatsoever. Always wondered if it was to be booked like that or not. Undertaker comes out and pretty much cleans house until Giant Gonzalez showed up and gave Undertaker a beat down the likes we have never seen before. Unfortunately this led to actual matches between the Undertaker and Gonzalez and they weren’t quite as impressive as the debut here. The best one on one showdown of the match was Yokozuna against Earthquake. Yokozuna won that battle and one by one the “Bigger and stronger” guys that I thought could eliminate Yoko were being eliminated. At one point all of the guys in the ring ganged up on Yoko to try and get him over, but were unsuccessful. It finally wound down to Yokozuna, Randy Savage, and Bob Backlund. Backlund valiantly tried, but was pretty much tossed away like yesterday’s garbage. This left my only hope, Randy Savage. Savage battled hard and eventually got Yokozuna off of his feet. He hit the flying elbow drop, but in one of the dumbest moments in Royal Rumble history, attempted to cover Yoko, and Yoko bench pressed him over the top rope for the win. This was pretty anticlimactic and I was completely devastated at the time because I thought Bret Hart’s reign would for sure come to an end at WrestleMania IX now. As bad as the finish was, the drama and psychology of the match was pretty good, and I enjoyed the Rumble quite a bit. ****

Final Analysis: Overall this was a decent show that had much more potential with the two title matches being a bit underwhelming. Which that is what happened in the Rumble match as well. Looking back, I guess the booking made sense especially with Hogan apparently coming back too (and what they were going for). I would’ve loved to have seen Savage win here though and put Bret over at WrestleMania, but that wasn’t in the cards. 1993 was a year that Vince could’ve really taken some chances but just never did.