Royal Rumble (1992)

Royal Rumble (1992)
Promotional poster
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	January 19, 1992
City	Albany, New York
Venue	Knickerbocker Arena
Attendance	17,000
Tagline(s)	"Every Man for Himself!"
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous This Tuesday in Texas Next → WrestleMania VIII
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous Royal Rumble (1991) Next → Royal Rumble (1993)

Royal Rumble (1992) was the fifth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York.

The main event, as in past Royal Rumble events, was the event's namesake match. It is historic because for the first time in the WWF, the last man standing would win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been vacated in December 1991. This man was Ric Flair, who eliminated Sid Justice with the help of Hulk Hogan from the outside. Featured matches on the undercard were The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) versus The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) for the WWF Tag Team Championship, The Beverly Brothers (Blake Beverly and Beau Beverly) versus The Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch) and Roddy Piper versus The Mountie for the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

Background

The pay-per-view featured the annual Royal Rumble match, which has been featured at every Royal Rumble event since its inception. It features 30 wrestlers, and the match ends when one wrestler remains in the ring, after all 29 other wrestlers have been eliminated via being tossed over the top ring rope and having both feet touch the floor.^[1]

Prior to the event, it was announced the winner of the Royal Rumble would win the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Title, which had been stripped from Hulk Hogan after two controversial title switches between Hogan and the Undertaker, first at the 1991 Survivor Series and later at the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event. Hogan and Undertaker were among the 30 entrants in the event. WWF President Jack Tunney gave Hogan and Undertaker an advantage in the random draw to determine the order in which wrestlers would enter the ring, promising them numbers between 20 and 30.^[2]

The Royal Rumble match helped begin Justice's slow-building turn into a villain. Justice – who was returning from a recent injury – entered at No. 29 and was among the final four wrestlers, along with Hogan, Randy Savage and Flair. Justice eliminated Savage and then Hogan, leaving himself and Flair in the ring. During the initial live pay-per-view broadcast, Justice's elimination of Hogan was loudly cheered by the audience in attendance even though, as per storyline plans, Sid "sneaked up from behind" to throw Hogan out. As such, the original reaction was edited out of future television replays as well as the Coliseum home video release of the event, with play-by-play announcer Gorilla Monsoon adding new comments condemning Sid for his actions (Monsoon had originally said Justice's elimination of Hogan was fair). Hogan, who was still at ringside after being eliminated, grabbed Sid's arm and distracted him long enough for Flair to eliminate him to win the match and become the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Sid and Hogan got into an argument in the ring and had to be separated by security.

In his book, To Be The Man, Ric Flair mentions not knowing he was going to be winning the Royal Rumble (WWF Title) until arriving at the arena the day of the event, and also felt he was brought in at #3 in order to showcase his skills and endurance to the WWF audience, who may not have watched his work in JCP/WCW. Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan mentioned in his autobiography, Bobby The Brain, that it was his initial suggestion that Flair enter the Rumble at #1 for dramatic purposes, and that Vince McMahon changed it to #3 and claimed it as his own idea.

Aftermath

The confrontation between Hogan and Justice was played out over a series of future WWF television programs. On the Superstars program aired January 25, 1992, WWF President Jack Tunney held a press conference, where he announced that Hogan would face Flair for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VIII. Justice, who was also in attendance and began standing up as if Tunney were about to proclaim him the top contender, was outraged and termed the announcement "the most bogus act Jack Tunney has ever pulled off." Sid later apologized and Hogan accepted, but on the February 8 edition of Saturday Night's Main Event, Justice abandoned Hogan during a tag-team match against Flair and The Undertaker, completing his heel turn and leading to a match at WrestleMania VIII.

Flair, meanwhile, began feuding with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had a previous relationship with Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth in which Flair had himself superimposed. This culminated in a title match at WrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second (and final) WWF World Heavyweight Championship.^[3][4][5]

This was the first Royal Rumble in which stakes were involved for the winner -- the stipulation in which the winner would face the WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania first took place at the following year's event. It would be 24 years before the Royal Rumble was again for the (now) WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and the first match in which the champion -- Roman Reigns -- defended his title in the Rumble match. That match was won by Triple H.

Results

References

External links

• Official website