A review...
I bought this on Ebay for $40 a year or two ago. It is extremely rare. My copy even has all the commercials from the USA Network on it! It was sure worth it though. It was the beginning of something really, really good!
I don't remember all the matches on it (unless I watch it again), but I'll review some of them.
The opening match was Ricky "the Dragon" Steamboat against "Ravishing" Rick Rude, although I don't believe he was the Ravishing one yet (this was January 1988). He could have been. I don't remember. I DO remember that this is a rather long match, over 17 minutes, but solid. I used to watch Steamboat all the time in the 80s, he was my favorite. The Steamer ends up with the victory.
There's a 2/3 fall women's match, The Jumping Bomb Angels against a team I forget at the moment. I think Lelani Kai was one of the other women. A rather exciting match, and those Angels looked pretty good, in both the ring and their attire! Guess who wins!? Heh heh.
Then there's a ridiculously long bench press segment with Dino Bravo (who later competes in the Rumble). He ultimately benches over 700 pounds (with a little help from Jesse Ventura). This skit goes over 20 minutes. Interesting to watch if you never saw it before, hit the fast forward button if you have, heh heh.
The first ever Royal Rumble---
This one was only a 20-man because of some time restraints, but they could've done without the final 2/3 fall match Islanders vs. the Young Stallions which wasn't really good. Oh well.
Bret Hart has #1 and Tito Santana #2, first entrants ever. Jake Roberts comes in at #5 and blows the roof off (really!). He helps Santana who was getting beat on by Bret, Butch Reed, and Jim Neidhart. The crowd goes NUTS I tell you! Not really alot goes on the next couple of entrance numbers but it ain't bad I guess.
Jim Duggan comes in at #13 and proceeds to win the 1988 Royal Rumble! Ultimate Warrior comes in #18 but that was before he was super-popular. He doesn't last four minutes. One Man Gang (Akeem) enters at #19 and is the dominant force, eliminating 5 guys by himself and helping someone eliminate another.
It's down to Duggan and One Man Gang at the end, Duggan is on the ropes, Gang charges, and Duggan pulls the ropes down to cause OMG to topple over and hit the floor!
WINNER: "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
Here's the top 5 in endurance for the inagural Rumble:
#1 Bret Hart ----- 25:44
#5 Jake Roberts -- 21:52
#4 Jim Neidhart -- 19:04
#9 Danny Davis --- 17:51
#11 Don Muraco --- 16:15
rest of 10+ minutes:
#13 Jim Duggan ------ 14:42
#8 Sam Houston ------ 14:39
#7 Jim Brunzell ----- 12:05
#12 Nikolai Volkoff - 11:40
#2 Tito Santana ----- 10:43
#14 Ron Bass -------- 10:14
#6 Harley Race ------ 10:03
See you in 1989..... heh heh.