TOP 5 ROYAL RUMBLES

Have you seen any of the earlier rumbles? A.k.a. the golden years (1988-1993)? I have all eighteen Royal Rumbles on tape (the whole shows too). I like them all, it's hard to choose a top 5, but I think I listed my favorite Royal Rumbles in another post somewhere. If I remember correctly, here are my top five rumble matches, starting from #5-#1:
2001, 1992, 2004, 2005, 1991

5. 1991 - This might actually be my favorite, for all the iron-man performances this one had. Two guys went for 40+ minutes, five guys went for 30+ minutes, ten guys went for 20+ minutes, and twenty went for at least 10 or more. Plus the Undertaker debuts, still with Brother Love. Rick Martel gets the new longevity record, and Hulk Hogan cleans house again. 1991 was a great year, this whole ppv was great.

4. 2005 - There's just something about ring endurance that amazes me, even though the matches are booked. Maybe because I was a Cal Ripken fan and admired his 2,632 consecutive game streak from 1982-1998. Chris Benoit was again, brilliant in this one, entering at #2 and again outlasting all the entry numbers, only to be eliminated by Flair and Batista near the end. Edge and the little guy, Rey Mysterio entered #7 and 8 respectively and outlasted the remaining competition also and were in the final four. Chris Jericho and the #1 entrant, Eddie Guerrero, also did fine, going 28 minutes each.

This one was filled with a few surprises and neat spots too. Muhammad Hassan enters the ring and everyone gangs up on him and tosses him out, haha. Daniel Puder enters early and gets his chest chopped up like raw hamburger for about 5 minutes, pretty brutal. I bet Ric Flair wishes he had kept his #1 draw, hehe. Missed out on all the fun.

3. 2004 - This was great for a good number of reasons. Chris Benoit's first Royal Rumble, enters at #1, goes "coast to coast" to win getting the new longevity record. The very end when he somehow causes Big Show to go vertical, then fall out to the floor is incredible. Just about as good, or better, is when the bunch of five or six wrestlers near the end try to get the Big Show out, they each do their finishing maneuvers on him but they still can't pick him up, and he keeps shoving them all away which is pretty amazing.

Mick Foley also makes a surprise appearance in this, Randy Orton almost ****s himself after his music starts and he comes to the ring, and Foley eliminates both himself, and Orton, who had been in the ring over 30 minutes at that point (entered #2). What's really funny in this match, is how bad Nunzio gets beat up and tossed around and spear tackled. Goldberg really gets him, and it looked like it could have killed him. It was brutal. What's funnier though, is Nunzio sitting outside the ring for about 10 minutes before John Cena notices and throws him in, heh heh. Kurt Angle also did great in this one.

2. 1992 - Ric Flair's shining moment in the WWE (then WWF). This Royal Rumble match is so good it's unreal. It's like two different matches in one. The first half was very exciting, thanks to Davey Boy, Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, and especially Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon commentating. Flair does a couple of his famous "flops" which are hilarious to see. Big Bossman eliminates himself trying to get Flair with a running charge, and so Flair survives the 1st half.........

.....Then in the beginning of the 2nd half, Roddy Piper comes in, in probably one of the best segments of the entire match, crowd going nuts for Hot Rod going after Flair, they just ate it up. Then some more of the higher ranks start coming in (and in bunches), Jake Roberts, Jim Duggan, I.R.S., Undertaker, Macho Man, Rick Martel, Hogan, Sid Justice...what a star studded field! If no one knew that Flair was gonna win, you wouldn't know who was out of all this talent.

Flair outlasts them all, even Hogan and Sid, to win probably the greatest Royal Rumble ever, and breaking Rick Martel's longevity record from the previous year, going nearly 60 minutes!!! There is never a dull moment in this match, I could watch it over and over.

1. 2001 - While probably not the best rumble ever, it is my favorite one of them all. A couple iron-man performances (Kane, Rock) but that's it. But some of the other segments are the best I have seen. Matt & Jeff Hardy dominate the first 5 or 6 minutes of the match, they eliminate each other, then Drew Carey enters the match, Kane comes in next, and scares the hell outta him in a comedic spot. Drew offers him some $$$ but Kane says no way, then Drew eliminates himself after almost being choke-slammed. Heh heh I don't blame him.

Then we get the hardcore segment of the match, with trash cans, can lids, kendo sticks, bowling balls (!!!), and other good fun stuff. Then after that segment, after Kane had eliminated everyone in the ring, Honky Tonk Man comes down to the ring, and starts singing. Kane just stands there with his head cocked while HTM starts to sing. Kane grabs his guitar and smashes him over the head with it and shakes his head "NO," then tosses him out quickly. Haha great stuff so far.

Then the Rock enters, and things heat up again (for a few minutes anyway). The Big Show comes in as a surprise entrant a while later, and choke-slams EVERYONE in the ring at that point, including Kane. He tries to get the Rock but he blocks it, then clotheslines Show over the top rope!!! The crowd is just insane at this point!!! But Show pulls Rock out and puts him out (for a good 10 minutes or so), slamming him through a ringside announce table.

Undertaker then enters a few spots after Big Show did, and reunites with his "brother" Kane, and they prove to be just too much for Scotty 2 Hotty who has about a snowball's chance in hell. Stone Cold enters next, but Triple H comes out and beats the holy hell outta him before he even gets near the ring. Austin is a bloody mess before being officially in the match. He finally starts making his way back to the ring, Rikishi is walking down the aisle (drew #30), and grabs Austin but Steve fights back and pumps up the crowd and throws Rikishi in the ring, then Austin FINALLY enters the match.

It gets down to a point where it's the Rock, Stone Cold, and Kane remaining in the match, Kane gets thrown out through the ropes so he's still in it. Rock is sitting in one corner, and Austin in another (bleeding heavily), and they lock eyes. They slowly stand up, staring at each other. Austin with an evil smile on his face (along with the blood) as if he were the devil. Then they proceed to trade punches with each other like Rocky and Apollo Creed did in Rocky I and II. This would be a prelude to their incredible match at Wrestlemania 17 that year.

Kane gets back in the ring, Austin is trying to eliminate Rock on the other side, Kane tries to dump them both, but only gets the Rock. Then it's down to Kane and Austin, and one of the greatest final moments of any royal rumble match. Kane gets some good blows in, and a choke-slam on Austin, but Steve comes back with the Stunner but Kane is flat on the mat. Austin goes to grab a steel chair and whacks Kane with it a few times after he gets up but he won't go down, but Kane is near the ropes, Austin gets a good run and smacks Kane right over the top outta the ring to win!!!!! Incredible rumble match!!!!!!

Sure it had some slow spots but those other segments sure made up for it. Whew I'm done with my top 5!!!

This is my signature, nice eh?

I'll rank the ones I've seen.

6) 2003 - Started off OK, but towards the end there were way too many people in the ring. Jericho was a real standout here I found.

5) 2001 - Good match. Kane did an awesome job, but I suppose giving it to Stone Cold was the way to go. Good work by The Rock as well, not to mention the setup of the main event at WM X7.

4) 2005 - A great match, with great performances all around. The Raw vs Smackdown motif was especially noticeable, which isn't a bad thing; the fans ate it up. Great work here from Guerrero, Benoit, Mysterio and Edge. The finish was kinda stupid though.

3) 2002 - The only real complaint about this one I have is the lack of iron-man performances. The final 4 were all in for around 20 minutes, but a couple 40 or so minute turns would have made it even better. Also, Maven eliminating Taker is one of the greatest and most surprising moments ever.

2) 1992 - Two words: Ric Flair. The Nature Boy gives the best Rumble performance I've seen, and Bobby Heenan's commentary is nothing short of classic. Every time he says "This isn't fair to Flair!" I crack up. Roddy Piper does a good job here too, and his entrance is great. 'Oh no! Of all the people! THIS ISN'T FAIR TO FLAIR!" Brilliant.

1) 2004 - So many great moments here. Bradshaw clotheslining the hell out of everyone, Taker's gong, Foley coming back... I really liked the end, where Show gets nailed by everyone and they try to get him out, but he ends up eliminating them all. The last few moments are really tense, as we think it's Benoit that's going out, when in fact Show is last out. All in all, a great match, good performances from Orton, Angle, Show, and of course Benoit. Glad to see Chris finally make it.

A single spark can start a spectral fire.