WWF Royal Rumble 1990

WWF Royal Rumble 1990

Venue: Orlando, Florida

Date: 21/01/90

Attendance: 16,000

Commentators: Tony Schiavone & Jesse Ventura

The second annual Royal Rumble pay-per-view event took place in Orlando, Florida and helped set the scene for Wrestlemania VI. Tony Schiavone was on pay-per-view commentary duties for the second and last time in the WWF alongside Jesse "The Body" Ventura who himself would leave the Federation in 1990.

 

Ronnie Garvin manages to reverse Greg Valentine's figure four leg lock

Review

The Bushwackers defeated The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers in an extended version of the usual Bushwacker match which in fairness was ever so slightly better than normal, but still bad. Luke pinned Jacques after the Battering Ram, which by the way is one of the worst finishers of all time... Whatever match went on next couldn't lose, right? Wrong. The match between Brutus Beefcake and The Genius was dreadful and went to a double disqualification just to make matters worse. With the referee down Beefcake decided to give The Genius a haircut and despite facing the aisle somehow failed to see Mr Perfect running down and climbing in the ring to attack him. Perfect's chair assisted assault on "The Barber" at least set up their clash at Wrestlemania and prevented this match from being a complete waste of time...

 

Randy Savage nails Jake Roberts who is being held by Ted Dibiase

The Greg Valentine/Ronnie Garvin feud came to a head in a near 17-minute Submission Match won by Garvin with a Scorpion Deathlock/Sharpshooter (or "Reverse Figure Four" according to Tony Schiavone). This was a good, stiff grudge match that felt like it came straight out of Jim Crockett Promotions. On the flip side it was a bit sluggish in places and the repeated pin fall attempts made the participants look a bit stupid... Hacksaw Jim Duggan beat The Big Boss Man by disqualification in an acceptable brawl albeit with a cheap finish. Boss Man was much leaner at this point in his career and his performances were getting better and better. He was about to split from Slick and Akeem to become a popular babyface, while Duggan continued to be a one dimensional brawler yet still very popular himself. Boss Man nailed Duggan with his knight stick to signal the end of this one...

 

The Ultimate Warrior is about to level Haku

After an uninspiring undercard the Royal Rumble match itself was thankfully very good. In the most notable happenings... After managing to purchase the number thirty slot in the previous year's event, Ted Dibiase this time drew number one. That's karma I supposed. Dibiase saw off a couple of guys before Jake Roberts made his way down to a great ovation to face his arch enemy. Dibiase applied the Million Dollar Dream on the outside of the ring only for Roberts to counter it by ramming Dibiase (and himself) into the ringpost. Amazingly, this would also be their finish for their upcoming Wrestlemania grudge match... Randy Savage surprisingly didn't enjoy a long stay in the match as he was eliminated by Dusty Rhodes, with whom he was feuding... Rowdy Roddy Piper eliminated Bad News Brown only for Brown to then eliminate Piper and spark a brawl between the two in the aisle way...

 

Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior face off for the first time

Demolition and the Colossal Connection clashed ahead of their Wrestlemania title match... The Ultimate Warrior brought the house down by eliminating the Royal Rumble's first marathon man, Ted Dibiase... Hulk Hogan entered the match to a huge pop and it wasn't long before he and the Warrior were alone standing face-to-face in the ring. This was their first confrontation and it was wisely kept to a minimum leaving the fans wanting more. After a Hogan/Warrior stalemate, The Barbarian and Rick Rude attempted to dump Hogan but Warrior came to his aid. The heels then turned their attention to Warrior and had in him trouble before Hogan attempted to eliminate them both from behind but actually ended up only eliminating Warrior... In the end Hogan overcame Rick Rude and lastly Mr Perfect to win the match and send the fans home happy. Royal Rumble 1990 drew a disappointing 260,000 buys on pay-per-view.

The final two in the Royal Rumble: Hulk Hogan and Mr Perfect

Overall

After the first two Royal Rumbles were won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan and Big John Studd respectively I believe it was the right decision to have the WWF's top star win the 1990 match to legitimise the event as an important one. Considering the star power in the Rumble match, Hogan's victory only reaffirmed his status as number one in the fans' minds which would only make Warrior's upcoming victory at Wrestlemania look even more impressive. The rumble match also did a great job of furthering other feuds leading into Wrestlemania such as Dibiase/Roberts, Rhodes/Savage, Colossal Connection/Demolition and not forgetting Perfect/Beefcake from the undercard. If you've never seen this event then the Garvin/Valentine bout and the Royal Rumble match are worth your time, the rest is not.

Results

1 The Bushwackers def The Fabulous Rougeaus by pinfall (13:35) *

2 Brutus Beefcake fought The Genius to a double disqualification (11:07) 1/2

3 Ronnie Garvin def Greg Valentine in a submission match (16:55) **3/4

4 Jim Duggan def The Big Boss Man by disqualification (10:26) *3/4

5 Hulk Hogan won the Royal Rumble match (58:46) ***1/2

Rating

9.50/25 = 38% Rating

Star Rating Guide

*****   Excellent/World Class

****     Very Good

***        Good

**           OK/Acceptable

*             Poor

DUD       Abysmal

SQ          Squash (Less than 1 min)