WWF Royal Rumble 1991
Venue: Miami, Florida
Date: 19/01/91
Attendance: 16,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Rowdy Roddy Piper
The 1991 Royal Rumble took place just days after the start of Operation Desert Storm where coalition forces entered into battle as part of the Gulf War and with heavy U.S. involvement the show began with the playing of the Star-Spangled Banner. However the World Wrestling Federation was gaining lots of negative press for portraying Sergeant Slaughter as an Iraqi sympathiser who had turned his back on the United States. Many deemed this as extremely distasteful exploitation of a war that would claim many lives. Undeterred, the WWF installed Slaughter as the number one contender to the Ultimate Warrior's WWF Heavyweight Title in order to capitalise on the very real events in the Middle East thus making Slaughter a red hot heel (for a short time at least).
Review
The Rockers defeated The Orient Express in a superb opening bout featuring lots of innovative sequences and manoeuvres. The Express' Sato had been replaced by Kato who was Paul Diamond under a mask. Diamond and Tanaka had teamed previously as Bad Company in the AWA and were familiar with The (Midnight) Rockers who they'd faced many times. The two teams clearly had great chemistry and the Miami crowd was hot for this exciting tag team contest...
Sensational Queen Sherri called out the Ultimate Warrior in an attempt to persuade the champion to grant Randy Savage a title shot should he defeat Sgt Slaughter later in the evening. She tried insulting, flirting and begging but to no avail as Warrior flat out refused. Savage's reaction was fantastic...
Next up the Big Boss Man continued his war against the Heenan Family as he pinned The Barbarian in a surprisingly good encounter. Boss Man was at his peak as a worker around this time and The Barbarian was also able to pull out good matches in the right circumstances. Intercontinental Champion Mr Perfect would be next in line for the Big Boss Man at WrestleMania...
Sgt Slaughter defeated the Ultimate Warrior to become the new WWF Heavyweight Champion in a super-heated title match with lots of help from Randy Savage and Sherri. There was not much in the way of wrestling but the match told a great story as a bitter and vengeful Savage ensured Warrior would not leave the Royal Rumble as champion. After interfering early in the match Warrior chased Sherri away from ringside only to be blindsided by Savage while Slaughter distracted the referee. Warrior managed to make his way back to the ring where Slaughter was able to capitalise. Just as it looked like Warrior was making a comeback Sherri and Savage returned to ringside and Savage smashed a sceptre over Warrior's head allowing Slaughter to take the championship. Gorilla Monsoon and Roddy Piper's outrage on commentary only added to the drama. While Slaughter's offense continued to look weak it must be said he was excellent at selling a beating. Warrior and Savage were on a collision course set for WrestleMania...
Jacques Rougeau had recently been repackaged as The Mountie and was a bit more serious at this point as opposed to the comedy character he would later become. Mountie beat Koko B Ware in a boring contest that went too long. The crowd were obviously deflated after Warrior's shock title loss but I can't believe this bout would've been much better received had it been placed after the Boss Man/Barbarian match. The best part was Jimmy Hart talking trash to Frankie when Mountie was on the offense. This match did not appear on the original video release of the event, which was not a bad thing...
The Ted Dibiase/Dusty Rhodes feud came to an end as Dibiase teamed with his bodyguard Virgil to face Rhodes and his son Dustin. The younger Rhodes took a beating for a big chunk of the bout until Dusty was finally able to tag in but he was easily beaten by Dibiase which was understandable as the American Dream was just about to return to WCW. The real story in this match though was a tremendous post match angle between Dibiase and Virgil. After finally having enough of being treated so appallingly by his employer, Virgil knocked out Dibiase with the Million Dollar belt and left the arena to a huge ovation...
The Royal Rumble match itself was entertaining although it lacked in big memorable moments. Rick Martel became the new record holder for endurance clocking in with over 52 minutes and there were good showings for Bret Hart, a young Shane Douglas and the returning British Bulldog. Randy Savage would not appear as scheduled as he was run out of the building by the Ultimate Warrior. Hulk Hogan won the match for the second year running by lastly eliminating Earthquake. Hogan would now become the number one contender to face Sgt Slaughter at WrestleMania VII.
Overall
A really good show that tends to be remembered for the Ultimate Warrior's dramatic title loss to Sgt Slaughter but every match on the card is worthwhile (well, except one) and set the scene nicely for WrestleMania VII. With 440,000 buys on pay-per-view, this would be the highest drawing Royal Rumble until 1999.
Results
1 The Rockers def The Orient Express by pinfall (19:15) ****
2 The Big Boss Man pinned The Barbarian (14:15) ***
3 Sgt Slaughter pinned The Ultimate Warrior (c) to win the WWF Heavyweight Title (12:47) ***
4 The Mountie pinned Koko B Ware (9:12) *
5 Ted Dibiase & Virgil def Dusty Rhodes & Dustin Rhodes (9:57) **1/2
6 Hulk Hogan won the Royal Rumble match (65:17) ***
Rating
16.50/30 = 55%
Star Rating Guide
***** Excellent/World Class
**** Very Good
*** Good
** OK/Acceptable
* Poor
DUD Abysmal
SQ Squash (Less than 1 min)
Two things of note:
ReplyDelete1.One negative that had been clearly showing for the first four Rumble matches was that it sorely needed a prize.
In hindsight, it was obvious that Hogan would be facing Slaughter, but heading into this show it wasn't, and the Rumble match still just had pride on the line. Vince would tweak things in a big way in time for the next two Rumbles, and that was a good thing, as the concept was getting a tad stale with nothing on the line.
2.This was Tony Atlas' only WWF PPV appearance as Saba Simba, and his final PPV appearance until The Great American Bash 2008 when he would become Mark Henry's manager.