WWF Royal Rumble 1993

WWF Royal Rumble 1993
Venue: Sacramento, California
Date: 24/1/93
Attendance: 16,000
Commentators: Gorilla Monsoon & Bobby Heenan


The fifth annual WWF Royal Rumble pay-per-view took place in Sacramento, California and was headlined by Bret Hart's WWF title defence against Razor Ramon and of course, the Royal Rumble match itself. This would also be the final PPV that Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan would call together.

Review

The Steiner Brothers made their WWF PPV debut with a victory over The Beverly Brothers in a good opening match. Rick & Scott got a great reaction from the WWF fan base proving they did watch the competition's product... Shawn Michaels pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the Intercontinental Title after Sherri accidentally hit Jannetty in the face with her shoe. Sherri's hysterics after the bout were very believable as she sold being distraught over her miscue. The match may not quite have been the high flying spectacle some expected from the former Rockers but was actually a very good contest featuring a mixture of cool manoeuvres and good wrestling. This match was about a year later than it should have been due to Jannetty being fired and their planned rematch at Wrestlemania IX had to be scrapped as well with Jannetty being dismissed once again...

Bam Bam Bigelow made his first WWF PPV appearance in over five years as he defeated The Big Boss Man. Boss Man was on his way out of the company and did the clean job here. The match wasn't much cop (no pun intended)... Unlike at Survivor Series Bret Hart's WWF Heavyweight Title felt like it might be under threat as he faced Razor Ramon who had attacked Owen Hart to help build heat for this one. Like Michaels/Jannetty this was another very good bout with good heat. Hart went over by submission with not the best applied Sharpshooter. Ramon would be permanently dropped to the upper mid-card after this.

Lex Luger debuted as "Narcissus" (later changed to "The Narcissist" Lex Luger) after the WBF went down the pan. The story was that Bobby Heenan had brought in Luger to take care of Mr Perfect who had turned on him and Ric Flair back in November.

The Royal Rumble match was easily the worst to date and was massively lacking in star power especially compared to previous years. Bob Backlund, who was completely lacking in charisma (at least until he discovered his crazed heel gimmick in late 1994) was chosen as the man to break Flair's longevity record. The trouble was Backlund had no chance in carrying the match in the way Flair had done in 1992. His style was very awkward and dated and he was not over in the slightest. Flair did a decent job early on. His showdown with Perfect, although brief, was one of the few highlights of the match. Perfect was inexplicably eliminated like a mid-carder soon after. Giant Gonzales' debut was at least intriguing as he laid waste to The Undertaker and eliminated him despite not being in the match. The match came down to Yokozuna and Randy Savage which wasn't too bad until the finish which made the "Macho Man" look like a complete moron. Savage managed to take Yoko off his feet and hit his patented top rope elbow drop before going for a pinfall. Yoko then pressed Savage from the canvas up and over the top rope which was just not believable. The backstage face-to-face between Yokozuna and Bret Hart was a nice touch though.

Overall

After a good undercard the show was let down by a humdrum Royal Rumble match which at least brought to the fore a new top heel in Yokozuna. The Ric Flair/Mr Perfect feud came to an end the next night on Raw as Perfect defeated the "Nature Boy" in a match where the loser left the WWF. Flair would return to WCW where he would remain until the bitter end. Bret Hart was set to collide with Yokozuna in the main event of Wrestlemania IX for the WWF Heavyweight Title. The downward spiral continued as Royal Rumble 1993 pulled a 1.2 buy rate which was approximately 240,000 buys.

Results
1 The Steiner Brothers def The Beverly Brothers by pinfall (9:10) **3/4
2 Shawn Michaels (c) pinned Marty Jannetty to retain the WWF Intercontinental Title (14:20) ***1/2
3 Bam Bam Bigelow pinned The Big Boss Man (10:10) *
4 Bret Hart (c) def Razor Ramon by submission to retain the WWF Heavyweight Title (17:52) ***1/2
5 Yokozuna won the Royal Rumble match (66:35) *1/2


Rating
12.25/25 = 49%