Royal Rumble

The 1991 Royal Rumble was partly remembered for the rather controversial heavyweight title match between The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter. The latter wrestler was receiving a lot of heat, on account of being a sympathiser for Saddam Hussain. Equally, the ending of the title match was a bit controversial. The Ultimate Warrior was worthy of being given the title and should have held it again. I love the matches with The Rockers vs. The Orient Express and The Big Boss Man vs. The Barbarian. Both matches are exciting and have genuine name value. Ah the good old days of the WWE! The tag team match with Ted DiBiase and Virgil vs. Dusty and Dustin Rhodes was OK if a bit limited. Watch carefully and you will see a few security guards rush off in the direction of someone who threw a drinks carton that landed on DiBiase's back! The Rumble event is one of the best I've ever seen and it's also one of the longest. Clocking in at 65 minutes, the action has to be good in order to be that long. Luckily, it is brilliant. There are some wrestlers who never made another PPV appearance, like Saba Simba (what happened to him?) and Shane Douglas. The Rumble event marks the first appearance for the likes of The Undertaker, Legion of Doom and Tugboat. This is how American wrestling should be: plenty of great characters, good workers and fun that the whole family can enjoy!

My run through the Royal Rumble events lands me in 1991, for the fourth annual one, this time from Miami Arena in Florida.

The show is starting to feel a lot more like the Royal Rumbles I know now. 1991 was the year I started to watch WWF Wrestling, though it was after this. The show takes place at the height of the Gulf War and there is a lot of patriotism on display. It's within this that one of the most controversial angles, the defection of Sgt. Slaughter to the Iraqi side was done. (More on that later)

Gorilla Monsoon and Rowdy Roddy Piper at the commentary team and Piper, in particular, is deeply into his patriotic rhetoric.

The show opens with a solid tag match between The Rockers (Shawn Michael and Marty Jannetty) and The Orient Express (Kato and Tanaka). This is the longest match of the show, full of classic heat generating beatdowns by the heels and fine comebacks by the Rockers. There is some early teasing of the split, that is on the way, but the Rockers do come out victorious.

Sensational Sherri taunts the Warrior to confirming that he won't honour the Macho Man's claim on the number one contendership for the WWE Title, but we're told that Sgt Slaughter would. (Foreshadowing!)

The Big Boss man beats the Barbarian. This is pretty awful and takes a long time.

The next match is the title match between The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter. Piper tells us that the Iraq War is about freedom of expression, which frankly is a hilarious interpretation of the reasons behind that war. But still The Warrior expresses his freedom by tearing the Iraqi flag in half and choking Slaughter with it. He's on top throughout until regular interference from Sherri and the Macho King swing it in Slaughter's way and he takes the title. Even with the switch, this is pretty terrible stuff from two very limited performers.

Piper says "Damn it" then apologises for his language, when he should really apologise for The Mountie Vs. Koko B Ware that follows the title shift as it's truly terrible.

Dusty and Dustin Rhodes have their final matches of this WWE run, teaming together to lose to Ted DiBiase and Virgil in a match that's dominated by another forthcoming separation, that of Virgil from his employers. Piper talks throughout about having taken Virgil out for a meal and gotten in his ear. Though they still get the win, Virgil clocks DiBiase after the bell.

The Rumble itself isn't a classic either. Maybe I'm a big down on it because I know Hogan's going to win and he was never my guy. There's a lot of wrestlers in this that lost for a long time, particularly the Model Rick Martel whose 52 minute run was the record. This is also the one where Bushwhacker Luke sets a record of 4 seconds. Both record would eventually be beaten.

Overall it's a pretty terrible show, with the Rockers/Orient Express being the only real reason to watch any of it.

One of my favorite posters /covers for a WWF event. Which was supposed to be based on the poster for the movie the warriors was a style worth keeping.

Good match to start followed by a poor one.

A very weird random interview with sherry Martel mean gene and the ultimate warrior was very strange bit of business hard to work out the thinking.

An interview later with Hogan would see him lose his trail of thought 💭 not knowing what to say next was fun . Father and son Rhodes versus million dollar man and his bodyguard for all participants a match creating paths for the future .

American warrior against sgt slaughter for the world title in some places good others Had bad timing was just was off. Then it's time to Rumble. Rumble using a split screen when the next participant enters which means the action didn't stop unlike modern rumble where the action completely stops as participant know there off camera has the next participant entrance takes place.

I seem to say a lot about this era , is that it's a fun event and once again a proper fun event definitely worth a visit.

After a Rumble event the previous year that, truth be told, may have been a bit disappointing, this 1991 edition comes back with a bang!

As usual, the preliminaries fall a bit flat (this time "headlined" by perhaps the worst Heavyweight Title match in WWF history), but the main event is as hilarious and entertaining as usual. All the stars are given their time to shine, and there is a lot of overall energy to the event.

About the only negative I can say about this tape is the absence of Jesse "The Body" Ventura from the announcing booth. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper fills in as best as can be expected, but Ventura's sardonic wit is missed.

Thus, if you are looking for a great walk down memory lane, this event will do it for you!