Royal Rumble

After the mediocre 1993 Royal Rumble, it was great to see a return to form for what has long been one of the WWF's favourite events.

The undercard was pretty spectacular. Tatanka had a reasonable match with Bam Bam Bigelow. Razor Ramon also had a decent match with the taxman Irwin R. Schyster.

Also on the undercard was The Undertaker VS the late Yokosuna in a WWF Title Casket Match (get your opponent in the casket to win). This was a good match memorable for about a dozen wrestlers interfering at the end.

The most memorable undercard match pitted Bret Hart and his late brother Owen Hart against WWF Tag Team Champions The Quebecers. This wasn't the greatest match ever but it set the ball rolling for the Bret Hart/Owen Hart feud which I still rate as one of the best feuds ever (Bret VS Owen at WrestleMania X was awesome).

Then we had the Rumble where for the second year in a row, the winner would receive a title shot at the following WrestleMania. It was quite a memorable Rumble in many ways; rising superstar Diesel eliminated the competition, heel Shawn Michaels acted like a coward for most of the match and the competition really got hot towards the end. As for the ending itself, it was bizarre because two wrestlers won the Rumble (they were Bret Hart and Lex Luger).

Classic WWF shows like this have been deleted on video/DVD due to the 2002 court ruling brought by the World Wildlife Fund against what is now World Wrestling Entertainment. However, if you can, do try and track this cracking event down.

People usually say things like the 1992, 1995, or 1997 Rumbles are the best, but Royal Rumble 1994 always comes to mind as the best Royal Rumble ever. It serves at the starting point for one of the most bitter feuds in World Wrestling Federation history; Bret Hart vs. Owen Hart. The incident with the Undertaker is cheesy and supernatural, but this is sports entertainment dammit! The events leading up to his "death" (10 superstars interfering in the match) is pretty cool which is revisted in 1998, and the most controversial finish of the Royal Rumble takes place here when Bret hart and Lex Luger and eliminated simultaneously thus having co-winners of the Rumble (which means double main event at WrestleMania X)!

10/10

Vince McMahon opening the show with million dollar man on mics does not start well and what's happening on the throw together commentary should have been a warning for the night. Tatanka v bam bam First match of the night . WWF feels like a lot of time as passed since 1991 star filled royal rumble worthy of putting all the stars on the poster. A very different looking roster today. All Canada tag team title match Hart's bros v Quebecers building the brothers split more than the title shot. Seeing Earl and Dave hebner together the best part of this match for me Nothing special in the opening two matches. Razor wakes fans for the first time tonight for the intercontinental title Razor v IRS strange referee decision here, Which continues for the night. Weird undertaker promo followed by the match with yokozuna If you can call it a match followed by a lot of theatre which could have worked better if a match had taken place first. Royal rumble followed in an era with so many changes strange ref decisions and president stepping in didn't seem the right way to go seemed like amateur hour. With so many greats gone the wrestling looked very average. Adding unprofessional looking officials was a mistake. The bestest pops from the crowd did not come from wrestling but the theatre. This one will not live long in the memory for wrestling.

An event full of twists and turns. Owen Hart turns on his brother during their attempt to capture the tag team titles. The Hitman fights off a bad knee to limp to the ring and win the 30 match Royal Rumble. Great event - with the Undertaker involved in a casket match with Yokozuna and the Bad Guy Razor Ramon defending the Intercontinental Title against IRS.

In 1994, coming off one of the worst Royal Rumble's to that point in WWF history, the quality of the broadcast improved significantly and was actually fun to watch again for two main reasons:

First, all the matches before the main Rumble event (Harts/Quebecs, Razor/IRS, Undertaker/Yokozuna) were quite interesting/exciting in their own right. They each advanced a storyline and featured some quality athletic feats, not just a bunch of fat guys rolling around that had been the standard for the past few years for the WWF.

Also, many of the participants of those matches actually compete in the Rumble itself this year, solving the problem of having all the interesting characters wiped out before the big brawl even began. Plus, the frequency of the "jobbers" was a bit more few-and-far-between. The depth of big names might still have been lacking, but most of the characters at least had interesting personas that one could either root for or despise.

Finally, the ending of the Rumble is one that ranks right up their in the history of the event. I won't give it away here, but suffice it to say that you will be shocked when the final bell rings.

Overall, this was a nice edition to the pantheon of RR events, especially considering the failure of the '93 edition.