This is a continuation of previous work. Part 1 of the article is available here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/7863242/a_detailed_review_of_the_1992_wwf_royal_pg11.html?cat=14
Part 2 is available here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/8574619/a_detailed_review_of_the_1992_wwf_royal.html?cat=14
Part 3 is available here:
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/86523999/a_detailed_review_of_the_1992_wwf_royal.html?cat=14
Roberts, of course, is too intelligent to be an immediate victim, so he slithers under the ropes and hides outside the ring while Savage desperately searches for him among the other wrestlers. Eventually Undertaker clubs Macho Man to the ground, giving Roberts the chance to reenter the ring to work Savage over. Roberts soon misses a short clothesline, though, which leads to a flying forearm from Savage. Savage then climbs to the top rope – a risky move in any battle royal-style match, since it would be rather easy to be shoved (or even just fall) to elimination – and hits a double ax-handle to Roberts’ head. Savage then hits Roberts with a running knee that sends Jake the Snake over the top rope, then nearly screws up the entire proceedings.
As soon as Roberts hits the floor, Savage vaults over the top rope himself to pound on him some more. Of course, the rules (as they’ve been explained to us) indicate that any man who goes over the top rope and whose feet touch the floor is eliminated from competition.
Gorilla and Heenan are both convinced that Savage is finished. Quoth the Brain: “Savage is out too! Savage is out, he went over the top to the ground. He made the mistake of a lifetime!” Referees come over to peel Macho Man off Jake the Snake, but then Undertaker comes out of the ring as well (carefully stepping between the ropes instead of going over them like Savage did) and begins indiscriminately throwing bodies around – referees, Macho Man, it doesn’t matter. Brain and Monsoon are still lamenting how Savage allowed his instincts to cost him such a great opportunity when Undertaker rolls him back into the ring. Savage then climbs back out to go after Roberts again, and at this point finally Heenan starts ad-libbing about how Savage may not actually be done: “Oh, I know what it is, Monsoon! Since Savage wasn’t thrown over the top rope, so that means he can go back in!”
Monsoon is clearly dubious of this explanation, but it’s the best either can come up with as Undertaker rolls Savage back into the ring again. The six remaining fighters pair off into individual brawls – Flair vs. Savage, Piper vs. Schyster, and Undertaker vs. Duggan. Piper locks in a Boston Crab submission maneuver on I.R.S., and Flair strides over in slow-motion to deliver a rather deliberate low blow to the Undertaker as time expired.
Brain: “He just tried to lift the Undertaker!”
Monsoon: “He did not.”
After such huge names as Undertaker and Randy Savage, the crowd is clearly anticipating another huge superstar, and a disappointed hush falls over the Knickerbocker Arena as the Berzerker appears. John Nord’s gimmick went through a lot of minor modifications during his time in wrestling – sometimes he was a Viking, sometimes a lumberjack, and at the time of the Royal Rumble he was “The Berzerker,” a maniac with furry boots and a long, scraggly beard. Unlike more or less every wrestler you’ve ever seen, Nord didn’t really have a finishing move. He simply threw his opponents over the top rope and waited for the referee to count to ten (thus leading to a disqualification loss for them). Of course, that particular skill would theoretically be quite useful in a battle royal, as Heenan points out during Nord’s entrance.
Nord is our third competitor (after Haku and Hacksaw Jim Duggan) who continually mutters to himself while in the ring. In Nord’s case, he would yell “Huss!” and stare fixedly at his right hand… I won’t proclaim to fully understand this gimmick. Berzerker enters the ring and hits some strikes on virtually everyone in the ring, but to little overall effect. Duggan reverses and hits him with a monstrous atomic drop, then Flair (who was standing on the apron) falls prey to a reversal of his own, being suplexed back into the ring by Macho Man. Piper and Undertaker then both begin choking Flair, then Undertaker starts choking Piper. It’s another Mexican standoff, but this time with choke holds! As the timer winds down once more, I.R.S. is working over Duggan, and Berzerker botches a move on Macho Man. Our next entrant is (rather unbelievably) the first and only African-American competitor in the 1992 Royal Rumble: Virgil.
And what was Virgil’s primary role on WWE television? He gained prominence as the Million Dollar Man’s bodyguard/personal servant. [shakes head sadly]
By 1992, Virgil had already had his big falling out with Ted DiBiase, and although he briefly won the Million Dollar Belt, he eventually lost the war. He was allied with Rowdy Roddy Piper, but when the Royal Rumble occurred he was already mostly relegated to being used as enhancement talent to put over developing wrestlers. As such, he wasn’t involved in any major feuds when he sprinted to the ring. He immediately goes after Million Dollar Man’s associate I.R.S., which I suppose makes sense, but this only lasts a few moments. Meanwhile, Bobby Heenan delivers my favorite commentary of the event:
Heenan: “Virgil just came out, right? Number 23, right? Who knows how many bags he’s gone through in the back!”
Gorilla: “Oh, will you stop!”
Right now there are eight men in the ring: Virgil, the Berzerker, Savage, the Undertaker, Schyster, Duggan, Piper, and of course Ric Flair. With the exception of Savage, none of them are known as high-flyers, so between the crowdedness of the ring and the pace favored by most of the participants, the proceedings have slowed to a crawl. Undertaker has Flair on the verge of elimination, but Flair is hanging onto the bottom rope like it’s a life preserver. Berzerker hits a big boot on Virgil, but otherwise nothing truly noteworthy happens until the buzzer goes off again, signaling the entrance of Colonel Mustafa.
I referenced Col. Mustafa twice before – his previous incarnation was the Iron Sheik, and he was the performer caught red-handed doing drugs with Hacksaw Jim Duggan. Now he wrestles under the Mustafa gimmick as a former Iraqi military leader; his manager was “General Adnan,” a real-life associate of Saddam Hussein. As the Iron Sheik, he was a prior WWF Champion, but that was almost a full decade before. He may also have been responsible for the one of the three funniest bits of unintentional comedy in wrestling history, when he developed a raging erection while wrestling Hulk Hogan . (That video is technically safe for most workplaces, but I doubt it’s worth the ridicule if your network administrator finds it in your browser history.)
Much like Jake the Snake, Iron Sheik’s legacy has been irrevocably altered by interviews filmed after he was finished as a competitor in the WWE. In the case of the Iron Sheik, no one can take him seriously after hearing him ranting about his opponents from the past (he holds a particular hatredB. Brian Blair, of all people). In fact, a clip of him cursing loudly serves as the ending to every episode of the wrestling blooper web series Botchamania.
Anyway, General Adnan and Col. Mustafa have inexplicably adopted the Bushwhacker Walk as they meander to the ring. Mustafa immediately goes after Hacksaw Jim Duggan, whose American patriotism is obviously at odds with the Iraqi sympathizer gimmick. The action in the ring has miraculously picked up a bit; I.R.S. and Savage are battling on the turnbuckle, and Berzerker hits a piledriver on Virgil. Flair puts Piper in danger of elimination as Savage runs over to attack the Undertaker. The camera pans back to show the crowd at Knickerbocker Arena, and when we come back Piper has ascended to the second turnbuckle to rain right hands down onto Flair’s forehead. Undertaker rescues Flair as the crowd counts down one more time, and Rick Martel sprints to the ring.
Martel began as a face character in the WWE, but for years had been playing a narcissistic heel known as “The Model.” He remained a solid part of the midcard in both the tag team and singles divisions, but by 1992 previous entrant Shawn Michaels had adopted a very similar gimmick. This did result in one of my favorite match stipulations of all time (at SummerSlam later in 1992, the two fought a match in which both agreed not to punch each other in the face), but honestly, the writing was on the wall for Rick Martel. He held the same gimmick at the same time as a vastly superior performer. By 1993, Martel was only being used as filler for the undercard, and in 1994 he fell off WWE television entirely.
I don’t mean to undersell Martel’s abilities, though. His take on “The Model” was enjoyable and memorable – honestly, it’s no insult to say that the man wasn’t as good as Shawn Michaels, one of the best wrestlers of all time. In fact, in the previous Royal Rumble, Martel had set a record for the longest time any single wrestler had competed in the event (though he did not win it). Gorilla and Brain have been referencing Martel’s record 53-minute streak and continually comparing it to Flair (who of course would soon break that record). Martel immediately attacks Virgil, then he quickly puts Flair on his shoulders and puts the Nature Boy on the verge of elimination (yes, again). The ring has become so crowded that it’s difficult to keep track of individual wrestlers. In fact, the camera nearly misses the elimination of Col. Mustafa by Randy Savage.
A quick recap: The Berzerker is working over Rowdy Roddy Piper in one corner. Virgil and I.R.S. are pressed against each other in another. Undertaker is choking out Randy Savage on the mat, and Martel has successfully pushed Flair over the top rope and is trying to knock him off the apron onto the floor. Duggan hilariously chooses this moment to stand in front of the main camera and yell, “U.S.A.!” to get the crowd going. The buzzer marks the entrance of Hulk Hogan, who jogs to the ring as Brain yells, “God, no!”
Hulk Hogan enters the ring seeking his fifth WWF Championship. Unlike the other entrants, I won’t describe in detail his history or credentials. Simply put, he’s been the biggest star in multiple wrestling promotions, the lead in big-budget feature films, television series, commercials, and even a cartoon series. He was the first wrestler whose fame truly transcended the realm of professional wrestling, and I’m sure you remember how famous and popular he truly was. As for his gimmick? In the 1980s and early 1990s, he was sort of a mix between Captain America and Superman. He portrayed an ultra-patriotic brawler who fought tirelessly against evil and who drew his inspiration and strength from the enthusiasm of his fans. He constantly exhorted youngsters to “say your prayers and eat your vitamins,” though of course savvy wrestling aficionados would wink and joke about how those vitamins resembled horse steroids. Hogan had been at the top of the organization for so long that he’d feuded with every important performer on the roster, though of course his current beef was primarily with Undertaker and Flair.
The crowd at the arena is deafening when Hogan enters the ring, and he immediately grabs Undertaker and Flair and knocks their heads together. Heenan is so busy begging for Flair to win that he and Monsoon completely miss Martel getting knocked out of the ring by Virgil. I thought he was eliminated at first, but a second viewing reveals that he fell through the ropes rather than over them; Martel quietly re-enters the ring shortly thereafter. All of the heel characters have teamed up on Hogan – I.R.S. and Barbarian are holding his arms while Undertaker stomps and punches away at him. Hogan eventually fights his way out of the triple team and clotheslines Undertaker over the top rope, eliminating him from the Royal Rumble!
I thought Undertaker was going to blow the spot at first. When Hogan backed into the ropes for momentum, Undertaker actually took a couple of steps toward him (away from the opposite ropes). Normally wrestlers who are about to be clotheslined over the ropes back all the way against them. But Undertaker clearly knew exactly what he was doing – he vaulted over the ropes in such a way that he landed on his feet. In fact, he stuck the landing like a gymnast, appearing wholly uninjured. In fact, he was so prepared that before the cameraman could even swing around to his position, he was rolling his eyes back into his head so that he could give his trademark “Dead Man Glare” to Hogan from outside the ring. In essence, Mark Calaway was eliminated from the Royal Rumble and somehow managed to make himself look stronger afterwards. And that, my friends, is why he’s the greatest big man in wrestling history.
The Berzerker takes this opportunity to attack Hogan from behind, but he may have bitten off a bit more than he can chew. Hogan recovers and backdrops him out of the ring, marking two eliminations within a few seconds for the Hulkster. Hogan then turns to the camera and tears off his shirt as the crowd goes crazy. Hogan uses the remnants of his shirt to choke out Martel, using it as a leash as he tosses Martel into a corner. It’s a funny spot, but poorly timed, as Martel is thrown directly into Virgil’s path. Virgil was in the process of trying to nail his one big spot in the Royal Rumble: a diving crossbody block on Hacksaw Jim Duggan that would propel them both over the rope. Unfortunately, he has to skip to avoid Martel, so he doesn’t have much momentum when he hits Duggan. Fortunately, Hacksaw is strong enough to essentially catch Virgil, lift him to an appropriate height, and fall over the top rope in one smooth motion. Duggan recovered so well that you can’t even tell the spot was nearly blown. Color me impressed.
Schyster has picked up the shirt to choke out Piper as Hogan sets his sights on Ric Flair. Flair hits an eye poke and then begins throwing chops at Hogan, but Hogan no-sells them and begins “Hulking Up.” This is a staple of Hulk Hogan matches: he ignores every punch, kick, and other offensive move used against him, then begins shaking with rage and wagging his finger at his assailant. It’s the ultimate signal to the crowd that a a massive butt-whoopin’ is about to take place, and Flair is backing away, begging for forgiveness. The action has been so fast and furious that most fans have forgotten entirely about the clock, so this time the countdown is muted. That turns out to be oddly appropriate, as the next entrant is the eminently forgettable Skinner.
Skinner was… God, I feel awful even describing this. His character was an evil alligator hunter. He was played by Steve Keirn, a relatively small man who looked entirely out of place facing off against the monsters inhabiting the WWE in the steroid-fueled 1990s. Skinner chewed tobacco during matches and would spit the juice in his opponent’s face before hitting them with an inverted DDT. It always bothered me that such a cool finishing move (which would later be adopted by WCW’s main attraction Sting) was wasted on an inferior gimmick. Skinner only wrestled in WWE for a couple of years before Keirn moved to WCW, but he never really distinguished himself as a performer in either promotion.
Skinner and Piper immediately go after each other with right hands. Hogan body slams Flair over the top rope (which causes Heenan to burst into tears), but the Nature Boy is saved from elimination when I.R.S. knees Hogan before Flair can be pushed off the apron. Hogan then uses the shirt once more to whip I.R.S. to the canvas. Martel has Savage balanced precariously atop the top turnbuckle. The participants then play an odd variation of musical chairs, switching adversaries for no clear reason. Eventually we settle on I.R.S. beating on Savage (still perched along the turnbuckle), Piper grimly wrestling with Martel, and Hogan battling both Flair and Skinner. The fans take note of the timer this time, and our 28th participant is revealed to be former WWF Champion Sergeant Slaughter.
Strong displays of patriotism have always been an easy way of gaining popularity in professional wrestling. Obviously it worked for Hacksaw Jim Duggan for a number of years, but Duggan never became as popular as Sgt. Slaughter was in the early 1980s. Slaughter feuded with various “evil foreigners,” including a memorable series of matches against the Iron Sheik. Slaughter became so incredibly renowned that he eventually had a G.I. Joe toy created in his likeness. He left the WWE in 1985, and upon his return in 1990 he engaged in one of the most memorable heel turns in wrestling history when he became an “Iraqi symapthizer” (and a tag team partner of the aforementioned General Adnan and Colonel Mustafa). People who became fans of professional wrestling only recently would not believe the hatred poured upon the heel version of Sgt. Slaughter. Slaughter won his WWF Championship during this heel turn, and even briefly feuded with Hulk Hogan, but by the 1992 Royal Rumble had reverted to his patriotic face gimmick.
Before Slaughter can actually enter the ring, Martel eliminates Skinner, then taunts the Alligator Man from the ring. Piper and Hulk go one-on-one, exchanging blows with neither gaining an advantage. Martel comes over to assist Piper, and Piper (humorously) shows his gratitude by using the Model as a battering ram to throw into Hogan. Slaughter takes a run at Flair, lifting him up to the top turnbuckle as the announcers note Flair is the new record holder for longest run in a Royal Rumble. (“Give him the title, that’s good enough for me!” yells Heenan.) As the clock winds down, Piper throws I.R.S. to the mat by his tie while Hogan wears down Flair in one corner. In the opposite corner, Slaughter is softening up Rick Martel. Savage is struggling to his feet after nearly having been eliminated by Flair. The buzzer sounds, and the penultimate entrant appears: Sid Justice.
Sid Eudy went by a number of relatively unimaginative names (Sid Justice, Sid Vicious, Sycho Sid, and the pornorrific “Lord Humongous”) depending upon his alignment at the time. Jim Rice is often described by baseball fans (at least, the ones who don’t subscribe to sabermetric analysis) as the “most fearsome” hitter of his era. They’re not saying he was the best, and they’re not technically saying he was the biggest and most powerful, but by God, he was the scariest. I’m pretty sure you could describe Sid the same way. Sid was huge, and he hit scary-looking high-impact moves (like the chokeslam and powerbomb). As a heel, he would win his matches and then continue to use that powerbomb on downed opponents over and over again until eventually every referee in the building would come out and stand between them, separating the two while the poor loser was taken to the back on a stretcher. I was 12 when Sid first started putting people on stretchers, and trust me… the man defined fear.
At this Royal Rumble, Sid and Hogan are actually aligned – they had recently teamed up against the then-heel Sgt. Slaughter and Colonel Mustafa. This match is Sid’s first appearance in a couple of months as he was returning from an injury, and he sprints down the aisle to enter the fray. The action is fast and furious now, with wrestlers hitting offense then moving onto another competitor in rapid succession. There are numerous near-eliminations (Justice comes particularly close to knocking out I.R.S. shortly after entering), but nobody goes all the way to the floor. The crowd goes a little nuts when Justice yanks Flair away from Hogan and goes to work. Flair briefly takes advantage and knocks Vicious to the floor, but Sid responds by kipping up to his feet and clotheslining Flair.
You read that right. Sid Justice, the man I proclaimed the scariest-looking man in professional wrestling, a guy who was 6′9″, 300+ pounds, performed a flawless kip from flat on his back. I told you he was fearsome. Flair saves himself with an eye poke as the timer counts down one last time. The 30th and final entrant in the 1992 Royal Rumble: The Warlord.
Brain and Monsoon have another humorous exchange while we wait for the Warlord to make his appearance:
Monsoon: “There will be no surprise. It is the Warlord.”
Brain: “But you never know!”
Monsoon: “What do you mean, ‘you don’t know’?”
Brain: “You never know what [Commissioner Jack] Tunney and the WWF will pull on you.”
Monsoon: “It can only be one guy!”
{The Warlord walks out}
Brain: “I told you! The Warlord! I knew it, I was right!”
The Warlord was better known as a tag team competitor than a singles guy; he spent his most memorable years with previous participant the Barbarian in a team known as the Powers of Pain. Warlord looked like a video game character. His muscles had muscles, and he came to the ring in a metal headdress. Eventually he’d supplement the headgear with a huge scepter. He was accompanied to the ring by his manager, a slim African-American stereotype named Slick. Since Warlord is the final competitor, let’s reset the ring one more time for his entrance.
Sergeant Slaughter is slugging it out with Sid Vicious in one corner. Rick Martel has climbed to the middle turnbuckle, ready to pounce on Piper. I.R.S. is in a daze, recovering from previous encounters. And Hogan and Flair are going at it near the ropes. Flair climbs to the top rope for one of his signature spots – I’d say that in all the years I’ve watched Ric Flair wrestle, I’ve only seen him hit a move off the top rope once or twice. Yet he manages to get himself thrown off every time he wrestles. Hogan runs over (knocking I.R.S. out of the way) to grab Flair and slam him onto the mat from the top turnbuckle. Flair has taken that exact same bump on the exact same hip in nearly every match he’s been in for four decades. How he can still walk is a mystery to me.
Flair rolls out under the bottom rope, then grabs Hogan by the ankles and drags him to the outside as well. Flair attempts a suplex on the floor – the concrete floor is covered only by a single gymnasium mat, ensuring maximum damage – but Hogan reverses for a suplex of his own. Ouch. Schyster sprints at Savage in the corner, but Savage moves out of the way at the last second, leaving I.R.S. to pull a Wile E. Coyote and run full speed into the turnbuckle. Sid Justice then whips Slaughter into a turnbuckle at full speed, flipping Slaughter over the top rope and eliminating the former WWF Champion. Slaughter and Schyster were really moving when they took those bumps. You can tell the guys in the ring can see the finish line, so they’ve turned up the intensity quite a bit.
Hogan finally rolls Flair back into the ring and hits the Big Boot on the Nature Boy as he comes off the ropes. In a normal match, we’d be one leg drop away from a Hogan pinfall, but of course the Royal Rumble is another beast altogether. The announcers note that Flair has now been in the ring for more than an hour (“That’s definitely not fair to Flair”) as Flair hits yet another eye poke to halt Hogan’s advance. Piper and I.R.S. then hit a pretty cool spot – Schyster throws Piper over the ropes, but Hot Rod holds onto Schyster’s tie to safely land on the apron. Then he uses his grip on the tie to pull Schyster over the top rope and onto the floor. Meanwhile, Flair lands a wicked-sounding chop on Hogan, but all that does is anger the Hulkster. As Hogan “Hulks up” again, Flair retreats and pleads for mercy.
Hogan and Justice team up to throw the Warlord over the top, then Hogan returns to beat on Flair. Martel and Piper are jockeying for leverage near the ropes when Sid Justice walks up and flips them both out. We’re down to Flair, Hogan, Savage, and Justice – it’s tough to think of a more compelling final four than that.
Justice wrestles Savage up to the top turnbuckle, but it appears he’s not going to be able to actually get him out. Suddenly Flair breaks away from Hogan for long enough to deliver a running knee into Sid’s back – Sid’s momentum pushes Savage to the floor. Flair then sprints back to Hogan – where does he find the energy? – to deliver a vicious chop, but that only makes Hulk angry. Hulk whips Flair hard into the turnbuckle. So hard, in fact, that Flair flips upside down on impact (another signature Nature Boy spot). Flair comes down disoriented, and Hogan hits him with a roundhouse right hand that sends Flair over the top rope and onto the apron. Hogan is stomping away, clearly on the verge of eliminating Flair, when his erstwhile tag team partner Sid Justice decides to take advantage of the situation.
Justice sneaks up behind Hulk and shoves him over the top rope, eliminating Hogan. Hulk is furious on the outside of the ring, pounding the mat in disgust at Justice’s treachery. He and Justice begin arguing, and when Justice attempts to turn away to continue the match, Hogan reaches up and grabs his right arm. Justice tries to pull away, but before he can do so, Flair shoves him over the top rope. The bell rings, Howard Finkel declares Flair the undisputed champion, and Bobby Heenan goes into hysterics.
Hogan is obviously dissatisfied with how things turned out. First he gets back into the ring to chase Flair away, then he and Sid Justice have a face-to-face confrontation. That sets up the eventual co-Main Event at Wrestlemania VIII, Sid Justice vs. Hulk Hogan. As Sid eventually begrudgingly retreats up the ramp, he audibly yells “I’ll kill you!” at Hulk.
And so ends the greatest Royal Rumble in WWE history. If you’d like to see Ric Flair’s post-match interview with Mean Gene Okerlund (with Mr. Perfect and Bobby “The Brain” Heenan in tow) – and if you’ve already read over 16,000 words on this event, I can’t imagine you not wanting to see the interview – click here .
I’ll end this review with Flair’s own words:
“I’ve got to tell you like this: for the Hulk Hogans, and the Macho Mans, and the Pipers, and the Sids, now it’s Ric Flair, and y’all pay homage to the man! Whoooooo!”