WWF Royal Rumble was a 1992 professional wrestling event put on by the World Wrestling Federation. It was the sixth annual iteration of the Royal Rumble event, the first event in 1992 and the 43rd event overall in the alternate WWF timeline. Taking place in the Ottawa Civic Centre in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, the main event of the show was the annual 30-Man over the top rope Royal Rumble, with the winner receiving a WWF title shot at Wrestlemania VIII. Other matches on the card included WWF Champion "Nature Boy" Ric Flair defending his title against the Big Boss Man, WWF Tag Team Champions defending their titles against Money Inc, and Luna Vachon defending the Women's title against Tina Ferrari.
Prelude[]
On a special Christmas Eve edition of Primetime Wrestling, "Nature Boy" Ric Flair had defeated "Rowdy" Roddy Piper to secure his second WWF title. This led the former champion Piper to enter the Royal Rumble match with the distinct purpose of defeating 29 other men to gain another title shot at Wrestlemania VIII. However, in his way was former WWF Champion "Macho Man" Randy Savage, with both men making it their stated goal to go on to the main event of the Biggest Show of the year. Other favorites in the match included Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart and Mr. Perfect, who entered the match specifically with the objective of taking out Piper and Savage and protecting Flair's title reign at all costs.
As for Flair himself, he had begun to feud with the Big Boss Man, stemming from their encounter at the Survivor Series. Though Flair had eliminated the lawman, the Boss Man had gotten more than a few licks in during the process and did not go down without a fight. This feud continued the following week on Primetime Wrestling, when Flair attacked Boss Man in a 4 on 1 beatdown after Bossman had defeated Arn Anderson in a singles match. The two were slated to meet in a match at the Royal Rumble, when the whole landscape changed after Flair won the world title. This led to Boss Man being granted a title shot at the event, and he vowed to take the most precious thing in the world from Flair, his WWF Championship.
Luna Vachon had been the Women's champion since June and had taken on all comers, usually with the help of her charges The Nasty Boys. However by rule of WWF President Jack Tunney, the US Tag Champs were barred from ringside, meaning that Luna had to fight to keep her belt all on her own. She attempted to circumvent this by attacking Ferrari on an episode of WWF Superstars, damaging the knee of the challenger in the process.
Event[]
The event began with a dark match in which newcomer Crush easily squashed perennial jobber Brian Costello in less than six minutes. The event proper began with a match between The Native American Tatanka against the fearsome Barbarian. The Native American had been on a role since debuting in the WWF a few months earlier, but he faced his toughest challenge in The Barbarian, and more specifically in his manager Mr. Fuji. The Devious One did everything in his power to help his charge end Tatanka's undefeated streak. However The Native American was able to withstand the Barbarian and Fuji's onslaught, and even survived a big boot from the fearsome warrior, before battling back and then delivering the End of the Trail slam to the Barbarian to pick up the win. After that, we saw Luna Vachon take on Tina Ferrari with the Women's Title on the line and The Nasty Boys barred from ringside. The challenger attempted to take advantage of this fact early on, nearly beating Vachon with a rollup. However Luna exploited the knee that she had previously injured in the weeks prior to the match. Despite the obvious pain that Ferrari was in, she refused to give up. Ultimately the referee was forced to stop the match for the good of Ferrari, awarding the match to Luna. However the champion kept attacking Tina past the bell, until they were interrupted by a returning Alundra Blayze, who chased off the champion for the challenger's benefit.
The next match saw the WWF Championship on the line as Ric Flair defended against the Big Boss Man. Early on the lawman looked unstoppable, beating Flair down from pillar to post with an aggressive offense and his distinct power advantage. He almost pinned the champion on a couple of occasions, only for the Nature Boy to sneak out of the ring both times to try and collect himself. On one of these occasions, Boss Man followed Flair to the outside. However while Mr. Perfect distracted him and the referee, it allowed Flair time to grab the Bossman's Night Stick and clip the Boss Man's knee from behind, severely damaging it. Flair then took advantage of the injury, methodically working the knee over to set up for the Figure-4 Leglock. Bossman tried to power back through the pain, but Flair kept up the pressure and it quickly became clear that Boss Man's knee was far too gone to overcome. Flair locked in the Figure Four submission, and while Boss Man never gave up, he did pass out from the pain and his shoulders were pinned to the mat, allowing Flair to retain his title.
The next match was for the World Tag Team Titles as Money, Inc challenged The Steiner Brothers. Along with their manager Jimmy Hart, Money Inc was determined to use every dirty trick in the book to win the championships. However they ran headlong into the pure athleticism of the Steiners, who dominated much of the match and stifled any advantage that Money Inc could conjur up. To the heel's credit however, they were able to withstand the initial attacks from the Steiners as well, eventually isolating Scott Steiner and trying to score a victory through a sheer war of attrition. However Scott eventually managed to come back and get the hot tag into Rick Steiner, who cleaned house on Irwin and the Million Dollar Man. The end came though thanks to Jimmy Hart, as he appeared ready to interfere on his men's behave. Scott Steiner caught the Mouth of the South and tossed him to Rick, who then suplexed him out of his shoes. However in the distraction, Irwin caught Jimmy Hart's Megaphone and pummeled Scott in the back with it, which allowed the legal man DiBiase to score a quick pin and win the titles through their underhanded means. The next match saw DiBiase's former bodyguard, Virgil, who had been making something of a career for himself as a singles wrestler since his return to the WWF, face off against The Genius, who had berated the former bodyguard by calling him a "glorified manservant." At first the Beverly Brothers appeared ready to help The Genius, but they were taken out by Virgil with a lead pipe to the gut before the match, leaving the Genius easy pickings for Virgil, who picked up the victory after a quick punching combination that knocked The Genius out cold.
The Rumble match itself began with "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels taking on Bushwhacker Butch, only to be quickly joined by the other Bushwhacker for a 2 on 1. Michaels was able to outsmart the New Zealanders though, eliminating both of them in one go to be the last man after #3. His rest was short lived though, as to the shock of everyone his former Rockers partner Marty Jannetty came tearing through the curtain at #4. The former partners engaged in direct combat for two minutes before Barry Windham joined the fray, but Jannetty's presence upset Michaels momentum enough for him to be prematurely eliminated. Another interesting moment happened when The Undertaker entered at #9, only to be stopped from entering the ring by a man clad almost entirely in black and wearing white face paint. This man (later identified as Papa Shango) attacked the Undertaker in the entryway, egged on by Harvey Whippleman. This kept the Undertaker from actually entering the match, officially listed as eliminating himself. The two favorites, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage, entered at numbers 24 and 18 respectively, and both men survived to the very end along with "Dr. Death" Steve Williams and Mr. Perfect. After eliminating the former tag champion, Piper and Savage teamed up to eliminate Perfect, leaving it down to them to fight it out for the right to go to Wrestlemania. It seemed as if Piper had the advantage over Savage, who had been in the match for about 15 minutes longer, but when Piper went to clothesline Savage out of the ring his momentum took him over as well, with both men's feet hitting the floor at the exact same time. After some deliberation, both men were announced as "co-winners" of the Royal Rumble, with the crowd and competitors confused as to what that would mean going forward.
Results[]
| No. | Results | Stipulations | Time |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1D | Crush d. Brian Costello by Submission | Singles Match | 5:44 |
| 2 | "The Native American" Tatanka d. The Barbarian w/Mr. Fuji by Pinfall | Singles Match | 7:50 |
| 3 | Luna Vachon (c) d. Tina Ferrari by Referee Stoppage | Singles Match for the WWF Women's Championship | 14:00 |
| 4 | "Nature Boy" Ric Flair w/Mr. Perfect (c) d. The Big Boss Man by Pinfall | Singles Match for the WWF Championship | 15:08 |
| 5 | Money, Inc. ["The Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase & Irwin R. Schyster] w/Jimmy Hart d. The Steiner Brothers [Rick & Scott Steiner] (c) by Pinfall | Tag Team Match for the WWF World Tag Team Championships | 17:58 |
| 6 | Virgil d. The Genius by Pinfall | Singles Match | 6:55 |
| 7 | "Rowdy" Roddy Piper & "Macho Man" Randy Savage Were Declared Co-Winners of the Royal Rumble | 30-Man Royal Rumble Match | 67:17 |
Royal Rumble Order[]
| No. | Entrant | Eliminated by |
| 1 | "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels | The British Bulldog |
| 2 | Bushwhacker Butch | "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels |
| 3 | Bushwhacker Luke | "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels |
| 4 | Marty Jannetty | Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy |
| 5 | Barry Windham | Bret "The Hitman" Hart |
| 6 | The British Bulldog | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams |
| 7 | Razor Ramon | "Macho Man" Randy Savage |
| 8 | "The Rocket" Owen Hart | "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson |
| 9 | The Undertaker | Eliminated Himself |
| 10 | Terry "Bam Bam" Gordy | "Macho Man" Randy Savage |
| 11 | Bret "The Hitman" Hart | Mr. Perfect |
| 12 | The Mountie | Bret "The Hitman" Hart |
| 13 | Kato | "Rowdy" Roddy Piper |
| 14 | Greg "The Hammer" Valentine | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams |
| 15 | Kevin Von Erich | Brian Knobbs |
| 16 | Tanaka | "Macho Man" Randy Savage |
| 17 | Earthquake | "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan |
| 18 | "Macho Man" Randy Savage | Co-Winner |
| 19 | "Beautiful" Bobby Eaton | Kevin Von Erich |
| 20 | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams | "Rowdy" Roddy Piper |
| 21 | "The Enforcer" Arn Anderson | Bret "The Hitman" Hart |
| 22 | "The Model" Rick Martel | "El Matador" Tito Santana |
| 23 | Virgil | Earthquake |
| 24 | "Rowdy" Roddy Piper | Co-Winner |
| 25 | Brian Knobbs | "Macho Man" Randy Savage |
| 26 | Mr. Perfect | "Macho Man" Randy Savage |
| 27 | Jerry Sags | "Rowdy" Roddy Piper |
| 28 | "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams |
| 29 | Repo Man | Mr. Perfect |
| 30 | "El Matador" Tito Santana | "Dr. Death" Steve Williams |
Aftermath[]
Following the declaration of Roddy Piper and Randy Savage as co-winners of the Royal Rumble, WWF President Jack Tunney decreed that both men would receive a title shot at Wrestlemania VIII in separate matches, with Piper going first (as determined in a coin flip) against Flair and Savage facing the winner of that match. Undertaker would feud with Papa Shango following this match, leading to an encounter at Wrestlemania, while Money Inc and the Steiner Brothers would also continue to battle for the world tag team titles.