Live from Houston, TX (The Summit)Attendance 19,000Your commentators are Jessie Ventura & Gorilla Monsoon2 out of 3 fallsDino Bravo & The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers Vs The Hart Foundation & "Hacksaw" Jim DugganThe Hart Foundation & Duggan win 2 falls to 1. Duggan cheats to win it for his team. Not a bad way to start the show. Somewhat fun and very energetic with a hot crowd. You could certainly do a lot worse for openers.**1/2 out of 5Ted Dibiase buys off Slick to get a better number for the Royal Rumble. Other superstars like The Bushwhackers, The Rockers, Jake Roberts, The Honky Tonk Man, etc get their numbers as well.Women's ChampionshipRockin' Robin (C) Vs Judy MartinSensational Sherri challenges the winner. Robin wins with a flying cross body. They tried hard, but it just didn't gell. Nothing terribly wrong with it, just rather ordinary.** out of 5Ultimate Warrior beats Rick Rude in a posedown and pays the price for it after Rick Rude beats him up with a metal bar. Harmless fun. Winner is King of the RingHarley Race Vs HakuHaku is the current King of The Ring. Both are heels and Bobby Heenan manages both. The crowd is in favor of Harley Race. Haku wins with a crescent kick. This was pretty bad. Harley looked out of shape and he was super slow. *1/2 out of 5It's time for the Royal Rumble! I'm just gonna mention the big highlights. In a very cool moment, Demolition members, Axe and Smash draw numbers 1 and 2. Demolition were still getting their feet warm as faces at this juncture. Andre the Giant draws #3. Mr. Perfect draws #4. Andre almost sends Hennig to tim-buck-two with a big headbutt. Hennig's selling is awesome. Jake "The Snake" Roberts draws #7 and goes after Andre. Andre eliminates Roberts. Shawn Michaels is #9. Hennig and Michaels have a fun exchange. Jake chases Andre out of the ring with a snake. Andre eliminates himself. This rumble is way too long. The intervals are ridiculous. I'm not saying be short like Royal Rumble 95...but it's a bit too much. Randy Savage is #16 to liven the building and myself up. Hulk Hogan is 318 and the crowd goes wild. Hogan goes on an eliminating spree and accidentally gets rid of Randy Savage when dumping Bad News Brown. Savage gets extremely angry and confronts Hogan. Miss Elizabeth runs out and plays peacemaker. Savage and Hogan shake hands as The Big Bossman comes out. I've lost track of the entrée numbers. Akeem is out and double teams Hogan with The Big Bossman. They eliminate Hogan. Ted Dibiase bought his way to number 30. The Rumble has become dead ever since Hogan and Savage got eliminated. Final Four are Rick Martel, Akeem, Ted Dibiase & Big John Studd. Akeem dumps Martel. Big John Studd gets rid of Akeem and then Dibiase to win the Rumble.The Rumle started off really hot, then kinda got tedious after a while. I really question the decision to have Studd win as well. The PPV is decent overall and is worth a look6/10

The 1989 Royal Rumble was the first official one after the experimental one from 1988. From now on, it was going to be 30 participants and the main event would last longer. Only one match from the card was any good for me. The six man tag team match was simply magnificent. The Hart Foundation and Hacksaw Jim Duggan squared off against The Rougeau Brothers and Dino Bravo in a two out of three falls match up. The choreography and twists and turns built up the excitement right to the end. The women's title match was rubbish and I've seen far better women's wrestling where they can duke it out, just like the men. The silly posedown between The Ultimate Warrior and Ravishing Rick Rude was a complete waste of time as nothing happened. It did create the feud that would result and it was a very good one. Haku and Harley Race battled it out to see who would be crowned the King of the WWE. This was actually not too bad. The Rumble event was a brief return appearance for Big John Studd, now a babyface. The likes of Rugged Ronnie Garvin, The Bushwhackers, The Brain Busters and the Big Boss Man all made their debuts on the Royal Rumble P.P.V. The heat was building between the current heavyweight champion Macho Man Randy Savage and his tag team partner Hulk Hogan. A sign of things to come..... I thought the main event compensated for the disappointment of how the matches panned out.

The Royal Rumble has always been one of my favourite events. For those who don't know the Royal Rumble is an event where 30 men compete in the ring. They draw numbers from 1 to 30. At the start numbers 1 and 2 start off and every two minutes after that those who drew the later numbers entered the ring. Eliminations occurred when someone was sent over the top rope to the arena floor.The great thing about the Rumble was that it was a free for all. Friends battled friends, tag team partners battled tag team partners (in this event tag team partners Demolition had a brutal scrap)and the bad guys battled fellow bad guys. There was always plenty of action which made the Rumble great.(SPOILERS AHEAD)It wasn't until 1993 that the Royal Rumble winner would receive an automatic title shot; before that the winner didn't receive anything except immediate fan adulation. The late Big John Studd won this event by eliminating the Million Dollar Man who tried to bribe Studd. Throughout the Rumble there was plenty of entertainment. Andre the Giant left the ring when Jake "The Snake" Roberts threw his python into the ring. Hulk Hogan eliminated about a dozen stars and then had a falling out with his tag team partner the Macho Man. This was probably the best Rumble match ever-back then you never knew what to expect.All in all, a good event with a brilliant six-man tag team match on the undercard and a posedown between The Ultimate Warrior and the late Rick Rude. There was also a ladies match but it was far too short to be a good match.

In its pre pay per view days the Royal Rumble was a less important event than it would later become. The 1989 event did however help start the trend of the Rumble setting the scene for Wrestlemania. The opening 3 fall six man was fairly entertaining but was followed by a turkey in the form of a ladies title match which had no business being part of such a major event. The super posedown predictably ended in Rick Rude attacking the ultimate warrior after the two contestants had traded poses to show off their chemically enhanced upper bodies. The Rumble match itself was entertaining but lacked tension because their was no Wrestlemania title shot at stake as there was in future years.