In reviewing the four previous Royal Rumble installments before this one, one of my chief complaints on every single one of them was the event was used more as a vehicle for Wrestlemania than as a stand-alone event. Well, this changed with Royal Rumble 1992, where the WWF World Championship Belt was at stake for the winner of the big Rumble.Unfortunately, what with the decreased popularity of Hulk Hogan (one can only be on top for so long) and the utter failure of the Ultimate Warrior character to carry that torch, there really were no interesting plot angles to keep things fun and interesting. The WWF still didn't quite know what to do with Randy "Macho Man" Savage, the Hulk-Sid Justice feud was never all it was hyped to be, and Ric Flair as a major participant in the WWF cannon...you have to be kidding me. It just goes to show how desperate the company was at that time to procure top-tier athletes and entertainers.Thus, although the stakes for this Royal Rumble were higher than they had ever been before, the entire event fizzled due to lack of interesting characters or impressive athletes. The preliminary matches are almost unwatchable, the Rumble features genuine excitement only for about every fifth or sixth participant, and even the broadcast booth isn't as strong as it once was, this time populated by Gorilla Monsoon (always very good) and Bobby "The Brain" Heenan (a terrible "negative man" compared to Jesse Ventura).Unless you are a huge WWF fan and are watching all the events in order, this is one you could easily skip, as it will leave you unsatisfied and feel like a huge waste of time.

Royal Rumble (1992) will forever be known as Ric Flair's one man show. A 42 year old Ric Flair put on a one hour plus performance in the W.W.F.'s main event of the Royal Rumble, the battle royale itself. The winner of the match won the W.W.F. undisputed World Heavyweight Championship title. He proved to everyone that he was the man and at his age he cold still perform at a high level. Many older stars (and newer ones) participated in the match. A couple of his old N.W.A. stablemates "Rowdy" Roddy Piper and Greg "The Hammer" Valentine. It was like a who's who of wrestling. It was one hell of a main event. The promos before and after the match were priceless as well.Highly recommended.The main event of the Royal Rumble (1992) is availible uncut on the Ultimate Ric Flair DVD set.

*SPOILERS* In all respects, this one was very good but not quite as good as the year before.The opening tag team match between the New Foundation and Orient Express was exciting, but doesn't quite measure up to the Rockers and Orient Express. This was the only time the New Foundation faced the Express; the Express and the Rockers had the thing down to an art by the time of their Royal Rumble match.As far as comparing the title changes from '91 and '92, I think everyone was more satisfied with Rowdy Roddy Piper dominating the Mountie than with the Slaughter-Warrior match. Piper was truly inspiring here, standing up for Bret Hart and becoming the first wrestler to perform in both the undercard and main event of a Royal Rumble. The end of the match is great, as he throws away his wild man persona and smiles broadly about his first WWF title win. In my opinion, he was the true star of this Rumble.The two other tag team matches were diverting.Now, the Rumble had only a few great performances, and for this reason, I don't put it in as high regards as the one from the year before, which had about fifteen. Still, it was one of the great ones. The set-up was perfect, letting the second-tier wrestlers (Davey Boy Smith, Shawn Michaels, Tito Santana, Big Bossman, Kerry von Erich) have their moments; then giving the stage over to the top level (Piper, Savage, Undertaker, Sid Justice, Hulk Hogan, Skinner). This was Ric Flair's WWF highlight, and it's good that they made it unique to his great WCW moments. In WCW, he had great singles matches; here, he had a great match with 28 other men.Perhaps I'm too old school. This was, after all, part of a much different era from the year before. So it's definitely worth it to buy the video if you can find it.

Overall, I thought that Royal Rumble 1992 was all right. The highlights include Ric Flair's herculean effort to win the World Title, and Rowdy Roddy Piper winning his only WWF title, defeating the Mountie for the Intercontinental belt. However, there were a lot of terrible gimmicks used (ie: "El Matador" Tito Santana, Skinner, The Barbarian, etc) which brought down my rating. I give it a 7 out of 10.It was refreshing to see someone other than Hulk Hogan win.