I think if you did a poll among wrestling fans and asked them what their favorite Pay Per View is, and they have to exclude WrestleMania, I think Royal Rumble would win the survey.
Many like the fact they get to see all of the superstars, but my reasoning is because history has shown the strength of the Royal Rumble will usually be equivalent to the strength of the WrestleMania that is to follow.
Hulk Hogan won his first Royal Rumble in 1990 in an exciting finish, simply because he was Hulk Hogan, and would go on to face the Ultimate Warrior that year at WrestleMania. It was a match between the two biggest stars and names, which saw title against title, and a memorable night of the two in the same ring.
In 1992 we saw Ric Flair come in at number three and win the Rumble. This was amazing at the time due to the fact that we had never seen anyone in the few years the Rumble had been around come in that early and win. Flair did an amazing job selling and making everyone think he didn’t have anything left, but still would hang in no matter what.
Later that year, WrestleMania eight took place with him against Randy Savage in a blood fest, Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice with the return of the Warrior to close the show, and just a small fact, a young Shawn Michaels in his first Mania singles match to open the show.
1993 showed a lackluster Rumble and then followed a lackluster Mania outside. The terrible Giant Gonzalez working a match with The Undertaker, ended by Bret Hart losing to Yokozuna, only for Hulk Hogan to come out of nowhere and win the title in a matter of seconds. It made no sense, it was dumb, and we should have seen it coming based on the Rumble earlier in the year.
In the interest of time I will jump ahead, but take a look at your favorite WrestleManias, and then look at the Rumble which took place two years prior to it. I really feel that it is a consistent correlation. Leave a comment and let me know if you agree with that.
So let’s look at the upcoming Royal Rumble that is leading up to the big 25th anniversary. Title matches fill the card along with the 30-man battle royal. There's the match with John Cena and JBL that I don’t think has an exciting spark to it in terms of the match itself, but the wild card is Shawn Michaels in JBL’s corner and what will happen with that.
Then we have a rematch for the ECW title with new young champion Jack Swagger against the veteran Matt Hardy—Swagger’s biggest stage and match of his career, and it has the potential to be a memorable one if done correctly.
All of that should be good, but perhaps the headline will be the match that will be Jeff Hardy the champion against Edge. This will be another step closer to the culmination of the Jeff Hardy feud, who has been the victim of several unfortunate incidents that had everyone going, “who did it?”
Of course it’s been constantly speculated and talked about this will spark the return of Christian to the WWE. If that in fact does happen, that may be enough to set the Rumble off and over the top, which would mean good things should be coming for the big show in Houston!
Also, let us not forget, we will find out later this evening, but how and what will Mr. McMahon do to get involved and make things interesting?
All in all, the WWE looks to be doing things correctly just in time to set themselves up for a good road to WrestleMania, and hopefully have the 25th anniversary live up to the hype.
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