Remembering the Royal Rumble Matches That Occurred Outside of the PPV

The wild, massive Royal Rumble match has existed outside of the pay-per-view that goes by the same name.

WWE, like the wrestling industry as a whole, writes its own history. The history that WWE so often recounts says that the 2015 event will be the 28th time the Rumble bout will take place and that Jim Duggan won the first edition of the match back in 1988.

In reality, St. Louis hosted the first Rumble, a match that wasn't even televised.

Other lesser-known versions of the clash happened at house shows and in the Far East, crowning the only woman to win a Rumble and giving Undertaker his second win. Some of them felt like Rumble-lites, while others shared the same scale of the real deal but with the victor celebrating in the darkness of obscurity.

WWE recently acknowledged some of these non-PPV Rumbles in a recent YouTube video:

Digging deeper is an intriguing exercise. Looking back at these bouts has one saying both "Oh yeah, I remember that" and "Wait, that happened?" 

The Real First Rumble—Oct. 4, 1987

• Winner: One Man Gang
• Runner-up: Junkyard Dog

Before WWE took the Rumble concept to the masses, it experimented with it in St. Louis.

In 1989, the Rumble would debut on pay-per-view. In 1988, it aired for free on the USA Network. Before that, the St. Louis Arena hosted a brief precursor to those events.

It only lasted 12 minutes before One Man Gang claimed victory by last eliminating Junkyard Dog. The big bruiser also defeated JYD in singles action that night as well.

Credit: WWE.com

Not until 1993 did winning the Rumble earn one a title shot at WrestleMania. This '87 version, though, had a version of those stakes. The match's stipulations stated that the last man standing would earn the right to face the world champ the next time WWE was in St. Louis.

The Rumble in the Garden—Jan. 17, 1994

• Winner: Owen Hart
• Runner-up: Fatu

The 1994 Royal Rumble is noteworthy because it was the only time two men won the bout. Lex Luger and Bret Hart both celebrated victory that night.

Strangely enough, that year actually featured three Rumbles, crowning a total of four winners.

Madison Square Garden, WWE's early home base, hosted the first of that trio. Even though this was part of a non-televised live event, it was no trimmed-down affair. It boasted the standard 30 wrestlers and went on for longer than an hour.

Diesel and Mo began the action. A melange of Hall of Famers and also-rans soon followed them into the fray. Randy Savage, Bastion Booger, Shawn Michaels, Adam Bomb and Bret Hart all looked to come out on top.

Crush, of Demolition fame, dominated at one point. He tossed out a total of six men before The Hitman dropkicked him over the top rope.

It was Bret's brother who eventually won, though. Bret was in his corner at the time, making sure that Samu didn't gain an unfair advantage for his tag partner, Fatu.

The Rumble in Japan—May 9, 1994

• Winner: Undertaker
• Runner-up: Bam-Bam Bigelow

Months after Owen won in New York and Bret co-won in Providence, Rhode Island, Undertaker tasted victory in Osaka.

The house show featured a combination of WWE wrestlers and Japanese stars. The 18-man field for the Rumble that capped off the night welcomed Jinsei Shinzaki (known in WWE as Hakushi), Masashi Aoyagi and Nobukazu Hirai, none of whom were household names for WWE fans.

Credit: WWE.com

While North American fans may not have been familiar with what men like Aoyagi had accomplished, it was clear that the Japanese crowd knew and loved Bob Backlund. The former WWE champ garnered a huge reaction when he entered second. 

The Hart brothers battled in this bout as well, both looking for two Rumble wins in the same year. 

Instead it was The Undertaker who outlasted his foes. It wasn't until 2007 that The Deadman would get a Rumble victory that was actually televised.

Few fans saw this '94 match. It's hard to find anything but grainy footage of it.

The Corporate Rumble—Jan. 11, 1999

• Winner: Chyna 
• Runner-up: Vince McMahon

Houston, Texas' Compaq Center (which is now a massive church) hosted the first Royal Rumble match to air on Raw.

The feud between The Corporation and D-Generation X played out in a scaled-down version of the bout. Each team sent members of their stable to represent them with the right to enter last in the 1999 Rumble on the line.

Only 10 men competed in this Corporate Rumble or more accurately, nine men and one woman—Chyna.

Credit: WWE.com

When it looked like Vince McMahon had won after tossing both Triple H and Boss Man over the top rope. DX's imposing female came stomping down to the ring.

McMahon's stooges, Pat Patterson and Gerald Brisco, did their best to keep her out. However, they both took a right hand to the temple and watched from their back as Chyna made her way into the ring.

Steve Austin provided a distraction, and Chyna soon won by throwing McMahon over, WWE's kingpin's head snapping on the ring apron.

The SmackDown Rumble—Jan. 29, 2004

• Winner: Eddie Guerrero
• Runner-up: Kurt Angle

Guerrero's good friend, Chris Benoit, won the official Royal Rumble that year. Latino Heat earned his own title shot via Battle Royal win in 2004, though.

SmackDown put on a 15-man version of the Rumble, promising a chance at Brock Lesnar's gold at No Way Out.

Fans in Washington, D.C., watched as Big Show pushed a mass of men to the mat, John Cena eliminated Nunzio by way of an FU to the floor and Ernest "The Cat" Miller last just 32 seconds. 

Guerrero suffered a beating beforehand but gutted out a win. He and Kurt Angle teamed up to oust Rikishi, and then Guerrero suplexed Angle onto the floor to close the bout.

The Mini-Rumble—Jan. 14, 2008

• Winner: Hornswoggle
• Runner-up: The Great Khali

While Guerrero's win served as a way to set up a great match against Lesnar, this version of the Rumble just served as a mockery of the match.

When Raw traveled to Mobile, Alabama, Hornswoggle starred in a six-man match that only lasted around seven minutes. Miniature versions of Mr. Kennedy, Mankind, Batista and Kane all went to battle that night.

Thanks to the competitors being little people, eliminating someone by tossing them under the rope was fine.

To emphasize how small Hornswoggle and company were, WWE tossed The Great Khali into the action as well. He looked as if he would crush Hornswoggle, but Finlay saved him. A brawl between those two allowed WWE's resident leprechaun the win. 

Jim Ross did his best to call the disaster, but it was essentially a dragged out punchline. 

The 7-Man Rumble—Jan. 31, 2011

• Winner: Jerry Lawler 
• Runner-up: Sheamus

Providence, Rhode Island, hosted both the 1994 Royal Rumble and this shrunken-down edition of the bout.

The winner would earn a championship match against The Miz at the Elimination Chamber pay-per-view. With a field that included CM Punk, John Cena, Randy Orton, John Morrison and R-Truth, Lawler (61 at the time) was the biggest long shot to win.

Morrison and Sheamus entered first, and it was the high-flyer who would be the star of the match.

He had a Kofi Kingston-like moment when his hands hit the floor around the ring, but he managed to keep his feet on the apron. He also hit a Starship Pain onto both Cena and Sheamus, although he only grazed Cena with the move.

R-Truth provided the first upset of the match, tossing Orton out. It was then the underdog who topped him.

Lawler dodged a kick from Sheamus to win the thing. That kept his dreams of becoming WWE champ alive for just a while longer. 

The King never managed to add that title to his resume, but he joins a short list of wrestlers who won Royal Rumble's titular match when WWE put it on in a place other than the annual pay-per-view.

The Rumble format is such an appealing one that the company can't seem to keep it contained to just that event. You can't blame WWE either.

Even when the field is reduced in size, the lights are far less bright and there is no ticket to WrestleMania awaiting the winner, the Royal Rumble is still a guarantee of thrills.

All match information is from TheHistoryofWWE.com unless otherwise noted.