WWF Royal Rumble 1993
Date: 01/24/1993
Location: Sacramento, CA
Announcers: Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan
The Setup
This was the first Rumble in which the winner earned a WWF title shot at WrestleMania, following disappointing PPV business metrics in the event’s early incarnations. This show also featured Razor Ramon’s first and only WWF title challenge on a PPV, after only being on TV for a little over seven months.
The Business
VSplanet.com listed the show at 268,000 PPV buys, ranking third among the five WWF PPVs that year, behind Wrestlemania and Summerslam. They also ranked second in the five Rumble PPVs until that point, trailing the 1991 version, headlined by the show’s first-ever WWF title match, Ultimate Warrior defending against Sgt. Slaughter (440k PPV buys). Overall, while a pretty low number by their previous boom standards for a PPV, it had to be somewhat encouraging to know the show did better than the prior year, when the Rumble winner won the title, guaranteeing a new WWF champion (260k buys).
Prowrestlinghistory.com has an attendance of 16,000 for a $187,000 gate in their PPV debut in Sacramento.
The Results
Steiners def. Beverly Brothers in 10:33 ***1/2
Intercontinental Title Match: Shawn Michaels (C) def. Marty Jannetty in 14 20 ***1/2
Bam Bam Bigelow def. Big Bossman in 10:10 **1/2
WWF Title Match: Bret Hart (C) def. Razor Ramon in 17:52 ***1/4
Yokozuna won a Royal Rumble in 66:35 **1/4
Notable Happenings
Rumble Match Notes:
The Rumble itself was largely pretty dull. There was a lot of filler in this one.
When the Rumble came down to Savage and Yokozuna at the end, I remember watching it live and thinking Savage had to win because of his level of stardom, but they were pushing Yokozuna hard for a main-event role. He had seven solo eliminations, a new record at the time, including Earthquake to prove who the real sumo and big man was.
Giant Gonzalez debuted, illegally threw Undertaker out of the Rumble, and sucked pretty hard. I understand why they didn’t want to go with El Gigante’s old gear, which looked like it was from both Big 5 and not microwave-safe, but the furred bodysuit was a fashion faux pas as unforgiving as socks with sandals.
I believe this was their first “outsider” entrants’ Rumble match, with Tenryu and Carlos Colon appearing. This is the show where Gorilla facetiously calls the near movie discount-age Colon “young man.”
Bruce Prichard revealed on his podcast that there was at least some discussion about bringing in Scott Steiner as a surprise entrant who would win the match and wrestle Bret at Mania. What a match that would have been, and imagine how wrestling history would have changed after that.
Bob Backlund was the Iron Man, going 61:10 and placing just fifty-two seconds behind Flair’s 1992 Rumble win. He also eliminated Fatu and Rick Martel. This turned into nothing, as Backlund lost to Razor quickly at Mania.
In the IC title match, they did a finish where Sherri accidentally cost Marty the match, which was a good finish to set up a Mania match that would have happened had Marty not been shitcanned, as he would be repeatedly in his career. The match itself was a little disappointing.
This was the debut of Lex Luger as “Narcissus,” and he was announced to the live crowd by Bobby Heenan while he seemed to climax at the same time. He was phenomenal here. One thing I don’t hear people mention much is that there was a slight pop for the name Lex Luger, but the more fans saw the gimmick and Heenan as the sleaziest of hype men, the less they got into it. He should have just been Lex Luger, but that’s another story.
The Best, The Worst, The Underrated
The Best: Bobby Heenan during the Lex Luger intro was a tremendous spectacle you’ll never forget. It would not be an overstatement to call his reaction orgasmic.
The Worst: Giant Gonzalez’s fur suit was the shits.
The Underrated: The opening match. These two teams worked in WCW when the Bevs worked as Minnesota Wrecking Crew 2, and it showed here. These four men had great chemistry.
Backstage Notes
Flair was in the Rumble match, despite already losing the taped “Loser Leaves the WWF” match against Mr. Perfect on Raw. He would finish up on their European tour in February. The Rumble match was Flair’s last WWF PPV match until Royal Rumble 2002, when he faced Vince in a street fight.
Luger debuted a month before his wrestling contract with WCW ended. Many believe that Flair being let out of his deal to be able to go to WCW was agreed to in part because of this WCW/Bill Watts concession.
Rating: 6.0/10.0
The undercard saved a very so-so Rumble match, giving the show this rating. There were just too many people in the Rumble that didn’t have a chance of wrestling Bret Hart at Wrestlemania to be too much fun, but the rest of the show is a breeze. Plus, Bobby announcing Lex is an all-timer. This show was a perfectly fun pro wrestling program overall.
The Video
Back Then Wrestling 