Royal Rumble 1990

Location: Orlando, Florida, Orlando Arena

Date: January 21, 1990

Announcers: Tony Schiavone and Jesse “The Body” Ventura

The Setup

This was when the Rumble was still only for bragging rights, and when there were no titles on line anywhere else on the show. In fact, the only match with a program going in was Greg Valentine vs. Ronnie Garvin. 

The Business

Wrestletalk has the show doing 260,000 PPV buys, which, for context, was the least-bought PPV in 1990, but also up from 1989’s 165,000 for the event won by John Studd. The appeal of the match grew from the year prior, but was also down almost 33% from their last PPV, Survivor Series ‘89. 

Prowrestlinghistory has 16,000 in the building for $170,000 at the box office. That’s just north of $432,000 in today’s money, according to the inflation calculator, so a very healthy house. It’s also worth noting that Florida as a whole was not a great draw after the expansion. 

The Results

The Bushwhackers def. The Fabulous Rougeaus in 13:35. They did a lot of stalling and comedy spots, very much like a house show opener. It was probably better than expected, and the crowd was into it, but it’s also the WWF Bushwhackers. They won with a battering ram on Jacques. *1/2

Brutus Beefcake DDQ The Genius in 11:07. There was more stalling and comedy in this one, only an overall worse match than the opener. Genius was being treated more as a manager by this point, so it’s supposed to be lopsided, and Genius played a lot of chickenshit heel. Beefcake had Genius in the sleeper during a ref bump and jumped up and down like he won the match. He started cutting Genius’s hair until Mr. Perfect made the save and laid him out with the Perfectplex. *

Submission Match: Ronnie Garvin def. Greg Valentine in 16:55. This was awesome! My one gripe was that both men kept constantly going for pinfall attempts, despite not being able to win that way, and I don’t know how many times you can do that as a shoot before you remember the rules you’re competing under. Other than that, they were lighting each other up with chops and hard forearms. Valentine had the figure-four on Garvin, but Garvin started smiling and took it off because he was wearing a shin protector. the hammer jammer) to combat Valentine’s shin pad that made the figure-four more painful. There was a physical battle over shin protectors with Jimmy Hart getting involved, climaxing with Ronnie blasting Valentine in the head with his own device. Garvin then made Valentine submit with a scorpion. This was physical and fun, and only really hurt by the constant pinfall attempts. ***1/2

Jim Duggan def. Big Boss Man by DQ in 10:22. This was Bossman’s last match on PPV as a heel before he left the company in 1993. In fact, the babyface turn was already taped. Bossman was just fucking phenomenal here. He was a bumping machine for Duggan, and Duggan did his part, making everything look good on his end. This felt much more like a Mid-South style match than a WWF match for the era. The only thing that sucked was fhe finish, where Bossman used the nightstick on Duggan for a very lame DQ. Bossman and Slick accidentally ran into each other at the finish to tease that breakup. Both these guys worked hard. ***

Hulk Hogan won the 30-Man Royal Rumble Match in 58:46. DiBiase drew number one, karma from buying number 30 last year. He also had the most ring time, lasting 44:47, a Rumble record. The action was well thought out, and the first half really focused on setting up Mania matches. Dusty eliminated Savage, Demolition eliminated Andre, and Piper and Bad News eliminated each other. Orlando was so hot, particularly when it got to the most memorable moment of this match – Hulk Hogan’s first face-off with the Ultimate Warrior. They didn’t do a lot, but did a good job keeping it 50/50 to build intrigue for Mania. Both also had five eliminations. Eventually, Hogan threw Warrior out from behind, so they did some nice details to start the story. Hogan ended up with Perfect at the end, who bumped his fucking ass off in their sequence. Hogan won with a clothesline over the ropes. ***1/4

The Recommendation

The last three matches saved this show, making it a thumbs-up. Even Bossman vs Duggan delivered, but maybe I liked that more than most because the Meltz gave it MINUS **1/4. He also had a strong in-ring dislike for WWF Duggan at all times. That’s not really fair for the entirety of his run there. WCW, on the other hand…well…that’s another story. This Rumble dragged at times, but was the first really booked to tell multiple stories for Mania, and Perfect was a madman at the end. This is worth a watch.