The First Royal Rumble
Bret Hart
Bret Hart started the 1988 Royal Rumble with
Tito Santana, and wrestled for 25 minutes before being eliminated by Don
Muraco. Hart, already known to WWE brass as a stellar workhorse, was expected
to keep fans engaged in the new stipulation with his solid in-ring skill.
On kicking things off…
“It was critical
for guys like me and Tito [Santana] to get a lot of suspense and action going,
and keep that action going until the others came out. And it’s not easy
contesting a match like that. It really does exhaust you physically. And,
unluckily for me, I was in pretty good shape in those days, so I became the
iron man for those bouts. The logic was, ‘Send Bret Hart out there and he’ll
keep the action going until the next wrestler gets in there.’ That became a
role I got stuck with two or three times. It was a compliment, but at the same
time you had to do the work.”
On keeping the fire lit…
“I didn’t know
who was coming out, either. And it became a challenge to keep the fire going.
It’s like having a fire on a branch in the ring and you have to keep passing it
around and keep it lit all the time. And you have to keep that fire going
throughout the entire match. Sometimes you bounce from one opponent to the next
trying to light that fire again. For me, I found that, as much action that was
going on, I could spark something in the corner that would steal all the
attention from everyone else and make people watch me. I had an ability to not
exactly steal the show, but make people watch the flare-up I had going with
somebody in the corner. Then I would move onto somebody else and kick-start
something else on the other side of the ring.”
On why the Rumble is special…
“The beauty of
the Rumble is that every couple of minutes, another guys comes out, and just
seeing what kind of difference it makes. When you’re having a Royal Rumble, and
all of a sudden they send out Bob Backlund, he’s a whole different type of
wrestler than The 1-2-3 Kid or Andre the Giant. It changes the complexity of
the entire match. Everyone knows that if Andre is walking up, everyone’s
antenna is going to go up. It’s a whole different mentality.”
Tito Santana
Along with Bret Hart, Tito Santana was asked
to begin the 1988 Royal Rumble. Much like the first WrestleMania, Santana
handled his spot leading things off with aplomb, and went on to win 1989’s King
Of The Ring the following year.
Why the Rumble works…
“For me, it was
more exciting than your average Battle Royal. Everyone was anticipating who was
going to come out next, and who was going to get the lucky draw at the end and
be fresh. I never expected that people would get into it the way they did. But
it did bring up a lot of psychology for the fans, because they were trying to
figure out things.”
On veterans taking charge…
“When you’re a
young guy in these matches, the first time you want to go in there and do a
bunch of stuff, and it doesn’t take long for one of the veterans to make you
realize whatever you do you have to be aware of your surroundings. You can’t
just be thinking about yourself.”
On the match’s popularity…
“So many things
that were started back then—the psychology just carried over with the fans. I
personally think we had better psychology than the guys getting started. We got
to wrestle and learn from guys who were teaching us every night. We were
believers that you had to get the fans involved. I remember what Mr. Fuji said
to me as I was really starting to understand the business. Fuji would say, ‘The
people will tell you what they want; listen to the people.’ And I would think
to myself, ‘What the hell is he talking about?’ But after a while, you get an
ear for the crowd. They aren’t even aware you’re controlling them. That’s why
they always talk about the legends, and the ‘good old days.’ ”
Jake “The Snake” Roberts
Roberts entered the Rumble at No. 5 and
holds the distinction of being the first person ever to eliminate a Superstar
from a Royal Rumble Match by tossing Butch Reed over the top rope. The Snake
hung in there for more than 20 minutes before One Man Gang sent him packing.
On whether the Royal Rumble would ever
succeed…
“I knew that it
would work, because pumping people in, one after the other, just creates
excitement. If you put a fresh guy in every minute or so, it becomes, ‘Here
comes this guy; who is it? Who is it?’ It’s an anticipation thing, and the fans
are hoping that the next guy to come out will help their guy to win it. It’s
all about the fans. It was tough on the damn athletes, though. It really was.”
The challenges of being in the Rumble…
“Just the fact
that there are so many men out there and that the ring’s only so big. Not only
can you get hurt facing off with someone, but if someone falls into the back of
your leg or the side of your knee, you’re still going to get messed up. The
fact that there’s so many people in that small of a space makes it very
dangerous. I tried to get into a corner so my back was covered. Let me put it
this way, if I was going to rob a bank, I wouldn’t walk in the front door, you
know? I’d come in the back!”
Why the Rumble works…
“I think it’s
because of the way it’s set up. You can pick the guys you want to win. And, at
the Rumble, every fan picks who they want to win and they ride that roller
coaster every time someone new comes out. They think, ‘Leave my guy alone!’ or
they want someone to go after that guy, so they stay away from theirs. Even if
you only last 20 minutes, someone might say, ‘Hey, that guy’s got something
going on.’ And the people are with you because they either want to see you win
it all or, if you’re a real jerk, they want to see you go out there and get
killed. I’ve been on both sides of that fence.”
Other Rumble memories…
“I remember the
1992 Rumble, when Flair, Piper and myself were out there almost by ourselves
and we had some fun doubling back on each other. I like that kind of thing,
playing mind games with your opponent. Especially the three of us. I’d like to
have gone around the country with that matchup!”
Hillbilly Jim
Entering the melee at No. 16, Hillbilly
notched a short stint in the Rumble before One Man Gang ended his dreams of
being the sole victor. However, he did manage to toss out Jim Neidhart during
his six-minute stand.
On first hearing about the Royal Rumble…
“Just the name
alone sounded good to me: ‘The Royal Rumble.’ I said, ‘Man, what a title! If
this is any good at all, it’s going to take off!’ And lo and behold, after we
did the first one, I knew it was going to keep on going. Of course, everything
WWE was doing was pretty landmark stuff, innovative and groundbreaking, and
everything was working in our direction and everything was in our favor.
Wrestling was on fire. And the Royal Rumble, along with WrestleMania, was just
a perfect fit, and all the boys on the show knew that it was something that was
going to be going on every year after that.”
Memories of that day…
“I remember the
overall mood of the evening and the mood of the crowd. Everyone was just happy.
And it was really just a special kind of thing. Everybody was just happy to be
there. The crowd was really loud and into it. All the guys wanted to give their
best performance. And that was the overall thing I took from that, I knew we
were doing something really great.”
On Duggan winning it all…
“The Hack was
one of the best of all time. What a character and a wonderful person! And we
were all happy for Jim to win that night; it was great for him because he was a
very likable guy in the locker room, and he was a tough, tough guy to boot.”
Looking back almost 25 years later…
“All of us guys
who were around in those early days, we’re all proud to be a part of those WWE
firsts. We were there at a magical time in the wrestling business, when WWE
took over, and there were some amazing innovations. For something like the
Royal Rumble to be standing this many years later makes us all really proud.”
Harley Race
After coming into the Rumble at No.6, King
Harley managed to battle it out inside the ring for slightly more than 10
minutes before being eliminated by Don Muraco.
Strategy for surviving the Rumble…
“There
is no strategy. You get in there and try to stay around people who you know are
not on your side, but up to a point are. They want to weed out the weaker part
of the thing as quickly as possible, and as soon as you weed it out the less
likely you are to wind up with an injury from your blindside.”
His thoughts before the match…
“I
was just thinking about how I was going to survive this thing and reduce the
chance of injury and stuff like that. A lot of the younger ones that were there
just for the sake of being there were all hyper and jumping around. You just
find a way to keep yourself out of that part of it and hopefully you’re still
there at the end.”
On advice he received from The Chairman…
“More
or less, it was, get in there and go. They know talking to someone of my
experience or people like me, there’s not a heck of a lot they can say to you
one way or another to encourage you or discourage you.”
Nikolai Volkoff
Volkoff and Don Muraco couldn’t agree on who
was No. 11 and who was No. 12, until a ref settled the matter, awarding Volkoff
the 12th slot. Nikolai managed to eliminate Jim Brunzell during his
time in the ring, but soon found himself tossed out by eventual Rumble-winner
Jim Duggan.
The feeling backstage before the event…
“There was a lot
of excitement because it was one of the bigger events for its time and all the
people were happy to be a part of it. It was something new and we knew it was
going to be big, so we all were committed to doing our best out there.”
On whether how huge it was going to be sank
in…
“Not at that
time. Beforehand, you just had to prepare yourself for what was coming. And
when it was over, you just wanted to thank God that no one got hurt!”
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan won the very first
Royal Rumble, sending One Man Gang tumbling over the top rope for the win. He
then went on to enjoy a notable rivalry with Andre the Giant, cementing himself
as one of WWE’s true fan favorites.
On doubts that the Rumble would take off…
“I think anytime
when something new like that comes out, people wonder. They used to do Battle Royals
one way in WWE at the time. So when they come back and changed the whole format,
I think everyone wondered if it would get over to the extent it has. I don’t
think anyone knew how big it would become.”
Navigating the chaos…
“You have to be
back at the top of your game, you can’t coast out there. There are so many guys
in the ring, and there are big men moving around. Joints are always an issue.
No one wants anyone else falling on the back of his legs. It’s tough out there.
With 10 guys behind you, someone might be taking off from the top rope or any
number of things could be going on, and if you’re not aware of it, it can get
pretty crowded. ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan’s deal was to get in the corner, so I
wouldn’t have to pick and choose my targets. If it moved, I hit it.”
On his other favorite Rumble…
“It was the 2009
Rumble, and I was one of the latter guys coming out. I got a good pop, as a lot
of the guys from my generation do. Fans remember us, which we are grateful for.
I came through the curtain and stormed to the ring and, of course, one of the
first guys I roll into and am nose-to-nose with is Undertaker. When he first
came into WWE, I actually contested a lot of his first matches, against him and
Paul Bearer. So here I am, face-to-face, with the big Deadman. I give him a
shot, and a shot, and a real big shot and he went down like a big tank hit him.
Then, of course, Big Show came down and tossed my ass out, but I shined there
for a good couple of minutes.”
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