The 1992 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It was the fifth annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. It centered on the men's Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-man battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.

Six matches were contested at the event, including one dark match. The main event was the 1992 Royal Rumble match. This Royal Rumble match was notable as for the first time, there was a prize for winning, which was the WWF Championship that had been vacated in December 1991. Ric Flair last eliminated Sid Justice to win the Royal Rumble match and the vacant WWF Championship. In other featured matches on the undercard, The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) defeated The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal) to win the WWF Tag Team Championship, The Beverly Brothers (Blake Beverly and Beau Beverly) defeated The Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch), and Roddy Piper defeated The Mountie to win the WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship.

Production Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event, produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988; that first event was a television special before it became an annual pay-per-view (PPV) beginning in 1989. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". It is named after and centered on the men's Royal Rumble match. The fifth Royal Rumble event was scheduled to be held on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York.

The Royal Rumble match is a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and it generally features 30 wrestlers. Prior to 1992, there was no prize for winning the match. However, as the WWF Championship had been vacated in December 1991, the vacant title became the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match, marking the first Royal Rumble with a prize.

Storylines Prior to the event, it was announced the winner of the Royal Rumble would win the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been stripped from Hulk Hogan after two controversial title switches between Hogan and the Undertaker, first at the 1991 Survivor Series and later at the Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event. Hogan and The Undertaker were among the 30 entrants in the event. WWF president Jack Tunney gave Hogan and Undertaker an advantage in the random draw to determine the order in which wrestlers would enter the ring, promising them numbers between 20 and 30.

Event + Other on-screen personnel:Role:Name:CommentatorGorilla MonsoonBobby HeenanInterviewersGene OkerlundSean MooneyLord Alfred HayesRing announcerHoward FinkelRefereeFred SpartaDanny DavisEarl HebnerJoey Marella The event comprised five matches, including the Royal Rumble match. The Royal Rumble match helped begin Justice's slow-building turn into a villain. Justice – who was returning from a recent injury – entered at No. 29 and was among the final four wrestlers, along with Hogan, Randy Savage, although he jumped outside the ring to hit Jake the Snake Roberts and Flair. Justice eliminated Savage and then Hogan, leaving himself and Flair in the ring. During the initial live pay-per-view broadcast, Justice's elimination of Hogan was loudly cheered by the audience in attendance even though, as per storyline plans, Sid "sneaked up from behind" to throw Hogan out. As such, the original reaction was edited out of future television replays of the event, with play-by-play announcer Gorilla Monsoon adding new comments condemning Sid for his actions (Monsoon had originally said Justice's elimination of Hogan was fair). Hogan, who was still at ringside after being eliminated, grabbed Sid's arm and distracted him long enough for Flair to eliminate him to win the match and become the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Sid and Hogan got into an argument in the ring and had to be separated by security.

In his book, To Be The Man, Ric Flair mentions not knowing he was going to be winning the Royal Rumble (WWF Title) until arriving at the arena the day of the event, and also felt he was brought in at number three in order to showcase his skills and endurance to the WWF audience, who may not have watched his work in Jim Crockett Promotions and World Championship Wrestling. Bobby Heenan mentioned in his autobiography, Bobby The Brain, that it was his initial suggestion that Flair enter the Rumble at number one for dramatic purposes, and that Vince McMahon changed it to number three and claimed it as his own idea.

Reception The Rumble match is often considered the greatest Rumble in history. In particular, the commentary by Heenan was particularly praised, with some calling it "one of the greatest color commentary performances in pay-per-view history".

Aftermath The confrontation between Hogan and Justice was played out over a series of future WWF television programs. On the Superstars program aired January 25, 1992, WWF President Jack Tunney held a press conference, where he announced that Hogan would face Flair for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VIII. Justice, who was also in attendance and began standing up as if Tunney were about to proclaim him the top contender, was outraged and termed the announcement "the most bogus act Jack Tunney has ever pulled off." Sid later apologized and Hogan accepted, but on the February 8 Saturday Night's Main Event XXX, Justice abandoned Hogan during a tag-team match against Flair and The Undertaker, completing his heel turn and leading to a match at WrestleMania VIII.

Flair, meanwhile, began feuding with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had a previous relationship with Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth in which Flair had himself superimposed. This culminated in a title match at WrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second (and final) WWF World Heavyweight Championship.

This was the first Royal Rumble in which stakes were involved for the winner—the stipulation in which the winner would face the world champion at WrestleMania first took place at the following year's event. It would be 24 years before the Royal Rumble match was again for the championship, which had since been renamed as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, although at that 2016 event, the reigning champion defended the title in the Royal Rumble match, entering at number one.

Results

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.

DrawEntrantOrderEliminated byTimesEliminations1The British BulldogRic Flair23:3332Ted DiBiaseThe British Bulldog01:180Ric FlairWinner5Jerry SagsThe British Bulldog01:060Haku01:510Shawn Michaels10Tito Santana15:461Tito SantanaShawn Michaels13:551The Barbarian11Hercules12:550The Texas TornadoRic Flair09:20010Repo ManBig Boss Man06:23211Greg ValentineRepo Man04:12012Nikolai Volkoff01:03013Big Boss Man13Ric Flair03:38214Hercules12Big Boss Man00:56115Roddy Piper26Sid Justice34:06116Jake Roberts15Randy Savage10:55017Jim Duggan19Virgil20:45118Irwin R. Schyster23Roddy Piper27:01019Jimmy Snuka14The Undertaker02:27020The Undertaker17Hulk Hogan13:51121Randy Savage27Ric Flair and Sid Justice22:26222The Berzerker18Hulk Hogan09:00023Virgil20Jim Duggan07:29124Col. Mustafa16Randy Savage02:36025Rick Martel25Sid Justice12:39126Hulk Hogan2811:29327Skinner21Rick Martel02:13028Sgt. Slaughter22Sid Justice04:37029Sid Justice29Ric Flair05:55630The Warlord24Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice01:430

Randy Savage eliminated himself shortly by jumping over the top rope to chase Jake Roberts. Savage was brought back into the ring by The Undertaker because Savage's scripted elimination was to take place later in the match. Announcers Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan originally thought that Savage was officially eliminated but then they realized that Savage wasn't thrown out by another wrestler to be eliminated.

Ric Flair broke the longevity record for lasting 1:00:02. This record would stand for one year before it would be broken by Bob Backlund (Lasting 1:01:10) in Royal Rumble (1993). Ric Flair also became the first person in history to last more than one hour.

References

External links Official website