WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
Vol. 1 – It was a simple, yet revolutionary concept. Two men start in the ring, and every two minutes another Superstar is added to the match. Toss your opponents over the top rope to eliminate them until only one remains. It proved so popular that it was later moved to Pay Per View and the winner was awarded the WWE Championship. Now one of the WWE’s biggest events, you can own the first 5 Royal Rumbles on DVD in their entirety. Vol. 1 winners include back-to-back champ Hulk Hogan, “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan, Big John Studd and “Nature Boy” Ric Flair.
Rating:  List Price: $ 59.95 Price: $ 36.22 |
(out of 11 reviews)
Review by D.P. for WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
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1988 – The beginning of a traditon here as this was the first Rumble in WWF history as a special on USA network. This Rumble only featured 20 men which Hacksaw Jim Duggan became the first winner of the event. Ricky Steamboat fought Rick Rude, two sets of 2 out of 3 falls matches featuring a rare title defence of the Womens Tag Team Championship between the Jumping Bomb Angles & Glamour Girls along with Young Stallions vs. Islanders. Other highlights included the Hogan/Andre II contract signing & Dino Bravo setting a new bench press record.
1989 – This first Rumble on PPV which had the match go to it’s normal format of 30 men instead of the previous 20. Big John Studd returned to the WWF in a big way by winning the Rumble which featured such highlights as Demolition members Ax & Smash drawing the first two numbers and confrontation between Hogan & Savage after Savage was eliminated by Hogan. There was also a 2 out of 3 falls match between Hart Foundation/Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo/Rougeau Brothers, a match for the title of “King Of Wrestling” between King Haku & Harley Race, a bodybuilding contest between Rick Rude & Ultimate Warrior, and the Womens Champion Rockin’ Robin vs. Judy Martin. One funny thing to look out for was the story behind Ted Dibiase buying the #30 spot in the Rumble.
1990 – The first Rumble of the new decade started the tease of the dream match in WWF at that time between
Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior before Hogan would go on to win one of the best Rumbles in history. Undercard matches to look out for were Bushwackers vs. Rougeau Brothers, Brutus Beefcake vs. The Genius, a submission match between Ronnie Garvin & Greg Valentine, and Big Boss Man vs. Jim Duggan.
1991 – This was the beginning of using the Royal Rumble to kick off the “Road To WrestleMania” by starting to buildup not only their main event matches but their undercard matches as well for the biggest event of the year. Hulk Hogan won the Rumble this year while Sgt. Slaughter defeated Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Title with help from Randy Savage setting up the two WM main events. The Dusty & Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted Dibiase & Virgil match was just background to the long awaited Virgil turn against Dibiase setting up their match. Big Boss Man continued to battle the Heenan family members one by one as he took on Barbarian, Other matches include Rockers vs. Orient Express & Mountie vs. Koko B. Ware. One of the best overall Rumble cards in history.
1992 – For the first (and so far last) time in history, the winner of the Rumble became the World Champion. Ric Flair won this one & the WWF Title as this was one of the most entertaining Rumbles down to Bobby Heenan reacting to Flair’s every move on commentary. Other highlights of this Rumble was Randy Savage getting his hands on Jake Roberts and the Hogan/Sid confrontation at the end,. The undercard featured Roddy Piper winning his first championship in WWF as he won the Intercontinental Title from The Mountie, New Foundation vs. Orient Express, Legion Of Doom vs. Natural Disasters, and Beverly Brothers vs. Bushwackers.
Review by The Piper at the Gates for WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
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I was very excited to hear that WWE was releasing the Royal Rumble Anthology series in 4 separate volumes and not just as one big collection, just like they did with the all the Wrestlemainas. And this first volume, which includes the first 5 Royal Rumbles from 1988-1992, are arguably the best out of the whole Royal Rumble series. Of course, the main attraction here are the Royal Rumble matches themselves, but there are actually some really good other matches that take place as well.
And though the first Royal Rumble was decent, I have to say its the weakest one here. First off, their were only 20 participants in the original Rumble, not 30, and not featuring Hogan and Andre. I kinda felt that this first Rumble lacked star power,(the Ultimate Warrior is in this one, but gets eliminated way too easily!)And the winner of the rumble was somewhat disappointing to me. Not to mention, there are only 3 other matches that take place here, one being a woman’s tag team championship match, which I fast-forwarded through about 2 minutes into the match!
The 1989 Royal Rumble was improved compared to the first, with the addition of 30 WWF superstars, rather than 20. It also included a much better array of wrestling talent with most of the best the sport had to offer like Andre, Hogan, Jake Roberts, Perfect, Macho Man, and Ted DiDiase. This Rumble is great, however,I was once again somewhat disappointed in the winner. Once again, only 3 other matches are included, one of them being a women’s Championship Match, which, once again, I fast-forwarded through! Not to mention, the Super Posedown between Rude and Warrior was kinda stupid as well.
The 1990 Royal Rumble is easily my all-time favorite Rumble. Though I didn’t like it when wrestlers come in and clear out the ring. The more people in the ring, the more entertaining it is to me. This is one reason some of the later Rumbles weren’t as good. This rumble has all the greats in it: Hogan, Andre, Dibiase, Piper, Macho Man, Jake Roberts, Warrior, and the list goes on. The talent in this one is really what makes this one the best Rumble out of the entire series. And besides the first match between The Bushwhackers and the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, there are a couple of good matches here, included the surprisingly great Submission match between Greg Valentine and Ronnie Garvin.
The 1991 Rumble is pretty much on par with the previous Rumble, but just not quite as good. There is no Andre, Rick Rude, or Piper in it. And Dibiase is in a Royal Rumble tag team match, he’s not in the Rumble itself. However, this marks the first appearance of the Undertaker in a Royal Rumble. And though the Rumble is good, I didn’t care for the ending. It just felt too scripted, and just wasn’t that impressive-looking. This rumble contains the notorious Sgt. Slaughter vs Ultimate Warrior match, in which the Warrior would lose the Championship belt. But my biggest complaint with this one is the commentary by Roddy Piper who’s with Gorilla Monsoon. I usually like Piper as a commentator, he’s just way over the top here, and the whole event itself somewhat suffer because of it.
The last Royal Rumble in this volume once again contains some of the all-time greats in the business, including for the first time, Ric Flair. And there are some good matches, like the Intercontinental Championship Match between The Mountie and Roddy Piper (who also appears in the Rumble), and the Tag Team Championship Match with Legion of Doom vs The Natural Disasters. Overall, this is a good Rumble match with a good ending. Though I gotta say I was pissed that Dibiase got eliminated so early!!
As far as packaging, there’s nothing too impressive with this, but a word to the warning, if you wanna be surprised with not knowing who’s coming out when, don’t look too closely inside this set because it contains the a list of order of entry of each Rumble participant, as well as the superstar who stayed in the longest and who had the most eliminations!! Overall, if you like classic wresting, when it was actually worth watching, then this is a must have. Yeah, there are so crappy matches now and again and some stupid storylines, but this is wrestling, what can you expect? And like I said, this is a much better product that what Vince is putting out there now. This Royal Rumble Volume has all the all-time great wrestling characters in their prime. Again, this is a must have for real wrestling fans, and at this price, its a steal.
Review by Zachary Koenig for WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
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As a child, I was a little “Hulkamaniac” through and through, watching all the videos, buying all the accessories, and cheering on the Hulkster at every opportunity. Basically, from 1990-1996, I was a die-hard WWF fan in every sense of the word.
Of course, as children, our perception of professional wrestling differs so much from what it is now. For example, as a kid I was completely enthralled by every dramatic plot turn, character twist, and roundhouse right. Now, I look back at the whole show as a sort of comedy…you know it’s fake, but it’s just too much fun to not get sucked in again!
Thus, this set was a welcome little stroll down memory lane for me, as it allowed me (at least for a time) to be that bright-eyed little kid again who would scream his lungs out for Hogan, Ultimate Warrior, Randy “Macho Man” Savage, and Jake “The Snake” Roberts. This DVD collection contains the first five (1988-1992) of the “Royal Rumble” events that are put on annually on the wrestling calendar. To me, it is the best event of the bunch, as the humor and uniqueness of the Rumble itself (in areas ranging from the actual wrestling, to the character angles, to the announcing booth) makes it imminently watchable even when the preliminaries are (at times) excruciatingly boring.
It is also interesting to see how the Royal Rumble event changed over time (even in these formative years) from strictly a vehicle building up to Wrestlemania to an event that can more than hold its own on the event schedule. Unlike other events (Wrestlemania, Summer Slam, Survivor Series, etc.) that might be hit-or-miss due to down times in Vince McMahon’s business (e.g. the downslide of Hogan’s dominance), the Rumble is always at least interesting due to the free-for-all main event.
So, if you remember the countless hours you spent as a child watching those old “wrestling videos”, this collection will provide you hours of entertainment! Some of the events are better than others, but all will bring back a flood of memories for you to enjoy.
Review by LeeAnn Hawkins for WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
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1988: This was a poor outing for the Royal Rumble. Everything was just not that great. The first match between Ricky Steamboat and Rick Rude may have been the best match on the card. It wasn’t like their WCW matches but it was still a good match nonetheless. The Dino Bravo weightlifting competition was just a complete waste of time. Here was Dino trying to break some kind of benchpress record and it was like 15-20 minutes of complete boredom. The women’s title match between the Glamour Girls and the Jumping Bomb Angels was a pretty good match and a throwback to the days of old with a 2 out of 3 fall stipulation. Then came the Andre/Hulk Hogan contract signing and again was a waste of time. This could have been saved for Superstars or some other show. The Royal Rumble was next and was pretty good. It only had 20 men, not the standard 30 of today’s standards, and they entered the ring every 1 minute not every minute and a half or 2 minutes by today’s standard. Jim Duggan won and that was about it. The main event was brutal to watch. Here you have the Islanders against the Young Stallions (Jobbers). It also was 2 out of 3 falls but was just a nothing match. All in all this was a god awful event that I would have to give one star!
1989: This event was an ok Rumble, definatly better than the previous one from 1988. The opener was a 2 out of 3 fall match between Dino Bravo and the Rougeau Brothers against Jim Duggan and the Hart Foundation. This match was really good and maybe the best match on the card. The next match was kind of a waste of time between the Ultimate Warrior and Rick Rude. It was a posedown match. They just posed for a few minutes and then Rude attacked the Warrior. Unlike the Dino Bravo weightlifting challenge from 1988, this did have a point and set up for a great showdown at Wrestlemania 5. Up next was women’s title match between Judy Martin and Rockin Robin. This match was not that great and again kind of a waste of time. The next match was King Haku against Harley Race. I thought this match was going to be great but instead was another waste of time. Last was the Rumble match. Here they added the 30 men and the 2 minute entrances. I liked this Rumble from start to finish. It started with Ax against Smash and they did go at it. Andre the Giant was 3rd. We even saw Hogan and Savage get in each other’s faces setting up a showdown at Wrestlemania 5. The only problem with this Rumble is the winner was John Studd. I think this was a poor choice to have win the Rumble. He had never really done anything in the WWE and now they give him this win. Poor decision to me. All in all this was an ok Rumble that I would give two stars!
1990: Again this was an ok event. The match selection just wasn’t that great and the execution of those matches was downright awful. The opener was the Rougeaus against the Bushwackers. This was a awful match as any match with Luke and Butch in it turned out to be. I have to tip my hat to the Rougeaus for trying to make a great match but it just didn’t happen. Up next was the Genius against Brutus Beefcake. This match was ok but not great. Next was the submission match with Ron Garvin and Greg Valentine. This match was so stupid to watch it made me sick. It is a submission match and here these 2 are trying to pin each other! What in the world is up with that? It just made these 2 look like complete morons. Next was Big Bossman against Jim Duggan. Again another dud in the mix. Last was the Rumble match and this was the best match on the card with Hulk Hogan winning the whole thing. Definatly the moment that everyone will remember is the showdown between Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior that set up their epic encounter at Wrestlemania 6. All in all this Rumble was ok and I would have to give it two stars!
1991: This was a really good Rumble from start to finish. The opener was again maybe the best match on the card as the Rockers took on the Orient Express. This was great tag team wrestling at its best and I was always a fan of the Express version of Tanaka and Kato. This match delivered. Next is the Big Bossman against Barbarian. I liked this match for one reason: Barbarian. I have always been a huge mark for this guy and I don’t know why. This was a good match. Next was a suprise match between Sgt Slaughter and the Ultimate Warrior for the world title. This was a standard Warrior match but the suprise was Warrior losing the title to Slaughter thanks to interference by Randy Savage setting up their epic match at Wrestlemania 7. Next was a dud match between Mountie and Koko B. Ware. This was a ok match and just did not deliver. Up next was Ted DiBiase and Virgil against Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. I thought this match would be good by was not that great. There was just no chemistry there with these 4 guys. The best was the ending when Virgil turned on his boss setting up their match at Wrestlemania 7. Lastly was the Rumble which Hulk Hogan won once again. This was another good Rumble match. One of the things to really watch here was Greg Valentine and Rick Martel racing to set the Rumble record. Valentine lasted for over 40 minutes and Martel, a very underrated wrestler, lasted for a full 52 minutes. That is well worth seeing. All in all this was the first real good Rumble that the WWE put on and I would have to give this one 4 stars!
1992: Another very good Rumble from start to finish, with the finish being lined with gold. The opening match was Orient Express against the New Foundation. This was another really good opening match and was almost the best match on the card once again. Up next was Mountie defending the Intercontinental title against Roddy Piper. This was a real short title match (not even 6 minutes) and ended with Piper winning his one and only WWE title. Next was a yawn match with Beverly Brothers and the Bushwackers. Nothing to talk about her just boredom. The next one was the Natural Diseasters against the LOD. I thought this match was an ok, not great but ok. Lastly, was the Rumble match with the winner receiving the world title. This was a great Rumble, maybe the best of all time. A who’s who was in this match including: Ted DiBiase, Davy Boy Smith, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, Kerry Von Erich, Roddy Piper, Undertaker, Randy Savage, Sgt Slaughter, Hulk Hogan and even Sid. This was a great Rumble with Flair winning it all and the title by entering number 3 and lasting for a little over 60 minutes. All in all this was a good Rumble and I would give this one 4 stars!
Review by FRANCISCO CARDENAS for WWE Royal Rumble – The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1
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This collection of DVDS is great because it has the first set of Royal Rumble events, that came aout in the late 80′s and early 90′s, it has great matches, but the best part as the box says it’s the ROYAL RUMBLE, especially the ones from 1989, 1990, and 1991.
If you were a Hulkamaniac in that period you are going to love this set.
Enjoy.