Owen Hart & Jim Neidhart vs. Pat Tanaka & Kato 17:18. The New Foundation vs. The Orient Express. Perhaps the most interesting thing about the Royal Rumble PPVs was the fact that almost the entire roster would be booked in the 30-man Royal Rumble-style battle royal. That meant that the few workers that were going to be in the few matches prior to the battle royal were usually given more time than usual to do their thing. That was certainly the case here. Owen Hart’s performance showed that he was the smoothest worker in the WWF, and he pretty much stole the show. Owen did some moves nobody else was doing in WWF at the time. And with the extra time, Owen was allowed to tell more of a story than he normally had been allowed prior. Especially with Jim Neidhart just there to tag in once in a while, due to his limitations as a worker, as he was more of a powerhouse character who was useful in small doses, this was pretty much the Owen Hart show. Pat Tanaka and Paul Diamond were a solid and reliable midcard tag team. They were clearly thought of as a reliable opening match heel team, as they also had opened the PPV that happened exactly one year earlier. This bout opening the ‘92 Royal Rumble event moved along at a moderately slow tempo, and at 17 minutes, this was a relatively long match. But the quality of the work in general and the excitement factor of the highspots made things memorable. The way the ebb and flow was spread out nicely over the duration of the match aided the illusion there was more happening than there actually was. All things considered, especially the fact this was the opening match featuring arguably the best worker in the league, this was an interesting match to watch. That being said, this wasn’t quite on the level of the opening match of Royal Rumble ‘91, which was more heated and more dramatic. Either way, this was a nice start for the afternoon. WWF ran out of ideas for Pat Tanaka around that time, so he would soon leave for USWA to feud with Eric Embry. Jim Neidhart would get fired less than a month after this match due to unprofessional behavior backstage. Good match. ***  

WWF Intercontinental Title: The Mountie vs. Roddy Piper 5:22. The Mountie (Jacques Rougeau Jr.) had beaten Bret Hart to win the Intercontinental Title just a couple days prior to this event on a house show. There was some talk about Bret going to WCW around that time, but Bret ended up staying with WWF anyway (but he was punished for a few house shows, as he had to team with the Bushwackers). This Mountie vs. Roddy Piper was not good but was luckily kept short, as the only purpose of this happening was to put the belt on Piper. It was cool that Piper was given a belt during his last proper run in WWF. Mediocre match. *½ 

Blake Beverly & Beau Beverly vs. Butch & Luke 14:56. This match between the Beverly Brothers and the Bushwackers was so bad that even when I was a kid, I wanted to fast-forward this match (and I would normally never do that back when I was still a little WWF mark, so this speaks volumes about how bad this was). This match was truly God awful! For your own sake, please do not watch this match. And let’s quickly move on. Horrendous match. ¼*

WWF World Tag Team Title: Hawk & Animal vs. Earthquake & Typhoon 9:24. The Legion of Doom vs. The Natural Disasters. This was pretty much what it needed to be; a match between four big badasses beating each other up. The wrestling wasn’t very good technically, but it didn’t need to be. The story they were trying to tell was well told. As Gorilla Monsoon would say: “the irresistible force meets the immovable object.” Don’t get me wrong, this wasn’t an actual good match, but it was perfectly fine, especially for what it was. Okay match. **

WWF World Heavyweight Title Decision 30-Man Royal Rumble: Davey Boy Smith, Ted DiBiase, Ric Flair, Jerry Sags, Haku, Shawn Michaels, Tito Santana, The Barbarian, Kerry Von Erich, Repo Man, Greg Valentine, Nikolai Volkoff, Big Boss Man, Hercules, Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, Irwin R. Schyster, Jimmy Snuka, The Undertaker, Randy Savage, The Berzerker, Virgil, Col. Mustafa, Rick Martel, Hulk Hogan, Skinner, Sgt. Slaughter, Sid Justice, The Warlord 62:02. The cool thing about this Rumble is that it has probably the most number of big name wrestlers of any Rumble ever. Almost everyone in this match at some point meant something in the wrestling business. And when you know a bit more about the history between the participants (including previous encounters in other territories), it certainly makes this match even more interesting. Davey Boy Smith and Ted DiBiase started this match. The next participant was Ric Flair. Davey Boy eliminated DiBiase before Flair entered. Flair got to do his thing for an hour, so this match is highly recommended for Flair fans. Jerry Sags didn’t last long, and was the only Nasty Boy in this match, because Brian Knobbs had been stabbed four times during an altercation prior to the event (which obviously wasn’t mentioned). Haku was eliminated just before Michaels entered. Michaels showed good chemistry with Davey Boy, and Michaels was one of the best performers in this match even if his superkicks didn’t look so super. Michaels ended up staying in this match for 15 minutes (which means he's the guy who lasted the sixth longest) before being eliminated by Santana. Barbarian gave a solid performance. “Texas Tornado” Kerry Von Erich went right after Flair when he entered. Repo Man did his thing. Valentine was a babyface at the time. Volkoff was arguably the worst participant in the match, but lasted only 63 seconds. Hercules is the only one who lasted less than a minute. Soon after Bossman entered, the entire ring got cleared with Flair being the only one left in the ring until the 15th participant Piper entered. This was great stuff, as Piper had won the IC Title earlier on the show, so Piper was on roll and would love nothing better than to beat Flair’s ass and win the WWF Title. Piper was also the first one Flair had worked with when he came to WWF (and they had a history in the NWA). Piper would last for 34 minutes. When Jake entered, Flair thought this heel was going to back him up, but Jake double-crossed him. Never trust a snake. When Duggan entered, the ring started to fill up a bit too much again, and the match started to stagnate a bit. I.R.S. didn’t do anything special. Snuka had slowed down a lot by that point in his career, but he was still a recognizable name. Undertaker was the 20th participant entering the match, and he barely did anything interesting, of course. Randy Savage was one of the main guys in the match, and one of the favorites to win. He gave a dramatic performance, but made a big mistake when he jumped over the top rope to the floor to further attack Jake! They decided to pretty much no-sell the fact that Savage accidentally eliminated himself and pretended it was okay (even though this was clearly a mistake by Savage). Berzerker, Virgil, Col. Mustafa (Iron Sheik), & Rick Martel were numbers 22 through 25. Hulk Hogan was number 26. The WWF’s top star came out to a big reaction, and he was obviously one of the biggest favorites to win this match. Skinner, Sgt. Slaughter, Sid Justice and Warlord were numbers 27 through 30. It took a while for the ring to clear out again. Once Piper and Martel were eliminated, there were only four guys left; Flair, Savage, Hogan and Sid. Savage got eliminated by Flair and Sid. Hogan then got eliminated by Sid. Hogan was not happy and grabbed Sid’s arm. Flair took advantage and threw Sid over the top rope to win the match. This Rumble was booked very well, one of the best Rumbles ever. Flair won’t do very well in the overall rankings of 1992, but this was one of his best performances ever. What I thought was particularly well done was that Flair could still be the lucky bastard who was actually a backing off crybaby heel yet still come across as credible because he did show the stamina and determination, even if he lacked the skill. Also, what should be mentioned is that Bobby Heenan on commentary gave a legendary performance, adding so much to the story of the match through his passionate commentary, as he did a fantastic job as the Flair enthusiast heel commentator. The post-match promo by Mean Gene with Flair, Mr. Perfect and Heenan was quite memorable as well. Decent match. **¾  

Show rating: 5.5/10.0. Decent show.

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