WWF Royal Rumble ‘88

1. “Ravishing” Rick Rude vs. Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat – 7
2. Jumping Bomb Angels vs. Glamour Girls – 7
3. 20-Man Royal Rumble – 5
4. Islanders vs. Young Stallions – 4

Rude and Steamboat had a really solid match, minus the ending involving the ref bump and false finish. It went pretty long, mostly with the action surrounding Ricky working Rude’s arm. It was a methodical and well-thought out match, the type you’re not likely to see today, and footage the date rapists in the Spirit Squad should be studying. I’m a big Jumping Bomb Angels fans, in fact, they’re one of my favorite tag teams. There was some pretty fantastic back-and-forth style stuff going on here, denying of tags, etc. What really helped give the match the grade I gave it was the totally rad finish, involving the Angels’ doing simultaneous missile dropkicks from the top buckles, and making it look way cooler than when The Rockers would ever attempt it.

The Royal Rumble was significant in that it was the first, but outside of that history lesson, it wasn’t too climatic. There was no overlying story arch, or crowd favorite to really get behind. Bret Hart stayed in a long time, which was a pleasant surprise, and it was nice to see other guys make appearances like Butch Reed and One Man Gang. “Hacksaw” Jim Duggan won it all, though, easily one of his career highlights. It featured a ton of bad brawling, per usual; the award for best elimination was Sam Houston, who took a hellacious bump, and the winner for the worst was Ron Bass, who literally took a couple steps and jumped himself over the top rope. The last match was a throwaway tag, built upon Stallion Paul Roma hurting his leg mid-match, and his partner trying to thwart the crazy foreigners from royally fucking his shit up. My personal opinion is the Young Stallions should have got into the porn industry instead of wrestling; they’d have made more money, exploited more people, got more pussy while rocking Aerosmith b-sides, and wouldn’t have retired having only a story of the time Haku headbutted them… really hard.