#61 – Royal Rumble 1992 – “PUT THAT CIGARETTE OUT!”
WITH A TEAR IN MY EYE! We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the greatest Royal Rumble of all time. WOOOOOOOOOOO! PUT THAT CIGARETTE OUT!
If you are also a fan of the new school and would like to help support the Old School Wrestling Podcast, please consider clicking on the following banner ad and ordering the upcoming January 27th Dragon Gate USA iPPV on wwnlive.com. Thanks!
Gentlemen, great podcast, as always. I cannot adequately express my love for this Royal Rumble.
You forget one thing–while the Beverly Brothers vs. Bushwhackers match may have been terrible, it at least ensured that neither team would appear in the Royal Rumble itself and taint the legacy of the greatest Rumble of them all. (Even though Roddy Piper was in a match earlier in the night to debunk that theory, but who’s counting?)
By the way, if I am not mistaken, the name of the tag-team of Owen Hart and Koko B. Ware was “High Energy.”
Good call on keeping both teams out of the Rumble. I actually did think to myself the undercard sucked because all the major players were in the actual Rumble itself.
Greatest ppv ever! Easy to say , it hasn’t not aged over the years at all , the colors are so bright on the screen , love it love it love it! Heenan and Monsoon are amazing! Rumble match is also on Ric Flair dvd set 1 and the Heenan DVD so right there even the company knows it f’n rules!
has not aged!
No double negatives aloud on the Old School Wrestling Pocast.
But I hate double negatives! 🙂
This could possibly be Heenan and Gorilla’s finest hour (and they had many).
Great podcast, guys…although, I will quibble with Black Cat’s depiction of Skinner. If I remember correctly, Skinner was supposed to be a stereotypical denizen of the Everglades. Mid 80s wrestler Outback Jack was the Crocodile Dundee rip-off.
I’ll agree with that. It still baffles me that it was Steve Kern from the Fabulous Ones.
I want a Gorilla Monsoon soundboard.
I can understand how you could hate the Mountie character, but Jacque Rougeau was a great worker.
Jamison’s real name was John Digiacomo. Seriously. Apparently his first appearance on the Bobby Heenan show was all improvised. I don’t know anything else about him though.
I’m glad to know Dre’s Vince McMahon impression wasn’t a sincere attempt. It was abismal.
Wrestlers like The Natural Disasters are great for wrestling. You can’t look at guys like them or Mark Henry and think to yourself “I could kick his ass”. I can’t say the same for a lot of indy wrestlers out there though.
I had a hard time containing myself during the recap of how Sid’s promo went. Did parts of that impression sound more like the Macho Man? The only thing tougher than that was keeping it together during Black Cat’s impression of how Hogan said “Rumble”.
I remember watching this PPV at a friend’s house and predicting that Flair would win. Being 11 at the time, I was pretty proud of that.
Dre, don’t tell me you have to get in character to do the Old School Wrestling Podcast. I know better.
Black Cat, would you really describe British Bulldog in WCW in 1993 as having a “big year”?
Dre, would you really describe The Barbarian as being a “Legendary” wrestler? I mean he was was good, and would totally kick anyone’s ass, but legendary?
Piper’s enterance in the Royal Rumble match is priceless with how he had his arms outstretched and was screaming the whole way down the aisle.
Say what you want about Virgil, but the reaction he got when he finally turned on Dibiase at the previous Royal Rumble was unforgettable.
HCBA, I’m going to kick your ass when I see you tomorrow. I’m going to make you admit that my Ventura impression is awesome.
Hardcore needs to listen to Sklar Country podcast to truly appreciate the greatness of the Ventura impression.
Dang it Dre I didn’t see this post until after I saw you. I’m gonna dig my mic out of the basement, learn Skype, and then you’ll be in trouble.
The Natural Disasters are intimidating not just physically, but because I’d be afraid they’d fart on me.
I’ll make sure to pass along the memo to a certain independent wrestling organization that someone thinks he can kick the ass of most people on the roster.
Bulldog had a main event run in WCW, so I’d say that was fairly successful.
Virgil’s turn on DiBiase was great. That sounds like a good minicast…
Great show as always (and all the others since my last comment). I’d like to see a Virgil-DiBiase retrospective minicast. If you need a hand getting footage, PM me over on PWO because I have it all on DVD (bootleg DiBiase set I got years ago).
Bulldog had a good 1993 yeah, he was treated as a big deal and had some of his career-best singles matches against Regal and Vader.
Re: Rumble 92, I’ve been known to CRY at Flair’s post-match promo before now. His post-match at Wrestlemania 8 (“1-time means NOTHING to my career”) is also pretty fucking awesome.
If you look only at American promotions, I think 1992 legit challenges 1989 as the all-time best year for wrestling. You had TWO massively stacked rosters in WWF and WCW, Flair having one of the best years of his career, and a lot of awesome stuff happening in WCW (Dangerous Alliance, Rude in general, Steamboat in general, Vader vs. Sting, all sorts of awesome).
I still want you guys to do Beach Blast ’92 which I requested back in September 2010! You said back then Black Cat – “we’ll probably do Beach Blast 92 soon.” Two years later and I’m still waiting! 😛 (again, if you need a hand getting it PM me)
Also, I forgot to send you my Christmas carol. I was crazy busy at that time. But I got as far as this:
Bob Holly and Dan Spivey
JYD chomping on a bone
The Killer Bees are in the wood
Lawler bears the crown
O the rising of Billy Gunn
And the running of Edge’s speer
The playing of merry Hogan
Sweet singing Koko B. Ware
In retrospect, I had one good line there and a lot of filler. Ha ha
That’s exactly where I was going with the year Bulldog had in 1993. Solid ring work, headline matches. There was a lot of good stuff in 1992, just didn’t see most of it real time so it doesn’t get the same love from me.
Beach Blast 92 will be soon!
Thanks for the carol…we’ll sing it in 10 months!
Thanks for this one guys. I loved that rumble as much if not more than ric flair did! Pipers entrace into the rumble was great, but flairs reaction to pipers entrance was unforgetable. And how great was that ending. You guys were on the mark. Everyone was tired of hogans schtick. Yes I must admit I was a hulkamaniac when he took the wwf by storm in 84 ,I was 11for christ sakes!, by 91 I wanted to style and profile, not pray and consume vitamins.
I certainly agree that Flair’s reaction to Piper’s enterance played a big part in making it the moment it is. The only rival to it I can think of is Stone Cold’s reaction to Bret Hart’s enterance in the ’97 Rumble. That moment is all Austin though.
With a tear in my eye, I’m writing this response to this awesome podcast:
I feel like this pay-per-view deserves a great review (written or verbal) and you guys did just that, gave the event and us another great review. I randomly watched this one too a few weeks back with my friend and he feel asleep during the undercard and slept thru the Rumble match, which caused a few tears to form in my tear ducts. I may have him either watch the Rumble match with me again or listen to this podcast. I’m leaning towards both.
I also feel that with this review, it’s only fitting to do a WWF WrestleMania 1992 review. I also watched WrestleMania VIII a couple weeks back with a group of homies and some things angered me. Things such as the Hogan/Sid match ending in a DQ finish and that match being the last match of the card. I went home pissed with a DQ ending WrestleMania (and I watched this at home, so that was a sight seeing me leave my place and walking back in pissed and wondering why theres a half dozen men in my living room watching me). Also, why there was two to three matches between the World Wrestling Federation Championship match and the Sid/Hulkster match. Another thing that make me wanna vomit was the Skinner spitting “chewing tobacco” into Owen Hart’s face at Mania 8. I guess I’ll leave this be until (if, I suppose) theres a Mania 8 podcast.
But thank you gentlemen for an awesome podcast. It helped me pass a few hours between my Coke job and my Spee Dee Delivery job.
I watched this match on the Flair compilation put out a few years back; can anyone clue me in on whether or not I watched the one with edited audio?
I think I remember a lot of boos for Hogan; I also think Undertaker got alot of cheers for beating Hogan for the belt at the ppv before this.
On the Flair DVD it would be edited.
I’m not entirely sure of the validity of the edit job. I’ll try to confirm and report back. Stay tuned!
Kerry Von Erich 1960-1993
Ouch, Dre.
I approve of this masked former roommate of mine. Maybe we can do battle on a future OSWP episode… 😉
First and foremost, I am a longtime fan of this podcast. I started just listening to the podcasts for the events I watched myself, but then began listening to events I never watched because I couldn’t get enough.
Extra special thanks for this podcast for many reasons. I forgot how great this event was, as I remember watching this live at my Dad’s friend’s pirated PPV channel. More importantly, good Royal Rumble recommendations assist with has become a yearly tradition for my friends and I, the Beer Drinking Royal Rumble. At this annual event, my friends and I watch old Royal Rumbles and play a drinking game in which contestants enter two minutes apart and any person who is two beers behind the leader is eliminated. The last man standing goes to Beer Drinking Wrestlemania, which is an idea we haven’t figured out yet. Very often it devolves in a mess of people getting sick, but it’s always a celebration. We prepared a comprehensive, OSWP-inspired review at http://www.brutalhorse.com/articles/9/the-oral-history-of-the-beer-drinking-royal-rumble.
This podcast also got me prepared for the start of Wrestlemania season. This year is extra important, as I have tickets to Miami to see the event live.
Thanks again for all the good work.
Thanks for the mention guys! I love RR 92 btw. I’d like to share a story about the “slobbering knuckle dragger”, Jim Duggan if I may.
I was at WM28. I was sitting behind these 2 obese, sweet old African American ladies in the Georgia Dome. When Jim Dugan came out for the Hall of Fame, one of them said to the other.. “I’d have hit that back in the day girl… Hacksaw was fineeeee as helllll”. The other one, said, “girl.. I’d hit it right now”, and the other one started howling with laughter and they slapped the shit out of each other’s backs.
I also have another memory of Jim Duggan as a kid in Atlanta when I was living there in Marietta in the late 80s. Will save it for another time/
I meant WM27
guys , the Demolition stuff drives me crazy , Smash was Repoman! Also this was not the debut of Sean Mooney he is all over WWF tv dating back to before Wrestlemania 5. Jamieson just did the Legends Of The Ring convention in New Jersey. Also , check out Mania 8 for Monsoon and Heenan together the whole show.
in the words of Gorilla Monsoon, “The Old School Wrestling Podcast is a fountain of misinformation.”
John Nord’s best work was not in the WWF. It was either:
a) In AWA where he portrayed a bible-loving lumberjack from the Yukon who introduced the world to pancake-loving lumberjack Scott “Flapjack” Norton.
b) In WCW as a jobber to the stars who wore a homemade shirt to the ring that read “If You Don’t Like Me (see back)” “Then There’s Something Wrong With You”…….It was a very verbose shirt and it’s a good thing Nord had a large back.
I remember watching nord as a face when he broke into the mid south teaming with jake roberts…and watching jim ross freak out when he turned heel and joined up with humperdink and lord humongous..
And Brody it seemed did have a cup of coffee with the wwf, but not for very long.
Nord said in a shoot that he and brody was supposed to enter the wwf together late in 88..brody was stabbed that summer.
I had no idea he had been affiliated with Bruiser when I was reviewing this Rumble, but you’re right, he was in WCCW with him. I’m in the middle of the Brody biography and found out he TEAMED with Nord. Small world.
Sean Mooney works for Fox Sports Arizona on their broadcasts of Arizona football and basketball games.
Sid has always been popular in the Northeast including in New York. This also applies to many heels over the years when they are in New York. Another example of Sid being cheered is in his match VS. Shawn Michaels at the 1996 Survivor Series at MSG.
The Undertaker started becoming popular after his feud with Jake Roberts which took place after the 92 Rumble.
The Randy Savage vs. Jake Roberts feud started at Summerslam 1991. Jake Roberts decided to give the Macho Man and Liz a gift which was a snake in a box. Randy at the time was “retired.” The cobra by the way was not supposed to take as big a bite out of Savage’s arm as it did.
Tuesday in Texas was just supposed to be something that WWE wanted to try. If you watch the Survivor Series from that year you do see basically a PPV that advertised another PPV.
Good to hear Sean is doing well. I’m sure he misses Vince.
“Sean Mooney works for Fox Sports Arizona on their broadcasts of Arizona football and basketball games”…………WAIT WHAT?!?! (Az native/resident/Arizona State grad – not to be confused with Arizona)
I loved Joe Jusko’s Royal Rumble covers. He’s a fantastic artist who works for Marvel, but does a lot more painted material, rather than sequential storytelling stuff.
Thank you for the artist name! I thought I recognized the style but couldn’t put a name to it. I’m thinking he might have done Marvel trading cards in the 90s.
What if Flair never left WCW and lost to or beat Luger at Bash 91? Where would that company be now?