WWF Royal Rumble 1996 (1/21/1996)- Fresno, CA

AHMED JOHNSON vs. JEFF JARRETT- 4.75/10

WWF WORLD TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Smoking Gunns(c) vs. The Bodydonnas (w/Sunny)- 5.75/10. Good nearfalls towards the end.

WWF INTERCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Razor Ramon(c) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena)- 7.25/10. Awesome character work from both guys, and good storytelling.

ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH- 9/10. Absolutely awesome! They made Vader look like a BEAST! He took it to Yokozuna, he took it to both Samoan Swat Team members AT ONCE, and just plain dominated things. The face-off between Yokozuna and Vader was a great moment. Shawn pulling Lawler out from under the ring was great. I had totally forgotten about him! This rumble felt full of star power, with Shawn Michaels, Owen hart, Diesel, the British Bulldog, Yokozuna, the much-hyped debut of Vader, and Jake Roberts making his big return. Even the guys clearly at the end of their careers like Jerry Lawler, Bob Backlund, and Dory Funk helped make this feel huge. The last few eliminations were pretty awesome. I, of course, popped huge for Isaac Yankem.

On the way to the ring, Taker and Diesel had small brawl, which was a great tease to build up to their match at Wrestlemania 12.

WWF TITLE MATCH: Bret Hart(c) vs. The Undertaker- 8.25/10.
Awesome match with an unfortunate but necessary ending. The lack of nearfalls did kind of hurt this match in terms of excitement, but I can see why they wouldn’t want to do any with the finish being what it was.

Vince & Mr. Perfect were GREAT on commentary.

Overall, a great show from the WWF. With one of the better Royale Rumble matches that I have seen.

One of my top five Royal Rumble shows. The main event was amazing and the Rumble was great. And Perfect and McMahon were great as they always were.

ppl talk about lack of Starpower in the 2012 Rumble, 96 had the Head Hunters, Doug Gilbert, the Godwins, Savio Vega, Bob Holly, etc. and a lot of old guys you knew weren't gonna win (Dory Jr, Backlund, Roberts, etc). the only believable winners were Vader, Yoko, Owen, and HBK....

badnewzxl wrote:ppl talk about lack of Starpower in the 2012 Rumble, 96 had the Head Hunters, Doug Gilbert, the Godwins, Savio Vega, Bob Holly, etc. and a lot of old guys you knew weren't gonna win (Dory Jr, Backlund, Roberts, etc). the only believable winners were Vader, Yoko, Owen, and HBK....

And Diesel & Bulldogg could have won, too

badnewzxl wrote:ppl talk about lack of Starpower in the 2012 Rumble, 96 had the Head Hunters, Doug Gilbert, the Godwins, Savio Vega, Bob Holly, etc. and a lot of old guys you knew weren't gonna win (Dory Jr, Backlund, Roberts, etc). the only believable winners were Vader, Yoko, Owen, and HBK....

Roberts was making his return, so him winning was possible. Also, Diesel and Bulldog could have won.

Either way, that is more than in most rumbles.

Big Red Machine wrote:

badnewzxl wrote:ppl talk about lack of Starpower in the 2012 Rumble, 96 had the Head Hunters, Doug Gilbert, the Godwins, Savio Vega, Bob Holly, etc. and a lot of old guys you knew weren't gonna win (Dory Jr, Backlund, Roberts, etc). the only believable winners were Vader, Yoko, Owen, and HBK....

Roberts was making his return, so him winning was possible. Also, Diesel and Bulldog could have won.

Either way, that is more than in most rumbles.

I was just defending this past Rumble; there were just as many guys who coulda won as in the 96 one, and just as many random ppl you KNEW weren't gonna win, lol. There are indeed very few GREAT Rumbles, and I don't really think this on (96) is one of them....

This is one off my favourite Royal Rumbles