Best Royal Rumble PPV in History?

[hb2k]

So for this week's podcast, inspired by a thread I saw at the Pro Wrestling Only board, we're doing a retrospective of Royal Rumble Pay-Per-Views by asking you - which Rumble PPV do you feel was best, and why? The key is rating it based on the show as a whole, as I assume that 92 very much a consensus if we're grading by Rumble match alone.

So whaddya think takes the prize for best Rumble PPV, and why? As always we'll be reading the best feedback on the show and crediting you accordingly, and am interested to see how much variance there is on this...

EDIT - As an extension, if you'd also like to suggest a "Worst Rumble PPV ever, please do, explaining why.

[voncouch]

With a tear in my eye...

http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KVaPb24VJWo/hqdefault.jpg

[Bad News Gertner]

2001 Royal Rumble.

Dudley vs Edge and Christian for the tag belts was great.
Angle vs HHH for the World Title
Jericho vs Benoit Ladder match for the IC was awesome.
Great Rumble matvh with Austin winning.

Plus Drew fucking Carey!

[loopydate]

2001, for sure. Even if it did feature Billy Gunn in the final four.

It featured one of the greatest heel/heel matches of all time. Maybe the best?

The Walls Of Laddercho is still one of the greatest ladder match spots I've ever seen.

And, like BNG said, Drew Carey's involvement was fantastic. Not a distraction like so many celebrity segments, and the bit where Lo Down are told that their spot was given to Drew was tremendous.

Plus, this was the night that SHOULD have returned Kane to his debut glory with his ring-clearing dominance. Plus, didn't he go something like 50 minutes? That's unheard of for a 300-pounder.

[Seth82]

I'll say 1992.

Ric Flair was phenomenal at the Rumble. Bobby Heenan's commentary during the match was so brilliant.

http://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/pictures/ppv/rr92/ricflair-rr92.jpghttp://www.obsessedwithwrestling.com/images/4h/20.jpg

So many legendary names were involved in the Rumble - Ric Flair, Ted Dibiase, Shawn Michaels, Kerry Von Erich, Roddy Piper, Jake Roberts, The Undertaker, Randy Savage, Rick Martel, Hulk Hogan, Sgt Slaughter, Sid Vicious & more.

<iframe width="640" height="360" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/6OHc2C-GIH4?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

[loopydate]

And '95 is definitely the worst.

Other than the HBK skin-the-cat finish, it has the worst Rumble lineup in history (the Blu brothers, Kwang, Well Dunn, Mantaur, Aldo Montoya, the second version of the Headshrinkers featuring Sionne instead of Samu, face Doink, the Heavenly Bodies...)

The tag team title match was the finals of a tournament. WWF decided their two most marketable teams for the Rumble undercard were Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka, representing the Million Dollar Corporation, and the eventual champions Bob Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid. This has the added crap-bonus of being the kick-off (no pun intended, but it's still delightful) of the Bam Bam/Lawrence Taylor feud that would MAIN EVENT FUCKING WRESTLEMANIA.

Undertaker fought IRS because something about dead people not paying taxes, and this was apparently surprising to the Internal Revenue Service. Taker was attacked by King Kong Bundy. Once again, this built to FUCKING WRESTLEMANIA!

Diesel/Bret was decent (for a Diesel match) and I actually enjoy the Razor/Jarrett contest, but those combined 45 minutes couldn't make up for the rest of it.

[Big Vic]

Best:

1999, Vince/Rock screw Austin. The "I quit" match.

Worst:

2015 will consist of Brock pinning Seth in the triple threat and finishing with Cena entering himself into the Rumble, Winning, and Facing Lesnar for the title at Mania.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

STD Tout reference.

1992 was the best Rumble ever.

Put that cigarette out!

[XL]

2000 was pretty good.

Madison Square Garden

Tazz debuted in front of his "hometown" fans, ending Angle's undefeated streak.
Hardyz vs. Dudleyz in a Tables Match with a Swanton off the balcony.
Incredible Street Fight for the World Title that really cemented HHH as a Main Event star.
Solid Rumble Match with a controversial ending, and Taka smashing his face in.

[Shisen Kopf]

1994--Two winners=twice as good. Bret Hart woooooo!

But yeah 1992 was also most excellent. Any why do you ask? Well...The New Foundation (Owen Hart and Jim Neidhart) defeated The Orient Express (Pat Tanaka and Kato) (with Mr. Fuji)--so much good.

[Jordan]

I remember enjoying 2013 a lot.

[Jordan]

92 is the best Rumble match by far, but the whole card of 2013 was a great show.

[Evil Vito]

<font color=goldenrod>I'd have to echo those who said 2001 Rumble as best overall card. Heel vs. heel matches are hard to pull off but HHH/Angle did so brilliantly. The ladder match was excellent. And the Rumble match itself was pretty easily top 5.

As for Rumble match itself, if I can put aside the fact that it means nothing all these years later and will never be talked about by WWE again, I absolutely loved 2004. It didn't really feel like they were stalling for time at any point. Everything that happened made sense and a nice mix of cool moments with some comedy (The Cat) and brutality (Orton/Foley). Plus the overall psychology was good especially at the end with Big Show ending up looking like a million bucks fighting off 5 faces and eliminating 4 of them.</font>

[Emperor Smeat]

Best - 2001 Royal Rumble. The undercard and Rumble itself was really good overall.

Worst - 1993 Royal Rumble. Remember as a kid liking it except for Yokozuna winning but looking back, it was a really bad ppv outside of the Bret-Razor WWF title match.

[James Steele]

2002 was an awesome rumble. Maven eliminates Taker, and Mr. Perfect returns. Vince/Flair was great. Rock/Jericho

[kareru]

2000 rr or 2001 rr

http://i.imgur.com/FTK1Y.jpg

r.i.p

[loopydate]

2000

[kareru]

recently noticed on the 2000 rr, the old switcharoo with the barbed wire 2x4

[The Condor]

1992, 1999, 2001 all brought pure entertainment and excitement, as well as classic moments. Great shows.

[SlickyTrickyDamon]

2000 rr or 2001 rr

<img data-height="457" data-width="729" id="irc_ilrp_mut" src="https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQrUYpZunpcWDX8jsdPcNyfUiVAY_lMSRuDer1bB6pAm0RXiML0YHjQnVc" height="298" width="417" style="margin-top: 80px;">

r.i.p

NSFW that shit, shit.

[kareru]

NSFW that shit, shit.

it's not like you can see her nipples or anything

[Razzamajazz]

2000

[Nicky Fives]

2001

[Shisen Kopf]

it's not like you can see her nipples or anything

Unfortunately :naughty:

[Corndad]

2001. Amazing card all around. Perfect use of a celebrity with Drew Carey too. Kane was build like a beast and should have gotten an even bigger spot at Mania following that. I'll always believe they missed the boat on him right after that.


Might not have been the Worst Worst but watching live last year, beside Bryan/Wyatt, it was kinda crap. Show/Lesnar Squash. No Bryan in Rumble. No real surprises in Rumble. Orton/Cena for the 100000 time.

[Theo Dious]

1994 was pretty bad. The undercard was crap (and the Undertaker's "death scene" made a 15 year old me roll my eyes in the hardest of cores) and the 2-winner finish was worse. They tried way tok hard to make it look like Bret & Luger wouldn't be in the match... theen they both won. DiBiase's commentary and Diesel's standout performance were the only high points of the show. I'd toss in 2004 as a candidate for the best. The lead-in matches were solid, Austin's encounter with Bischoffand Heyman was pure gold. The Rumble match itself was one of the best ever, especially since there was no clear winner going in. The Foley/Orton subplot was worked in flawlessly as was Taker's return foreshadowing. It's a hindsight shame that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named won the thing because his win should get top billing in each year's promo packages.

[hb2k]

I want to thank everybody in the thread for the awesome nominations, the show is now up and ready to listen to, and we did get to read a hell of a lot of your responses on the air.

The panel talks about almost every Royal Rumble in trying to determine the Best and Worst Royal Rumble PPV in history, a really fun look at classics like 1992, 2000 and 2001, ones that may have fallen short like 1993, 1995 and 2006, and a whole host of others that people made a strong case for, one way or the other.

A fun show, and a good way to kick off Rumble season! Check it out and as always, let me know what you think.

http://squaredcirclegazette.podbean.com/mf/web/8wiksa/SCGRadio27-TheBestandWorstRoyalRumblePPVs.mp3

[DAMN iNATOR]

Gotta be 1992. WOO!

[XL]

Really pleased there was some agreement for 2000. Also that you mentioned it being the first absolutely free PPV for the UK as I'd omitted that from my write up and it definitely added to my enjoyment of the show.

I don't know how anybody picked 99. Dogshit Rumble match.

[Disturbed316]

For me it's either 1998 or 2000 as my ultimate favourites, 1992 had probably some of the biggest names ever which could contribute to the love it receives.

[Mr. Nerfect]

The 2001 Royal Rumble is the event that solidified my status as a wrestling fan.

[hb2k]

Yeh, 2000 being on Channel 4 was such a big deal in my own little world where suddenly everybody was a WWF fan and couldn't stop talking about the use of barbed wire and how cool the Hardyz were. Early 2000 was when interest seemed to peak from my immediate vantage point, and I just have such fond memories about the show.

[The Mask]

I miss wrestling being on channel 4.

Anyway, my favourite is the one where kane kicked everyone's arse only to get beat by Austin right at the death. Was really pissed off at the time but still.