zkonedog After experimenting with the new "Royal Rumble" event in 1988, the WWF turned out a much stronger showing with this event, as it begins to take a life of its own instead of just serving as an appetizer for the big Wrestlemania event.The events of the big Rumble (especially involving Andre the Giant!) are hilarious as usual, with all sorts of shenanigans and crazy antics transpiring. As a child, I was captivated by the drama of the event, but as an adult I almost look back at it as a comedy!One caveat: skip the preliminary matches that take place in advance of the main event. They are poor matches and only serve to prolong character plots, not really advance them.

bh_tafe3 The WWE was building nicely to one of the biggest shows in history as the 1989 Royal Runble came along. This was either the second or third rumble to occur, depending on whether one happened at a house show in 1987 or not, was the second to be shown live on television, and the first to be shown on PPV.The big story going into this was the rivalry, which had been going for months between the Mega Powers Hulk Hogan and WWE Champion Randy Savage and the Twin Towers Big Boss Man and Akeem. The Powers had outlasted the Towers at Survivor Series two months earlier and the Towers were keen for revenge. And also, some issues appeared to be brewing between Hogan and Savage. With 28 other men in the Royal Rumble, they would need to stick together tonight.The night started off with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Hart Foundation Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart defeating the Fabulous Rougeaus Jacques and Raymond and Dino Bravo in a 2 out of 3 falls six man tag match. The team shared a fall each, but Hacksaw was able to get in a shot on Bravo with his trusty 2 by 4 while the ref had his back turned, allowing Hart to get the pin and th victory. This was a fun match to watch. Two tag teams who could really go.Next up, and through out the show we had a running joke with DiBiase who buys the coveted No.30 in the Royal Rumble after drawing a low number himself.Next up is a super posedown between Rick Rude and the Ultimate Warrior, with the audience deciding the winner. Well Rude is a bad guy, Warrior is a good guy, so of course things turn out badly for Rude who beats the Warrior senseless.Next up comes the WWE Women's Championship match between Rockin Robin and Judy Martin. This was not an easy match to watch, Robin wins and I think they got rid of Women's Wrestling matches from the WWE following this effort.Next up Ravishing Rick Rude comes on with his manager Bobby Heenan to tell everyone about his brilliant plan and guarantee he will beat Warrior for the Intercontinental Title in the near future. This was good stuff Next up we have two former King of the Ring winners King Haku and Harley Race pitted against each other in a fun match, with Haku wining to be crowned "King of Wrestling." This brings us to the big one, the main event, the 1989 Royal Rumbler. The 1988 edition had featured only 20 men, but this one expanded to 30. The time between entries (which is not strictly adhered to at any rate) was two minutes. Mr Perfect clocked up the longest time in the rumble, going 28 minutes, Andre the Giant eliminated himself after Jake Roberts let a snake loose in the ring. Savage got upset with Hogan after Hogan had eliminated him, but they shook hands and it was all good. Hogan was dominant from here with 9 eliminations but was eventually eliminated by the Twin Towers, meaning they'd won the battle with the Mega Powers on this night. But eventually it all came down to Big John Studd, a good guy, taking on bad guys Akeem and Ted DiBiase. Akeem and Ted worked together to beat Studd down, but then got in an argument. Studd took advantage eliminating Akeen and then had some fun beating on DiBiase before throwing him out like a rag doll. And so, in an anti-climactic ending Big John Studd won the 1989 Royal Rumble.All in all though, the fans couldn't complain. The Twin Towers may have beaten Hogan and Savage, but they weren't victorious in the end. The Mega Powers had sorted out their little quarrel. All was well with the world and the only question that remained was who was going to take on the Mega Powers at Wrestlemania V in two months?

DAVE The second Royal Rumble added an additional 10 wrestlers than the previous year. The other matched on the card weren't bad except for the womens title match which was a waste of time. For some reason the crown match has been omitted from most copies of this event.It was fun seeing Ax and Smash of Demolition start the Rumble drawing numbers 1 and 2. They sure battled each other! I never quite understood why Big John Studd was the eventual winner of the event, he didn't wrestle too much longer after the event took place. Wouldn't you rather have an up and coming star win such a prestigious event? Overall a satisfactory event that is still fun to watch to this day.

mikebarber85 In its pre pay per view days the Royal Rumble was a less important event than it would later become. The 1989 event did however help start the trend of the Rumble setting the scene for Wrestlemania. The opening 3 fall six man was fairly entertaining but was followed by a turkey in the form of a ladies title match which had no business being part of such a major event. The super posedown predictably ended in Rick Rude attacking the ultimate warrior after the two contestants had traded poses to show off their chemically enhanced upper bodies. The Rumble match itself was entertaining but lacked tension because their was no Wrestlemania title shot at stake as there was in future years.