Royal Rumble '94 - Who The Heck Won?

[wrestlingrecap]

Coming up on ICOPOD, we'll be talking about the 1994 Royal Rumble. In case you forgot, it's the one where Bret and Lex both hit the floor at the same time and co-win the Royal Rumble. What are your thoughts/memories on the show? Do you think Bret or Lex hit before the other?

Interested to see what everyone thought!

[BlackoutCreature]

In the end Bret wound up with the title, so I guess he won.

[CMWaters]

I still want a fan who was actually on that side of the ring front row to tell me if one of them actually did hit before the other during that spot.

[Deleted]

Simply not being Lex Luger made Bret a winner.

[Aceorton]

I've studied this footage over and over, examining individual frames, and my conclusion is that the Rock hit first.

[chronocross]

Did I imagine a segment where HBK said he saw who hit the floor first but wasn't telling anyone?

[SirLucas]

I think long term booking was most likely to just have Bret wrestle Owen at Mania. Then it would have been Yoko vs. Luger with Luger winning. But somewhere along the way post SummerSlam, Vince lost faith in Luger as champion. Because remember that Royal Rumble was supposed to be Luger's only chance for a rematch. And Luger winning the title at Mania would have concluded the half year long chase for the title.

[cabbageboy]

Luger's post Summerslam house shows against the likes of Ludvig Borga just bombed at the gate, whereas I think Bret did some decent business with Lawler. Of course one had an actual feud and the other was the tired "American hero vs. foreign fiend" nonsense that was DOA by 1993. I'm pretty sure Bret won this Rumble, but the official verdict was a tie.

The Rock being mentioned begs the question. Who exactly won the 2000 Rumble? I'm honestly still not sure. The Rock was declared the winner then but Big Show protested the decision, claiming (rightfully) that The Rock hit first. So then they had the No Way Out match where Big Show won to become #1 contender...so does that make him the actual Rumble winner? I'm still not sure.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2019 11:28:05 GMT -5 chronocross said:

Did I imagine a segment where HBK said he saw who hit the floor first but wasn't telling anyone?

I'd reckon this was on RAW the next night? He was doing commentary with Vince during his downtime and during the "who do we replace Heenan with" phase (I know they technically replaced Heenan with DiBiase, but I don't think Ted was on RAW....right?) and I vaguely recall this being a ringside segment at the commentary table.

[Deleted]

Vince just screwed Luger from the moment he put him in flag tights and stopped letting him use the torture rack.

It's pretty amazing how well this spot was pulled off that they legit look like they hit at the same time. Could have easily been one of those moments where the refs and announcers had to make idiots of themselves pretending like they couldn't see what was plain to the audience.

[SmashTV]

Bret, both in the long term and in the eyes of the fans. Luger was very stale at this point and his star had waned considerably since the count out victory at Summerslam.

I don’t know if it was intentional on the part of the company, but in building to this ending they let the fans determine who their favourite was. Thankfully, they chose Bret.

[auph10imitated]

Had they put the title on Luger at Summerslam I wonder how Wrestlemania 10 would have looked

[cjh]

Feb 19, 2019 13:00:52 GMT -5 SmashTV said:

Bret, both in the long term and in the eyes of the fans. Luger was very stale at this point and his star had waned considerably since the count out victory at Summerslam.

I don’t know if it was intentional on the part of the company, but in building to this ending they let the fans determine who their favourite was. Thankfully, they chose Bret.

According to Luger, he was told by Vince well in advance of WrestleMania that Bret would be getting the title.  It may have even happened before the Rumble.

[cabbageboy]

If Luger had gotten the title I think he would have lost it back to Yokozuna at some point in late 1993. There was just nowhere to go with him as champion that could have been decent. The heel roster was a bit questionable in terms of the sort of typical Hogan challenger type guys to feed to Luger.

[Futureraven: Beelzebruv]

Feb 19, 2019 11:46:45 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Luger's post Summerslam house shows against the likes of Ludvig Borga just bombed at the gate, whereas I think Bret did some decent business with Lawler. Of course one had an actual feud and the other was the tired "American hero vs. foreign fiend" nonsense that was DOA by 1993. I'm pretty sure Bret won this Rumble, but the official verdict was a tie.

The Rock being mentioned begs the question. Who exactly won the 2000 Rumble? I'm honestly still not sure. The Rock was declared the winner then but Big Show protested the decision, claiming (rightfully) that The Rock hit first. So then they had the No Way Out match where Big Show won to become #1 contender...so does that make him the actual Rumble winner? I'm still not sure.

With the Rock one, they had cameras to catch the spot, and The Rock hit the floor first, that's how Big Show got the match, they showed the footage on TV I believe, even frame by frame.

[Deleted]

I was in the nosebleed seats that night (no foolin', I really was, my 1st and only attendance at a WWF PPV) with a view more toward that side oif the ring and I can confirm 100% without a shadow of a doubt that the referees' feet were on the mat first.

[Jumpin' Jesse Walsh]

I don’t think they could pull off the co-winner thing convincingly today because you just know fans in the front row would take videos on their phone of both guys falling to the floor and allow it to be spread across social media for everyone to determine who really hit the floor first.

[chronocross]

Feb 19, 2019 15:02:02 GMT -5 Jumpin' Jesse Walsh said:

I don’t think they could pull off the co-winner thing convincingly today because you just know fans in the front row would take videos on their phone of both guys falling to the floor and allow it to be spread across social media for everyone to determine who really hit the floor first.

True, but they could just ignore it, didn't something like that happen with Luke Harper and AJ Styles last year or the year before on Smackdown? It was supposed to be like a double elimination but one of them landed shortly before the other did.

[Deleted]

Feb 19, 2019 14:38:46 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

If Luger had gotten the title I think he would have lost it back to Yokozuna at some point in late 1993. There was just nowhere to go with him as champion that could have been decent. The heel roster was a bit questionable in terms of the sort of typical Hogan challenger type guys to feed to Luger.

They blew their load with Luger on the Intrepid.  They might as well have said "Everybody stand up and give a round of applause to our new Hulk Hogan!" and they couldn't have made it any worse.  He had no character other than being freaking Hogan 2.0 and it was only because he was Lex Luger and already a big name that the whole thing didn't crash like the Hindenburg on day one.

[Hit Girl]

Bret won.

It was absurd that WWE still kept pushing Luger even after the Summerslam 93 debacle.

He was clearly less popular than Bret.