Redoing the 1994 Royal Rumble finish.

[agent817]

Here is something that I had thought about. I may need to watch the 1994 Rumble match to see it for myself. While I am rather certain that the finish was intended to be that way with Hart and Luger being the final two and being thrown out of the ring at the same time, if you were to rebook that finish, who would you have had win instead? Both Bret Hart and Lex Luger were over and pushed high. Granted, Bret's feud with Owen was starting around that same time, which resulted in their match at Wrestlemania X.

Many sources have stated that Lex Luger was originally supposed to win at Wrestlemania that year. Not sure if he was supposed to win it off of Yokozuna and then drop it the same night against Bret Hart. It was interesting to see two WWF title matches that night, as well as Bret having two matches. I may have to see some Raw episodes or find some Superstars/Wrestling Challenge episodes that talked about how Bret being involved in two angles.

Back to the Rumble, if you were to pick who would have to win to keep with the whole "one man left standing" thing, who would it be? I would talk about what happened 11 years after, but it was clear that Batista was supposed to win and the part with him and Cena going over the top rope was not planned, albeit a botched finish. But regarding the 1994 Rumble, what are your thoughts?

[Aceorton]

For the sake of sound booking, it had to be Luger. The Rumble win was the loophole around his "never getting another shot at Yokozuna's WWF title" stipulation after SummerSlam. If Bret had won the Rumble, Luger would have had no WrestleMania angle and would have been dead in the water right there (as opposed to post-WrestleMania, when they decided to turn him into a mid-carder anyway).

Bret going into Mania with the title shot against Yoko also would have meant no opening match with Owen, which was, of course, the match of the night and the key to their feud taking off properly. Owen needed to beat Bret clean before Bret ended up with the belt, not just to fuel Owen's jealousy angle but to establish Owen as being worthy of a world title feud for having already defeated his brother, the champion. If not at WrestleMania, then Owen would have had to beat Bret before WrestleMania on Superstars or something, which wouldn't have had nearly the same weight.

The Rumble finish itself would have been easy enough: Bret's injured leg is what costs him at the end. Or you could even have Owen run down again and distract him. Either way, Luger wins and Bret blames Owen.

[tafkaga]

In desperation, Luger breaks out the TORTURE RACK! omg shades of the old Luger... he's never done that move in the WWF... and then Bret grabs the top rope and pulls himself over. Luger tumbles over backward and hits the floor while Bret is still holding onto the ropes. The winner, Bret Hart. Pissed about losing his one last chance at a title shot, Luger viciously attacks Bret and loses the fans.

Next night on Raw, Luger is back to wearing black tights and makes a speech about how he got everything he had in the business by marching to the beat of his own drum, and the days of playing Captain America are over, and bitches about how he did everything for the fans and they still cheered Bret. He says even though he won't get a shot at the WWF title, he can damn sure make sure that Bret doesn't make it to WrestleMania to get his shot either.

Luger jumps Bret in the coming weeks and torture racks him, which provokes Macho to come out from behind the commentary booth and intervene. Luger gets suspended. Macho begs them to lift his suspension for WrestleMania so he can teach Lex a lesson. Lex beats Macho with the forearm and torture rack at WrestleMania. Bret beats Yokozuna for the title. Bret vs. Luger for Summerslam.

Dunno, it's off the top of my head.

[hassanchop]

It goes the same way only both are eliminated and Baston Booger’s music hits, he comes out raising his hands and is declared the winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble

[eudypfohl]

Jan 14, 2022 13:12:17 GMT -5 Aceorton said:

For the sake of sound booking, it had to be Luger. The Rumble win was the loophole around his "never getting another shot at Yokozuna's WWF title" stipulation after SummerSlam. If Bret had won the Rumble, Luger would have had no WrestleMania angle and would have been dead in the water right there (as opposed to post-WrestleMania, when they decided to turn him into a mid-carder anyway).

Bret going into Mania with the title shot against Yoko also would have meant no opening match with Owen, which was, of course, the match of the night and the key to their feud taking off properly. Owen needed to beat Bret clean before Bret ended up with the belt, not just to fuel Owen's jealousy angle but to establish Owen as being worthy of a world title feud for having already defeated his brother, the champion. If not at WrestleMania, then Owen would have had to beat Bret before WrestleMania on Superstars or something, which wouldn't have had nearly the same weight.

The Rumble finish itself would have been easy enough: Bret's injured leg is what costs him at the end. Or you could even have Owen run down again and distract him. Either way, Luger wins and Bret blames Owen.

I like this idea and would run with it but add one little caveat...take the title off of Yoko sometime soon after Royal Rumble and give it to Randy Savage in what would be his last big WWF run. Always kind of irked me that his final significant WWF angle was with Crush in a gimmick match that gets forgotten nowadays. Have him win it by surprise on some RAW you have in Florida perhaps in a shock the world kind of moment (which would also help cement the "Anything can happen on Monday Night RAW" schtick that they were promoting at the time. Yoko was a great monster heel but was kinda getting stale as champ and his weight was beginning to spiral out of control. Have Macho vs. Luger (something new for the fans) and Bret vs Owen. Macho goes over Luger with Perfect screwing him over some way. Then have Bret go over Savage clean at WM for the belt. Randy vs Bret and Luger I believe would've yielded better matches than what Yoko was able to give at that juncture. Piper, Savage, and Bret can then have a moment in the middle of the ring at Madison Square Garden

I also vaguely remember PWI(?) mentioning around 1994 that Bret/Randy were working house shows against each other, but the WWF was keeping those matches on the down low. Even criticized them a little for it. It's possible that they were prepping them for some kind of high profile event against each other down the line.

What to do with Yoko? Have him participate in that 10 man match (which never took place) on the heel side, make it an elimination match Survivor Series style, and to help build him up again have Yoko get the pinfall over every face. Have it come down to Kid vs Yoko at the end and just as it's looking like a miracle win for 1-2-3, Yoko squashes him. Then after the match when Yoko is in the ring, tease an Undertaker return (lights go out, some kind of UT symbol is visible etc)
 

[Deleted]

Honestly? Luger.

He has the most to lose by not winning. You can easily have him lose his number one contenders later to Bret, then possibly turn heel or challenge after WrestleMania.

Bret was usually teflon when it came to either bad booking or losing a feud. Even if he doesn't win the Rumble, he wasn't in any danger of losing his base.

[Mid-Carder]

Much as I love Bret, Luger really needed it more.

[Deleted]

I liked the ending the way it was.

Luger should've won the title though.

[jason1980s]

I think the double main event at Wrestlemania worked because both Lex and Bret were stars but everything from post Survivor Series was booked to make Bret look better. In fairness to both guys the double Rumble win was necessary but I think Bret deserved it more. The problem was, they booked Lex so big despite him not being the next big thing, they couldn't just turn to someone else so quickly.

Bret won the Superstar of the year 1993, which either way you look at it, means he was to WWF as well. Either the voting was fake and WWF wanted him to win or the voting was real and WWF knew he was the clear fan favorite. Even Lex recalls he knew his push was over when the fans cheered for Bret more when the two of them were together.

I personally like Hassanchop's idea-I was PISSED Booger was cancelled out of the show. I was so excited for him to be on only to have him not show up. I hope he got the PPV pay day though.

[agent817]

So I watched the Royal Rumble from 1994 and the Raw episodes from the fallout. I saw the coin toss that occurred. It was clear what they were going to go through with Bret vs. Owen, because I don't think anybody wanted to see Luger vs. Crush at Wrestlemania. In the end, it all worked out.