Questions about the 1996 Rumble

[Christianv2]

I was just watching the 1996 Rumble and when did they say you cant eliminate people after being eliminated? Havent people been eliminated by eliminated people all the time? Vader got eliminated and went nuts and threw everybody out including Shawn Michaels, and they restarted it basically.

Also, Dory Funk did not look good, jeez. They said on commentary Terry was gonna be in it but he was not available he was in Germany, is that true or just some line they said because Terry declined to be in?

Also, Yokozuna was in the Rumble, how long after did he die, I thought he died in 1996, how many more matches did he have and what was his last one?

[Mr. Mediocre]

Yokozuna died in 2000.

As for why Vader's eliminations didn't count...the WWF hoped you forgot those other instances. Really, that's all I can think of. Either that, or Vader was supposed to go on that rampage but not eliminate Michaels, and as a result they had to change the rules.

[Christianv2]

explodinglimo said:

Yokozuna died in 2000.

Oh wow, I was way off.

Thats right, I forgot he was at the Legends PPV in 99 with Drunk Jake so yeah, my bad.

[Noffin]

Yokozuna Died October 23rd 2000 in Liverpool

[Noffin]

Sorry i was Waaaay late there, my boss came in mid post

[Christianv2]

noffin said:

Sorry i was Waaaay late there, my boss came in mid post

lmao, business at its finest. ;D

[The Ichi]

Just messed up WWE logic as usual. Poor Sid didn't get to restart after Hogan pulled him out of the ring in 92.

[cuneo77]

or bret

[krazysane]

curryman said:

Just messed up WWE logic as usual. Poor Sid didn't get to restart after Hogan pulled him out of the ring in 92.

But randy savage still got to be in after he got him self out. Different from Hogan pulling sid out. So I dont know why I entered into this post. I just love Royal Rumbles

[Hulk With A Mustache]

It sounds like Vader forgot that he wasn't suppose to eliminate Shawn Michaels.

[Dynamite Kid]

Er, no it sounds to me like they change the rules year to year to fit the storylines they want to use. People eliminate themselves and get eliminated by people who've already been out all the time.

[molson5]

Why do rules have to be exactly consistent over a 20-year history of an event?

Why can't you just assume (in kayfabe), that the rules were tweaked along the way, like they are in any other competition.

[seano]

They were getting Vader over as a mega heel.

He cheats and comes back in after being tossed. The officials, including Gorilla Monsoon the WWF President at the time, restart the match because of the chaos; the next night on RAW, Vader attacked Monsoon as payback and put him "out of action" until WM12.



I won't repeat the date of Yoko's death, but he was with the WWF until the fall of '96. They turned him face and feuded with Cornette's group thru WrestleMania.

Then, tastefully, the 'F decided to make his worsening real life weight problem a plot point, and soon he was botching matches because he was getting fatter.

His last WWF appearance was being carried away from ringside by like 30 people after he was counted out or something. An embarassing end to a good WWF career.

[Dynamite Kid]

Or, indeed, in any other match stip in WWE. The Rumble only had 20 guys originally, it was every 2 minutes originally...

[Slammywinner]

Yeah, the Vader deal was to further his angle with Gorilla Monsoon. Gorilla was a maveric Interim President. He did things like enforce the rules, make matches that had no story line build up because he thought the fans would like them and put wrestlers in unusal situations and matches (like the truely awesome 1995 Survior Series Wildcard Match. Why has there never been another one of those?). Storylinewise, Gorilla was like an old West Sherif who shot from the hip and brashly enforced the rules to punish the criminals. It was not out of character for Gorilla to do what was right, even if it was unorthodox or "unplanned," such as putting the WM12 Ironman match into Sudden Death Overtime. Such was the case with Vader at the RR96.

[BJ Sturgeon]

explodinglimo said:

Yokozuna died in 2000.

Anyone else noticed the SmackDown! after his death that Undertaker wore a Yokozuna T-shirt in his memory?

[seano]

bjsturgeon said:

explodinglimo said:

Yokozuna died in 2000.

Anyone else noticed the SmackDown! after his death that Undertaker wore a Yokozuna T-shirt in his memory?

Yes. And IIRC he actually had that T-shirt specially made in order to pay tribute to him with more than just an armband.

Classy.

[Metalheadbanger Man]

I remember them hyping Vader's debut, and Mr Perfect ruined it by saying "You won't believe who's next" on commentary, it was really obvious that it would be Vader. Would've been better if he just came out and destroyed everybody without it being given away.

[dannyrctv]

That's one of my pet peeves I've always hated about WWE is the not mentioning changes in the rules.I was at the Royal Rumble Batista won when Sean Michaels eliminated Kurt Angle & then Angle jumped back in the ring & threw Sean out & it counted! WTF?That set up the feud between the 2 but it made no sense why that was allowed.This also reminds me of the WM2 battle Royal where William "The Refigerator" Perry got eliminated by the late "Big" John Stud.Perry offered Stud a handshake & then pulled him out of the ring over the top rope & it counted!

In the '92 Royal Rumble(My favorite) which was won by Ric Flair.Savage jumped over the top attacking Jake Roberts but was let back in because the rules were that someone had to eliminate you but of course with out mentioning it, lots of people have eliminated themselves by jumping over the top rope over the years.

Also about that '92 RR, I never understood the thing with Hogan.Sid eliminated him fair & square & Hogan threw a hissy fit & grabbed Sid's arm allowing Flair the advantage to eliminate Sid when Hogan should've been sent back.

Another example of rules changing is the Tag titles.Back before a lot of you were born, the Hart Foundation stole the belts from the British Bulldogs.they had a 2 out of 3 falls rematch on Saturday Night's Main Event.The Harts got disqualified in the first fall & then pinned in the 2nd fall yet they were still able to hold on to the belts.the technicality was that the champs must be pinned or submit TWICE in a 2 out of 3 falls match.Because the first fall was a DQ, The Harts were scott free from losing their belts even though they got beat in 2 straight falls.
How ever, a few short years later again on SNME, Demolition lost the tag belts in a 2 out of 3 falls match to the Brain Busters by being DQ'd in one fall & pinned(by skullduggery) in the next.McMahon back then, was notorious for playing the fans for fools.
Traditionally the RR has been my favorite PPV but there's been a few that have been so bad,I'm afraid to order it.The one Mcmahon won was hands down the worst & what I really hated about that one was the ring kept getting emptied out so fast & was mostly small amounts of people in the ring at a time & not the big full scale battle royal type brawl it's supossed to be!

[Randy Barber 4-Life]

Yeah, they tend to play with the rules whenever it suits them. What about Royal Rumble 95 when Diesel and Bret Hart each got jumped blatantly in front of the ref who announced each time that "this match MUST continue!" Why they didn't just make it a no DQ match to begin with is beyond me, I guess so they could call it a draw when the entire lockerroom stormed the ring at the end.

I happened to be watching RR96 myself today. This is almost like a Royal Rumble: Before They Were Stars edition. "Sparkplug" Bob Holly; "American Blue-blood" Hunter Hearst Helmsley; "The Ringmaster" Steve Austin; Aldo Montoya; King Mabel; Kama; Fatu; Isaac Yankem. To a lesser extent Billy Gunn and 1-2-3 Kid. I realize some of these guys had already had a bit of a run but for the most part I think the better days of their careers were ahead of them.