Retro Recap: WWF Royal Rumble 1996

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Welcome everyone to the 1996 WWF Royal Rumble!!! Welcome to Fresno, California!!! Hello everyone, I’m Mince VicMahon. Once again, you will get my memories and some rants about this show.

We start out quick with Ahmed Johnson vs. “Double J” Jeff Jarrett. JJ looked so hokey back then with the light up coat, hat and his ring attire. Not to mention one of the worst entrance themes in wrestling history. He always said “Ain’t I great?” back then and I have to say he wasn’t too bad, much better then he is in TNA. Finish to this match was JJ doing his El Kabong impression from the top turnbuckle thus earning Ahmed a DQ win. Johnson stays down for only a few seconds then runs after JJ.

Todd Pettengil talks to Diesel in the locker room about the Royal Rumble, who basically says he’s gonna win.

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Body Donnas vs. The Smoking Gunns. This match makes me think that WWE should consolidate their tag teams since they don’t have nearly enough established teams to warrant 2 belts anymore. RAW only has about 3 established tag teams and Smackdown about 2 that I know of. Finish is Bart Gunn pinning Skip.

I loved those “Billionaire Ted” videos!!! The Monday Night Wars did have some entertaining moments and this was the most entertaining.

WWF Intercontinental Championship: Razor Ramon vs. Goldust. This match marked the first appearance of Marlena and it also had Howard Finkel doing his awesome pronunciation of Razor Ramon. Seeing the video package for this feud was great. I had forgotten how interesting the early days of Goldust were. Dustin Rhodes was awesome as Goldust and I’m glad I haven’t seen much Goldust 2.0, aka Black Reign. Finish is Marlena distracting the ref and the 123 Kid attacking Razor allowing Goldust to win the IC Title.

Dr. Jeff Unger starts out a video package saying that HBK is ready to get back in the ring followed by several wrestlers talking about the Royal Rumble.

Royal Rumble match. #1 entrant is HHH, #2 is Henry Godwin. I don’t remember much of their feud so I might do some Retro Recaps that have their matches since a “Blue Blood” vs. “White Collar” feud is always fun. #3 entrant is Bob Backlund who had some rather generic entrance music. #4 entrant is Jerry “The King” Lawler. Lawler tries to use the slop on Godwin but he turns it around and dumps it on him. #5 entrant is Bob Holly. I am so glad they dropped the “Sparky Plug” nickname since that was very cheesy. #6 entrant is King Mabel. #7 entrant is Jake “the Snake” Roberts. He clears the ring by bringing out his python then draping it over Lawler. #8 entrant is Dory Funk. Dory and Backlund are going at it and that’s a smart idea. #9 entrant is Yokozuna. First person eliminated is Backlund by Yokozuna. #10 entrant is 123 Kid. Razor chases Kid around for a bit then gets escorted out. #11 entrant is Omari (from what I heard Vince call him). #12 entrant is Savio Vega. Next eliminated is Mabel by Yokozuna followed by Omari. #13 entrant is Vader. Vader was awesome in WCW and was just as good when he first came to WWE. Next eliminated is Dory Funk by Savio. #14 entrant is Doug Gilbert. Next eliminated is Roberts by Vader. #15 entrant is 1 of the SWAT Team/Headhunter members. Vader eliminates Doug Gilbert then the SWAT Team/Headhunter. #16 entrant is the other SWAT Team/Headhunter. They both come and are eliminated by Yoko and Vader. #17 entrant is “The King of Harts” Owen Hart. Savio gets splashed in the corner by Yoko and Vader. #18 entrant is HBK. Next elimination is Savio Vega by Vader, Vader and Yoko by HBK then 123 Kid. #19 entrant is Hakushi. Vader comes back and throws everybody out then gets escorted to the back. #20 entrant is Tatanka. Hakushi eliminated by Owen Hart. #21 entrant is Aldo Montoya. HBK gets thrown through the middle ropes then brings Lawler back and eliminates him. #22 entrant is Diesel. Diesel eliminates Tatanka. #23 entrant is Kama. Vince just mentioned Ahmed was being taken to a hospital for a concussion. I find this ironic since there is a lot of talk about that now. #24 entrant is “The Ringmaster” Steve Austin.. Bob Holly eliminated by Austin. #25 entrant is Barry Horowitz. HHH eliminated by Diesel. #26 entrant is Fatu. #27 entrant is Isaac Yankem. All you could hear for his entrance was a drill. Horowitz eliminated by Diesel and Owen Hart eliminated by HBK. #28 entrant is Marty Jeanetty. #29 entrant is the British Bulldog. Marty eliminated by the Bulldog, followed by Austin and Fatu. Entry #30 is Duke “The Dumpster” Drose. HBK and Bulldog go through the middle ropes and fight outside. Owen is back out so he and Bulldog attack him. Yankem eliminated by HBK, Drose eliminated by Diesel, Bulldog eliminated by HBK, Kama eliminated by Diesel and HBK eliminates Diesel to win the Rumble. Diesel attacks Bulldog in the asisle, says something Hendrix then heads back into the ring. HBK and Diesel high five then Diesel leaves.

WWF World Heavyweight Championship: The Undertaker vs. Bret “Hitman” Hart. Diesel is still at ringside so he meets Taker in the aisle and they exchange a few shots. Diesel says he’s not afraid of the dark as he leaves. This was a great match between 2 great wrestlers. Watch this one then their Summerslam `97 match and you can really see how aggressive Bret was there. For example, Bret was using more of a technical strategy by focusing on a particular body part (like he usually did) at Rumble `96 and he used more of a brawling strategy in Summerslam `97. Finish is Undertaker hitting the Tombstone but Diesel coming out and pulling the ref out to cause a DQ.

This has been another Retro Recap. Until next time!


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