SlyGuy21 1st Match: Jeff Jarrett vs Razor Ramone, WWF Intercontinental Championship. A pretty good match to start with. The match originally ends in a countout, but Jarrett has the match continue. Didn't know wrestlers were allowed to do that, but whatever. The final ending is pretty weak, and I still can't stomach Jarrett winning very well, but the match is entertaining. Rating: 3.5/5 2nd Match: Undertaker vs IRS. Undertaker wins, nothing really special. Apparently this is the last PPV appearance of IRS, which is fine with me because his gimmick got old real fast. But I guess the match was good at setting up Taker and Bundy's match at Wrestlemania XI. Rating: 3/5 3rd Match: Diesel vs Bret Hart, WWF Championship. The best match of the night, and much better title match than the one at Survivor Series the previous year. Then again, almost any other match would be better than that one. The match is pretty overbooked, but it still has some great moments. If there wasn't so much interference, and the match didn't end in a draw as a result, this could've been a serious Match of the Year contender. Rating: 4.5/5 4th Match: Bob Holly & 1-2-3 Kid vs Tatanka & Bam Bam Bigelow, WWF Tag Team Championships. There are some great moments in this, some great spots and the good guys winning is always nice. The match I guess serves more as setting up the Bigelow/Lawrence Taylor match for Wrestlemania. Rating: 4/5 5th Match: Royal Rumble match. Time for the highlights! Shawn Michaels wins despite entering at Number 1, becoming only one of two men to do that, the other being Chris Benoit. There are a lot of jobbers/nobodies in this match. The only big names you have are Michaels, Davey Boy, Luger, and Owen, the rest are either tag team wrestlers, or people that couldn't win this match in a million years. That being said, Backlund and Owen getting eliminated almost immediately is nice, and Michaels hanging on for dear life at the end is a pretty famous scene. It's a better Rumble match compared to last years, but it needed bigger names like Bret, Taker, or Razor Ramone to make it have some suspense. Rating: 3.5/5 Final Rating: 7 out of 10. A much better start to the year than last time. Hopefully, the rest of WWF's shows are better as well.

bh_tafe3 Well, this was the year they tried new things in the Rumble match and they didn't quite work aesthetically. After cutting down the time between entrants from two minutes to 90 seconds for the 1994 rumble, they decided to cut it down to just one minute this year. Given the lack of main eventers in the rumble match, that wasn't a bad idea.The night started off with Pamela Anderson arriving in a limo. She would be escorting whoever won the Royal Rumble to the ring for their title match at Wrestlemania.The in ring action began with Razor Ramon putting the Intercontinental Championship on the line against Jeff Jarrett. For a long time Jarrett had been a minor player in the WWE, wearing a ridiculous silver outfit and playing the part of a crony for Mr Fuji. He would step out Fuji's shadow tonight, putting on a super match with Ramon and winning the IC Title. Ramon had been in control of the match until he hurt his knee on the outside. The ref had counted out Ramon, but Jarrett had goaded him back into the ring. Ramon's knee gave way as he attempted the Razor's edge allowing Jarrett to get the pin. And he was happy to tell us all about it backstage.The next match was the beginning of a year long rivalry as the Million Dollar Corporation's Irwin R Shyster took on the Undertaker in another good match. Undertaker won after a chokeslam, but was then assaulted by King Kong Bundy, another member of the Million Dollar Corp. IRS took his opportunity to steal the Undertaker's earn. A feud between the Million Dollar Corp and the Undertaker had begun.Todd Petengill then interviewed a very focused Diesel and Bret Hart before their big WWE Title match which was next. Hart had lost the WWE title to Bob Backlund a couple of months before, but Diesel had won the title from Backlund just three days later. And so Hart got his chance to regain the title here. Hart had tremendous ring sense and great chemistry with anyone and he and Diesel put on a match of the highest quality here which unfortunately ends in a double DQ after Owen Hart and his cronies interfere in the match. Well we got to see a good match so can't complain too much. Unfortunately that took Bret Hart out of the title scene.Todd Pettengill makes his way into Pamela Anderson's dressing room.Next up is the tournament final to determine the new tag team champions. It's the underdog team of Bob "Sparkplug" Holly and the 1-2-3 Kid taking on the Million Dollar Corporation's Bam Bam Bigelow and Tatanka. The underdogs won, but the real story here happened as Bigelow insulted New York Giants NFL Legend Laurence Taylor on the sidelines. And I mean that's the real story, because Kid and Holly lost their tag titles less than a week later. LT was a volatile guy, I'm sure he'll take offence to that.And the last match of the night was the Royal Rumble. The first two in the ring were Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog, the last two in the ring were Shawn Michaels and the Britsih Bulldog. Bulldog thought he'd won when he threw Micheals over the top rope and his music started playing, but Micheals held on to the top rope and didn't allow both feet to touch the ground. He jumped a celebrating Bulldog from behind and won the match. Owen Hart, Lex Luger and Bob Backlund were the only other potential main eventers in the match. Shawn became the first man to win the Rumble from #1, and had the most eliminations. Pamela Anderson came to the ring to meet Michaels, looking rather dismayed at this gentleman she would be accompanying to the title match at Wrestlemania XI.Good PPV really. Not a great rumble match, but building the match around Shawn and Bulldog at least made it entertaining. And a nice subtle set up for the Bigelow/ Laurence Taylor match at Wrestlemania.

wwfhistoryguy *SPOILERS*The Rumble from the previous years had great under cards, with the exception of 90. 89 wasn't so great either, because there was on great match and two other lackluster ones. But this was the first time we had a lackluster battle royal.The under card was superb. Razor Ramon and Jeff Jarrett had a fine match. Did anyone notice that he was in 5 Royal Rumbles, but never once fought in the battle royal? The Undertaker-IRS match was fun because of Vince McMahon's commentary. Every time the Undertaker rises miraculously, he makes this weird noise. Vince McMahon's commentary has always been so bad it's good. Bret Hart and Diesel did quite well.The tag team tournament final stole the show. It was a lengthy, exciting match, with plenty of heat. A few notes: I'm sure the Kid and Bob Holly's combined weight of 344 lbs. was a typo. Either that or they were trying to add to the momentum they were trying to build about Kid and Holly being underdogs. When I saw the match on pay-per-view, I knew Kid and Holly would win just because of McMahon and Lawler constantly pointing out that they didn't stand a chance against Bigelow and Tatanka.Now, on to the battle royal. The reason Michaels and the Bulldog lasted the whole match is that there was no competition. Was anyone holding his breath when Duke the Dumpster held Michaels over the top rope, or when Eli Blu ran down to face the Bulldog? This was also the reason they shortened the entries from 2 minutes to 1. Out of 30 men, only about 5 of them were A-list stars, and 2 of them got taken out prematurely by Bret Hart. Did anyone want to see Henry Godwinn and Well Dunn slug it out for a solid hour?Ultimately, this was the first of many Rumbles with a poorly-executed battle royal and a great under card.

Big Movie Fan (SPOILERS THROUGHOUT)The 1995 Royal Rumble was quite good; all the matches were fairly good particularly the Rumble match itself.Razor Ramon defended his Intercontinental Title against Double J in a reasonable match and lost the belt due to an 'injury.'The Undertaker had a fairly exciting brawl with the mammoth King Kong Bundy.The 1-2-3 Kid and Bob Holly beat Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow in the tag team title tournament final. All men put on a good show.WWF Champion Diesel had a great match against the ever dependable Bret Hart but like a lot of matches during that time the ending was inconclusive and we never got to see who the better man was.As always the Rumble match was the highlight. Starting with this event things changed. Instead of entering the ring every two minutes competitors entered every one minute (it would be changed again in subsequent years). The Rumble was very intense. The eventual winner of the Rumble was Shawn Michaels who provided the bulk of the entertainment throughout.