Say what you will about how Vince McMahon booked the World Wrestling Federation in the 90s, and goodness knows I've said plenty over the course of these reviews, but the one aspect he really nailed was the slow build-up of the next big names in the company. The Ultimate Warrior was one of the first of Vince McMahon's pet projects, steadily working his way up the card from squash matches, to a feature spot in the midcard, all the way to a showdown with Hulk Hogan in the main event of WrestleMania 6. Bret Hart would have a slower, less intentional arc of his own, earning fan support with great performances as part of the Hart Foundation, then proving his status as a future star after some incredible defenses as Intercontinental Champion. Diesel followed in the same vein as Warrior, and later on, Vince would continue to produce future stars with the same methodical formula, with the likes of Steve Austin, The Rock, and Triple H finding their footing in the midcard, connecting with the crowd, and then being vaulted into the main event picture. This is the basis of wrestling booking, and seems so simple, but it's something the WWE currently has a really hard time with. Vince has a habit of abandoning pushes for arbitrary reasons, letting his main eventers grow increasingly stale while the new blood doesn't get that steady ascent to the top. Timing is everything when it comes to creating stars, and never was that more obvious than in the case of Shawn Michaels, perhaps the most textbook example of how to do it successfully. As part of The Rockers, Shawn got to wow crowds and earn legitimacy as the team gained a national spotlight, and just when the duo started to feel a little stagnant, Michaels made headlines with an iconic heel turn. From there, Shawn was always given a favorable spot on the card, and his natural talent shined through, making it increasingly clear that he was destined to be the top dog. Shawn's body of work in 1995 proved that the fans were absolutely ready for Michaels to carry the company on his back, especially with his buddy Diesel floundering as WWF Champion. After 8 years of hard work, Shawn Michaels' time was finally approaching.
- Royal Rumble 1996 comes to you from the Selland Arena in Fresno, California, which would also host Fully Loaded 1998 later on. Vince McMahon is joined behind the commentary desk by Mr. Perfect, who is decent in the heel color commentary role, picking up the job after retiring thanks to continued struggles with his back.
- Our opening contest is a singles match between Jeff Jarrett and rising star Ahmed Johnson. Johnson and Jarrett work together to put over Ahmed's power, and Johnson adds some extra spice to the proceedings with an impressive suicide dive, executed about as well as you'd expect from a guy who very rarely attempted anything that high-risk. "Double J" can see that he's clearly out-matched, so elects to throw in the towel by bashing Johnson over the head with Jarrett's guitar to be disqualified, the first of many lame finishes on the night. This ending makes no sense to me, as Jarrett was on the way out, preparing for a trip to WCW later in the year, and Johnson is being positioned as one of the top babyfaces on the roster, so why wouldn't Ahmed just win clean? Very odd.
- The WWF tag titles are on the line up next, as the Smoking Gunns defend against the Bodydonnas (Skip, that's Chris Candido, and Zip, also known as Tom Prichard, who we've seen competing as one half of the Heavenly Bodies). The latter team are accompanied out by Sunny, who is the focal point of this match. Sunny gets all the camera time, and attempts as many shenanigans as possible to get her boys the win, from faking an injury after Billy Gunn knocks her off the apron, to blowing kisses at the champions and screaming at the ref. Despite Sunny's efforts, the Gunns prevail anyway, with Billy saving Bart, who was about to take a double team move, and Bart managing to score a surprise pinfall. Nothing much to write home about here, but you can tell that Vince is starting to realize just how much value Sunny could hold with the WWF slowly starting to target more of the 18-34 male demographic.
- Goldust made his pay-per-view debut late last year, initially failing to capture much attention with his film quotes and obsession with the Oscars statuette. It seemed like the gimmick lacked a real hook, but the character slowly began to evolve into something truly noteworthy as Goldust began to feud with Razor Ramon. It's here where Goldust's sexuality was brought into play, with multiple attempts to show affection towards the Intercontinental Champion in advance of their clash for the gold. As you can imagine, after years of watching a very cartoonish product, the WWF audience wasn't sure how to react to this flamboyant and unabashedly homoerotic persona, but during his match with Ramon on this night, Goldust finally got the crowd to care. The challenger kept up the aggressive flirting, including a spot where he just started groping Ramon, which drew mega heat, as you would expect from a crowd in Fresno, which does have a decently large conservative population. Also, it's the mid-90s, pretty much any crowd in America would react with disgust watching this. But Goldust is much more complicated than just "gay predator", and he shows a willingness to fight as this match goes on, slapping Ramon in the face and cycling through some offense. Mr. Perfect on commentary notes that he's impressed with Goldust's skills, which I thought was a nice touch, since Perfect is so great himself and anyone who earn his praise has to be taken seriously. Ramon, for his part, sells Goldust's act really well, first reacting with revulsion and then responding with fiery strikes. Unfortunately, we don't get a decisive finish, as 1-2-3 Kid leaves Razor laying with a top rope heel kick, allowing Goldust to make the cover and claim the IC belt. The official was distracted during this interference by a mystery woman that accompanied Goldust to the ring, soon to be named Marlena, after the late Marlene Dietrich. Marlena's presence added another interesting wrinkle to the act, and like Sunny earlier, highlighted the WWF's continued push to add more female representation into the product. Look, I can see why many fans might turn up their noses at this incarnation of Goldust, as without proper context, it seems to be just pure "gay panic" and exploitation. But at least on this night, everything about this match was handled mostly with care, and seeing these two radically different characters interact and play off each other was so entertaining.
- Once in a blue moon, the Royal Rumble match is not the main event of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view, and that's the case tonight, as the Rumble has been knocked off it's perch by the WWF title match. My guess is that Vince didn't have confidence in his lackluster roster to put together a proper main event, or maybe it's due to the identity of the winner, who was a very obvious choice and wasn't going to provide much of a surprise factor. Yes, Shawn Michaels repeats as the winner of the Rumble, which practically everyone could've figured out in advance, but his path getting there isn't that similar to his first win. Shawn enters at number 18 this time around, booked to look much more dominant as opposed to lucky, dumping out both Yokozuna and the debuting Vader while the two big guys were locked up, then chucking out The 1-2-3 Kid, which brought the crowd to a fever pitch. In the final four, Shawn evades being eliminated by last year's rival, the British Bulldog, saving himself on the apron and sliding under Bulldog's legs, before sending the bigger man to the floor with a clothesline. Shawn's buddy Diesel sends Kama Mustafa tumbling out, and Michaels immediately takes advantage, knocking Diesel to the floor with Sweet Chin Music for the win. The two friends do share a tense staredown afterward, Diesel clearly unhappy with losing his opportunity to regain the WWF Championship at WrestleMania, but then they share a high-five as all bitter feelings are put aside, at least for now. Apart from the closing stretch, this was a very mediocre Rumble, with a lot of midcarders and jobbers making up the field, with the crowd dead for most of the first half hour. Jake Roberts did get a big pop after making his return and setting a python loose, and Vader and Yokozuna teaming up to take out both members of the Squat Team was cool, as was their dual eliminations at the hands of Michaels. I also need to shout-out the elimination of Steve Austin, currently in his "Ringmaster" gimmick, as he was intended to be in the final four of the match, but slipped while trying to hang on to the ropes after being hit by (Rikishi) Fatu, a moment that has become infamous after Austin himself has mocked it years later. All in all, this wasn't the most entertaining Rumble ever, but it had it's moments and set the stage for Shawn's big moment to come at WrestleMania.
- Main event time, as Bret Hart defends the WWF Championship against The Undertaker, who is currently in his "Phantom of the Opera" phase, wearing a silver facemask after having his face rearranged by Mabel. Bret gets trounced early on, obviously out-matched in the power department, but Hart turns the tides by sending Undertaker crashing into the steel steps, mangling one of the challenger's knees. From there, Bret is relentless on the attack, slowly picking the injured limb apart in his trademark debilitating style, ramming the leg into the ringpost and working a Figure Four. As Bret methodically picks his challenger apart, we get an interesting crowd reaction, as the fans start to turn on the champion, with loud boos for each offensive maneuver Bret performs. I'm pretty certain this was intentional on the part of both performers, as Bret is clearly trying to seem a little unhinged and dangerous, and Hart even threatens Paul Bearer at one point, drawing nuclear heat. Despite essentially being on one leg, Undertaker just about perseveres, and in a shocking moment, Undertaker catches Bret during an attempted crossbody dive, quickly dropping Hart with the Tombstone Piledriver. The fans go nuts for this, as finishers being hit out of nowhere were a rarity at this time, and it seems like Undertaker is about to become a two-time champion. But Diesel interferes, the pay-off after an exchange of blows between the two men during Undertaker's entrance, and Bret retains after a DQ loss. Diesel then flips off Undertaker, before sauntering to the back, setting up a WrestleMania feud between the two men. Even though the finish was deflating after the engaging story told in the title match, I thought it really established Diesel as a piece of work, and it's clear that Kevin Nash is way more comfortable as a heel. That middle finger salute and the swagger he had in his walk out added a ton of personality to his character, and it's just a shame that Nash would leave the WWF shortly after this heel turn, as I would be very interested to see what plans Vince would've had for the Diesel character in the future.
7/10
The first two matches on this card were completely forgettable, save for Ahmed Johnson's big dive, but both title matches provided plenty of expert psychology and intriguing character development, while the Rumble had a few noteworthy moments and holds historic value as the first real look at main event Shawn Michaels. Ultimately, 1996 would prove to be a very uneven year for the WWF, albeit one that finally began to show some signs of hope for the future. This show did it's job of setting the year to come up for success, even if it wasn't exactly a barnburner. If you're interested to see where the story threads set up on this night lead to, you can check out my review of WrestleMania 12 here.
Next time on Henry's Pay-Per-View Reviews: SummerSlam 1996, where Shawn Michaels takes on Vader and The Undertaker competes in the first "Boiler Room Brawl". See you soon.
- Henry
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