WWE Vintage Collection Report (01/31/10)
WWE Vintage Collection Report: 31st January 2010
By Shaun Best-Rajah.com Reporter
Hosted by: Mean Gene Okerlund
Welcome aboard. We conclude the Royal Rumblings of years gone by with a trip to Fresno, California on January 21st 1996. Announcers are Vince McMahon and Mr Perfect.
This was the first time that every entrant came out to their theme music as opposed to just the first two. Also, managers were allowed to stay at ringside for the duration that their protégé was in the match.
Hunter Hearst Helmsley and Henry Godwinn are the first two entrants. Earlier in the night on the first ever ‘Free For All’ pre-show, Hunter and Duke “The Dumpster” Droese squared off in a match to determine who drew numbers 1 and 30 after both allegedly drew blanks. Hunter cheated, using brass knucks for the win, but interim president Gorilla Monsoon reversed the decision. Godwinn, who was in the final five the previous year has brought his slop bucket with him. Both slug it out to start. Hunter goes to the eyes to avoid being press slammed out. Wannabe president Bob Backlund is #3 with the announcers discussing his campaign and 61 minute Rumble record from 1993. All three trade elimination attempts on each other. #4 Jerry “The King” Lawler is greeted with chants of ‘Burger King.’ Lawler grabs the slop bucket. Godwinn kicks Lawler to take possession of the slop and scares everyone out of the ring. Godwinn throws the slop onto Lawler’s back with several in the front row getting a nice portion to go with their sodas. Vince tells us to start our engines as #5 Bob Holly runs in. We go to a commercial break with Perfect saying he ‘can’t wait for Vader to come out.’
#6 King Mabel (accompanied by Sir Mo) is now in the ring along with #7 Jake “The Snake” Roberts and #8 Dory Funk Jnr. During the break Jake scared everyone out of the ring by letting his snake out of the bag before wrapping it around Lawler. The frightened ‘King’ is seeking refuge underneath the ring. No-one has been eliminated yet. #9 is Yokozuna minus Mr Fuji and Jim Cornette which Perfect quickly picks up on. Vince dubs Yoko as the ‘biggest man in the history of the WWF’ as the 568lber quickly disposes of Backlund then goes after Mabel, who ends up sandwiching Yoko and Godwinn in the corner. Whoomp! there it is. Poor Godwinn is given a hurracanrana by Holly, and a splash from Mabel, before Jake snapmares him out. The crowd are rabid for a DDT. #10 is the 1-2-3 Kid sprinting to the ring with Razor Ramon in hot pursuit after Kid cost him the Intercontinental Title earlier in the night. Officials escort Razor to the back after two failed attempts to catch the Kid with the crowd chanting ‘Razor.’
An over-excited Takao Omari (of All Japan fame) is in at #11, with Savio Vega following at #12. Savio takes down Mabel with a spinning heel kick which enables Yoko to tip the big man out. McMahon erroneously states Yokozuna dumped out Yokozuna. Omari tries to slam Jake out, but Jake flips him over instead and slithers back in. It’s finally Vader time at #13 as the ‘Mastodon’ comes out with Jim Cornette. Savio lifts Funk out from the apron. Vader chooses Holly and Savio as his first two targets to pound. #14 is Doug Gilbert from the USWA organisation who won a tournament in Memphis to qualify. The crowd give him the silent treatment and Perfect tries to put him over by bringing up his former tandem with Doug’s late brother Eddie. Jake DDTs Savio, but as he tries to do the same with Gilbert, a Vader clothesline sends Jake staggering backwards, over and out. The crowd give Jake an ovation on his way to the back and Jake would become a permanent fixture in the WWF throughout 1996 because of the positive reaction garnered here.
Identical twins the Samoan Swat Team come in at #15 and #16 and are swiftly eliminated by Vader and Yokozuna during a break. Gone too is Gilbert after being press slammed out by Vader. Owen Hart enters at #17 to bring the number of Camp Cornette members in the match to three. The other two members (Yokozuna and Vader) squash Savio in the corner and on the mat before Vader clubs him out. #18 is Shawn Michaels, making his in-ring return following the ‘kick heard around the world’ from Owen Hart. HBK dances his way into action, as he takes it to fellow Kliq members Hunter and the Kid. Tensions between Vader and Yoko finally boil over as the two behemoths pound away much to Cornette’s displeasure. Michaels rushes in from behind to dump both out to raise the roof. He quickly follows by press slamming the Kid out. OMG! Michaels is on fire. #19 Hakushi comes out, but a pissed off Vader levels Yoko from behind before coming back in to throw everyone out. None of the eliminations count though as Vader is no longer in the match. It takes a bunch of officials, Gorilla Monsoon and a pleading Cornette to make Vader leave. Wow what a way to make an entrance. Vader has arrived.
Tatanka is #20. Owen catches Hakushi trying a float over and eliminates him, as #21 Aldo Montoya runs out, with Perfect quipping he has his jock on the wrong part of his body. Montoya is Justin Credible wearing a yellow jockstrap as a mask. Michaels gets sent to the floor where he pulls out the forgotten Jerry Lawler only to bring him back in and punch him over the top rope. Tatanka clotheslines Montoya out before getting tossed himself by #22 Diesel, who backs into Michaels, and the two ‘friends’ have a brief exchange. Diesel saves Michaels from numerous elimination attempts by Holly and Hunter. #23 Kama from the Million Dollar Corporation takes us into another break.
#24 The Ringmaster (accompanied by Ted DiBiase) and ‘underdog’ Barry Horowitz drawing #25 are now in. Holly was eliminated by Ringmaster during the break. Vince calls Ringmaster ‘cold and calculating.’ He’s not Stone Cold just yet. Hunter pulls Diesel away from Kama. Bad move! Diesel tosses Hunter out to end his near 50 minute streak. #26 is Fatu who doesn’t make much of a difference. Perfect says he’ll quit if Horowitz wins. Isaac Yankem DDS walks through hell, fire and brimstone to enter at #27. Perfect bids Horowitz ‘goodnight’ as Owen flips him out. Owen hits Michaels with the dreaded enziguiri kick, but as Owen goes to throw him out, Diesel comes to the rescue once more to toss Owen, enabling Michaels to hang on in there and take a running clothesline from the Ringmaster.
Marty Jannetty joins the party at #28 and after rocking with his former partner, he takes a side slam from Diesel. The British Bulldog is the penultimate man in at #29, with his wife Diana pictured in the crowd. Bulldog backdrops Jannetty out after he intervenes on Michaels’s behalf. Fatu clotheslines the Ringmaster out, before Yankem does the same to Fatu. Both Perfect and Vince miss Ringmaster’s elimination which should explain how low Steve Austin’s stock was at this point. The final entrant is Duke “The Dumpster” Droese at #30. Bulldog and Michaels spill out through the ropes to the floor, where Owen Hart runs back out to send Michaels into the guardrail. Officials get rid of Owen, while Bulldog puts Michaels back inside. Diesel saves Michaels once again from a Bulldog press slam, enabling Michaels to dropkick Yankem out. Diesel and Kama combine to dump Droese out. The final four are Bulldog, Michaels, Diesel and Kama. Bulldog sends Michaels onto the apron, Michaels slides back in underneath and quickly clotheslines Bulldog out. Kama punches Michaels over, but he skins the cat back in. Diesel shoves Kama out, turns into a superkick and is eliminated. Michaels wins for the second year in a row. Diesel leaves then comes back in as Michaels is mooning the crowd to give his buddy a high five salute. Winner: SHAWN MICHAELS.
Shawn, Owen and Vader provided some decent action, but it’s unfortunate that due to time constraints of the show’s format, it meant that some of the more fun moments like the snake attack, mauling of the Swat team and the entrance of the Ringmaster for pure nostalgic reasons had to be cut out. Still a fitting way to end a month of Royal Rumble offerings. The mixed bag format returns next week so I’ll see you then. Shaun.
Comments/praise/feedback/criticism/discussion points please direct to [email protected].