Our match of the week this week is a 30-man house show Royal Rumble, on January 17, 1994, from Madison Square Garden in New York City (WWF).
Five days before Vince McMahon booked Bret Hart and Lex Luger to tie at the finish of the yearly PPV version of the Royal Rumble, allowing the fans of Providence, Rhode Island to influence whether Hart or Luger would be pushed moving forward in a bizarre and blatant display of testing for cheers, Madison Square Garden was treated to this house show Royal Rumble main event.
House show Royal Rumbles were not a rare occurrence at all. From 1987 until the mid-’90s, WWF ran semi-frequent Royal Rumble main events, joining/replacing the standard old school battle royal, tag team battle royal, and Bunkhouse battle royals that often headlined house shows during the same era.
You might be thinking that this was a dress rehearsal for the more important PPV Royal Rumble match a few days later. Not quite. This was hardly a star-studded Rumble, featuring a bevy of house show prelim level house show workers and non-pushed mid-carders. I suggest watching unspoiled.
Watch & discuss: https://www.patreon.com/posts/match-of-week-1-61920451
