10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 1994 Facts
Two Rumble winners and the murder of a zombie mortician. Some call it "Saturday"
Of all of the Royal Rumble events, the 1994 show was definitely one of them. When you get past Owen Hart's heel turn, Diesel turning back a conveyor belt of midcard chum one bucket at a time, and Bret Hart getting put back on track to the World title scene, you're left with a whole lot of nothing.
Actually, calling the rest of the show "nothing" does a colossal disservice to the vivid trainwreck that was the Yokozuna/Undertaker casket match for the WWE Championship. You know, the match where Undertaker's urn spilled forth billowing smoke, and 'Taker apparently died, and then he cut a monologue from inside the casket, and then floated to the heavens. That was certainly not nothing. It can't be classified as a landmark in cinematic achievement, but "nothing" it's definitely not.
The 1994 Royal Rumble came at a time when WWE was journeying into uncertain waters. Vince McMahon was gearing up for the legal fight of his life with the steroid distribution trial, and TV taping audiences were dwindling to borderline indy-show levels. The company had seen such dizzying highs less than a decade earlier, whereas the Royal Rumble in '94 aptly summed up what WWE was at the time: a murky mess, with some visible slivers of gold.
Here are ten facts about the 1994 Royal Rumble you may not have known.
10. WWE Held A "Royal Rumble" Five Nights Before The Actual PPV
On Monday night, January 17, 1994, WWE held one of their major non-televised shows at Madison Square Garden, and decided to gussy it up with a special attraction: a Royal Rumble match exclusive to the 9,000 fans on hand.
The usual suspects such as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Diesel, Randy Savage, and others took part, with some eclectic entries like Iron Mike Sharpe, Jim Powers, Scott Putski (son of Ivan), and manager Johnny Polo (Raven). Even semi-active Sgt. Slaughter was an entrant in the gauntlet.
The match was actually recorded by a fan (in the days before smart phones, mind you), and the grainy footage can be found across these here interwebs. The eventual winner was Owen Hart, who eliminated Fatu of the Headshrinkers in the end.