10 Reasons The 1990 Royal Rumble Is The Best Of All Time

9. An Absolutely Molten Crowd

Hercules Royal Rumble 1990
WWE

The 1990 Royal Rumble took place in Orlando, and the crowd was absolutely alive throughout the entire match. Some of the pops in the Rumble match itself are scarcely believable. Marty Jannetty comes out at number three, and I swear he receives a bigger reaction than any star will get in this year’s Rumble. Marty Jannetty, the man who was the original Marty Jannetty of a tag team, got a pop that today’s stars can only dream of. Sobering.

It isn’t entirely fair to compare the crowds of 1990 with the audience in 2018, of course, but it is difficult to ignore. This is as pure a professional wrestling crowd as you can get. They lose their minds for the babyfaces and their comebacks, and they boo the heels to high heaven. There is no cynicism, no examples of pockets of the crowd trying to get themselves over. They are there for the stars, and oh how refreshing that is.

We may think that Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins, Shinsuke Nakamura and the rest are stars today, but just go back and watch the reaction that men like Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior and Jake Roberts get here. People are losing their minds to see them. It also elevates the match; excitement is infectious. after all.

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Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.