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

5. Perfect Booking Of Giants

In the modern age, every battle royal is prefaced by a torrent of comedic comments about big men being favourites. For years it seemed like Mark Henry was a threat to win every Royal Rumble, and the same trope was used for Big Show, Viscera, The Great Khali and others. These big men would always be eliminated pretty easily in the end, making a mockery of the idea that they could prevail.

Back in 1990, this wasn’t the case. There were some big boys involved here, and they were booked in such a way that made them seem absolutely invincible. The Warlord wasn’t huge by giant standards, but he was protected so well in this match that he became a viable threat in the early stages. On a number of occasions, multiple stars ganged up (unsuccessfully) to remove him from the match. It took a bigger giant to get rid of him in the end.

This narrative was perfected in the middle portion of the match, with the brief appearance of Earthquake, then billed as The Canadian Earthquake. John Tenta entered at number 19 and lasted all of two and half minutes - but in that time, he eliminated Dusty Rhodes and Ax with ease. The rest of the field realised the danger, and it took five men to eventually get Earthquake out. The logic of the booking was accentuated by Dino Bravo’s desperate attempts to keep the big man in.

Logical wrestling makes everything better.