10 Things You Didn't Know About WWE In 1992
8. Roddy Piper Made Royal Rumble History
Here's a fun fact.
Roddy Piper was only wrestling The Mountie for the Intercontinental Title at Royal Rumble because of a kayfabe illness that kept Bret Hart out of the running. Mountie beat Bret on a house show 48 hours before the pay-per-view, then Piper won his only WWF/WWE singles strap at the Rumble.
'Hot Rod' also made federation history that night. He became the very first worker to pull double duty on a Rumble card. Oh yes, Roddy worked for the IC strap on the undercard, then put in a whopping 34 minute shift for the main event 30-man special before being tossed out by Sid Justice.
Nobody had ever worked twice at the Rumble until then. That'd become a staple of things during the 'Attitude Era' and beyond, but it was a completely new concept when Piper sweated buckets in New York on 19 January.
What an effort Piper put in. He became a history-maker overnight.