50 Fascinating Facts About WWE in The 1980s

Pat Patterson was the one who came up with the Royal Rumble concept. When he pitched it to Vince McMahon, the boss paused for a minute before wondering aloud if it'd be something their audience would be interested in. After all, Battle Royals were an old-school wrasslin' nuisance to his world of "Sports Entertainment". Never mind the fact McMahon continued to book "old-school wrasslin" stuff whilst simultaneously hating on it.

Later, Vince told Pat to tell NBC head Dick Ebersol "that stupid idea" he had for a new match type. Patterson must've been happy that Ebersol loved it. His excitement passed over to McMahon, and the rest is history. However, the WWF decided not to air the show on pay-per-view like WrestleMania or the new-fangled Survivor Series. They planned it to be a TV special on NBC.

There were two distinctly different reasons for this. One, the WWF wanted to keep Ebersol and NBC onside as key partners, because they knew the network played to a vast audience. Two, running the first Rumble on TV instead of PPV would directly impact the NWA's Bunkhouse Stampede show, and messing with that was too good an opportunity to miss.

Don't forget that Vince had already threatened PPV companies with missing out on the next 'Mania if they went with Starrcade. Now, he was airing a pay-per-view quality show opposite Stampede. This was a nightmare for the NWA, but they were powerless to do anything about it.

For reference, the 'free Rumble' was a 20-man match that didn't quite hold the same thrills and spills as future 30-strong versions.