7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1989

3. Andre The Giant Was Scared Of Snakes

Andre the Giant entered the Rumble match at #3. Any time Andre was in a battle royal he was always a threat to win just because he was the biggest wrestler and it's hard to eliminate him. By this point of his career he couldn't move very well. He retired within the next year or so. Andre was a heel still managed by Bobby Heenan and his main rival was Jake Roberts, who was in a face role. Roberts was #7 in the match. He went right after Andre, but that was a bad move because Andre dominated him and eliminated Roberts within two minutes. After he was eliminated, Roberts came back out, tossed his snake Damien into the ring and Andre freaked out. Andre ran out of the ring to eliminate himself. It likely wasn't easy to book Andre at this point in his career because he had a tough time taking any basic bumps. How was he going to bump over the top to the floor? Not easy. It was a smart way to have him get eliminated without hurting him too bad. Plus, it made Roberts more likable too. If you've seen the match then you know this was one of the high points of it with the crowd reacting to everything perfectly too. Moments like this is what the Rumble is about - fun segments within the confines of a longer match that built on future angles. By the way, the guy on the right on that photo is a young Shawn Michaels. He's have many great Rumble moments in his career.