7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1995

1. Shawn Michaels Made Rumble History By Winning From The #1 Spot

The number one spot in the Rumble match was often times "randomly" given to a big name, but up until 1995 none of those wrestlers went on to win the match. Ric Flair won it from #3 in 1992 and that was the most impressive win ever. When Shawn Michaels got the number one spot in 1995, he was a clear favorite to win. That's exactly what he did. Michaels was the biggest star of the match. He was a heel on the rise that started at #1 and tossed out eight guys, which was more than anybody else. He was fantastic all match long as he teased being eliminated numerous times and every time he did the crowd cheered because they wanted to see him get tossed. There were a lot of smart eliminations by Michaels too. He took advantage of situations, he tried to get people to work with him and then he turned on him. It really gave Michaels credibility because this was his push from being a midcarder to having a spot as a main eventer going forward. Fans had to believe in the guy. This match certainly helped. http://youtu.be/GLlqsqqABe4 Give the British Bulldog a lot of credit too. He was number two, lasted all the way until the end and was part of a creative finish. It appeared as though Bulldog eliminated Michaels, but Shawn did a spectacular job of hanging onto the ropes. He had one hand on the middle rope, another on the top rope and then he dangled his feet down so that they briefly touched the floor, but it was never both feet at the same time. Bulldog's music started to play. He posed on the turnbuckle. Michaels went back in the ring, hit a double axehandle and Bulldog was eliminated. The ending was really well done because it was such a tease and as good of a false finish as you could do in a match like this. Michael was a one of a kind performer that managed to hang on when it appeared like he was going to touch the floor. It was not a very strong Rumble match considering the lack of big names, but nobody's going to forget that ending. It was HBK at his best.