7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1988

5. The Match Order Was Done Differently Back Then

When you look at the lineup of the show, they really should have ended it with the Rumble win by Duggan. Instead, the main event was The Islanders (Haku & Tama) defeating The Young Stallions (Jim Powers & Paul Roma). Just look at the names of those guys. Powers was a jobber for much of his career, yet he was the last match at the first ever Royal Rumble event. That's bizarre. The reason it was done this way was because back in the late 1980s and before that, the last match wasn't always considered to be the name event. That's how things ended up in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, but it wasn't always that way. That's why you might notice WWE announcers saying that a match is a main event that isn't the last match. It's because in the old days the main event took place in a spot that wasn't the last match on the card. Most of the Rumble events ended with the Rumble match going on last. Not all, but most. By the way, that Steamboat/Rude opening match was very disappointing. They ended up wrestling a lot in their careers especially in WCW. This one just wasn't very good, so there was no need to talk about it too much.