7 Things You Should Know About WWE Royal Rumble 1988

1. The Success Of The First Rumble Match Set The Right Tone

http://youtu.be/EE2cgM9t0l0 There was nothing on the line during this Rumble match. No titles. No promises of a title shot. All we knew is that 20 men would be in the match and they would come down to the ring about every two minutes (as mentioned it was less than that) to compete in the match battle royal style until there was only one man standing. What was constant throughout the match was the crowd noise. Fans loved it even though they had never seen a match like this before. It was booked in a smart way too. Bret Hart started the match, which was smart since he's one of the best in-ring performers in WWE history. He also lasted the longest at 25:42. The biggest man in the match was the One Man Gang, so it made sense that he eliminated the most guys - six in all. He also finished as the runner up to Duggan because it helped the story to have the winner toss out the guy that was the most dominant performer in the match. Pat Patterson is the man credited with coming up with this match. He booked the first one while also helping on nearly Rumble match over the last three decades. The match was very raw. It didn't have a lot of the little quirks that made future Rumble matches so memorable, but what it did was set the tone for what we can expect from Rumble matches. It's not a show that I would definitely recommend for somebody that hasn't seen it, but if you are interested in the origins of the Rumble match then it's worth 38 minutes of your life to give it a look just to see how much the fans loved this match.