The 1990 Rumble was a real fun jaunt down memory lane, especially if you include the pre-match in there. Before the match a number of inset promos were shown by a host of competitors, including gems from Bad News Brown, Hercules and Akeem, among others. Ted DiBiase drew number one and had a good long run, lasting twice as long as anyone else at an impressive 44 minutes (Haku was next best with 22 minutes). Two men dominated the eliminations however, and it was these two men who took centre stage in one of the biggest Rumble moments in history. Due to the lack of televised shows back in the day, big superstars were fairly well protected and kept apart from each other. It is no surprise then that in the second half of the Rumble, Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior go on something of an elimination spree until they are the only two men left in the ring. Neither realises this though, until they turn and finally come face to face. The crowd go suitably mental at this confrontation, as the two go eyeball to eyeball. A couple of shoulderblocks are hit but nobody moves. This was followed by the criss-cross, a spot that is never seen any more on account of it being utterly ridiculous but it is so much fun to look back on. One double clothesline later both men were down. The interaction lasted merely two minutes, but the stage was set. Hogan would go on to win the match, although Mr. Perfect was probably the better option in hindsight.
Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.
