The second ever Royal Rumble, this was the first to feature the 30-man field that would soon become the norm. Big John Studd came out the winner after eliminating Ted DiBiase last. This match had a good, competitive field, but much like the previous year it was hindered by a large number of lumbering bodies taking up the ring for the majority of the match. The 1989 Rumble did provide one of my all time favourite Rumble moments though, in the novelty of Demolition tag team members Ax and Smash drawing numbers one and two. The 'Every Man For Himself' nature of the Rumble was put over hard here, and seeing teammates go at it was still a truly unique sight at the time. Hulk Hogan dominated the match with 10 eliminations, including dispatching The Warlord in two seconds. This record for the shortest time in the Rumble would last for two decades until Santino Marella 'eclipsed' it in 2009.
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.
