One MIND-BLOWING Secret From Every WWE Royal Rumble

1988 - The Real Inspiration Behind The Match

Pat Patterson Vince McMahon 1999 Royal Rumble
WWE.com

The Hell In A Cell match was heavily inspired by the ‘Last Battle of Atlanta’, promoted in 1983 by Georgia Championship Wrestling. The Ladder match originated in the Stampede territory. The Royal Rumble was also a twist on another territory’s match: San Francisco’s Cow Palace Battle Royal.

The Cow Palace Battle Royal was the biggest match on the Big Time Wrestling calendar.

In the ‘70s, the match was built by Roy Shire as a huge attraction to which the biggest territory stars across the land were invited - i.e., the match didn’t just utilise the existing roster. It was promoted in January in order to initiate the key storylines that would play out over the remainder of the year. Most of the time, the winner would receive a United States title shot at the next major Cow Palace show. The match was held under traditional battle royal rules - Pat Patterson’s interval format was his own, genius idea - but the WWF lifted or tweaked almost everything else.

In 1988, the WWF promoted the first canon Royal Rumble event: a 20-man TV special pitched by Pat Patterson at the urging of NBC executive Dick Ebersol, who wanted a brand new attraction. Vince infamously hated the idea. The match was shunted onto PPV the very next year, since the ‘88 demo, won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, was the third highest-rated wrestling event in the history of cable television.

This was not however the first Rumble match - and the first experimental version was such a failure that the fabled Road to WrestleMania almost looked very different. Vince was actually justified in doubting the Rumble as a spectacle; the non-televised October 1987 experiment was an artistic and commercial failure. The match was said to be rubbish, and incredibly, the best gimmick match format ever alienated a traditionally-minded St. Louis audience.

In an interesting trivia note, history would repeat itself: St. Louis was cursed to endure one of the worst Royal Rumble events ever in 2022.

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Contributor
Contributor

Michael Sidgwick is an editor, writer and podcaster for WhatCulture Wrestling. With over seven years of experience in wrestling analysis, Michael was published in the influential institution that was Power Slam magazine, and specialises in providing insights into All Elite Wrestling - so much so that he wrote a book about the subject. You can order Becoming All Elite: The Rise Of AEW on Amazon. Possessing a deep knowledge also of WWE, WCW, ECW and New Japan Pro Wrestling, Michael’s work has been publicly praised by former AEW World Champions Kenny Omega and MJF, and current Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes. When he isn’t putting your finger on why things are the way they are in the endlessly fascinating world of professional wrestling, Michael wraps his own around a hand grinder to explore the world of specialty coffee. Follow Michael on X (formerly known as Twitter) @MSidgwick for more!