WWE Royal Rumble 1989
WWE Royal Rumble 1989
NR | 15 January 1989 (USA)
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The 1989 WWE Royal Rumble was the second annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling event produced by the World Wrestling Federation, and the first one to be held on pay-per-view. It took place on January 15, 1989 at The Summit in Houston, Texas. The main event was the 1989 Royal Rumble match won by Big John Studd, who last eliminated Ted DiBiase to win the match. Featured matches on the undercard were Jim Duggan and The Hart Foundation versus Dino Bravo and The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, Rockin' Robin versus Judy Martin for the WWE Women's Championship and "King" Haku versus Harley Race.

Reviews
Iseerphia

All that we are seeing on the screen is happening with real people, real action sequences in the background, forcing the eye to watch as if we were there.

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Robert Joyner

The plot isn't so bad, but the pace of storytelling is too slow which makes people bored. Certain moments are so obvious and unnecessary for the main plot. I would've fast-forwarded those moments if it was an online streaming. The ending looks like implying a sequel, not sure if this movie will get one

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Brendon Jones

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

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Freeman

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

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bh_tafe3

The WWE was building nicely to one of the biggest shows in history as the 1989 Royal Runble came along. This was either the second or third rumble to occur, depending on whether one happened at a house show in 1987 or not, was the second to be shown live on television, and the first to be shown on PPV.The big story going into this was the rivalry, which had been going for months between the Mega Powers Hulk Hogan and WWE Champion Randy Savage and the Twin Towers Big Boss Man and Akeem. The Powers had outlasted the Towers at Survivor Series two months earlier and the Towers were keen for revenge. And also, some issues appeared to be brewing between Hogan and Savage. With 28 other men in the Royal Rumble, they would need to stick together tonight.The night started off with Hacksaw Jim Duggan and the Hart Foundation Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart defeating the Fabulous Rougeaus Jacques and Raymond and Dino Bravo in a 2 out of 3 falls six man tag match. The team shared a fall each, but Hacksaw was able to get in a shot on Bravo with his trusty 2 by 4 while the ref had his back turned, allowing Hart to get the pin and th victory. This was a fun match to watch. Two tag teams who could really go.Next up, and through out the show we had a running joke with DiBiase who buys the coveted No.30 in the Royal Rumble after drawing a low number himself.Next up is a super posedown between Rick Rude and the Ultimate Warrior, with the audience deciding the winner. Well Rude is a bad guy, Warrior is a good guy, so of course things turn out badly for Rude who beats the Warrior senseless.Next up comes the WWE Women's Championship match between Rockin Robin and Judy Martin. This was not an easy match to watch, Robin wins and I think they got rid of Women's Wrestling matches from the WWE following this effort.Next up Ravishing Rick Rude comes on with his manager Bobby Heenan to tell everyone about his brilliant plan and guarantee he will beat Warrior for the Intercontinental Title in the near future. This was good stuff Next up we have two former King of the Ring winners King Haku and Harley Race pitted against each other in a fun match, with Haku wining to be crowned "King of Wrestling." This brings us to the big one, the main event, the 1989 Royal Rumbler. The 1988 edition had featured only 20 men, but this one expanded to 30. The time between entries (which is not strictly adhered to at any rate) was two minutes. Mr Perfect clocked up the longest time in the rumble, going 28 minutes, Andre the Giant eliminated himself after Jake Roberts let a snake loose in the ring. Savage got upset with Hogan after Hogan had eliminated him, but they shook hands and it was all good. Hogan was dominant from here with 9 eliminations but was eventually eliminated by the Twin Towers, meaning they'd won the battle with the Mega Powers on this night. But eventually it all came down to Big John Studd, a good guy, taking on bad guys Akeem and Ted DiBiase. Akeem and Ted worked together to beat Studd down, but then got in an argument. Studd took advantage eliminating Akeen and then had some fun beating on DiBiase before throwing him out like a rag doll. And so, in an anti-climactic ending Big John Studd won the 1989 Royal Rumble.All in all though, the fans couldn't complain. The Twin Towers may have beaten Hogan and Savage, but they weren't victorious in the end. The Mega Powers had sorted out their little quarrel. All was well with the world and the only question that remained was who was going to take on the Mega Powers at Wrestlemania V in two months?

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DAVE

The second Royal Rumble added an additional 10 wrestlers than the previous year. The other matched on the card weren't bad except for the womens title match which was a waste of time. For some reason the crown match has been omitted from most copies of this event.It was fun seeing Ax and Smash of Demolition start the Rumble drawing numbers 1 and 2. They sure battled each other! I never quite understood why Big John Studd was the eventual winner of the event, he didn't wrestle too much longer after the event took place. Wouldn't you rather have an up and coming star win such a prestigious event? Overall a satisfactory event that is still fun to watch to this day.

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wwfhistoryguy

*SPOILERS*Rumbles started getting really good in '90, but this one wasn't bad.The opening six-man match was very good. Listen closely after the second fall and you'll hear Jim Duggan say "Get off my (expletive)" to the ref. Remember, this was back in the day. Wrestlers never cussed. It was nice to see two major feuds settled in one match.Why was King Haku vs. Harley Race edited from the tape? In fact, the commentators never even mention this match. I know nothing about this apparent feud, and if either of them was a face in this match.The Rumble: Ax and Smash, the most dominant tag team in WWF history, did simply poorly here. Smash barely lasted till number 4, and Ax didn't do much better. And they never cross paths with the Powers of Pain. Usually, this was a great opportunity for all rivals to fight. Mr. Perfect and the Brain Busters did the best here before a fresh Hulk Hogan disposed of them. The Warlord proved his mediocrity by stepping in and right back out courtesy of a Hogan clothesline. The Barbarian fared surprisingly well, by eliminating Brutus Beefcake AND Hercules, two men who have defeated him several times. I liked seeing Butch eliminate the Honky Tonk Man.Hulk Hogan kind of shocked me by getting easily eliminated by the Towers, then just reaching in and pulling Bossman out. Did he even lose any popularity at all? This wasn't the best Rumble match, not even close; but it was much better than some of them, too. It was somewhere in the middle.It was also an interesting decision to put the previous year's winner, Duggan, and its iron man, Bret Hart, in an undercard match, but hey, it was actually a better match than the Rumble.

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TheBossMan316

A great wrestling event. This was start off to a ppv that would be aired every january as the first ppv of the year. 30 Men One Ring, One Winner. The Winner going to wrestlemania to face whoever the champion is. This one Featured: Hulk Hogan, Smash, Ax, Andre the Giant, Bad News Brown, Akeem, Million Dollar Man, Ronny Garvin, The Boss Man, Tito Santana, Rick Martel, The Bushwackers, Koko B. Ware, Honky Tonk Man and more. Great event, the first of a series to come, rent it.

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