Must See Movie...

Good movie but grossly overrated

A waste of 90 minutes of my life

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

For perhaps the first time in WWF history, the 1993 edition of the Royal Rumble managed to create individual matches in the event (in this case Michaels/Janetty and Hart/Ramon) that overshadowed the Rumble itself. Unfortunately, this was only because the Rumble was so weak in and of itself.Basically, besides a few guys (Ted DiBiase, Randy Savage, Undertaker) that were still likable (although most of those were even past their respective primes), the entire "main event" consisted of nothing but "jobbers" (wrestle-speak for placeholders in between stars) and big fat guys (always go over better than shrimps). It wasn't anything like years past, where every other guy would elicit a huge reaction (one way or another) from the crowd.Plus, although commentator Gorilla Monsoon is always excellent, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan again will make you want to watch the whole tape on "mute", which really takes away a lot of the fun (at least it would have in the Jesse "The Body" Ventura years).Overall, this is a very "skippable" event in your quest through the RR series. It serves its purpose to advance the story lines into Wrestlemania and even puts together a few good stand-alone matches, but the main event is utterly boring.

Well Hogan's gone, the Ultimate Warrior's gone, Flair's about to leave and Savage is drifting into the background. The times certainly were changing as the 1993 Royal Rumble rolled around, and this was reflected in the WWE Championship match later that night as Bret Hart made his second title defence taking on Razor Ramon who'd only been in the WWE a short length of time.The night kicked off with the Steiner Brothers defeating the Beverly Brothers in a very entertaining opener. Scott Steiner was one of the most agile workers in the world at this stage and the Beverley's were a good foil for anyone. Good back and forth action as the two teams attempted to show who were the better brothers on the roster.Next comes a heated match for the Intercontinental Championship between Shawn Michaels and Marty Janetty. These two had been tag team partners in a pretty sweet tag team named the Rockers. But Shawn had memorably turned on Marty, throwing him through a barbershop window (shown on a montage here, but it actually occurred sometime in early 1992). Sensational Sherri stood at ringside unsure of her allegiances. In the end she does the right thing and comes into knock out Shawn, but he ducks and she cocks Janetty instead. Shawn wins a good match.Next up came the BIg Bossman taking on Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow was versatile for a big man and Bossman was pretty over back in 1993. They put on a nice match here.Brings us to the big WWE title match with Bret putting his title on the line against Razor Ramon. I don't know exactly what the story was here, but Razor had been one of Flair's cronies when Hart beat Flair for the title in late 1992. There were some good promos in the lead up and here they have a great match. It starts off even. The middle of the fight is Razor kicking Hart's backside all over the ring, only for Hart to rally and hit the sharpshooter for the win. Good match.The 1993 Royal Rumble was an interesting match with a lot of story lines going in. THe most important one here being that the winner would become the No.1 contender for the WWE Championship at Wrestlemania IX. The fight started off with two huge stories as Flair, who would fight and lose to Mr Perfect a "Loser Leaves Town" match the following night on RAW came in at No.1 and then former WWE Champion (for five consecutive years!) Bob Backlund, making a comeback at 42, came in at No.2. Flair went early compared to last year, but Backlund went for nearly an hour and was the second last man eliminated.Another big story going in was the Undertaker's rivalry with scrawny manager Harvey Wippleman. Undertaker had defeated Harvey's biggest client Kamala in a coffin match at Survivor Series 1992 and Wippleman vowed revenge. The Undertaker came it at No.15 and cleared the ring, only for Wippleman to unearth his latest discovery: The massive Brazilian Giant Gonzales. Gonzales destroyed the Undertaker and left him looking weak and pathetic. Anyone making Taker look like that in 1993 was a rare thing indeed.Anyway, Yokozuna came in at 27, eliminated six people, including Bob Backlund and then went toe to toe with Randy Savage for five thrilling minutes before eliminating Savage as the Macho Man attempted a pin after hitting a flying elbow. And so the Giant Yokozuna was on the way to Wrestlemania!!! So it appeared that we'd be getting Hart/ Yokozuna for the WWE Championship match at Wrestlemania. Could the Canadian Hart beat not only Yokozuna, but the Japanese cronies of his manager Mr Fuji, or would it take a real American to get the job done? And could the Undertaker possibly triumph over WIppleman and his newest monster?

This Royal Rumble was quite mediocre. The Rumble match itself wasn't the best ever and the undercard was quite average.The Steiners battled the Beverly Brothers in an average match. The same can be said for Big Boss Man VS Bam Bam Bigelow. Shawn Michaels battled Marty Jannety in a reasonable match. The WWF Title match pitted Bret Hart against Razor Ramon. This was quite good.(SPOILER AHEAD) The Rumble itself was okay. The late Yokosuna won the Rumble-in fact everybody knew he would win. Unlike previous events where you never knew who the winner was going to be, this Rumble was quite predictable. The most memorable part of this Rumble was the debut of Giant Gonzalez who was billed as being 8 foot tall. He was probably closer to 7 foot but he was real mean looking. He beat the stuffings out of the Undertaker at this event. That was the best part of the Rumble.

Highlights: Steiners and Beverlys had a decent opener, Steiners first PPV in WWF. The IC title match was great, Jannetty returned after a year and Sherri returned after 3 months but Michaels still gets the better of them both. The match : Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect's confrontation was classic especially with Bobby Heenan selling in the booth. The WWF should have used Perfect's performance to built him into a main-eventer. The crowd went nuts for him! Bob Backlund showed he can still go. Nice to see Carlos Calon on a PPV. Yokozuna and Earthquake also had a great standoff, and he was the right choice to go over. Lex Luger should not have been brought in like that. Bigelow's match with Bossman was a squash. Bret Hart and Razor Ramon was forgettable. Giant Gonzalez run in took way