Royal Rumble (1994)

World Wrestling Federation pay per view event

The 1994 Royal Rumble was the seventh annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay per view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on Saturday, January 22, 1994, at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island—the final Royal Rumble held on a Saturday until the 2022 event. Six matches were contested at the event, including one dark match. For the 1993 event, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. The 1994 Royal Rumble match also awarded the winner the same prize, which was a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania X, thus becoming the tradition for the annual Royal Rumble match. The main event was the 1994 Royal Rumble match. Lex Luger and Bret Hart were named co winners after simultaneously eliminating each other. The undercard saw Yokozuna defeat The Undertaker in a Casket match to retain the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, The Quebecers (Jacques and Pierre) defeated Bret Hart and Owen Hart to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship, and Razor Ramon defeated Irwin R. Schyster to retain the Intercontinental Championship.

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay per view (PPV) produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay per views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four", and one of the "Big Five", along with King of the Ring that was established in 1993. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 1994 event was the seventh event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on Saturday, January 22, 1994, at the Providence Civic Center in Providence, Rhode Island. The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Prior to 1992, there was no prize for winning the match. At the 1992 event, as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship had been vacated, the prize for the 1992 Royal Rumble match was the vacant title. At the 1993 event, it was decided that the winner would be awarded a match for the championship at WrestleMania IX. For 1994, the winner again earned a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which was at WrestleMania X, thus establishing a tradition of the Rumble winner earning a world championship match at WrestleMania. Borga ended this streak on the October 30, 1993, episode of WWF Superstars (taped on September 28, 1993), when he hit Tatanka with a steel chair while the referee was distracted. Although Tatanka defeated Borga by disqualification on the December 20, 1993, episode of Raw, the bitterness between the two remained. Borga suffered a legit ankle injury, however, and was replaced by Bam Bam Bigelow. Although the substitution took place shortly before the event, Bigelow and Tatanka also had a heated rivalry. In 1993, Bigelow had cut Tatanka's dyed red hair as an insult to his Lumbee heritage. At Survivor Series 1993, Owen Hart was eliminated during an elimination match when he crashed into his brother Bret Hart, who was walking along the ring apron, causing Owen to lose his focus and be pinned by Michaels. After the match, Owen interrupted his brothers’ victory celebration to verbally attack Bret. They decided to focus their energy on taking the tag team title from the Quebecers. Their plan was temporarily put on hold when Marty Jannetty and the 1 2 3 Kid won the belts, but the Quebecers won a rematch the following week, guaranteeing that the Harts would get their title shot. Razor Ramon and Irwin R. Schyster (I. R. S.) began feuding prior to SummerSlam 1993 because of an angle in which Money Inc. (Ted DiBiase and I. R. S.) teased Ramon about losing to the 1 2 3 Kid, a newcomer to the WWF. The rivalry heated up when I. R. S. stole Ramon's gold chains while Shawn Michaels had Ramon distracted. Ramon and I. R. S. agreed to settle the feud at Royal Rumble 1994 with Ramon's Intercontinental Championship on the line. The rivalry between Yokozuna and The Undertaker began at Survivor Series 1993. Yokozuna, who was pushed as an unstoppable monster, was unable to inflict any serious damage on The Undertaker when the two faced each other in an elimination match. Yokozuna slammed The Undertaker's head into the steel steps leading up to the ring, but The Undertaker was unharmed. Later, Yokozuna used his finishing move, the Banzai Drop, on The Undertaker. When he tried to repeat the move, however, The Undertaker became the first wrestler to sit up after the move, surprising Yokozuna and his managers. in a Casket match. In the following weeks, it was revealed that Yokozuna had a fear of caskets. The Undertaker used this knowledge to gain a psychological advantage going into the match. On one occasion, Paul Bearer brought the casket to the ring to intimidate Yokozuna. When Yokozuna approached the casket to face his fear, the Undertaker popped out to scare Yokozuna. A compromise was reached, allowing Luger to compete. Yokozuna's manager, Mr. Fuji, was allowed to bring in two wrestlers, Genichiro Tenryu and The Great Kabuki, to hurt Luger's chances of winning. The Brawler used a swinging neckbreaker to get the victory. As the pay per view broadcast began, Vince McMahon introduced Ted DiBiase as his commentary partner for the evening. The first televised match was between Tatanka and Bam Bam Bigelow. Bigelow tried to attack Tatanka before the bell, but Tatanka moved. This left fans wondering if Bret Hart would even make the Royal Rumble match itself. Next came the match between Irwin R. Schyster and Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship, for which Jim Ross and Gorilla Monsoon took over the commentary roles. The match began with a brawl between the two, and Ramon got the early advantage. Shawn Michaels ran to the ring with his fake Intercontinental belt and hit Ramon with it, and Schyster helped revive Marella to count the pinfall. Meanwhile, Adam Bomb, Jeff Jarrett, The Headshrinkers (Samu and Fatu) and Diesel then came to the ring to help Yokozuna. The Undertaker appeared on the video screen at the end of the aisle, vowing to return. Before the Royal Rumble match began, commentator Vince McMahon revealed that WWF President Jack Tunney had shortened the interval between entrances from the traditional two minutes to 90 seconds due to time constraints. Early in the match, Diesel tied a WWF record by throwing out seven consecutive wrestlers. and the feud was supposed to be settled at Survivor Series 1993, but the team of "Doinks" that Bigelow fought was just The Bushwhackers and Men on a Mission dressed up as clowns. When they met in the Royal Rumble, Bigelow quickly eliminated Doink. Meanwhile, ring announcer Howard Finkel declared one wrestler as the winner followed by the other. Eventually, WWF President Jack Tunney came to the ring and had Finkel declare both men co winners. The two eventually formed a tag team and unsuccessfully challenged for the WWF Tag Team Championship. The feud between Razor Ramon and I. R. S. ended shortly after the Royal Rumble. On the January 31, 1994 edition of Monday Night Raw, the 1 2 3 Kid stole Ramon's chains back from I. R. S., bringing the feud to an end. This ended the feud between Michaels and Ramon, although Ramon continued to feud with Michaels' friend Diesel. Owen Hart demanded a match against Bret Hart, which Bret repeatedly refused. Owen won the match, but Bret came out of WrestleMania with the WWF World Heavyweight Championship after Yokozuna dropped the title to him. This led to an extended feud between the two that saw Jim Neidhart return to the WWF to side with Owen and Davey Boy Smith to make a comeback to take Bret's side. Several of the events during the Royal Rumble match led to feuds and pay per view matches later in 1994. Diesel's performance in the Royal Rumble match led to him becoming an up and comer in the WWF pecking order and he became the Intercontinental Champion shortly after WrestleMania X with assistance from Shawn Michaels. The duo later won the WWF Tag Team Championship the night before SummerSlam in August. At SummerSlam, however, Michaels cost Diesel the Intercontinental Championship by inadvertently kicking him when Razor Ramon ducked out of the way. Finally, at Survivor Series in November, the still simmering tension between the two friends boiled over when Michaels hit Diesel with another kick intended for Razor during their Survivor Series elimination match. Diesel became irate and chased after Michaels, who escaped in a car and declared their friendship and team over. Ted DiBiase claimed to have brought The Undertaker back to the WWF, but Paul Bearer informed him that DiBiase's Undertaker was an impostor. After defeating the false Undertaker, Bearer's Undertaker got revenge against Yokozuna by winning a Casket match at Survivor Series 1994. To help prevent outside interference, Chuck Norris was brought in as a guest referee.