Royal Rumble (1992)

World Wrestling Federation pay per view event

The 1992 Royal Rumble was the fifth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay per view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. It centered on the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. Six matches were contested at the event, including one dark match. The main event was the 1992 Royal Rumble match. This Royal Rumble match was notable as for the first time, the winner would win the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been vacated in December 1991. Ric Flair would start at number 3, Sid Justice would enter at number 29 while The Undertaker and Hulk Hogan would enter at numbers 20 and 26 respectively. In other featured matches on the undercard, The Natural Disasters (Earthquake and Typhoon) had a WWF Tag Team Championship match against current champions The Legion of Doom (Hawk and Animal), The Beverly Brothers (Blake Beverly and Beau Beverly) took on in a tag team match The Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke and Bushwhacker Butch), and Roddy Piper took on current WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion The Mountie with the title on the line.

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". 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 1992 event was the fifth event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 19, 1992, at the Knickerbocker Arena in Albany, New York. The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Prior to 1992, there was no prize for winning the match. However, as the WWF World Heavyweight Championship had been vacated, the vacant title became the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. It was the first of only two times in which the promotion's world championship was the prize of the Royal Rumble match—the second occurred at the 2016 event.

The Rumble match is often considered the greatest Rumble in history. In particular, the commentary by Heenan was particularly praised, with some calling it "one of the greatest color commentary performances in pay per view history".

The confrontation between Hogan and Justice was played out over a series of future WWF television programs. On the Superstars program aired January 25, 1992, WWF President Jack Tunney held a press conference, where he announced that Hogan would face Flair for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania VIII. Justice, who was also in attendance and began standing up as if Tunney were about to proclaim him the top contender, was outraged and termed the announcement "the most bogus act Jack Tunney has ever pulled off." Sid later apologized and Hogan accepted, but on the February 8 Saturday Night's Main Event XXX, Justice abandoned Hogan during a tag team match against Flair and The Undertaker, completing his heel turn and leading to a match at WrestleMania VIII. Flair, meanwhile, began feuding with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had a previous relationship with Savage's wife, Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth in which Flair had himself superimposed. This culminated in a title match at WrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second (and final) WWF World Heavyweight Championship. This was the first Royal Rumble in which stakes were involved for the winner—the stipulation in which the winner would face the WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania first took place at the following year's event. It would be 24 years before the Royal Rumble was again for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes. DrawEntrantOrderEliminated byTimesEliminations1The British BulldogRic Flair23:3332Ted DiBiaseThe British Bulldog01:180Ric FlairWinner5Jerry SagsThe British Bulldog01:060Haku01:510Shawn Michaels10Tito Santana15:461Tito SantanaShawn Michaels13:551The Barbarian11Hercules12:550The Texas TornadoRic Flair09:20010Repo ManBig Boss Man06:23211Greg ValentineRepo Man04:12012Nikolai Volkoff01:03013Big Boss Man13Ric Flair03:38214Hercules12Big Boss Man00:56115Roddy Piper26Sid Justice34:06116Jake Roberts15Randy Savage10:55017Jim Duggan19Virgil20:45118Irwin R. Schyster23Roddy Piper27:01019Jimmy Snuka14The Undertaker02:27020The Undertaker17Hulk Hogan13:51121Randy Savage27Ric Flair and Sid Justice22:26222The Berzerker18Hulk Hogan09:00023Virgil20Jim Duggan07:29124Col. Mustafa16Randy Savage02:36025Rick Martel25Sid Justice12:39126Hulk Hogan2811:29427Skinner21Rick Martel02:13028Sgt. Slaughter22Sid Justice04:37029Sid Justice29Ric Flair05:55630The Warlord24Hulk Hogan and Sid Justice01:430

Randy Savage eliminated himself shortly after eliminating Jake Roberts by jumping to Roberts over the top rope. However, he returned to the ring and resumed his participation. Ric Flair broke the longevity record for lasting 1:00:02. This record would stand for one year before it would be broken by Bob Backlund (Lasting 1:01:10) in Royal Rumble (1993). Ric Flair also became the first person in history to last more than one hour.