Ahmed Johnson vs. Jeff Jarrett
Decent opener. Jarrett is a pretty good stooge heel and does it well here. Jarett took some nice bumps for Ahemn and made his offence look good. Ahmen sold for most of the match though and wasn’t all that great as a fighting from beneath face. His hulk up was beyond corny. I’m not sure what they were going for with that one. It made Ahemn look less like Hulk Hogan and more like Tatanka. **1/4
WWF World Tag Team Title Match - The Smoking Gunns (Bart Gunn & Billy Gunn) (c) vs. The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip) (w/Sunny)
Pretty paint by the numbers tag match. Some good tag moves, an okay heat section and a fairly warm tag. Nothing outstanding but it was perfectly fine. Sunny was fun and aminated on the outside. The crowd was pretty into the match and the Gunns in general, popping big for some of their power moves. The Body Donnas, not so much. **1/4
WWF Intercontinental Title Match - Razor Ramon (c) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena)
It's pretty wild that when WWE signed the son of Dusty Rhodes, they gave him the Goldust gimmick. Just the idea of giving a famous wrestler's son a gimmick like that, it's odd. It'd be like giving Randy Orton the gimmick when he first joined. Now I love the Goldust gimmick. It got hate at the time due to connotations, sadly, but I dug the ambiguity of the gimmick, when it stayed that way, at least. The match ruled, too. Some excellent character work by Goldust that was blended into the match very well. Razor showed tremendous fire and aggression in his offence and held his own with Goldust technically. Goldust sold and bumped well. Great performances all round. The finish didn’t make Goldust look all that great as he needed interference to win. It did do a great job of allowing Razor to move on for the meanwhile. ***3/4
Royal Rumble Match - Aldo Montoya vs. Barry Horowitz vs. Bob Backlund vs. Bob Holly vs. Diesel vs. Dory Funk Jr. vs. Doug Gilbert vs. Duke Droese vs. Fatu vs. Hakushi vs. Henry O. Godwinn vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Isaac Yankem DDS vs. Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler vs. Kama vs. King Mabel vs. Marty Jannetty vs. Owen Hart vs. Savio Vega vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Squat Team 1 vs. Squat Team 2 vs. Takao Omori vs. Tatanka vs. The 1-2-3 Kid vs. The British Bulldog vs. The Ringmaster vs. Vader vs. Yokozuna
This was a good rumble, for the first half of the match. There was tons of great stuff. Everything involving Lawler, Razor chasing the 1-2-3 Kid. Vader potatoing everyone and going face to face with Gorilla Monsoon. All that ruled, then the match fell into a noticeable lull after that and never got good again until the finish which was great. Michaels having to super kick Diesel before he could realize what’s happening was a good finish. It just needed a better second half. ***3/4
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match - Bret Hart (c) vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer)
Two guys that never really faced each other. And maybe the bad rep this match gets is why. The work is actually pretty good. Bret’s work on Taker’s leg was pretty good. It all looks tight and crisp. And Taker’s selling was pretty good too. It just didn’t connect with me in the way a big main event like this should do. I dug the finish however. ***
This was quite a show. Fairly easy to watch despite the last two matches going on for considerable amounts of time. The undercard was good with solid opening match, a very good IC title match with Goldust and Razor Ramon. The main event underdelivered, but I still enjoyed it and the Rumble was also very good. Best To Worst: Royal Rumble Match - [***3/4]. Razor Ramon (c) vs. Goldust - [***3/4]. Ahmed Johnson vs. Jeff Jarrett - [**1/4]. Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker - [***]. The Smoking Gunns (Bart Gunn & Billy Gunn) vs. The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip) [**1/4]
Decent opener. Jarrett is a pretty good stooge heel and does it well here. Jarett took some nice bumps for Ahemn and made his offence look good. Ahmen sold for most of the match though and wasn’t all that great as a fighting from beneath face. His hulk up was beyond corny. I’m not sure what they were going for with that one. It made Ahemn look less like Hulk Hogan and more like Tatanka. **1/4
WWF World Tag Team Title Match - The Smoking Gunns (Bart Gunn & Billy Gunn) (c) vs. The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip) (w/Sunny)
Pretty paint by the numbers tag match. Some good tag moves, an okay heat section and a fairly warm tag. Nothing outstanding but it was perfectly fine. Sunny was fun and aminated on the outside. The crowd was pretty into the match and the Gunns in general, popping big for some of their power moves. The Body Donnas, not so much. **1/4
WWF Intercontinental Title Match - Razor Ramon (c) vs. Goldust (w/Marlena)
It's pretty wild that when WWE signed the son of Dusty Rhodes, they gave him the Goldust gimmick. Just the idea of giving a famous wrestler's son a gimmick like that, it's odd. It'd be like giving Randy Orton the gimmick when he first joined. Now I love the Goldust gimmick. It got hate at the time due to connotations, sadly, but I dug the ambiguity of the gimmick, when it stayed that way, at least. The match ruled, too. Some excellent character work by Goldust that was blended into the match very well. Razor showed tremendous fire and aggression in his offence and held his own with Goldust technically. Goldust sold and bumped well. Great performances all round. The finish didn’t make Goldust look all that great as he needed interference to win. It did do a great job of allowing Razor to move on for the meanwhile. ***3/4
Royal Rumble Match - Aldo Montoya vs. Barry Horowitz vs. Bob Backlund vs. Bob Holly vs. Diesel vs. Dory Funk Jr. vs. Doug Gilbert vs. Duke Droese vs. Fatu vs. Hakushi vs. Henry O. Godwinn vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley vs. Isaac Yankem DDS vs. Jake Roberts vs. Jerry Lawler vs. Kama vs. King Mabel vs. Marty Jannetty vs. Owen Hart vs. Savio Vega vs. Shawn Michaels vs. Squat Team 1 vs. Squat Team 2 vs. Takao Omori vs. Tatanka vs. The 1-2-3 Kid vs. The British Bulldog vs. The Ringmaster vs. Vader vs. Yokozuna
This was a good rumble, for the first half of the match. There was tons of great stuff. Everything involving Lawler, Razor chasing the 1-2-3 Kid. Vader potatoing everyone and going face to face with Gorilla Monsoon. All that ruled, then the match fell into a noticeable lull after that and never got good again until the finish which was great. Michaels having to super kick Diesel before he could realize what’s happening was a good finish. It just needed a better second half. ***3/4
WWF World Heavyweight Title Match - Bret Hart (c) vs. The Undertaker (w/Paul Bearer)
Two guys that never really faced each other. And maybe the bad rep this match gets is why. The work is actually pretty good. Bret’s work on Taker’s leg was pretty good. It all looks tight and crisp. And Taker’s selling was pretty good too. It just didn’t connect with me in the way a big main event like this should do. I dug the finish however. ***
This was quite a show. Fairly easy to watch despite the last two matches going on for considerable amounts of time. The undercard was good with solid opening match, a very good IC title match with Goldust and Razor Ramon. The main event underdelivered, but I still enjoyed it and the Rumble was also very good. Best To Worst: Royal Rumble Match - [***3/4]. Razor Ramon (c) vs. Goldust - [***3/4]. Ahmed Johnson vs. Jeff Jarrett - [**1/4]. Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker - [***]. The Smoking Gunns (Bart Gunn & Billy Gunn) vs. The Body Donnas (Skip & Zip) [**1/4]
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