Puntuale come il telegiornale dell'una e mezza, torna come ogni anno a Gennaio la Royal Rumble, uno dei match più attesi dell'anno, forse il più incerto e il più emozionante di tutti.
L'abbiamo sentito mille volte ormai alla pubblicità ma è sempre bello ripetere "30 UOMINI - UN MATCH - UN SOLO VINCITORE!", si perchè per chi non lo sapesse (chi??) è un match in cui partecipano 30 wrestlers, i quali entrano sul ring ad uno ad uno ad intervalli regolari cercando di eliminare gli altri wrestling buttandoli fuori dal ring (facendoli passare rigorosamente da sopra la famigerata "terza corda")... Insomma lo sapete tutti già: l'ultimo uomo che rimane sul ring è the winner of the Royal Rumble, and can challenge a world champion (the World Heavyweight Champion, WWE Champion or ECW Champion) in the beautiful setting of WrestleMania!
On January 25th will be the turn of the 2009 Royal Rumble, an event that will pave the way for the card and delinerà WrestleMania XXV.
Instead of talking about this year's event I would give you a bit of curiosity about the event itself.
Have you ever wondered what is the luckiest number for entry in the Royal Rumble ?
The magic number is 27 !
Entering with the number 27 Big John Studd (1989), Yokozuna (1993), Bret "Hit Man" Hart (in the 1994) and "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (in 2001) won the Royal Rumble!
This is Kane! Who participated (without ever winning, unfortunately) to as many as 10 Royal Rumble Match consecutively from 1999 to 2008 ... and if we think that this year the Big Red Machine is invited to the Royal Rumble, will once more with its own record 11 consecutive appearances!
Kane also holds the record " More eliminations during a single Royal Rumble " record in the event won the 2001 Grand Master Sexay removing the order, Steve Blackman, Al Snow, Raven, Saturn, Honky Tonk Man, Tazz, Crash Holly, Albert, Scotty 2 Hotty and The Rock!
So Kane is a real tough nut to crack at the Royal Rumble!
Usually the Royal Rumble match prefers big and tall athletes because they are difficult to remove, and instead it is the small / large Rey Mysterio to have the record for being more time in the ring during a Royal Rumble !
This is the 2006 Royal Rumble, which tral'altro also won, making the lightest and lowest wrestler to win this match!
And 'the only masked wrestler to have made it in a match like that!
The wrestler that instead lasted less during a Royal Rumble is Warlord who was eliminated in 1989 in 2 seconds! Following this negative record we find Mo and Owen Hart who were eliminated in 3 seconds during the 1995 event!
Performance Anxiety? :)
Speaking of the match in general was that of 2002 (a particularly nice match tral'altro and failed) to be the match longer (one hour, 9 minutes and 23 seconds) while the event was the 1988 to have been the shortest match in the history RR (only 33 minutes). It is to be considered, however, that the match only 20 participated in the 1988 Superstars.
The match lasted less than 30 men is that of 1995 (only 38 minutes). Why so short? Because in that event the superstar entered the ring after one minute each (instead of the usual 1:30 or 2:00 min).
Among the other statistics are well 9 Superstars have to deletes itself during the match: famous are the auto-deletion of Andre The Giant (1989), Drew Carey (2001), Kane (1999), Mick Foley (in 2004) and Farooq (1997). And then there
Chyna , the only woman to have participated in a Royal Rumble in 1999.
There was also a Royal Rumble with well two winners! E 'success in 1994, when Bret Hart and Lex Luger were eliminated simultaneously at the end of the contest!
In 1992, however the Royal Rumble Match was raffled on WWE Title. That edition (also won by Ric Flair) is remembered as one of the most exciting ever!
There were also the wrestler who won the Royal Rumble match to their first appearance (it is "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Big John Studd, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Vince McMahon, Brock Lesnar and Chris Benoit). But the true record-man Royal Rumble is " Stone Cold" Steve Austin!
The "Texas Rattlesnake" is The wrestler who has spent less to win a Royal Rumble (in 2001), the wrestler who eliminated more wrestler in total (less than 36 deletions!), The wrestler (like Hulk Hogan - '90 and '91, and Shawn Michaels - '95 and '96-) has won more consecutive Royal Rumble! ('97 And '98) ... and especially
was the wrestler who won the most Royal Rumble match (1997, 1998, 2001)
And now let's look at previous winners of the Royal Rumble:
[1988] - "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan
[1989] - John Studd
[1990] - Hulk Hogan
[1991] - Hulk Hogan
[1992] - "Nature Boy" Ric Flair
[1993] - Yokozuna
[1994] - Bret "Hitman" Hart e Lex Luger
[1995] - "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
[1996] - "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
[1997] - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
[1998] - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
[1999] - Vince McMahon
[2000] - The Rock
[2001] - "Stone Cold Steve Austin
[2002] - Triple H
[2003] - Brock Lesnar
[2004] - Chris Benoit
[2005] - Batista
[2006] - Rey Mysterio Jr.
[2007] - The Undertaker
[2008] - John Cena
We rehearsed almost everything now! [1989] - John Studd
[1990] - Hulk Hogan
[1991] - Hulk Hogan
[1992] - "Nature Boy" Ric Flair
[1993] - Yokozuna
[1994] - Bret "Hitman" Hart e Lex Luger
[1995] - "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
[1996] - "The Heartbreak Kid" Shawn Michaels
[1997] - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
[1998] - "Stone Cold" Steve Austin
[1999] - Vince McMahon
[2000] - The Rock
[2001] - "Stone Cold Steve Austin
[2002] - Triple H
[2003] - Brock Lesnar
[2004] - Chris Benoit
[2005] - Batista
[2006] - Rey Mysterio Jr.
[2007] - The Undertaker
[2008] - John Cena
It 'the devouring passion and expectation before the Royal Rumble that drove me to write an article on statistics like this! Confident to see a beautiful Royal Ruble year, I wish you all enjoy!
And as Michael Buffer would say:
"... Let Get Ready To Rumbleeeeeeeeeee!"
