Ranking every WWE Royal Rumble PPV in history

16. WWE Royal Rumble 1989

Match card & results

• 2-out-of-3 Falls Match: The Hart Foundation and Hacksaw Jim Duggan def. The Fabulous Rougeaus and Dino Bravo
• WWE Women’s Championship Match: Rockin’ Robin def. Judy Martin
• Battle for the King of the Ring Crown and Cape: King Haku def. Harley Race
• Big John Studd wins 30-Man Royal Rumble Match

Call it nostalgia or whatever you want but there’s something I like about the 1989 Royal Rumble event. I don’t like it quite enough to put it in the top half but it’s close as it sits here at number 16.

This was the first Royal Rumble match to feature 30 WWE superstars and after experimenting with that first one the previous year, creative figured out that they could actually further a few storylines during the match and we got a big story out of this one as the yearlong drama between Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage had a chapter on this night in Houston as the Hulkster “accidentally” dumped Macho Man out of the match as he was tangled up in the ropes with Bad News Brown. Savage immediately jumped back in and got into it with Hogan before Elizabeth calmed things down. The Mega-Powers would split up a few weeks later and go on to meet in the main event at WrestleMania V. This has long been my favorite storyline in WWE and seeing this go down in the Rumble match was very cool and still holds up today.

But those weren’t the only cool things to come out of that match. Demolition was the dominant tag team of the late ’80s and when Ax and Smash had to battle it out for the first couple of minutes as the first two entries, I was just shocked. Andre the Giant entered at number three and they ended would gang up on him but that was pretty cool. Andre actually eliminated himself in this match as the program between he and Jake “The Snake” Roberts came into play here as well. Andre had eliminated Roberts but Jake came back in with his python Damian and Andre was just scared to death and got out of that ring in a hurry. Fun stuff.

As for the undercard, we got a very good six-man tag match that was two-out-of-three falls with The Hart Foundation and Hacksaw Jim Duggan defeating The Fabulous Rougeaus and Dino Bravo. Not listed on the match card above, we also got the posedown with The Ultimate Warrior and Ravishing Rick Rude on this night. There wasn’t much to it but it did kick off quite the rivalry that lasted for months.

The women’s match with Rockin’ Robin and Judy Martin wasn’t very good but the match between Haku and Harley Race was nice. It was an old-school match with two very good wrestlers and we got King Haku out of it. This is a great throwback event and while Big John Studd may never go down as one of the all-time great Royal Rumble winners, watching him get one last shot at glory was and is still very cool to see.