WWE Royal Rumble 1991 (1991)

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Worth seeing just to witness how winsome it is.

The 1991 Royal Rumble was partly remembered for the rather controversial heavyweight title match between The Ultimate Warrior and Sgt. Slaughter. The latter wrestler was receiving a lot of heat, on account of being a sympathiser for Saddam Hussain. Equally, the ending of the title match was a bit controversial. The Ultimate Warrior was worthy of being given the title and should have held it again. I love the matches with The Rockers vs. The Orient Express and The Big Boss Man vs. The Barbarian. Both matches are exciting and have genuine name value. Ah the good old days of the WWE! The tag team match with Ted DiBiase and Virgil vs. Dusty and Dustin Rhodes was OK if a bit limited. Watch carefully and you will see a few security guards rush off in the direction of someone who threw a drinks carton that landed on DiBiase's back! The Rumble event is one of the best I've ever seen and it's also one of the longest. Clocking in at 65 minutes, the action has to be good in order to be that long. Luckily, it is brilliant. There are some wrestlers who never made another PPV appearance, like Saba Simba (what happened to him?) and Shane Douglas. The Rumble event marks the first appearance for the likes of The Undertaker, Legion of Doom and Tugboat. This is how American wrestling should be: plenty of great characters, good workers and fun that the whole family can enjoy!

Live from Miami, FLAttendance: 16,000The Rockers Vs The Orient ExpressThe Rockers win. This was a fantastic opener. It was innovative, creative, and downright exciting. These two have always had good chemistry with each other. This was revenge for The Rockers after losing to The Orient Express at Wrestlemania 6.**** out of 5Randy Savage says Sensational Sherri is gonna bait The Ultimate Warrior into giving Savage a title shot. Sherri begs The Warrior to come out and accept her challenge. She says Sgt. Slaughter has agreed to give Macho a title shot. He thinks Warrior is yellow from the top of his head, all the way down to his toes. Sherri asks Warrior if he'll give Savage a title shot if Warrior retains the title tonight. Sherri tries seducing The Warrior by touching his chest, teasing about kissing him. Warrior spits at Sherri and yells NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO at her. Savage runs out to try to get The Warrior, but he's gone. Big Bossman Vs The BarbarianBossman wins by reversing the momentum from a cross body. This was shockingly a good match. They both worked extremely hard and there were several exciting near falls. I'm not kidding. This is a solid match, considering how big both men are. Give it a chance.**3/4 out of 5Sgt. Slaughter says puke this, puke that, Ultimate Puke this, blah, blah, blah. Basically, he's gonna win the WWF title from Ultimate Warrior tonight. The Warrior cuts one of his nonsensical, yet entertaining promos.WWF ChampionUltimate Warrior (C) Vs Sgt. SlaughterSlaughter wins the title after Savage breaks a glass scepter over The Warrior's face. The crowd is ANGRY! with loud bullsh*** chants. Not a very good match, but it had a great story to it, thanks to the emotion behind it and Savage's interference's. Slaughter was awful at this point, but he was a heat magnet. He was merely a transitional champion, but I understand why they gave the title to Slaughter.*1/2 out of 5Koko B. Ware Vs The MountieThe Mountie wins, using The Big Bossman's move, ironically enough. This felt like it went on forever. It was nothing but boring filler to calm the crowd down, the crowd sensed it too, since they barely reacted. *1/4 out of 5We get a bunch of interviews to kill some time. They are all very entertaining.Ted Dibiase & Virgil Vs Dusty Rhodes & Dustin RhodesDibiase and Virgil win after Dibiase pins Dusty with a roll-up. Virgil turns face after the match by drilling Dibiase with the Million Dollar Belt. This was a below average match with one of the best face turns you will see. The crowd went nuts for Virgil. Shows you how amazing of a heel Dibiase was. Amazing stuff.*3/4 out of 5Hulk Hogan wins the Royal Rumble by Eliminating Earthquake to win it. This was a solid rumble for the most part. Bret Hart drew number 1 and went a solid 20 minutes or so. Greg Valentine was number 2 and went for over 40 minutes. He also turned face by going after Jimmy Hart. Tony Atlas returned as Saba Simba (A ridiculously bad gimmick) The Legion of Doom eliminated a dominant Undertaker. One of the Bushwhackers almost set a record for being the quickest eliminated. Rick Martel and Jake Roberts had some fun interaction. Martel broke Dibiase's record by lasting almost 60 minutes. Hogan got the biggest pop by far coming out. Even Tugboat got booed by going after Hogan. Hogan winning was the right choice, considering the Sgt. Slaughter debacle. It was good feel good moment. Overall, I enjoyed it, despite the dead weight at times.This is a very good PPV. Aside from a couple of crappy matches, it was awesome. The Rockers and The Orient Express stole the show, Bossman and The Barbarian surprised everyone, Virgil's face turn is legendary, and the WWF was turned upside down with Slaughter winning the title. Of course, everyone goes home happy with Hogan winning. Highly recommended.8/10

1. Orient Express Vs. The Rockers 7/10 2. The Barbarian Vs. Big Stiff Man - What should I expect from these two? Barbarian is far better and that's is to say. BBM bites and later wins, terrible. 3/10 3. WWF World Heavyweight Championship: Sgt. Slaughter Vs. The Champ-Ultimate Idiot - Love this booking, Slaughter wins over that dumb ass Warrior! 6.5/10 4. The Mountie Vs. Koko B. Ware 5/10 5. Ted Dibiase/Virgil Vs. Rhodes Family - Dusty, please no more dance or taunting. I'm so excited of your hot body and charisma... AND Teddy thank you for your victory over half-Tone Dusty... Virgil turns on Dibiase and Piper nearly has a heart Attack... 6.5/10 6. Royal Rumble: Jake Roberts,EarthQuake,Greg Valentine, Texas Tornado, Legion of Doom (Formerly known as Road Warriors) The Undertaker, Hacksaw Jim DUggan, Rick Martel, British Bulldog, IC CHamp-Curt Henning, Tugboat, Hulk Hogan, Bret Hart, Dino Bravo, Paul Roma, The BushFuc*ers, Hercules, Tito Santana,Jimmy Snuka, The Demolition, Shane Douglas, Haku, Jim Neidhart, Brian Knobs, Warlord, - Unbeatable Hulk wins again??!! Blah, that's impossible 5/10Get the Piper outta commentary's table.

The WWE did a great job with building this PPV, the main story going in was the former super patriot Sgt Slaughter had turned his back on America aligning himself with Iraqis General Adnan and Col Mustafa and would be taking on WWE Champion Ultimate Warrior for the WWE Championship. Slaughter was a hated man at this point in history. The Warrior himself though had earned the ire of the Macho King Randy Savage, who believed that Warrior was denying him, unfairly, of a title shot.The night began with a fast paced and exciting tag match between The Rockers: Shawn Micheals and Marty Janetty and the Oriet Express. This was one of the standout matches from a great era for tag team wrestling, won by the Rockers with Janetty pinning Tanaka.Next up the Macho King Randy Savage talks to Sean Mooney. He is upset that he has not been given a title shot by the Ultimate Warrior.Big Boss Man was involved in a a rivalry with the Family Heenan and tonight faced the Barbarian and picked up an easy victory.Next up the Ultimate Warrior does a confusing interview and is begged by Queen Sherri to give the Macho King a Title shot if he defeats Sgt Slaughhter in the next match. Warrior refuses. It's a decision he'd regret after the match started as Savage broke his King sceptre on Warrior's head, knocking him out and allowing Slaughter to pick up the pin and win the WWE Championship. Savage and Sherri made a bee-line for the arena exit to escape the Warrior's wrath. The crowd was stunned.Their moods didn't improve as the Mountie destroyed Koko B Ware in a charmless match to follow that up and Slaughter, flanked by Adnan and Mustafa, then told Mean Gene how much he hates America in a backstage interview.Some fans then wished the soldiers in Iraq good luck and god-speed before Ted DiBiase told us all that Virgil was his slave and would do anything for money. And by the way, he was going to beat Dusty Rhodes and his son Dustin later tonight.And he wasn't telling any lies, even after dismissing Virgil he was able to single handedly win the tag match, getting Dustin in the Million Dollar Dream. He then called Virgil back to the ring to put the Million Dollar belt around his waist. But Virgil refused, knocking DiBiase out with a belt shot. The crowd, bummed out by all the evil triumphing good, went ballistic as Virgil, emancipated walked triumphantly to the back. That was probably the greatest moment in ROyal Rumble history so far.So now comes the Main Event, the Royal Rumble and it was "The Real American" Hulk Hogan who emerged victorious, eliminating seven people, including Earthquake to win the match for a second straight year. Greg Valentine earned some props for going more than 45 minutes, but Rick Martel did even better, lasting just 8 minutes shy of an hour.And so the big questions now were just what was going to happen when the Ultimate Warrior got his hands on Savage? And who was going to restore American pride to the WWE after their Championship had been won by an Iraqi sympathiser?