Notes

Royal Rumble 88
The first ever Royal Rumble took place on February 5, 1988. It was a pretty mediocre card overall but this show is important because it marked the start of what has become one of the most cherished events in WWE history. This show is available on the Royal Rumble Complete Anthology Volume 1 so it's well worth a purchase for any true wrestling fan.

The show opened with Hulk Hogan making his entrance to a huge pop from the crowd. He wore a black and red outfit which was not typical of the "Real American" Hogan that fans are familiar with today but it still looked great. Hogan was joined by Ted DiBiase and Virgil to sign a contract that would pit him against Andre the Giant for the WWF World Championship at The Main Event on February 5.

Howard Finkel gets on the house mic to explain the rules of the match as he did in every house show before he was fired and Vince McMahon got the job. Finkel actually does a decent job describing the rules of this match (not something that can be said for the '89 and '90 Rumbles) which included a time limit on the match and a maximum number of entrants.

Bret Hart drew #1 which was probably the smartest thing they could have done in this match because it's basically a pile of midcarders for most of the match. Hart worked over Santana and then hit him with an inverted atomic drop off the middle rope for a near fall.

After the first five or six guys eliminated each other the rest of the match is pretty much him and his team destroying everybody else. One Man Gang is up next and they take care of Blair and Roberts before dumping Boris Zhukov to the floor. Junkyard Dog enters at #18 and he just does his usual pounding on people stuff. He would be eliminated later by the Ultimate Warrior.

As the match draws to a close Martin gets up on the apron and distracts Muraco as he's getting hit with the "I'll hold him in place while you run and hit him with a clothesline," spot that heels always do and this time it works! Martin then slammed Yamazaki off the ropes and got the pinfall win.

After the match a bunch of wrestlers walked out onto the ramp to celebrate and then a video package aired that featured various clips from the '88 Royal Rumble along with the top ten finishers. It was a great way to send off this first ever Rumble which is now considered an annual event. ROYAL88 to compare this to the Royal Rumble matches that come after it since they had never been a part of a PPV before but it's still a really good match. The only reason I can think of to not give this match a perfect rating is that the heel double clothesline spot wasn't as effective as it is in later Royal Rumbles.
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