In the build-up to the 25th Royal Rumble match, scheduled to be held on January 29th, 2012, we have revisited the first seven Royal Rumble matches over the past few days. Now, let us visit the eighth Royal Rumble match that took place on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome located in Tampa, Florida. This match is the favorite Royal Rumble match for many because of its uniqueness with respect to the other matches. This match was also one of the shortest ever Royal Rumble matches in the history of this event. Here are some important facts about this match:
- The time interval between two successive entrances was reduced from 90 seconds to 60 seconds. This was the only match to feature this time interval. It was reverted back to 2 minutes in the following years.
- Due to the limited time interval, this Royal Rumble match earned of distinction of being the shortest Royal Rumble match involving 30 participants (38:41). The overall shortest is 1988 match which involved just 20 participants (33:00).
- This match is vividly remembered for being the only Rumble match which was won by a participant entering the match first. Shawn Michaels came in at first and was the last man standing in the ring at the end too.
- Davey Boy Smith, who entered into the match along with Shawn Michaels, was the last man to be eliminated, which is a record in itself.
- Most eliminations in this match was done by Shawn Michaels (8).
- Both Shawn and Smith lasted the whole length of the match (38:41).
- Owen Hart lasted in this match for just 3 seconds, missing Warlord’s record of 2 seconds by a whisker.
You can watch this historic Royal Rumble event in the video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0vRXZnehJTk
In case you haven’t watched them yet, relive the thrill of earlier Royal Rumble events at these links:
- Royal Rumble 1988
- Royal Rumble 1989
- Royal Rumble 1990
- Royal Rumble 1991
- Royal Rumble 1992
- Royal Rumble 1993
- Royal Rumble 1994