WWE Flashbacks: Royal Rumble 1988

The 25th annual WWE Royal Rumble event is set to take place on January 29th at the Scottrade center at St. Louis Missouri. Considered to be one of the big 4 pay-per-views of the WWE, Royal Rumble is famous for the 30-man Royal Rumble match which is unpredictable as well as pulsating to watch. In the lead up to this year’s event, we intend to keep you updated about the event by knowing its history. You can catch up with all the 24 Royal Rumble matches held so far here at Sportskeeda in the coming days. To begin with here is the first Royal Rumble event held in January 1988.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=PgBahZUxKC4

Some interesting facts about Royal Rumble 1988:

• The first Royal Rumble event was held on January 24, 1988 at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.
• This was only the Rumble match which featured just 20 participants. Subsequent Rumble matches featured 30 and the latest Royal Rumble 2011 event featured 40 participants.
• This was also the one Royal Rumble in history which was not a pay-per-view event. It was actually television special event.

The logo used for the Royal Rumble 1988 event

• The idea of a Royal Rumble match was contrived by WWE Hall of famer Pat Patterson.
• Bret Hart earned the distinction of being the first man to enter the Royal Rumble match.
• Bret Hart also set the record for longevity in the match, lasting for an outstanding time of 25 minutes 32 seconds. His record was broken in the very next year.
• Hacksaw Jim Duggan became the first ever wrestler to win a Royal Rumble match. He entered the match as the 13th participant out of a total of 20.

Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the winner of the first ever Royal Rumble match

• One Man Gang set the record for most eliminations in this match (6). This record was also broken in the very next year.
• This event set the tone for more such events in future.