Royal Rumble
Promotional poster byJoe Jusko, featuring various WWF wrestlers
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	January 19, 1992
City	Albany, New York
Venue	Knickerbocker Arena
Attendance	17,000
Tagline	Every Man for Himself!
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous This Tuesday in Texas Next → WrestleMania VIII
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous 1991 Next → 1993

The 1992Royal Rumble was the fifth annualRoyal Rumbleprofessional wrestlingpay-per-view (PPV)event produced by theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 19, 1992, at theKnickerbocker Arena inAlbany, New York. It centered on theRoyal Rumble match, a modifiedbattle royal in which participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.

Six matches were contested at the event, including onedark match. Themain event was the 1992 Royal Rumble match. This Royal Rumble match was notable as for the first time, the winner would win theWWF Championship, which had been vacated in December 1991.Ric Flair would start at number 3,Sid Justice would enter at number 29 whileThe Undertaker andHulk Hogan would enter at numbers 20 and 26 respectively. In other featured matches on theundercard,The Natural Disasters (Earthquake andTyphoon) had aWWF Tag Team Championship match against current championsThe Legion of Doom (Hawk andAnimal),The Beverly Brothers (Blake Beverly andBeau Beverly) took onThe Bushwhackers (Bushwhacker Luke andBushwhacker Butch) in a tag team match, andRoddy Piper took on currentWWF Intercontinental Heavyweight ChampionThe Mountie with the title on the line.

TheRoyal Rumble is an annualgimmickpay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by theWorld Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along withWrestleMania,SummerSlam, andSurvivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four".^[1] It is named after theRoyal Rumble match, a modifiedbattle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The 1992 event was the fifth event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 19, 1992, at theKnickerbocker Arena inAlbany, New York.^[2][3]

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Prior to 1992, there was no prize for winning the match. However, as theWWF World Heavyweight Championship had been vacated, the vacant title became the prize of the 1992 Royal Rumble match. It was the first of only two times in which the promotion's world championship was the prize of the Royal Rumble match—the second occurred at the2016 event.^[2][3]

Prior to the event, it was announced the winner of the Royal Rumble would win the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship, which had been stripped from Hulk Hogan after two controversial title switches between Hogan and the Undertaker, first atthe 1991 Survivor Series and later atthe Tuesday in Texas pay-per-view event. Hogan andThe Undertaker were among the 30 entrants in the event. WWF presidentJack Tunney gave Hogan and Undertaker an advantage in the random draw to determine the order in which wrestlers would enter the ring, promising them numbers between 20 and 30.^[4]

The event comprised five matches, including the Royal Rumble match. The Royal Rumble match helped begin Justice's slow-building turn into avillain. Justice – who was returning from a recent injury – entered at No. 29 and was among the final four wrestlers, along with Hogan,Randy Savage, although he jumped outside the ring to hitJake the Snake Roberts and Flair. Justice eliminated Savage and then Hogan, leaving himself and Flair in the ring. During the initial live pay-per-view broadcast, Justice's elimination of Hogan was loudly cheered by the audience in attendance even though, as per storyline plans, Sid "sneaked up from behind" to throw Hogan out. As such, the original reaction was edited out of future television replays of the event, with play-by-play announcerGorilla Monsoon adding new comments condemning Sid for his actions (Monsoon had originally said Justice's elimination of Hogan was fair). Hogan, who was still at ringside after being eliminated, grabbed Sid's arm and distracted him long enough for Flair to eliminate him to win the match and become the new WWF World Heavyweight Champion. After the match, Sid and Hogan got into an argument in the ring and had to be separated by security.

In his book,To Be The Man, Ric Flair mentions not knowing he was going to be winning the Royal Rumble (WWF Title) until arriving at the arena the day of the event, and also felt he was brought in at number three in order to showcase his skills and endurance to the WWF audience, who may not have watched his work inJim Crockett Promotions andWorld Championship Wrestling.Bobby Heenan mentioned in his autobiography,Bobby The Brain, that it was his initial suggestion that Flair enter the Rumble at number one for dramatic purposes, and thatVince McMahon changed it to number three and claimed it as his own idea.

The Rumble match is often considered the greatest Rumble in history.^[5][6][7] In particular, the commentary by Heenan was particularly praised, with some calling it "one of the greatest color commentary performances in pay-per-view history".^[8]

The confrontation between Hogan and Justice was played out over a series of future WWF television programs. On theSuperstars program aired January 25, 1992, WWF PresidentJack Tunney held a press conference, where he announced that Hogan would face Flair for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship atWrestleMania VIII. Justice, who was also in attendance and began standing up as if Tunney were about to proclaim him the top contender, was outraged and termed the announcement "the most bogus act Jack Tunney has ever pulled off." Sid later apologized and Hogan accepted, but on the February 8Saturday Night's Main Event XXX, Justice abandoned Hogan during a tag-team match against Flair andThe Undertaker, completing his heel turn and leading to a match at WrestleMania VIII.

Flair, meanwhile, began feuding with Savage over the WWF World Heavyweight Championship. According to the storyline, Flair claimed that he had a previous relationship with Savage's wife,Miss Elizabeth, going as far as presenting pictures of Elizabeth in which Flair had himself superimposed. This culminated in a title match atWrestleMania VIII; Savage won the match and his second (and final) WWF World Heavyweight Championship.^[9][10][11]

This was the first Royal Rumble in which stakes were involved for the winner—the stipulation in which the winner would face the WWF/WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania first took place at thefollowing year's event. It would be24 years before the Royal Rumble was again for theWWE World Heavyweight Championship.^[12]

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.

^ Randy Savage eliminated himself shortly by jumping over the top rope to chase Jake Roberts. Savage was brought back into the ring by The Undertaker because Savage's scripted elimination was to take place later in the match. Announcers Gorilla Monsoon and Bobby Heenan originally thought that Savage was officially eliminated but then they realized that Savage wasn't thrown out by another wrestler to be eliminated.^[16]

^ Ric Flair broke the longevity record for lasting 1:00:02. This record would stand for one year before it would be broken byBob Backlund (Lasting 1:01:10) inRoyal Rumble (1993).Ric Flair also became the first person in history to last more than one hour.

• Official website

• Royal Rumble
• 1992 in New York (state)
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• Professional wrestling shows in Albany, New York
• 20th century in Albany, New York

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