Rejected Royal Rumble Stats

Every year, WWE puts out a "Royal Rumble by the Numbers" video, each time slightly updated and usually filled with misleading "facts" and figures. For instance, the 36 Hall of Famers to enter the Rumble have supposedly "headlined" a total of 25 Wrestlemania "main events." There have been 28 Wrestlemanias, so there ought to therefore be only three Wrestlemanias without Hall-of-Famers in the main event. 

Well, there was: Bam Bam vs. LT (WM 11), Undertaker vs. Sid (13), The Rock vs. Big Show vs. Triple H vs. Mick Foley (who is not yet in the Hall of Fame) (16), Triple H vs. Chris Jericho (18), Lesnar vs. Angle (19), Batista vs. Triple H (21), Cena vs. Triple H (22), Orton vs. Triple H (25), Cena vs. Miz (27), and Cena vs. The Rock (28). That's ten Wrestlemania main events without Hall of Famers, leaving only 16 Wrestlemania main events "headlined" by Hall-of-Famers. I'm not sure what exactly WWE's definitions of "headline" or "main event" are, but they apparently allow Hall-of-Famer Edge to "headline" the WM 27 against Alberto Del Río in the opening match "main event."

As you can see from the first minute of the video, WWE's grasp of reality is a tad... skewed. I've therefore put together my own set of statistics that, while accurate to the best of my knowledge, didn't make the cut. Note that these stats don't cover the "unofficial" Rumbles like the MSG Rumble of 1994 or the Osaka Rumble, also of 1994.

Debunking a Royal Rumble Urban Legend

With the Royal Rumble coming up in just a few weeks, it's time to revisit a classic moment in Royal Rumble history. The year was 2002, and the rookie Maven (winner of the first-ever Tough Enough) stepped into the ring with The Undertaker, who had just cleared the ring, last eliminating both Hardy Boys. With the Dead Man distracted after tossing the Hardys from the ring not once, but twice, Maven cemented his legacy in Rumble lore by dropkicking the former WWF champion over the top rope and eliminating him.

King of the Ring 1994: Enter Donovan

Given that my blog is called, "How Much Does This Guy Weigh?", it's a foregone conclusion that I would review 1994's King of the Ring, where the phrase was coined by Art Donovan. To write an original analysis of the event, however, is a daunting task, considering that Wrestlecrap's induction of Art Donovan years ago, along with compilation videos like Botchamania 72, not only have covered Art's antics at the PPV extensively, but were my inspiration for taking the name Art0Donnell in the first place. What could I possibly add to the conversation (assuming that there is indeed a "conversation" about an eighteen-year-old pay-per-view)? Fortunately, if you have ever read a single post of mine on this blog, you'll know that I have been following the Federation during this time period very closely, so you may yet learn something from this recap (besides how much Mabel weighs).

The Other Kind of Politicking

WWE has had a long history of involvement in electoral politics, starting in 2000, when the Smackdown Your Vote campaign, aimed at registering young WWF fans to vote, was launched. The non-partisan campaign emphasized only the importance of voter participation, as well as legitimizing the then-World Wrestling Federation, a lightning rod for criticism, in the eyes of the mainstream media. Somehow, WWE has always managed to blow every opportunity to be taken seriously by the media and the politicians.

Shut Up for WWE!

And don't mention the Attitude Era.

We here at How Much Does This Guy Weigh? whole-heartedly support Linda McMahon's bid for United States Senator from Connecticut. For that reason, we also applaud WWE's recent decision to remove "dated and edgier" material from Youtube and other media platforms so as to prevent such footage from being "misused in political environments without any context or explanation as to when it was produced." Bravo, WWE, for stopping footage from being taken out of context for unfair attacks on Linda McMahon. After all, most of the offending footage is from the Attitude Era, which ended over a decade ago and thus has no relation whatsoever to Linda McMahon or her 2012 election campaign (aside from the fact that Mrs. McMahon was CEO of the company during the time, which saw the then-WWF make hundreds of millions of dollars off the "edgier" material during the company's most successful period in history).

Trash from the Past - Championship Scramble

In honor of tonight's Night of Champions pay-per-view, I look back at 2008's September PPV event, Unforgiven. 

Stella!

Multi-man title matches have been a staple of wrestling since the mid-90s. There are of course pros and cons to such matches, especially when conducted under "sudden death" rules where the first person to score a fall wins the match and the title. On the plus side, Triple Threats and other such matches allow for psychology, strategy, and drama not possible in one-on-one matches, forcing competitors to constantly be on guard not only to try to pin their opponents, but also to prevent them from pinning each other. In addition, one-fall multi-man matches allow bookers to take the title off a champion indirectly (since the champion need not be pinned or submit to lose the match), allowing storylines to advance without making the (former) champ look weak.