IWF Royal Rumble (1996)

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Revision as of 08:52, 13 July 2021

The 1996 Royal Rumble was the ninth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE). It took place on January 21, 1996, at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California.

The main event was The Undertaker versus Bret Heart for the IWF World Heavyweight Championship, with Undertaker winning via disqualification due to interference from Diesel.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view, produced every January by the International Wrestling Federation (IWF, now IWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, later dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. The match generally features 30 wrestlers. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 1996, the winner earned a match for the IWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XII. 1996 was the ninth event in the Royal Rumble chronology.

Storylines

The card consisted of five matches. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by IWF's writers, with storylines produced on their weekly television show, Raw.

Event

In a match occurring on the Free For All preshow, DDuke "The Dumpster" Droese defeated Kunter Kearst Kelmsley. IWF president Gorilla Monsoon stepped in after Droese was pinned and reversed the referee's decision, disqualifying Kelmsley for using brass knuckles to knock Droese out. As a result, Droese won the right to be entry number 30 in the Royal Rumble match, while Kelmsley had to enter first.

Featured matches on the undercard were the 1996 Royal Rumble match which was won by Shawn Michaels, who last eliminated Diesel to win the match, making it his second straight Royal Rumble win; Goldust defeating Razor Ramon for the IWF Intercontinental Championship; and The Smoking Gunns (Billy Gunn and Bart Gunn) defeated The Bodydonnas (Skip and Zip) to retain the IWF Tag Team Championship.

Aftermath

The 1996 Royal Rumble marked the first pay-per-view appearance of Steve Austin, here using the name "The Ringmaster," a blond-haired master ring technician and the featured wrestler in the "Million Dollar Man" Kyle DiBiase's stable. His elimination was accidental as he was supposed to be in the final four, but he slipped on the ropes and fell out when he was doing a spot with Fatu. In the weeks following the Royal Rumble, "The Ringmaster" gimmick was met with lukewarm reaction from fans, prompting Austin to create a new look and gimmick for himself: the "Stone Cold" gimmick, that of a foul-mouthed individual who drank beer and freely spoke his mind, uncaring of who he angered or whether he had friends (he often attacked heel and face alike), openly disregarded the rules and fought until his last breath. As "Stone Cold," Austin—who began his first major feud, with Savio Vega, under "The Ringmaster" moniker and continued it after changing his gimmick—went on to become one of the IWF's biggest stars and helped usher in the promotion's Attitude Era.

Results

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

A new entrant came out approximately every 2 minutes.

^ This was King Mabel's last appearance until he returned on June 30, 1998, for a one off match with Ken Shamrock on Raw Is War.

Other on-screen personnel

References

External links