WWE Rewind: WWF Royal Rumble 1996

WWF Royal Rumble 1996 Logo

In the build-up to the 25th Royal Rumble match, scheduled to be held on January 29th, 2012, we have revisited the first eight Royal Rumble matches over the past few days. Now, let us take a look at the eighth Royal Rumble match that took place on January 21, 1996 at the Selland Arena in Fresno, California. This match played a significant role in Shawn Michaels‘ rise to fame and fortune in the years that followed. Here are some important facts about this match:

For the first time in the history of Royal Rumble matches, the participants made their entrance with their theme music. Earlier matches did not feature entry music.
The time interval between two consecutive entrances was reverted back to 2 minutes.
Shawn Michaels, who entered the match at number 18, won his second consecutive Royal Rumble match.
‘The Heart Break Kid’ Shawn Michaels became only the second wrestler after Hulk Hogan, to win 2 consecutive Royal Rumble matches.
Shawn Michaels is also credited for making the most number of eliminations in this match – a record breaking tally of 8. He had eliminated eight men in 1995 too.
Unlike any other Royal Rumble match, the first and last entrant were decided via a match held before the actual Pay-Per-View started. Duke Droese defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley(Triple H) to become the 30th entrant of the Royal Rumble match.
Though Hunter(Triple H) was forced to be the first entrant of the Royal Rumble match courtesy of the aforementioned defeat, he performed commendably, lasting for about 48 minutes – the longest in the match.

You can watch this historic Royal Rumble event in this video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw1lixe7dEE

In case you haven’t watched them yet, relive the thrill of earlier Royal Rumble events at these links: