Rants

Random questions via the Rumble

By Scott Keith on September 4, 2013

So I've been watching some old Royal Rumbles and I have a few questions….

1) In the 1991 Rumble match, Brian Knobs appears but Jerry Saggs doesn't. Also, there is absolutely no mention from the commentators about the whereabouts of Jerry Saggs. I was a hardcore WWF/E guy (kid) at the time, but I was like 6, so the details are sketchy. My question is A) Where was Saggs? and B) Did Knobs come in by himself at first, with Saggs to follow later? Seemed odd splitting them up, especially considering they won the tag belts like 2 mos. later.

2) Dustin Rhodes. Why did he make a one-time only appearance at Royal Rumble 91 and then go to WCW? Was it something to do with Dusty's departure? I don't know exactly when Dusty left, but I assume it was sometime between the Rumble and WM 7, since he wasn't at WM that year. Was Dustin under contract and scheduled to be used further and it just never happened or was it always meant to be a one shot deal?

3) What was the deal with Bret Hart losing the IC Title two days before Rumble 92? Was it simply to set up the Mountie/Piper/Hart stuff that followed or was Bret really hurt? I'm assuming the fever story wasn't the truth.
1) Sags was injured and replaced by someone else.
2) The Rumble was the end of Dusty's WWF career, and he just wanted to get Dustin on a national stage to give him some exposure and kickstart his career before leaving. I don't think he was ever meant as more than a one-shot deal, and really he was much better off in WCW anyway where daddy could make all the midcard heels bump for him.
3) Bret was definitely exaggerating the fever. The whole deal was just to set up the Piper match at Wrestlemania and give Piper someone he could beat convincingly without affecting anything in the midcard that mattered. There was also rumblings of Bret jumping to WCW around that time, and here's the bit from the Observer talking about it…

One of the stranger stories of the past week involves the Intercontinental title. Officially, as the storyline goes, Bret Hart went to the ring with a 104 degree fever on Friday night (1/17) in Springfield, MA and lost the title to The Mountie. Mountie in turn dropped the title at the Rumble two days later to Roddy Piper. As has become pretty common knowledge as the week went on, Hart had negotiated and at one point agreed to a deal where he would debut on Tuesday (1/21) at the Clash of the Champions for WCW in Topeka where he'd come out with the Intercontinental title as something of a payback for the WWF bringing in Ric Flair and having him wear what WCW considered their world title belt (of course the situations are completely different in that Flair was fired by WCW after the company attempted to cut an existing contract almost in half, which somehow six months later WCW feels is the WWF's fault for, to the extent they went to court over getting the belt off WWF television shows. So this idea was to gain revenge on the WWF, but the difference is that Hart would be walking out on a valid contract). The fact Hart was losing the title in Springfield was the world's worst-kept secret being that the WWF syndicated shows went out on the satellite Wednesday, which means anyone with a dish (which probably means well over one million potential viewers) would have been able to watch on Wednesday them talk about, in the past tense, in detail, an angle that was going to occur two days later.

It should be noted that the decision made to change the Intercontinental title from Hart to Piper was made weeks ago, before any talks had even started with WCW. So despite rumors to the contrary that are sure to spread, it wasn't a last-minute decision made by Titan to get the belt off Hart for fear he was leaving. If anything, Hart knowing he was going to lose the title may have been an impetus in his exploring the option of a jump. Apparently WCW offered Hart a guaranteed deal that was substantially more than he had been earning as Intercontinental champ. However after apparently agreeing to the deal, Hart had to back off because he realized his contract with the WWF, which he thought had run out, had rolled over and he couldn't give notice for several more months. However, WCW sources indicate that Hart, who had backed out of the deal as of a few days ago, will be coming in after all in not too many months. Hart was promised that after losing the strap to Mountie at a house show that he would be getting it back at Wrestlemania, even if it meant in a babyface match against Piper. However those are the kind of promises in wrestling that aren't often kept. In this case, since word got out on several wrestling 900 numbers over the weekend (which said that Hart would be starting at the Clash on Tuesday, and I'm sure many people, with Hart not appearing at the Rumble–which was to sell the illness and allow Piper to get the match and the strap; believed that confirmed the reports he was jumping) the plan WCW was attempting, Hart probably isn't in exactly the most favorable political position in the WWF right now as a possible lame duck. As far as similar rumors involving Curt Hennig, first off, he's still months away from returning to the ring to begin with. Second, he just signed a new contract as an announcer with the WWF from what I'm told, although he is long-time friends with Rick Rude (they both grew up together in Robbinsdale, MN) and nearly everyone in wrestling is envious of Rude's contract with WCW (rumored to be $300,000 for working 142 dates).

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