The Royal Rumble is around the corner and this year is history making. The first pay-per-view event held in a baseball stadium, Chase Field. It will be right here in the PHX (That's Phoenix for anyone out of state). The Royal Rumble has been one of the big pay-per-views throughout the history of the WWF/E and is deemed as the beginning of the road to WrestleMania.

But one Royal Rumble event changed the way the actual Royal Rumble match is perceived, my opinion, of course.

The 1992 Royal Rumble was held at the Pepsi Arena in Albany, New York with a lot of anticipation. After Hulk Hogan used heel tactics to win back the WWF Championship from the still green Undertaker at This Tuesday in Texas, WWF President Jack Tunney stated the belt will be held up and the winner of the Royal Rumble will become the champion. This was an excellent move for the WWF and it made for other competitors that had a chance to become the champ.

I will focus on two matches here, because these matches changed the careers of two men, despite the fact both men were legends already. And I know the Orient Express/New Foundation match was good, but I had to focus on these two peculiar matches.

Intercontinental Title Match: Mountie vs. "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

Days before the event, Bret "The Hitman" Hart lost the title to the Mountie at a house show (remember when losing titles at house shows give the fans shock and awe). The story was Hart wrestled, despite having a 103 degree temperature and fever which made him vulnerable to the Mountie's onslaught. After the match, the Mountie continued to pummel Hart when Piper came to make the save for Hart. It was then that Hart was out of the Royal Rumble and Piper became the #1 contender. For Piper, a legend of the company for many years,just a year prior suffered injuries from a motorcycle accident that probably would have ended his career. Piper comes out with a huge pop and basically, decimates the Mountie. The finish was Piper putting on his patented sleeperhold on the Mountie, paving his way towards his first solo title in the WWF. Piper was also in the Royal Rumble match, which means he would have been a double champion if he won the Royal Rumble, but.....

Royal Rumble Match: 30 participants vying to become the WWF Champion

I'm probably going to skim through to the parts I remember, but if you get a chance, head over to the WWE Network and watch it in it's entirety. It is one of the greatest Royal Rumble matches of all time. So British Bulldog and Ted DiBiase are entrees number 1 and 2, and this is actually a good start off point for the match, since both would be legitimate contenders for the WWF title. Unfortunately, DiBiase was the first man eliminated and Bulldog waits on the #3 entrant. Surprise, #3 is Ric Flair and the Brain nearly has a heart attack. By the way, the constant back and forth between Monsoon and Heenan was top notch. Monsoon would goad about Flair almost being eliminated and Heenan would answer as if he was in panic mode. Towards the middle of the match, Flair was the only one in the ring, and as the countdown reached zero, Piper shows up and goes wild on Flair. As it goes down to the final four: Flair, Hulk Hogan, Sid Justice and Macho Man. After Macho Man gets eliminated, Hogan goes after Flair, who has been in the match for over an hour, as Justice stands watching.

Here's where everything gets interesting. Justice throws Hogan over the top rope and the Albany crowd began cheering. Hogan was the face of the WWF, so this was awkward to say the least. In later usage of the footage of Hogan being eliminated, the WWF used fake booing to complement the fact that Hogan was the face. Hogan proceeded to grab Justice's arm as Flair pushed Justice over the top rope to the match and the WWF Championship.

So, why is this Royal Rumble important in history? This event signaled a changing of the guard as Hogan would take a sabbatical in 1992. The idea of having the actual Royal Rumble match for the championship was an unique way of selecting the guy to carry the company in Hogan's absence. Also, I liked the idea of highlighting the competitors in the Rumble, giving the fans a perspective of what would happen if say Greg "The Hammer" Valentine won the championship. In 2016, WWE tried something similar to this when Roman Reigns defended the WWE title in the Rumble match. It was a good idea, but unfortunately, it didn't highlight the other competitors that much. It mainly focused on Reigns and his feud with the McMahon family. So, there have been many Royal Rumble matches that were superb, but this one takes the cake.

(For more content, visit our Facebook page and our website www.realsportsaz.com)