You always remember fondly the first Pay Per View and the first one I watched was the 1991 Royal Rumble. Rewatching it again, 35 years later, made me realise how many iconic moments there were during this show.

The first match shaw The Rockers take on The Orient Express. The Rockers immediately became my favourite tag team after watching this in 1991 due to their exciting entrance them, colourful outfits and high energy.

They found the perfect opponents in the Express who could keep up with their high flying and athletic style. You couldn’t take your eyes off the action in case you missed something innovative.

The match had great psychology, in part helped by the threat of Mr. Fuji on the outside. The Express were on top for most of the match paced but the finish saw an athletic Sunset Flip by Marty Jannetty to get the win for The Rockers.

It was a tough act to follow that but Big Boss Man and Barbarian had an impressive attempt. Whilst slower paced, the match had some great action. The ending in particular saw the Boss Man hit his sidewalk slam seeming for the win. Barbarian, however, managed to get foot on rope at two.

Barbarian made a recovery before hitting a jumping piledriver on Boss Man. This move was executed perfectly. Barbarian then goes for a cross body but Boss Man rolls through for the one, two, three.

In between those two matches was a segment where Sensational Queen Sherri was interviewed by Mean Gene. She asked the Ultimate Warrior to guarantee a future title match for the Macho King Randy Savage. Sgt. Slaughter had already agreed to offer Savage a match if he won the title. Sherri was doing her best to flirt with the emotionless Warrior. Sherri got on her knees but the Warrior said no leading to Savage running in from the backstage area angry.

This segment would have extra meaning as the world championship match progressed. Warrior started out like a house on fire taking out General Adnan and dominating Slaughter. Sherri came to ring to cause distraction and Warrior falls for it.

Warrior chases her down the entrance aisle and gets blindsided by Savage. The attack was perfect as it was so fast and furious. Savage gets a lighting pole and throws it over Warrior.

Warrior staggers back to ring. Slaughter cleverly breaks the count to allow Warrior more time as he can’t win the title on a count-out. Slaughter is on top and locks in the Camel Clutch but the refereee notices Warrior’s feet are outside of the ring.

Sherri comes back at ringside and the Warrior drags her into the ring. This brings Savage to ring side. Warrior floors both of them but Slaughter distracts ref and Savage uses his Sceptre to hit Warrior in the skull. An elbow drop from Slaughter leads to him shocking the crowd by becoming the champion.

Following that we have a quick match between The Mountie and Koko B. Ware. The match was surprisingly even, but The Mountie ended up getting the win to continue his upward momentum.

We then get a match with a memorable post match angle. The team of Ted DiBiase and Virgil faced the father and son team of Dusty and Dustin Rhodes. It’s incredible to think that thirty five years later, Dustin is still wrestling to such a high standard.

It wasn’t a successful day for the Rhodes family as whilst, Dustin was down at ringside, DiBiase pinned Dusty. DiBiase then asked Virgil to put the million dollar belt around him. Virgil has been the long suffering servant but in recent weeks DiBiase has become more intolerable.

Virgil gets into the ring and drops on floor. DiBiase orders him to pick it up and put it around his waist. Virgil does pick it up but smacks DiBiase around the head with the belt. The crowd went wild as the moment was so satisfying – seeing ‘the boss’ getting his comeuppance is something they could resonate with.

The Royal Rumble match started with two Canadians in Bret Hart and Dino Bravo. Another Canadian, Rick Martel was the star of the match eventually lasting over fifty minutes in a performance which, when looking back, was reminiscent of Ric Flair’s performance the following year.

The great Martel moments included when Jake the Snake Roberts entered and went after him with incredible force and vigour. The two were in the early stages of a feud that would lead to their memorable blindfold match at that years WrestleMania.

Tito Santana came in and again went straight for Martel. The betrayal of his former tag team partner in Strike Force was still fresh in his mind. Fending off the best efforts of Roberts and Santana, Martel outlasted them both to make the final five of the Rumble.

In an interesting point bearing in mind their future rivalry, The Undertaker eliminated Bret Hart. In his first Rumble match, The Undertaker looked strong before being eliminated by both members of the Legion of Doom.

A name that I had forgotten was in this match was future ECW champion Shane Douglas. Shane was a fresh faced babyface and This was one of his most impressive performances in the WWF as he lasted over 25 minutes.

The Macho King was advertised as being in the Rumble but no-one appeared at number 18. The storyline reason for this was the Warrior has chased him out of the arena following his interference earlier.

For many years Bushwhacker Luke held the record for the shortest time in a Rumble match. He entered the ring, Earthquake grabbed him and threw him out the other side of ring, lasting four seconds in total. The fantastic part about this was Luke continued to do the Bushwhacker walk, swinging his arms as he headed back to the dressing room.

The final four were The British Bulldog, Earthquake, Hulk Hogan and Nasty Boy Brian Knobbs. The Bulldog had been in for over 35 minutes before being eliminated by the combination of Knobbs and the Earthquake.

This enabled the heels to double team Hogan with Earthquake hitting his famous sit down splash. Hogan hulked up though to eliminate Knobbs.

Earthquake gets back on top, but Hogan makes another comeback to put Earthquake over the top rope and then celebrated waving old glory. The scene was set for him to challenge Slaughter at WrestleMania.

Not a classic Rumble like the 1992 match, but enough fun moments to make it a really enjoyable one. A strong undercard made this a really enjoyable Pay Per View to rewatch.