Product Details

• Actors: Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 5
• Rated: G (General Audience)
• Studio: World Wrestling
• DVD Release Date: November 27, 2007
• Run Time: 806 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000UNYJWW
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,180 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Vol. 1 – It was a simple, yet revolutionary concept. Two men start in the ring, and every two minutes another Superstar is added to the match. Toss your opponents over the top rope to eliminate them until only one remains. It proved so popular that it was later moved to Pay Per View and the winner was awarded the WWE Championship. Now one of the WWE’s biggest events, you can own the first 5 Royal Rumbles on DVD in their entirety. Vol. 1 winners include back-to-back champ Hulk Hogan, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, Big John Studd and "Nature Boy" Ric Flair.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Beginning Of A Dynasty, August 25, 2007

By 

D.P. (California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: WWE Royal Rumble - The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1 (DVD)

1988 - The beginning of a traditon here as this was the first Rumble in WWF history as a special on USA network. This Rumble only featured 20 men which Hacksaw Jim Duggan became the first winner of the event. Ricky Steamboat fought Rick Rude, two sets of 2 out of 3 falls matches featuring a rare title defence of the Womens Tag Team Championship between the Jumping Bomb Angles & Glamour Girls along with Young Stallions vs. Islanders. Other highlights included the Hogan/Andre II contract signing & Dino Bravo setting a new bench press record.

1989 - This first Rumble on PPV which had the match go to it's normal format of 30 men instead of the previous 20. Big John Studd returned to the WWF in a big way by winning the Rumble which featured such highlights as Demolition members Ax & Smash drawing the first two numbers and confrontation between Hogan & Savage after Savage was eliminated by Hogan. There was also a 2 out of 3 falls match between Hart Foundation/Jim Duggan vs. Dino Bravo/Rougeau Brothers, a match for the title of "King Of Wrestling" between King Haku & Harley Race, a bodybuilding contest between Rick Rude & Ultimate Warrior, and the Womens Champion Rockin' Robin vs. Judy Martin. One funny thing to look out for was the story behind Ted Dibiase buying the #30 spot in the Rumble.

1990 - The first Rumble of the new decade started the tease of the dream match in WWF at that time between
Hulk Hogan & Ultimate Warrior before Hogan would go on to win one of the best Rumbles in history. Undercard matches to look out for were Bushwackers vs. Rougeau Brothers, Brutus Beefcake vs. The Genius, a submission match between Ronnie Garvin & Greg Valentine, and Big Boss Man vs. Jim Duggan.

1991 - This was the beginning of using the Royal Rumble to kick off the "Road To WrestleMania" by starting to buildup not only their main event matches but their undercard matches as well for the biggest event of the year. Hulk Hogan won the Rumble this year while Sgt. Slaughter defeated Ultimate Warrior for the WWF Title with help from Randy Savage setting up the two WM main events. The Dusty & Dustin Rhodes vs. Ted Dibiase & Virgil match was just background to the long awaited Virgil turn against Dibiase setting up their match. Big Boss Man continued to battle the Heenan family members one by one as he took on Barbarian, Other matches include Rockers vs. Orient Express & Mountie vs. Koko B. Ware. One of the best overall Rumble cards in history.

1992 - For the first (and so far last) time in history, the winner of the Rumble became the World Champion. Ric Flair won this one & the WWF Title as this was one of the most entertaining Rumbles down to Bobby Heenan reacting to Flair's every move on commentary. Other highlights of this Rumble was Randy Savage getting his hands on Jake Roberts and the Hogan/Sid confrontation at the end,. The undercard featured Roddy Piper winning his first championship in WWF as he won the Intercontinental Title from The Mountie, New Foundation vs. Orient Express, Legion Of Doom vs. Natural Disasters, and Beverly Brothers vs. Bushwackers.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Where Can you Find all the wrestling greats in one place? Right here!, December 4, 2007

By 

The Piper at the Gates (Bakersville, North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: WWE Royal Rumble - The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1 (DVD)

I was very excited to hear that WWE was releasing the Royal Rumble Anthology series in 4 separate volumes and not just as one big collection, just like they did with the all the Wrestlemainas. And this first volume, which includes the first 5 Royal Rumbles from 1988-1992, are arguably the best out of the whole Royal Rumble series. Of course, the main attraction here are the Royal Rumble matches themselves, but there are actually some really good other matches that take place as well.
And though the first Royal Rumble was decent, I have to say its the weakest one here. First off, their were only 20 participants in the original Rumble, not 30, and not featuring Hogan and Andre. I kinda felt that this first Rumble lacked star power,(the Ultimate Warrior is in this one, but gets eliminated way too easily!)And the winner of the rumble was somewhat disappointing to me. Not to mention, there are only 3 other matches that take place here, one being a woman's tag team championship match, which I fast-forwarded through about 2 minutes into the match!
The 1989 Royal Rumble was improved compared to the first, with the addition of 30 WWF superstars, rather than 20. It also included a much better array of wrestling talent with most of the best the sport had to offer like Andre, Hogan, Jake Roberts, Perfect, Macho Man, and Ted DiDiase. This Rumble is great, however,I was once again somewhat disappointed in the winner. Once again, only 3 other matches are included, one of them being a women's Championship Match, which, once again, I fast-forwarded through! Not to mention, the Super Posedown between Rude and Warrior was kinda stupid as well.
The 1990 Royal Rumble is easily my all-time favorite Rumble. Though I didn't like it when wrestlers come in and clear out the ring. The more people in the ring, the more entertaining it is to me. This is one reason some of the later Rumbles weren't as good. This rumble has all the greats in it: Hogan, Andre, Dibiase, Piper, Macho Man, Jake Roberts, Warrior, and the list goes on. The talent in this one is really what makes this one the best Rumble out of the entire series. And besides the first match between The Bushwhackers and the Fabulous Rougeau Brothers, there are a couple of good matches here, included the surprisingly great Submission match between Greg Valentine and Ronnie Garvin.
The 1991 Rumble is pretty much on par with the previous Rumble, but just not quite as good. There is no Andre, Rick Rude, or Piper in it. And Dibiase is in a Royal Rumble tag team match, he's not in the Rumble itself. However, this marks the first appearance of the Undertaker in a Royal Rumble. And though the Rumble is good, I didn't care for the ending. It just felt too scripted, and just wasn't that impressive-looking. This rumble contains the notorious Sgt. Slaughter vs Ultimate Warrior match, in which the Warrior would lose the Championship belt. But my biggest complaint with this one is the commentary by Roddy Piper who's with Gorilla Monsoon. I usually like Piper as a commentator, he's just way over the top here, and the whole event itself somewhat suffer because of it.
The last Royal Rumble in this volume once again contains some of the all-time greats in the business, including for the first time, Ric Flair. And there are some good matches, like the Intercontinental Championship Match between The Mountie and Roddy Piper (who also appears in the Rumble), and the Tag Team Championship Match with Legion of Doom vs The Natural Disasters. Overall, this is a good Rumble match with a good ending. Though I gotta say I was pissed that Dibiase got eliminated so early!!
As far as packaging, there's nothing too impressive with this, but a word to the warning, if you wanna be surprised with not knowing who's coming out when, don't look too closely inside this set because it contains the a list of order of entry of each Rumble participant, as well as the superstar who stayed in the longest and who had the most eliminations!! Overall, if you like classic wresting, when it was actually worth watching, then this is a must have. Yeah, there are so crappy matches now and again and some stupid storylines, but this is wrestling, what can you expect? And like I said, this is a much better product that what Vince is putting out there now. This Royal Rumble Volume has all the all-time great wrestling characters in their prime. Again, this is a must have for real wrestling fans, and at this price, its a steal.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great old school fun at least the last few are., August 30, 2011

By 

Jonnathan Ritland "Hank Peters, Italian Grocer" (Marysville, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: WWE Royal Rumble - The Complete Anthology, Vol. 1 (DVD)

1988-The First Rumble ever was actually broadcast as a 2 and a half hour special on the USA Network and its only noteworthy cause its the first ever one as none of the matches are too special, but none are really horrible.

-"Ravishing" Rick Rude vs. Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat: A few years later these two would have a great, great series of matches in WCW, but this contest certainly is a good display of great chemistry mixed with great wrestling. Steamboat worked on Rude's arm, even lifting him to the air and slamming him back down, then a couple of the classic Steamboat arm drags. Rude works on Ricky's back and neck with a reverse chin lock. Rude pulls the ref in front of Steamboat and after he recovers he DQ's Rude. 7/10.

-Next we have Dino Bravo trying to break a power lifting record, which is a pretty boring segment honestly.

-Two out of Three Falls Match for the Women's Tag Team Championship, The Glamour Girls (Champions) w/Jimmy Hart vs. The Jumping Bomb Angels: Here's a decent to good contest featuring some women who can actually wrestle though the Angels really do shine in this one. After an alley-oop the Glamour Girls take the first fall. One Angel hits a sunset flip a few minutes later and its one fall apiece. In the third fall both Angels hit a double dropkick off the top rope and make the cover to win the titles. 7/10.

-Now we have the contract signing for Hulk Hogan/Andre The Giant at the upcoming Saturday Night's Main Event, the history of this rivalry was shown through various well done video packages. The contract signing itself felt pretty big but it did go on a little long, it does expectedly end with Andre slamming Hulk's head on the table and throwing the table on him.

-The Royal Rumble Match: Bret Hart is #1 and Tito Santana is #2 and unlike future rumbles this one would only have 20 men. Its nothing too memorable, though Santana does have a decent showing as does Hart. The Ultimate Warrior does make an appearance though its nothing too noteworthy. Hacksaw Jim Duggan ends up taking this one to become the first winner in the Rumble's history.

-We have an interview with Hogan where he talks about how he's ready to take on and destroy Andre The Giant.

-Two out of Three Falls, The Islanders vs. The Young Stallions: This isn't a bad match, though Paul Roma was never much of a worker. Haku pulls down the rope and Roma hits the mat on the outside hard, the ref counts Roma out and the Islanders take the first fall. Then we have a promo from Andre about the upcoming match with Hogan and the match is resumed. The Islanders target Roma's knee and after a top rope splash on the knee, Haku locks on a single leg boston crab to take the match in two straight falls.

Since its the first its worth watching but not really more than one viewing is needed.

1989: Better than the previous Rumble, as the matches had a better flow to them and any time u have Gorilla Monsoon on commentary its elevates the matches and segments.

-Two out of Three Falls Match, Dino Bravo & The Fabulous Rougeau Brothers vs. Hacksaw Jim Duggan & The Hart Foundation: The crowd was hot throughout the match and all of these guys worked very well. Nice triple team battering ram by Duggan's team, a bit later the Rougeau's hit a doomsday device type move and cover Bret to win the first fall. The Rougeau's and Dino do team up on Bret to start the second fall but he won't quit. Hacksaw nails an elbow on Ramone to even the match at one fall apiece. After a couple of minutes Hacksaw nails Dino with the 2x4 and Bret covers him to win the third fall and the match. 8/10.

-There's some pre-recorded segments where the superstars pick their numbers, a decent segment here.

-The Super Pose Down, Ultimate Warrior vs. Rick Rude: Its a segment not a match and its funny mainly cause of Warrior's antics and this would lead to their match at Wrestlemania V a couple of months later. Since its the people's choice, Warrior of course gets the win, but Rude nails him with a steel bar and chokes him out with it and leaves the ring. Nice post segment where Warrior takes out a few officials and runs to the back to get his revenge.

-Women's Championship Match, Rockin' Robin (Champion) vs. Judy Martin: Right before Sensational Sherri makes a challenge to the winner and then the match begins, which isn't a bad one, there's some good moves by both women, though the crowd didn't seem to care. Robin hits a splash from the second rope for the win to retain her title. 5/10.

-More superstar promos hyping them being in and winning the Rumble.

-King Haku vs. Harley Race: Haku gets dumped out of his throne by Race before the match and this is basically a brawl in and out of the ring. Its not a bad match, Race does help elevate the younger Haku and it was kinda sad to see the former NWA champ at this stage of his career, though he did get some good moves in. Haku ducks a clothesline and hits a reverse thrust kick and makes the cover to win. 6/10.

-Even more superstars talking about how they will win the Rumble including Hulk Hogan.

-The Royal Rumble Match: Ax is #1 and Smash is #2, which is a good way to start it out. When Andre The Giant came in at #3, he stayed in the ring for a good while and eliminated a few men including Jake "The Snake" Roberts. Soon after Roberts comes back to the ring with his snake and Andre is so terrified he goes over the top rope eliminating himself. There is the expected face off between the Mega Powers, Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage which leads to Hogan's exit from the match. The winner was #27 Big John Studd, which to me was pretty lame as Studd was never really a huge draw or any kind of fan favorite during his WWE career, in my opinion at least. I mean just a couple months later he was reduced to being a special guest referee in a match at Wrestlemania, so his victory was kinda forgotten it seemed. Not a bad rumble though.

-1990: People were excited to see this Rumble and with the face off between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior it didn't disappoint as the main event.

-The Faboulous Rougeau Brothers vs, The Bushwackers: We have the usual antics of the Bushwackers while the Rougeaus keep it wrestling based and they cut off the ring. After the Bushwackers hit the battering ram Butch makes the cover on Jacques for the win. 6/10.

-We hear from Ted DiBiase who was #30 last year and is #1 this year.

-The Genius vs. Brutus "The Barber" Beefcake: Ok this match has two gimmicks that were honest to god pretty horrible even for this era. Its not really a good match as no one believed the Genius was anything other than a goof cause of his poetry he did before his matches. After the ref gets knocked out of the ring, Brutus slaps on the sleeper hold and then goes to cutting some of the Genius' hair. Mr. Perfect comes in and hits the perfect-plex and the ref comes to and calls for the DQ on both men. 4/10.

-The Heenan famliy is backstage talking about which one of them will win the Rumble, fun little interview.

-Submission Match, Greg "The Hammer" Valentine vs. "Rugged" Ronnie Garvin: Given how both of these men are stiff workers there are some hard shots in this match, but when each man keeps going for pinfalls instead of submissions it brings the match down a bit. Both men go after the other's legs throughout the match with some leg locks and Garvin locks on a sharpshooter and Hammer gives up. 6/10.

-Mr. Perfect is interviewed and he talks about how he's tired of Brutus Beefcake's constant hair cuts on the superstars he puts to sleep.

-Brother Love interviews both Sensational Sherri and Sapphire, which would lead to their involvement in the mixed tag match at Wrestlemania VI.

-Hacksaw Jim Duggan vs. The Big Bossman: This was a straight up brawl in the ring, Duggan was his usual goofy self though he did use some good moves on the Bossman, who showed some suprising agility for a big man. Bossman uses the nightstick on Duggan but the ref sees it and calls for the DQ. 5/10. Nice post match where Duggan uses his 2x4 on Bossman and his manager Slick to get a measure of revenge.

-More promos from various wrestlers involved in the Rumble including Earthquake, Demolition, Dusty Rhodes and others.

-The Royal Rumble Match: "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase is #1, Koko B. Ware is #2 and this was a Rumble that is remembered for a couple of reasons. One is how DiBiase lasted over 40 minutes which was an amazing feat in itself and two was the showdown between Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior which had the fans on their feet. This one actually helped build a few of the matches on the Wrestlemania VI card, Hogan/Warrior, Rhodes/Savage, Piper/Brown among others. Hogan ends up eliminating #30 Mr. Perfect to win the Rumble. Its a good one for sure.

1991

-The Orient Express vs. The Rockers: Great opening match as both teams worked very well together. The Rockers hit some nice double team moves including dueling suicide dives to the outside. The Express does isolate Michaels and works him over for a few minutes before the tag to Jannetty who after a few minutes hits a sunset flip and makes the cover for the win. 8/10.

-Sean Mooney interviews "Macho King" Randy Savage who basically says he's next in line for a title shot. We then go to the arena where Queen Sherri asks the Ultimate Warrior to grant Savage a title shot, in typical Warrior fashion he turns her down, which enrages Savage who comes down after Warrior walked away.

-The Barbarian vs. The Big Bossman: This was during the time when Bossman was going after the Heenan family for comments the Brain had said about Bossman's mom. Its a decent big... Read more ›