• On This Day In Pro Wrestling History (January 21, 1996) – WWF Royal Rumble 1996
On this day in Pro Wrestling history on January 21, 1996, the World Wrestling Federation aired their annual ‘Royal Rumble’ event LIVE on PPV from the Selland Arena in Fresno, California.
This was the second out of 2 Royal Rumble wins for “The Heartbreak Kid” Shawn Michaels, as well as the first time that the WWF World Title match main evented the PPV instead of the 30-man Royal Rumble match.
The Results:
– Free For All – for the #30 spot in the Royal Rumble: Duke Droese defeated Hunter Hearst Helmsley by DQ
– Ahmed Johnson defeated Jeff Jarrett by DQ
– WWF Tag Team Championship: The Smoking Gunns (c) defeated The Bodydonnas
– WWF Intercontinental Championship: Goldust defeated Razor Ramon (c)
– Shawn Michaels won the 30-man Royal Rumble match
– WWF World Heavyweight Championship: The Undertaker defeated Bret Hart (c) by DQ
• SmackDown Plans Changed Because Of A Family Dispute
According to The Dirty Sheets, the original plan for last week’s SmackDown was for Roman Reigns and The Usos to pay tribute to Rocky Johnson after winning their matches, but that plan had to be changed because of a family dispute.
The WWE writers came up with the idea of the tribute, but they didn’t know of a family feud between Rocky Johnson and Rikishi (father of The Usos).
Rocky Johnson labelled Rikishi a racist after Rikishi didn’t approve of his son’s marriage and boycotted the ceremony. It should be noted that The Rock (Rocky’s son) hasn’t spoken to Rikishi for several years now.
All of this lead to The Usos requesting the WWE writers to remove the tribute from their script, because they didn’t want to upset their father and come across as hypocrites.
On the other hand, Roman Reigns had no strong opinion regarding this.
Also Read: The Rock Gives Details On How His Father Passed Away
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