By Ian Hunter, PWTorch Specialist

Mooooooooooooo! Ian Hunter here, being driven out to the sound of brass horns in a white limo. And let's not forget the massive amount of balloons that can't all be triggered off at the same time, or at least in a sequence that makes them look appropriate. And last but certainly not least, let me raise my first up for a fireworks show that's sure to make the entire Torch staff go deaf. There's only one comment suitable for this kind of an entrance. I now know what they did with all the pyro that was meant for Kurt Angle before he bailed out of the company. Too bad JBL doesn't have a catchy theme to go with the "You Suck" chants he left behind. We're into week two of our Royal Rumble trivia, but first, we have to answer last week's questions.
 
1: B. Nikolai Volkoff came out ahead of time. Some say that it was a miscommunication that had him go out early. In any case, when both he and the referees realized what happened, they quickly thought on their feet and held him in the aisle for two minutes rather than send him to the back.

2: A. In 1991, Savage "ran out of the building" after costing the Warrior the WWF title and didn't show up in the match. When his number rang, no one appeared. Honky Tonk and Buddy Rose were no longer working for the WWF at the 1991 Rumble, and were replaced with Shane Douglas and Tito Santana. In 1992 Knobs had an injury and was replaced by Volkoff. That same year Jannetty recently did the "glass window" angle with Shawn Michaels, and was out due to his "injuries."

3. D. Rumor was Beefcake was in line for the Rumble win after being unable to take the I.C. championship at SummerSlam six months earlier. But then again the Rumble did nothing for Studd's career, so would it really have helped Brother Bruti? Oh well, at least he has SummerSlam 89 to be proud of... I think.

4. E. Jake Roberts actually held the record at 7 appearances, going to the first five, then two more in 1996 and 1997. Ironically, Kane took both his records from men who set them at the 1997 Rumble. Jake's 7th appearance, and Steve Austin's 10 men record. Unofficially under other gimmicks, Jacob's will hold the record at 12 in 2008, with Solofa "Rikishi" Fatu Jr. in second place with 10.
5. D. Even though he has three Rumble wins, Austin has never held the Longevity Record. Other names who have held the record at some point include Bret Hart, Curt Hennig and Bob Backlund.

This week we had no winners. Everyone that tried got tossed over the top rope by just one question. Well we're holding a second Rumble questionnaire this week, so let's draw the numbers and sound the buzzer. Answer the questions and email your answers to TorchTrivia@gmail.com.  We’ll post the names of those who got ALL FIVE correct. Good luck to you all!
 
1. Now, we can't talk about the Royal Rumble without talking about 1992. And no, I don't mean Roddy Piper's first WWF title win, even though that was great to watch. Due to complications between Hulk Hogan and The Undertaker at the "Tuesday In Texas" PPV, then President Jack Tunney put the belt on the line at the Rumble. And many fans assumed that since Hogan won the last two, he'd win it again. Not the case as the decision was made to put the belt on Flair, adding to his legacy and making him a fantastic heel for Hogan at WrestleMania VIII. But plans didn't come to be in the wash and changes were made both before and after the event. At least two contingency plans were made before the Rumble in case they changed their minds from the main plan. One had Flair still winning the belt, and one didn't. Who was the other?
 
A. The Undertaker
B. Sid Justice
C. Randy Savage
D. Hulk Hogan
E. Sgt. Slaughter
 
2. After Flair's win, the WWF did it's best to top the previous year for a couple of years.  The first was Yokozuna's entering and winning in an Andre The Giant like fashion. The following year Bret Hart and Lex Lugar took each other outside of the ring at the same time, creating almost ten minutes of chaos from the crowd as to which man won. The year after that Shawn Michaels won with only one foot hitting the floor, climbing back in and winning the match. (A feet he pulled off with camera work and the referees not pointing out his other foot hit the floor under the ring dressing.) And to follow that up they had Shawn win again making it two years in a row. The first year he won, it was The British Bulldog who was the last man out. Who was the last man on Shawn's second win?
 
A. Deisel
B. Kama
C. Vader
D. The British Bulldog
E. Yokozuna
 
3. Another event, or should I say non-event that took place in 1996 was the WWF Women's Title match that never came to be. Debra Micelli, then known in the company as Alundra Blayze, had recently took off for WCW to toss WWF's belt in the trash. But before then, she was advertised to defend the title at the Royal Rumble. Whoops. The ads were in WWF Magazine, which since it's printed ahead of time, made it to the general public after Micelli already garbaged the title. The match was going to have Blayze drop the title only to eventually win it back at Wrestlemania XI. Who was she going to drop the belt to?

A. Kyoko Inoue
B. Sunny
C. Bertha Faye
D. Luna Vachon
E. Aja Kong
 
4. Without a doubt, the next three years of the Rumble were definitely the Stone Cold years.  Showing he was the most dominant force from 1997-1999 in the event, Steve Austin stole Hulk Hogan's nine-man elimination record in 1997, snuck into the ring in 1998 and ended up taking the victory away from The Rock, and went all the way to the end in 1999 against Vince McMahon starting at #1 until he was distracted by the man he eliminated last the year before. During this period, how many people total did Austin eliminate?
 
A. 23
B. 24
C. 25
D. 26
E. 27
 
5. Pay-Per-Views tend to be the place for people to end up making their debuts. Doesn't matter what promotion you're in at any point in time, people always consider it a bonus to see the debut of someone at an event they paid good money for. The Royal Rumble is no exception to this trend, showing off talent over the years that both did and didn't make much of an impact in the industry. Our question to you... which of these people did NOT make their WWF debut at the Royal Rumble?
 
A. Lex Luger
B. Scott Steiner
C. Maven
D. Tazz
E. Jeff Jarrett

We suggest these recent related articles...

TORCH TRIVIA 2/27: Who said this quote about Hulk Hogan's athleticism 11 years ago?

TORCH TRIVIA 2/25: What said this quote about WWE's mid-1990s drug testing policy?

TORCH TRIVIA 2/24: What do you remember about the World Wrestling Network promotion from 15 years ago?