WWE: Royal Rumble 1988 Results | January 24, 1988

Date: 24th January, 1988
Venue: Copps Coliseum
City: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Attendance: 18,000
Commentators: Vince McMahon & Jesse “The Body” Ventura

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Background

The Jumping Bomb Angels (Noriyo Tateno and Itsuki Yamazaki) feuded with The Glamour Girls (Leilani Kai and Judy Martin) over the WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship. Kai and Martin were awarded the titles in August 1985 in Egypt. On television it was noted they had defeated Velvet McIntyre and Desiree Peterson. This claim was fictitious, however, as the match never occurred. Kai and Martin feuded with many tag teams and held onto the titles for over two and a half years. In November 1987, they began calling themselves “The Glamour Girls”. At Survivor Series 1987, The Glamour Girls were part of WWF Women’s Champion Sensational Sherri’s team in a Survivor Series Match against Fabulous Moolah’s team. The Jumping Bomb Angels, part of Moolah’s team pinned the champions to become the survivors for the match. After pinning the champions, The Jumping Bomb Angels signed a contract for the Royal Rumble challenging The Glamour Girls for the titles.

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Match Results

Singles Match:
Ricky Steamboat defeated Rick Rude via disqualification (17:00)

WWF Women’s Tag Team Championship
Two out of Three Falls:
The Jumping Bomb Angels defeated The Glamour Girls (C) (15:00)

Andre The Giant and Hulk Hogan sign a contract for a WrestleMania III rematch

First Ever WWF Royal Rumble Match:
Hacksaw Jim Duggan wins by last eliminating One Man Gang (33:00)

Two out of Three Falls:
The Islanders defeated The Young Stallions (14:00)

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Aftermath

Hulk Hogan and André the Giant battled in their WrestleMania III rematch for the WWF Championship on February 5, 1988 edition of The Main Event, where André controversially defeated Hogan for the WWF title. André sold the title to Ted DiBiase in exchange for a large sum of money but figure-head WWF President Jack Tunney vacated the title, making André the shortest reigning WWF Champion (at the time) with a reign of 45 seconds. An undisputed champion would be crowned in a 14-man tournament at WrestleMania IV, where Randy Savage defeated DiBiase in the final match to become the new titleholder.

This Royal Rumble set a record for the highest viewed wrestling program on cable TV at the time with an 8.2 rating.

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Royal Rumble Stats