Exclusive: Hacksaw Jim Duggan Talks Winning The First Royal Rumble

It was nearly 30-years ago that Hacksaw Jim Duggan tossed One Man Gang over the top rope to win the inaguaral Royal Rumble.

That was Jan. 24, 1988, at the Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario, where the WWE tested out Pat Patterson’s crazy idea to have wrestlers enter a battle royal in two minute intervals. The event, dubbed the Royal Rumble, was broadcast on the USA Network and became the most watched televised wrestling event of its time.

Comicbook.com had a chance to chat with Hacksaw about the historic night in advance of the 29th installation of the brand-building event.

“We pulled into the Royal Rumble, you know and that was a totally new concept for everybody involved. Been in thousand of rumbles of all kinds, I’ve done battle royals in a cage, battle royals with masks, but nobody has done one where guys come in at intervals, you know it was a unique idea,” he said. “I think you know I think that generation of guys, you know no matter what you threw at us, we were like great OK, lets go! At that level, the top professionals in the world are doing this and you didn’t need a whole lot of preparation.”

Duggan said he was completely surprised to find out he was going to be winning the Rumble.

“That night when we got there. I was more surprised that anybody. My whole character was that i was never World Champion, Intercontinental champion, never Tag Team Champion. I was lucky to win a match. That was my whole character; I don’t care if I win the match as long as I win the fight, tough guy! I think it was a shock not only to me, but everyone else in the dressing room that I was winning.”

We also asked Hacksaw exactly how much direction each star gets before they go into each Rumble.

“We talked over the exact plan before, say number 12 was going to throw out number 18, then 12 and 18 go over and talk to each other and work it out, but now I’m sure it’s probably much more involved, but that’s kind of the way it was done back then. I can’t remember the last four, but of course One Man Gang and I had worked hundreds of times together in the WWF and the mid south and smaller territories. I wasn’t worried about who was going out, I was looking for the guy before me that was going to go out and when I saw him go out, I went and found the guy who was going to throw me out. All you gotta do is remember the guy before you and the spot you got going into it. Of course, that’s easy until you’re out there in front of thousands of people and millions on TV.”

While the first Royal Rumble was a great success, no one imagined it would be the annual phenomenon that kicks off the road to Wrestlemania.

“I don’t think anybody realized. It was a party generation. I think the guys now are much more professional. The guys in our generation, it was more like a rock band. You’re partying, guys are sleeping on the floor. It was a wild lifestyle, but you know the guys may have been more creative, more rebellious back then because the guys had more places to work back then. Now the kids are much more professional, much more athletic even, but I think our generation was more original.”

You can watch Hacksaw’s historic Royal Rumble victory that started it all on the WWE Network here.

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