The main event was the 1990 Royal Rumble match, which was won by WWF Champion Hulk Hogan, who last eliminated Mr.

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988.

It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, which were dubbed the "Big Four".

The previous year's event established the tradition of the match generally featuring 30 wrestlers.

[6] Bushwhackers and Rougeaus continued to feud with each other for the rest of the year, culminating in a tag team match at Royal Rumble 1990.

[8] On the following edition of Superstars, they both faced each other in a retirement match where the loser could not wrestle anymore in WWF.

Prior to the match, it was mentioned that WWF President Jack Tunney had allotted "extra security" to the drawing process.

Ted Dibiase, who had cheated to obtain a late number in the previous year's event, eventually revealed to Gene Okerlund that he had drawn #1.

Before the event aired live on pay-per-view (PPV), Paul Roma defeated The Brooklyn Brawler in a dark match.

The Bushwhackers went for a battering ram on Raymond but the Rougeaus' manager Jimmy Hart grabbed Luke's foot.

Raymond tried to help his brother but the Bushwhackers hit the Rougeaus with the Battering ram and Butch pinned Jacques to win the match.

Valentine hit another elbow drop and went for the figure four leglock again but Garvin kicked out and chopped him in the corner.

Duggan tried to escape by hitting headbutts but Boss Man fell on top of him near the ropes.

Piper and Hart double clotheslined Warlord while DiBiase and Savage were still trying to eliminate Roberts.

Piper and Rhodes fought back on André, while Brown and DiBiase tried to eliminate Hart.

Rhodes beat on Haku while entering at #15, Ax's Demolition partner, Smash came out to rescue him.

Demolition nailed Haku with a double shoulder block and did the same to André, eliminating him from the match.

DiBiase, who had been in the match for 20 minutes, was now going to get eliminated by Demolition but broke free until Jimmy Snuka entered at #17.

The other half of Hart Foundation, Jim Neidhart entered at #20 and battled with Earthquake, trying to eliminate him.

WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion The Ultimate Warrior entered at #21 and the powerhouse began dominating the match.

Hogan connected with clotheslines and threw Perfect over the turnbuckle and across the ring post to the floor, to win the 1990 Royal Rumble match.

[16][13][14][15] Several of the Royal Rumble events were used to build interest in WrestleMania VI, the WWF's next big supercard.

Gaining the most interest was a confrontation between WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan and WWF Intercontinental Heavyweight Champion the Ultimate Warrior; both men agreed each had something to prove following their encounter, and a match was signed for WrestleMania VI, to be held at the Toronto Skydome.

WWF Tag Team Champions the Colossal Connection (André the Giant and Haku) continued to defend their titles, largely against Demolition (Ax and Smash), the team they won the belts from; the Hart Foundation and the Rockers were occasional opponents.

During this time, Haku was doing most of the wrestling as André's health was declining and he only entered the ring usually only for the finish.

Following the confrontation between Dusty Rhodes and Sapphire, and "Macho King" Randy Savage and Sensational Sherri during "The Brother Love Show", an inter-gender match between the two was signed.

Prior to that, Savage made one final bid for Hogan's WWF World Heavyweight Championship, facing his sometimes friend and more frequent enemy on The Main Event, aired in February; with Buster Douglas as the referee, Hogan gained a pinfall victory in their last WWF match against each other, with Hogan gaining a further parting shot when Douglas slugged Savage following a post-match argument.

The Royal Rumble was the last pay-per-view event where The Big Boss Man competed as a heel; shortly after the Royal Rumble, Bossman refused to assist "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase in his feud with Jake "The Snake" Roberts, fired Slick as his manager and made former rival Hogan his closest ally.

This was the last WWF pay-per-view event commentated by Tony Schiavone, as he left the company shortly afterwards.

Gorilla Monsoon would resume the lead announcing duties at the WWF's following pay-per-view, WrestleMania VI.