The Big Five Project returns and, with it, we begin to draw ever closer to the birth of the Attitude Era. Things start to take shape here at the 1996 edition of the Royal Rumble. On this January night in Fresno, CA, we saw Goldust emerge as a force to be reckoned with as he dethroned Razor Ramon for the Intercontinental Championship. The Smoking Guns overcame the distraction of Sunny to retain the WWF Tag Team Championship. The Rumble match itself would see the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels, become only the second man to win back-to-back Rumbles, overcoming 29 other men, including his best friend Diesel, to punch his ticket to the Main Event of WrestleMania XII. He would end up facing Bret "The Hitman" Hart there, as the WWF Championship match between The Hitman and The Undertaker ended in a no-contest. All in all, it is a good, but not great, event. Despite that, the event also saw someone who would turn into a stone-cold giant in the industry make his Big Five debut. All the tumblers were slowly falling into place, and we have all the details for you here on another epic installment of the Big Five Project!