Since 1988, the annualWWEevent has made for some of the most entertaining hours in wrestling.
Its a big party.
A whos who filled with unpredictability and a setup thats primed for innovation.
Its always going to be someone the company wants to pushtothe top.
Whether that works out is another story.
Ive decided to rank all of the winners from worst to best.
Im measuring them on four things.
First, the drama of their Rumble entry.
Is there an actual decent story being told?
Second, their performance.
Third, the ending of the match.
Fourth, the aftermath.
If theRoyal Rumbleis such a big deal, does this wrestlers career really capitalize on his success?
Even though there have been 31Royal Rumbleshows, the list features 38 names.
1994s Rumble had dual winners in Lex Luger and Bret Hart.
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Now lets get to the list.
The bottom of the barrel shouldnt be much of a surprise.
As of #30, they discovered Bryan wasnt and boy oh boy didthatcause a happening.
Ending:The final four gave us Batista, CM Punk, Sheamus, and Roman Reigns.
The show ended with Batista being booed to oblivion while Michael Cole told us, Deal with it!
It wasnt just the fans in Pittsburgh.
The whole fanbase turned on Batista and backstage, Batista himself thought it was a dumb move.
So yeah, that didnt work out.
Unfortunately, Reigns was injured and spent several months on the shelf.
With the Rumble coming up, Reigns appeared to be one of the only viable winners.
The previous Rumble was panned for being tone deaf over not utilizing Bryan correctly.
Bryan got eliminated about halfway into the match with little fanfare.
Performance:In 2014, Roman Reigns was unstoppable.
If we got that kind of Reigns booking, maybe 2015s Rumble wouldnt have been such a disaster.
The crowd booed the hell out of this and the Rock looked genuinely shocked and annoyed by the reaction.
Regardless, Reigns made short work of him and eliminated him to a chorus of boos.
Reigns spent months being rebuilt, but eventually became champ with the crowd hating him considerably less.
There was no story going in and no prize outside of bragging rights.
Twenty midcarders would enter and brawl for 33 minutes.
It didnt even get the main event spot.
That instead went to the Young Stallions vs. the Islanders.
Neither were the tag champs and the heel team won.
Performance:Brawling was Hacksaws strong point, so that helped.
He injected just enough energy to make him stand out.
The odds got better once Gang accidentally clobbered Dino and knocked him out of the ring.
Not the worst way to end the initial match.
ALBERTO DEL RIO (2011)
In late-2010/early-2011, Alberto Del Rio was a cant-miss prospect.
Performance:Del Rios performance in this match was a big dud.
He did a big pile of nothing.
Del Rio faded into the background for the following few minutes until the ending.
It seemed that Del Rio was the winner, but there was one more obstacle to face.
Earlier on, Santino Marella was knocked to the outside without getting thrown over the top rope.
Still in play, he entered the ring and dropped Del Rio with the Cobra.
He celebrated his impending win and tried to throw Del Rio out.
Del Rio spun at the last second and threw Santino out.
In the build-up, Del Rio lost several matches cleanly to Christian.
Edge retired immediately after, setting up a title match between Del Rio and Christian.
Performance:Big Show didnt really seem like much of a monster here.
Entering at #26, he eliminated Gangrel and Test immediately, then became just another competitor.
Big Show got his hands on X-Pac and sent him flying to the outside.
That left Big Show and Rock, where Big Show proceeded to dominate.
Rock won and celebrated his win, but then Big Show returned to lay him out.
Big Show was eliminated in under five minutes.
Ending:See above.
Big Show won due to tomfoolery and Rock was eventually thrown into the main event ofWrestleMania 2000anyway.
Rock finally (FINALLY!)
Not even Bo-lieve Bo Dallas either, but generic NXT face guest appearance Bo Dallas.
Cena proceeded to sleep through the rest of the match until it was just him and Ryback left.
The battle started out strong, but lost steam when Cena knocked Ryback out with the STF.
Ryback figured that was enough and tried to carry Cena out over his shoulder.
Cena slipped out the back and sloppily shoved Ryback over the top rope.
Cena beat Rock for the title atWrestleMania 29.
SHINSUKE NAKAMURA (2018)
Nakamuras rise to Royal Rumble winner was a little touch-and-go.
He was a bit underutilized, but protected.
Once he got rid of Sami, Nakamura simply faded into the background.
Not a good sign.
Roman took control and things slowed down quite a bit.
He simply couldnt get Nakamura away, even when he intercepted a Kinshasa attempt with a spear.
Roman went for a second spear, only this time he was intercepted with a Kinshasa.
Roman bounced back to his feet, dazed, and Nakamura easily threw him to the outside.
Yet…they still asked Nakamura who he planned to challenge.
Of course he went with AJ.
After all, the two had a well-received match in NJPW and they had been keeping them separate onSmackDown.
Nakamura lost atWrestleManiaand immediately turned heel.
Nakamura then won the United States Championship and the writers seemingly forgot he was even around.
Even winning that title was more like background noise to the Jeff Hardy/Randy Orton feud.
Commissioner Shawn Michaels changed McMahons entry to #2, driving him insane with fear.
Corporation Royal Rumble match, but Chyna came out the winner instead.
Performance:Despite his early number, McMahon was only in the ring for a few minutes.
He lured Austin into a bathroom, where the Corporation ambushed and hospitalized him.
This distraction allowed McMahon to sneak up and throw Austin out.
Yes, Vince McMahon won the Royal Rumble at #2 with only one elimination to his name.
Aftermath:The condescending McMahon decided to forego hisWrestleManiatitle shot.
Edge quickly delivered spears all over the place and threw out Jericho rather quickly.
Lawler immediately shouted at him to shut up.
Real professional, that guy.
Cena ducked as Batista rushed him, causing Batista to tumble to the floor.
Cena slowly got to his feet while Edge prepped up a spear.
Cena stopped it with a kick and tried to shove Edge out.
Edge sidestepped the attempt and threw Cena out instead, giving us the shocking return win.
Aftermath:Things didnt work out so well for Edges Royal Rumble victory.
Chris Jericho won the World Heavyweight Championship atElimination Chamber, meaning Edge would get a title shot against him.
It was decided that Edges face run wasnt working, especially since his, Spear!
catchphrase wasnt catching on.
He quickly turned heel again so you can feud with Randy Orton.
Performance:Orton did some good work here, all things considered.
Orton ate an F5 and remained a background player for the remainder.
Ending:Roman Reigns appeared at #30 after having lost his singles match for the Universal Championship.
Roman eliminated Undertaker and Chris Jericho, adding to the crowd hate.
Aftermath:Heres the good news: Randy Orton won the WWE Championship atWrestleMania.
That sounds all fantastic, but it came at a horrible price.
That was pretty sweet, but it all went downhill from there.
TheirWrestleManiamatch was mediocre and included footage of worms and roaches being projected onto the mat.
This did nothing in the end, as Orton won with a random RKO.
Orton stopped really having anything resembling a story and faded into near obscurity.
SHEAMUS (2012)
I feel bad for Sheamus.
Unfortunately, WWE has a tendency to mistake unpredictability for good storytelling.
Ending:The final four were Big Show, Sheamus, Randy Orton, and Chris Jericho.
It took Sheamus and Ortons teamwork to take out Big Show and Jericho capitalized by throwing out Orton.
That left Sheamus and Jericho, who proceeded to put on a battle royal clinic for several minutes.
Aftermath:Again, the whims of the WWE hurt Sheamus.
The match itself ended in 18 seconds with Sheamus winning, but did more damage than anything else.
There was a notable backlash against Sheamus.
Ted Dibiase threw a lot of money around in hopes to increase his chances at winning.
I guess he was just in it for the bragging rights.
Studd took a lot of damage until saving himself from an Avalanche by pulling in Dibiase as a shield.
There we had a most wonderful finale where a desperate Dibiase tried to buy off Studd to no avail.
It was less about Studd winning and more about Dibiase getting his comeuppance.
He threw out Dibiase like yesterdays garbage, then dealt with Virgil as an added bonus.
Aftermath:Its hard to really grade Studd on the aftermath of his Rumble win.
Unlike other winners, this win wasnt about pushing him towards the future but rewarding him for the past.
During this time, Studd had returned from retirement and lasted only a little while due to ailing health.
a second before he ran out.
Because if theres anything Hogans consistent about in Royal Rumbles, its being a jerk to his friends.
Hogan won the year prior and it was booked perfectly.
Here, it was lazy as Hell.
Earthquake and Brian Knobbs worked over Hogan, but rather than outsmart them, Hogan just Hulked Up.
It was so unnecessary.
AtWrestleMania VII, he took on Sergeant Slaughter and won in a rather crappy match.
So yeah, he did pretty well for himself.
Good thing they had a pointless Royal Rumble coming up.
Performance:Braun was #41 and immediately tossed out four guys.
He proceeded to eliminate everyone one after another until Daniel Bryan stood up to him.
Bryan stunned Braun, only to be intercepted by Big Cass.
Cass eliminated Bryan and then took to clotheslining Braun a few times.
Rough when youre the third best Rumble ending of the year.
read more: Royal Rumble: Battles From Outside of WWE
23.
Wait…I hate John Cena!
Ending:The final three were the three main faces of the company at the time: Cena vs.
Triple H vs. Batista.
Each guy taunted their opponents, then they all went at it.
That left Cena vs.
Aftermath:Despite the exciting return and win, Cenas post-Rumbletime didnt work out so well.
He chose to move hisWrestleManiatitle shot toNo Way Outand fought Randy Orton for the WWE Championship.
Orton got himself disqualified, meaning no belt for Cena.
It was agreed that if Luger didnt win the belt, he wouldnt get another title shot.
Though Luger won the match, it was by count-out.
He couldnt challenge for the belt again, but the Royal Rumble acted as a loophole.
Performance:During the match, Luger was shown backstage, having been beaten down by Tenryu and Kabuki.
He later came in at #23 and showed some nice babyface fire throughout the match.
He started out cleaning house and got some revenge by taking out the Great Kabuki.
He slowed down after going up against Tenryu, which made sense.
There was no camera on that end, so nobody could get a clear look at who won.
Lugers match with Yokozuna had Mr.
Perfect as the special guest referee, who proceeded to disqualify Luger for BS reasons.
It was a story where Luger ended up losing at every turn, including the blow-off atSurvivor Series.
Ending:#30 was Mr.
Perfect and once the dust settled, it was just he and Rude beating down Hogan.
Hogan made it through the beating by outsmarting his opponents and using their lack of communication against them.
Perfect accidentally eliminated Rick Rude, but took it to Hogan regardless.
After absorbing a Perfect Plex, Hogan powered up and thrashed Perfect until sending him to the outside.
Hogan wasnt champion, but he remained a bigger deal than Warrior.
Performance:Rey was #2, faced with Triple H at #1.
He took his share of lengthy breathers, but still.
Longest Rumble performance ever.
Dude gets massive credit.
Ending:It was down to Mysterio and top heels Triple H and Randy Orton.
Orton played around with the prone luchador and tried to heave the dead weight out of the ring.
Mysterio then came to life and flipped Orton out with a hurricanrana.
Its kind of messed up, really.
Mysterio put his title shot on the line atNo Way Outand lost to Orton.
Performance:Triple H lasted a little over nine minutes and made every minute count.
A cool moment that sadly didnt go anywhere.
Aftermath:Up toRoyal Rumble, the Roman/Triple H feud was mostly good.
It wasnt a particularly good match and being that it happened in hour seven of that show didnt help.
Triple H lost the match and remained off TV for months.
Before he could be fired, Orton attacked McMahon and punted him right in the head.
Ortons job was in jeopardy, but there was opportunity if he won the Royal Rumble match.
Performance:Orton came in at #8, just after Triple H was in at #7.
The big story here was that Ted Dibiase showed up at #10 and Cody Rhodes at #15.
Legacy showed solidarity and became unstoppable.
Nobody could stand up to their numbers game.
The best little moment came from Orton murdering Goldust, then handing him to Cody as a gift elimination.
Ending:The final four were Triple H and Legacy.
Triple H fought hard as he could and unknowingly failed to fully eliminate Orton.
Nothing more to say.
The only other major possibilities were Kurt Angle and the Undertaker.
Performance:Steve Austin kept clearing the ring over and over again and appeared bored.
Triple H becamethebig battle for the Rumble with Hurricane and Farooq being taken out upon entering.
Still, the Austin/Triple H stuff was incredibly fun.
Ending:Shockingly, Mr.
Triple H and Angle mixed it up for a good while until Triple H went for a clothesline.
Angle backdropped him over the top rope and celebrated, not realizing that Triple H landed on the apron.
Triple H did his flex taunt (cheesy, yet awesome) and went after Angle.
A knee to the face stunned Angle long enough for Triple H to clothesline him out of the ring.
Cooler heads prevailed and they got a tag match against the champs, the Quebecers.
Brets bad knee went out when he tried to finish the match and they ended up losing.
Owen lost his mind and started attacking Brets bum knee.
Performance:Bret actually came out at #27.
Turns out #25 was Bastion Booger.
While Luger was running around clotheslining people and leaping around, Bret just hobbled and assisted eliminations.
But hey, dude already wrestled a match earlier.
Ending:See the Lex Luger entry.
Aftermath:Bret lost the opening match ofWrestleMania Xagainst Owen, which for once was actually a good thing.
ASUKA (2018)
Since her days beginning in NXT, Asuka had been depicted as unstoppable.
On the main roster, she continued to mow through opponents and was even the sole survivor atSurvivor Series.
Performance:Asuka appeared at #25 and ran through everyone in the ring.
Sasha had other ideas, choosing to side with the Bellas against Asuka.
Still, she had her earned title shot at the big event and decided to go after Charlotte.
Carmella became SmackDown Womens Champion for a bit and Asuka lost the feud against her in really embarrassing fashion.
She ended up winning the title from Becky Lynch, ending the year as champion.
Even if she did a big pile of nothing in-between the Rumble and the end of the year.
SETH ROLLINS (2019)
It was a rough time for Rollins.
One best friend Roman Reigns had to relinquish the Universal Championship due to leukemia.
His other best friend Dean Ambrose turned into a bitter antagonist.
Ambrose then defeated Rollins for the Intercontinental Championship and retained it on several occasions.
Performance:Rollins arrived at a fairly early #10.
Rollins remained active in the match, especially when Ambrose showed up a few minutes later.
While he wasnt straight-up napping, Rollins performance started to diminish until Bobby Lashley entered at #26.
Rollins eliminated him quickly.
Lashley dragged him out of the ring and put him through a table.
Andrade and Ziggler both got tossed out, leaving Rollins to contend alone.
Aftermath:Rollins chose to face Brock Lesnar atWrestleManiain a feud where he was brutally beaten week after week.
Steve Austin, already a two-time winner at this point, was as good a guess as anyone.
Hed have a lot of competition in the form of the Rock and the aligned Brothers of Destruction.
Gunns elimination still irks me due to how Austin flat-out no-sold Gunns finisher.
Ending:Kane threw out the Rock and was left with a hurt Austin.
Chris Benoit won the big match and chose to faceRaws World Heavyweight Champion instead of staying onSmackDown.
The winner would face Brock Lesnar atNo Way Outfor the WWE Championship.
Unfortunately for Eddie, somebody beat him up backstage and he was sent to the hospital.
Performance:Eddie arrived at #13, limping his way to the ring.
They certainly needed to work together to pick up Rikishi and heave him out.
Ending:The final two were Eddie and Angle.
While Eddie was fighting through a backstage assault, Angle had drawn #1 and was dealing with fatigue.
The two went all out in a back-and-forth battle with so many close calls.
Aftermath:Eddie won the WWE Championship against Brock Lesnar atNo Way Outthanks to some help from Bill Goldberg.
This also gave us the bittersweet Eddie/Benoit ending image of the show.
Eddie remained champion for a few months until dropping the title to the newly-christened JBL.
This disgusted returning hero Bret Hart, who hated that someone like Austin could be celebrated.
The Rattlesnake entered at #5 and was seemingly unstoppable.
Across the hour-long match, he took out a third of the roster.
Things got explosive once Bret Hart arrived at #21 and Austin went right for him.
There was no cowardice.
Austin straight-up wanted to a piece of Bret as much as Bret wanted a piece of Austin.
Bret threw a hissy fit and rightfully so.
as well as Matt Hardy V.1.
Ending:The final four was Brock, Undertaker, Kane, and Batista.
Undertaker won decisively, dropping Lesnar with a Tombstone.
Batista returned with a chair, but Undertaker dispatched him yet again.
Afterwards, Undertaker begrudgingly showed Lesnar some respect for a job well done.
Aftermath:At the time, Kurt Angle was the WWE Champion and Lesnar set his sights on him.
Angle as the main event ofWrestleMania XIX.
UNDERTAKER (2007)
The Undertaker had been cheated.
Kennedy and Undertaker had their own match where if Undertaker won, hed be inserted into the title match.
Kennedy tricked Batista into attacking him, causing a DQ loss for Undertaker.
But the best was yet to come.
Ending:Undertaker was doing great until Orton smashed him with a chair.
Aftermath:Undertaker chose to continue where he left off and challenged for Batistas World Heavyweight Championship atWrestleMania 23.
Those were the best examples I could come up with as competition.
Everyone else was, like, Mantaur and Kwang.
Having drawn his number, Michaels looked completely confident.
At least more so than the British Bulldog.
Performance:Surprise, surprise, Michaels and Bulldog drew #1 and #2 respectively.
Sure, Michaels went coast-to-coast, but it wasnt like he was in there for an hour, right?
Michaels was on his A-game from bell to bell.
He didnt even really back off either, as he ended up with eight eliminations.
Ending:Probably one of the most iconic Royal Rumble endings, the final two were the first two.
It was Bulldog and Michaels at it again and Bulldog seemed to be holding up better.
He clotheslined the hell out of Michaels and appeared to have sent him to the outside.
His music began playing and Bulldog celebrated on the second rope.
He knocked Bulldog off the second rope from behind and sent him crashing to the floor.
Michaels turned face and became Diesels sidekick for the rest of the year.
He would go on to bigger and better things, but this wasnt his time.
The list of possible winners included Ric Flair, Randy Savage, the Undertaker, and dark horse Mr.
Performance:Royal Rumble 1993 is the most understated and one of the more unique entries.
Yokozuna entered at #27 and started throwing guys around like ragdolls.
That didnt work either.
Yokozuna would simply not be stopped.
Ending:Randy Savage came in at #30, giving the fans some hope.
Yokozuna and Savage fought it out, mostly one-sided in Yokozunas favor.
Savage hit his top-rope elbow and foolishly went for the pin.
Yokozuna was all, Haha, no!
and bench-pressed him so hard, Savage flew out of the ring.
Aftermath:Yokozuna met Bret Hart atWrestleMania IXand…well, hoo boy.
Hogan defeated Yokozuna in seconds and ended the show as champion.
Part of his success came from what was left of Evolution: Ric Flair and Batista.
Despite being part of a major heel stable, Batista was celebrated by the crowd as a face.
Performance:Much like his disastrous 2014 match, Batista arrived at #28.
The difference was that this time, Batista actually showed some hustle and was fun to watch.
He took out Snitsky upon entering, then went and teamed up with his good buddy Ric Flair.
Batista would do the dirty work, then Flair would send the victims to the outside.
This went wrong when Flair stabbed Batista in the back and tried throwing him out too.
Batista didnt even budge.
Edge eliminated Flair before anything could be done with that and Batista went back to clearing the ring.
Ending:After Edge was dealt with, Batista and John Cena were the last two men left.
The two went at it and what was meant to be a decisive victory for Batista went horribly wrong.
This time they rushed it and within seconds, Batista flung Cena to the outside.
Batista won atWrestleMania, then won all their other rematches.
CHRIS BENOIT (2004)
Hey, look!
He put him in several qualifying matches that held the odds strongly against him, but Benoit kept persevering.
His hands tied, Heyman forced the #1 spot onto Benoit.
Performance:It was Chris Benoit going at it for an hour.
While awkward to watch, it was absolutely great.
Once the big names came in to fill the ring, Benoit restrained himself a bit.
Ending:Big Show was booked on a level that made Yokozuna look underpowered.
Or so it seemed.
Big Show picked Benoit up and suddenly Benoit sprung to life and clamped a guillotine choke onto Big Show.
Benoit was able to save himself, but gravity took Big Show out of the equation.
Afterwards, he and best buddy Eddie Guerrero celebrated in the ring as dual world champions.
Benoit lost the title to Randy Orton atSummerSlam.
He never returned to the main event and…I should probably just stop there.
BECKY LYNCH (2019)
It was another situation where WWE inadvertently created a star.
Becky became an angry loner and proved herself a popular SmackDown Champion.
Ronda interfered in a ladder match, causing Becky to lose her title to Asuka.
Becky was put up against Asuka in a singles match atRoyal Rumble 2019, but lost due to submission.
It seemed like her rise was stifled.
To make matters worse, Nia Jax decided to demolish her for fun.
She was allowed entry, storming to a ring with six other women left.
From there, Becky took a backseat and let the ring empty out on its own.
Ending:The final three were Becky, Nia, and Charlotte.
Becky and Charlotte focused on each other, which allowed Nia to crush them into the corner.
Becky rolled to the outside and we got Nia vs. Charlotte.
Nia got her revenge and laid out Becky, all while causing major damage to her knee.
and, FIGHT ME!
Charlotte proceeded to easily thrash the one-legged Becky.
Becky got one hope spot in, but Charlotte still took control.
Beckys performance was less about offense and more about survival.
Aftermath:In the broad strokes, things couldnt have gone better for Becky.
As of this writing, shes stillRawWomens Champion.
Shes main-evented several other PPVs.
No longer was it just a match for bragging rights.
Now there were some real stakes and all the big players wanted in.
This included Ric Flair, the self-proclaimed Real Worlds Champion, who was instrumental in the controversial title matches.
Performance:Flair drew #3 and from that moment, the match went from good to amazing.
Flair sold everything for an hour and rarely ever pulled out any offense.
When he did, it was usually some kind of cheapshot.
This was increased by Bobby Heenans brilliant commentary where he lost his mind in perpetual motion.
Ending:On one hand, I hate this ending more than any other Royal Rumble ending.
Hulk Hogan was working over Flair when Sid grabbed Hogan from behind and threw him out.
Flair helped out from his end, thereby winning the match and the championship.
On the other hand, its the perfect ending for Flair.
He earned that belt…but not really.
It worked out for him but nobody else.
Savage got sloppy seconds and faced Flair midway through the show.
Performance:Michaels entered at #18.
To add more drama, Michaels got enzigurid by Owen Hart once again.
Aftermath:At the followingIn Your House, Michaels put his title shot on the line against Owen Hart.
He retained and went on toWrestleMania XII, where he and Bret Hart wrestled for over an hour.
Michaels became WWF Champion for the first time and defended it for a good length.
He dropped it to Sycho Sid, but got it back at the 1997Royal Rumble.
Still, this Royal Rumble match did him a lot of good!
STEVE AUSTIN (1998)
Steve Austin returned from a horrible neck injury to win the Intercontinental Championship.
This was Austins show, through and through.
Austin snuck in through the crowd and started off by ejecting Marc Mero.
Okay, not the most significant group of victims, but it was still great to watch.
They took down the heels, but then turned on each other.
Farooq took advantage of the brawl and threw Dude Love out.
He pounded on Austin while the Rock feigned fatigue.
Rock snuck up on Farooq and threw him out, leaving a sweet, early Austin vs. Rock battle.
Austin won via nailing a Stone Cold Stunner and then throwing Rock right out of there.
Austin defeated Shawn Michaels atWrestleMania XIVand helped save the WWF from bankruptcy.
I would never list the 1998 Royal Rumble match in the top Rumble matches.
He was one of the most obvious Rumble winners in its three decades of history.
But it was this win that helped solidify Austin as the top draw during wrestlings big boom period.
