How great is theRoyal Rumble?
For most years, its the most exciting and enjoyable hour of wrestlingWWEhas to offer.
Just because there have been so many hits doesnt mean that there havent been misses.
Im only counting the matches themselves and not the PPVs.
So the excessive chairshots from that Rock/Mankind I Quit Match isnt going to be on here.
For instance, Titus ONeil made waves for slipping under the ring during the Greatest Royal Rumble.
At least he succeeded in looking like a joke there, even if that wasnt his intent.
In a planned attempt back in 2015, things didnt quite work out for him.
The problem was that they were definitely trying to outdo Santinos record for shortest elimination ever from 2009.
Everyone was out of sync and they botched the spot.
That led to some really awkward moments of direction.
Someone like Mark Henry would walk out the entrance and the announcers would go nuts.
Then the camera would focus on the ring, where everyone is beaten up and laying down.
Theres absolutely nothing going on and it lingers on this until Henry would enter the ring moments later.
This would happen repeatedly thoughout the match.
Undertaker sidestepped this by simply teleporting into the ring.
He went missing for weeks with a US title tournament taking place to crown a new champion.
So many questions and possibilities raised.
So what was it that brought him back?
None other than a surprise appearance as #30 at the Royal Rumble!
Where he lasted two minutes.
Then they never talked about his disappearance again.
He was just back to being on the roster and continued on like nothing happened.
Good hustle, guys.
Well, final victim, is more like it.
Savage got destroyed by the mega-heel and his comebacks were ultimately shrugged off.
Savage found an out when Yokozuna went for a second Avalanche into the corner.
Savage took advantage of the moment by climbing up and hitting his patented elbow drop.
Then he…went for the pin.
In the Royal Rumble.
Yokozuna won the Royal Rumble because his final opponents bad decision outweighed his own.
For instance, the final minutes of the 1990 Rumble were well done.
Hulk Hogan was able to overcome Rick Rude and Mr. Hogan ended up winning purely out of repeatedly no-selling everything they did.
Hogan then popped up and booted Knobbs out of the ring.
Earthquake beat Hogan down a second time and once again, Hogan popped up and shrugged it off.
It was a lazy retread.
Perfect, Val Venis, and the Godfather.
The Godfather showed up at the Rumble and like his usual entrances, hed be accompanied by his ladies.
Only he then ran away to bring out more ladies.
The one saving grace was Jim Ross catching Jerry Lawler off-guard.
Lawler was so used to Ross playing bemused straight man to Lawlers horny antics that he completely lost it.
Roman was too beat up to continue, came back towards the end, and ultimately lost.
Thats a fine story.
Hes tough, you see.
Only…heisntbecause the match was still going on.
Otherwise, you look kind of weak.
read more: The Wrestlers Who Started the Royal Rumble Match
23.
RANDY SAVAGE ELIMINATES HIMSELF… OR DOES HE?!?
That counted as an elimination and precedent was set.
He was so in the moment that he leapt over the top rope to climb out.
He probably wasnt supposed to do that as the commentators didnt know what to do.
They knew he wasnt supposed to be eliminated, but he just went over the top.
Oddly enough, there was really no reason for him to return to the match.
Even though he got fourth place, he didnt do a single thing of note.
Some might have even wondered, Is he some NXT guy I havent heard of?
He lasted for only a moment as Mark Henry quickly overpowered him and threw him out of the ring.
Suddenly, everyone wondered what the point of that was.
Who the hell was that guy and why was he only there for 46 seconds?
Days after the show took place, Dave Meltzer finally uncovered the answer.
This included The Undertaker, The Ultimate Warrior, and Yokozuna.
Undertaker just came out of retirement, so that was easy enough.
The other two would prove more difficult considering they were both very dead.
Yes, we had a real-life version of Mr. Burns putting together his ultimate baseball team.
One has to wonder why they didnt also rehire Ryback and make him wear colorful facepaint and tassels.
Look no further than the 2012 Rumble where they padded the match with far too many guest entries.
2012 was swimming in guest appearances to the point that it really overstayed its welcome.
A few of them led to some great moments, but overkill is overkill.
A year earlier, they did a 40-man Royal Rumble because they had too many guys on the roster.
Here, they might as well have done a 20-man Rumble.
read more: The History of Women at the Royal Rumble
20.
Someone could win their way toWrestleManiawithout having to be able to carry the main event on name alone.
That meant that just about anyone could win.
Then they got lazy about it.
After two months of losing cleanly and being humiliated.
What was even the point?
Maybe now that were back to having two main championships, they can do a better job with it.
THATS GOTTA BE KANE!
Hornswoggle was entered into the Rumble by his father Vince McMahon and for the most part, it wasnttoooffensive.
With Hornswoggle cornered by Henry, Viscera and Chavo, his protector Finlay decided to make the save.
All well and good, except for how confusing it got right after.
Finlay attacked them with his shillelagh and walked off with Hornswoggle.
The commentators (all six of them) werent sure what to make of it.
At first they said he was disqualified for using a weapon.
Then they said he was disqualified for coming out too early.
Meanwhile, Hornswoggle was never eliminated and just plain never came back.
They could have at least come up with some kind of elimination for the two that made more sense.
Funny that these two would eventually help improve the 2019 womens Royal Rumble years later.
Even in 1999 when Vince McMahon won, I cant fault why they had it happen.
It turned out to be hype for Jericho, who showed up and did…nothing!
Hed smile, wear a sparkling light-up jacket and play to the crowd without doing a single goddamn thing.
In pure modern-day WWE fashion, they decided that being unpredictable was more important than telling a good story.
In one instant, the mystique and momentum of Jerichos return was gone.
FAR FROM RANDOM ENTRANTS
Most Rumbles have the same pattern.
The first half is dedicated to all the jobbers and midcarders with a couple big names thrown in there.
Then as it gets later into match, more and more big names come out around the same time.
When you notice this, it gets really annoying.
2002 was the most blatant use of random draws that in no way came off as random.
Even Lawler was pointing at the holes in this concept.
Triple H came in at #22 and soon after that, it became a cavalcade of top names.
#25 was Mr.
Perfect, who made the final three.
One of them was legendary Mexican wrestler and eventual WWE Hall of Famer Mil Mascaras.
Its also because he was known for being a jerk when it came to wrestling politics.
He refused to sell and he refused to put anyone over.
The referees refused to let him reenter, claiming that he had eliminated himself.
If Mascaras lost to whoever, it wouldnt have been more than an obscure piece of trivia.
Instead, he became known as that idiot who eliminated himself.
Kids who didnt know Mexican wrestling would only remember him for being a complete and utter dumbass.
That would have been fine if not for the fact that his trademark move was torape his opponent.
No, Im not kidding.
That was literally his move.
He grabbed the mic and boasted about how he was going to win this, his first Rumble match.
His ego rubbed the two former champs the wrong way and they decided to work him over.
Then Hardcore Holly came out next and joined in on the fun.
Then they dumped him out and moved on.
In other words, they dedicated a few minutes of the match to nothing more than hazing.
Depending on your opinion, this is either really uncomfortable or just a kid paying his dues.
For good reason, because he wasnt supposed to be!
This was your usual time-killer spot to keep people busy.
Unfortunately, Riley slipped and fell out of the ring.
11. WHO CARES ABOUT THE STUPID ANNOUNCE TEAM?!
And not just any Michael Cole, but the infamously awfulHeelMichael Cole.
Lawler reached a point where he was all but asleep and Cole would just scream, WHO CARES?!
to shut him down.
After eliminating Golga at #3, Steve Austin chased Vince McMahon around the arena with neither eliminated.
The ring filled up again until Mabel showed up and cleared it of everyone but a hurt Road Dogg.
Then the Ministry of Darkness popped in to abduct Mabel.
Road Dogg waited it out for the next guy.
Then later on, Kane showed up and cleared the ring AGAIN.
Kane proceeded to manhandle his would-be captors and then eliminated himself and ran off for no reason.
I gotta get out of here!
The ring had been cleared out three times and they were only 2/3 done with the match.
The next night, Punk had finally had enough and walked out on the company.
Regardless, Punk remained quiet for a long time until appearing on his friend Colt Cabanas podcast.
Sometime after, WWE doctor Chris Amann sued Punk for defamation.
Just camera angles that show off CM Punks posterior followed by pauses and slow zooms.
Christ, this company…
8.
THE NEW NEXUS VS.
THE CORRE
Ah, man.
The rest of the New Nexus came out and we had a big brawl.
Everyone but Punk got sent to the back and thats the end of the whole feud.
The Rumble is something you look forward to every January.
read more: Ranking Every Royal Rumble
6.
Its just like Hogan vs. Warrior or Bret Hart vs. Lex Luger or Austin vs. Rock!
Only it wasnt because those guys at least had people caring.
Even with the added novelty of Orton being a good guy, this staredown got absolutely no reaction.
Even the crickets didnt think it was worth talking about.
read more: Every Royal Rumble Winner in WWE History Ranked
5.
The first actual Rumble was at a house show in St. Louis on October 4, 1987.
Now, I havent seen the match.
Only less than two thousand people have.
But from what information is available about the event, it was an utter disaster.
It lasted only twelve minutes and ended with One Man Gang and Junkyard Dog as the final two.
What really took the cake was the promotional screw-up.
read more: Royal Rumble: Battles From Outside of WWE
4.
Despite the odds and his opponents being heels, Hogan lost fair and square.
So of course he made sure to have Boss Man eliminated via cheating.
Worse was three years later.
Hogan was in the final three with Sid Justice and Ric Flair.
Especially because Sid was a face!
Being a total petulant brat, Hogan reached into the ring and grabbed Sid by the arm.
Flair took advantage of the assist and eliminated Sid, winning himself the Royal Rumble and the WWF Championship.
EVERYONE VS. MUHAMMAD HASSAN
On paper, I can see why people would love this.
You know, something that actually happens that absolutely shouldnt.
This made him a heel.
I even remember Jim Ross yelling at him, America!
Love it or leave it!
to a huge ovation which makes me kind of die inside.
Royal Rumble 2005played up the rivalry betweenRawandSmackDown.
In the middle of their brawl, Hassans theme song played and everyone stopped what they were doing.
They beat him down 8-on-1, allowed Mysterio to 619 him and then dumped him out.
Its that guy who preaches against bigotry!
Nowinski came from the first season ofTough Enoughand had way more charisma than the winner Maven.
He slipped into the ring in an attempt to throw out Rey Mysterio and Edge at the same time.
He failed to make them touch the floor and they double-teamed him.
They each climbed a turnbuckle and went for dual missile dropkicks.
Their timing was off and Mysterio jumped first, knocking Nowinski over.
Edge leapt an instant later and landed directly on Nowinskis head.
It was nasty and gave him a pretty big concussion.
He ended up being tossed out and that was the beginning of the end for him.
He never truly recovered from that concussion and had to retire from wrestling at 24.
I had no idea how outdated it would be by the time #30 hit.
Same kind of thing with Eddie Guerrero, Rey Mysterio, Chris Benoit, and so on.
The company was in the middle of doing this with Daniel Bryan, but they made two major mistakes.
First, they didnt give him any real closure.
Bryan was put in a match against Bray Wyatt on the undercard.
Fans simply hoped he would because, again, his story wasnt finished.
All while that was going on, WWE made a big deal about Batistas big return.
After #29, the crowd chanted for Daniel Bryan and got into a big YES!
When Rey Mysterio came out instead, it became a gigantic mess of boos.
A couple months later, Bryan needed surgery and had to give up the title.
During this time, they were gradually building up Roman Reigns as their new #1 guy.
But on the bright side, the returning Bryan would be in the Rumble this year!
Man, how cool would Bryan vs. Lesnar be?
Well…Bryan got eliminated without fanfare about halfway into the match.
Coincidentally, the next entrant was Goldust, giving the fans a Shattered Dreams graphic to accompany their anger.
And it was terrible regardless!
