Some wrestlers only get one shot at the big time.
Here are the Royal Rumble competitors who made the best of it…and those who didn’t.
Theres something truly special about theRoyal Rumble.
Its creative and filled with so many possibilities.
Yet they still rule because once every year, WWE puts on a wrestling party.
Perhaps they were too busy in other years with undercard matches.
Maybe they were rarely important enough to be allotted a spot on the show to begin with.
Maybe an injury kept them off TV for a while.
Either way, they help make the Royal Rumble seem like the ultimate whos who of WWE alumni.
So lets take a moment to remember the guys who only had one over-the-top-rope staggered battle royal in them.
Keep in mind,Royal Rumble 2000comes up empty handed.
Brian Blair,Hillbilly Jim, andJunkyard Dog.
Otherwise, the match includes Brainbusters membersArn AndersonandTully Blanchard, as well asBrutus The Barber BeefcakeandRugged Ronnie Garvin.
Shockingly, this is the only appearance for bothDusty RhodesandRick Rude.
Rude himself would make it to third place before accidentally being eliminated by Mr. Similarly,Paul Romawas a one-and-done whose partner Hercules had a handful of Rumbles to his name.
Then theresSaba Simba, Tony Atlas very unfortunate repackaging that didnt last very long at all.
Finally, theres the runner-upSid Justice, who became champion about five years later.
That meant a different flavor of bad gimmicks as shown with campy space manMax Moonand the low-rent whackadooDamien Demento.
Asterisk goes toBastion Booger, who didnt actually compete, but was a no-show due to food poisoning.
That was proven wrong two entries later when Bret hobbled out from the back.
1995
The 95 Rumble was the shortest installment due to the idea of doing one-minute intervals.
Then theresEli Blu, part of the Harris Twins and their many gimmicks.
So he sort of counts?
Also,King Kong Bundy.
I guess thatll happen when your original heyday ends right before the Rumble is introduced.
He barely even got to do anything despite being the kayfabe odds-on favorite.
1996
This was a weird year because they decided to overdo it with the guest entrants.
Its not like those guys had any actual staying power with WWF.
The only members of the company roster involved who make this list areHakushiandBarry Horowitz.
From Mexico, we hadPierroth,Cibernetico,Latin Lover, and most famouslyMil Mascaras.
None of them made much of an impact outside of Mil Mascaras eliminating himself.
Headbanger Mosh at least got to show up a couple more times.
That is, unless you count the Corporate Royal Rumble that led to this event.
One year later and Tazz was getting eliminated within seconds in the Royal Rumble match.
Thats quite a drop in status.
Otherwise,Bill DeMottshowed up for a second andRoseyappeared as one half of the Three Minute Warning.
2004
2004s list of one-timers is an interesting snapshot of the time.
Despite being very low on the ladder,Nunzioappeared for the sake of eating a spear from Bill Goldberg.
Spike Dudley, sadly, never even made it to the ring.
2005
Oof, six guys for this year and its not a great list.
This was the first Rumble after WWE rebooted ECW and with it cameSandman,Sabu, andKevin Thorn.
None of them really did much in the match and Sandmans spot was basically used to humiliate him.
The other two names on the list,Mr.
2012
2012 was one of the more gimmicky Rumbles due to the shoddy roster.
It meant that there would be plenty of random entries likeRicardo Rodriguez,Michael Cole, andKharma.
Hell, this was Kharmas one and only WWE match in general!
Epicoshowed up too and got punked out as an afterthought despite being a tag champ at the time.
2014
El Toritogot the comedy spot, so no surprise there.
As for whyJimmy Usois a one-timer and Jey isnt?
That means that D-Von Dudley to this day hasnt been in a Royal Rumble.
Thats also whyNevillewas also a one-timer.
The regular male Rumble featured a couple NXT appearances, which includedAdam Cole.
Then WWE did the Greatest Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, which featured 50 names.
This includesCharlotte Flair,Alexa Bliss,Maria Kanellis, andAlicia Fox.
On the mens side, NXT guysPete Dunne,Aleister Black, andJohnny Garganomade special appearances.
Other one-timers includedNo Way Jose,Mustafa Ali, and, very surprisingly,Samoa Joe.
