So we’ve looked at the worst, now it’s time for the best as I continue to countdown every Royal Rumble match winner ever from the very worst to the very best.
13 – Hulk Hogan – 1990 & 1991
I had some difficulty placing Hogan on this list, but I think right in the middle feels right in the end.
On paper, both of Hogan’s Rumble wins are fairly impressive, with 6 and 7 eliminations in ’90 and ’91 respectively, and eliminated some fairly big names to do it both times. In addition to this, Hogan would win the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania 7 in ’91, and although he lost at Wrestlemania 6 in ’90, the match has achieved legendary status in the decades since.
So again, the question must be posed, why have I put him this low?
The thing is, the “world championship opportunity” stipulation wouldn’t be brought in until 1993, so the Royal Rumble was still basically for nothing, and in both ’90 and ’91, Hogan was ALWAYS going to be fighting for the title at Wrestlemania (in fact he already was WWF Champion going into the ’90 Royal Rumble). There was never any reason for Hogan to win either of the Rumbles he did, so ultimately it didn’t achieve anything that wouldn’t have been achieved anyway.
12 – Bret Hart – 1994
Now, the other side of the ’94 coin.
While Luger would horrifically fail with his opportunity that came from co-winning the Rumble, Bret would do very much the opposite.
He started off the night at Wrestlemania 10 with an amazing match with his brother Owen Hart, a match which Hart clearly put his all into despite having to perform again later on in the night, and would sadly come out the loser of it. That mattered little by the end of the night, however, as after yet another hard-fought match, Bret would topple the giant Yokozuna and stand triumphant as the new WWF Champion.
It’s very rare that one man puts on two incredible performances in one night, though I had to drop Bret down a few places due to the fact he was simply a “co-winner” of a Royal Rumble, and not a winner. Sure what he did was amazing, but the fact that he didn’t outright win the ’94 Rumble does take the shine off the apple just a little.
11 – Asuka – 2018
Historic.
I’m sorry for giving you horrible flashbacks to the time WWE couldn’t go half a sentence without shouting how “historic” the first Women’s Royal Rumble was, but looking back now, they were right. I wasn’t overly thrilled by the first ever women’s Royal Rumble at the time, but going back and watching it now, it was better than I gave it credit for, with there being plenty to like before Asuka entered the fray.
Asuka did eventually enter the match at number 25, and from that moment on it seemed pretty obvious she was going to win. Personally, I feel WWE were quite smart about it, with Sasha Banks digging into her old heel persona to direct the eternally evil Bella Twins to try and get rid of Asuka. Eventually, she would overcome this, and top off the night on a high note.
What came after her Rumble win wasn’t brilliant though. Charlotte would snap Asuka’s undefeated streak at Wrestlemania 34 in a match I still maintain Asuka should’ve won. She would then continue to be torn down in her feud with Carmella, and wouldn’t recover until the dying breaths of 2018 when she finally claimed the Smackdown Women’s Championship at last month’s TLC.
That said, this victory will go down in history for being the first of its kind, and I tend to look back on this one fondly as well.
10 – Triple H – 2002 & 2016
I didn’t think Triple H would make it this high in my list, but looking back on his two Rumble victories, I quite enjoyed both of them.
In 2002, Triple H’s performance was fairly standard, lasting just over 20 minutes and eliminating 4 men on his way to victory. However, the last few moments of the match were rather exciting in their execution, with Kurt Angle almost winning the match, and while the thought of a Jericho vs Angle Mania match makes my mouth start to salivate, Triple H – who was fresh of a huge return – was a good counter of Jericho’s heel antics.
Speaking of which, complain all you like about how Jericho played second fiddle in his own Wrestlemania main event where he was champion, Triple H looked great throughout the whole thing, and in this list, that’s all that matters.
Moving onto 2016, Triple H’s win here is something that tends to divide opinion quite drastically.
Some people believe that Triple H winning the WWE Championship was a cynical and unnecessary move that simply served Triple H’s ego providing his 14th World Championship. While others think it was a great moment that was well executed and served the story that was being told between the McMahons and Roman Reigns.
I tend to fall into the 2nd camp, although I understand the perspective of the first. Triple H entering at number 30 to win was arguably the most predictable “surprise” in Royal Rumble history, but it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. People were so zeroed in on not wanting Roman Reigns to win, that literally anyone else was fantastic, and it was executed brilliantly, with Roman going out just before the end to create some proper investment in Ambrose in the final moments.
Sure, Triple H would go on to lose the title back to Roman Reigns at Wrestlemania 32, but it’s hard to argue with winning the WWE Championship with the Royal Rumble.
9 – John Cena – 2008 & 2013
Cena’s two Rumble wins seem very much like two sides of the same coin.
In 2008, John Cena wasn’t even expected to participate, having to have surgery on a torn pectoral muscle; a surgery with an expected recovery of 6-8 months. However, John Cena doesn’t care for your puny human recovery times and returned triumphantly after only 3 months to enter at number 30 and win the 2008 Royal Rumble. That moment is an iconic Rumble moment, so shocking that even the Cena hating New York crowd that night couldn’t help but cheer at it.
What happened following the match however was quite strange.
The following night on Raw, Cena claimed he just couldn’t wait to fight Randy Orton, and the Wrestlemania match was instead scheduled for No Way Out in February, (A bit weird, but ok). Then the match ended in disappointing fashion when Orton intentionally got himself disqualified to retain the title, (Even weirder, but we’ll see where this is going…). Then at Wrestlemania, Triple H was added to make it a triple threat, where Randy Orton won quite easily. Oh.
It was all just a really strange way to get to Randy Orton retaining his championship twice, pretty underwhelming to say the least.
Cena’s win in the 2013 Rumble was pretty much the exact opposite, with the win itself being extremely predictable and quite boring. With it being no secret that Rock vs Cena II was on the horizon for Wrestlemania 29, and The Rock having a WWE Champion match that same night, Cena’s win felt entirely like an inevitability.
Then going into Wrestlemania 29, the pair had a perfectly serviceable match, that ended up with Cena winning the championship and standing victorious.
Ultimately, both of the big moments here are big enough to overcome the bad ones and place Cena higher up on this list.
8 – Shinsuke Nakamura – 2018
Now, we have the one entry that Ryan ranks higher than it deserves because Ryan wants to.
It’s well known by this point that I loved the 2018 men’s Royal Rumble, with it featuring pretty much everything I love about the match. In addition to this, Shinsuke Nakamura winning it is one of those things that we couldn’t quite believe was going to happen. WWE had spent 7 years conditioning us for disappointment with their Royal Rumble winners, that we just didn’t want to get our hopes up. With guys like Cena and Reigns in the match, surely something would go wrong and we’d all end up miserable again.
However, that wasn’t the case as after a fantastic final 4, Nakamura would eliminate both John Cena and Roman Reigns to win the Royal Rumble after being on WWE’s main roster for under a year and that feeling was incredible. That’s what I remember in wrestling more than amazing matches and more than great characters, it’s the moments of pure emotion that I feel while watching it.
Now, I’d be remiss if I didn’t address what happened after Nakamura’s Rumble win because it’s the reason I couldn’t bear to bring it any higher than 9.
First of all, Nakamura lost his title match at Wrestlemania 34 to AJ Styles. That’s Bad! Then he impaled AJ right in his balls. That’s Good! Then he proceeded to lose to AJ three more times before doing nothing of note for the rest of the year. That’s Bad, very, very bad.
While Nakamura’s future in WWE is up in the air, I think it’s important we celebrate this amazing Rumble performance, because it might be the best we’ll ever get.
7 – Brock Lesnar – 2003
The rise of Brock Lesnar is something that was very much once in a lifetime. Never before or since has someone successfully come into the WWE main roster and immediately asserted themselves as a permanent main event force.
Lesnar hadn’t even been in the WWE for a year when the ’03 Royal Rumble rolled around and he’d already been WWE Champion once before. Lesnar wasn’t in the Rumble for very long, entering at 28 and only being in the ring for 9 minutes before he won, but in that time he threw out 4 men, including The Undertaker.
Following his win, Lesnar would fight Kurt Angle at Wrestlemania 19 for the Undisputed Championship in what many call the best match of Lesnar’s career. Even if he did almost kill himself during the match, he came out the victor in the end and seems to be a very solid template for a successful Royal Rumble winner.
6 – Rey Mysterio – 2006
It’s wins like this that stop us losing hope in the Rumble when someone we hate wins it every damn year.
Being the number 2 entrant in the Royal Rumble really does seem like more of a curse than number 1. Despite having to fight for just as long and do just as much work as number 1, WWE treats winning from the number 2 spot as far less impressive for some reason. Regardless, Mysterio lasting a record 1 hour and 2 minutes in the ’06 Royal Rumble to win it is arguably one of the best feel-good stories that have been told in a Rumble to date.
Once you put all the controversy surrounding how WWE exploited the death of Eddie Guerrero to one side, the rest of the saga was pretty feel good too. Mysterio’s performance at Wrestlemania 22 was arguably just as impressive as his feat in the Rumble match, defeating both Randy Orton and Kurt Angle in order to claim the big gold belt.
Mysterio is the prime example for how you book a babyface to win a Royal Rumble and is something I wish we’d see a tad more often in WWE. I’m looking at you, Seth Rollins.
5 – Edge – 2010
Tell all the long and valiant hero stories you want, there are few things in wrestling that feel as good as a surprise return.
As with Cena in ’08, Edge’s return in the 2010 Royal Rumble really was a total surprise to cap off what had already been one of the best Royal Rumble matches ever. Entering at 29 (thanks to Batista having reserved the number 30 spot for himself), Edge needed only 7 short minutes to claim his victory, eliminating both John Cena and Chris Jericho on his way.
His Wrestlemania 26 match against Chris Jericho for the World Heavyweight Championship didn’t go quite as well though, with Edge surprisingly being defeated by Jericho to continue their still fairly young feud. However, such a brilliant and surprising win in one of my favourite Rumble matches was so exhilarating that I couldn’t possibly have put it any lower on the list.
4 – The Undertaker – 2007
Now we’re getting to the point in the list where it’s getting really hard to pick any one of the others.
The 2007 Royal Rumble wasn’t among one of the best in terms of overall quality, but the action from the moment The Undertaker entered the match at the number 30 spot makes it have the best finale in Rumble history. First of all, the timing of the entrance was spot on, with The Great Khali laying everyone out and looking to potentially ruin the match, only for the countdown timer to hit zero, the lights to go out and the iconic gong rang through the arena to mark the arrival of the deadman.
Undertaker quickly dispatched of the Great Khali and clear the floor of anyone else left standing until only one other remained…Shawn Michaels. What followed next was almost ten minutes of incredible back and forth action that made you feel like the match could end at any moment with either man standing victorious and giving us just a little taste of what was to come in their legendary encounter two years later. It had to end eventually though, and The Undertaker dropped Michaels’ to the floor to claim his first Royal Rumble win of his iconic career.
What followed at Wrestlemania 23 was great as well. Undertaker would face off for the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista, in what was one of Undertaker’s better Wrestlemania matches and perhaps Batista’s greatest match. You don’t need me to tell you, but Undertaker, of course, would win the title at Wrestlemania and take his streak to 15-0.
3 – Chris Benoit – 2004
Every single year, you’ll hear the same snippet of information from someone of the commentary team, that “only two people have ever won from the number 1 spot!” They’ll be all too excited to tell you that the first one is Shawn Michaels, but they’ll be very silent on the second.
That’s because the second is Chris Benoit. I’m not going to go into why, but if you don’t then a quick Google should tell you everything you need to know.
Aside from the tragedy behind the man who won the 2004 Royal Rumble, this was perhaps my favourite win out of the ones on this list. He didn’t win the Royal Rumble by being lucky or cowardly or opportunistic, he won by being smart. The clearest indication of that is right at the end, as Benoit face of against the Big Show. Benoit knows he’s not going to be able to pick the giant up, so why bother trying? Instead, he waits until Big Show tries to throw him out, and leverages his weight and uses Big Show’s momentum to drag the giant over the top rope and to the floor. It’s such a rare display of intelligence and logic from a WWE babyface that I can’t help but love it.
What happened after the win was brilliant too, defeating both Triple H and Shawn Michaels in the main event of Wrestlemania 20 to claim the World Heavyweight Championship. Leading to the beautiful moment were best friends Benoit and Eddie stood tall to end the biggest WWE show of the year. It’s just a shame it’s a moment we can never look at the same way again.
2 – Ric Flair – 1992
Being a WWE fan of only five years, I often don’t really “get” or appreciate stuff from the mid-’90s or earlier, but watching the 1992 Rumble, I totally understand why everything about it is so beloved by long-time fans.
With arguably the most star-studded Rumble ever, and the number 3 entry spot, it was going to be one hell of a challenge for Ric Flair to come out victorious in the 1992 Royal Rumble, a match that was for the vacant WWF Championship. If there’s one thing you can rely on Ric Flair to do though, it’s to find a way to win by any means necessary.
After one hell of a Rumble match, Ric Flair would throw Sid Justice over the ropes (with a little help from Hulk Hogan) to win the match and claim his first WWF Championship. Immediately afterwards Flair would cut one of his best promos “with a tear in his eye”.
While Flair’s run with the title would be very long, with him losing it to Randy Savage a couple of months later at Wrestlemania 8, it felt like a massive deal, that the guy who was all about the NWA and old-school wrasslin’ was the undisputed champion of the WWF, at least for a little while.
1 – Stone Cold Steve Austin – 1997, 1998 & 2001
Could it really have been anyone else?
Being the only man (to date) to have won three Royal Rumble matches is quite the achievement, considering there are only a select few superstars that get to win one. The Royal Rumble just seemed to be where Austin could be at his best.
While the 1997 Rumble wasn’t all that good overall, it had some really great moments, all of which had something to do with Stone Cold. The sequence where Stone Cold had cleared the ring and was throwing people out faster than they were coming in was great to see, and the image of Austin sitting on the turnbuckle checking his watch is an iconic Royal Rumble image. It got even better when the expression of Austin’s face would change from whimsy to fear the moment Bret Hart’s music played.
Austin’s first Rumble win, however, was a tad tainted. For one, Austin was actually eliminated from the match, but the referees were busy breaking up a fight at ringside between Vader and The Undertaker, which allowed Austin to sneak back into the ring and eliminate Bret Hart after the hitman thought he had won.
Due to the controversial nature of the win, Austin’s title shot wouldn’t come at Wrestlemania, but instead at In Your House 13, where he would lose a fatal 4 way, and go on to have his infamous match with Bret Hart at Wrestlemania 13.
1998 was a vast improvement from this. For starters, this time instead of Austin looking terrified, it was everyone else who looked on in fear when Austin’s music hit at the number 24 spot. Austin would then go balls to the walls eliminating everyone in sight until eventually he tossed The Rock out of the ring, and would win his first ever WWF Championship from Shawn Michaels at Wrestlemania 24.
2001 was yet another triumphant win for Austin, not going on quite the same tear he did in ’97 or ’98 thanks to some well-placed shots by Triple H, but a fantastic performance nonetheless. The 2001 Rumble was also a very star-studded one, with the amazing final 4 of The Rock, Austin, Kane and Billy Gunn (well they can’t ALL be winners). Regardless, Stone Cold would come out victorious and go on to fight The Rock for the WWF Championship at Wrestlemania 17, where he would win the title by shaking hands “with the Devil himself”.
Three Rumble wins, all of which had at least some really great qualities to them lands Austin undisputedly in the top spot on this list.
And that – as they say – is that. Thank you so much for reading this list (kudos if you didn’t just skim to see the top and bottom three), but the fun doesn’t stop here! The Rumble is a mere 6 days away, so I shall be giving out my predictions on Friday, and a review the following week.
Stay tuned for that, and follow me on Twitter @10ryawoo to read it as soon as it comes out!
The Strong Style Smark 