4 Interesting facts heading into Royal Rumble 2020
The Road to WrestleMania always begins at the Royal Rumble, usually with the winners of the titular matches going on to headline WrestleMania. One of the main reasons that the Royal Rumble is one of the most exciting pay-per-views of the year is due to how unpredictable the match truly can be. This year looks to be no different, as WWE Champion Brock Lesnar will enter this year’s Royal Rumble and will aim to be the third man in WWE history to win the match entering from the #1 slot.
Whilst there are a number of interesting statistics the WWE Universe may already be aware of such as the #27 entrant being the most successful entrant in the match, Santino Marella unfortunately holding the record of being eliminated the quickest at 1 second in 2009, a total of four women entering the Men's Royal Rumble match, and Stone Cold Steve Austin being the only wrestler to win the Royal Rumble match on three separate occasions, there are a number of additional facts and statistics that the WWE fans may not be aware of.
#4 Entrants from 12 numbers have still never won the Men’s Royal Rumble match
It’s hard to argue that a wrestler entering the Royal Rumble match at position #30 has a better chance of victory than a wrestler who entered near the start and has had to face off against half of the locker room already. Whilst a few wrestlers have defied the odds, such as Shawn Michaels in 1995 entering at #1 and Rey Mysterio in 2006 entering at #2, the statistics heavily favour the wrestlers that enter much later. This is why it should be no surprise that almost 60% of all the Royal Rumble winners have come from the last third of the entrants, and 34% of winners have entered at numbers 27, 28, 29, or 30.
However, a more interesting statistic is that there are still 12 numbers that have never seen a winner of the men's Royal Rumble match. Taking into consideration that there have already been 32 Royal Rumble pay-per-views, the fact that almost half of the numbers have still never had a winner is a shocking statistic. The number is even higher if you count the 40 man Royal Rumble in 2011 or the 50 Man Greatest Royal Rumble in 2018.
The numbers that have yet to taste victory in this match are: 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21, and 26. Bearing this in mind, almost half of the participants in this year’s Men’s Royal Rumble match will want to change this statistic.