5 Best runner-up performances in Royal Rumble match history
Whenever a Superstar enters the dream known as the WWE, he does so with two things in his mind, the two things he craves to achieve - winning the Royal Rumble match and feature in the main event of WrestleMania. A lot of Superstars can call winning the Rumble as the high point of their career, and it is undoubtedly one of the most popular matches in professional wrestling, let alone WWE.
However, winning the match is not everyone's cup of tea. Only the lucky ones get to survive until the last few minutes and fight through the crowd to stamp their ticket to WrestleMania. While the Royal Rumble has seen some of the best Superstars winning the match, there have been a handful of them who gave them a tough fight en route their win.
Here are the five best runner ups in the history of the Royal Rumble match.
Honorable Mentions:-
Big Show (2004)
Randy Orton (2006)
Dean Ambrose (2016)
Roman Reigns (2018)
#5 Chris Jericho (2012)
It's a mind-boggling fact that despite being part of 11 Rumble matches and lasting more than 5 hours on the edge of the ring, Chris Jericho never won the prestigious Royal Rumble match. He has been the #1 entrant and has been the final entrant, yet he has never managed to outlast all the other competitors.
The closest he came to winning the match was back in 2012, the year when he was easily the favorite to win the battle. His return after an 18-month hiatus lit up the rumors of his dream match with CM Punk at WrestleMania XXVIII, and everyone expected him to finally win the Rumble match and face Punk for his WWE Title.
While he did face Punk at 'Mania, he was unfortunate as the other favorite, Sheamus, went on to win the contest after a long final stretch that was easily one of the best in recent times. For nearly five minutes, both Superstars successfully dodged eliminations before a Brogue Kick ended Jericho's dream of winning.