5 Most infamous botches in WWE Royal Rumble history
The Royal Rumble might be the greatest concept in wrestling, with the simple idea of 30 Superstars entering the ring one after the other at staggered intervals. It has birthed several memorable moments and made countless stars in WWE.
And with so much action going on in the ring most of the time, it is natural that something might go wrong. There have been several unplanned moments that occurred during the Royal Rumble, some of which were detrimental to the flow or the outcome of the match.
Accidental eliminations make up the bulk of this list, but that is not all. Quite a few things went wrong at the Rumble, with WWE either addressing it or scrambling to work around it depending on the severity of the botch. Here are the five most infamous botches in the history of the Royal Rumble Match.
#5 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin gets eliminated early (WWE Royal Rumble 1996)
The most accomplished competitor in Royal Rumble history is 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin, who has won the match three times. He was also the Iron Man of two other Rumbles. However, his first appearance in the match was not one that will be remembered as all of his others.
Austin was set to be a part of the 'Final Four' of the 1996 Royal Rumble Match, but he was prematurely eliminated. A while before his planned elimination spot, The Rattlesnake was dumped out of the ring. He was clotheslined over the top rope by Fatu but wasn't able to hang on.
While discussing this botch, Austin said that the ropes were very slippery because of everybody wearing baby oil back then. He also mentioned how he needed to get the attention of Shawn Michaels, who then had to figure out to work around the elimination. Luckily for Austin, his WWE career only went uphill from that point.
That being said, 'Stone Cold' Steve Austin was involved in another Royal Rumble botch one year later. There were some issues with the countdown clock at the start of the 1997 Rumble Match, with him entering at number 5 without any prior indication.