5 Royal Rumble Winners who should have Main Evented WrestleMania
Every January, the Royal Rumble match takes place and the winner of that match gets a chance to headline Wrestlemania and receives a World Title shot. In the past, winning the Royal Rumble match almost guaranteed a main event spot at WrestleMania for the winner against the World Champion of his choice but in the last few years due to the re-emergence of superstars of the attitude and ruthless aggression era (Part-timers), the main event spot has been reserved for superstars such as Brock Lesnar, The Rock etc. Due to this change, the Royal Rumble match winner fails to main-event WrestleMania if he is not facing a part-timer.
Of course, the main event of WrestleMania needs to be huge and thus, it needs star power and from a business perspective, that makes complete sense but as all of us know that back at WrestleMania 19, the Royal Rumble winner Brock Lesnar main evented the event with Kurt Angle. Lesnar got to main event even though huge matches like Vince McMahon vs. Hulk Hogan and The Rock vs. Stone Cold Steve Austin were on the card.
Back then, WWE used to take risks and promote the rising stars of that era against the superstars who had already established their legacy and were on their way out of full-time competition. Nowadays, WWE has more faith in part-timers than full-timers and here are 5 such superstars who won the Royal Rumble match and should have been given a chance to main event that year's WrestleMania.
#5 Alberto Del Rio
It might sound a little selfish but the only reason Alberto should have main evented WrestleMania was so that Edge could main event WrestleMania. Alberto Del Rio won the 40-man Royal Rumble match in 2011 and received a shot at the World Heavyweight Championship, held by Edge at that time, at WrestleMania. Del Rio unsuccessfully challenged Edge for the title and Edge ended up retaining the title but that match wasn't the main event at WrestleMania. The main event saw John Cena face The Miz for the WWE Championship, a match in which the special Guest Host, The Rock was heavily involved.
Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge turned out to be Edge's final professional wrestling match as he had to vacate the World Title and retire a few days after WrestleMania due to neck injuries. If the Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge match had been booked a little longer and had main evented WrestleMania, Edge would have finally gotten his WrestleMania main event. Edge's career is filled with amazing WrestleMania moments including his amazing spear to Jeff Hardy off a ladder, his spear to Mick Foley through a burning table etc. but he never got the chance to main event Mania and never will. This should have been his chance to main-event the big one.