5 times the Royal Rumble rules made no sense
The Royal Rumble is seemingly the easiest concept in the world to understand. Entrants enter at regular intervals. You need to eliminate each other until one person is left in the match. You need to be thrown over the top rope and both feet need to touch the floor for a person to be eliminated.
Yet, somehow, the WWE have somehow managed to mess up and complicate this very simple concept. Let’s look at how the rules have become somewhat confusing over the years.
#1 Royal Rumble 1996 – Shawn Michaels is eliminated by Vader
This was Vader’s WWF debut. The Royal Rumble match was won by Shawn Michaels. However, during the match, Vader threw Shawn Michaels out of the ring, after he and Yokozuna had eliminated each other.
WWE explained that the elimination did NOT count because Vader had been eliminated, however, over the years, a number of men have been eliminated EXACTLY the same way, and the eliminations counted.
Also read: 25 Interesting Royal Rumble facts that will stun you
It was even more significant because Shawn Michaels actually won the match, so Vader eliminating him added a huge asterisk to the win. Shawn Michaels and Vader would go in contrasting directions after this event, mainly stemming from their issues with each other.
Michaels would win the WWE Championship from Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII and face Vader at SummerSlam 1996. Michaels vs Vader was meant to be a 3 match series, with matches at Survivor Series and the Royal Rumble, in San Antonio.
However, Sid replaced Vader in the program, after Michaels criticised Vader’s work to the WWE officials and refused to work with him again on a PPV.