Major WWE Superstars who have not yet won the Royal Rumble Match
There are plenty of ways to succeed in WWE, as the checklist of accomplishments includes achievements such as wrestling in a main event of WrestleMania, winning any number of Championships, becoming Mr Money in the Bank and so on. One of those, in particular, that many fans consider a staple, is to win at least one Royal Rumble match.
Unfortunately, in a field of 30 men, only one person can win each year, and after having 30 of these matches, there have been numerous two-time winners (or in one case, a three-time winner in Stone Cold Steve Austin).
Because of that, many of the greats have never been able to pull off this gargantuan task, despite being noteworthy enough that it would have been entirely within the realm of possibility for them to be chosen as the sole survivor.
For the purposes of this article, we'll be looking back on only the current and active roster members who have been shafted when it comes to Royal Rumble victories.
Plenty of fantastic Superstars from various eras weren't able to conquer this feat, but to name all of those who have retired (Ted DiBiase, Razor Ramon, etc) along with those who have passed on (Mr Perfect, Roddy Piper, etc) and those who aren't even in WWE anymore (CM Punk, Jeff Hardy, etc) would be a nearly endless list.
The same applies to younger main event talent who have only recently been added to the roster and can’t be expected to win on their first try.
However, there is still a surprisingly large amount of WWE's 2017 roster who have reached a level in the hierarchy of importance, where it's somewhat surprising they don't have a Royal Rumble win to their names.
In no particular order, let's take a look at some of those wrestlers who should have been given this honour by now.
#1 Big Show
Every year, WWE makes a huge deal about how size is one of the most advantageous traits in a Royal Rumble winner, but oddly enough, the biggest dog in the fight isn't normally the winner. Just ask Big Show, who has been in over half of the Royal Rumbles in history, yet never won a single time, despite being the biggest hurdle to get over more often than not.
The World's Largest Athlete has the size, speed and strength to replicate Andre the Giant's battle royal success, but WWE has never gone with the obvious booking decision to just have him win like he most likely would if this weren't scripted.
Instead, he's used as a boss level of sorts, where someone else has to struggle to get him over the top rope. This is either by someone who is also going to lose the match but also needs to be booked strong, or it's by the eventual winner who overcomes all the odds like Chris Benoit in 2004.
Big Show was in the final four on four separate occasions (2000, 2004, 2012 and 2015)—putting him in the second-highest tier for that statistic. Two of those times, he was the runner-up, which must be even more frustrating.
While Big Show looks to be in the best shape of his career right now, it's obvious that time is going to catch up to him sooner rather than later and he won't be around for another decade to be able to get back into a spot where WWE values him enough to give him a Royal Rumble win.