WWE Royal Rumble: 10 Winners with the longest stay in the match
The Royal Rumble match is all about survival, even more than Survivor Series. Every superstar who enters the match hopes to survive until the very end and book his/her spot in a World Title match at WrestleMania. Every year, a total of 60 superstars enter two mammoth matches, but only two earn the right to call themselves the winner of the Royal Rumble match.
Another aspect that matters in the Royal Rumble is the entry number of the performer. While the superstar who enters the match in the last few spots can be considered lucky, given that they have to stay in the match for a lesser amount of time, a late spot in the match doesn't always guarantee a win.
That is not to say that there haven't been superstars who won the Royal Rumble despite being among the final few participants to enter the match. On the flip side, there have been a handful of Superstars who entered the match early, lasted for a significant amount of time, and somehow emerged victorious.
In fact, there have been exactly 10 such superstars, over the past 33 years, who won the Royal Rumble match with a performance lasting more than 30 minutes. As we enter the last few days before the 34th annual Royal Rumble, here are the 10 Royal Rumble winners with the longest stay in the Rumble match.
#10 Drew McIntyre - 34:11 (Royal Rumble 2020)
Being the main event of the latest Royal Rumble PPV, I'm sure every wrestling fan remembers the Men's Royal Rumble match from 2020 pretty well. Brock Lesnar dominated the first half of the match with arguably the most brutal performance in history. Plus, Edge's return, followed by Drew McIntyre's victory, were the highlights of the second half.
Not only was McIntyre the winner of the match, but he also had the longest stint in the match. Between the elimination of Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, McIntyre stayed in the match 34 minutes and 11 seconds, which is currently the 10th longest stint in the Royal Rumble that resulted in a win.
In addition to Lesnar and Reigns, McIntyre also dispatched The Miz, Seth Rollins, King Corbin, and Ricochet from the match. His winning performance catapulted him to superstardom, leading to two WWE Title reigns in the past 10 months.