The Best Royal Rumble Matches Ever: Ranked
Who will join this elite cadre of previous Rumble winners?
This Sunday, January 29th, 2017, WWE will put on its 30th annual Royal Rumble PPV and eponymous match. This is one of the most exciting time of the year for wrestling fans because the Rumble itself is one of the most important and unpredictable matches WWE puts on.
This year, the WWE hype train has been in full swing. As of January 24th, 22 of the 30 entrants in the Rumble match have already announced (or, in Sami Zayn’s case, qualified for) their participation. So far, we only know these men will be in the match; little to nothing has yet been mentioned about the order.
So for all intents and purposes, we very well might get to see Goldberg actually wrestling the Undertaker for the first time ever, which would be huge in itself.
But the fun doesn’t end there. NJPW Superstar Kenny Omega has been fueling a firestorm of rumours that he may or may not be in the Royal Rumble match. This speculation has been amplified by John Cena posting Omega pictures on his social media pages, which he did for AJ Styles last year.
All of this has made many fans more excited than ever to see the Royal Rumble match take place.
But the Royal Rumble match wasn’t always so much fun. If you think it’s hard for WWE to book a singles match between two wrestlers, imagine how difficult it is for a match that’s usually an hour long and involves thirty men, all of them doing different things at the same time.
As a result of that, previous Rumble matches have been both good and bad in terms of booking and execution. Some have withstood the test of time and have become legendary matches. Others, meanwhile, have been booked or received so badly they’ll live forever in infamy.
This article will rank all of the Royal Rumble matches from worst to best, with each year identifying its respective winner(s).
#29 2015 (Roman Reigns):
The look on the Rock's face said it all...
This notoriously-bad Rumble match will forever go down in history as the worst iteration of the annual event of all time. Not because Reigns won, but because the actual story told during the match was done in such terrible fashion. Daniel Bryan was eliminated after only ten minutes into the match.
Popular mid-carder Damien Sandow/Mizdow lasted less than one minute before being eliminated, despite being one of the most popular acts on the roster. Even if he went nuts and eliminated two people for 30 seconds, that would’ve been much better than what actually happened.
Then, there was the ending.
Big Show and Kane eliminated fan favourites Bray Wyatt, Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler, one by one, with the powers backstage hoping that the fans wouldn’t have any other choice but to cheer Reigns.
It backfired spectacularly, with the fans booing Reigns out of the building, cheering Rusev of all people, and even booing the Rock, who had come out to try and salvage this mess. Hopefully, WWE never attempts to force a wrestler down fans’ throats like this ever again; if it does, things could get far worse.
#28 2014 (Batista):
This match took place just as Daniel Bryan’s ‘Yes Movement’ was gaining major steam. He was the most popular Superstar on the roster to the point that fans cheered him far more than anyone else. Unfortunately for WWE, he wasn’t in the company’s long-term plans at that point, which led to the fans turning on this match…HARD.
No one expected Bryan to participate in the Rumble match, given his earlier match with Bray Wyatt. Still, there was this unrealistic hope that he would anyway.
So when he didn’t, the fans hijacked the event, booing everyone in the ring including Rey Mysterio. They even cheered then-heel Roman Reigns, which gave WWE the false impression that he was over with them when in reality, they were only reacting in opposition to WWE going with its own plans.
With such a hostile crowd demolishing the atmosphere of this match, this edition of the Rumble can only be enjoyed if you want to watch WWE’s long-term plans blow up.
#27 1995 (Shawn Michaels)
This moment is the only good part of this Rumble match.
WWE likes to hype up this match as a critical moment in Shawn Michaels’ career, winning from the very first spot. What they ignore on a regular basis is that this was the shortest Rumble match in the event’s history, lasting a mere 38:41.
The match’s short length reduced any kind of drama the match might’ve had. Few of the wrestlers involved in the match had any lasting impact; this match was pretty much all about Shawn Michaels and, to a lesser extent, the British Bulldog. Not an exciting match by any stretch of the imagination.