Top 5 Royal Rumble Winners
Next month, the WWE will produce its most anticipated event in Phoenix, Arizona. The Royal Rumble is the second most important event of the year as it starts the "Road to WrestleMania".
30 of WWE's best superstars compete for the opportunity to headline the grandest stage of them all, WrestleMania.
The general belief is that the bigger and stronger wrestlers have a better chance of winning the match, but athletic wrestlers like Rey Mysterio have also won it to kickstart some of the phenomenal underdog stories.
The match is always good for some heart-stopping moments, dramatic returns, and soap opera worthy controversy to kick off the road to WrestleMania. The winner of the Royal Rumble sets the main event of WrestleMania as he gets to select the champion of his choice.
Let's take a look at the 5 best Royal Rumble winners over the years.
#5 The Rock
The Rock won one of the least star-studded Royal Rumbles ever. He was an overwhelming favourite heading in, so much that the other entrances didn't matter, but the story here isn't the Royal Rumble that makes it great, it's the journey heading into WrestleMania 2000 that was.
After appearing to have lost the match, Big Show claimed that his feet hit the floor first. For several weeks on Raw, Show offered witnesses, photos, and videos of the incident to prove his agenda. It was eventually decided by Mr McMahon that the Big Show provided enough evidence to warrant a match at No Way Out PPV with the Wrestlemania title shot on the line.
During the match, Shane McMahon returned to help Big Show win the match and the title shot, or so we thought. The Rock attempted a few times to regain the number one contender-ship, but between Shane, HHH, and Stephanie, he would have no such luck. In the final attempt to regain the title shot, Vince McMahon returned to help The Rock secure the fall and the ticket to go to WrestleMania but Shane McMahon and Big Show forced their way into the WrestleMania main event, appearing to set up a triple threat match.
However, the match actually happened on Raw with HHH retaining the title. At the end of the match, Linda McMahon appeared to announce that the WrestleMania main event will feature four men, adding Mick Foley into the mix. HHH would retain the title at WrestleMania as well and by the time we got to the show of shows, the Rumble’s guaranteed title shot was a small afterthought.