Top 5 underwhelming WWE Royal Rumble winners of all time
The Royal Rumble is one of the most eagerly anticipated events of the year. Ever since its inception, the Rumble event has garnered great interest due to its unpredictable nature and format.
Royal Rumble events rarely disappoint, and are usually among the best PPVs of the year. The Royal Rumble match-ups in recent years have delivered greatly, and have had the right mix of surprises and star power.
Royal Rumble has had its fair share of surprising winners in the past. Not all the winners have gone on to become major stars, and have disappointed tremendously. Past winners like Shawn Michaels, Ric Flair, Steve Austin, etc, have become icons of the industry.
We look at five winners of the mega match-up, who failed to break the glass ceiling, and were not successful.
#5 Roman Reigns - 2015
Roman Reigns has done it all in WWE. He defeated the Undertaker at WrestleMania, replaced John Cena as the "guy", main-evented four WrestleMania events in a row, and the list goes on.
Reigns however won the 2015 Royal Rumble, which led to a massive fan backlash. Reigns eliminating Big Show and Kane (two superstars way past their prime) to win the Rumble was a terrible decision which ultimately led to a negative reaction from the Philadelphia crowd.
His win resulted in the Rock being booed for the first time in over 15 years, and started the long passage of hatred towards Reigns.
Reigns has dominated every Rumble he has been in, and finished runner-up on three separate occasions. He eliminated a record number of superstars in 2014, won the Rumble in 2015, defended his World Championship in 2016, and finished second in both 2017 and 2018.
Reigns is by no means an unsuccessful WWE Superstar, but his victory at the Rumble was a huge blunder.