WWE Royal Rumble winners: Where are they now? (1988-1999)
"Winning the Royal Rumble" is one of those career achievements in WWE that's as prestigious as winning an actual championship. After all, only 26 men (27 if you want to count Braun Strowman winning the "Greatest Royal Rumble" in Saudi Arabia, although we advise against it) and three women can claim such an accomplishment. So, it's a bit of an exclusive club. Even the records held within the event (longest time spent in the match, number of eliminations, etc.) are sources of pride.
Most of the Superstars who have won the Royal Rumble match have gone on to have some pretty great - even Hall of Fame worthy - careers. Others, well... haven't. But all of them deserve a place in history.
In this piece, we're going to look at the careers and current whereabouts of the winners of the Royal Rumble Match from the very first year, 1988, until the final one of the 20th century, 1999. We'll have another piece about the winners from 2000-2009 shortly after. We might even do 2010-2020, although that one should be fairly easy to write.
So, let's get to the very first entry, and the very first Royal Rumble winner ever.... TOUGH GUY! HOOOOOOOO!
10. Royal Rumble 1988 - 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan
The Pride of Gens Falls, NY, "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan is one of the most recognizable pro wrestlers of his era. For starters, he's one of three wrestlers in the history of the business to get a single word - "Hoooooo!" - over as a crowd-chantable catchphrase (if you can guess the other two, list them in the comments).
In 1988, an exhausted Duggan won the innaugural Rumble match (aired on the USA Network), when he pulled down the top rope to eliminate a charging One Man Gang.
Like a lot of his contemporaries, Duggan continues to wrestle sporadically on the independent scene. In 2014, he was a cast member on the WWE Network reality show 'Legends House', along with Roddy Piper, Gene Okerlund, and Pat Patterson. While he was most recently in the hospital for a heart condition, as of this writing, he is alive and well and happy, living with his wife Debra in South Carolina.