Top 10 Royal Rumble Matches

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear, the Royal Rumble is the best night in wrestling. The buzz and excitement surrounding it is unmatched by anything. You have surprise returns, it could be a legend out there to give everyone a glance back to their younger days, it could be an injured wrestler making their triumphant return. Most importantly, it kicks off the “Road to WrestleMania” everyone makes their predictions, usually people pick out of hope (I picked Dolph Ziggler to win in 2015, yikes) and when WWE picks a good Rumble winner it’s an incredible feeling, the Royal Rumble match is the peak of wrestling excitement, here are the Top 10 Royal Rumble Matches.

#10. 2020 Men’s: Starting off with a potentially controversial pick aren’t we. Let me explain, Brock Lesnar is the final boss of WWE, ever since he ended the streak, Brock has become an invincible beast and defeating him was once considered the impossible, until they had him get annihilated by Goldberg and defeated by Seth Rollins at WrestleMania 35. The point is Brock Lesnar had lost some of his luster so they needed a way to bring it back, and what better way then to have him murder half of the Royal Rumble field. He entered number one while already being WWE champion for reasons I don’t fully understand nor care about. He then tossed out 13 wrestlers, 7 of them in under a minute. Robert Roode? Gone, John Morrison? See ya, MVP? Welcome back, bye now. It legitimately looked like Brock could go all the way and eliminate all 29 others, that is until number 16 when out came Drew McIntyre. Accompanied by a MASSIVE pop from the crowd, McIntyre eliminated Brock Lesnar on his way to winning the Rumble,McIntyre made Lesnar look human, and would go on to main event WrestleMania 36 and defeat Brock clean in the middle of the ring to complete his redemption story. Oh and of course Edge made one of the emotional returns in wrestling history and let’s just say the Rated R Superstar was not the only one who cried up about it

#9. 2005: Despite a fascinating botched ending and a Vince McMahon quad tear, this Rumble was really quite good. We start with Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit being very good at wrestling, then Tough Enough winner Daniel Puder comes out and gets bullied by veterans to an uncomfortable extent. The less said about Muhammad Hassan the better, we get Snitsiky destroying Paul London in possibly the greatest elimination in Rumble history. The Rumble comes down to two men who would define the next few years of the company, John Cena and Batista, after the previously mentioned fascinating botch, Batista and John Cena managed to accidentally get eliminated at the precise same time, causing an awkward restart before Batista would win, and both men would end up winning their brand’s respective world titles at WrestleMania 21.

#8. 2018 Women’s: Despite some of WWE’s trademark dumb decisions, it really is incredible how far the women’s division has come, and there is no better way to see that then the fact that the women’s division has its own Royal Rumble match now. Aside from just how monumental the first women’s Royal Rumble was, there’s a lot to love about it from an in-ring perspective. You have Sasha Banks putting on an iron woman performance lasting 54 minutes, legends like Trish Stratus, Lita and Beth Phoenix making appearances, Nikki Bella almost winning which would’ve generated nuclear level heel heat before Auska winning and count our her run of dominance. It was a Royal Rumble match that will forever be remembered for how ground-breaking it was, and how good it was.

#7. 2003: In one of the best starts to a Royal Rumble match ever, Shawn Michaels entered number one, and for the number two entering we hear Chris Jericho’s music and he hits his signature pose at the top of the ramp, spins around to reveal that it’s not Chris Jericho, it’s...it’s Christian (shoutout Todd Grisham) Chris Jericho then process to sneak in the ring and beat the not yet worn chaps off of Michaels. This Rumble also features perhaps the most obvious winner of all time in Brock Lesnar, and this is the part where I remind you that predictable doesn’t always mean bad, January 2003 was still Brock’s time as the hottest thing in the company, and him winning the Rumble only made him even bigger.

#6. 2017: You know what always makes a good Royal Rumble? A straight up baffling amount of huge names. Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, Undertaker, now that’s a way to promote your elaborate Battle Royal. On the complete opposite side of the Rumble winner perspective as 2003, this had one of the most unpredictable winners in Rumble history, seriously find me anyone who picked Randy Orton to win the 2017 Rumble and I will find you a liar. This Rumble also saw Goldberg continue his near burial of Brock Lesnar and we got “The Perfect 10” Tye Dillinger entering at number 10, which was a fun touch to a fun Rumble.

#5. 1990: Speaking of star-studded Royal Rumble matches, let’s talk about 1990, I mean, Hulk Hogan, Andre the Giant, Dusty Rhodes, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Ted DiBiase, The Ultimate Warrior, Roddy Piper and Randy Savage all in one Rumble, like come on how many legends can we fit in this match? This match is also well remembered as giving us the showdown between Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior, before they could ruin it with their eventual match, this Rumble is phenomenal on sheer star power alone.

#4. 2001: Putting this Rumble this low is probably going to be good for the hate mail section, but that’s a testament to how good some of the Rumble matches have been. This Rumble saw Kane go full on monster mode and have a then-record 11 eliminations. Rikishi was in his vehicular manslaughter heel gimmick at this time and was treated as an actual serious threat. Eventually winner Stone Cold Steve Austin was attacked on his way to the ring by Triple H and left a bloody mess. Stone Cold managed to overcome massive blood loss because he’s just that tough and eliminated Kane with the help of a steel chair to win his third Royal Rumble match.

#3. 1992: Man if putting 2001 at number four doesn’t get me death threats then putting 1992 at three will. The 1992 Rumble deserves every bit of praise it gets, in a twist the Royal Rumble was not for a title shot at WrestleMania, but straight up for the WWE championship. Ric Flair, with a tear in his eye, became the first person in Rumble history to last over an hour in the match on his way to winning the match and becoming the new WWE champion in one of the most beloved moments in Royal Rumble history.

#2. 2007: This Rumble is best remembered for the epic final showdown between Shawn Michaels and the Undertaker. In a preview of their soon to come WrestleMania matches, the two reminded everyone of just why they are two of the greatest wrestlers ever. In addition to this incredible final two the 2007 Rumble also features a fun story with Rated RKO, the reigning World Tag Team Champions, everyone thought there was going to be a betrayal but nobody knew who was going to turn on whom. Other highlights include The Great Khali’s dominance before Undertaker entered at number 30, shout-out to Michael Cole’s incredible commentary when Undertaker’s theme hit, as well as Sabu taking a brutal elimination with Kane choke slamming him through a table on the outside. After the final showdown for the ages, The Undertaker became the first wrestler to win from the number 30 spot in the second greatest Royal Rumble ever

#1. 2010: Has anyone ever said that 2010 was the best Royal Rumble match ever? Because it absolutely is. Unlike most Rumbles the ring never really filled up to a point of it becoming a complete mess. The number of wrestlers in the ring at a time was limited and because of this, the wrestling was of much higher quality. There are many memorable parts of this Rumble, including CM Punk giving promos in his Straight Edge Savior gimmick while eliminating people quickly after they entered, Beth Phoenix becoming the second woman to ever appear in a Royal Rumble, and her even eliminating The Great Khali, Batista continuing his new heel run and eliminating Shawn Michaels, who was desperately trying to win so he could have the rematch against Undertaker at WrestleMania he felt he needed, and of course, the return of Edge. In this now second greatest Royal Rumble return ever, Edge came in and immediately went after Chris Jericho, the man who insulted him when he sustained his injury at a time when Edge and Jericho were the tag team champions, the two would continue this feud for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania a few months later.In the end, Edge won the Rumble by last eliminating John Cena to close out the best Royal Rumble match of all time.

Wrestling Trivia: Before what we know as the first Royal Rumble was won by Hacksaw Jim Duggan, the stipulation was tested out on a house show, who won this house show Royal Rumble?

DM @JackDownVSRaw on Twitter for the answer