In 1992, the WWF World Championship title was vacated, and it was declared that the winner of the match would be crowned the champion. However, in 1993 the rule was made that the winner of the Royal Rumble would face the Champion at Wrestlemania for the belt.
The 1992 rule of having the belt on the line was resurrected for the 2016 Royal Rumble with Roman Reigns being forced to put his WWE Championship on the line at the Royal Rumble and start the Rumble as the first entrant.
The winner of the Rumble hasn’t always been successful in their endeavors at getting the belt, with the Champion retaining their belt 10 out of the 24 times that they have faced the winner of the Royal Rumble. The winner of the Royal Rumble doesn’t always compete for the belt as well, with Steve Austin’s victory from the 1997 Royal Rumble stripped, and Vince McMahon surrendered his 1999 Royal Rumble opportunity instead of facing the Rock at Wrestlemania for the belt.
Randy Orton also forfeited his chance at the belt after winning the 2017 Royal Rumble, but after turning on Bray Wyatt he defeated AJ Styles to gain his spot back before beating Wyatt again for the title at Wrestlemania.
The Wrestlemania spot has also been put on the line in a match between the winner and an opponent of their choosing, including by Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Rey Mysterio, John Cena, and Roman Reigns.
You can see the other entries in this series below:
Part 1 is here
Part 2 is here
Part 3 is here
Part 4 is here
Part 5 is here
#5 Rusev (2014) - Eliminated 3rd - 0 Eliminations
While Rusev’s first appearance didn’t leave much of an impact, it came at a time before Rusev day, or even when Rusev was to make a splash in the WWE. It came at a time when Rusev was in NXT, then very much a developmental brand trying to establish itself out of the ruins of Florida Championship Wrestling and other secondary wrestling organizations that the WWE often farmed it’s talents off to.
Rusev was only the second person from NXT to appear at the Rumble while still in NXT, which spoke to the potential that they saw in him. The only NXT wrestler who had appeared at a Royal Rumble at that time was Bo Dallas. However, it has become a yearly tradition since 2016 with at least 1 NXT superstar appearing in the Royal Rumble.
#4 Curtis Axel (2015) - Never made it to the ring
While a few wrestlers have been attacked before making it to the ring, no one pushed that further than Curtis Axel.
The former ‘Michael Mcgillicutty’ and son of WWF legend ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Hennig, came out to the 2015 Royal Rumble as the 6th entry. However, he was attacked at the top of the ramp by Erik Rowan, who had lost a Royal Rumble qualification match against Luke Harper on Smackdown.
While Axel never made it to the ring, he carried the mantra forward that he had not been eliminated from the Royal Rumble, technically making him the winner. Axel then started interrupting other segments of the shows claiming that he was the winner of the Royal Rumble and therefore should receive the main event title shot at Brock Lesnar.
Axel also started using the phrase AxelMania in the lead up to Wrestlemania, a satire on Hulkamania, and briefly joined a tag team with Macho Mandow, Damien Sandow’s impression of Macho Man Randy Savage, called the Meta-Powers.
Unfortunately for Axel and Sandow, the tag team and gimmicks were dropped after WWE fired Hogan and cut all ties with the Hulkster.
#3 Chris Jericho (2016) - Eliminated 26th - 1 Elimination
The GOAT, Chris Jericho, is one of the best Royal Rumble participants ever as well as one of the best wrestlers ever. A part of Jericho’s legendary status is due to his performances at the Royal Rumble, including his ironman effort in 2016 where he lasted until the final 6 before being eliminated by Dean Ambrose.
While lasting 51 minutes and 20 seconds in the Royal Rumble, he pushed his total Rumble participation time up to 4 hours, 1 minute and 17 seconds and would go on to eclipse this performance in the 2017 Royal Rumble by posting a time of 1 hour and 13 seconds. Due to these ironman performances, Jericho is clear at the top of the longest cumulative time spent in the Royal Rumble, clocking in at over 5 hours, a full hour ahead of Triple H who is the next best.
Even though Jericho is seemingly no longer interested in appearing with the WWE, it seems like this record will take some effort to break.
#2 Rick Martel (1991) - Eliminated 26th - 4 Eliminations
Before 1991 Royal Rumble, no superstar had ever lasted longer than 45 minutes in the Royal Rumble, and the only person to come close in the three years was Ted DiBiase at 44 minutes. This was until Rick Martel stepped into the ring as the 6th entry of the 1991 Royal Rumble.
Under his ‘Model’ gimmick, Martel posted one of the earliest version of the modern-day ironman efforts in Royal Rumble history. Martel would eliminate Saba Simba, Jake ’the Snake’ Roberts, Hawk, and Jim ’the Anvil’ Neidhart before he was eliminated from the contest by the British Bulldog.
Roberts would get his revenge defeating Martel in a Blindfold match at Wrestlemania VII later in the same year culminating their roughly six-month long feud.
Martel’s record would only last a year until it was broken by Ric Flair in the 1992 Rumble, as Flair became the first person to break the hour mark in the Royal Rumble.
#1 Kane (2001) - Eliminated 29th - 11 Eliminations
In the 2001 Royal Rumble, Kane set a record for the most eliminations in a single Rumble, beating the previous mark of 10 set by Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1997 and Hulk Hogan in 1989.
During the Rumble itself, Kane would eliminate Grand Master Sexay, Steve Blackman, Al Snow, Raven, Perry Saturn, The Honky Tonk Man, Tazz, Crash Holly, Albert, Scotty 2 Hotty and the Rock, and would have eliminated comedian and guest entrant Drew Carey had it not been for Raven’s timely entry into the Royal Rumble.
During the Rumble, Kane looked like he had the match won throwing both the Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin over the top rope. However, only the Rock’s feet hit the floor as Austin remained on the apron.
The Big Red Machine gave a powerhouse performance and almost looked like he was going to win the entire match before being eliminated by the ‘Texas Rattlesnake’ Stone Cold Steve Austin.
0 votes
