5 memorable Royal Rumble competitors who never won the match

Over 1500 men and women have competed in the Royal Rumble match since its inception in 1988. However, only a handful of them has been lucky enough to get their tickets to a WrestleMania World Championship match. Braun Strowman was the only exception, receiving a trophy and championship belt that were barely mentioned again after the event.

The odds of outlasting every other opponent to win the Rumble are incredibly slim, making the winners instantly memorable. However, this has not stopped several participants from writing their names in Rumble lore.

Despite never winning the annual 30-person battle royal, wrestlers like Daniel Bryan (longest time in a single edition), Santino Marella (shortest time), Naomi (inventive elimination escapes) have made themselves memorable.

Here are five of the most memorable Rumble competitors never to win it

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#5 Kane is a Royal Rumble records machine

With 19 Royal Rumble appearances and 45 eliminations, Kane is easily the most experienced entrant of all time. The numbers rise to 21 and 46, respectively, if you consider his stints as Isaac Yankem DDS and Fake Diesel. Additionally, The Big Red Machine once held the record for most eliminations in a single Rumble for 13 years. He also holds the record for the fastest elimination ever.

Considering that the Mayor of Knoxville is still in fantastic shape, he can don the mask again and extend these records. Summing up all these milestones, it is evident that Kane is one of the most memorable superstars ever to enter the annual Battle Royale.

#4 Kofi Kingston is a walking Royal Rumble highlight reel

The Royal Rumble is quite simply Kofi Kingston's playground. The former WWE Champion has made it almost an annual tradition to escape elimination in the most innovative ways. As if that was not enough, he follows his survival tactics up by immediately getting eliminated in an equally ridiculous manner.

His feats of agility include landing on a tray of pancakes, walking on his hands, clinging to the barricade, and using an announcer's chair like a pogo stick after being thrown over the top rope. These hilarious shenanigans have put him firmly among the most-anticipated participants every single year.

The WWE Universe can't wait to see what Sir Kofi has up his sleeve this year.

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#3 Mick Foley lit up the 1998 Royal Rumble by entering it thrice

Mick Foley holds the record for most characters entered by a single wrestler into the Royal Rumble (shared with Kane) at three. However, it's one thing to enter three separate Rumbles as three individual gimmicks and another to enter the same Rumble thrice!

This is precisely what Mrs. Foley's baby boy did in the 1998 edition. Having entered at #1 as Cactus Jack, Foley returned to the match at #16 after being the second superstar eliminated. After lasting nine minutes the first time, it only took him two minutes to be eliminated by Goldust. He finally returned as Dude Love, lasting seven minutes before being ousted by Farooq.

Foley had many more memorable Rumble moments, of course, but his appearances in 1998 alone were enough to score him a spot on this list.

#2 Big Show is the Royal Rumble definition of so close yet so far

As memorable Royal Rumble non-winners go, few have come close to the Big Show. The Giant, now known as Paul Wight, infamously lost the 2000 match to the Rock despite the latter's feet appearing to touch the floor first. The incident is one of the most infamous botches in WWE history.

It reportedly forced the company to change its planned Wrestlemania 2000 main event by adding Show and Mick Foley to the mix. Thus, out of the 7-Foot, 500-pounder's misfortune came forth the "A McMahon in every corner" match, from which he was eliminated first. He endured more Rumble agony in 2004, this time finishing runner-up against Chris Benoit.

To add insult to the injury, The Rock teased him about the 2000 Rumble finish in a RAW backstage segment on January 25, 2016.

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#1 Chris Jericho has spent the most time EVER in the Royal Rumble match

Despite only being ninth on the all-time Royal Rumble appearance list, Chris Jericho is the match's all-time "iron man." The Canadian-born star is only 27 seconds shy of 5 hours in Rumble contention. However, he has never won the match, making his feat even more incredible.

Jericho has been the "iron man" for an individual match twice, clocking in at 38 minutes and 54 seconds in the 2003 edition and 1 hour and 13 seconds in 2017. For the purposes of this list, at least, it is somewhat poetic that Le Champion's final appearance in WWE came at the 50-man Greatest Rumble in 2018.

While Randy Orton can surpass the Ayatollah of Rock-N-Rolla by lasting 26 minutes in the upcoming match, no one can dispute that Y2J is a bonafide Rumble legend.