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Every year, the WWE puts on its classic 30 man over the top rope elimination battle royal, affectionately known as the Royal Rumble. The premise is simple. Thirty men compete in a ring with only one rule - you must throw your opponent over the top rope so that they hit the floor below to win.
The Royal Rumble was not the first battle royal, or even the first pay per view to revolve around one. The Bunkhouse Stampede was the NWA's version of the event, and upped the ante by including blood, and sometimes a steel cage.
As far as the WWE version of the event goes, the inaugural Royal Rumble was not a pay per view at all, but a special event aired on the USA network. In that first Rumble, Hacksaw Jim Duggan would walk away the winner.
A few years later, a new stipulation was added to the annual Royal Rumble match: the winner would gain a main event title shot at Wrestlemania.
The Royal Rumble has been around so long, it's developed its own unique history. Here are ten of the wildest, most unexpected, most unbelievable moments in the history of the Royal Rumble match.
#10 Shawn Michaels goes the distance - Royal Rumble 1995
Given that the Royal Rumble is a thirty man over the top elimination match, and each man is assigned a random number, you might think that being number thirty provides a significant advantage, and you'd be right.
However, Shawn Michaels defied the odds in 1995. He drew number one, and stayed in the match for its entirety. There were many times it appeared he was about to lose the match, only to cling to the ring ropes like a freezing infant clings to its mother. Michaels wound up winning the Royal Rumble, despite the huge handicap of selecting number one.
#9 Ric Flair wins the Rumble and the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Back in 1991, Ted Turner had purchased Jim Crockett Productions, which included the contracts of many NWA wrestlers. One of those former NWA talents was none other than the Nature Boy Ric Flair.
Unfortunately for Ted Turner, the man he put in charge of managing talent was Jim Herd, former KPLR Tv St. Louis station manager. Herd's only wrestling experience was that an independently produced wrestling program, Wrestling at the Chase, happened to air on his network.
Herd wanted to remake Ric Flair, thinking he was 'boring.' Flair responded by saying he would just leave for WWE. Herd sent him packing, but refused to repay Flair the 10,000 dollar deposit the Nature Boy had on the WCW world title belt. The result was Flair showing up on WWE television with WCW's world title in tow.
He would enter the Royal Rumble at three, making him a long shot for the victory. Flair managed, like Michaels, to defy the odds, and would up winning not only the Rumble, but the WWE world title, which had been held up for the Rumble winner.
Once Flair had the WWE title, he quickly renounced his WCW belt and it was never seen on television again.
#8 Vince McMahon breaks records with a Royal Rumble win
The feud between WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and everyone's favorite alcoholic misanthrope Stone Cold Steve Austin is legendary. McMahon wanted to do everything in his power to keep Stone Cold from having the WWE world title and representing the company.
This led to Vince McMahon using every dirty trick in the book to cause misery for Stone Cold. In order to prevent Steve Austin from winning the Royal Rumble, he stacked the deck against the Texas Rattlesnake. Not only was Austin going to be the first man in the ring, his opponent was going to Vince McMahon himself.
McMahon mostly spent the opening minutes of the match running from Steve Austin. In fact, they both disappeared for most of the Rumble match, having gone through the middle ropes and not technically being eliminated.
Later, when the field was down to only a few, the pair would return to the match. Through dirty tricks and a fluke, McMahon managed to eliminate Stone Cold, giving him an ignoble record; McMahon is the only man to ever win the Rumble while only having a single elimination.
#7 The Price is Wrong for Drew Carey
These days, most people know Drew Carey as the affable, friendly host of the Price is Right game show.
However, back in 2001, he was a hot property in Hollywood. His Drew Carey Show had millions of dedicated fans. Since Drew Carey was a big WWE fan, he was invited to attend the Royal Rumble match.
While backstage, Vince McMahon greeted and shook hands with Drew Carey. During their conversation, McMahon suggested that Carey enter the Royal Rumble himself. When Drew Carey objected, McMahon pointed out that he had won it two years prior.
Thus, Drew Carey became a contestant in the 2001 Royal Rumble match. Carey managed to outlast both Matt and Jeff Hardy, but when Kane came to the ring his doom was foretold. Carey tried to bribe the Big Red Machine, to no avail. Fortuitous circumstance is all that prevented Carey from eating a massive chokeslam, and he wisely chose to eliminate himself from the match before being seriously injured.
#6 The Undertaker flips the script on Maven
Back in 2001, the WWE had just purchased its biggest rival, WCW. Now sitting on top of the sports entertainment mountain, with no major opposition, the WWE set out to expand its business empire and gain new fans.
One of the initiatives they used was the Tough Enough reality show, which aired on MTV networks. The whole point of Tough Enough was that the winner would wind up joining the WWE as a full time wrestler.
Maven won the contest, and due to an agreement with MTV he joined the main roster immediately, despite having little experience. Though no one could question Maven's work ethic or dedication, his lack of experience led to some less than stellar performances. Vince McMahon decided to have the Royal Rumble 2002 match be his last appearance.
The Undertaker was supposed to eliminate Maven from the Rumble. However, Taker did not agree with management about Maven. He admired the youngster's toughness and hard work, and also feared that firing Maven would hurt WWE's relationship with MTV.
So when Maven dropkicked Undertaker from behind, the Deadman would fly right over the top rope, then took several steps away from the ring so WWE could not use camera angles to hide his 'miscue' He then executed a beat down on Maven, as scripted, but did NOT throw Maven over the top rope.
Maven was unable to continue the match, but was never technically eliminated. This led to a surge of popularity for Maven and resulted in him garnering an extra year under WWE contract.
Undertaker simply told Vince the rope was slippery, but everyone knew that the Deadman had flipped the script because he thought that was best for business. Since Undertaker didn't defy orders to further his own career but Maven's, he got away with the stunt.
#5 Beth Phoenix eliminates the Great Khali
Beth Phoenix was not, in fact, the first woman to compete in a Royal Rumble match. Than honor goes to the dearly departed Ninth Wonder of the World, Chyna.
However, when she entered the Royal Rumble match in 2010, many fans figured that even if she couldn't win she would do well for herself, since Phoenix was a top tier athlete and power lifter. But when she was faced with the daunting task of taking out the seven foot Punjabi Playboy himself, the Great Khali, it seemed she was doomed from the start.
Beth Phoenix knew she couldn't rely on her power game to eliminate Khali, so she used guile instead, kissing the big man and distracting him long enough for the elimination.
There have been many spectacular eliminations in Royal Rumble history, but this was the first time a kiss was used as a deadly weapon.
#4 Santino Marella sets an ignoble record
For a very long time, there was a Royal Rumble record that no one thought would ever be broken. That record was held by one half of the Powers of Pain, the Warlord. Warlord had been eliminated from the Royal Rumble in a record setting three seconds.
Then, faster than you can say 'Hold my beer,' Santino Marella smashed that record to bits. During the Royal Rumble match in 2009, Santino Marella entered the ring only to be immediately clotheslined over the top rope by the Big Red Machine Kane.
Santino Marella hit the floor and strutted about for several seconds as if he were confused, but he could not escape reality. He had been in the Rumble match for 1.9 seconds, setting a record that exists to this day in the WWE.
#3 John Cena's surprise return
Many fans believed John Cena would miss nearly a year of action in 2008 after he announced a serious pector injury. It seemed as if Big Match John's scheduled return would take place well into the next year, meaning he would miss both the Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania.
Then something shocking happened. The lights went low, and then suddenly standing in the entrance ramp at the 2008 Royal Rumble was John Cena himself. Though his original prognosis was grim, Cena engaged in an aggressive rehabilitation routine that got him medically cleared in less than five months. His shocking return is still talked about as one of those 'can't predict it' moments in Rumble history.
#2 Roman Reigns and the Rock are booed
Sometimes, the time and place just aren't right for the rise of a new hero.
That was certainly true in the early 2000s, when Marvel tried - and quite frankly, failed - to bring one of their most celebrated properties, Daredevil, to movie screens. Even though superhero movies were a hot property in that era, the Ben Affleck led melodrama failed to ignite much interest at the box office.
Perhaps the same thing happened to Roman Reigns in the 2015 Royal Rumble match. It wasn't that Reigns was unpopular at the time - he regularly received cheers. The issue seemed to be that two particular superstars were the favorites to win the Royal Rumble among fans, and then that didn't happen.
On the heel side, Bray Wyatt was perhaps having his best career year, garnering huge ratings and merch sales based on his Wyatt Family stable. On the face side, Daniel Bryan was so ridiculously popular that WWE had a phenomenon on their hands before they knew what to make of the Yes Movement.
When neither of those favorites won, it put Roman Reigns in an unenviable position as a spoiler. Though he was scripted for a heroic comeback that included interference from his movie star cousin the Rock, Reigns was booed out of the arena. You can see the confusion on Rock's face, which was surely mirrored backstage in Vince McMahon's office.
#1 A Phenomenal, and long overdue, arrival
"AJ Styles will NEVER sign with WWE!"
"AJ Styles? He's too small for the WWE! No way will he ever be under contract."
"Even if AJ Styles ended up in WWE, he'd just be stuck on NXT. No way will they let him be a star."
"I doubt they'll even let him call himself AJ Styles!"
These were the kind of quotes flying around the pro wrestling world back in 2016. AJ Styles had long been a fixture of the TNA promotion, but became unsatisfied there and wound up in Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling. He became the leader of the Bullet Club and was a major star, but it looked like the Phenomenal One was going to retire before ever working a match for WWE.
Then the unthinkable happened. At the 2016 Royal Rumble, the words "I am Phenomenal" scrolled across the screen, and the fans exploded into happy cheers as AJ Styles made his debut. Not only had he bypassed NXT completely, he had been kept just as he was and was clearly being groomed as a major star. ALL of the predictions by the naysayers turned out to be wrong!
There you have it; Ten unbelievable Royal Rumble moments. Questions or comments? Please put them after the article, and as always thanks for reading!
