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The Royal Rumble has been an annual tradition on WWE's calendar since 1988, but that doesn't mean that the event hasn't seen it's fair share of changes over the years. While this series has already covered the quirky 1988 Royal Rumble, which had only 20 entrants instead of the now traditional 30 entrants and the 2011 Royal Rumble which contained 40 participants. The original Royal Rumble also had entrants separated by 2-minute intervals, instead of the "90-second" intervals.
In 1994, Lex Luger and Bret Hart were the joint winners of the Royal Rumble that year as they were adjudicated to have both hit the floor at the same time. The storyline WWF President at the time, Jack Tunney, decided that both Luger and Hart would be able to face off against the champion at that years Wrestlemania for the title. By virtue of a coin toss on Monday Night Raw, it was decided that Luger would face the champion, Yokozuna first in the event and Hart would face the champion later in the night.
Luger lost his challenge for the title at WrestleMania by disqualification after shoving the special guest referee Mr. Perfect, while Hart was successful later that same night. Crowning him as the WWF Champion, his second run with the title.
However, in 2015 when Batista and John Cena were deemed to have fallen out of the ring and landed on to the floor at the same time, Vince McMahon came to the ring and ordered the match to be restarted with just Cena and Batista. Batista would then win the restart after delivering a Spinebuster to Cena before eliminating him from the Royal Rumble.
You can see the other entries in this series below:
Part 1 is here; Part 6 is here; Part 11 is here
Part 2 is here; Part 7 is here; Part 12 is here
Part 3 is here; Part 8 is here; Part 13 is here
Part 4 is here; Part 9 is here; Part 14 is here
Part 5 is here; Part 10 is here; Part 15 is here
#5 Vickie Guerrero (2018) - Eliminated 12th - 0 Eliminations
With a need to fill the first ever women's Royal Rumble in 2018 in order to get to the 30 entrants required, lots of former talent were brought back as participants for the historic event.
This included Vickie Guerrero, the former Smackdown General Manager and the wife of the late-Eddie Guerrero. Vickie returned to her heel general manager ways when she returned for the Royal Rumble, imploring the Philidelphia crowd to "Excuse Me".
Guerrero certainly captured the attention of the female superstars in the ring as they all stopped fighting and turned their attention to her. Unfortunately, this also allowed for all the women to attack Vickie instead, picking her up and depositing her over the top rope.
Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks, Ruby Riott and Michelle McCool were all credited with the elimination afterwards as Guerrero set the benchmark for the quickest elimination in the women's Royal Rumble at 57 seconds.
# 4Bo Dallas (2013) - Eliminated 21st - 1 Elimination
Back in 2013, Bo Dallas was part of the fledgling NXT developmental brand that had taken over WWE's old Florida Championship Wrestling slot and was beginning to become its own brand.
In January of 2013, a few days before the Royal Rumble event at the Royal Rumble Fanfest, NXT held a tournament with the winner granted a spot in the 2013 Royal Rumble. Bo Dallas beat Luke Harper, Conor O'Brian, and Leo Kruger to win the tournament and would make his main roster debut at the Royal Rumble as the 16th entry.
Dallas would enter the Royal Rumble and finish in the top 10 and eliminated the Intercontinental Champion, Wade Barrett, from the Rumble match. Barrett would gain revenge by coming back into the ring and eliminating Dallas.
The two would feud over the coming month with Dallas appearing on both NXT and main roster shows.
#3 Johnny Nitro (2006) - Eliminated 23rd - 2 Elimination
The 2006 Royal Rumble saw the tag team M.N.M enter the Royal Rumble, Joey Mercury was the first to enter the Rumble, coming into the match at the 14th position. 2 entries later, his tag team partner Johnny Nitro would join the Royal Rumble. M.N.M, the Tag Team Champions, would work together to eliminate Takanka together.
Later in the Royal Rumble, the two would work together to try and eliminate Shawn Michaels from the match. While lining Michaels up for their double team finisher, called the Snapshot, Michaels poked Nitro in the eye and sent Mercury over the ropes on to the ring apron.
Nitro then barrelled into Mercury, accidentally eliminating him. Shawn Michaels would then eliminate Nitro with a clothesline over the top rope. Nitro clocked a final Royal Rumble time of 25 minutes and 45 seconds.
#2 The Undertaker (2009) Eliminated 26th - 4 Elimination
While the 2009 Royal Rumble centered on the story between Triple H and Legacy, with Randy Orton last eliminating Triple H to win. The Undertaker, entering the Royal Rumble at number 16 would make it to the final 5 before getting eliminated himself. The Phenom battled hard after entering in the Royal Rumble, occasionally teaming up with Kane and working with Rey Mysterio to eliminate Mark Henry.
The Undertaker would last 32 minutes and 30 seconds in the Royal Rumble and eliminated JTG, Shelton Benjamin, Mark Henry, and Chris Jericho along the way. Prior to being eliminated, the Undertaker had knocked the Big Show over the top rope with a big boot and looked to add the Big Show to his list of eliminations. Randy Orton, however, had other ideas and delivered an RKO to the Big Show to send him out of the Royal Rumble.
As Orton and Legacy turned their attention to The Phenom, who was also on the ring apron, Undertaker rallied and had both DiBiase and Rhodes in position for a double chokeslam. However, the Big Show took 'Taker off the ring apron and the two continued to brawl back up the ramp.
#1 Randy Orton (2007) - Eliminated 27th - 2 Eliminations
Two years before Randy Orton would win his first Royal Rumble match, he would make it to the final four of the 2007 Royal Rumble against Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker and Orton's tag team partner at the time Edge. Orton would eliminate Super Crazy and Matt Hardy during his time in the ring. Despite having both members of the tag team, both Orton and Edge were eliminated by Shawn Michaels as they were both attacking Undertaker.
Orton would last 27 minutes and 15 seconds on his way to his fourth-place finish, and the match would almost result in the break up of his world championship tag team with Edge. However, Orton would bounce back to win the 2009 Royal Rumble after missing the 2008 Royal Rumble as he was the WWE Champion at the time and retained his title against Jeff Hardy at the event.
