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Whenever a Superstar enters the dream known as the WWE, he does so with two things in his mind, the two things he craves to achieve - winning the Royal Rumble match and feature in the main event of WrestleMania. A lot of Superstars can call winning the Rumble as the high point of their career, and it is undoubtedly one of the most popular matches in professional wrestling, let alone WWE.
However, winning the match is not everyone's cup of tea. Only the lucky ones get to survive until the last few minutes and fight through the crowd to stamp their ticket to WrestleMania. While the Royal Rumble has seen some of the best Superstars winning the match, there have been a handful of them who gave them a tough fight en route their win.
Here are the five best runner ups in the history of the Royal Rumble match.
Honorable Mentions:-
Big Show (2004)
Randy Orton (2006)
Dean Ambrose (2016)
Roman Reigns (2018)
#5 Chris Jericho (2012)
It's a mind-boggling fact that despite being part of 11 Rumble matches and lasting more than 5 hours on the edge of the ring, Chris Jericho never won the prestigious Royal Rumble match. He has been the #1 entrant and has been the final entrant, yet he has never managed to outlast all the other competitors.
The closest he came to winning the match was back in 2012, the year when he was easily the favorite to win the battle. His return after an 18-month hiatus lit up the rumors of his dream match with CM Punk at WrestleMania XXVIII, and everyone expected him to finally win the Rumble match and face Punk for his WWE Title.
While he did face Punk at 'Mania, he was unfortunate as the other favorite, Sheamus, went on to win the contest after a long final stretch that was easily one of the best in recent times. For nearly five minutes, both Superstars successfully dodged eliminations before a Brogue Kick ended Jericho's dream of winning.
#4 John Cena (2005)
The 2005 Royal Rumble was kind of a historic one for WWE as it featured the start of a transition in the organization. Not only did it feature the last successful World Heavyweight Title defense for Triple H, but it also featured a bunch of up and coming Superstars who were starting their climb to superstardom.
Two of those superstars were Batista and John Cena, both of whom were not only the final two participants in the Royal Rumble match but also the eventual winners of World Heavyweight and WWE Title respectively at WrestleMania 21. At Rumble though, Cena was not lucky enough to walk out with a victory as Batista took the win that night.
Their tussle, however, was full of excitement. After dispatching the rest of the field, the two had a mini showdown before a blunder resulted in both of them going over the top rope at the same time. Once the match was restarted, The Animal wasted no time in eliminating Cena to win the 2005 Royal Rumble, making The Doctor of Thuganomics wait for three more years to win the contest.
#3 The Rock (1998)
The Royal Rumble from 1998 is mostly remembered for three main things - Mick Foley appearing in the same Rumble match three times, Shawn Michaels suffering a career-ending injury, and Kane setting The Undertaker on fire. However, one thing that often gets unnoticed is The Rock's performance in the Royal Rumble match.
Entering at number 4 in the match, The Rock stayed in the match for over 50 minutes and outlasted 27 other Superstars, including former Nation of Domination leader Farooq. But like it happened so many times, a certain Rattlesnake got the better of him before he could register his maiden Rumble match victory.
Scrambling in the middle of the ring for the final few minutes of the match, The Rock and Steve Austin gave a glimpse of the chemistry they went on to share in the future as they wrestled a fantastic closing stretch. A massive stunner by Austin, however, brought an end to The Rock's stunning run in the match as The Rattlesnake registered his second consecutive Rumble victory and made The Great One wait for two more years for his win.
#2 Kane (2001)
When you look at the history of Royal Rumble, few Superstars have been more dominant in the Rumble match than The Devil's Favorite Demon. In his over two decades long career, Glenn Jacobs not only took part in an unprecedented 17 Royal Rumble matches under the gimmick of Kane but also eliminated a record 43 people from the match.
Despite all these marvelous numbers, Kane was never a pre-match favorite to win this gigantic contest. However, he took the whole world by storm with just a solitary performance, that solidified him as the greatest Superstar in the history of the match
In a run that lasted almost 52 minutes, Kane eliminated a total of 11 superstars from a match, a record that stood for a total of 13 years. Tazz, Steve Blackman, Raven, Crash Holly, The Rock, and even The Honky Tonk Man faced the wrath of the Big Reg Monster.
However, even such a dominant performance was not good enough for him to win the match, as a brutal summit clash with Steve Austin, who smashed Kane with three chair shots on his skull, ended with him being the last man eliminated from the match.
#1 Shawn Michaels (2007)
Chris Jericho's fight with Sheamus in the 2012 Royal Rumble was a fun little classic, but it was nothing compared to the original one that took place five years earlier in 2007. After outlasting a late onslaught by Edge and Randy Orton, Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker brought the San Antonio crowd on their feet for the closing moments of the match.
The fact that the two legends were facing each other for the first time in almost a decade was enough to add more excitement to this high octane clash. A preview of what these two would end up creating at Mania in 2009 and 2010, this 8-minute long encounter featured more ups and downs than the rest of the Rumble match combined.
No one could have predicted which way this encounter was going, with Michaels vying for the third Rumble win in his Hometown and The Deadman looking for his maiden win in his Home State as well. The Showstopper was all set to book his ticket to WrestleMania, but a miscalculation resulted in his elimination and a win for The Deadman.
Despite his loss, Michaels went on to fight for the WWE Title in the main event of Mania 23, and that is enough proof of how exciting he was, even as the runner up, in the 2007 Royal Rumble match.
