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WWE's next Premium Live Event is Royal Rumble, which is scheduled to take place on January 28, 2023, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. As we are in the early stages before the road to WrestleMania officially kickstarts.
There have been several picks among the WWE Universe for the eponymous match winner next year, with Cody Rhodes and The Rock leading the list. Sami Zayn is also a favorite following recent events.
Since its inception in 1988, the Royal Rumble has been one of the "Big Four" Premium Live Events and, moreover, arguably the most important annual 30-men Rumble match. The winner punches their ticket to headline WrestleMania. The company has had some of the most memorable moments over the years happened in the January extravaganza.
However, the event has also been notable in recent times for its poor booking and questionable choice of winners. Here we look at five times when the wrong superstar won the Royal Rumble.
#5. Randy Orton wins the Royal Rumble for a second time
WrestleMania 33 specifically had two matches with an amazing build-up to the show. One was Randy Orton vs. Bray Wyatt for the WWE Championship. The former won the Royal Rumble for the second time in his career to become the no. #1 contender. The second was Chris Jericho vs. Kevin Owens for the United States Championship.
It was later revealed in several media publications that Jericho was originally slated to win the WWE Universal Championship from The Prizefighter, who dropped the gold unceremoniously at Fastlane that year to Bill Goldberg.
Their match deserved to headline the show, and Chris Jericho should have won the 2017 Royal Rumble. Meanwhile, Orton went on to have one of the worst matches of his career, albeit winning the WWE Championship in the process. This title win marked The Viper's first following a Rumble victory.
#4. Charlotte Flair last eliminates Shayna Baszler to win the 2020 Women's Rumble match
Shayna Baszler was embroiled in a feud with RAW Women's Champion Becky Lynch. The two had their match at WrestleMania 36. A Royal Rumble win would have majorly helped the former and the title bout itself. Instead, WWE went with Charlotte Flair.
The Queen had no reason to win the match, albeit her challenge to then NXT Champion Rhea Ripley was a nice touch.
There was nothing outrageous about this win. It was just irksome when the runner-up needed the win more.
#3. "The end of the world as we know it" - Sheamus shocked the WWE Universe in 2012
Talk about the most ludicrous booking in Rumble's history.
Chris Jericho returned to the company weeks prior to the Royal Rumble in 2012 and didn't utter a word in his promos, week after week, before finally speaking on the go-home episode of RAW.
"This Sunday at the Royal Rumble, it's going to be the end of the world as you know it." The moment he started speaking, the crowd cheered for him.
It only made sense that he would go on to win the match, with rumors already circulating of a match between then WWE Champion CM Punk and Y2J, which ultimately happened at WrestleMania 28.
Not only did this loss hurt his credibility, but in the match at The Show of Shows, Jericho also looked like a stupid idiot, pun intended.
Sheamus winning the Rumble would have worked any other year, but on this night, that credit should have gone to Y2J.
#2. Brock Lesnar annihilates the entire roster en route to WrestleMania 38
This year's edition of the annual event was widely panned, and rightfully so, as the quality of the bout was subpar. Throw in an ill-conceived win, and WWE finds itself producing an event that needs to be thrown in the trash.
Earlier in the night, Lesnar walked into the show as WWE Champion, dropping the belt to Bobby Lashley after timely interference by Roman Reigns. He then entered the Rumble at No. 30, and went on to eliminate five superstars, lastly eliminating crowd favorite Drew McIntyre to win the Rumble match.
Why WWE went in this direction was a head-scratcher, and in less than a month, he vanquished Seth Rollins, AJ Styles, Riddle, and Austin Theory to win the WWE Championship inside the Elimination Chamber.
The whole ordeal was predictable and hurt much of the roster's finest in the process, all to build up to one match at The Show of Shows, which, funnily enough, ended up being a let-down.
Lesnar and Reigns made up for this at Summerslam in a remarkable Last Man Standing match.
#1. The consecutive fiasco involving Batista, Roman Reigns, and Daniel Bryan between 2014-15
Batista didn't deserve the chorus of boos at the 2014 event, nor did Reigns in 2015. Both years, it seemed crowd favorite Daniel Bryan was destined to win the eponymous match.
In 2014, The Authority brought back The Animal on the go-home edition of RAW on January 20, to headline WrestleMania 30 with Randy Orton. The WWE Universe saw the main event from a mile away and rejected the idea.
Until entry no. 30, the crowd sat and watched patiently for Bryan to show up. When it was made clear he wasn't going to, fans even turned on beloved WWE legend Rey Mysterio, who entered last in the match. Batista would go on to win the whole thing.
Cut to 2015, WWE didn't quite learn from the previous year's mistake. Instead, they had Bryan return to the company prior to the Royal Rumble from a serious injury that forced him to relinquish both world titles in 2014.
He entered the match and was eliminated early on by Bray Wyatt. As soon as this happened, the first thing that popped on the titantron was "Shattered Dreams". Ironically, the 2015 edition proved to be arguably the worst of all time. Even the in-ring action was of below-average quality.
Who are you rooting for to win the 2023 Royal Rumble match? Leave your picks in the comments section below.
A WWE Hall of Famer called out AEW fans HERE
