2011: The Reminder That Randy Savage, Eddie Guerrero, Kurt Angle, Chris Jericho, CM Punk, Rob Van Dam, and Daniel Bryan Have All Never Won A Royal Rumble After two+ decades, even really good ideas can need a good shaking up. And while my viewings for this series has shown me that the Royal Rumble is nothing if not inconsistent, sometimes you need something more, something … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2011

2010: The Drama The very best Rumbles are the ones that have at least one marquee tale to tell and handle it deftly. Both 2004 and 1992 told the story of an underdog’s journey to a championship. Other great Rumbles can be fluidly broken down into story-telling segments where noteworthy events come one after another, not unlike the 2001 iteration that stands as my lone … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2010

2009: The Teamwork, Finally! Oh, 2009. The year of WrestleMania 25. Such a high/low ‘Mania. And of course, the first stop on the road there is the Royal Rumble. At this point in WWE history, Randy Orton had formed the Legacy stable, and they were the focal point of the Raw brand heading into the Rumble. The Participants 1. Rey Mysterio2. John Morrison3. Carlito4. MVP5. … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2009

2008: The Six For the first time since 2000, the Royal Rumble returned to Madison Square Garden. And that show had a great lineup of matches and an absolutely pitiful Rumble, with a crowd who all seemed to be auditioning for the title role in Weekend At Bernie’s 3. How will this Rumble look in comparison?  The Participants 1. The Undertaker2. Shawn Michaels3. Santino Marella4. … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2008

2007: The Phenom Luckily, the 2007 Royal Rumble filled me with much less vitriol than the 2006 edition. WWE was still fully in the Brand Split era here (and ECW had been toothlessly brought back to give the company a third Brand). By this point, Randy Orton, Batista, and John Cena had firmly entrenched themselves in the main event of their respective brands. And the … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2007

2006: The Proxy I’ll just give you time to warm up your hate comments right now by warning you that I have BIG FEELINGS about this Royal Rumble match. I’m positive I’ll end up going on some kind of rant at the end of this one, so… you are warned. The Participants 1. HHH2. Rey Mysterio3. Simon Dean4. Psicosis5. Ric Flair6. The Big Show (Wait, … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2006

2005: The Sit-Down So 2004 came and went; Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit had their respective runs as WWE and World Heavyweight champions, and the company was moving on. WWE’s hot new toys at the time were the young men that had been groomed under Triple-H and Ric Flair in Evolution. In 2004, Randy Orton had a shot as world champion, and he left Flair, … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2005

2004: The Voldemort Ah, it’s the year WWE will always try its hardest not to mention, and we all know why; no reason to go into that. 2004 saw WWE fully into the Ruthless Aggression era, but it was also something of a bridge year. We hadn’t quite started the dominant runs of John Cena, Rando Orton, and Batista, but the Attitude Era stars were … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2004

2003: The New Blood 2001 may have marked the end of the Monday Night Wars and, essentially, the attitude era, but by-and-large, early 2002 still felt like a lot of the same product that started in the late 90’s. 2003 would bring us the first Rumble that truly felt like a post-Attitude world. And with so many of the Attitude era stars having all won … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2003

2002: The Degenerate In the wake of (arguably, but again… my article) the best Rumble ever, WWF put on the 2002 Rumble… The Participants 1. Rikishi (back to being a face, but nowhere near as over as he previously was)2. Goldust (apparently this was Goldust’s return after a lengthy absence. Could the Booker T team-up be far off?)3. Big Bossman4. Bradshaw5. Lance Storm6. Al Snow7. … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2002

2001: The Perfection The 1999 and 2000 Royal Rumbles really left a bad taste in my mouth, and at this point, WWF was all-but the official victor of the Monday Night Wars. With little to challenge them to try harder, how would this one turn out? The Participants 1. Jeff Hardy2. Bull Buchanan3. Matt Hardy4. Farooq5. Drew Carey (Excuse me… WWE HALL OF FAMER, Drew … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2001

2000: The Overbookening Not even a full month after the peril of Y2k happened, WWF staged its annual Royal Rumble match. Man, Y2k. I had forgotten all about that. Anyway, our computer systems did not all spontaneously expire, and life went on. And we got one of the weirdest Royal Rumbles ever… Participants 1. D. Lo Brown2. Grand Master Sexay3. Mosh (Jesus Christ… STILL with … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 2000

1999: The Grapefruits WWF had finally found a winning strategy in 1999, and it was Stone Cold fighting management. Austin had won the title at the previous WrestleMania and went on to reinvigorate the company while a newly heel Vince McMahon attempted to thwart him at every turn and finally did get the belt off of him. Austin was on a mission to get it … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 1999

1998: The Attitude 1998, and WWF still hadn’t gotten a ratings win over WCW in well over a calendar year. You hear “84 weeks” a lot, but when you put it in this context, it seems crazy that they couldn’t pull at least one week out, especially with how great the product had long been by this point. If only there was a guy they … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 1998

1997: The Rattlesnake In 1997, WWF was right in the middle of the 84-week losing streak to WCW in the ratings that they’ll never stop telling you about because it makes their ultimate comeback seem that much more impressive (which, admittedly, it was). But by this point, they had already been turning the product around in the hopes of making that comeback… The Participants 1. … Continue reading Ranking The Rumbles: 1997