The Magnificent Seven: Top 7 Royal Rumble Matches

It’s Royal Rumbletime! For hardcore and casual fans alike, the Rumble is second to only WrestleMania as the most universially captivating WWE spectacle of the year, and with good reason. Since 1992, this show—and more specifically the Rumble match itself—has been a launching point for WrestleMania storylines and, as often as not, a point at which one or more major stars in the making gets a meaningful push, whether it’s making the most eliminations, successfully executing a crazing spot, surviving as the iron man, or, of course, winning the match.

So, this week I’m taking a look back to rank the top seven Royal Rumble matches.

#7. 1995

Only a select few pro wrestlers have had full Royal Rumble matches built around them. In each case, these men were particularly gifted performers, built to last for the duration of the battle royal and capable of memorable spots to make their performances vital. Shawn Michaels was the featured performer here, and carried out a pretty iconic showcase—going the distance amidst an on and off war with Davey Boy Smith (they were entrants one and two, and ultimately the last two men in the ring), outlasting the other 28 men in the match, and capping things with a memorable spot that required strength, skill, and endurance for Michaels to pull it off after already wrestling for over half an hour. Better yet, Michaels defied expectations at the time, narrowly evading a perceived elimination to come back and knock Smith from the ring to capture the win.

As a fun subplot, the match saw Bret Hart sabotage Owen Hart and Bob Backlund’s Rumble bids by jumping them each before they could get in the ring as revenge for their interference in his world title match earlier that night (and general dickery over the preceding year).

I would probably rank this Rumble higher if it were longer. Personally, I’ve always leaned toward the two-minute interval and this marked the first year when entries came at a sixty second clip, which kept the match moving but robbed Michaels’ iron man act of some of its gravitas.

#6. 1999

This is the kind of match that you either love or hate, but either way there is no denying that this was a Rumble unlike any other—the most sports entertainment-y and most Attitude-Era-defining Rumble ever. Personally, I dug it.

This match was all about Steve Austin vs. Vince McMahon, with the two men entering the ring at numbers one and two, respectively. Austin gave McMahon a suitable ass whooping and stopped just short of eliminating the chairman so that the punishment might continue. Before long, McMahon fled the ring and Austin gave chase only to walk into a backstage ambush that temporarily incapacitated him. As such, Austin and McMahon were technically the joint iron men of this match—a record that’s dubious for Austin getting stretchered out midway through only to return, and for McMahon relaxing backstage and later joining the commentary team when he was still, technically, a part of the match.

The match also included a dominant run by Mabel, only for The Acolytes and Mideon to remove him from the ring and bring him to The Undertaker so that he might assimilate him into the Ministry of Darkness as the rechristened Viscera. Later on, there was a mini-showdown between Degeneration X and The Corporation, too.

The story ultimately finished where it started though, when Austin returned and cleaned house, only to be distracted by The Rock long enough for McMahon to toss The Texas Rattlesnake, and become wrestling’s most famous battle royal’s most dubious victor.

#5. 2007

I’ll always remember the 2007 Royal Rumble for the way it started and the way it ended. The match opened with Ric Flair and Fit Finlay—how badass is that? How do you top that? Oh yeah, you close down the match with Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker as the final two. To make the moment all the more special, consider that Michaels and ‘Taker hadn’t had any meaningful interaction at that point for almost a decade, and were each mainstays on opposing brands, lending the encounter the feel of a dream match. Add to that the fact the men were given time to work one on one rather than rushing to the final elimination, and you have one of the Rumbles all-time best finishes.

I’ve also always appreciated this Rumble playing out logically—the final man to enter a gauntlet match should have the best chance of winning it, and after seventeen years of the odds not working out, ‘Taker finally picked up a win for entry number thirty.

This match also featured Rated RKO intrigue with Edge and Randy Orton playing near-perfect frenemies, and Edge executing an underappreciated iron man performance when he stayed in the match for nearly forty-five minutes.

#4. 2008

This Royal Rumble in Madison Square Garden is, in my book, the most underrated one of them all. The match opened with The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels—the same twosome that finished out the 2007 Rumble and an awesome pair to establish the high stakes of the match from the get-go, and get the action off to a compelling start.

From there, there came the Rumble’s all-time best nostalgia moment when old rivals long missing from the WWE scene, Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka, renewed their grudge in the middle of the Garden. Sure, there’s some silliness in these two briefly dominating the field of contemporary stars, and then everyone standing around the ring to watch them square off. Just the same, as nostalgia goes, this was a moment–harmless to the broader scheme of the match and electric when the moment happened.

While plenty of folks didn’t appreciate it for its juvenile elements and inconsistency of rule enforcement, I was also a big fan of Hornswoggle’s run in this match—picking his spots and mostly hiding under the ring until Mark Herny and Big Daddy V forced the issue, only for Finlay to come to the rescue. Yes, there were logical issues around Hornswoggle not getting counted out (an inconsistently enforced battle royal rule in the post-Attitude Era) and in Finaly getting DQed for entering eraly and with a shillelagh, but looking past those gaps, I loved the way in which this further established the bonde between Finlay and Hornswoggle and paved the way for the Finlay-JBL program that culminate at WrestleMania 24.

And then there’s the finish. Heading into this Rumble, the odds on favorite to take it was Triple H, with The Undertaker and Batista each having an outside shot. Sure enough, when Trips entered at number 29 and dominated the field, it looked like his victory was sealed. And then there was entry 30: John Cena. In the fall of 2007, Cena had been sidelined by his first major injury since arriving on the main event scene, and wasn’t anticipated to come back until summer or later. And yet there he stood—probably earning the biggest pop of his career, and garnering an awesome look of disbelief from Triple H. With that entry, the whole Raw main event scene shifted, and after a star-powered and well-executed showdown between Cena, Triple H, and Batista, The Game and The Champ teamed up to toss Batista and then Cena countered a Pedigree attempt to eliminate Triple H with the Attitude Adjustment. Thus, the triumphant return was set in stone, the road to WrestleMania was transformed in dramatic fashion, and WWE pulled off one of the greatest surprise returns in wrestling history.

#3. 2001

I know plenty of folks would place this Rumble at number one, and there’s certainly good reason for that. It was the last Rumble of the Attitude Era and featured so many of the major stars of that day, including Steve Austin, The Rock, The Undertaker, Rikishi, and Billy Gunn.

And then there was Kane. 2001 was the year when Kane broke the elimination record, tossing eleven men in one match. Yes, Roman Reigns would go on to top that feat, and Diesel worked a similar gimmick years earlier, but this remains one of the Rumble’s most fun and distinctive runs in which Kane came off as a legit monster for one of the last times (I would argue that only his first unmasking really recaptured the magic after this point).

This Rumble also featured a fun collision of the Hardy brothers early on, a good comedy bit when Drew Carey entered the fray, the theatrics of Triple H jumping Austin pre-entry to further their issue, and the intrigue of the Brothers of Destruction functioning on the same page for a good stretch. This Rumble is historically important to boot, for Austin breaking a record of his own when he won the battle royal for a third time—to date, he’s still the only man to do that.

#2. 2004

In light of the way he left this world, no one wants to celebrate Chris Benoit. I get that. But as an in-ring performer, his legacy remains in truly rarefied air—he’s one of the best ever.

The 2004 Royal Rumble was all about Benoit, entering from the number one spot and running the gauntlet for one of the most intense Rumble runs ever seen, rarely taking a meaningful rest period, and engaging with a startlingly high number of other performers. The closing sequence in which he front facelocked Big Show out of the ring was brutal, realistic, and the perfect testament to Benoit’s tenacious character, who would, by sheer force of will overcome twenty-eight other men, and still have enough in the tank to single-handedly dispose of The World’s Largest Athlete.

Other highlights included a fake out Undertaker return that further established his revisited program with Kane, a stellar run by Randy Orton, a fun, if silly, dance interlude from Ernest Miller, and a surprise entry from Mick Foley to further his budding program with Orton. Plus, there was the moment when Brock Lesnar F5ed Goldberg, essentially costing him the match and setting in stone the dream match between the two at WrestleMania 20 (yes, the actual match sucked, but the slow, subtle, cross-brand build made it feel special as it was happening).

#1. 1992

For me, there is no Rumble that really compares to the 1992 edition. For one thing, there’s the star power. You have past or future world champs Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Ric Flair, Shawn Michaels, The Undertaker, Sid Justice, Kerry Von Erich, The Iron Sheik, Sgt. Slaughter, and Rick Martel. You have legit legends who never quite won the world title gold like Roddy Piper, Ted Dibiase, Jake Roberts, Jimmy Snuka, and Davey Boy Smith. The next tier down from that includes names like Haku, Tito Santana, Greg Valentine, The Big Boss Man, Jim Duggan. We can argue all day about the relative star power of different Rumbles from the Hogan era and The Attitude Era, but I dare say that as the WWF wrapped up its years with Hogan on top and laid the foundation for the next wave, this was one of the most iconic assemblages of talent ever gathered for one match.

And then there are this matches two MVPs. There’s the more obvious masterpiece of a showing from Ric Flair—still an unproven commodity in the WWF world. This was a near-perfect introduction ot the character and establishment of his credibility, having him run the gauntlet against so much of the WWF roster and establishing that he could hang with them—a talented wrestler and a bit of a sleazy character for begging off from as many guys as he attacked.

The perfect complement to Flair’s iconic performance was Bobby Heenan’s commentary–spectacularly pro-Flair, with The Brain constantly reminding the audience the ways in which Flair’s early entry to the Rumble was “not fair to Flair,” selling Flair’s accomplishment in lasting so long in the match, and just about having a heart attack for each near-elimination.

Sure, pieces of the 1992 Royal Rumble come across now as dated or uncreative, but on the whole, it was a well-paced match that told a compelling story, capping one era of WWF programming and launching a new one.

What were your favorite Rumbles? Let us know in the comments section. See you in seven.

Read stories and miscellaneous criticism from Mike Chin at his website and his thoughts on a cappella music at The A Cappella Blog. Follow him on Twitter @miketchin.