The Contentious Ten 01.23.12: Top 10 Most Memorable Royal Rumble Eliminations

Hello, and welcome to The Contentious Ten! My name is Nick Bazar, and I thank you for clicking.

The Royal Rumble is less than a week away, and that means Wrestlemania season is just around the corner. The Rumble is usually one of the best and most entertaining shows of the year, and a huge part of that is thanks to the Rumble match itself. Over the years, we’ve been treated to a number of memorable performances and moments within the Rumble match. We have also been treated to a number of fantastic Royal Rumble eliminations. This list looks at such eliminations. The eliminations that went beyond your typical “toss over the top” and into a category that has to be seen to be appreciated. And so, the Top Ten Memorable Royal Rumble Eliminations…

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It’s a Rumble, Macho!size=6>

What makes the Royal Rumble different from all other matches in wrestling? Well, it has 30 participants, it gives you a shot to headline Wrestlemania and it usually lasts for at least an hour. Oh yeah, and you can’t win by pinning your opponent. Someone really should have informed Randy Savage of that last one before he entered the 1993 Royal Rumble- it would have saved him some embarrassment and could have helped him win the match. You see, in the closing minutes of the match, Savage’s strategy was to get the huge Yokozuna off of his feet. Why? I have no idea. Anyway, when he finally did manage to knock Yoko onto the mat, he saw the opportunity to capitalize on that with his signature Flying Elbow Drop…and make the cover. No, Macho! What are you doing?! Needless to say, this was his undoing as Yoko powered Savage off of his chest and over the top rope in one swift motion to win the match. Now that I think about it, Macho had it coming- he went to the top rope about four times in those final minutes. He was practically begging to get eliminated.

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The Faceplantsize=6>

TAKA Michinoku will be remembered for three things by the large majority of American wrestling fans: becoming the first WWF Light Heavyweight Champion, challenging Triple H for the WWF Championship on an episode of Raw and destroying his poor face at Royal Rumble 2000. Let’s be honest though, that third one is in a distant first place. Let me try to describe this for you (or you could just watch the video, which is what you’re probably doing right now): TAKA is minding his own business when Gangrel begins to club his back ferociously. He grabs TAKA and begins to motion him towards the ropes when Big Boss Man joins in. Together, they launch TAKA over the top rope and send him flipping onto the floor outside. What does TAKA land on? Sadly, his face. You know a pay-per-view is brutal when Triple H’s nasty calf gash and Cactus Jack’s thumbtacked face have legit competition for most painful spot of the night.

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Nearly Decapitatedsize=6>

Oh, now I understand why Big Boss Man joined in on eliminating TAKA Michinoku in such a vicious manner- because he himself experienced a similar pain eight years prior. If you haven’t seen this, the elimination comes at about the 33:30 mark in the video above. After having his way with Ric Flair, Boss Man was all sorts of hyped up. I mean, he was busting out roundhouse kicks and getting ready to eliminate the Nature Boy from the match. He charges and dives with a crossbody- unfortunately, Flair ducks and Boss Man ends up tangling himself in the ropes. As he is tumbling over the ropes, his neck catches the bottom rope and it damn near snaps in half. Basically, Boss Man was like “I see your Mick Foley torn ear, and I raise you a torn head.” You know, if Foley’s accident had happened before this. Anyway, this is something that could have ended horribly wrong; fortunately, Boss Man was too much of a man to let a little rope to the neck keep him down. Hey, maybe that’s why Undertaker tried to kill him with a noose at Wrestlemania 15?

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It Takes Fivesize=6>

This was the original “gang up” style elimination in a Royal Rumble match, and the kind of elimination that has seen numerous imitations in the years since. The year was 1990, and the man was Earthquake. He had a couple of eliminations to his name and was doing well, but Jim Neidhart had different plans for the big man. He began attacking Earthquake and was soon followed by the likes of Smash, Jimmy Snuka, Haku, Ted DiBiase and Dino Bravo. They forced him to the corner and finally over the top rope to eliminate him. It was a great visual and one of the first really memorable moments the Royal Rumble would provide wrestling fans. It also helped to enforce Earthquake as a monster, building him up for an eventual showdown with Hulk Hogan at that year’s Summerslam. We’ve seen this style of elimination done with guys like Viscera, Mark Henry, The Great Khali, Rikishi and Big Show, but I don’t think it was ever as effective as it was with Earthquake.

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Nearly Decapitated, Part 2size=6>

Alright Snitsky, maybe you didn’t cause Lita’s miscarriage. Maybe you didn’t kick a baby into an audience (wait, what?). But there’s no getting around this one. At Royal Rumble 2005, you tried to kill Paul London- simple as that. That one was your fault. London was trying his best to stay in the match, even ducking one of your clotheslines. Apparently, that upset you and you put triple the juice behind the second clothesline. Guess what? That second clothesline connected, and it sent that little Indy astronaut flipping inside out onto the floor below. I’ll bet that’s not the kind of shooting star press London wanted to land at that particular time. You know how I said TAKA’s Rumble elimination was one of the few things he’ll be remembered for by most American wrestling fans? Well, this elimination is unfortunately the only thing the casual WWE fan will remember about Paul London. And maybe his run with Brian Kendrick, but I think most people were paying attention to Ashley Massarro.

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Drawsize=6>

The 1994 Royal Rumble match was not one of the event’s best moments. It lacked excitement and fun, and only had a handful of entrants that could realistically walk away with the win. Fortunately, the silver lining came at the very end of the match when it was narrowed down to two men: Bret Hart and Lex Luger. They wrestled toward the ropes and ended up going over the top at the exact same time. Nothing like that had been seen before in a Royal Rumble match. Who wins? The referees talked it over, the announcers debated it and we were treated to replays, but the conclusion was always the same: both guys hit the floor at the exact same time. It’s pretty remarkable how well timed they were. This is a scripted ending that could have easily come off poorly on television, but they pulled it off flawlessly. The sense of confusion came across very realistically and helped emphasize the unpredictability of the Rumble match. A few years later, the same situation would take place with Batista and John Cena, only that time, it wasn’t by design.

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So Closesize=6>

Heading into Royal Rumble 2010, Shawn Michaels had one mission in mind: win the Rumble and challenge the World Heavyweight Champion, The Undertaker, at Wrestlemania. Michaels still couldn’t cope with the fact that he had failed to end Taker’s undefeated Mania streak the year before, and was obsessed with proving he could be the man to do it. After having his request for a rematch denied by The Deadman previously, winning the Rumble was the only way he knew how to get it. Throughout the course of the match, Michaels was clearly determined to walk away with victory. No one was safe from elimination at the hands of the Heart Break Kid, not even his best friend, Triple H. However, his luck would run out on the apron when he would lose his footing for a second after a Superkick on Edge. Batista recognized this and gave Michaels a push- it was just enough to send Michaels to the floor. The visual of Michaels desperately grasping for a hold of the ropes on his way down is fantastic, especially taking his storyline in the match into account.

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The Front Facelocksize=6>

Any mention of Chris Benoit on this site continues to stir up negativity, and that’s completely fair, but there’s no way this list is complete without his match-winning elimination of Big Show at Royal Rumble 2004. Realistically, there’s no way a man the size of Benoit could toss a man the size of Show over the top rope. That’s what makes the execution of this elimination all the more awesome. Instead of relying on his power, Benoit stuck with what got him to where he was- technical wrestling ability. He locked in a front facelock/guillotine and slowly started forcing Show over the top. He cranked and cranked until Show had no choice but to spill to the floor. It’s the ultimate underdog victory, especially considering the fact that Benoit entered at number one. Had the horrific events that led to the demise of Benoit and his family not taken place, there is no doubt in my mind that this elimination would still be touted as one of the great Royal Rumble moments by the WWE and even wrestling fans in general.

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Lucky Number 30size=6>

This is just another awesome chapter in the lengthy feud that was The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. This one came a couple of years before their classics at Wrestlemania, and still holds its own in terms of excitement. In fact, I wouldn’t argue if you called this the most exciting finish to a Royal Rumble match ever. After Edge and Randy Orton were eliminated, the final two came down to Michaels and Taker. What followed was a lengthy back and forth confrontation, the likes of which you rarely see in a Rumble match. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, having absolutely no idea who would win. It was a finish that really highlighted all the positives of a Rumble match. It showed off why people look forward to it every year. In the end, Michaels went for his trusty Superkick, but Taker telegraphed it and sent him over the top rope. A perfect ending and a fantastic elimination. It was also the very first time the 30th entrant won the Rumble match.

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Dirtiest Player in the Gamesize=6>

The 1992 Royal Rumble match is still considered the template for a perfect Rumble match. It’s hard to argue with that as it is just that- perfect. Perfect in its execution, in its pacing, in its excitement and most importantly, in its ending. Ric Flair entered at number three and managed to make it all the way to the end, giving us a performance that only the Nature Boy could provide. In the closing seconds of the match, Sid Justice eliminated Hulk Hogan, which led to Hogan grabbing Sid’s arm through the ropes in a rare heel-like moment for the Hulkster. Flair, the opportunistic guy that he was, saw this and capitalized by quickly lifting Sid up and over the top rope to win the match and the WWF Championship in the process. A brilliant ending that proved exactly why they call Flair “The Dirtiest Player in the Game.” He didn’t care about rules or morals, he was happy as long as he got the win, and on that night, it worked out just like he planned. It is, in my opinion, the most memorable Royal Rumble elimination of all time.