Top 7 Surprise WWE Royal Rumble Entrants

The Royal Rumble has long been one of my favorite events of the wrestling year. There’s just something about thirty men or women taking part in a match to determine the top challenger for a title at WrestleMania that works. The 1992 Rumble is one of my favorite matches of all time. Going to the 2012 Rumble crossed the item off of my bucket list. I love the Rumble.

Most people love it too. You see it in how wrestling conversation picks up every year right around this time. People start to talk about who will win. More importantly, for the purposes of this column, people talk about surprises. Everybody wonders who will return after a lengthy absence, or who will make an unexpected debut. It gets tougher to hide these things with each passing year, but WWE still manages to slip one or two under the radar.

Today, we look at the seven most magnificent Royal Rumble surprise entrants.

7. Chris Jericho (2013)

Haha best video ever! @msasgs: 2013 Royal Rumble Entrances @iamjericho got the biggest pop!!!http://t.co/0T0OUK3K

— Chris Jericho (@IAmJericho) January 28, 2013

The night after 2012’s SummerSlam, Chris Jericho lost a match to Dolph Ziggler that resulted in his WWE contract being terminated. This happened to coincide with a Fozzy tour, so once things wrapped up there, Jericho was ready to come back. The timing was just right to make him a surprise Royal Rumble entrant, and he was able to continue his feud with Dolph Ziggler by coming out second. Pretty solid surprise, as the Internet reporters of the time weren’t able to find out about it before hand.

Jericho lasted 47:53, outdistancing everybody in the match except Ziggler, who eliminated him before getting eliminated by Sheamus at 49:47. This led to one of Jericho’s more forgettable stints in WWE. Not his fault, he tried to do good, but he was saddled with a lot of stuff that was destined for failure. With all due respect to Fandango, that was never going to be a main event gimmick no matter who put him over at WrestleMania.

6. Mick Foley (2004)

Randy Orton wanted to wrestle Foley on a December 2003 episode of Raw. Foley didn’t want to, and walked away. This was shocking to fans who had never seen Mick Foley back away from a fight. He disappeared for awhile, but returned at the Royal Rumble to attack & eliminate Orton from the match. Poor Test had to give his spot to Foley in the process, so we’ll never know if he could have won the match.

Foley would continue feuding with Orton through the spring, leading to a match at Backlash 2004 that would establish Orton as one of WWE’s top young stars.

5. Christian (2021)

It had been seven years since Captain Charisma had competed in a sanctioned wrestling match. He had done an unsanctioned match with Randy Orton in June 2020 that wasn’t much in the way of actual activity, but before that he was retired by WWE in March 2014 due to multiple concussions. He got cleared to compete prior to the 2021 Rumble, and came out at #24 to the surprise of everybody.

Oddly enough, Christian’s WWE contract expired soon afterward, and they seemed to have no interest in using him. By March, he had signed with All Elite Wrestling. He would later win Impact Wrestling’s World Championship and return to that promotion for the first time in many years. Christian still seems to have plenty left in the tank, and is helping young AEW wrestlers figure things out.

4. Edge (2020)

Edge had been forced into retirement after WrestleMania XXVII due to cervical spinal stenosis. He would occasionally appear in WWE from time to time, but not many people thought he would be able to return to the ring, until 2019’s Summerslam, when he interrupted Elias’s performance with a spear. He denied it, but 2020’s Royal Rumble revealed the truth.

Edge entered twenty-first, at which point the crowd went completely banana. He had a pretty good showing, lasting 23:43 and eliminating three people. One of the people he eliminated was his old buddy Randy Orton, which led to the GREATEST WRESTLING MATCH EVER. I’m not as huge an Edge fan as a lot of people are, but it’s nice to have him back in the ring.

3. Edge (2010)

The 2020 Rumble wasn’t Edge’s first shocking return from injury. He had a knack for doing that throughout his first run. Edge had a few injuries along the way. In July 2009, he suffered a torn Achilles tendon. Word was he would be out of action for up to a year. Injury timelines are always a little tricky though. If one can speed up their timeline to make it back in time for a Royal Rumble, that’s exactly what they’ll do.

Edge was able to do it, and was the twenty-ninth entrant in the 2010 Rumble. It was a stacked field at the end, with Chris Jericho, Shawn Michaels, Batista & John Cena as the last four men eliminated. Edge pulled through, got his big win and a title shot at WrestleMania. This would lead to the last year of Edge’s first run.

2. AJ Styles (2016)

Styles had worked all over the world. He spent most of his years with TNA/Impact Wrestling before moving on to New Japan Pro Wrestling, with stints in Ring of Honor and other top independent promotions along the way. He had long been thought of as one of the best wrestlers in the world, yet hadn’t had a stint in WWE yet. AJ had worked some TV tapings back in 2001-02, but opted not to sign. Once 2016 rolled around, the time was right for AJ Styles to enter WWE.

He was the third entrant in the 2016 Rumble, coming out to quite the ovation in Orlando. Styles lasted 28:58 in his first WWE appearance, eventually getting eliminated by fellow Internet favorite Kevin Owens. Styles quickly proved his worth to WWE management and has become one of the company’s most trusted hands while winning multiple championships. Nobody that followed his career for the fourteen years prior was surprised.

Honorable Mention: Kharma (2012)

The 2012 Royal Rumble had a number of surprise entrants, most of which were played for laughs. Ricardo Rodriguez, Alberto Del Rio’s ring announcer, drove a junker onto the stage for his entrance. Mick Foley brought Socko so he could duel with Santino Marella’s cobra. Booker T, Jerry Lawler & Michael Cole all entered the match from the announce booth. We all had a laugh, it was a good time.

Kharma was never really much for laughs. She had been gone from WWE for several months after revealing she was pregnant. Sadly, she suffered a miscarriage during this time, but we fans weren’t aware of it. Her appearance here got a big reaction, as she became the third woman to enter a Royal Rumble match. She only lasted a minute before being eliminated by Dolph Ziggler, but she did eliminate Hunico and cause Michael Cole to cower in fear.

1. John Cena (2008)

Cena was stripped of the WWE Championship after tearing a pec in October 2007. At the time, he was expected to miss six months to a year of ring time. Nobody expected John Cena to miss a year due to how hard he would work to come back, but nobody expected him to be back in time for the Royal Rumble either.

That’s why when he came out at number thirty in the 2008 Rumble, everybody lost their minds. Even the Madison Square Garden crowd, who have been trained to not accept wrestlers like John Cena that don’t live up to their vaunted workrate standards. They started booing him once he got in the ring, but it was too late. We already saw them mark out over one of the biggest surprises in wrestling history, and the biggest surprise in Royal Rumble history.

Did I leave one of your favorites out? Let me read about it in the comment section, or via the Twitter Machine.