Over the years, the famous Royal Rumble match has been used by WWE as a tool to promote the next big stars. This famous match type has produced some of the biggest stars in the wrestling world like Shawn Michaels and Stone Cold Steve Austin. But over the years, Rumble has also produced some pointless and needless winners, some of them left no impact whatsoever. Here, we will talk about the worst Royal Rumble winners ever.
Note* No Royal Rumble matches before 1992 will be counted since the Rumble match had no purpose before that, and we are focusing on the men’s Rumble winners only.
Top 5 Worst Royal Rumble Winners of All Time
V) Edge (2021) – You may hear Edge’s name on the winners’ list as the winner of Rumble 2010, but hardly, anyone will talk about his 2021 victory. Just hear me out; Rumble is mostly used to promote the future stars, and specially, when someone is having an iron man run to win, like entering no. 1 or no. 2 or closer, you are definitely pushing a future top star to show his capability of competing in such long matches.
For example, Shawn Michaels won the Rumble by entering No. 1 when WWE wanted to push him as the next top star. The same can be applied to Chris Benoit and Rey Mysterio. But what was the purpose of having a 47 year old man winning the Rumble as the no. 1 entrant who ultimately did not want to win any championship during his final run?
He won the Rumble match of 2021 by entering No. 1 just to job to Roman Reigns, or better say, just to get humiliated by Roman Reigns. This pointless Rumble victory should be talked about more.
Batista's First Royal Rumble win in 2005 was one of the best
IV) Batista (2014) – In 2014, the WWE fans were totally behind Daniel Bryan and wanted to see him as the next top star. But Vince McMahon was being Vince McMahon here. He was just forcing his choice on the fans as he wanted Randy Orton vs. Batista on the main event of WrestleMania XXX.
But the fans were in a complete disagree mode. They booed Batista so badly that Vince McMahon had no other choice but to include Daniel Bryan in the main event of WrestleMania XXX. Batista on the other hand, left WWE soon after WrestleMania, making his Rumble win totally pointless. People may think Vince learned his lesions after this match, but…..
III) Roman Reigns (2015) – Some things never change. Vince came back in 2015 by forcing another choice of him on the fans that nobody wanted to accept. Roman Reigns was Vince’s next model to be the face of WWE, but the fans were determined not to accept him, rather they wanted Daniel Bryan. The Rumble match of 2015 was also one of the worst ever.
Roman Reigns won only one Royal Rumble match
II) Brock Lesnar (2022) – Much like Brock Lesnar’s 2022 Rumble win is counted as one of the worst ever, the Rumble match of 2022 is arguably the worst Rumble too. Lesnar entered the Rumble as entry no. 30, and eliminated everyone in the ring in only 2:30 minutes, rather he buried everyone in front of him.
When he won the Rumble match already, you expect him to challenge for a World title right? Instead, he entered the Elimination Chamber and buried everyone to win the WWE title and still goes on to WrestleMania 38 to face Roman Reigns. And what was the point of all these overpushing of Lesnar? Just to job to Roman Reigns.
Honorable Mentions: It is really difficult to summon only five bad Rumble winners in one list. There are more bad names such as Alberto Del Rio who in 2011 was overpushed to the sky. He won the 2011 Rumble which was the only 40 man Rumble in history, and ultimately, WWE wants the fans to forget about Del Rio. Sheamus' Royal Rumble win did not make much impact either, therefore, he is a bad Rumble winner too.
Shinsuke Nakamura was also a bad winner. The fans were really happy to see him winning the Rumble of 2018, but this win never helped his career. He could never elevate himself from a mid card position. John Cena’s 2013 Rumble win was also quite bad. Cena vs. Rock II never needed the WWE title on the line. It just made things a bit too much predictable.
Check out the worst Royal Rumble matches of all time here
Vince McMahon participated in only one Royal Rumble match
I) Vince McMahon (1999) – As we have already mentioned above, the Rumble match is designed to promote the next big star. But at least all the other names who won the Rumble are professional wrestlers. And then there is Vince McMahon, who booked himself to win the Rumble match.
Maybe it has a purpose in the storyline, but there were other ways to book this match too. Wrestlers like Kane and Chris Jericho could never win the Rumble. Kane; who is arguably the most decorated Rumble performer was not given a Rumble victory but Vince McMahon listed a Rumble win by his own name. Without any doubt, Vince McMahon is the worst Royal Rumble winner ever.
