Another interesting fact about Hall...despite his long career in WWF/WCW, he only had 2 world title matches. Bret Hart at RR 93 and Sting at some PPV in the late 90s.
Whether as a Mountie, a Quebecer, or a Fabulous Bro, Jacques Rougeau was on the roster at the first seven Rumbles. It's just that he was always on the undercard at a time when undercard performers rarely entered the Rumble as well. Except for the first Rumble that was televised for free on USA. The Rougeaus were at the other house show scheduled for the same night headlined by Randy Savage and the Honky Tonk Man
Funny that in 1992, Rougeau's IC title match opponent (Roddy Piper) WAS in the Royal Rumble match. That made sense in kayfabe, as Piper had previously been announced for the Rumble match, and only stepped in to challenge the Mountie at the last minute after Bret Hart was too ill. (I'm not sure if the illness was real or kayfabe.)
@@daviddalrymple2284 I _think_ it was kayfabe, setting up Bret's subsequent victory over Piper for the IC belt that Wrestlemania. Extraordinary to think that the couple of months in between represents Roddy's only ever title in his top-tier wrestling career.
@@Somnogenesis Popular lore is that Piper never held a belt because he refused to lose cleanly. You can't give someone a belt if they can't be trusted to pass it on when the time comes. It's the same reason that Jim Duggan never had a belt in WWE despite his popularity. But Duggan, at least, was honored with an early Royal Rumble win.
@@daviddalrymple2284 Haha, this is perhaps a fair point about Piper! It says a lot about his regard for Bret that he took the IC title for just that brief interlude in order to then put Hart over clean that Wrestlemania. I've never heard it said before about Duggan though, i.e. that he was relucant to "do the job". Because he seems rarely to have been in high-profile feuds (and, I suppose, _because_ he didn't hold titles), he's never come across to me as someone with a high enough status to be dictating when and to whom they're happy to lose. And, I guess, because he seems like just this happy-go-lucky, not terribly bright character he doesn't come across like someone with that sort of stroke.
Taka wasn't the first Light Heavyweight Champion. The belt has been defended in Japan for years before that and was part of the J-Crown. The WWF demanded it back. That, as part of the J-Crown, the strap appeared on WCW-TV might've factored into that decision.
You said no one was laughing when Taka took that awful bump in 2000 but that's not true. Lawler was laughing his ass off and I guarantee you that means Vince was too.
To be fair, it was a pretty awesome and sadisticly comical bump, until you realized Taka was legitimately injured, then you feel bad for enjoying it so much. And Chinaman? Different times
Scott Hall always had a title match at the Royal Rumble and they never put him in. It was weird the intercontinental champion never entered in the rumble from 1994-1996 🤷🏻♂️
@@michaelreich4827yeah it was pretty smart. Can't have every big star be in the rumble and then the other spots are left empty. Some people did a match and did the rumble, but it'd be unreasonable to do that for everybody.
@@michaelreich4827 could’ve added some star power to the rumble as well that was extremely thin in those years especially the 1995 rumble which had to be shortened to every 60 seconds another superstar entered and not a lot of star power
Can you really count Paul Orndorff since he was gone from the WWF by the time the first Royal Rumble took place and he never returned? Thats like having Bruno Sammartino on this list.
I argue the Taka spot. A certain "King of Memphis" was laughing again and again and again and demanded that replay of Taka being eliminated been shown multiple times.
4:03 4:28 "Nobody was laughing when Gangrel and The Big Boss Man threw Taka out of the ring so hard that he over-rotated and landed directly on his face". Unless you're Jerry "The King" Lawler, and busted out laughing everytime he seen Taka Michinoku fell flat on his face.
Even though they didn't have many opportunities to enter a Royal Rumble match, I'd put the Dynamite Kid, and especially Sting on the list. Also Jacques Rougeau (The Mountie).
Jaque has been on the card in 1990 , 1992 and 1994 and both of his partners haven't been in the Rumble match either his brother Raymond and his partner Quebecer Pierre (PCO)
This is why the Royal rumble should be expanded to a 50 man and 50 woman Battle Royale. On the triple h he should invite people from New Japan, tna, aew (yeah right), nwa, MLW and other independent wrestling companies. The 20 man and a woman Royal rumble should be a scramble and then the rest of the 30 wrestlers should come out one by one.
Surely Sting ought to be mentioned on this list even if his time on the active roster was short-lived, he was still signed to the company between 2014-2020? Yes he did have the neck injury so this obviously curtailed what he could do but if there had been scope for him to make a surprise appearance etc.
Now this a great idea to keep the rumble from becoming stale. They should def have at least one first timer from the past each year; ideally with at least one elimination as well.
I mean tbf lots of the same wrestlers do appear more than once in the Rumble which does take a lot of space so it's not super surprising that some have missed out
Does anybody else feel like 30 men just isnt enough anymore for a rumble ? Todays roster is enormous compared to way back when the traditional 30 was set, so many people miss out on getting a spot in it now and i always find myself thinking "oh were nearly at the end already" i think they need to evolve it and move to atleast 40 permanently
@@BryRobinsonmaybe that's a good concept but it'd work better in another promotion. Like the casino battle royal in AEW. WWE is just too stubborn to change that drastically
@@BryRobinson 1. People who was there said the crowd was noisy, seemingly the stadium/production was poor on picking up the noise. 2. 30 too many and falling asleep by number 8? You either have the attention span of a toddler or are just a troll trying to get reactions. The Rumble match is considered by most the best PPV and match in WWE so you wont get many with you here. 3. "Grow up" - Should take your own advice there. If you come with ideas that are much worse than what you are complaining about, expect people to criticize your ideas.
That's so wild about Scott Hall man I did not know that but I think it highlights how damn good of an intercontinental champ Razor was Surely none else has ever defended the IC title in 1v1 match 3 rumbles in a row. Always my Foavorite R.I.P... For life Scott Hall, as he would say to us "see ya in heaven buddy"
Hard work pays off, dreams come true, bad times don't last but Bad guys do. - Scott Hall. I will say Scott was most likely the greatest wrestler to never enter the rumble or be World champ. A shame that drugs took over his life as he could have been a bigger legend than he was.
@@supersasukemaniac Didn't find an official statement from WWE that stated they're just live events or anything other than they're PPVs, not to mention that there was a championship change when goldberg defeated the fiend
They say John Cena was in multiple Royal Rumbles but I didn't see him anywhere, also does anybody else still find it weird that the crowd at the 08 Rumble went berserk even though there was no 30th entrant?
Scott Hall never entered a Royal Rumble but Razor Ramon did however in 1997 lol oddly enough Scott Hall did compete in wcw's version World War 3 and won in 1997
Non-WWE would be Lou Thesz the NWA World Champ between 1948-1956 (The Original Sammartino). Lou Thesz wrestled his last match in 1990, but not in WWE. Royal Rumble debuted in 1988, so as of 1990 there had been 3 Royal Rumble's already.
Somewhat beside the point here, but in regards to #8 on the list, is that to suggest Roddy Strong is more of a "great" wrestler than Kyle O'Reilly? Obviously Roddy's been the far more relevant one recently, but still, is that a hot take? I feel like a couple years ago, that would've been considered a hot take.
Scott Hall is best known for his time in WCW, not for his time as Razor in WWE. Same with Nash/Diesel. They were both bigger stars in WCW than they ever were in WWE.
The irony of Razor Ramon or Scott Hall never being in it because he was always in a title match is that you could probably fill a whole Rumble of forgettable randoms that were in it between 93-96
Guys like Scott Hall really show how ridiculous is that so many people want theirr favorite wrestlers to be THE GUY and get frustrated when they're just near the top.
Steamboat wasn't in WW(F) that long after the 1988 Rumble happened, plus he was in the opening match of the card. And they shortened it to 20 men anyway because of time I guess..... Maybe he was supposed to compete, I wish he would have. Then he went to NWA/WCW before next year's Rumble happened.
