It’s Royal Rumble day! If you’re reading this in the future, it’s Feb 1 2025, aka today is the 2025 Royal Rumble in Indianapolis. So that’s my favourite wrestling event of the year in the one place I really want to visit anywhere in the world, what an awesome combo!
Even if you’re not a wrestling fan you should check out the Royal Rumble match, 30 people fighting it out to be the last one standing. We've seen it all, thrills, spills, surprises, moments, you name it, they've done it. You know what we haven't seen in a long while? The 27th entrant winning the whole thing!
You all know my fondness for the number 27 and it used to be a big thing in the Royal Rumble too. From the very first 30 man Rumble in 1989 up till 2001, 4 people have won the Royal Rumble from the number 27 spot. That's a lot! But in the past 24 years.......nothing. 2 dozen years and no-one from the 27th spot has won the big one. The closest was last year with CM Punk being the last eliminated. Back in 2001, the 30th and last entrant had never won the event, and going into this one, it now has the most wins with 5. Come on 27 gang, let's break even!
But I wanted to share some of my favourite, and not-so favourite entrants from the legendary spot in the Royal Rumble. Hey I'm a big wrestling fan so I can write stuff for it too, it's my own page!
We've had some legends enter from this spot but we've had some bad entrants too. Here's 5 bad 27th entrant in the Royal Rumble history.
1991 - Bushwhacker Luke
Finish - 14th
Elimination - 0
Time Spent - 00:04
He marches into the ring, Bushwhacker style, Walks across the ring Bushwhacker style and gets eliminated and walks out Bushwhacker style. You probably have seen it before, it's still very funny. Meme worthy.
2008 - Fit Finlay
Finish - 16th
Elimination - 0
Time Spent - 00:00 (DQed)
You read that right, 0 seconds spent in the ring. He jumped the gun to save Hornswoggle from a beatdown and used his Shillelagh, so that meant he was disqualified. Good job, somehow you can get disqualified from the Royal Rumble. Whoops.
2009 - Dolph Ziggler
Finish - 17th
Elimination - 0
Time Spent - 00:21
I'm no Dolph Ziggler fan so I'm not surprised to see this. He slides in, throws some punches, tries to introduce himself to Kane and gets eliminated right away. Good choice.
2017 - Enzo Amore
Finish - 13th
Elimination - 0
Time Spent - 00:18
Brock Lesnar is dominating the match, the 27th entrant shows up and it's.....freaking Enzo Amore. The loudmouth ran straight into the ring, challenged Lesnar and gets tossed away. Never liked the guy so yeah, another joke entrant wasted in that star studded event.
2022 Women's - Might Molly
Finish - 11th
Elimination - 0
Time Spent - 00:20
A legend enters the ring! But she got sneak-attacked by Nikki ASH in the battle of the superheroes. Sadly Molly didn't last long and she got quickly eliminated by Nikki. Still nice to see the legends enter the match once in a while.
Now that the bad ones are out of the way, why not the good ones? 5 isn't enough so I wanted to do my own personal 10 best 27th entrant in the history of the Royal Rumble.
2019 Women's - Bayley
Finish - 4th
Elimination - 3
Time Spent - 14:27
Bayley is somehow the only ever number 27 entrant to finish 4th, aka the 3rd last person to get eliminated. She only got rid of two people but they were some big names, Rhea Ripley and Alexa Bliss. She was part of the final four but got double teamed by eventual winner Charlotte and Nia Jax to get eliminated. Hey at least she got her Rumble win a few years later.
1998 - Faarooq
Finish - 3rd
Elimination - 3
Time Spent - 10:03
I actually remember this Rumble quite well as it's one of the first few PPVs we ever recorded on the old cassette tapes so I remember this one quite well. Faarooq was the leader of the Nation of Domination but was having issues with his new young member The Rock. The Nation had 5 man in the Rumble when he entered but he went straight for Rocky!
But he wasn't done, he went for his own members D-Lo and Kama too. He eliminated two of his own members, D-Lo and Mark Henry along with Dude Love (the 3rd time Mick Foley entered this match haha). But guess who got the last laugh? Yup The Rock eliminated his Nation of Domination leader. Whoops.
2018 Women's - Nikki Bella
Finish - 2nd
Elimination - 4
Time Spent - 16:30
A surprise entrant! Nikki Bella was the runner up in the very first women's Royal Rumble and started a little good run for the 27th entrant, the first of three top 4 finishes in a row! Nikki was one of many legends to enter this match, eliminating Sasha Banks, Carmella, Nia Jax and her own twin sister Brie Bella. But she was not ready for Asuka who won the first women's Royal Rumble!
2019 Men's - Braun Strowman
Finish - 2nd
Elimination - 6
Time Spent - 14:37
This is the 2nd of 3 27th entrant in a row to finish top 4 in the Rumble match. This was the also right after he won the "Greatest Royal Rumble" and kept up his good run, he was the late dominant force in the match. 6 eliminations, those being Baron Corbin, Shelton Benjamin, Jeff Hardy, Drew McIntyre, Andrade and Dolph Ziggler. Seth Rollins barely survived the monster to win the match.
Fun little not, gimmick wise, Braun is the only wrestler to ever enter as the number 27 entrant twice! But as for the person itself, you can add Kane to the list as he did enter as the 27th entrant in his first Rumble entry ever as Dr Isaac Yankem DDS.
2024 Men's - CM Punk
Finish - 2nd
Elimination - 2
Time Spent - 21:45
CM Punk made his return to in-ring televised WWE return at the 2024 Royal Rumble, which was 10 years after his last appearance at the 2014 Royal Rumble. He did 2 better this time around, being the last one eliminated by eventual winner Cody Rhodes. He did get injured in this match and had to miss months because of it. Hopefully Punk will get his Rumble win soon, maybe tomorrow (2025)!
1989 - Big John Studd
Finish - Winner
Elimination - 2
Time Spent - 12:21
Studd is the first #27 entrant ever as the 1989 Royal Rumble was the first to have 30 competitors, which makes him also the first 30-man Royal Rumble winner! Studd got the last two eliminations, Akeem and lastly the 30th entrant Ted DiBiase to win the whole thing (he did technically threw a 3rd person over the top rope, throwing Virgil after he tried to attack Studd after the match). No title match at Mania though, that wasn't introduced until the next 27th entrant to win the Rumble.
1993 - Yokozuna
Finish - Winner
Elimination - 7
Time Spent - 14:53
Maybe the best #27 entrant ever? Yokozuna was easily the most dominant Rumble winner, it's quite rare to see a super heavyweight win this match but this is the 2nd one in a row from the 27th spot. Tantanka was the first victim, then Carlos Colon, Earthquake, Tito Santana, Owen Hart, Bob Backlund and then the final elimination. Boy do we need to talk about that.
Macho Man Randy Savage was the final entrant and he was the final 2 with Yokozuna. He hit his signature top rope elbow rope and guess what he does next? He does a pinfall! It's the Royal Rumble, you eliminate people by throwing them over the top rope. And while he was being pinned, Yokozuna just shoves Savage right over the top rope! Talk about pure strength on Yokozuna's part and stupidity on Savage's part. Yokozuna was also the first Rumble winner to get a guaranteed title shot at Wrestlemania, this Rumble tradition was introduced in 1993.
1994 - Bret Hart
Finish - Winner
Elimination - 5
Time Spent - 15:08
Yup Bret Hart, one of my favourite wrestlers of all time and yes, this was the one where he co-won the match with Lex Luger but in my heart, he was the true winner. I mean he's the one who won the Mania main event match anyway and Bret was injured before the match by his own brother Owen, which explains him limping into the match.
Everyone went straight for his injured knee the moment he came in. Bret got rid of Crush, Bob Holly, Tenryu, Fatu and Lex Luger in the famous double elimination spot. I still think Bret Hart should have been the solo winner of this event. Fans were cheering for Bret after the match anyway!
2001 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
Finish - Winner
Elimination - 3
Time Spent - 9:38
Yup this is the third of 3 Royal Rumble wins for the Texan Rattlesnake. He "won" back in 1997 and became the 3rd wrestler to go back-to-back with Rumble wins. But it didn't start well for Austin. Walking into the ring when Kane and Undertaker were waiting for him, he gets jumped by Triple H before he could even get into the ring to get even for what Austin did to him earlier.
But Austin got back, eliminated Haku, Billy Gunn and finally Kane who had the most dominant showing of anyone in a Rumble at this point, he had set the record for most eliminations at 11 at that point. Austin's record of 3 Royal Rumble wins hasn't been matched yet, but there are a few guys who could match it soon, maybe even today for the 2025 edition. Let's get ready to Rumble!
Future Kash here just to say, I CALLED IT! Charlotte Flair just won the 2025 Women’s Royal Rumble match from the number 27 spot. We finally got one back and now 27 and 30 have the most wins at 5!
No comments:
Post a Comment