Royal Rumble and the legend of the #27 Spot, the good and the bad!

 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!

Kash Memories: 25 years ago, Royal Rumble 1997

 So there's a few wrestling event that I can say I remember watching as a kid, but to say what was the first one is hard to say. I can remember seeing Summerslam 1994 because of the Bret Hart vs Owen Hart title match and the Undertaker vs Underfaker match, or events after that. But the first one I know for I watched for sure is Survivor Series 1996.

The one after that? Yup, the 1997 Royal Rumble some 25 years ago (I know, I'm old). I can vaguely remember things that happened in the 1995 and 1996 Rumbles (both of which won by Shawn Michaels) but for the whole PPV, the 1997 is the first one I can remember ever watching it. It was one of those events I had on my VHS tapes and I'd watch it a few times. Even till this day, I'll go back on the WWE Network just to watch the 1997 Rumble match, personally one of my all time favourite matches ever. And the event itself it blew my mind as a 7-year old watching all of this.

(ok yes, I was meaning to post this on the 19th on January for it really be 25 years after the event but it slipped my mind, so here we are 10 days later)

It was the first time I had seen a wrestling PPV held inside an actual stadium too so the sound was completely different to the normal wrestling shows, you could hear the 60,000+ crowd chanting and making some noise during the event. Even hearing the theme songs for the wrestlers sounded way different on a stadium show to the usual you'd hear at an arena show.

The opening match was a straight out brawl between two guys everyone in the wrestling world knows by now, Goldust vs Hunter Hearst Hemsley. We all know about the bizzare one Goldust is but he had his best run during this time while Triple H was just starting to get find his way, we were getting glimpses of the Triple H we all know about during this time. Also the first time he had a bodyguard following him and not a valet, something he's known to do for a while. HHH won with a Pedigree, something we all got used to for the next 15 years hahaha!

Second match was a throw-away match between Ahmed Johnson and Farooq but hey they did continue that feud into the Rumble match later on too. I will say this, the Nation of Domination was a cool faction, one of my favourite groups for sure. 

And then we had Vader vs Undertaker. Two big scary dudes. Undertaker is Undertaker, need I say more. Vader was awesome too, for a big guy he's quite agile and also he's a 400-pound monster who can do a Moonsault with ease! WTF! That shouldn't be possible.

I do remember this match quite well too. Taker's entrance was eerie because of whatever sound effect they had during it, making the arena sound so windy. This match was one of the first time where the result stunned me. I was left just staring at the screen thinking....did that actually just happen??? 

Undertaker's old manager Paul Bearer, who turned on him a few months back, shows up to distract him but then we find out the new surprise. Vader's original manager Jim Cornette was a no show and we found out why! Paul Bearer is now Vader's manager???? I could understand him being with Mankind but Vader??? That was a surprise I didn't see coming. And the even bigger surprise? Vader beat Undertaker, clean 1-2-3 pin with the Vaderbomb! Now that's a surprise result. And the best part? Undertaker attacks the referee after that match, he was pissed about that match, we hadn't seen him this pissed before.

The match before the Royal Rumble was something very new to me. By this point, I only really knew about WWF and WCW. So seeing wrestlers from the Mexican company AAA was quite the eye opener. I really wished that WWE would do something like this, have wrestlers from different company show up not just for one match but even the Royal Rumble itself! 

4 of the AAA guys were in the Rumble, that was something new to me. If you ask me, the Royal Rumble match is always the perfect time to open the "forbidden door" and bring someone from another company in just for the intrigue and I'm so happy that this year, WWE are actually doing that with Impact Wrestling's Mickie James being in the women's Rumble match.

And then the 1997 Royal Rumble match. Stone Cold Steve Austin made himself a star here. Before this, he was still not quite the mega-star we all knew about but his match with Bret Hart at Survivor Series put him on that path and it continued here with him winning the Rumble from the #5 entry spot too! It was also one of the first few times I remember seeing someone eliminate others quite quickly to give themself a few moments to rest, Austin did that early on in the match and also during the last third of the match too just before Bret Hart showed up as the 21st entrant. Go to youtube, see Hart's entrance and just look at Austin's reaction to it. That reaction and hearing Hart's theme song still gives me chills to this day.

There were some other fun stuff too. Owen Hart eliminated his own brother-in-law British Bulldog and trying to make it look like he did it accidentally haha! Mil Mascaras eliminating himself was super funny to see. Jerry Lawler being eliminated after just 4 seconds, Hart hit him with 2 punches and he was in and out of there so quickly he could "complete a sentence".

The finish of the Royal Rumble match was another "what the hell just happened" moment for little ol' me. Steve Austin was eliminated by Bret Hart but the referees didn't see it so Austin got back in as if nothing happened and eliminated Undertaker, Vader and Hart to win the whole thing. This kind of thing has never been done in the Royal Rumble and has only been repeated once but to no result either. It was an interesting spot and a genius way to further a story but man I was pissed because I was a Bret Hart fan and he got screwed yet again, he should have won the damn thing and his outburst at Vince McMahon after the match was just too real, you could feel it. 

You can watch the whole Rumble match here: 

And then the main event, WWF Champion Psycho Sid vs San Antonio's hometown hero, the Heartbreak Kid Shawn Michaels! Not as good as the Survivor Series match but HBK wasn't feeling well so you could see why. But at least he got his big win in front of his family and friends to regain the WWF Championships. I still remember seeing the crowd go nuts when he got the 1-2-3 fall! Good stuff, when wrestling is done right, it's fun to watch. 

Good memories. If you ask me to rank favourite PPVs of all time, Royal Rumble 1997 is easily in my top 3. No question. Not because there were many great matches or what not, it was the first big event I got really into and that started my fandom into wrestling that goes on till this date. I had lots of memories just watching this and still remember to this day thanks to the WWE Network whenever I'm in the mood to re-watch it. If not for this, would I even be talking about wrestling all the time? We always kept a few VHS and for the Rumbles, 1997 and 1998 were the ones I had and remember fondly but this one more so than any of the other PPVs we recorded. Good memories.