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However, it didn’t all start out that way. In fact, the very first Royal Rumble match in 1988 wasn’t even a PPV event, it was a televised special on the USA Network. The event didn’t become a PPV until the following year in 1989. The idea of the winner getting a title shot in the main event of WrestleMania didn’t start until 1993. Since then it has been a tradition.
Now, over the years there have been many great winners of the Royal Rumble, however, there have been quite a few mistakes along the way as well. I always love to rewrite wrestling history and come up with what I think should have been, so here is my opinion on who should have won every Royal Rumble.
1988 - Andre The Giant
This was the first Royal Rumble and while the winner wouldn’t be going to the main event of Wrestlemania, I still think the winner should have been someone from the main event picture. No offense to Hacksaw Jim Duggan, but he was a very random winner to have for what would become such a huge event.
Now this Royal Rumble would have been leading towards WrestleMania IV so the main event that year would have been the finals of the championship tournament which was The Million Dollar Man Ted Dibease and The Macho Man Randy Savage. Either of them would have been an ideal winner for the first Royal Rumble. Another thing to consider would be that the following month, Andre The Giant would defeat Hulk Hogan for the WWF Championship, so while you might think the Champion Hulk Hogan would make the obvious choice, Andre The Giant winning the Rumble could have been a great build up to his title match the following month.
One final point to consider is that none of those wrestlers I mentioned actually took part in the first Royal Rumble match. I looked up the list of wrestlers that were in the match, and in my opinion the biggest star that competed in that match was Jake The Snake Roberts, so he’s another one to consider.
Ultimately, I think the most obvious answer would have to be Andre The Giant. He was known for winning countless battle royals, he even did so at WrestleMania, they eventually created the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal which they hold every year at WrestleMania now, so it seems like the perfect choice.
Sidenote: after winning the first Royal Rumble, it could be said that he earned his title shot against Hulk Hogan on Saturday Night's Main Event the following month. And after winning that match Andre should be recognized as a WWF Champion. Then when he sold the belt to Ted Dibease he should have also been recognized as a WWF Champion as well. So I think the tournament at WrestleMania IV should have been to crown the number 1 contender and give Randy Savage a title shot against the champion Ted Dibease.
1989 - Hulk Hogan
In 1989, the Royal Rumble became one of the four main PPV events the WWF would hold each year. So this was a major event now. For that reason, it made no sense to me to have Big John Studd win the event since he was never going to get a push into the main event.
The main storyline that year was obviously the Mega-Powers with Hulk Hogan and WWF Champion Macho Man Randy Savage. So thinking by today’s logic of the winner getting the title shot at WrestleMania, the obvious answer would be for a returning Hulk Hogan to win the Rumble to set up his title shot against Randy Savage at WrestleMania V. However, since that was not yet a stipulation for the match, it would have been more likely to have the current champion Savage win the match. Still, I think if I am rewriting history, I would like to imagine that stipulation in place, so I would like to see Hulk Hogan win.
1990 - The Ultimate Warrior
This Royal Rumble is always remembered for the moment when Hulk Hogan and The Ultimate Warrior were the only two left in the ring and came face to face and had to wrestle each other. This was the set up for the main event of WrestleMania VI. For this reason, I think the obvious winner should have been the Ultimate Warrior. He was the new up and coming mega star that was going to take over for Hulk Hogan in the 1990s, or at least that is what we believed at the time. So winning the Rumble would have been a great way to start his main event push and set him up even stronger for his WrestleMania match with Hogan.
1991 - Macho Man Randy Savage
Now there is so much I disagree with from this Royal Rumble show. First and foremost, The Ultimate Warrior never should have lost the WWF Championship to Sgt. Slaughter. That was a huge mistake. So if I am rewriting history here I am going to fix this mistake as well. Randy Savage would still get involved in the match, but the Warrior would still battle back and win the match to keep the title. Then I think the best twist would be for Randy Savage to then go on to win the Royal Rumble to set up the final showdown between the two at WrestleMania. Then instead of it just being a retirement match, it would actually be Randy Savage putting his career on the line against the Warrior’s title. Meanwhile, Hulk Hogan could still face Sgt. Slaughter at WrestleMania, but their match could just be a flag match instead. There was no need to revert the title back to Hogan so soon and in that way.
1992 - Sid Justice
Now I have written about this Royal Rumble in other articles. It was an epic Rumble because it was the first time the title was put on the line in the match. I also think it was the best cast of wrestlers to ever compete in a Rumble match, an all-star Rumble. However, I have always disagreed with the ending and the winner.
At the time you had Hulk Hogan and Ric Flair feuding in the main event scene. However, a new babyface named Sid Justice seemed to be the crowd favourite in this match. So I think it makes complete sense to have them be the final three in the ring, but then I would change the way the ending played out because it made no sense to have Hulk Hogan be a sore loser that cheats to cost someone else the match.
I think the most obvious way to have this one finish would have been to have Hulk Hogan eliminate Ric Flair, only to have Ric Flair be the sore loser that grabs Hogan by the boot, just long enough for Sid to eliminate Hogan. That way you are able to crown Sid as your new champion, while still protecting Hogan, and getting heat on Flair.
Sidenote: I would have made the main event of WrestleMania VIII a triple threat match, the WWF Champion Sid Justice vs Hulk Hogan vs Ric Flair.
1993 - Yokozuna
I remember watching this Royal Rumble live as a kid and really cheering for Randy Savage to win, but I think looking back now it makes the most sense to keep Yokozuna as the winner and have him face the WWF Champion Bret Hart at WrestleMania IX.
1994 - Lex Luger
Now this one is tricky. Honestly, I loved the idea of a double winner, and the way Bret Hart and Lex Luger managed to fall over and land on the floor at exactly the same time always impressed me. However, as much as I am a huge Bret Hart fan, I just don’t think this was his year. The WWF was fully behind Lex Luger and pushing him as the next Hulk Hogan. So winning the Royal Rumble would have been a vital part of that huge push.
If we are rewriting history though, one of the biggest mistakes the WWF ever made was not having Lex Luger win the WWF Championship at Summer Slam after that whole summer of the Lex Express. That really hurt his main event push and I don’t think he ever really recovered. So Lex would have already won the title before the Rumble, and he would not have needed to win the Rumble. Maybe then Bret could have won to go on to face Lex and WrestleMania X, but I still think Lex vs Yokozuna would have been the better choice. Let Bret face Owen at Wrestlemania X and keep Lex in the main event with Yokozuna. Then you could have Bret face Lex at Summer Slam.
1995 - Razor Ramon
Something that has always amazed me is the fact that Scott Hal / Razor Ramon never competed in a Royal Rumble match. He never main evented a Wrestlemania or won a world title for that matter either. Seems like a huge mistake in wrestling history to me. So that is one that I would like to rewrite here. I would have Razor Ramon win the Royal Rumble and go on to face the WWF Champion Diesel at WrestleMania XI.
1996 - Shawn Michaels
I would keep this one the same. Have Shawn Michaels win and go on to face Bret Hart at WrestleMania XII in their famous Ironman match. It was a perfect main event match and I wouldn’t want to change a thing.
1997 - Bret Hart
This one is tough because I think the original plan would have been for Bret Hart to win and then go on to challenge Shawn Michaels in a rematch at WrestleMania XIII. Unfortunately, that never got to happen because Shawn ‘lost his smile’ instead.
So then the next likely answer would be to have the Undertaker win since he did go on to challenge the champion Sycho Sid at WrestleMania that year. However, I think having Bret Hart still win the Rumble but then somehow get screwed out of the main event at WrestleMania suits his character and story very well.
What really happened was Stone Cold Steve Austin cheated Bret to win the match. I never really liked that ending, so my change would be to have Bret Hart actually win the match as he deserved.
1998 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
Stone Cold Steve Austin absolutely has to win this Royal Rumble. He is the perfect choice and I would not change a thing. He needs to go to WrestleMania and face Shawn Michaels.
1999 - Mankind
Having Vince McMahon win the Royal Rumble was a total joke. The Rock was his new champion, and the obvious choice to win the Rumble was Stone Cold Steve Austin again. However, I think it would have been better if Mankind won the Royal Rumble and they made the main event of WrestleMania XV a triple threat.
2000 - The Rock
I think this is an obvious choice. The Rock was the most over wrestler in the WWF in the absence of Stone Cold Steve Austin. The fans all wanted to see The Rock in the main event of WrestleMania 16 aka 2000. Honestly, I think it was a mistake to make the main event a fatal four way, I don’t think anyone really cared about seeing Mankind or Big Show in that year’s main event, or the whole idea of a MacMahon in every corner. However, the biggest mistake of all was having Triple H win that match and keep the title. The real main event we all wanted to see didn’t come until Backlash that year when the Rock defeated Triple H for the WWF Championship in their one on one match, with the help of Stone Cold Steve Austin. That should have all happened at WrestleMania instead.
2001 - Stone Cold Steve Austin
I know a lot of fans will say Kane should have won this Royal Rumble. He was at his most popular this year and had the most eliminations, he dominated the entire match. Still, I don’t think Kane belonged in the main event of WrestleMania X7. Stone Cold Steve Austin was returning after missing the previous year, so it's a no brainer that he should have won that Royal Rumble to go back to the main event of WrestleMania.
However, where I would make major rewrites would be at that WrestleMania. First of all, the WWF Champion going into that match should have been Triple H, not The Rock. It should have been revealed that Triple H was the one that ran over Austin, not Rikish, that was just stupid. It made sense that Triple H would have done it to get revenge for Shawn Michaels and to take over Austin’s spot as the WWF Champion. Furthermore, Austin never should have turned heel and joined Vince, that was a colossal mistake. So I would have Austin remain the babyface, Vince would be in Triple H’s corner, and Austin would win the match and the WWF Championship the way the fans wanted to see it happen.
2002 - Triple H
Now this year it's hard to argue that Triple H didn’t deserve to win the Royal Rumble. He had just returned from a long absence due to injury. Fans were so happy to see him back, he was a babyface. The only argument I would make might be that Rob Van Dam was extremely over at this time, but I don’t think RVD was ready to main event WrestleMania.
What I would love to change though is who Triple H faced at WrestleMania. I would have preferred to see him face Kurt Angle, not Chris Jericho. I always thought Kurt Angle should have been the ‘first ever undisputed WCW and WWF Champion’ by beating The Rock and Stone Cold Steve Austin. No offense to Chris Jericho, but I felt like he only got the spot because he was the one that injured Triple H. It made no sense in the big picture though, Jericho hated Stephanie, but Angle was the one in the storyline almost having an affair with her. So it would have made more sense that Angle had Jericho injure Triple H to get him out of the way and take the blame, so he could sneak in and not only win the Undisputed Championship but get together with Stephanie while Triple H was gone. So I would have had Triple H return and win the Royal Rumble. Then I would have had him get his revenge against Jericho at No Way Out before ultimately getting his final revenge against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania X8.
Sidenote: that match would not have been the main event since The Rock vs Hulk Hogan should have been.
2003 - Brock Lesnar or Rob Van Dam
The obvious choice is for Brock Lesnar to win just as he did because he was on his meteoric rise at the time to main event WrestleMania X9 against Kurt Angle. However, another option might have been to have Rob Van Dam win this Rumble instead and have him challenge Triple H for the World Championship. I always thought Triple H was wasted at this time, his feud with Scott Steiner was horrible, and then his match with Booker T at WrestleMania was disappointing. For the record, Booker T should have won that match. Instead, I would have rather seen Rob Van Dam defeat Triple H for the World Championship that year.
2004 - Kurt Angle or Goldberg
With hindsight being 20/20 as they say, I think we can all agree looking back now this one should be changed. Honestly, I wasn’t even that big of a fan of this ending at the time. Chris Beniot wasn’t the biggest star at the time, and he has since been erased from wrestling history for obvious reasons, so let's change this one and come up with a better outcome.
It’s getting much harder to pick just one obvious answer because I find with each year there are at least two wrestlers that could have been an obvious choice. For this year it makes sense to have Kurt Angle win the Rumble so he could go on to challenge Eddie Guerrero at WrestleMania XX.
However, another option that I think is overlooked is Goldberg. This was the year that Goldberg finally joined the WWE. He would go on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania XX in a non title match. I always thought that was a mistake. I think instead of Lesnar dropping the WWE Championship to Guerrero at No Way Out, he should have held the title into WrestleMania and then had a title match with Goldberg. Honestly, I would have had Goldberg win the match and the WWE Championship and hopefully he wouldn’t have left the WWE afterwards. I wish Lesnar never left either.
2005 - Batista and John Cena (Double Elimination)
This was the year that John Cena and Batista fell over the ropes together at the same time and I thought the double elimination was incredible and should have been the actual ending of the match. Then Batista would have been forced to face Triple H not having a choice, and Cena would have earned his title shot with JBL.
2006 - Rey Mysterio
This was the year of Rey Mysterio after the passing of Eddie Guerrero. So it’s kind of hard to argue against this one. It’s too bad we couldn’t have seen Eddie win a Rumble himself.
2007 - The Undertaker
Now I liked that The Undertake finally got to win a Royal Rumble, but it could also be said that he never really needed it. His match with Batista could have happened with or without this Rumble. Meanwhile, the other main event that year was Shawn Michaels vs John Cena, which I never liked as a match. I thought it was a weak main event that no one particularly wanted to see. So in my opinion the Royal Rumble could have been used to crown a better challenger for John Cena’s title.
The problem is, they didn’t really have a perfect fit for that spot. Kurt Angle had left for TNA. I believe Triple H was injured, and obviously the WWE didn’t have faith in Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Edge, or Jeff Hardy yet to take over such a huge role. I am always more in favour of building up a rising star rather than going back to an old past performer though, so I would have liked to have seen any of them win.
2008 - John Cena
John Cena made a shocking return to win this match, which made a lot of sense. He was the face of the company and he was making a huge return. My only real argument against this would be that Jeff Hardy was the hottest wrestler in the world at this time and it would have been nice to see him win the Rumble. However, Jeff Hardy did not even have a match at WrestleMania that year because he was suspended for violating the wellness policy. He was supposed to win the Money In The Bank match.
2009 - Randy Orton
Randy Orton did seem like the obvious choice. I liked the build up to his match with Triple H when he was attacking every member of the MacMahon family, especially when he kissed Stephanie. However, his match with Triple H at WrestleMania in the main event that year felt like a huge disappointment. So I can’t help but wonder what else could have been. Jeff Hardy was back, CM Punk was still very over, Edge was a major star by this point. Ultimately, I think a huge missed opportunity in the WWE was when Jeff Hardy finally won the WWE Championship in a triple threat match with Edge and Triple H, that didn’t happen at WrestleMania, I think it was one of the best moments in WWE history. It just gets kind of lost in the shuffle.
2010 - Edge
Edge winning was the right call, he had just returned from a long injury absence. I just felt like his match with Jericho at WrestleMania was another big disappointment. It gets greatly overshadowed also by the other main events, John Cena vs Batista, and of course Shawn Michaels vs The Undertaker.
2011 - CM Punk
What a bad year this was. The Miz cashed in his Money In The Bank to win the WWE Champion, which was the worst cash in ever, then went on to face John Cena, with The Rock interfering at WrestleMania. Meanwhile, the worst Royal Rumble winner in history happened when Alberto Del Rio won the Rumble and went on to face Edge in what would be his last match before retiring due to a neck injury. This was all just a horrible time in the WWE. So how could it have been fixed?
First off, I’m not even going to talk about The Miz as the WWE Champion. Let’s just try to fix one trainwreck at a time here. So who should have won the Rumble? My choice would be CM Punk. I think he was the top heel at the time and with the help of his New Nexus, he should have defeated Edge at WrestleMania to win the World Championship. Then Edge could have retired without forfeiting the title. I think that would have been a better look for everyone involved and would have given Edge a more fitting end to his career at the time. It also could have set up a nice feud with Christian taking on Punk and the Nexus after WrestleMania.
2012 - Chris Jericho
Another Royal Rumble winner that I absolutely hated was Sheamus. I can still remember watching that year, and the obvious choice I think everyone wanted to see win was Chris Jericho. The pay off for Sheamus winning wasn’t even worthwhile as he defeated Daniel Bryan in a one kick match that was a major disappointment. Regardless, it was Jericho that went on to challenge for the WWE Championship against CM Punk which was the bigger storyline anyways, so he clearly should have won.
2013 - Ryback
This is the craziest year to write about, and I can’t believe the answer I have come to and I worry no one will agree with me, but I think it might have been a hot feud at the time… Ryback wins the Royal Rumble and goes on to challenge Chris Jericho for the World Championship at WrestleMania 29. BOOM!
Ok now let me explain… CM Punk had dropped the WWE Championship to The Rock which was a HUGE mistake. Obviously the WWE wanted to make The Rock vs John Cena for the title, but they didn’t need to, that was overkill in my opinion. So I would leave that as a non title match. That means Punk keeps the title and his long reign of over 400 days would continue into WrestleMania 29, where he would face The Undertaker as planned, only now you have his long title reign vs the streak which I think is a better build. So that takes care of the WWE Championship, and there is no need for any Rumble winner related to that.
What does that leave us though? Well what was the World Championship match that year? Alberto Del Rio vs Jack Swagger, basically two of the biggest disappointments in the history of the WWE facing each other for the second biggest title, what a joke. They should have been feuding over the United States Championship at best. But who does that leave for a World Championship match? Well this was also the year that Chris Jericho was completely wasted in his worst match ever against Fandango at WrestleMania, not to mention that Jericho lost that match, are you kidding me! I think a star of Jericho’s level deserved better, so to make it up to him I would have rather seen him walk into WrestleMania as World Champion and face the winner of the Royal Rumble which was needed to build that match up to a main event level. Now it may seem hard to believe, but Ryback was red hot at this time, he was so over, he was the runner up in the Rumble with John Cena and the crowd seemed to be cheering Ryback over Cena at the time. So having him win the Rumble and go on to face Jericho at WrestleMania would have got a huge pop from the crowd and been a great title match I think.
Do you agree or disagree? What do you all think of that one?
2014 - Daniel Bryan
Perhaps the biggest Royal Rumble mistake ever made in the history of the WWE was when Batista won the 2014 Rumble instead of Daniel Bryan, the most over wrestler in the world at the time at the height of the Yes movement. So this change is a no brainer.
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2015 - Sting
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This one is complicated. Roman Reigns was the original winner, going on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. So that seems like the obvious choice, especially since there was no other World Championship match that year. However, there were still a few other options that I think would have been more popular: Danial Bryan was returning from injury and still very over with the fans, Bray Wyatt was very popular, so was Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler. One name that I feel shouldn’t be overlooked has to be Sting, this was the one year Sting was in the WWE and I feel he was greatly misused. For that reason, I just want to go with my heart and say give it to Sting, I know he wouldn’t go on to wrestle for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania, but he could have came out and said his choice was to face Triple H instead, and then he should have gone on to win that match!
2016 - Dean Ambrose
This year was historic because once again the WWE Championship was on the line in the Royal Rumble. The final two were Triple H and Dean Ambrose. I believe Ambrose was the fan favourite but Triple H was the winner. I think this win would have made Dean Ambrose a bigger star, but Triple H getting his final run as WWE Champion was also interesting. Personally, I think Triple H always inserts himself too much where he isn’t needed, thinking that his own presence makes everything so much better. Dean Ambrose vs Roman Reigns at WrestleMania would have been a decent main event.
Ultimately, I would have had Ambrose win and become WWE Champion. Triple H could have still inserted himself into that main event as a triple threat without needing to make him the champion. This would have left an opening at WrestleMania in the Brock Lesnar match, and I would have liked to have seen Ryback face Lesnar instead, or possibly AJ Styles.
2017 - Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho should have won, he had a great storyline going with then Universal Champion Kevin Owens. This would have brought their feud to an ultimate showdown for the title at WrestleMania. Also, their match should have been for the Universal Championship, not the United States Championship.
Another interesting choice would have been Finn Balor, returning from injury to win back the title he never actually lost but had to vacate due to injury. I think it's a huge injustice that Finn Balor has never been given a second chance in the WWE to be back in the main event as a World Champion. Balor could have challenged Kevin Owens for the title he vacated, or he could have challenged Bray Wyatt for the other world title, and I think that would have been an even more exciting match, especially for Demon Balor!
2018 - Finn Balor
Shinsuke Nakamura was the original winner and went on to face AJ Styles, which was a dream match. However, I think a returning Daniel Bryan would have been an even bigger fan favourite to win. Instead he was wasted in a tag match with Shane MacMahon. Other wrestlers wasted at that WrestleMania were Randy Orton in a United States Championship match, and Finn Balor in an Intercontinental Championship match. I would love to have seen AJ Styles face either of them at WrestleMania as well. Ultimately, I think my favourite option would have been Demon Finn Balor vs AJ Styles at WrestleMania.
2019 - Kofi Kingston
Seth Rollins was the original winner, going on to face Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania. However, the real story of this WrestleMania was Kofi Kingston challenging Daniel Bryan. I know Kofi was put over in the Elimination Chamber match, but looking back now I wish they would have let him win the Royal Rumble instead, I think he deserved it. He was always stealing the show in the Rumble every year with his ways to get back into the ring, it would have been great to finally see him win a Rumble match.
2020 - Drew McIntyre
Drew McIntyre was the obvious and correct choice. I would not change that one at all. His main event push was long overdue and well deserved. The only shame was he didn’t get to wrestle in front of a crowd at WrestleMania that year when he defeated Brock Lesnar.
2021 - Edge
Edge was the correct winner here as well. I was actually disappointed that he didn’t win the year before when he made his return, but I was extremely happy to see him win the following year. The only thing I would want to change would be to have him win his main event match against Roman Reigns. I did not enjoy the three year reign as champion and wished he would have put others over from time to time.
2022 - Brock Lesnar
Brock Lesnar was the obvious choice. He went on to face Roman Reigns. It was a title vs title match, so it seems like a no brainer that would have happened even without a Rumble win. I would have liked to have seen someone like Bobby Lashley maybe get the win to elevate him more into the main event, but I don’t think it would have worked out this year. At the time the WWE was just all in on Roman Reigns and this match with Brock Lesnar seemed inevitable.
2023 - Cody Rhodes
Cody Rhodes seemed like the obvious winner for this match. However, I didn’t like having him fail at WrestleMania only to redo the whole storyline the following year. Cody should have won it all this year.
2024 - CM Punk
Cody shouldn’t have needed to win another Royal Rumble in order to ‘finish his story’ because it should have been finished the first time around. That would have left the door open for someone else to win the following Rumble. I think that wrestler should have been CM Punk. He was over with the fans, he had finally made his return to the WWE, he was back from an injury and ready to main event WrestleMania finally. I think the final four should have been: Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Gunther, and LA Knight.
2025 - John Cena
I think having Jey Uso win the Royal Rumble was a huge mistake. I think a main event match for the World Championship at WrestleMania between Jey and Gunther was a major disappointment and never should have been a main event or title match. I think the obvious answer was John Cena to set up his main event match and WrestleMania. It is what the fans wanted to see and we deserved to get this outcome.
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