Seeing some surprise entrants come out in a Royal Rumble match might give Goosebumps but one another factor equally exciting about the legendary Rumble match is the eliminations that take place.Since it is the basic rule of the match to end, the fans are guaranteed a minimum of 29 eliminations in the 30 man battle royal and while some of them are plain and boring, there are some gems out there which will be hard to erase from the memory.Over its 27 year old history, the Royal Rumble match has seen a lot of amazing eliminations and before we sit tight to embrace all those new ideas that the company will throw out this year, here is a look back on some of the best Royal Rumble eliminations.
#10 Khali gets the kiss of death
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Divas getting involved in the Royal Rumble match always tell some kind of unique story. The same happened when Beth Phoenix became the second diva to enter the Rumble in 2010.
The Great Khali was manhandling CM Punk while Beth made her entrance and within no time Khali concentrated his attention to the Glamazon. He picked her up with ease and placed her on the apron from where Beth eliminated Khali with a kiss.
She didn’t last much long in the rumble after that as her former real life boyfriend CM Punk eliminated her just moments after with a go to sleep.
#9 The Ultimate Underdog
When Rey Mysterio, Triple H, Randy Orton and Rob Van Dam came down as the final four in 2006 Royal Rumble, Rey was the last person the fans would’ve expected to win.
But that’s the beauty of wrestling, we get the unexpected. Van Dam was eliminated soon by the dominating Orton and Hunter stacking the odds further against Rey. The Ultimate Underdog then did the unthinkable when he eliminated both his opponents to get a win.
A majority of the critics see this as the company’s cheap attempt to cash in on Eddie Guerrero’s death but even if that was the case, it was a storyline that produced some Goosebumps here and there.
#8 The perfect botch
Batista and John Cena were two of the heavily pushed names back in 2005 so when these two ended up as the final contestants in the Royal Rumble, no one knew what they were going to see.
WWE’s idea was to let Batista win but sadly for the Animal, he messed up the final move. He was supposed to lift up and eliminate the Cenation leader. Batista lost his balance and got himself eliminated alongside Cena.
What followed was some great on spot coordination from the WWE team who worked out an angle from the botch and managed to restart the match to complete the plan.
#7 Santinos one second run
2009 edition of Royal Rumble saw one of the most embarrassing records being set by Santino Marella. Entering as the 28th is considered as a lucky charm by most of the superstars and when Santino came in that position many expected him to do something spectacular as well.
Those expectations lasted one whole second as Santino was eliminated under that time. It’s like if you blinked, you would’ve missed Santino’s entrance and his elimination because everything happened so fast.
Santino might not have many records to his name in his WWE career, but being the superstar who spent the shortest time in Rumble would be something he will be proud of.
#6 Michaels hangs on
Michaels came into the 1995 Royal Rumble as the first entrant and walked out as the winner. He had numerous eliminations in the middle but it was his final one that would stand out from the rest.
The match came down to the British Bulldog and Michaels and the former was getting better of the Heart Break Kid at every corner. The Bulldog went to throw Michaels over the top and started celebrating his victory.
However, there was a big twist. Michaels was hanging on with one hand while only his one foot touched the ground. He came back into the ring and threw out a celebrating Bulldog for the win and rest was history.
#5 Snitsky almost kills Paul London
There might be a lot of awesome sellers in the WWE but all of them would struggle to replicate what Paul London did at the 2005 Royal Rumble.
London and Snitsky were two wrestlers who never had any chance of winning the Rumble. They were probably going to end up just like all the other midcarders in the match until they stole the show with this elimination.
Snitsky simply clotheslined London from the apron turning the cruiserweight 450 degrees before he hit the ground. It was like London pulled off a great move and the whole arena erupted after seeing this.
#4 Savage goes for a fly
Savage might be one of the legendary names in professional wrestling history, but he did have an embarrassing outing at the Royal Rumble back in 1993.
The match was star studded to say the least and finally came down to Yokozuna and the Macho Man. Many expected Savage to reach home after he nailed down the giant with various attempts but the best part of the story was yet to come.
Savage went up to the top rope to perform his trademark move and landed it perfectly as well. Yokozuna was lying on his back and simply threw Savage out of the ring without even getting up on his feet just like that.
#3 Sabu goes through the table
Sabu was born and bought up to fit in the Extreme Style of ECW and this was something that the Royal Rumble match always missed. There weren’t many foreign objects used in the Rumble matches and even if they were used, a table was on the bottom of that list.
However, when there is someone like Sabu in the match, one can expect something spectacular like this. At the 2007 Royal Rumble, Sabu bought some extreme flavor amidst the chaos in the match when he crashed through a table placed outside.
The move came courtesy of a chokeslam from Kane, who earlier eliminated another ECW original in the form of Tommy Dreamer.
#2 Maven eliminates Undertaker
You read that right, Maven eliminated the legendary Undertaker. Maven’s career in the WWE was forgettable most of the time as the ‘Tough Enough’ found it hard to fit in professional wrestling. However, this was probably the best moment in his career.
The miracle elimination took place at the 2002 Royal Rumble when Undertaker was having his American Badass gimmick during that time. Taker was on fire when the rookie came into the match and once the elimination happened, Taker wanted revenge.
He set out to destroy Maven afterwards but for everyone who witnessed the moment, it was probably one of ‘the’ most shocking eliminations in the Rumble match.
#1 Benoit does the unthinkable
There have been many stand out performances in the Royal Rumble but many wouldn’t match the feat that Chris Benoit achieved in 2004. The Rabid Wolverine came in as the first entrant of the match that had names like Chris Jericho, Big Show, Mick Foley and Kurt Angle.
Benoit stayed in for a whopping one hour and one minute in the match and eventually won it in some inspirational fashion. The match came down to Benoit and Big Show in the end, and Benoit’s struggle to eliminate the world’s largest athlete told an emotional story.
In the end, it went down in the history as a great elimination but thanks to WWE’s policy of wiping off Benoit from everything, this will never be celebrated like all the others in the list.
