5 best Royal Rumble competitors who never won

#1 Kane

Who could possibly forget Kane's performance in the 2001 Royal Rumble?

Many have called the Royal Rumble "Kane's match," as it's pretty commonly agreed upon that Kane is the greatest Rumble competitor to never actually win the match.

Kane has entered a total of 19 Royal Rumbles in his career, 17 of which under the mask, 1 as Isaac Yankem in 1996, and 1 as "Diesel" in 1997. He has 7 more total Rumble entries under his belt than the two people tied for second most Royal Rumble appearances (Big Show and Shawn Michaels). Now, the smarta** in you may be thinking, "how can Kane possibly be so great at the Royal Rumble if he's entered way more times than anyone else and never won?" And if you are, don't worry, because the smarta** in me said the same thing.

Here's why -

Now, I shouldn't have to go through much further elaboration after I say that he has thrown out a total of 44 competitors so far in Royal Rumbles, more than anyone else ever has. He's averaging around 2.3 eliminations per Rumble, which is especially noteworthy considering he's been in 19 of them. An entire quarter of this astronomical number of eliminations comes from just one Rumble; the 2001 Royal Rumble, to be precise.

Kane threw out 11 superstars (over a third of the field), a record that would remain in place for 14 years. On top of that, he lasted 53 minutes and 46 seconds, the tenth longest time spent in a single Rumble. That is no easy feat, especially for a man of his size and stature.

As of now, Kane has spent a total of 3 hours, 38 minutes, and 46 seconds in the Royal Rumble, which gives him the fourth longest cumulative time in history. He has been in the Final Four on six separate occasions (more than anyone else), five times as Kane and once as "Diesel" in 1997. To add yet another accolade to his now-legendary performance in 2001, he ended up being in the Final Two that year.

And if you take a look at who else was in that match (Stone Cold, The Rock, Triple H, The Undertaker, Big Show, Drew Carey, etc.), you know that that was one of the most stacked iterations of the match in history.

Though he has had a few short go's and though he has largely been a victim of the "giant man gets eliminated to put someone else in the match over as a major contender" trope that the WWE uses in just about every Royal Rumble, he has always rightfully been treated as a big deal whenever he enters the fray. For that, he is the all-time best Royal Rumble competitor to never win the match.