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#18 2011
This was the biggest Royal Rumble in history (before Saudi came calling) but the match did not exactly feel like such. The extra ten participants were added to provide for the members of the Corre and New Nexus. The two byproducts of the Nexus would brawl before the match even began, after CM Punk made his entrance as number 1. He, alongside his New Nexus followers, dominated the first half of the Rumble. Punk got eliminated at around the halfway point by John Cena, who would go on a dominant run with Hornswoggle of all people. A lot of the spots in this match were given to the mid-card of both Raw and Smackdown, making for a slightly boring period in between. It made the 40-man adjustment seem unnecessary.
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We did see some great moments as well. John Morrison used Parkour to escape from certain elimination in the most incredible way, while we saw some shocking returns. Booker T and Diesel entered the match, much to the excitement of commentator Matt Striker, who called Booker's surprise appearance a “mark out moment” live on air and said “Holy s***” upon Diesel entering the match. WWE also pulled a fast one on us, making us believe that Santino Marella was going to win the 2011 Royal Rumble match. However, a last-ditch Cobra was not enough as Alberto Del Rio eliminated him to send him en route to his destiny at WrestleMania. An unpredictable winner, sure, but it was a real task to get there.
The 2011 Rumble match would have been much better if there were only 30 entrants. 40 ended up being a bit too excessive, especially since WWE didn't do much with them anyway. That really damaged this match.
#17 2000
This was one of the most controversial Royal Rumble matches of all time solely because of the finish. The rest of the match was perfectly average for a Rumble, filled with a who's who of Attitude Era mid-carders. One of the most fun moments of the match came when all three members of Too Cool were in the ring together performing their signature dance, before Rikishi eliminated both Grandmaster Sexay and Scotty 2 Hotty on his way to a dominant run in this match. We also saw a surprise appearance from Bob Backlund at number 14, a moment that garnered a huge pop from the Madison Square Garden crowd, and Chyna's second consecutive Royal Rumble showing.
Another running theme throughout the 2000 Rumble was the constant interference, particularly from Kai En Tai and the Mean Street Posse, with Taka Michinoku taking a scary bump where he landed straight on his face following his "elimination". There was a minimal amount of main eventers in this match, as it was overwhelming favourite The Rock against The Big Show in the final two. The Brahma Bull may have won the match but it was his feet that touched the floor first, meaning that the victory should have technically gone to the Big Show. The Giant was robbed here and should have had his hand raised.
Aside from that, this was a pretty average and nothing Royal Rumble match. A shame considering the excellent undercard on this pay-per-view, featuring the debut of Tazz, a wild Tag Team Tables Match and a legendary Street Fight between WWE Champion Triple H and Cactus Jack, in a match that made the former's career.
#16 2014
This was the precursor to the 2015 Rumble match, with the fans desperately wanting Daniel Bryan to win the match. However, they would be disappointed as he did not even enter the match this year. Bryan lost a hard-fought opener to Bray Wyatt, but was expected to make another appearance on the show to win the 2014 Royal Rumble match. Once the WWE Universe found out that he was not going to be in the match, they booed everyone mercilessly. However, the match was pretty fun before that happened. The Shield, particularly Roman Reigns, went on a dominant run. This was one of Reigns' first glimpses of superstardom in the WWE, as he eliminated a record-breaking 12 men from the match. He lasted until the final two alongside public enemy number one, the returning Batista.
Other fun moments saw Kofi Kingston jump from the barricade to the ring apron, for his annual Royal Rumble highlight reel. He was almost thrown off by Rusev, who made his first ever WWE main roster appearance here, still donning the Alexander first name. Sheamus returned from a lengthy injury and looked pretty good, faring well in the match. However, all the good was completely overshadowed by one single bad. The exclusion of Daniel Bryan. The reaction turned ugly when Rey Mysterio entered at number 30, possibly the first time he has ever been booed in the WWE. That entire episode ruined the match and Batista's seemingly babyface victory. Oh, and this was CM Punk's final WWE match. He entered at number 1 and was the iron man of the match before being eliminated by Kane, who had already been eliminated long before. That was the perfect representation of his feelings about his WWE career right there.
This match seemed decent until the boos started ringing in. It was part the fans and part the company to be blamed for the messy ending. But at least it all turned out good, when Daniel Bryan conquered the world to become the WWE World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania 30.
