Ranking the last 20 Royal Rumble matches from worst to best

#15 2006

This Rumble belonged to Rey.

The placement of this match on the Royal Rumble pay-per-view was weird, especially considering it contained possibly the greatest moment in the Rumble history. It came before the WWE and World Heavyweight Championship matches on the night. The reason for this was The Undertaker's show-closing return to confront World Heavyweight Champion Kurt Angle and put on a fireworks show. It was still a curious decision to have Kurt Angle vs Mark Henry as the main event of the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. Nevertheless, the 2006 Royal Rumble match started and ended in great fashion, with Triple H and Rey Mysterio. However, the middle portion of this match was extremely dull and lumbering, filled with a bunch of lower card wrestlers. We did see the surprise return of Tatanka though.

Rob Van Dam also returned to action in this match, entering at number 20 after missing over a year due to a knee injury, but it would not save it from the collective mediocrity throughout the match. It did pick up towards the end, with non-participant Shane McMahon eliminating Shawn Michaels from the match. Also, numbers 1 and 2 Triple H and Rey Mysterio survived until the end alongside the final entrant Randy Orton. The Ultimate Underdog would eliminate both heels to win the entire match and dedicate the victory to the late Eddie Guerrero, lasting a record-breaking 62 minutes in the process. It was an excellent performance from Mysterio, who has hardly seen a better day in his career.

The 2006 Royal Rumble match may have been bumped below Angle vs Henry and John Cena vs Edge, but it held possibly more emotional value than any other Rumble match in history.

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#14 2017

The final stages let this one down.

In 2017, WWE presented the Royal Rumble from the Alamodome, the location for the 1997 Royal Rumble. 20 years later, we were promised the biggest and most star-studded Rumble match of all time. Even the really long ramp was telling us that. It was really unpredictable, probably the most a Royal Rumble has ever been. It was one which was carried by the solid workers of the midcard. After an early period of domination from Braun Strowman, guys like Dean Ambrose, Sami Zayn and The Miz held the bout together. Chris Jericho lasted for a full hour, accumulating the longest overall time spent in Royal Rumble matches in the process. A surprise appearance from the perfect 10 Tye Dillinger at, you guessed it, number 10 was wildly popular as was James Ellsworth showing up. He took a sickening bump as Strowman chokeslammed him from a terrifying height to the outside.

Also, Kofi Kingston almost impaled himself in an attempt to escape certain elimination, by jumping from the LED ring post and hanging from it. As the ring started to fill up and with five entrants to go, out came the heavy hitters. Brock Lesnar came out at number 26, followed by Goldberg at 28 who got the better of the Beast again. We then got a monumental face-off between the WCW legend and entrant 29, The Undertaker. 'Taker would end up eliminating Goldberg and wait for the final entrant. Everyone was expecting a big surprise like Samoa Joe or Finn Balor, but we got Roman Reigns. This is what brought the match down. Reigns had already competed on the show, losing a barn-burning Universal title match to Kevin Owens. His Rumble appearance was underwhelming and unnecessary. Reigns would remain until the final two, after eliminating the Deadman and fighting off Bray Wyatt. He was taken out by temporary Wyatt Family member, Randy Orton. A fourth repeat Rumble winner in five years, but one with a lot of storyline potential.

Aside from the final stretch, this Rumble match somewhat delivered to the hype. It just lacked that one defining shocking entrant that would have wowed the Alamodome. Also, Chris Jericho as the sneaky 60-minute man is perfect. Especially after he spent half an hour hanging above the ring in a shark cage earlier in the night.

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#13 2013

Predictable, but fun.

Ever since The Rock announced his WWE Championship shot for Royal Rumble, the main storyline heading into WrestleMania 29 was probably the most predictable one in WWE history. He would win the title against CM Punk at the event while John Cena wins the Royal Rumble, setting up the "epic" rematch between the pair of icons. It was unnecessary and unbelievably predictable. The only salvageable fact was that this Royal Rumble match was actually really good. It was overshadowed by the main event match between Rock and Punk, but WWE made a proper effort to book a really great Rumble. Dolph Ziggler started at number 1 against Chris Jericho, who made a shocking return here after being written off WWE programming upon a defeat to the Showoff. It was one of the greatest Rumble returns of all time and an excellent way to kick things off.

Kofi Kingston continued his annual trend of finding innovative ways to avoid being eliminated from the Royal Rumble by using JBL's chair as a pogo stick from the announce table to the ring. He had an impressive showing, as did Cody Rhodes. However, one of the biggest impressions made on the night was from Bo Dallas. The then-NXT superstar got an opportunity to enter the match and had an excellent showing, lasting over 20 minutes and eliminating Intercontinental champion Wade Barrett. We got other great surprise entrants, as Goldust entered to do battle with his brother and the Godfather came in for a five-second cameo. In the end, it was down to Cena, Sheamus and the dominant Ryback. The Irishman also did himself proud, lasting from number 11. But the match was Cena's. A disappointingly obvious winner for a match that could have been much better, in all honesty.

WWE's decision to book Rock vs Cena II made some sense business-wise, but there were some casualties to it. CM Punk's record-breaking WWE Championship reign was the biggest one, but the 2013 Rumble match was also affected. It's a shame really, it was much better than it's counterparts from previous and future years.