WWE Royal Rumble: 5 alternate past Rumble endings that could have changed the course of history

The Royal Rumble pay per view well and truly kicks off what fans, commentators and Superstars refer to as ‘Wrestlemania Season.’

One of the biggest nights of the year, the Rumble boasts the infamous hour-long Royal Rumble match, pitting 30 – or sometimes more – top competitors against each other with one goal – the opportunity to challenge for a championship at Wrestlemania.

But whereas so many of those who’ve won Rumble matches have gone on to savour in some of the best title wins of all time, there’s a school of thought that alternative endings might also have thrown up some fascinating and memorable rivalries, matches and championship victories.

So the question is, who suffered the greatest agony of all in only just missing out? Who got lucky at the Rumble and cashed in big time at Wrestlemania? There’s plenty to consider.

To help you on your way, here are five alternate endings for Royal Rumbles of yesteryear that could have changed the course of WWE – all with my trademark 1990s theme, of course...

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#5 Not so bad after all (1995)

Michaels enjoys his win at the 1995 Royal Rumble

WWE historians and those who have followed the company for so many years often accept the fact that 1995 was, all told, far from a vintage year.

With few stand-out, established main event stars, the launch and debut of some questionable new characters and storylines, it wasn’t 12 months that sits too fondly in the memory for long-time fans.

For much of 1995, the then WWF Champion was Kevin Nash, then wrestling as the towering monster, Diesel. Whether it was timing, execution, or just an accumulation of factors unknown, Big Daddy Cool’s title run just failed to hit the heights it had promised back when the seven-footer defeated Bob Backlund in a record-setting eight seconds at Madison Square Garden at the tail end of 1994.

So what could have made 1995 better? What would have perhaps aided the company in faring better in the year during which many felt they faltered? Perhaps the answer lies in the 1995 Royal Rumble. Having lasted the entire Rumble and eliminated the British Bulldog at the finale, Shawn Michaels had his hand raised and went on to meet his on-off buddy at Wrestlemania XI that year.

It was a fairly tepid main event that, for many, set the tone for the rest of a fairly mediocre run with the title for Diesel. Perhaps, then, the call to have Michaels win the Rumble that year was the wrong one? What if, say, Lex Luger had been better rewarded for his 18 minutes in the match? What if Crush had been given a mighty push and sent to ‘Mania to tangle with the champ?

The possibilities are plenty.

#4 No Attitude Era? (1998)

Stone Cold tangles with the competition at the 1998 Rumble

While in 1997 there was the birth of D-Generation X, the Montreal Screwjob and more middle fingers from Stone Cold Steve Austin than you can shake a stick at, there’s little doubt that the Attitude Era really blossomed in 1998.

What if, though, it never did? What if the boom period that had so steadily been building and threatening to explode during 1997, actually dissipated into nothing more than a memory? Well, all that might well have been reality had Austin not been successful in the 1998 Royal Rumble match.

In what was his second successive victory in the marathon, mass brawl of a contest, the Texas Rattlesnake punched his ticket to Wrestlemania where he went on to beat Shawn Michaels for the then WWF title, and well and truly get the Austin era underway. But what if he had fallen at the Rumble? What if Mark Henry, The Rock or Mick Foley – who wrestled as Cactus Jack, Dude Love and Mankind at different stages of the match – had gone on to taste victory in San Jose?

The landscape of professional wrestling would have looked very, very different indeed.

#3 Slowing Yoko (1993)

Yokozuna overcame Earthquake and everyone else at the 1993 Rumble

In late 1992, there were few sights more impressive – or terrifying, if you were standing across the ring from him – than Yokozuna.

Debuting at the tail end of 1992 under the guidance of the wily, veteran manager, Mr Fuji, Yokozuna was packaged as a mighty, dominant sumo specialist with a hunger for causing pain and suffering in the squared circle.

The velocity of his push into the main event scene in what was then the World Wrestling Federation is, actually, often overlooked. He went from his debut match on WWF television to winning the WWF title in the main event of Wrestlemania IX in the space of barely three or four months. And it is, arguably, all because he was the winner of the 1993 Royal Rumble.

Had this massive, 500-plus behemoth actually stalled during his rapid ascent through the card, the remainder of 1993 – and 1994 as a result – would been borderline unrecognisable. Yoko need to last just 14 minutes 53 seconds in the match before winning it, but the likes of Tatanka, Ted DiBiase and even Bob Backlund all put in stellar showings and could have gone to face Bret Hart at Cesar’s Palace for the gold, an altogether different story to the one that the late, great Yokozuna will be fondly remembered.

#2 A Boyhood nightmare

Shawn Michaels was victorious in the 1996 Rumble match

“The boyhood dream has come true for Shawn Michaels!” Those were the words exclaimed by an undeniably emotional Vince McMahon on commentary after Michaels had beaten Bret Hart for the then WWF Championship at Wrestlemania XII in 1996.

It was arguably one of the most feel-good and iconic championship wins of the decade, coming not only after an hour-long Iron Man match against the Hitman that night in California, but also after another epic feat by Michaels in winning that years’ Royal Rumble match.

Again I’d ask the question, though… what if? What if Michaels’ dream of becoming the WWF Champion had actually crumbled to pieces. What if he had never been medically cleared to return to the Rumble that year, and never did make it to Mania to taste the sweetest of all championship successes?

His good pal Diesel put in a good showing that night, as did the likes of Triple H and Stone Cold Steve Austin, the latter during the very early stages of what would go on to become iconic careers with the company.

#1 The Lex Express (1994)

There were co winners of the 1994 Rumble - but should it have been that way?

The Lex Express ultimately derailed in WWE, the tyres of its momentum well and truly punctured by the middle of 1995, when Lex decided to up and leave to WCW in a sensational departure.

It all had roots, its believed, in what was a frustrating time for the man acclaimed to have been Made in the USA – and the 1994 Royal Rumble played a big part. Lex was the company’s biggest babyface in the summer of 1993 when he failed in his opportunity to oust Yokozuna as WWF Champion. The storyline was as such that this would be Lex’s one and only shot at the title, but apparent fan support saw on-screen President, Jack Tunney, to allow Luger into the 1994 Rumble match, much to the delight of his followers and much to the chagrin of Yokozuna’s management.

Lex would surely go on to finally realise the dreams of millions of Americans and dispatch the ‘evil’ Yokozuna, snaring his championship in the process at Wrestlemania X, right? Sadly for Lex, no. After Luger and Bret Hart were deemed ‘co-winners’ of the Rumble match having allegedly eliminating each other at exactly the same time, Tunney insisted that both men would have a crack at the champ at Madison Square Garden, with Bret going on to famously down Yokozuna and carry the title for much of the rest of the year.

How different 1994 and the careers of both Bret and Luger might have looked, then, had Luger been named the sole victor at the Rumble? It’s said many fans favoured him over Hart, but it’s a story that’ll never be told.