10 WWE Royal Rumble Wins That Became Huge Disappointments
Not every Royal Rumble winner is one for the ages.
Royal Rumble 2022 is in the books, with Ronda Rousey and Brock Lesnar earning their places on the Road to WrestleMania.
A main event at the biggest show of the year awaits them both but the initial reaction to their victories has been lukewarm. Time will tell how their wins will be remembered and where they will go down in Rumble folklore, as a big part of being considered a successful Royal Rumble winner by history is what happens after surviving twenty-nine other superstars.
The Rumble's thirty-plus year history is littered with memorable winners who went on to great things.
Think Ric Flair making history by winning the Rumble and the WWF Championship in 1992, Stone Cold Steve Austin's three victories that led to WrestleMania title wins, or Becky Lynch's late entry that set up the first-ever women's main event at WrestleMania in 2019.
For every Austin or Lynch, however, there are plenty of Rumble winners who did not build on the momentum created by their triumph. Whether disappointing on the night itself, falling short at WrestleMania, or falling by the wayside by the early summer, a Rumble win has not always been a guarantee of success...
10. Hulk Hogan - 1990
Although the traditional "winner goes to WrestleMania" stipulation was not added to the Royal Rumble match until 1993, it was still a big match on pay-per-view, when there were only four such events a year. Anyone who won could potentially have moved to a new level. That wasn't the case with the second pay-per-view version of the match.
The 1990 Rumble is well remembered as one of the best early versions of the match, with a plethora of big-name talent, a hot crowd and the famous first confrontation between Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior that led to the Ultimate Challenge at WrestleMania VI. Ultimately, Hogan would win the match despite already being the WWF Champion and the number one star in the company.
Hogan's status meant that within moments of his victory the Rumble match became insignificant. A win for Mr. Perfect or 'Ravishing' Rick Rude - the last two competitors left with Hogan - would have set them up as top-level house show opponents for the Hulkster; a Warrior win would have given the rising star even more momentum on the way to his WrestleMania collision with Hogan. Instead, Hogan's victory sent the crowd home happy but in hindsight left a lot of potential unused.