In the early nineties, Vince McMahon and WWF were embroiled in a serious federal investigation into steroid use. While a dangerous time for the company, it pushed McMahon to move away from the bodybuilder type he was known to be fond of, and start pushing younger, smaller athletes as his top attractions. In 1995, a year after the trial, there was no better choice for this position than Shawn Michaels who had been consistently impressive with his in-ring skill and flamoyant character. The WWFs reputation took a serious hit from this scandal and Shawn Michaels was exactly the sort of star that Vince needed to debunk the public perception of what a wrestler is. Shawn Michaels was the first entrant into the 95 Rumble, Davey Boy Smith (British Bulldog) drew #2 and both men went all the way to be the last two men in the match. Bulldog threw Michaels over the top rope and immediately began celebrating, but HBK hung on without both feet touching the floor and returned to eliminate the gloating Brit. While Shawn Michaels became the first man to enter at #1 and win the Royal Rumble match, his victory is less impressive than many others as the 1995 Rumble only had intervals of approximately a minute between entrants. Michaels doesnt even make the top twenty longest appearances in a Rumble, winning the match in thirty-eight minutes, forty one seconds, but he did eliminate a very respectable eight men in that amount of time.
