10 Biggest WWE Royal Rumble Falls From Grace

9. The Last Man Becomes The First Man - Rusev

Taz Royal Rumble
WWE.com

The general consensus of wrestling fans and media is that WWE massively dropped the ball with Rusev - and that's because WWE massively dropped the ball with Rusev!

A powerhouse oozing with charisma, who could go in the ring, and who was great as either a babyface or a heel, the Bulgarian Brute should've been a fully-fledged main event act with at least one WWE Championship run under his belt. As it stands, Rusev left WWE last April, and these days can be found as Miro over in AEW.

At the 2015 Royal Rumble, Rusev entered the match at #15 and went onto crack skulls for 35 minutes, eliminating six people, before being the last man eliminated as Roman Reigns won out. It was a brilliant showing from Ru-Ru, and it looked as if this could be a stepping stone to greater things.

Fast forward to the 2016 Royal Rumble, and Rusev would again be eliminated by Reigns - just this time it was 90 seconds into the Rumble match, with the Bulgarian having started at the #2 spot after the Big Dog entered at #1.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.