10 Biggest WWE Royal Rumble Falls From Grace

5. The Iron Man Of 2012 Lands On The Pre-Show Of 2013 - The Miz

Taz Royal Rumble
WWE.com

The 2013 Royal Rumble PPV was a fall from grace for the Miz, although there is a slight caveat to all of this.

At the 2012 event, the Miz was the standout iron man of the Rumble match. At 45 minutes, the Awesome One spent more time than anyone else in that 54-minute contest. Along with Cody Rhodes, Miz was key to keeping the Royal Rumble contest ticking along nicely as Sheamus went onto emerge victorious.

From being the workhorse star of the show, the 2013 Royal Rumble PPV saw the Miz reduced to working a swift seven-minute match on the event's pre-show, followed by a lame duck five-minute appearance in the Rumble itself.

That aforementioned caveat? Well, the silver lining in 2013 was that said pre-show match did show WWE's resident A-lister challenging for a title - although that challenge was a losing effort as the Miz went after the United States Championship held by Cesaro.

To think, the 2013 Royal Rumble took place two years after the Miz retained the WWE Championship against Randy Orton at the 2011 Royal Rumble PPV, before then going onto successfully retain the gold against John Cena at WrestleMania XXVII.

Senior Writer
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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.