10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2005 Facts

2. It Marked The Beginning Of An Unusual Streak

Chris Benoit Royal Rumble 2005
WWE.com

In the game of Monopoly, sometimes you pull the card that says, "You have won second prize in a beauty contest. Collect $10." For a little while there, in the Royal Rumble, second prize winners got something worth far more than ten bucks.

From 2005 through 2010, the Rumble runner-up still found their way into a World title match at WrestleMania. Cena began this streak in 2005, defeating JBL at the big event to capture his first WWE Championship.

From that point on, the following runner-ups got WrestleMania title shots - Randy Orton won his way into Rey Mysterio's title match (2006), Shawn Michaels won a number-one-contender's match (2007), Triple H won an Elimination Chamber match to earn a title shot (2008), Triple H won the WWE Championship prior to WrestleMania (2009), and Cena would face off with Batista (2010). That's all well and good, but none of them got to point at the sign, did they?

Contributor
Contributor

Justin has been a wrestling fan since 1989, and has been writing about it since 2009. Since 2014, Justin has been a features writer and interviewer for Fighting Spirit Magazine. Justin also writes for History of Wrestling, and is a contributing author to James Dixon's Titan series.