10 Things That Are No Longer Special About WWE Royal Rumble

What do Scotty 2 Hotty, Owen Hart, and Bob Backlund all have in common?

This entry's title might have been a giveaway, but the answer is that they were all attacked on their way to the Royal Rumble match.

A feud-fueled ambush before the 30-man contest from time to time would be reasonable, but it has gotten to a point where it seems Royal Rumble matches can no longer conclude without seeing at least one sneak attack. A slight spin WWE puts on the obnoxious trope uses the cheap assaults to swap out entrants. The twist worked well when popular stars like Mick Foley knocked out and replaced others like Test, but it has lost some thunder after turning into a regular part of the contest.

In 2019 alone, two instances of pre-match ambushes led to last-minute changes. Admittedly, Becky Lynch replacing Lana was much more passive than Nia Jax annihilating R-Truth during his entrance, but the scenarios were similar either way.

No matter what year you end up reading this, it’s highly likely that you’ll see someone lose their spot in the Royal Rumble due to similar shenanigans. In the future, let's just hope that they improve the matches (or at least entertain us) rather than garner the ire of fans.