10 Times WWE Royal Rumble Winners Risked It All Before WrestleMania

A bump in the road on the way to his destiny.

This one doesn't get brought up nearly enough when people talk about the journey that Shawn Michaels and Bret Hart went on to get to their 60-minute Iron Man match at WrestleMania XII.

Michaels was on his way to the top from the moment he put Marty Jannetty through a barbershop window, but he'd come up short the first time. Winning the Royal Rumble in 1995, he challenged his former bodyguard for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania. Diesel came out on top and the Heartbreak Kid had to wait another year for a second bite of the apple.

In 1996 he won the 30-man match again, getting revenge on Big Sexy by eliminating him last to stamp his ticket to the Granddaddy of Them All for a second year in row. Enter Owen Hart. The brother of the Hitman claimed that he'd been responsible for the assault that took HBK out of action the year before, even through we all knew he was beaten up by a group of marines outside a bar.

Hart goaded Michaels into a match at In Your House 6, where HBK won and continued on his Road to WrestleMania, while Owen was thrown into an anonymous tag-team match instead.