10 Wrestlers Who Should Never Have Made WWE Royal Rumble's 'Final 4'

9. Bob Backlund And Rick Martel (1993)

Rick Martel Wwe
WWE

The WWE (then the WWF) was in a rough state at the beginning of the 1990s, as steroid scandals led to a number of major stars moving out of the spotlight, with some jumping ship to WCW. This meant that just one year after the most stacked Rumble in history of 1992, the Rumbles between 1993 and 1997 left a lot to be desired.

Yokozuna prevailed in the 1993 Royal Rumble, eliminating a clearly confused 'Macho Man' Randy Savage, who was attempting to pin the giant Samo-sorry, 'Japanese' wrestler. In pressing Savage over the top rope, Yokozuna became the first man to guarantee himself a WrestleMania main event by winning the Rumble. This was as close as Savage would ever come.

The other two men in the final four in 1993 would make an excellent trivia question. Joining Yoko and Savage were a 43-year-old Bob Backlund, and a past-his-prime Rick 'The Model' Martel. Martel was actually something of a legendary Royal Rumble competitor, but his best days were well behind him at this point.

For further proof of how thin the roster was at the time, the two other men who made up the final six were a High Energy-era Owen Hart and Repo Man of all people.

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Contributor
Contributor

Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.