10 WWE Royal Rumble Statistics You Need To Know

8. Pole Position

WWE Royal Rumble Cody Rhodes CM Punk
WWE

Unlike AEW’s Casino Gauntlet match, drawing the #1 position in a Royal Rumble is not a highly desired outcome. While it might generate a huge crowd pop and allow the wrestler to milk their entrance, it also means they’re going to need to go wire-to-wire to win.

Still, it might be surprising to learn that seven men have entered the Rumble at #1 twice in their careers. Bret Hart accomplished this feat by entering the very first Rumble first in 1988, and then repeating in 1991. His career rival Shawn Michaels joined the club when he entered – and won – at #1 in 1995 and then opened the 2003 Rumble. Triple H would repeat the feat with #1 entries in 1996 and 2006. Ric Flair had the biggest gap between #1 entries, leading off the 1993 and 2007 Rumbles.

But it’s hard to top the remaining three Rumble-opening duplicates: Dolph Ziggler, CM Punk and The Miz cycled through being #1 in six straight Rumbles from 2010-15: Ziggler in 2010, Punk in 2011, Miz in 2012, Ziggler in 2013, Punk in 2014 and Miz in 2015.

Punk or Miz could break free from the pack with a #1 entrance this year, while OG Bloodline members Jey Uso or Roman Reigns could join the group if they come out first.

Contributor
Contributor

Scott is a former journalist and longtime wrestling fan who was smart enough to abandon WCW during the Monday Night Wars the same time as the Radicalz. He fondly remembers watching WrestleMania III, IV, V and VI and Saturday Night's Main Event, came back to wrestling during the Attitude Era, and has been a consumer of sports entertainment since then. He's written for WhatCulture for more than a decade, establishing the Ups and Downs articles for WWE Raw and WWE PPVs/PLEs and composing pieces on a variety of topics.