11 Ups And 8 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2018

8. Surprise Return, Men’s Edition

Rey Mysterio
WWE.com

In recent years, WWE has been lacking when it comes to surprise entrants into the Royal Rumble. Sure, we’ve seen Diamond Dallas Page and Bubba Ray Dudley return, but you’re not going to be talking to your friends about that the next day.

But when Rey Mysterio showed up at #27, fans lost it. Rey hadn’t been in a WWE ring for nearly four years, with one of his last appearances coming at the 2014 Rumble, where he was booed out of the building for entering last – and not being Daniel Bryan.

Sunday, Mysterio hung in there and tossed Adam Cole, making it to the final five. He looked pretty good during that short run and hit several of his signature spots along the way. It’s not clear if this was a one-off or the beginning of one final run in WWE, but it provided a great little moment.

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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.