12 Times Wrestlers Failed To Make It Into The Royal Rumble Match

3. Tye Dillinger - 2018

Tye Dillinger
WWE.com

Back in 2017, the Alamodome completely exploded when NXT's 'Perfect 10' Tye Dillinger shockingly entered the Royal Rumble match at, you guessed it, number 10. He'd then rush into the ring before thumping Braun Strowman to the sound of 52,000 fans chanting the number he'd become synonymous with.

However, one year later, that very same number unfortunately didn't lead to the same sort of rousing in-ring performance from the then-SmackDown Live talent. In fact, thanks to two bitter buddies in the back, Dillinger wasn't given the chance to give any sort of Rumble performance at all. Attacking the fan favourite as his entrance music played out in front of a giddy Wells Fargo Center crowd, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were determined to spoil the perfect party, with the latter seizing Dillinger's spot in the match post-beatdown.

In the end, Zayn was eliminated by the eventual winner of the 2018 men's contest, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Dillinger wouldn't participate in another edition of the match again before leaving the company in February 2019. But at least, for two distinctly different reasons, both of his scheduled appearances in the legendary bout were memorable. The numbers don't lie.

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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.