12 Times WWE Broke Its Own Golden Rules

8. Steve Austin Wins The Royal Rumble, Doesn't Headline WrestleMania

The staggered-elimination battle royal known as the Royal Rumble was introduced in 1988, but five years later, a stipulation was added that gave the event a new importance - from then on out, the winner of the January bout would face the WWE Champion at spring's WrestleMania event. WWE adhered to the stipulation religiously, even granting two title shots at WrestleMania X when Bret Hart and Lex Luger were declared co-winners of the 1994 Rumble. In 1997, though, a combination of creative booking and external circumstances led to some very unpredictable swerves on the road to WrestleMania. Heel Steve Austin won the Rumble in controversial fashion - he was thrown out of the ring by nemesis Bret Hart, but the referees missed the elimination. Austin re-entered the ring, eliminated Vader and The Undertaker, then tossed Bret to win. A four-way match was set for February's In Your House: Final Four with the winner getting the coveted shot, but when Shawn Michaels vacated the WWE Title after injuring his knee (or not wanting to lose to supposed winner Bret Hart at WrestleMania XIII), the bout became a championship match. Either way, Bret won, and Austin was not part of the main event of WrestleMania. Austin ended up wrestling Bret at the show of shows in a match that made his career, but WWE remained wisely conservative when it came to taking chances with the Royal Rumble in the future. In the ensuing 18 years, there's only been one other time when the Royal Rumble winner didn't get a title shot at WrestleMania.