15 Most Surprising WWE Royal Rumble Entrants Of All Time

7. The Announce Team (2012)

Remember at the beginning of the decade when the announce team stopped telling the story and started becoming the story? It was a dark time where one of the most pushed heels in the company was a play-by-play announcer with little-to-no wrestling experience.

Michael Cole's heel turn dominated late 2010 and pretty much all of 2011, but it had started to calm down by the end of the year. The 2012 Royal Rumble reminded us all over again. That Rumble was pretty lean in terms of starpower, so it had to rely mostly on gimmicks, including having all three members of the announce team get up from the booth and take off their suits revealing wrestling gear underneath.

Jerry Lawler was the first, entering at number 12, but barely lasting a minute before being eliminated by Cody Rhodes. Booker T then came in at number 17 and did far better, lasting nearly five minutes before being eliminated by Rhodes and Dolph Ziggler. It was then inevitable that Cole would be entering the Rumble, and it happened at number 20. Cole was eliminated by Lawler and Booker after being spooked by...