20 Awesome WWE Royal Rumble Debuts And Returns

6. Booker T (2011)

edge royal rumble
WWE.com

As mentioned earlier, filling out the oversized 2011 Royal Rumble required some former superstars making their first appearances in some time.

In this case, the New Nexus was rolling along at the midpoint of the Rumble, looking invincible, and fans were eagerly awaiting someone who would stop them. Cue the, “Can you dig it, sucka?” theme music.

As you can imagine fans (and a childlike Matt Striker) lost their minds as the former 5-time (5-time, 5-time, 5-time, 5-time) WCW and WWE Champion made his way out to enter the Rumble. Booker hung in there for a while, but eventually was tossed. In his case, Booker’s appearance was not a one-off, but a full return to the company that continues to today in some capacity.

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.