Every Heel WWE Royal Rumble Winner Ranked From Worst To Best

6. Charlotte Flair (2020)

Royal Rumble 2020
WWE.com

'The Queen' was technically neither heel nor babyface ahead of 2020's Rumble (foreshadowing perhaps how her career would go for the rest of time) but the woman already being cast as "the female Roman Reigns" by audiences exhausted with her various title wins will always be more at ease with villainy rather than virtue.

The 2020 Royal Rumble exists in a curious space that doesn't particularly relate to anything immediately before or after it. A looming pandemic destroyed the WrestleMania it was building too, relegating what could have been an intriguing story between Flair and NXT Champion Rhea Ripley into a largely-forgotten first f*ck up for 'The Nightmare' on the main roster.

Though nobody could have foreseen any of that, the sheer exasperation with Flair's win almost foretold it. With so little to get excited about should she hold yet more gold, the victory felt more like a necessary inevitability to get out of the way rather than the peak portion of a contender's journey.

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation over 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett