Every WWE Royal Rumble's Best Performer

1995 - Shawn Michaels

Again, the 1995 Royal Rumble match was another which highlighted the poor WWF roster of times. But then again, it's kind of to be expected when you take into account that '95 was arguably the WWF/WWE's worst year in the modern era.

Shawn Michaels gets the shout-out as the star of the '95 Rumble, with him and Davey Boy Smith starting the match and both going the distance until Michaels eliminated the Bulldog to get the win. Whilst others have gone the distance in the Royal Rumble, what was different here was that the 30-man match was a much shorter one due to entrants entering every 60 seconds rather than that customary two-minute intervals.

Just to highlight how shoddy the company was at this time, this was a Rumble match consisting of the likes of Kwang, Doink, Duke 'The Dumpster' Droese, King Kong Bundy, Aldo Montoya, Mantaur, The Bushwackers, Men on a Mission, Well Dunn, The Smoking Gunns, The Blu Brothers and Adam Bomb. Seriously, does it get any worse than that line-up?

HBK would last the full 38 minutes as this Royal Rumble was used to position him as the challenger for Diesel's WWF Championship at WrestleMania XI.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks/Saints, Jamie Hayter, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.