Too often, the Royal Rumble can seem like a one-man match. Despite being a 30-entrant free-for-all, it's regularly remembered as little more than a setup for the WrestleMania title match main event. The upshot is that the winner of the Royal Rumble is usually pretty easy to call. WWEs booking is transparent enough that most savvy viewers can guess who'll be closing out WrestleMania by the time they're halfway through watching Survivor Series. What really makes things interesting in the Rumble, more than the actual winner, are the last three men eliminated. They're the understudies, so to speak: the ones whom WWE didn't choose this year, but COULD have, had things panned out differently. Those three, along with the winner, form the 'final four', representing WWEs theoretical top contenders for that year. The very conceit that these four are supposed to be believable as the most bankable stars in the company is what makes them worthy of closer examination. Taking this into account, I've ranked the final four competitors of every Royal Rumble (so far) based on overall star power, strength of their booking, the inclusion of memorable moments and the creation of new stars.
29. 2015 - Kane, Big Show, Rusev & Roman Reigns
It doesn't get any worse than this. Kane and Big Show had nonchalantly eliminated every competitor the fans actually wanted to win, and were verrrrry obviously there only to be sacrificed at the altar of the Roman Reigns main event push. Even without their status as telegraphed Roman-fodder, the sluggish, mid-life crisis versions of Big Show and Kane shouldn't have been anywhere near a WrestleMania main event. When Roman eliminated them both, they decided to beat him up anyway, summoning The Rock to beat THEM up. Only after this unnecessary run-in did Rusev reappear - now a massive babyface - to get dumped by Roman. There was no drama to any of it, and no reason for anyone to actually get behind Roman as a WrestleMania challenger. Worst final four ever.
