Ranking All 30 WWE Royal Rumble Winners

17. Yokozuna – 1993

steve austin 2001 royal rumble
WWE.com

WrestleMania title shot: Defeated Bret Hart at WrestleMania IX; Immediately lost title to Hulk Hogan

Without a doubt, this has to be the worst Rumble winner who actually won the title at Mania. Yoko eliminated seven wrestlers en route to winning the first Rumble match that carried a WrestleMania title shot. He then went on to beat Bret Hart in the Mania main event. That alone warrants a high placement on the list.

Then it all went to hell. Hulk Hogan came out to help his “friend” Hart, who had been blinded by salt. Mr. Fuji challenged Hogan to a title match right then and there. An errant throw of salt and an atomic leg drop later, the Hulkster was leaving WrestleMania with the world title. Yokozuna’s reign lasted all of about three minutes.

Yoko would eventually get his title back and send Hogan packing out of WWF, but that ridiculous ending severely tarnished his standing as a Rumble winner.

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.