Ranking All 30 WWE Royal Rumble Winners
21. Triple H – 2016
WrestleMania
title shot:
N/A
Last year’s Royal Rumble winner did indeed go on to main event WrestleMania, but he went in as the champion rather than the challenger, due to the WWE World Heavyweight Championship being up for grabs in the Rumble match for the second time in the contest’s history.
And in a completely foreseeable twist, the defending champ in that Rumble, Roman Reigns, would go into Mania as the challenger and leave as the champion.
All of this was in a desperate effort to turn Roman Reigns into a megastar that WWE fans would get behind once and for all. And as much as critics bash that decision, you have to give WWE credit for going all-in last year: Triple H was the ultimate villain as the head of the Authority, and Reigns got “screwed” out of the title and had to fight to get it back.
But this Rumble match was marred by plenty of problems. Roman entered at #1, then was “taken out” mid-match but not eliminated. He was carted to the back and hung out until re-emerging at the end, only for Triple H to make a “surprise” entrance at #30 and eliminate Reigns second-to-last.
Worse yet, all of this failed to get fans to rally behind Roman. He was soundly booed at WrestleMania XXXII and lost the title less than three months later.