Ranking All 34 WWE Royal Rumble Winners

15. John Cena – 2008

WWE Royal Rumble 2019
WWE.com

WrestleMania title shot: Used it at No Way Out unsuccessfully; Lost triple threat title match at WrestleMania 24

John Cena’s surprise return at the 2008 Royal Rumble is still one of the all-time best moments in Rumble history. When Cena can get Madison Square Garden to cheer him without pandering, you know it’s an awesome moment.

Unfortunately, Cena couldn’t wait until WrestleMania 24 for his title shot and challenged WWE Champion Randy Orton at No Way Out. Orton got himself disqualified to keep the title, but Cena was inserted into a triple threat title match at Mania along with Triple H. In the end, Orton took out Triple H and pinned a prone Cena to retain.

Cena would go on to capture four world titles in 2008-09 alone, so it’s safe to say he recovered from this setback. But his Rumble return alone was a huge success.

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.