Ranking EVERY WWE Royal Rumble Match - From Worst To Best

30. 2009

Royal Rumble 2009 Triple H Legacy
WWE

Once it got going, the 2009 Royal Rumble was all about Triple H vs. Legacy. Could the Game overcome the three-on-one odds to get the better of Randy Orton, Cody Rhodes, and Ted DiBiase Jr.? Err, not quite.

Ultimately, Triple H would put in a 50-minute stint, score six eliminations, but come up short as Orton dumped him out to win the match. Still, for a moment it really did look like WWE was going to make Legacy look like total chumps by having Trips run through all three of them once Hunter, Randy, Cody, and Ted Jr. made it to the final four spot.

Away from that four, this was a fairly dull, fairly vanilla Royal Rumble, with other highlights being a fun few minutes of destruction for Vladimir Kozlov, the record-setting elimination of Santino Marella after just one second, and a surprise return for Rob Van Dam. Mainly though, this was a generic Rumble that had a little too much Big Show and too many wrestlers - Rey Mysterio, Chris Jericho, Mike Knox, Finlay, DiBiase - who had lengthy Rumble runs but only scored one, or even zero, eliminations.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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.