Ranking EVERY WWE Royal Rumble Match - From Worst To Best

28. 2013

John Cena Royal Rumble 2013
WWE.com

While the Rock vs. CM Punk closed out the 2013 Royal Rumble, there was nonetheless a sense of inevitability that John Cena would win the Rumble and face the winner of that WWE Championship match - regardless of whether that was the Great One or the Second City Saint.

As such, the 2013 Rumble match, while decent enough, lacked the uncertainty and unpredictability that’s made so many Rumbles great over the years.

Sure, the surprise return of Chris Jericho at #2 - Y2J picking back up with his rivalry against Dolph Ziggler - was a great surprise, but it was abundantly clear that WWE was gearing up to run back WrestleMania XXVIII’s purported ‘once in a lifetime’ match of John Cena vs. Rock.

Jericho and Ziggler put in a couple of solid, near-50-minute stints, there was some brilliant Team Hell No shenanigans, it was nice to see NXT’s Bo Dallas, a Godfather appearance got a strong reaction, and Sheamus and Ryback put in vastly different dominant displays - Sheamus doing 37 minutes and scoring five eliminations, the Big Guy matching that elimination count in a nine-minute wrecking ball performance - but this match was all about waiting for John Cena and his inevitable win.

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.