Ranking EVERY WWE Royal Rumble Match - From Worst To Best

19. 2021 Men's

WWE Royal Rumble 2021 Edge Christian
WWE

For Edge to win the Royal Rumble, one year after his return from an enforced nine-year retirement, and in only his fourth match back as an active wrestler, that should be a huge moment. And it was. The only problem, of course, is that this moment was hit hard by the 2021 Royal Rumble being one of the many, many WWE events to play out in front of the depressing Thunderdome setting.

It wasn’t just Edge’s big moment that was deprived of the fan reaction it deserved, though, for even more frustrating was that Christian’s return to the ring - himself having been retired for seven years due to concussion issues - played out in front of a bunch of video screens and canned noise. Still, seeing Edge and Christian share an emotional hug hit hard, regardless of where it took place. Two best friends who’d both had their careers taken away from them while in their prime, it would take the coldest of cold hearts not to smile at that sight.

No pun intended, but it was also exceptionally cool to see Carlito back in a WWE ring, too, and another appearance from Hurricane Helms was a fun one for those of a certain age. But away from that, this was nothing but a solid Royal Rumble that, in a rarity, didn’t feature one or more wrestlers having a standard ‘monster’ run of scoring a high amount of eliminations. On that front, the highest number of eliminations went to Big E and Damian Priest - knocking up four apiece - which in turn served as Priest’s official main roster call-up ahead of joining the Raw brand the very next night.

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.