Ranking EVERY WWE Royal Rumble Match - From Worst To Best

11. 2002

Triple H Steve Austin Mr Perfect Royal Rumble 2002
WWE.com

Much like many a Royal Rumble, the 2002 edition was dominated by one major story: the return of Triple H.

After eight months out with a quad injury, the Game returned to TV less than two weeks before the ‘02 Rumble, receiving a truly legendary pop as he announced he’d be a part of the Royal Rumble. Safe to say, Triple H has never been as hot as a babyface as he was during this time, and that would indeed culminate in him winning the Rumble and heading off to WrestleMania XIX to face Undisputed Champion Chris Jericho.

The Rumble itself didn’t really get going until the arrival of the Undertaker at #10, with the Deadman eventually amassing an impressive seven eliminations until his jaw-dropping elimination by Maven. This was the biggest moment of Maven’s career, and he showed exceptional facials when he realised he’d done messed up as Big Evil returned to the ring and beat the rookie all over the building.

While it was great to see Goldust make his pre-announced return to the company at #2, even more fantastic to see was the surprise arrival of Mr. Perfect at #25. And for 15 glorious minutes, Curt Hennig rolled back the years and captured nostalgic lightning in a bottle, delivering a magnificent run-through of his greatest hits and even making it through to the Rumble’s final three.

As for the Rumble final four, it doesn’t get much better than Mr. Perfect, Kurt Angle, Steve Austin, and Triple H - with Perfect and Angle eliminating Stone Cold, and Triple H tossing out the Perfect One and the Olympic Hero to nab the 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.