Ranking EVERY WWE Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View From Worst To Best

22. 2012

Royal Rumble
WWE.com

The Good: CM Punk and Dolph Ziggler assembled a firecracker of an effort for the WWE Championship, outstripping everything on the undercard and the Royal Rumble match itself. Daniel Bryan was on a roll of his own in the opener, slithering past The Big Show and Mark Henry like the snake he was quickly becoming. Brodus Clay's squash win over Drew McIntyre sounds criminal on paper, but the 'Funkasaurus' gimmick was brand spanking new at the time - he was one of the show's genuine highlights.

The Bad: Kane and John Cena's match was a total piece of sh*t. The storyline building into it was an even bigger piece of sh*t. Zack Ryder somehow looked like the biggest piece of sh*t of all following the result, though Vince McMahon should really earn those honours for removing 'The Big Red Machine' from the Royal Rumble and hijacking a consecutive appearances run stretching back over a decade. Sh*t.

The Ugly: 2012's Royal Rumble match was obsessed with banter sequences. All three commentators wrestled, Mick Foley and Santino Marella took over the ring with sock puppets, and Kharma was - gasp - a woman!

Contributor
Contributor

Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett