Ranking The Worst Performer In Every WWE Royal Rumble Match
Celebrating the Santino Marellas and Warlords of the Royal Rumble.
The 2023 Royal Rumble is just days away - and your writer can hardly contain himself.
WWE's January staple since 1988, the Royal Rumble has often been relied upon to bring the sports entertainment giant out of a slump and begin the metaphorical road to WrestleMania. Terrible creative in the months preceding the card automatically goes out of the window when the bell tolls to signal the beginning of a Royal Rumble match, and with two Rumbles having been held annually since 2018, this indescribable feeling is looked forward to by the pantheon of wrestling fans, many of whom only tune in once a year for the Rumble.
Traditionally comprised of 30 entrants, chances are each year's bout will contain a couple of hopeless goobers. They comprised part of the perfect Royal Rumble entrant list, which should also feature the following:-
Two workhorses to begin proceedings; typically, this will consist of two embroiled rivals or two strong match-of-the-year-worthy names that WWE has otherwise kept apart from each other.
A maximum of five 'surprise' entrants, be it a return from injury, a random selection from the NXT roster, or a familiar face from the past.
An almanac of midcarders to flesh out the field, but who have a better chance of winning bingo than they do the Royal Rumble match.
And these next 40 names, whose entire purpose in the Royal Rumble is to get a cheap pop once they're dumped out in astonishingly low time...
40. 1988 - Junkyard Dog
Lasted 2:30.
Confirmation, if it were needed, that entering the Royal Rumble match late on didn't quantify a guaranteed victory, Junkyard Dog's two minutes and thirty seconds in the match was, historically speaking, impressive. He's the only entry on this list to have lasted over a minute in his respective Rumble.
Dumped out by forgotten Golden Era staple Ron Bass after an equally-as-forgettable run, JYD's sole Royal Rumble performance wasn't much to write home about. He needn't impress anyone, though; the 1988 outing of the match was more about testing the Pat Patterson-created and Vince McMahon-loathed formula as a prime television special, a test screening if you will for what would soon become many's most anticipated WWE event of the calendar year.