WWE Royal Rumble Debut Wrestlers: Where Are They Now?
1. Jim Duggan
Jim Duggan won the first Royal Rumble, and while he's far from the worst Rumble winner in WWE history, he's one of the most underwhelming. Hacksaw was one of the era's most popular stars, but if the 1988 Rumble was supposed to catapult him to stardom, the plain failed. Winning this match remains his career's biggest claim to fame, and he never won a single championship during multiple runs with the company.
He received a moderate push after winning the Rumble, but nothing major. He was part of a 14-man tournament for the vacant WWE Championship at WrestleMania IV, but lost to Ted DiBiase in the first round, then started developing a strong American patriot persona. Duggan spent the rest of the year feuding with WWE's various foreign villains, and remained a big fan favourite until his 1993 release.
A seven-year WCW run followed, and Duggan made a surprising WWE return in 2005. He worked a couple of brief tag team runs with Eugene and Super Crazy before leaving again in 2009, and received his WWE Hall of Fame induction in 2011. A surprise appearance in the 2012 preceded another brief run with the company, with his most recent appearance coming as a cast member on the Legends House reality show.
Duggan remains active in the wrestling business today, and currently does promotional work for Jeff Jarrett's sporadic Global Force Wrestling promotion. He also appeared as himself in 2013's Pro Wrestlers Vs. Zombies movie, but the less said about that, the better...