Royal Rumble 2013 - 2017 Winners

[J is Justice]

So I just saw a picture that had all of the Rumble winners pictured year by year. What stood out to me were the winners from 2013 - 2017. Now I wasn't watching at the time, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I have to imagine that this was kind of a dark period for Rumble winners? I decided not to include 2011 and '12 because, while I know some people were unhappy with Del Rio and Sheamus winning, at least they weren't previous winners and there were some potential there. 2010 was won by Edge, by the way, so I have to imagine people were delighted with that.

So the winners from '13 to '17 were:

2013: People were sick of Cena in 2008 so I have to imagine him winning again 5 years later didn't go down well (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

2014: Batista. Infamously despised winner.

2015: Roman. Lol.

2016: Triple H. Really? In 2016? What was this about?

2017: Orton. See above regarding Cena.

And then '18 was won by Nakamura, giving us a fresh winner that most people liked (even if it didn't pan out).

Anyway, what are your thoughts about this? Again, correct me if I'm wrong about anything here.

[thechase]

Triple H was booked to face Reigns at 'Mania and they wanted to give Roman a big coronation (something that failed them in 2015), so after Roman scooped up  relatively well received title win on free television, they put the strap on the line in the actual Royal Rumble match where Reigns spent half the running time out of commission, and then 'upset' by HHH who came in at number 30, what was even more wild was Roman wasn't the last guy eliminated, they fell on Ambrose/Moxley and the crowd was way more into him, it led to a warm-up programme between him and HHH for the title.

[coleslaw]

2013 was extremely predictable, everyone knew they were headed towards Cena vs. Rock at Mania. With Cena winning the Rumble and Rock challenging Punk later on that night, it was kind of a foregone conclusion.

2014, IIRC, Daniel Bryan was the overwhelmingly popular choice, but ended up not even making the match, let alone winning it. It all worked out in the end, but I have no idea what the Batista thing was about. I actually don't even recall if it was announced beforehand that he was participating lol. Batista vs. Orton would've been a s***show for sure.

2015 was Daniel Bryan's return match and... yeah, I don't think it's hyperbole to say damn near everyone on the planet was rooting for him to win. I remember watching with a non-wrestling fan friend of mine and I hyped Bryan up hardcore, so I definitely had an awkward night lol. At least we had that killer Cena/Brock/Seth match.

2016, I wasn't really watching at the time, but I think HHH was actually the "obvious" winner at the time. I remember there being heavy rumors of Roman/HHH at Mania, but I could be completely wrong on that one. Either way, I remember being open-minded towards a Roman vs. HHH match but...yeah, that didn't deliver at all.

2017. I remember Orton being totally out of left field. I think that was a Rumble where there really wasn't a favorite going in, but I could be mistaken on that. This obviously ended up being the right move, once you factor in the fantastic match Orton had with Wyatt at Mania, followed by making Jinder Mahal a main event superstar at Backlash.

[coleslaw]

Jan 22, 2023 11:27:58 GMT -5 thechase said:

Triple H was booked to face Reigns at 'Mania and they wanted to give Roman a big coronation (something that failed them in 2015), so after Roman scooped up  relatively well received title win on free television, they put the strap on the line in the actual Royal Rumble match where Reigns spent half the running time out of commission, and then 'upset' by HHH who came in at number 30, what was even more wild was Roman wasn't the last guy eliminated, they fell on Ambrose/Moxley and the crowd was way more into him, it led to a warm-up programme between him and HHH for the title.

Ambrose was HOT in 2016. I like to think there's an alternate universe where Ambrose beats HHH for the title at Mania and Roman loses to Brock in an underwhelming midcard Extreme Rules match

[msc]

2013 - Everyone knew Cena was winning. The ads even had Cena going "LOL I'm winning" (I only slightly exaggerate). It set up Rock/Cena, twice in a lifetime. It made Vince a lot of money, but creatively, it sucked. And WrestleMania that year was godawful too.

2014 - People wanted Bryan to win, him not being in it killed what had been a fairly decent Rumble. Batista went heel, had some great matches, left. Bryan won the WrestleMania main event, got hurt.

2015 - People expected Reigns to win, then Daniel Bryan did a big "I'm back from injury and winning the Rumble" promo the week before, so obviously fans were expecting big things. If not Bryan winning, running it close. So him out in 9 minutes was a troll move that killed the match. As was killing each over name in the match. Had Reigns got the Austin 98 type Rumble push the backlash would not have been anywhere as bad.

2016 - HHH won the Rumble and title to set up another Roman Reigns coronation at WrestleMania. Despite that, the Rumble's genuinely a very good one (AJ debuts, Brock vs the Wyatts, Owens/Ambrose/Zayn, and so on). Despite trying to keep it secret, everyone knew HHH was going to be a surprise number 30 and win the Rumble.

2017 - Orton. This leaked hours before the event via the betting odd changes and everyone was all WTF Orton? Then, after the match, online fandom was more like "Thank feck Reigns lost!" Orton also had a fair bit of sympathy because he had been killing it as a Wyatt Family member, and because of the whole Brock/Orton Summerslam fiasco. It was treated on screen as a shock win by an old veteran. What hurt it was a plodding feud with Bray Wyatt and then losing the belt to Jinder Mahal.

I have more issues with Edge winning again in 2021 because I felt storyline wise that one SHOULD have been Bryans.

[canceled4truth]

I would add '11 and '12 in there because Del Rio and Sheamus were, for all intents and purposes, pretty underwhelming winners too. Both guys were getting pushed waaaaay harder than their talent levels at the time in part because of how barren the roster was.

[A Little Doo Doo]

My mind goes completely blank sometimes when I try to remember who won the 2017 Rumble.

[coleslaw]

Jan 22, 2023 11:50:21 GMT -5 canceled4truth said:

I would add '11 and '12 in there because Del Rio and Sheamus were, for all intents and purposes, pretty underwhelming winners too. Both guys were getting pushed waaaaay harder than their talent levels at the time in part because of how barren the roster was.

2011 should've been Santino. That would have been crazy

I was okay with Sheamus in 2012. At the time it felt super obvious Jericho or Sheamus was taking it and it was nice to have someone other than Cena/HHH/Orton/Taker/etc. I can't say he was the BEST choice but I don't think he was a bad one.

[msc]

Sheamus was fine in 2012? A younger guy with momentum and fan support. (It amused me people wanted for years, but that year they wanted the old veteran guy to win - though, this is more of a retrospective thing.) He was done dirty by the WrestleMania booking, and took ages to recover from the fan backlash from that, through no fault of his own. Overall, Sheamus needed a big win to cement his place in the upper half of the card, whereas Jericho (who was doing his traditional job at WrestleMania anyhow) could waltz into the title picture whenever he wanted. As he showed weeks later. And, to this day!

[msc]

Besides Sheamus and Jericho, there was a lot of Orton (hometown, injury comeback) and Wade Barrett (new top main event heel - sigh, that never happened) bandwagons as Rumble winners. Both of them had pretty rubbish Rumbles in 2012 despite being few of the actual name upper carders in the match.

[Jindrak Mark]

Cena 13, HHH 16 and Orton 17 all got big pops for winning, unless you're referring to the IWC being disappointed by them winning. Batista 14 and Roman 15 were the ones that pissed the crowds off. Those are two of the angriest crowds I've ever seen.

[jivesoulbrah]

For the longest time Hogan, Michaels and Austin stood as the only multiple rumble winners and these last few years they have piled a bunch of names to that last. And now it’s:

Hogan
Michaels
Austin
Cena
Batista
HHH
Orton
Edge
Brock

And I wouldn’t be surprised if Roman, Rollins, McIntyre or The Rock win another one down the line.

[Gerard Gerard]

Jan 22, 2023 11:36:39 GMT -5 coleslaw said:

Jan 22, 2023 11:27:58 GMT -5 thechase said:

Triple H was booked to face Reigns at 'Mania and they wanted to give Roman a big coronation (something that failed them in 2015), so after Roman scooped up  relatively well received title win on free television, they put the strap on the line in the actual Royal Rumble match where Reigns spent half the running time out of commission, and then 'upset' by HHH who came in at number 30, what was even more wild was Roman wasn't the last guy eliminated, they fell on Ambrose/Moxley and the crowd was way more into him, it led to a warm-up programme between him and HHH for the title.

Ambrose was HOT in 2016. I like to think there's an alternate universe where Ambrose beats HHH for the title at Mania and Roman loses to Brock in an underwhelming midcard Extreme Rules match

Hunter vs Ambrose at Roadblock was every bit the absolute banger 'Mania 32 card was desperately lacking. Granted, that's a bit unfair of the women's 3-way as it was brilliant, but Charlotte's win took the actual air out of the room. Whatever about that though, Ambrose looked a million dollars and actually had the thing won at one stage if not for awkward positioning.

[Starshine]

Jan 22, 2023 11:37:00 GMT -5 msc said:

I have more issues with Edge winning again in 2021 because I felt storyline wise that one SHOULD have been Bryans.

I don't think you were alone, one of the funniest things that came out of that Rumble was that one week where they advertised Edge to appear on all three shows, and they all dropped in ratings.

[msc]

Jan 22, 2023 17:32:57 GMT -5 Starshine said:

Jan 22, 2023 11:37:00 GMT -5 msc said:

I have more issues with Edge winning again in 2021 because I felt storyline wise that one SHOULD have been Bryans.

I don't think you were alone, one of the funniest things that came out of that Rumble was that one week where they advertised Edge to appear on all three shows, and they all dropped in ratings.

I rewatched with my wife the next day but warned her it wasn't a very good Rumble.

After watching, she said thought it was quite a good one, and when I mentioned how Bryan should have won, she said: "Well, your mistake there was thinking Daniel Bryan would win a Royal Rumble. That never happens."

Schooled by a non-fan!

[Hypnosis]

Jan 22, 2023 11:35:13 GMT -5 coleslaw said:

2013 was extremely predictable, everyone knew they were headed towards Cena vs. Rock at Mania. With Cena winning the Rumble and Rock challenging Punk later on that night, it was kind of a foregone conclusion.

I remember the Rumble commercial of that year had a restaurant setting with some woman predicting "The Shield" would win, even though it was only possible for one of them to win that match.

Then the end of the commercial showed Cena at that same restaurant, which blatantly gave him away as the winner.

[mc74]

From the moment Rock announced on RAW 1000 that he was challenging for the belt at the Royal Rumble, it became obvious right then & there Cena was going to win it, setting up Cena vs Rock II: Twice in a Lifetime. While some Rumble outcomes have disappointed me, none haven't disappointed me as much as this one did. What made this one bad in my book was the fact that you could see it coming from a mile away, so in that regard, Wrestlemania was already spoiled.

[schma]

Jan 22, 2023 11:35:13 GMT -5 coleslaw said:

2013 was extremely predictable, everyone knew they were headed towards Cena vs. Rock at Mania. With Cena winning the Rumble and Rock challenging Punk later on that night, it was kind of a foregone conclusion.

2014, IIRC, Daniel Bryan was the overwhelmingly popular choice, but ended up not even making the match, let alone winning it. It all worked out in the end, but I have no idea what the Batista thing was about. I actually don't even recall if it was announced beforehand that he was participating lol. Batista vs. Orton would've been a s***show for sure.

2015 was Daniel Bryan's return match and... yeah, I don't think it's hyperbole to say damn near everyone on the planet was rooting for him to win. I remember watching with a non-wrestling fan friend of mine and I hyped Bryan up hardcore, so I definitely had an awkward night lol. At least we had that killer Cena/Brock/Seth match.

2016, I wasn't really watching at the time, but I think HHH was actually the "obvious" winner at the time. I remember there being heavy rumors of Roman/HHH at Mania, but I could be completely wrong on that one. Either way, I remember being open-minded towards a Roman vs. HHH match but...yeah, that didn't deliver at all.

2017. I remember Orton being totally out of left field. I think that was a Rumble where there really wasn't a favorite going in, but I could be mistaken on that. This obviously ended up being the right move, once you factor in the fantastic match Orton had with Wyatt at Mania, followed by making Jinder Mahal a main event superstar at Backlash.

Batista in his return promo pretty much said 'I'm in the royal rumble, I'm going to wrestlemania. Deal with it.'

I don't remember if that was the exact wording but it was close.

[john84]

Jan 22, 2023 11:21:37 GMT -5 J is Justice said:

So I just saw a picture that had all of the Rumble winners pictured year by year. What stood out to me were the winners from 2013 - 2017. Now I wasn't watching at the time, and someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I have to imagine that this was kind of a dark period for Rumble winners? I decided not to include 2011 and '12 because, while I know some people were unhappy with Del Rio and Sheamus winning, at least they weren't previous winners and there were some potential there. 2010 was won by Edge, by the way, so I have to imagine people were delighted with that.

So the winners from '13 to '17 were:

2013: People were sick of Cena in 2008 so I have to imagine him winning again 5 years later didn't go down well (again, correct me if I'm wrong).

2014: Batista. Infamously despised winner.

2015: Roman. Lol.

2016: Triple H. Really? In 2016? What was this about?

2017: Orton. See above regarding Cena.

And then '18 was won by Nakamura, giving us a fresh winner that most people liked (even if it didn't pan out).

Anyway, what are your thoughts about this? Again, correct me if I'm wrong about anything here.

HHH winning in 2016 was about one thing and one thing only.  To put Roman over at Mania and put the rub on him to make him popular.

[john84]

Jan 22, 2023 18:13:26 GMT -5 msc said:

Jan 22, 2023 17:32:57 GMT -5 Starshine said:

I don't think you were alone, one of the funniest things that came out of that Rumble was that one week where they advertised Edge to appear on all three shows, and they all dropped in ratings.

I rewatched with my wife the next day but warned her it wasn't a very good Rumble.

After watching, she said thought it was quite a good one, and when I mentioned how Bryan should have won, she said: "Well, your mistake there was thinking Daniel Bryan would win a Royal Rumble. That never happens."

Schooled by a non-fan!