Ranking the Royal Rumble Matches

[msc]

Who is daft enough to watch all forty in one month? Hi. (Actually I was taking notes for a blog about intervals because I read one too many "the intervals aren't 90 minutes, its like a minute" comments online - but with the raw data noted that can come next year instead.)

So through the use of the Preference Ranker, here's my best to worst Rumble rankings:

1. 2002 - Been my favourite for 20 years now. Mr Perfect makes the final 3! Undertaker kills everyone, then Maven happens. Christian gets shine time. The 2+ minute intervals allows everyone to have a moment in the sun. And it builds and builds. Also, that Lance Storm/Clothesline from Hell is one of the goddamn smoothest things I've ever seen. And Jerry Lawler is so motivated as commentator he even makes a Ray Bradbury joke! (For Perry Saturn's entrance.)
   Also this bit always cracks me up:
   Lawler - The Godfather! You know he might give you a discount, JR.
   JR - Well he did offer me a coupon earlier...
   Lawler - HES GOT COUPONS!
   JR under his breath - Oh that was a mistake.
   
   
2. 2001 - A little bit of everything - a solid Iron Man, a monster, The Rocks 40 mins, comedy, hardcore, surprise returns, the ring getting clean housed, a hard fought victory, and Scotty 2 Hotty getting killed.
   
   
3. 1990 - I prefer this to 1992 because the opening stretch of DiBiase/Jake/Savage/Piper/Bret/Dusty/Andre is just so iconic. 
   
   
4. 1992 - Fair to flair, this is a classic. 
   
   
5. 2018 - The best Rumble of the last 20 years, by far. You've got Balors story of starting to getting so close. The Slater stuff and its payoff. Cena's indian summer comeback. The legit shocking Rey comeback. Andrade looking like a star. The Old v the new final 6 lineup. Nakamura taking out the two biggest stars to win, going 44 minutes in the process. And the fact the match got as much time as it needed so every moment breathed. Oh, and the Kofi save. The pancakes weren't the save. The save was Kofi catapulting a legit 10 feet into the air over Jinder and landing in the middle of the ring. That was sensational.
   
   
6. 2021 (Womens) - The best womens match so far. Paced very well, so many of the eliminaitons had thought in them to look different - Rhea powerbombs Dana on the apron, Bayley sliding under the ropes to take out Ruby for two of them. Rhea and Bianca both look amazing, Bayley is fun while she lasts and the whole Riott Squad/Iiconics/Jillian Hall stuff with Billy Kay trying to keep all of them as allies at the same time is some of the legit funniest stuff I've seen WWE ever do. Shame there couldn't be a crowd though. These women deserved legit roars for their work.
   
   
7. 2004 - Brilliantly paced, the winner looks amazing throughout, and it tells a great story. Alas, Benoit sort of hurts it now. Shame as objectively its one of the best they've ever booked. Also, that Kurt Angle elimination? Bloody amazing. 
   
   
8. 2009 - Predictable as hell but so much fun. Lots of smaller wrestlers going for elimination escapes or big moves from the start - a concerted effort to make the match exciting to watch. Lots of great moments too - RVD/Jericho/Taker, Cody and Orton shaking hands while DiBiase is in trouble behind them, "I wasn't ready", Big Show trying to skin the cat, etc.
   
   
9. 1997 - Ending run of legends lifts this. Lawlers Rumble spot. Owen and Bulldog.
   
   
10. 2016 - Much better after a few bad Rumbles. Paced very well. AJ debuts. Sami returns. Brock vs The Wyatts. Ambrose gets a big rub. Kofi's legit LOL save. Braun Strowman murders the Local Men.
    
    
11. 2003 - Fast paced really fun rumble. The opening 11 might be the quickest best Rumble start ever. Predictable but fun. Also IWC went nuts at the hoss final four at the time!
    
    
12. 2020 - Some people love Brock's bit. I love Drew winning.  Oh and Edge came back, I guess.
    
    
13. 1998 - Rock shows up 4 entrants in, cocky midcarder. He finished 50 minutes later, runner up, main eventer in waiting. 3 Faces of Foley fun, Terry Funks run good, and weirdly Headbanger Thrasher goes 30 minutes! And so does Phineas Godwinn! And 8-Ball. And 8-Ball actually looks good in it.
    
    
14. 2019 (womens) -72 minutes. It sags in bits but they really want to give everyone a chance to shine. Kairi gets 20 minutes. Rhea shows early promise. Kacy with the insane offense/saves. Alicia Fox even looks good. And then, Becky happens.
    
    
15. 1994 - Diesel kills all, Bam Bam Bigelow is quietly impressive, and Bret limps his way to the main event. Needed more Owen though. DiBiases delight at Virgil having to take on Diesel is amusing too.
    
    
16. 2005 - Enjoy this one a lot more. The Rumble from HBK entering on flows very well. Not as keen on the Puder stuff.
     
17. 2018 (womens) - The pacing is a bit off but it was great to see this finally happen.
    
    
18. 2006 - People get to last a long time. I'm a fan of the ring filling up in Rumbles. 
    
    
19. 1996 - I like this one. Curt Hennig's commentary adds a lot to it. His fanboying over Vader, his immediately considering Austin a star, his being the only man legit excited to see Doug Gilbert. It flows remarkably well and even thought its got  lot of no hopers, they all get to look good. 
    
    
20. 2007 - Lifted massively by the ending stretch with Taker and HBK.
    
    
21. 2008 - Despite the very small intervals (closer to 60 seconds in places), a lot of fun.
    
    
22. 2020 (womens) - Fast paced, but I felt the wrong person won and the ending is very rushed.
    
    
23. 1993 - Underrated. Opening (Flair/DiBiase vs his enemies), Mr Perfect's bit through to Taker cleaning house is great. As soon as Yokozuna shows up, great stuff to the finish. That bit from Taker going out to Yokozuna showing up. The 20 minute dead zone. Meltzer said it was booked like a relay race. In that case, Tatanka's segment really let the side down!
    
    
24. 2000 - Some amazing future stars in this, not doing much. The lack of a proper iron man and the rushed ending hurt it. Still a big fan though.
    
    
25. 2021 - Edge and Big E are the stars. All feels a bit rushed at the end, and there's no real amazing moments.
    
    
26. 2017 - To have one sex pest is unfortunate, to have three at least is awkward. The 14-21 period is very dull. 
    
    
27. 1989 - A lot of fun right up to Savage going out, then the Akeem/Barbarian/Studd final 20 minutes is dull. 
    
    
28. 2019- Just sort of there. I always forget who was in the middle stretch. Bonus points for Drew beating up the Conga Line.
    
    
29. 2010 - Too quick, the ring never fills up, and not much happens between Punks run and Shawn/Cena. Also, too many people get under 3 minutes, including pushed threats to win. 
    
    
30. 2022 (Womens) - Too many mediocre "legends" killed the flow. As did the weird exits for Sasha, Liv et all.
    
    
31. 2014 - Hurt by the booking of the final stretch and an injured main player. Seth Rollins was a made man that night though.
    
    
32. 2012 - Fun at the time but its really got nothing of substance until Jericho/Sheamus save it in the final 5 minutes.
    
    
33. 1991 - Dull, samey, no real changes in pace. Brian Knobbs takes a great big boot though.
    
    
34. 2013 - Just quite forgettable. Cody Rhodes the standout star in it. Bo Dallas goes 20 minutes - sums it up for me.
    
    
35. 2011 - Long and dull. Wrong winner.
    
    
36. 2022 - A mess where most relevant stars exit weakly, Shane books himself into the final 3 and Brock kills everyone left.
    
    
37. 1988 - The trailblazer but really quite dull.
    
    
38. 1995 - One minute intervals too short. Shame as it means Bulldog going 38 minutes is overlooked.
    
    
39. 1999 - A rumble focused around Vince Soap Opera Antics, empty rings multiple times, and a lack of focus on anyone other than Austin and Vince.
    
    
40. 2015 - yeah, it's very badly structured, designed to piss off the fans. Reigns looks weak.

Anyhow, its an annual tradition of a thread - lets be having yours!

[sarkerpolseng]

Not going to do the whole thing, but I watched 1999's Rumble last night, and that is bottom of the barrel for me.

[The Gallus Mark]

2012, 1999, 1995, 2015 and 2022 are the 5 worst for me

I had some buddies over to watch in 2012 as they wanted to get back into WWE and half of them immediately stopped because of how jobberrific it was. The commentary team taking up 10% of it was ghastly and not fun.

[jivesoulbrah]

Man 2003 is a criminally underrated rumble. I hold it up there with 1992 and 2001.

Personally I feel 2002 is a little overrated, not a bad rumble but middle of the pack. The beginning is fantastic up until after Undertaker attacks Maven, then it has really odd pacing like when it’s Scotty & Christian up until it picks up again when it’s Austin, HHH, and Mr Perfect but man they do Farooq dirty by making him look like an absolute jobber. They also did Kane dirty by having that incredible performance the prior year to throwing Big Show out and being eliminated in like a minute and a half.

I feel like there was a stretch from 2001 to 2009 where all the rumbles were mostly good-great where only 2002 and 2006 were decent but still re-watchable.

And on a random side note, when rewatching these, maybe it’s just me, but it looks way better with black ropes than white ones.

[ThankGodForSidJustice]

Jan 26, 2023 15:44:28 GMT -5 jivesoulbrah said:

Man 2003 is a criminally underrated rumble. I hold it up there with 1992 and 2001.

Personally I feel 2002 is a little overrated, not a bad rumble but middle of the pack. The beginning is fantastic up until after Undertaker attacks Maven, then it has really odd pacing like when it’s Scotty & Christian up until it picks up again when it’s Austin, HHH, and Mr Perfect but man they do Farooq dirty by making him look like an absolute jobber. They also did Kane dirty by having that incredible performance the prior year to throwing Big Show out and being eliminated in like a minute and a half.

I feel like there was a stretch from 2001 to 2009 where all the rumbles were mostly good-great where only 2002 and 2006 were decent but still re-watchable.

And on a random side note, when rewatching these, maybe it’s just me, but it looks way better with black ropes than white ones.

I've always felt 2002 was overrated too. I remember not enjoying it much at the time and like 2001 a lot better. I think the only thing I really enjoyed was Mr. Perfect's surprisingly strong showing where he made the last three. Like you said the pacing of it is super odd. Especially during that middle stretch where you have Christian and Chuck Palumbo dominating for some reason. It felt like I was watching an AI Royal Rumble on Smackdown vs. Raw.

Also towards the end you have all these higher level players like RVD, Booker, Kane, and Big Show all getting dumped quick and looking like geeks. RVD was especially a head scratcher as he was really over and had a lot of momentum at the time and instead he just comes out hits his spots then just gets killed by a pedigree by Triple H and then the next entrant, Booker, just comes out and easily tosses him in like two minutes. Booker then in turns decides to do a spinaroni and gets stunnered by Austin and eliminated like 30 seconds later which made him look bad too. Just weird booking all around.

[Lizuka #BLM]

I'm not going to rank them so much as tier them, but I'm thinking something like...

Best: 1992, 2001

Good: 1990, 1993, 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2018 Men's, 2018 Women's, 2019 Women's, 2021 Women's

Okay: 1988, 1989, 1994, 1996, 1997 (iffy on it, but I figured Austin's performance is good enough to elevate it), 2000, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2016, Greatest Royal Rumble, 2019 Men's

Bad: 1991, 1995, 2010, 2012, 2014, 2017, 2020 Women's, 2021 Men's

Terrible: 1999, 2006, 2015, 2020 Men's

Not Seen: 2022 Men's, 2022's Women's

[cornettesracket]

I watched the 2015 royal rumble last night on its 8th anniversary, and what makes it worse is that it followed a banger of a wwe world title match between lesnar, Cena, and Rollins. Chicken salad to chicken shit as they say.

I also felt so bad for the rock having to try and give Roman the rub at the end the rocks face is a picture.

[jivesoulbrah]

Jan 26, 2023 15:58:21 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

Jan 26, 2023 15:44:28 GMT -5 jivesoulbrah said:

Man 2003 is a criminally underrated rumble. I hold it up there with 1992 and 2001.

Personally I feel 2002 is a little overrated, not a bad rumble but middle of the pack. The beginning is fantastic up until after Undertaker attacks Maven, then it has really odd pacing like when it’s Scotty & Christian up until it picks up again when it’s Austin, HHH, and Mr Perfect but man they do Farooq dirty by making him look like an absolute jobber. They also did Kane dirty by having that incredible performance the prior year to throwing Big Show out and being eliminated in like a minute and a half.

I feel like there was a stretch from 2001 to 2009 where all the rumbles were mostly good-great where only 2002 and 2006 were decent but still re-watchable.

And on a random side note, when rewatching these, maybe it’s just me, but it looks way better with black ropes than white ones.

I've always felt 2002 was overrated too. I remember not enjoying it much at the time and like 2001 a lot better. I think the only thing I really enjoyed was Mr. Perfect's surprisingly strong showing where he made the last three. Like you said the pacing of it is super odd. Especially during that middle stretch where you have Christian and Chuck Palumbo dominating for some reason. It felt like I was watching an AI Royal Rumble on Smackdown vs. Raw.

Also towards the end you have all these higher level players like RVD, Booker, Kane, and Big Show all getting dumped quick and looking like geeks. RVD was especially a head scratcher as he was really over and had a lot of momentum at the time and instead he just comes out hits his spots then just gets killed by a pedigree by Triple H and then the next entrant, Booker, just comes out and easily tosses him in like two minutes. Booker then in turns decides to do a spinaroni and gets stunnered by Austin and eliminated like 30 seconds later which made him look bad too. Just weird booking all around.

Yeah I feel like they could’ve packed the ring a little better in the middle and not randomly have Christian and Chuck Palumbo dominating. I feel like maybe they could’ve done the Austin/HHH stuff earlier and let the ring full up a little more with like Test, Val Venis, RVD, Kane, Farooq, Big Show.

Another note about rumbles, I feel the women’s matches have been fantastic with the exception of 2022. Since it’s inception I feel like they’ve been better than the men’s rumbles other than 2018, both were great rumbles that year but I favor the men’s just a tad more. 2021 was another year where I really enjoyed both, and also felt unique with out a crowd.

[A Little Doo Doo]

I can't do all of the men's, but as far as the women's Rumbles go I'd say

1. 2021
2. 2018
3. 2019
4. 2020
5. 2022

[Starshine]

2015 is the last one I saw, but I can't imagine they could book a worse match than that. No one came out of that looking good, not even The Rock.

[A Little Doo Doo]

Jan 26, 2023 19:15:40 GMT -5 Starshine said:

2015 is the last one I saw, but I can't imagine they could book a worse match than that. No one came out of that looking good, not even The Rock.

Had to love Kane and Big Show dumping all of the "IWC" faves like Ambrose, Ziggler and Wyatt.

[theironyuppie]

Jan 26, 2023 19:27:09 GMT -5 A Little Doo Doo said:

Jan 26, 2023 19:15:40 GMT -5 Starshine said:

2015 is the last one I saw, but I can't imagine they could book a worse match than that. No one came out of that looking good, not even The Rock.

Had to love Kane and Big Show dumping all of the "IWC" faves like Ambrose, Ziggler and Wyatt.

The worst part is that they wasted that set-up. I can't imagine fans being happy for Roman that night in any scenario, but if they had done him actually having a proper sequence with them and overcoming the odds that way, it surely would have done better than the actual 'Big Show and Kane start arguing cause reasons so Roman tips them out from behind like a heel' finish.

Also, I feel the 2020 women's Rumble is underrated. I get people being unhappy Charlotte won, but it's very well paced (something 2019 lacks even with its crowd-pleaser of an ending) and has some good showcases for everyone from Bianca to Alexa to Naomi to Beth.

[A Little Doo Doo]

Jan 26, 2023 20:41:39 GMT -5 theironyuppie said:

Jan 26, 2023 19:27:09 GMT -5 A Little Doo Doo said:

Had to love Kane and Big Show dumping all of the "IWC" faves like Ambrose, Ziggler and Wyatt.

The worst part is that they wasted that set-up. I can't imagine fans being happy for Roman that night in any scenario, but if they had done him actually having a proper sequence with them and overcoming the odds that way, it surely would have done better than the actual 'Big Show and Kane start arguing cause reasons so Roman tips them out from behind like a heel' finish.

Also, I feel the 2020 women's Rumble is underrated. I get people being unhappy Charlotte won, but it's very well paced (something 2019 lacks even with its crowd-pleaser of an ending) and has some good showcases for everyone from Bianca to Alexa to Naomi to Beth.

To be honest, I don't really remember anything about the 2020 one except Charlotte winning. Maybe I'll watch it again.

[Legion]

1999 is a terrible Rumble looking back at it now.

But at the time, Austin-Vince was all I cared about, and that entire thing is dripping in their shenanigans and 14 year old me marked out constantly.

So, it deserves the hate it gets but equally, if you can remember the thrill of it first time round, it was a great set piece in the storyline drama of the time.

[theironyuppie]

Jan 26, 2023 21:39:26 GMT -5 A Little Doo Doo said:

Jan 26, 2023 20:41:39 GMT -5 theironyuppie said:

The worst part is that they wasted that set-up. I can't imagine fans being happy for Roman that night in any scenario, but if they had done him actually having a proper sequence with them and overcoming the odds that way, it surely would have done better than the actual 'Big Show and Kane start arguing cause reasons so Roman tips them out from behind like a heel' finish.

Also, I feel the 2020 women's Rumble is underrated. I get people being unhappy Charlotte won, but it's very well paced (something 2019 lacks even with its crowd-pleaser of an ending) and has some good showcases for everyone from Bianca to Alexa to Naomi to Beth.

To be honest, I don't really remember anything about the 2020 one except Charlotte winning. Maybe I'll watch it again.

It's worth the watch. The Bianca parts also make it easy to see why WWE went so hard on pushing her after she got the call-up later that year.

[Deleted]

Royal Rumble '92 was the first PPV I was able to convince my family to order instead of just hearing about it the next week and waiting on the video store to get it. With that particular rumble being basically a perfect match, you can imagine how nostalgic that event is for me.

[HMARK Center]

I often rank the early Rumbles very highly. Part of that is due to nostalgia, sure, and part of it is the match feeling extra big because the idea of 30 named wrestlers all in one match was such a big deal back then in the era of Superstars/Wrestling Challenge squash match cards on TV, but I also kind of miss people getting into the Rumble and actually looking like they were trying to eliminate people, even if it did mean a lot of the ring work was "get in, throw punches, shove people against the ropes a lot", etc.

Been a little while since I've watched a Rumble, but when I see a modern one I get really quickly burned out on the whole "entrance music hits, guy/gal runs in, hits a bunch of their spots, takes a bump, takes a nap" pattern.

[msc]

Jan 26, 2023 18:26:42 GMT -5 jivesoulbrah said:

Jan 26, 2023 15:58:21 GMT -5 ThankGodForSidJustice said:

I've always felt 2002 was overrated too. I remember not enjoying it much at the time and like 2001 a lot better. I think the only thing I really enjoyed was Mr. Perfect's surprisingly strong showing where he made the last three. Like you said the pacing of it is super odd. Especially during that middle stretch where you have Christian and Chuck Palumbo dominating for some reason. It felt like I was watching an AI Royal Rumble on Smackdown vs. Raw.

Also towards the end you have all these higher level players like RVD, Booker, Kane, and Big Show all getting dumped quick and looking like geeks. RVD was especially a head scratcher as he was really over and had a lot of momentum at the time and instead he just comes out hits his spots then just gets killed by a pedigree by Triple H and then the next entrant, Booker, just comes out and easily tosses him in like two minutes. Booker then in turns decides to do a spinaroni and gets stunnered by Austin and eliminated like 30 seconds later which made him look bad too. Just weird booking all around.

Yeah I feel like they could’ve packed the ring a little better in the middle and not randomly have Christian and Chuck Palumbo dominating. I feel like maybe they could’ve done the Austin/HHH stuff earlier and let the ring full up a little more with like Test, Val Venis, RVD, Kane, Farooq, Big Show.

Another note about rumbles, I feel the women’s matches have been fantastic with the exception of 2022. Since it’s inception I feel like they’ve been better than the men’s rumbles other than 2018, both were great rumbles that year but I favor the men’s just a tad more. 2021 was another year where I really enjoyed both, and also felt unique with out a crowd.

To be honest, I thought I was the only person who did rate it better than 2001. But its a perfect storm - the 2 minute intervals, the number of wrestlers I like who were in it (Bossman gets a spot, Lance Storm is there for his only Rumble, Christian), there's segments I really like, for example Taker/Hardys and the 2 minutes of Austin/Test/Val Venis is randomly really good. My all time favourite wrestler gets to the final 3. But the in-ring mostly all works to a T too in the time. That clothesline from hell, the Godfather/Albert eliminations. Booker T turning round into a Stunner Elimination still makes me chuckle. Kane bodyslamming The Big Show - still impressive tbh. At the time I was very much on the Christian Is Awesome bandwagon so him dominating a good 10 minute chunk of the Rumble was fun too.

Oh and Maven eliminating The Undertaker always reminds me of the friend who phoned up in shock, before I'd seen it to tell me something shocking had happened at the Rumble!

[Visagra]

People would be shocked at how high I rank the 1995 and 1996 Royal Rumbles because I'm such a Shawn Michaels Mark. That also means I rank the 2003 Royal Rumble very low lol.

[Andew9001]

In terms of the ones i like the most:

1992: Just a clasxic, star studded match, Ric Flair owns it and the commentary is amazing.

1998: Everyone knew who was winning but it was a fun ride. The Rock had a good performance, 3 faces of Foley and Ahmed Johnson looking like he was being held together by kneepads and crazy glue.

2000 and 2001: Both showcase the best of the Attitude era in terms of wrestlers and offer a bit of variety in how each match played out. Plenty of wrestlers came out of those matches looking good.

2002 and 2003: Both showed off the roster depth at the time. Both fairly stock standard in terms of rumbles but still good to watch.

2005: Was a really fun match. Batista and Cena looked like stars. The Raw vs Smackdown showdown was fun, the set up to Angle/HBK was well down and Vince got comically injured.

2007: Fun match but the final 2 of Taker and HBK made it.

2018 Womens: Showcased the women of today and gave credit to the women of the past. Was fun on first viewing guessing who was next up.

2018 Mens: Fun match, showcased some of the new guys and it was cool having someone who was somewhat unexpected to win. Slater was the MVP lol.

The ones i think are good:

2008, 2009, 2013: Fun to watch but there are better rumbles.

2014: Good rumble but the winner was wrong. On mute there is nothing wrong with it.

2016: AJ debuts, Kevin Owens is a dick, Wyatt Family faceoff against Brock. Roman looked weak and it set up an awful mania match.

2017: Again fun match but there are better rumbles.

The ones i actively dislike:

1995, 1996 and 1997: Poor roster depth outside of the usual suspects - Shawn, Bret, Owen, Bulldog, etc. Did get better as the New Gen passed though.

1999: Horribly paced, terrible psychology lol

2004: No getting around who it's meant to highlight. Should be higher in my regards.

2010: I know a lot will disagree but i just never quite got into this one. I think there were too many quick eliminations.

2012: Again weak roster depth. Jericho should have won in my opinion.

2015: The worst rumble. Awful all round.

2020: I didn't like the Brock stuff.

2022 Mens: Awful match, Shane sucked, Brock winning sucked and just an all round boring match.