Coming out of WrestleMania 41, one of the biggest stories in WWE was the emergence of The Vision. Seth Rollins was newly heel, aligned with Paul Heyman, and taking Bron Breakker under his wing, all of which was exciting and promised a great deal of intrigue with a new heel faction positioned on top of the Raw brand.
The year to follow was largely defined by injuries, which were beyond the control of the group members or WWE creative. The booking too, however, hasn’t necessarily done this stable many favors. With over a year of the Vision being realized in WWE, it’s time to evaluate how well the group has served each of its members.
Seth Rollins: C+
Seth Rollins. Photo: WWE
Seth Rollins winning the Saturday main event of WrestleMania 41 felt like a career milestone as he moved to 2-1 in ‘Mania main event scenarios and won his first more conventional outing in this context—a Triple Threat in which he was on his own that didn’t involve him joining mid-match via Money in the Bank cash-in.
Speaking of Money in the Bank, Rollins won that too for the second time in his career and worked a legitimately shocking angle when he faked an injury and cashed in on CM Punk at SummerSlam. At Crown Jewel, The Visionary beat Cody Rhodes in a champion vs. champion showdown. So, for that half-year stretch from April to October, there was reason to think his time atop The Vision might actually succeed at elevating Rollins to a new echelon of stardom, or at least be in the running for the best stretches of his career.
The wheels came off when Rollins had to relinquish the title due to a legitimate injury, and WWE ran a nonsensical angle of Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed turning on him in the process. The group was left without a leader and Rollins suffered from the passive style of babyface turn—a heel whose heel buddies turn on him—that so rarely leads to success. Masked man drama to follow felt more confusing and redundant than intriguing.
And now, going into Summer 2026, Rollins finds himself in an uneasy tag team alliance with Montez Ford against Breakker and Austin Theory. It’s hard to see any argument that The Architect is in better standing than he was before launching this faction. Indeed, even moments like him putting over Breakker at Backlash really felt like they did less to put over the young upstart than to further damage the established star.
Bron Breakker: C-
Bron Breakker becoming Seth Rollins’s first ally, under the tutelage of Paul Heyman in April 2025 made all the sense in the world. Breakker had looked like a dominant force for much of his freshman year on the main roster and had quite arguably outgrown the Intercontinental Championship picture by the time he dropped the title in a four-way bout that kept him protected at WrestleMania 41. Teaming up with Rollins offered a clear route for Breakker himself to advance to the main event level while sitting beneath the real-life learning trees of Rollins and Heyman alike.
One of the pitfalls of faction membership is that there’s a real risk of anyone but the group leader coming across as a sidekick or fall guy. While Breakker has certainly had his moments, he never enjoyed any career advancement as a heater for Rollins. From there, after Rollins left the group, Breakker felt less like the new leader than one part of a thoroughly mid-card stable.
Indeed, one of the most telling images of The Unpredictable Badass’s run with The Vision may well have come at Clash in Italy, where he was pictured in the crowd alongside Austin Theory as tag team champions. It’s a title Breakker never really won (subbing in for an injured Logan Paul). Moreover, being positioned as Theory’s tag partner positions Breakker a clear step back from where he had been when he first joined The Vision, and arguably even further back than he had stood when he reigned as NXT Champion before even making it to the main roster.
Bronson Reed: B-
Bronson Reed has had the misfortune of catching the injury bug each time he looks poised to advance from the upper mid-card to the fringes of the main event scene. The optics of him running alongside Bron Breakker as dual monsters in The Vision had potential, but mostly saw both men stall out in the upper mid-card before Reed wound up hurt again.
Reed went on the injured list at a plateau, and the absolute best that can be said about his Vision run to date is that he maintained his position on the roster, perhaps interacting with main event guys a smidge more for backing Rollins and returning to War Games.
The master of the Tsunami has one of the murkiest futures of Vision members, though, when he does return to action. Simply returning to the fold of the group will all but certainly make it feel like he and the faction alike are spinning their wheels. Feuding against them doesn’t necessarily make sense either, though. Indeed, the best thing for Aus-Zilla would probably be for the faction to dissolve before he gets back or else to move away from them to SmackDown to get a fresh start.
Austin Theory: A-
The Vision hasn’t done its members, nor its rivals many favors. Indeed, the one man with a real case for having benefited is Austin Theory.
Theory’s peak, to date, saw him win Money in the Bank, reign as United States Champion, and beat John Cena at WrestleMania 39. The years to follow saw him slide, arguably improving as an in-ring talent, but toiling in a forgettable tag team alliance with Grayson Waller.
Theory being revealed as a masked man helping The Vision gave him a small boost back into relevance and affiliating with the group has given him a role on TV and a number of PLEs. In the end, Theory seems to, himself, be emblematic of the faction he’s enrolled in—a competent mid-card and tag team guy with no clear signs of advancing to a new level, but at least his roster spot has felt a little surer for having run with the group and recaptured tag team gold.
Logan Paul: D
Logan Paul at SNME. Photo: WWE.com
Logan Paul was an anomaly in WWE—a celebrity part-timer who took to WWE so naturally and was so well-positioned that he absolutely thrived throughout his first three years-plus working with WWE. Indeed, after Paul made the leap to wrestling full time, it seemed altogether reasonable that colleagues and pundits speculated about his future as a world champion.
That future may well still be in play for The Maverick, but wrestling full time, including weekly TV spots that are not designed as showcase matches for him, has exposed some of Paul’s limitations. Indeed, while he once was a reasonably credible one-off challenger to the likes of Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes as WWE Champions, now it’s hard to think of Paul as much other than a tag team role player for whom another US title reign or a run with the Intercontinental Championship feels like a reach.
Paul is out now due to injury and that actually may be the best thing for him to keep learning away from the ring and out of the spotlight, but also to hit the reset button on his character. Yes, Paul had the makings of a compelling Paul Heyman guy given all his tools, but The Vision wasn’t paving the road for him to feel like a top guy to fans. Starting over once he’s cleared could help Paul get the stink of The Vision off him as he moves on to better things.
Paul Heyman: D
Seth Rollins and Paul Heyman. Photo: WWE.com
Paul Heyman is in the conversation among the greatest managers of all time. His most recent faction work with The Bloodline prior to The Vision highlighted just how much he brought to the table as an on-screen talker and a behind-the-scenes creative contributor alike. The Vision, however, may have exposed Heyman’s limitations.
As much as injuries and uneven creative are probably the biggest culprits in The Vision’s failings, it’s a black mark for The Oracle that he hasn’t been able to better salvage this group or its collective angles. Indeed, while there was so much reason for optimism about Heyman mentoring Bron Breakker and Bronson Reed in particular to new heights, in reality, the whole stable has stumbled. A backdrop of Heyman cutting above-average promos hasn’t been enough to retain crowd investment.
It may be most telling of all that, while Heyman has been involved with Brock Lesnar since his return last year and Lesnar was a part of The Vision’s War Games team at Survivor Series, The Beast has never actually been presented as a proper part of the faction.
A generous perspective would suggest Lesnar just doesn’t fit the ethos of the group, and is a side client of Heyman’s. A more critical point of view, however, would suggest WWE recognizes The Vision as a sinking ship. They’ve patched holes to keep that ship at sea, arguably long past its true viability, but the company has no interest in dragging down a property as valuable as Lesnar along with them.
Maxxine Dupri: Incomplete
Photo Credit: WWE
Recent weeks have seen WWE hint at Maxxine Dupri being a part of The Vision and specifically attached to Austin Theory. The concept has merit for Dupri, Theory, and arguably the group on the whole. Each of them could use a boost. A heel turn feels fresh for Dupri and the addition of a femme fatale at Theory’s side gives him something different, besides which adding a female member to the faction will at least take them in a new direction. Faction warfare could be on the table opposite The Judgment Day, for example, or perhaps a reinvigorated American Made in the wake of Chad Gable dropping the Original El Grande Americano gimmick out of a widely celebrated AAA match.
Without Dupri officially joining The Vision as of press time, it’s unfair to evaluate how the group will impact her or how she’ll impact the group. Nonetheless, if WWE is going to continue running with this group, there’s reason for optimism her membership will mark at least a small step in the right direction.
Overall Grade: C-
In the end, for all its shortcomings and misfortune, it’s not fair to call The Vision a complete failure. The early months of the group’s run were entertaining and did some small favors for Seth Rollins. Austin Theory has enjoyed some small career progress since his enrollment, and Maxxine Dupri’s involvement with him and the faction has promise.
That said, the long-term arc of The Vision to date has set back Rollins, at best kept Bronson Reed in place, hurt Logan Paul’s standing, and dinged Paul Heyman’s legacy. Worst of all, where Bron Breakker once looked like a breakout main event inevitability, he’s now a young star in need of rehabilitation if he’s ever going to be taken seriously at the top of the card.
A scourge of releases hit WWE less than a week after WrestleMania 42. Some of the Superstars leaving the company were more surprising than others.
On one hand, it was not shocking to see The Wyatt Sicks let go in the sense that WWE had not done a lot with them in their 22-month tenure on the main roster and the faction missed back-to-back WrestleMania main cards. On the other hand, the stable was a cult favorite with an incredible presence on their ring entrance. That’s besides their emotional tie-in to the beloved late Bray Wyatt.
As the run for Uncle Howdy and company has come to a close it’s time to look back at their legacy in the company and what went wrong for the group of talented performers who never quite hit their stride in WWE storylines.
The Wyatt Sicks Had An Introduction To WWE Like No Other
WWE fans first got an inkling of The Wyatt Sicks were on their way in watching the Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal documentary WWE produced about the life and legacy of the late Eater of Worlds. His brother, Bo Dallas, had already debuted the mysterious Uncle Howdy persona alongside Wyatt in his later appearances and the end of the doc spoke to his desire to carry forward in his family’s honor, bringing back the dark character.
The group’s formal introduction came in a June 2024 episode of Raw with a variety of WWE personnel shown incapacitated backstage before the creepiest version of Nikki Cross to date emerged from a mysterious doorway, en route to the whole faction emerging. There was reason to be optimistic about the group’s prospects to follow as WWE gave them room for a unique presentation via vignettes of interviews between Bo Dallas and his Uncle Howdy alterego. The Wyatt Sicks would go on to best American Made in their first program.
The writing may have been on the wall about the limitations The Wyatt Sicks would face when the months to follow saw them feud with The Final Testament before transitioning their focus to the SmackDown tag team division. Whereas the most optimistic takes may have foreseen the group—Uncle Howdy in particular—entering the upper mid-card if not main event picture, they missed significant chunks of time on TV and seemed firmly planted in the mid-card and tag ranks.
The Wyatt Sicks Faction Was Defined By Missed Opportunities
Credit: WWE.com
There was a lot of potential surrounding The Wyatt Sicks, but the group never seemed to move on from their initial impression—they looked creepy, and they paid tribute to Bray Wyatt.
Erick Rowan was a legacy character—a bridge between the original Wyatt Family and this new group, besides offering a big body to play the heater in a supporting role. It’s telling, though, that despite her history as a Women’s Champion, Nikki Cross never got much to sink her teeth into as part of the group.
Dexter Lumis and Joe Gacy represented further stunted potential. Both men seemed like fits for this style of stable for having played dark, unstable characters in developmental. However, after graduating from NXT, they all but lost all their individual personalities when they joined this group—Lumis not a cold-blooded killer type, Gacy not a charismatic cult leader—each downgraded to more generic eccentrics who wore dark makeup. Not only were their more interesting, individualistic personas tamped down, but WWE forewent any and all opportunities for internal power struggle and strife.
Uncle Howdy, in particular, looked to be the breakout star of this faction as Wyatt’s brother and a proven in-ring talent who’d shown his first real character chops in his introductory promos for the group. A real push might have seen him flirt with the main event scene, perhaps posing an especially intriguing, chaotic Mr. Money in the Bank or offering an offbeat, memorable rival for Cody Rhodes at the top of the card.
Saying Farewell To The Wyatt Sicks
Credit: WWE.com
The Wyatt Sicks lost their televised match, going down in defeat to The MFTs in a Street Fight during the episode of SmackDown that kicked off WrestleMania 42 weekend. The bout came across like the end of the feud and, as such, a case can be made WWE resolved their outstanding storyline business en route to showing them the door.
There are ways of looking at WWE’s release of this group as a dismissal of Bray Wyatt’s legacy, besides being a more direct insult to the talented performers involved in the group. This perspective does demand the question, though, would the group be any better off relegated to the treadmill of mid-card purgatory than let go?
The failings of The Wyatt Sicks seem reflective of WWE’s own reluctance to push supernatural characters in the modern era. It’s a part of what made Wyatt himself such a square peg in main event round holes for the length of his tenure and, with all due respect to his legacy faction members, none of them captured the imagination to demand a spotlight the way he did. Indeed, it seems like the extent WWE is willing to engage with an act of that ilk is embodied in Danhausen, whose role is at least equal parts comedic as it is dark or truly magical. Perhaps The Wyatt Sicks alumni will find better luck rallying elsewhere—including, as some fans have already pushed for—jumping to AEW.
Time will tell the full scope of The Wyatt Sicks legacy or what’s next for its component members. Regardless, they remain a unique spectacle in WWE lore, unlike anyone else working before them, alongside them, or likely to follow.
AEW Double or Nothing 2026 saw the latest chapter of the rivalry between MJF and Darby Allin unfold, as the heel regained the world title he’d dropped to his fellow Pillar of AEW in an intense main event. So ended a brief, but very memorable championship run.
Indeed, while mainstream wresting fans have grown accustomed to certain type of top title reign via WWE—particularly in recent years—Allin’s time on top demonstrated there are different and exciting ways to book the top prize a company has to offer.
There’s Only Been One World Title Defense In WWE Since WrestleMania
Roman Reigns. Photo: WWE.com
When Roman Reigns spent 1,316 days as WWE’s top champion from 2020 to 2024, it didn’t so much invent as reinforce a specific model of champion. Gone are the days when WWE adhered to its rule that titles must defended at least once every thirty days. Here are the days of part-time champions and normalizing two-to-three month stretches without a given title being up for grabs.
While Cody Rhodes defended the Undisputed WWE Championship more regularly than The Tribal Chief, each of his reigns has demonstrated a certain kind of sameness in title defenses mostly sticking to PLEs and not happening at every single one. World Heavyweight Championship reigns of Seth Rollins, Damian Priest, Gunther, and Jey Uso all skewed in similar directions, as did John Cena’s last WWE Championship reign along his farewell tour.
Indeed, only the reigns of CM Punk and Drew McIntyre felt at least a little different. McIntyre’s reign ran just shy of two months, with one PLE and one free TV defense (but also quite a few house show defenses). Punk’s five months on top saw him work a fighting champion gimmick that stood out from others, including three Raw and two PLE title defenses (plus a number of house show title matches).
Still, despite a few anomalies, the story of WWE world titles post WrestleMania 42—at press time, five weeks and counting–seems representative of the current picture. Reigns has defended his newly won World Heavyweight Championship once, opposite Jacob Fatu at Backlash. Rhodes has not yet defended his WWE Championship since fending off Randy Orton.
On the women’s side, Rhea Ripley hasn’t put the Women’s Championship on the line yet, nor has Liv Morgan defended the Women’s World Championship. (To be fair, three of these titles will be on the line at Clash in Italy, but that still after over 40 days of waiting.)
One might draw all manner of conclusions about these trends, but regardless, it’s undeniable that WWE’s top titles haven’t been on the line much this spring.
Darby Allin Worked Fresh Title Defenses And Worked Them Constantly
Darby Allin. Photo: AEW
Darby Allin unseated MJF for the AEW World Championship in a shocking upset squash on April 15, the same week as WrestleMania 42. The reign has now come to a close, but it’s very telling in his less-than-six weeks on top, he defended the title eight times.
Allin fended off Tommaso Ciampa, Brody King, Kevin Knight, PAC, Konosuke Takeshita, Sammy Guevara, and Mike Bailey—a truly diverse set of challengers, many of them fresh to the world title picture (and/or it had been quite a while since they sniffed the main event scene). Moreover, none of these matches ran under ten minutes, only one lasted less than fifteen, and every single outing proved hard-hitting, with no “safe,” easy bouts along the way.
Even CM Punk—WWE’s fightingest world champ in recent memory—only worked four different men in five matches across a reign over four times as long.
Darby Allin’s Reign Was Short And Sweet
MJF. Photo: AEW
Particularly in WWE, fans are in an age of long-reigning world champions as full-year spans spent on top are not out of the ordinary. Indeed the reigns that don’t exceed reach the half-year mark tend to have either been significantly less memorable and eventful like Damian Priest’s time as World Heavyweight Champion or else clearly set out to serve specific booking purposes like Drew McIntyre’s most recent WWE Championship reign adding some drama and giving Cody Rhodes a reason to work the Royal Rumble and Elimination Chamber.
Darby Allin only reigning for a month and change was less a fluke than a specific kind of story as he defended his championship with a fury, backing down from no one, working no easy matches, dropping the title in line with a narrative of him fighting himself into exhaustion. Despite the brevity of the reign, his time as champ may well be one of the best-remembered title reigns of recent years, and particularly so in AEW.
Different Styles Of Reigns Have Different Merits
AEW
Ultimately, Darby Allin’s short but exhaustive world title reign that saw him defend this belt more than once a week on average was not necessarily a better reign than any of MJF’s, or the reigns of other top stars in AEW, nor WWE’s world champs. Indeed, there’s something to be said for a world title being defended sparingly, making it important when title matches do come and ensuring all challengers feel like credible threats who’ve earned number one contendership.
Moreover, stability at the top of the card does matter to give a world champion the opportunity to assert his or her place as the face of a company in the time-honored tradition of talents like Bruno Sammartino, Bob Backlund, Hulk Hogan, and John Cena.
However, there is also merit to different kinds of reigns, and particularly different kinds of reigns that match the styles of different kinds of performers. CM Punk’s 2025-2026 World Heavyweight Championship showed echoes of Bret Hart’s babyface WWE Championship reigns in the 1990s. Each were, largely defined by an in-ring virtuoso putting on solid matches against an array of opponents with greater frequency than WWE fans were accustomed to seeing.
Allin’s reign was its own beast—a daredevil taking on all comers, not shying away from heavy punishment or risky spots to go down in a blaze of glory. Truth be told, wrestling would probably be the better for more reigns that are not necessarily like Allin’s, but similarly tailored to the character and style of performer at hand.
When Danhausen made his WWE debut at Elimination Chamber, it was difficult for fans to know what they were looking at. For more casual fans, the character was an oddball who didn’t necessarily look like a wrestler and WWE didn’t offer much explanation for his emergence from a crate and his accompanying dancers. For fans who have followed other promotions, they may have recognized Danhausen as a successful act who largely stalled out in his AEW tenure (blame injury, blame booking, blame the gimmick, blame the man himself—there are no shortage of fingers to point).
The initial reaction to the character was lukewarm at best as fans were confused and underwhelmed with him being the surprise debut act and with his first appearance. The least likely development of all followed, though. Danhausen got over.
Indeed, Danhausen has become one of WWE’s top merchandise movers and arguably even had one of the more eagerly anticipated matches of Backlash. The questions emerges: how has this character turned into such a success?
Danhausen Is Legitimately Different Than Anyone Else On The WWE Roster
During the Black and Gold Era of Triple H’s NXT, WWE raided the indies and New Japan, introducing a range of talents with different skill sets and looks like Asuka, Kevin Owens, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Finn Balor, not to mention acts that didn’t thrive on the main roster but had memorable runs in developmental like Keith Lee, Adam Cole, and Karrion Kross.
Since the NXT 2.0 rebrand, and in the years to follow, one critique of WWE is that it slid back toward its habit of cookie-cutter developmental talents who looked and worked the same, aside from a handful of notable exceptions.
Danhausen completely flies in the face of that movement. With his face paint, unique promo style, and unimposing look, he completely stands out from anyone else on the current WWE roster which has gone a long way toward helping him stick with fans.
Danhausen Embodies A Certain Brand Of WWE Nostalgia
Danhausen. Photo: WWE.com
The modern wrestling discourse, particularly on the Internet, revolves around work rate and questions of whom is getting pushed too hard or not enough. Indeed, when an act strikes a chord, he or she inevitably develops a chorus of backers demanding elevation to the main event picture.
There’s something refreshing about Danhausen as an act who is perfectly at home doing screwball comedy in mid-card spots. Maybe he’ll get a run with a secondary or tag team title at some point. Regardless, the gimmick just isn’t made for the WWE main event and in the tradition of acts ranging from Uncle Elmer to Repo Man to Doink the Clown to The Boogeyman there’s something refreshing about a modern act that people can enjoy without demanding more from him.
Dimensions like downplaying work rate in favor of theatrics and comedic promos, not to mention the integration of little people into his gimmick has all flown in the face of the modern WWE product and largely delighted fans for how bizarre and engaging everything he does turns out to be.
Danhausen Hits Just The Right Comedic Notes
Comedy in wrestling is incredibly tricky. Quite a few attempts fall flat or age poorly. Comedy also entails a high degree of subjectivity often based on age demographics in the sense that what amuses children has adults rolling their eyes or what adults find funny in WWE often either goes over kids’ heads or is too mature to be family friendly.
Danhausen has somehow threaded the most improbable of needles in arriving as an act the majority of WWE fans seem to find funny. His antics are typically suitable for fans of all ages and combine a sense of absurdity and whimsy to tickle everyone.
It’s telling that, beyond his work during conventional matches and promos, Danhausen has struck a chord by thinking outside the box and tapping into old school fans’ sense of humor. A prime example came over social media, as Danhausen inserted himself in old Backlash hype videos. He’s also somehow made it work appearing on ESPN and cursing teams.
Perhaps most telling of all was Danhausen’s performance at Backlash itself, when he used his “cloning machine” only to produce a little person version of himself. Careful observers could see him visibly say, “oh [expletive]” in response to not generating a full-sized version of himself. The humor skewed adult for the language used, but it was him looking visibly deflated that really sold the comedy of the moment, not so different from his clumsy, smoke-filled exit from the ring at WrestleMania 42.
Time will tell if Danhausen represents a fad or a long-term success story in WWE. Regardless, the act has worked better than most could have predicted. That’s in no small part to the talents and likability of the man beneath the gimmick, whom fans and colleagues alike seem very excited to cheer on.
Jeremy Ganger’s retirement match is scheduled for Saturday at Wrestling Revolver: Revolver Strong, at the Calumet Center in Dayton, Ohio.
When Ganger walks to the ring, embedded in his leg is a piece of shrapnel. A reminder of the night his life and that of a city upended into a national tragedy.
He received the injury when a gunman killed nine people and injured 27 others in Dayton’s Oregon District in 2019. Ganger was working as a bouncer at a local club called Ned Pepper’s when it occurred. Where he saved dozens of lives with his quick thinking and courageous actions.
Police were getting ready to question him when an officer noticed he was bleeding from the leg. Ganger had been hit during the shooting, but was so busy rushing people to safety, he hadn’t noticed. He was taken to hospital.
“I refuse to get it taken out,” Ganger said. “It’s my way of remembering the nine people we lost that night.”
Ganger knew six of the nine who died. If he wasn’t there that night, it would have been dozens more.
August 4, 2019
After having dinner with a friend, Ganger went to work at Ned Pepper’s, checking ID’s outside the front door. An experienced bouncer, Ganger knew most of the customers and the people who frequented Dayton’s Oregon District. He recalled the area as one big family, one he’s always happy to visit.
As he worked outside, he heard a gunshot down the street. Ganger, who grew up in rural Miami County, knew the sound of a rifle being fired.
When the second shot fired, Ganger saw the shooter coming from an alley.
“We saw people running from the Blind Bob’s area,” Ganger said. “I was yelling and freaking out like everyone else. I saw the shooter coming down the street and the muzzle of his gun lighting up.”
Ganger said staffers at Ned Pepper’s, Blind Bob’s and other clubs in the district had active shooter training at the time. Ganger began yelling for people to run into the bar and began guiding them in as people began falling from the gunfire.
Security camera video of the shooting showed Ganger guiding dozens of people in through the door of the club and clearing the patio as fast as he could. He kept standing outside the door as the gunman approached.
The gunman was carrying a rifle with a 100-round drum magazine. He was wearing Kevlar and a tactical helmet. Law enforcement reports later stated he had substances in his system.
Dozens of people began hiding behind the bar at the back of the building. Many of the male staffers dropped down to cover female staffers. Reports said as many as 300 people had fled into Ned Pepper’s for protection.
The club had two doors at the entrance. Ganger locked and shut the first as the gunman approached.
“My thought was to get everyone safe,” Ganger said. “And he wasn’t getting into the building no matter what.”
The gunman paused, long enough for Dayton police officers to shoot and kill him. Officers wearing summer gear were armed only with handguns and had fired dozens of rounds at the gunman before he fell. The autopsy report said he was shot 30 times.
Ganger, not knowing if the shooter was dead, grabbed his weapon as police entered and swept the building. People began running out of the other restaurants and clubs, tending to victims with towels, performing CPR and helping anyway they could.
As Ganger saw people tending to the wounded, he glanced at the door he was standing in front of as he ushered dozens to safety. It was riddled with bullet holes.
In less than 30 seconds, nine people were dead, 17 others had been shot and 10 more suffered injuries related to the shooting. Dayton police officers responded, killing the shooter, in just seconds. Among those on the scene that night were staffers from a local professional baseball team, the daughter of a U.S. Congressman and hundreds of others whose lives changed in less than half a minute.
A wrestling fan turned wrestler
Ganger began wrestling in the early 2000s. He worked local independents before meeting Cody Hawk, a long-time trainer and later owner of the Heartland Wrestling Association. The HWA was a developmental territory for both WCW and WWE during the Monday night era and was founded by Les Thatcher, considered by many to be the among the best trainers in the world.
Thatcher sold the company to Hawk. Hawk trained former WWE, AEW and IWGP champion Jon Moxley and trained Ganger, who discovered there were advantages to having a third-shift job as a wrestler.
”My roommate at the time was Sami Callahan,” Ganger said. “I was working later and that allowed me to get a lot of one-on-one time with Cody in the daytime when it wasn’t busy. He took me under his wing.”
Ohio’s competitive independent scene didn’t keep wrestlers from helping each other. Ganger said he was surprised at how veterans and more established stars were always generous with their time, showing him the ropes.
He recalled Shaun Ricker, who wrestles as LA Knight in the WWE, being especially helpful, along with Nigel McGuinness and Moxley.
“Those one-on-one sessions were amazing for me,” Ganger said.
Ganger, a fan of Mick Foley as a kid, adopted the death match style after working with Alex Colon, a friend he would task with being his opponent in his retirement match. He was highly influenced by Callihan, his former roommate and friend, who will be at Saturday’s show. He considers Callihan to be family.
”Since he introduced me to wrestling, I really wanted (my final opponent) to be Sami,” Ganger said. “But wrestling Alex means so much.”
After the shooting
Most of the victims of the shooting were taken to Grandview Medical Center, blocks from the Oregon District. Many walked there.
In his teens, Ganger was told by doctors that he had epilepsy. One of the triggers for seizures was stress. After arriving at the hospital, he had several seizures and was sedated by physicians. He slept for two days after the shooting.
When he was released by doctors, he demanded to be taken to Ned Pepper’s before going home. He hobbled into the bar on crutches and was greeted by the staff, all of whom survived.
The shooting sparked a decline in his mental health. Ganger couldn’t stand crowds. When he did venture out in public, he would see visions of the shooter in crowds. He was invited by All Elite Wrestling to be a special guest at its inaugural Double or Nothing pay-per-view, but the ordeal presented by his mental health kept him from attending.
”It changed my life dramatically,” Ganger said. “I had PTSD, I didn’t sleep well.”
Tragedy sparks new mission, career
Since the shooting, Ganger became a mental health counselor and a caseworker. He was diagnosed with superior survivor’s guilt. While Ganger saved dozens, the loss of those who were killed were too much for him to bear. One woman, who was killed in front of him on the patio of the bar, was staring at him the moment she was shot. They were friends.
Ganger said his interactions were mixed. With the press, reporters were friendly and showed appreciation for his actions . He recalled one reporter telling him how grateful he was he lived in the same community as Ganger.
Other interactions weren’t so friendly. He often received social media messages blaming him for not saving a relative or friend. People in public would criticize him for how he handled the situation.
What kept his hopes up the most was messages he received from military members and law enforcement. Officers from Las Vegas and Virginia, who responded to mass shootings, praised Ganger for his quick thinking and bravery. Military members who had returned from deployment also thanked him for what he did for the city.
In his darkest moments he became suicidal, dealing with PTSD, survivor’s guilt and depression, even as he took classes to become a counselor. What turned his life around was the birth of his 5-year-old daughter.
”My daughter, she’s 5 and she saved my life,” Ganger said. “I was told I could never have kids, and here I am, at 42 years old, having a daughter. She saved me.”
Ganger kept receiving calls and voice mails from people saying they worked for NXT, World Wrestling Entertainment’s then developmental brand. Still wrestling, Ganger dismissed the calls as ribs from fellow wrestlers. He found out later one of the calls was from Paul Levesque.
“Sami (Callihan) called me,” Ganger said. “He just says, ‘Pick up your phone. It’s real, dude.”
In a better place mentally by that time, Ganger made the trip to Florida with a friend who was a nurse. After missing a chance to see AEW, he was determined to make it to NXT.
”When AEW contacted me to come to Chicago, it was too much for me, the crowd was too much for me,” Ganger said. “I felt horrible about it. I wish I could have went. I just wasn’t in the right mental state.”
Over a couple days, Ganger was shown the WWE Performance Center.
He walked backstage before a taping and saw Tommaso Ciampa talking with a group of wrestlers and staffers. Ciampa saw Ganger, walked up to him and grabbed him in a bear hug. He called Ganger, “Mr. Hero”, and then introduced him to everyone there.
Ganger said Ciampa’s embrace and warm greeting was the highlight of his trip.
”That gentleman made me feel so awesome,” Ganger said.
Ganger was interviewed with Paul Levesque, who ran NXT at the time. He was invited backstage to watch the show with NXT staffers Shawn Michaels, Jeremy Borash and Brian “Road Dogg” Armstrong.
Levesque entered the ring before the taping was set to begin. He gave a speech while the screen showed news clips of the Oregon District shooting and interview footage of Ganger.
Levesque introduced Ganger as “one of their own,” a professional wrestler. Ganger went down to the ring and climbed the steps to the apron. Levesque mentioned, “Hey, you even remembered to wipe your feet.”
Ganger was presented with an NXT title belt. Video of the presentation was put on WWE’s website and made news across the country.
Before the presentation ended, Levesque grabbed Ganger for a private conversation.
“It was touching,” Ganger said. “He told me he loved me and respected me. It was a private moment.”
Most of the NXT staffers didn’t know why Ganger was at the event until the presentation. When he reached the back, he was immediately grabbed by Michaels. who
Michaels took him outside with a rosary in his hand and grabbed Ganger’s and began praying for him.
Weeks later, Mick Foley was on tour and was scheduled for an appearance at a Dayton-area comedy club. Ganger received an invite from Foley, one of his biggest inspirations. Foley wanted to talk to him personally.
”He told me, what you did that night was tremendous not just for the people there but for the wrestling world,” Ganger said. “We get so much bad advertising because people think all wrestlers are scumbags. You showed we are people. And we can do tremendous things. You’ve done so much.”
Ganger has revisited the shooting regularly. After years of dealing with the after effects he said his one regret was not reaching out to someone sooner, “Or just talked to someone.”
He tried handling the emotions and the mental toll like traditional men were taught – by bottling it up. Later, he was overwhelmed with thoughts of suicide. He said that was a mistake. Ganger said anyone who suffers a traumatic event should seek help or counseling immediately.
”I needed help a lot sooner than later,” Ganger said. “I wish I had talked about what was going on, but I was a traditional man and we are taught to keep our feelings to ourselves. I wouldn’t have been suicidal, I wouldn’t have talked about taking my own life. I wish I had asked for help sooner.”
Ganger said one source of help was surprising – the wrestling business. Whether it was his friends he wrestled with for 20 years in Ohio or stars in other states and on national TV, the business he gave his blood and body to gave back when he needed it most.
Speculation went into overdrive after Randy Orton turned heel on Cody Rhodes on SmackDown then, on the subsequent episode of Raw proved dismissive of Michael Cole’s interview attempt in favor of a phone call with an unknown conversation partner. One of the names social media theorized The Viper might have had on the line was The Rock.
Besides each man having WrestleMania Saturday history now with Rhodes and each showing up on the shortlist for consideration among the greatest third-generation pro wrestlers of all time, Rock and Orton may come to share an inauspicious record effective next month.
The Rock made his WrestleMania main event debut at WrestleMania 15 and that impressively became the first of three consecutive years when he closed out the show at ‘Mania. Unfortunately, he lost in each of those outings—twice to Stone Cold Steve Austin and once as a first runner-up to Triple H successfully defending the WWE Championship in a Fatal Fourway that also involved Mick Foley and The Big Show.
The People’s Champion became the first man to lose three WrestleMania main events without a single victory, though he would get the job done a decade later at WrestleMania 28 (and win again to close WrestleMania 40, Night One). If Randy Orton doesn’t beat Cody Rhodes, he’ll join Rock as just the second man to lose his first three WrestleMania main events and will stand alone as the only man to work three or more WrestleMania main events and to have never won.
Randy Orton’s WrestleMania Main Event History
Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes. Photo: WWE.com
However else one may critique Randy Orton’s history as a WrestleMania main eventer, it’s a testament to his star power and longevity that, effective this year, he’ll have headlined the biggest show in the WWE calendar in shows spanning a seventeen-year period.
In 2009, Orton had already been an established main event guy for over five years when he closed out The Showcase of the Immortals for the first time, challenging Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship. The two had a feud that offered a rare combination of a long history and white-hot momentum going into WrestleMania 25, though unfortunately most fans found the bout itself underwhelming, hamstrung by an ill-conceived stipulation that The Game would lose his title if he were disqualified.
Orton main evented again in 2014, when he walked into WrestleMania 30 to defend the WWE Championship against a returning Batista and surging Daniel Bryan. This match was an instant classic with a happy ending as Bryan celebrated with confetti raining from the rafters.
Now, Orton finds himself in another WrestleMania world title scenario—his fifth overall after working non-main event world title matches at WrestleManias 22, 24, and 33—and set to close Saturday night. He certainly has a chance at winning with the benefit of his momentum from a recent heel turn and no world title reigns since the ThunderDome era. On the flip side, though, Cody Rhodes only just won back his WWE Championship and is generally considered a nudge higher in star power than The Viper these days. As such, Orton’s chances of winning in his third ‘Mania main event have to be considered a toss up.
Main Eventing WrestleMania Itself Is More Important Than Wins And Losses
Photo Credit: WWE
The Rock lost back-to-back-to-back WrestleMania main events from 1999 to 2001. Even those fans who believe in the theory that there can be multiple main events in the same night might claim that his wins over Hollywood Hogan or Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2002 or 2003 salvaged his record still couldn’t argue that The Great One won a WrestleMania main event before his fourth try.
Despite the setbacks, The Rock emerged as one of a very small handful of performers who could make any kind of credible claim to have been the biggest star in pro wrestling history—all of which set him up to walk right back into a WrestleMania main event spot when he returned to singles action for WrestleMania 28 nearly a decade past his in-ring prime.
Randy Orton may become the second man to lose three WrestleMania main event matches without a WrestleMania main event victory on his resume, and, at this stage of his career, it’s quite possible this will be the last time he ever closes out a ‘Mania. Still, just as The Rock demonstrated before him, it’s less wins and losses in this scenario than making it to “the big dance.”
Cody Rhodes discussed on his podcast recently how small a proportion of wrestlers can claim to have truly drawn a house. These are the wrestlers who were not just among the attractions, on a show, but the kind of main eventers whom people put their money down to see.
It’s very telling about Orton’s star power, talent, and legacy that when ticket sales for WrestleMania 42 struggled, he’s the one who got transitioned into a world title picture, got the big heel turn push, and was entrusted to make business happen for WWE. Entering the rarefied air among just 13 men who’ve headlined WrestleMania three times or more only reaffirms that Orton is a fundamentally important wrestler to WWE history.
Randy Orton And The Rock Have Their Own WrestleMania History
Wrestling fans often talk about passing the torch moments and WWE has contrived more than its share, between Cody Rhodes’s victories over Roman Reigns and John Cena in recent years, or the way Mick Foley once put over a young Randy Orton as an ascending top guy.
A fun footnote in the Foley-Orton angle is that not only The Hardcore Legend but The Rock himself put over a rising Legend Killer. Twenty-two years back, at WrestleMania 20, The Rock teamed with Foley to face an Evolution trio of Orton, Batista, and Ric Flair.
The match was star-studded, especially in hindsight. Even more noteworthy, it served as both a swan song for The Brahma Bull who wouldn’t work another WrestleMania match for eight years, and an inflection point for Orton who, at the following SummerSlam, would be crowned the youngest world champion in WWE history.
Orton and Rock’s interactions were limited bell-to-bell, but it remains a fun historical footnote that they actually did have a WrestleMania match against each other.
WrestleMania main event spots are sacred. Only so many performers get that opportunity and fewer among them are those wrestlers who get a second, let alone a third chance. Cody Rhodes will work his fourth at WrestleMania 42 and welcome Randy Orton into that club. What follows for The Viper, only time will tell.
Wrestling fans are one year out from John Cena’s final WrestleMania match in which a heel version of the legend bested Cody Rhodes for the WWE Championship. We’re twenty years, out, though, from what may well have been the most important night in Cena’s career.
Cena’s list of accomplishments is among the most impressive in pro wrestling history. He’s the only recognized seventeen-time world champion, a Grand Slam Champion, a six-time WrestleMania main eventer, and one of the longest standing faces of WWE ever.
By WrestleMania 22, Cena was a main eventer and that show marked what was, in fact, his first ‘Mania main event. Had things turned out differently that evening, though, his legacy might look quite different.
WrestleMania 22 Marked John Cena’s First WrestleMania Main Event Victory
Credit: WWE
At WrestleMania 20, John Cena pinned The Big Show to win the United States Championship, a young Doctor of Thuganomics’ first gold on the WWE main roster. At WrestleMania 21, he won his first world title, besting JBL for the WWE Championship.
In hindsight, the writing was on the wall in 2004 that Cena was going to be one of the top guys in WWE for years to come. In 2005, he made good on that potential, but it’s also telling that WWE ran with Batista’s World Heavyweight Championship coronation over Cena’s moment in the main event spot. While a variety factors may have been in play, including concerns about match quality and the story the company was paying off, one take away is that WWE saw at least as much and maybe more potential in Batista as the new face of the company.
Fast forward a year, and Batista was injured. Rey Mysterio had a huge feel-good story going as he won the Royal RUmble en route to his first world title win over Kurt Angle and Randy Orton. It was Cena, however, who closed out the show with Triple H. He also won—a main event triumph at the biggest show of the year, but also joining the ranks of Hulk Hogan, Stone Cold Steve Austin, and Triple H as the only performers up to that point to walk out of consecutive WrestleManias as world champion.
As a side note, the next year he’d join Hogan as the only two men to do it three straight years (Roman Reigns would eventually join them), and the year after that Cena would become the first person to walk out of the biggest show of the year a world champ four years in a row; that rarely acknowledged, still unmatched streak ultimately ran to six years when he beat Batista at WrestleMania 26. Cena never would have unlocked any of these milestones were it not for an unlikely victory over The Game.
Though The Fans Turned On John Cena, WWE Stayed The Course
Chris Masters and John Cena. Photo: WWE.com
Though John Cena was incredibly popular for the first half of 2005, by summer, the tide had started to turn. While he continued to appeal to kids, a vocal portion of the audience started booing him out of the arena with increasing intensity in the build up to WrestleMania 22.
Going into WrestleMania 22, a number of fan theories made the rounds. A lot of fans foresaw Triple H beating John Cena as WWE hit the reset button on the younger star. Just as The Game had powered down Randy Orton’s first world title reign and WWE had rebuilt a young Viper until he was legitimately over as a main eventer, it seemed likely Cena would undergo a similar process.
Other, wild theories saw the Money in the Bank winner cashing in by the end of the night, with Ric Flair a dark horse favorite to claim one last world title reign of his own.
In perhaps the least likely scenario of all, though, Cena won. And he won cleanly. And he won by submission over arguably the most credible character WWE had shy of The Undertaker. Though Mr. Money in the Bank Rob Van Dam would successfully cash in on him in the months to follow, Cena emerged from ‘Mania unscathed.
While Cena going over was polarizing in the moment, it was a watershed moment in WWE history. Keeping the belt on Cena cemented him as the face of WWE, setting him up for the better part of a decade on top. While he’d face losses to come, staying so well protected at this stage of his career went a long way toward making him bullet proof as the company’s franchise player.
Edge Shored Up His Spot As John Cena’s Arch-Rival
One of the biggest challenges John Cena was up against in his prime as a full-fledged main eventer was the large segment of the crowd that rejected him, favoring more technically skilled performers who’d come up through the indies and veteran talents. Opposite heels like Kurt Angle, Triple H, and even Randy Orton, Cena got booed. The reactions were even stronger when babyfaces like Rob Van Dam, CM Punk, Daniel Bryan, and, of course, The Rock, went up against him.
One of the few performers who struck the right cord against Cena was Edge. While the two had good chemistry in the ring and on the mic, the real magic to their rivalry was The Rated R Superstar’s ability to play such a through-and-through heel and opposite to Cena that really allowed Cena the stretches he needed to get over as a white meat babyface world champion.
Yes, Edge had already cashed in on Money in the Bank on Cena prior to WrestleMania 22, then dropped the title back to him. It’s in The Rated R Superstar feuding with Mick Foley, though, and getting the best of a simply wild Hardcore Match against The Hardcore Legend that Edge underwent a more or less literal baptism by fire, cementing his place as a credible main eventer in his own right and positioning himself to become quite arguably Cena’s best and most important rival.
WrestleMania 41 saw John Cena win his seventeenth world title and WrestleMania 42 will see him play host. It was the ‘Mania two decades earlier that saw all the pieces fall into place, though, for him to become the defining star of a generation.
The choice to stage WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium marked an ambitious moment for WWE. Though the company wasn’t exactly on fire, the company brand and the brand of their flagship PLE was significant enough that drawing a live crowd of 100,000-plus didn’t seem entirely unrealistic.
With such a large stage, top stars like Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins coming into their own as singles stars and icons like The Rock, Brock Lesnar, and Triple H in the mix, there was the potential for something magical to happen.
While WWE did draw arguably their largest single night attendance number (there’s some debate, but the consensus is WrestleMania 32 packed over 80,000 fans in the stadium), the show itself did not go down as one of the more successful iterations of the Showcase of the Immortals for a variety of reasons.
Roman Reigns Hadn’t Yet Clicked As The Top Guy
Credit: WWE
Roman Reigns challenging Triple H for the WWE Championship closed out WrestleMania 32. On paper, this match checks a lot of boxes with one of the biggest legends in the company squaring off against the top rising star with the world title on the line and months of storytelling behind them.
In practice, the Reigns vs. Helmsley angle never heated up. Reigns kayfabe injuring Triple H in late 2015 was strange creative that had the babyface acting pretty heelishly. From there, Triple H’s “surprise” return to win the 2016 Royal Rumble and, in so doing take the title off Reigns, was incredibly predictable. To his credit, The Game got in incredible shape and put on excellent matches with Dean Ambrose and Dolph Ziggler on the Road to WrestleMania. Unfortunately, those stellar outings only underscored how blah his showdown with Reigns wound up being.
In the end, Reigns simply wouldn’t get over at a high level with a wide swathe of the WWE audience until his heel turn in 2020. WrestleMania 32 highlighted all his limitations from his promos leading up to the event, to his ring work during it, to his lukewarm connection with the fans.
Seth Rollins Was Injured
Seth Rollins. Photo: WWE
Seth Rollins was second only to Roman Reigns as the most heavily pushed rising stars in WWE in 2016. The prevailing wisdom was that he’d square off with Triple H at WrestleMania 32 if he’d been healthy—delivering a version of their WrestleMania 33 angle a year early. Some others have theorized Rollins vs. Reigns or a Shield Triple Threat may have been in the offing.
Regardless of how things would’ve played out with a healthy Rollins in the mix, there’s little question in-ring ability alone, combined with fans more readily buying into him than Reigns had the potential to singlehandedly elevate a WrestleMania that suffered from a lack of standout matches.
Brock Lesnar Didn’t Gel With Dean Ambrose
Credit: WWE
Brock Lesnar is a one of a kind professional wrestler whose combination of real-life credibility, in-ring style, and steady protection in being booked as a monster made him a draw and someone who all but guaranteed a memorable match in his every WrestleMania appearance.
The Beast and Dean Ambrose did not gel, though. From Ambrose’s own account, he had ambitious ideas, but Lesnar wasn’t interested in venturing out of his more traditional format for a match. So, whether Ambrose got too nutty with his ideas for a Street Fight or Lesnar was unmotivated, the one undeniable truth is that these two performers did not gel and the resulting match underwhelmed at every turn.
Shane McMahon’s Comeback Signaled What Was To Come
Credit: WWE
One of the most buzzworthy stories going into WrestleMania 32 was the return of Shane McMahon after going missing from the WWE landscape for nearly a decade. The choice to immediately plug him into a Hell in a Cell Match with The Undertaker certainly made for an attraction as well.
Unfortunately, the performances of both Shane-O-Mac and The Dead Man proved emblematic of where they were in their careers and where they were headed. For McMahon’s part, he’d not only lost a step but unveiled a style that came across as less the dare devil he’d been in his youth than desperate to deliver a contrived spot.
The idea of The Undertaker throwing the boss’s son off the top of Hell in a Cell was very much on the mind of fans given each man’s history. In practice, the tedious match peaked at Shane-O-Mac foolishly climbing to the top of the Cell to go for a nonsensical elbow drop, only to predictably miss. In kayfabe, McMahon came across as an idiot for the attempt; in reality, it seemed clear he was starving for attention with an eye-catching spot, even if it made no sense in the context of the match. Meanwhile, the cracks also showed for The Undertaker, who no longer had what it took to singlehandedly carry a match like this.
The Rock’s Involvement Was Underwhelming
Credit: WWE
WrestleManias 27 through 29 marked a trilogy of sorts with The Rock’s return to WWE and impact on the main event, followed by consecutive years of him main eventing the show himself against John Cena. From there, WrestleMania 30 saw him cut a sweetly nostalgic opening promo with fellow icons Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin, before he delivered an electric moment at WrestleMania 31, teaming up with Ronda Rousey to clear the ring of Triple H and Stephanie McMahon.
So, even though The Rock didn’t have anything official on the docket for WrestleMania 32, there was reason for optimism he might do something cool if he showed up at AT&T Stadium. The People’s Champion did arrive, complete with an over-the-top flame thrower entrance that underwhelmed fans, followed by a generic promo.
Business looked like it would pick up when The Wyatt Family showed up to confront The Great One, but things quickly devolved into an impromptu, seconds-long squash match with The Rock pinning Erick Rowan, followed by a brawl. While the segment wasn’t the worst part of WrestleMania 32, it did signal babyface, part-time Rock had run his course.
Other Potential Big Draws Underwhelmed
Credit: WWE
There are other reasons why WrestleMania 32 had a lot of potential on paper but failed to deliver. John Cena made a surprise appearance which was perfectly fine—helping The Rock against The Wyatts—but paled in comparison to his previous WrestleMania roles. Shaquille O’Neal was a surprise entrant in the Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and had a confrontation with The Big Show, but between the booking and execution, what might have been a huge celebrity appearance fell flat and became utterly forgettable.
Zack Ryder’s last-minute addition and victory in the Intercontinental Championship Ladder Match arguably stole the show, but also left fans scratching their heads because Ryder had not been in the title mix up to that point (not to mention that he promptly dropped the belt without fanfare). A League of Nations versus New Day showdown ultimately felt as though it was just there to set up a paint-by-numbers legends segment with Steve Austin, Shawn Michaels, and Mick Foley beating up the current talents. All of this added up to a WrestleMania that felt thrown together, carelessly booked, and far short of its potential.
In the end, the biggest silver lining to a severely disappointing WrestleMania may well be that it offered the emergent women’s division an opportunity to shine. Charlotte Flair vs. Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks emerged as a pretty clear cut match of the night—the first time the women of WWE could make such a claim in WrestleMania history. This match paved the road for women to work featured matches every year to follow, including garnering their first main event spot at WrestleMania 35.
There’s little question WrestleMania is the most important annual event to WWE history. It’s their annual showcase that has become a regular stadium filler. That’s before more modest years when ‘Mania still marked the culmination of major storylines, coronation of new franchise-level stars, and a stage to elevate the company’s business time and again.
The original WrestleMania was a game changer. While narratives vary about just how essential this event was to WWE’s financial prospects, it undeniably marked a major milestone in WWE’s establishment as the number one brand in professional wrestling. Hulk Hogan got a showcase moment as the top star in the business alongside an unequivocally successful celebrity outing as Mr. T tagged up with him. Other big matches like Andre the Giant’s triumph over Big John Studd and other celebrity appearances from the likes of names ranging from Cyndi Lauper to Muhammad Ali made some real magic.
WrestleMania 2 has a very different legacy, however. While WrestleMania 3 would become an iconic stadium event and WrestleManias 4 and 5 would bookend a tremendous year-long story, the second edition was defined by WWE taking some huge swings and striking out at the plate.
WrestleMania 2 Emanated From Three Arenas
Credit: WWE
A year before WWE aimed to (and succeeded at) drawing a legitimate stadium crowd, the company set its sights on filling three separate arenas in New York, Illinois, and California. It was an ambitious concept and allowed WWE to, with reasonable credibility, claim a combined attendance of over 40,000.
The idea was imperfect. It made some logical sense to have three shows, each with one hour of live wrestling in the arena, two hours aired on big screens. The live viewing experience suffered, though, for having such a short snippet of live action and suboptimal conditions to watch the show on screens.
It also made some sense for WWE to be able to tout a triple main event for each venue getting its own high-profile closer. However, it’s hard to argue a worked boxing match that ended in a DQ (more on that to follow) or a battle royal were as legitimate main events as a world championship steel cage match featuring the top star in the business.
It’s unlikely WWE will ever return to a multi-city WrestleMania again, even though the two-night format launched in 2020 solves some of the problems this proposition poses. It’s technologically impressive WWE pulled it off at all in 1986, but the company seemed to learn its lesson that this idea just didn’t work.
Mr. T Vs. Roddy Piper Was A Disaster
Credit: WWE
On paper, Mr. T vs. Roddy Piper made some sense as a WrestleMania main event. That’s given the degree of T’s celebrity star power, Piper’s status as arguably the top heel in the business, and the success of the main event tag team match the two were a part of at the original ‘Mania. In practice, though, this match had no business happening, let alone at a WrestleMania, let alone in closing the east coast portion of the event.
While three professional wrestlers working around Mr. T when he had to tag in and tag out of the match worked at WrestleMania 1, a year later, he was exposed in singles action. By all accounts, Hot Rod wasn’t eager to collaborate or make the actor look good either. The boxing match stipulation sort of covered T’s limitations in the ring, but also confronted WWE with time-tested truth: worked boxing matches are not good.
The result was an utterly lackluster affair. It may not have been the worst WrestleMania match of all time (thanks Jerry Lawler vs. Michael Cole!) but it has to be considered the worst match WWE attached a WrestleMania main event label to and in the bottom ten matches at the show all time—the worst match on quite arguably the worst WrestleMania card ever.
The NFL Vs. WWE Battle Royal Should Have Been A Bigger Deal
Credit: WWE
Like the idea of hosting a single event from three venues was ambitious, the idea of integrating NFL personalities into a star-studded battle royal was a big idea. Though the experiment wasn’t a complete failure, it also wasn’t exactly iconic.
In the mid-1990s, WCW featured NFL players Kevin Greene and Steve McMichael as main event level attractions. That’s not to mention WWE itself putting its complete faith in the drawing power and work ethic of Lawrence Taylor to headline WrestleMania XI (not to mention faith in Bam Bam Bigelow selling for him and Pat Patterson directing traffic as referee).
The takeaway: NFL players in a wrestling ring were a draw. They uniquely combined celebrity, big bodies, and real-world athletic credentials to immediately translate to a pro wrestling audience.
There are a number of reasons why the WrestleMania 2 battle royal featuring six NFL players or alumni didn’t work at a high level. The NFL wasn’t quite the juggernaut it would become as its popularity grew year over year to the point that this volume of stars from the league entering a WWE ring would become unthinkable. What was more under WWE’s control, though, was the booking.
Despite working around the limitations of non-wrestlers working a high-profile match, it still feels as though WWE should’ve been able to get more out of the football stars. Only William “The Refrigerator” Perry gave a memorable performance and even he didn’t make it to the final five. Andre the Giant military pressing Bret Hart out of the ring onto Jim Neidhart became the most memorable spot from the match, and that had nothing to do with NFL participation.
Hulk Hogan’s Match With Andre The Giant Erased The Legacy Of His Bout With King Kong Bundy
Credit: WWE
Hulk Hogan vs. King Kong Bundy has a case for being called the best match of WrestleMania 2, but that’s not saying a lot when the closest contenders were a good battle royal and good tag title match during the Midwest portion of the show. Hogan and Bundy at least had some heat, world title implications, and the spectacle of a cage.
That said, the biggest story of Hogan vs. Bundy was that of the superhero Hulkster vanquishing a super heavyweight heel. It was a formula that worked throughout the 1980s, but there’s little denying that this run-of-the-mill match on that formula was completely overshadowed by what happened one year later.
Andre the Giant turning heel made him the biggest, most famous, and most credible monster heel of his age. It was the premise of this ultimate behemoth clashing with Hogan that filled the Pontiac Silverdome. Though the match itself was no technical classic—arguably, in a vacuum, not even better than Hogan vs. Bundy—it has stood the test of time as perhaps the greatest attraction in pro wrestling history. In the process, that clash of the titans effectively erased what effect the Bundy match had had on wrestling history and culture, rendering it only memorable for the historical footnote of having headlined a WrestleMania.
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – MARCH 9: <> during Monday Night RAW at Climate Pledge Arena on March 9, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by WWE/WWE)
The dynamics that have all but defined Judgment Day across its four-year run include in-fighting and transformation. Indeed, it’s telling that the group launched with Edge teaming up with Damian Priest, before Rhea Ripley and Finn Balor joined their ranks. Fast forward to the present and none of those four members remain in the faction. Rather, Dominik Mysterio, the youngster the faction seemed to manipulate into betraying his father now comes across as the mastermind who ousted Balor from the clubhouse.
Other talents have come and gone from Judgment Day, with R-Truth and Carlito each playing offbeat, often as not comedic supporting roles. The group still has Mysterio and Liv Morgan in the de facto leadership roles, with JD McDonough and Raquel Rodriguez backing them up plus, when she returns to action, Roxanne Perez as an up and comer. Balor’s departure from the group leaves a void, though, as, for the first time in group history, they lack a male performer who’s both in the upper echelon of in-ring workers and credible to insert into the main event picture.
Judgment Day has, to its credit, reinvented itself time and again. Assuming the faction isn’t winding down its run—and with Morgan likely walking out of WrestleMania as Women’s World Champion and Mysterio continuing to come into his own, they probably shouldn’t– it does feel as though the group would benefit from a new addition.
Perhaps a new talent could lend a hand in the group prevailing at WrestleMania, or else come in as reinforcements after some major setbacks in Vegas. Regardless, there’s a lot of potential on the WWE roster to write this stable’s next chapter.
Omos
Photo Credit: WWE
Omos has had a strange run with WWE. His story seems to come down to him being too awesome a physical spectacle for WWE to give up on him, while also struggling to come along as a performer, such that the company’s not fully behind him.
By virtue of the giant’s look and size, he could add immediate gravitas to Judgment Day. He can play the old school heater the way Diesel was for Shawn Michaels—someone Dominik Mysterio and JD McDonough can carry the work load for in the ring and on the mic while also hiding behind Omos as cowardly heels.
Ethan Page
Photo Credit: OfficialEGO on X
Ethan Page has had a fantastic run in NXT. There’s a case that he still has more to accomplish there or that when he gets the call up, he should renew his partnership with Chelsea Green on a bigger stage. Judgment Day is another option, though.
When Roxanne Perez joined the faction, it highlighted the ability of Judgment Day, with its notoriety and capacity for in-fighting, to immediately give a fresh main roster talent a clear role and interesting storylines. Page’s natural heel inclinations could fit the group, while also planting seeds for the next power struggle as his All Ego persona invites eventual conflict with Dominik Mysterio and Liv Morgan about who is actually in charge.
Importantly, while Page isn’t a giant, he’s also a big-bodied enough to add a different dimension and greater physical credibility to the stable moving forward.
Damian Priest
Photo Credit: WWE
For all the talents who’ve made their way in and out of Judgment Day, one angle WWE hasn’t explored yet is someone coming back home to the faction after having splintered off. Some of that’s with good reason. Edge felt more natural as a babyface legend before leaving for AEW. Rhea Ripley has thrived out on her own.
It has been a different story for Damian Priest. He arguably did some of his very best main roster work in the immediate aftermath of his old running buddies turning on him. Playing a destructive force of a babyface and working together with Rhea Ripley, Priest came across as a legitimate force and, in some ways, more credible at the top of the card than he had during his World Heavyweight Championship reign.
The years to follow have been rougher, though. Priest feels as though he’s largely returned to the early days of his main roster run, credible in the upper card, but a step behind talents like Drew McIntyre, matched up well against Aleister Black, but without a clear path forward. Spending his WrestleMania season in the SmackDown tag title picture makes reasonable sense, as his credibility and R-Truth’s comedy complement one another, but that doesn’t feel like a sustainable future, especially with so many legitimate full-time tag teams working today.
The Archer of Infamy and Judgment Day could help one another out. On one hand it would be throwback. On the other hand, the collab could revitalize Priest’s sense of direction while beefing up Judgment Day with a big man who carries former world champ credentials.
Danhausen
Judgment Day could use a big body and a ring general. An integral part of the faction’s history also comes down to odd couples, though, and humor offsetting their more serious pursuits. Indeed, the Prison Dom gimmick both put Dominik Mysterio on the map as a heel and added layers to Judgment Day. From there, R-Truth’s wacky antics kept the group vital, then Carlito’s background role and feeling smitten with the women in the group all added tremendous entertainment value.
Despite a rocky introduction, Danhausen has beaten the odds in getting some traction with the WWE audience over the weeks to follow. One of the keys to such an off-kilter character maintaining his momentum will be having straight men to play off and ideally build ongoing stories with. The Very Nice, Very Evil Superstar already interacted with Judgment Day, cursing Mysterio en route to him dropping the Intercontinental Championship to Penta. Could there be more in store?
Maybe Mysterio could try to harness Danhausen’s powers to curse opponents. Maybe WWE could play up odd couple dynamics between the new star and the women of Judgment Day. Regardless, there’s a great deal of potential for something genuinely new for the group and something to give Danhausen direction in them striking up a partnership.
Rusev
Photo credit: WWE
Rusev is a talented big man, but his decisive loss to Oba Femi on Raw seems to confirm what many fans have suspected for months. WWE sees Rusev, at this stage of his career, less as a featured player in his own right than an imposing jobber to the stars.
Positioning The Bulgarian Brute as a heater for Judgment Day could serve multiple purposes. Like Damian Priest, he’d offer a big body with some credibility, plus he’s a good worker. The old Rusev Day gimmick demonstrated his ability to play into comedy as well. Meanwhile, for Rusev’s benefit, enrollment in the faction would give him a regular purpose on TV. The alliance would also open up tag team options with Dominik Mysterio or especially JD McDonough to both drive the big man’s character forward and offer an organic route for Judgment Day to collect more gold.
WrestleMania unequivocally marks the biggest event in wrestling each year and, as such, winning a world championship at the show is one of the greatest feats a pro wrestler can aspire to.
It\’s a strange thing to think about someone who is going to achieve that feat losing his last match before the big win, let alone losing that match at the very same WrestleMania. Believe it or not, that phenomenon has occurred five times.
Hulk Hogan
The first man to lose a match at a WrestleMania, then come back in the same event to win a world title was Hulk Hogan, in what was probably the worst received instance of this happening.
WrestleMania 9 saw The Hulkster work his first WWE match in a year teaming with Brutus Beefcake to challenge Money Inc. for the tag titles. The Mega Maniacs went down on a technicality, dropping the bout by disqualification.
The end of the night would live on in infamy as Hogan returned to the ring for an impromptu (and nonsensical) title shot against the newly crowned WWE Champion Yokozuna. Seconds later, Hogan would score the pin to launch arguably his least popular title reign ever.
Bret Hart
Photo: WWE
Fans wouldn\’t have to wait long to see someone lose a match then win a world title in their second outing at the same WrestleMania as it happened again the very next year. Bret Hart, whom many felt WWE had done dirty when he dropped the belt only for Hulk Hogan to pick it up and run in 1993, became just the second man to pull off this specific series of events in 1994.
In a shocker, The Hitman dropped a pin to his younger brother Owen in a sensational opening match at WrestleMania 10. A beaten down Hart would rally for his main event, Royal Rumble-earned title match with Yokozuna at the end of the night—a masterstroke of booking to elevate Owen to become a credible number one contender to Bret\’s new reign in short order.
Seth Rollins
Though it only took one year for the second man to lose one WrestleMania match only to win the world title in his second the same night, it would be over twenty years before it happened again.
WrestleMania 31 saw Seth Rollins put on a show-stealing performance in defeat against Randy Orton early in the event. Little did anyone guess that The Architect would come back to do something even more memorable at the end of the night, using his Money in the Bank briefcase to crash the main event and steal the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar and Roman Reigns, already deep into their title showdown.
Damian Priest
Image credit: WWE
Nine years later, Damian Priest walked into WrestleMania 40 as a tag team champion, but his reign wouldn\’t survive a six-team Ladder Match on WrestleMania Saturday.
It was a shocker when Señor Money in the Bank came back in the immediate aftermath of the WrestleMania Sunday opener to cash in on a compromised new World Heavyweight Champion, Drew McIntyre, to take the belt off him.
The most shocking factoid of all about Priest going from defeat to triumph at WrestleMania 40? He wasn\’t the only man to do so that year as another star traveled a deceptively similar road.
Cody Rhodes
Damian Priest lost in a high stakes tag team scenario on Night One of WrestleMania 40, only to win a world title the next evening.
So did Cody Rhodes.
WrestleMania 40 saw an unusual situation as Rhodes teamed with Seth Rollins to battle Roman Reigns and The Rock, with match stipulations for the next night\’s main event on the line. The Bloodline brethren prevailed Saturday, only for The American Nightmare to get the last laugh on Sunday.
The journey Rhodes underwent in 2024 had lots of parallels to Priest\’s, but, all considered, it is perhaps even more similar to that of Bret Hart 30 years earlier. Both told the tale of the most popular wrestler in the company enduring real hardship only to come back for perhaps the greatest victory of his career at the end of the night, pinning an Anoa\’i family heel world champion, and parading around the ring on the shoulders of fellow babyfaces to close out the night.
WWE Elimination Chamber centered on setting the stage for WrestleMania 42 with two Chamber matches to determine world title challengers and two title fights that will presumably set the stage for the \’Mania card. A subplot to all this was a mysterious crate, passed back and forth between Raw General Manager Adam Pearce and SmackDown GM Nick Aldis.
Some fans anticipated a huge disruption stemming from the crate, up to and including speculation Chris Jericho might return and even find a way into the men\’s Elimination Chamber at the last minute. Others had much more modest expectations along the lines of a WWE 2K26 or merchandise announcement.
For better or worse, WWE did truly surprise fans with something very different, very nice, and very evil. While low-key rumors that Danhausen was headed to WWE had circulated, the story didn\’t have a ton of momentum or buzz, making the AEW alum\’s debut genuinely catch most onlookers off guard. A question remains, though: what a WWE run will look like for this unconventional talent.
Danhausen\’s Winding Road To WWE
Danhausen looks like anything but a prototypical WWE Superstar, with not only his horror-themed aesthetic presentation, but his unimposing stature (by pro wrestling standards) at under six feet tall, less than two hundred pounds, and not exactly a superhuman physique.
Danhausen\’s a veteran, though, first working the indies in 2013 en route to his breakout run with ROH where his oddball promos, propensity for casting curses, and social media game got him a lot of attention.
It appeared Danhausen had peaked when he signed with AEW, where an audience tapped into the indies and more willing to think outside the box than the stereotypical WWE enthusiast embraced him. The character had his moments, highlighted by a run partnering with Hook, but never seemed to quite find his place. It seemed like AEW missed out in leaving him off TV while he was injured, given the character\’s appeal was always based less on what he did in the ring than his character work.
Indeed, Danhausen\’s limited success in AEW seemed to signal that whatever combination of the gimmick and the worker had an indie ceiling and just couldn\’t slot into a more mainstream product.
Danhausen\’s WWE Debut
Despite rumors that Danhausen might be WWE bound, few expected it, much less predicted it for Elimination Chamber. Indeed, if he were to surface on the WWE landscape, it seemed more likely he\’d show up in NXT, perhaps getting something like the Joe Hendry treatment that could lean into his cult following, gradually familiarize WWE fans with the persona, and see if he might ultimately slot into a main roster brand.
Danhausen exploded onto the scene, though, complete with backup dancers. WWE did set him up for success in some ways, with the mystery box gimmick, not to mention the reveal happening in Chicago, about as sure a market as the company has to find hardcore fans who\’d be most likely to recognize him.
Unfortunately, Danhausen\’s reception was, at best, lukewarm, as fans seemed unsure of what to do with him. It\’s always difficult to know what fans in an arena are thinking, but those who\’ve since suggested they didn\’t know who the AEW and ROH alum was were probably at least partially right. This wasn\’t a returning face to WWE, someone from a famous wrestling family, or a guy who had main evented in enough other venues that casual fans would likely be quite familiar with him.
On top of that, there was a randomness to Danhausen working the ramp and the fanfare of the backup dancers. He didn\’t draw a huge pop. Worse, some fans have claimed that he was actively booed once the music stopped.
Danhausen Might Fill A Specific Niche Role
The failings of Danhausen\’s debut can be attributed to not enough fan familiarity, which WWE can quickly correct course on. They can also be associated with the randomness of the moment, as the crate gimmick itself hearkened back to the Gobbledy Gooker\’s egg, and it\’s not as though he emerged to confront another performer or get involved in a match, but rather just walk to the ring in theatrical fashion.
What\’s next for Danhausen? The performer\’s activities on X may tell part of the tale, as the day after his debut, his first posts were \”When does Danhausen get his all access pass to rock \’the Dwayne\’ Johnson\’s gym?\” and \”Is Cold Steve Austin still the Monday Night Raw general manager?\”
Indeed, Danhausen has maintained the voice longer-term fans associate with him, with an extra touch of confused humor that feels an awful lot like a nod to R-Truth. While some confusion still lingers about the nature of Truth\’s contract situation from 2025, he\’s nonetheless in his mid-fifties and all indicators are he doesn\’t have much time left with the company. Few, if any performers have compared with his comedic upside in recent years. Carlito probably came closest, but WWE let him go last year for an inflated contract relative to his supporting and comedic role.
An old bit of wrestling wisdom is that talents who can get over, even on small stages, have the capacity to thrive on much bigger ones because it\’s the sheer process of connecting with fans and developing a groundswell of organic support that\’s hardest to teach or contrive. Bryan Danielson spoke of this dynamic regarding his own unexpectedly explosive success in WWE. While no one should hold their breath on Danhausen main eventing WrestleMania, there may well be a spot for him to thrive as an offbeat comedic character at wrestling\’s highest levels.
Can Danhausen ultimately succeed in WWE, which has a pretty poor record of late with supernatural characters (see the handling of The Wyatt Sicks), and a checkered past with comedy acts and indie-bred talents? Given a long leash and some faith from management, Danhausen may well surprise everyone, arriving as an attraction uniquely his own and perhaps one of the business\’s comedic greats.
Winning an Elimination Chamber match is often seen as a guaranteed path to WrestleMania success. However, history shows that for some WWE Superstars, winning the Chamber only led to heartbreak on the grandest stage of them all.
In reality, all it does it guarantee an opportunity.
WrestleMania Losses After Elimination Chamber Wins
In recent years, the stipulation has been that the winner of Elimination Chamber goes on to challenge the World champion who was not selected by that year\’s Royal Rumble winner. However, past Chamber matches have been for the championship itself.
Here are eight Superstars who won an Elimination Chamber match but ultimately failed to leave WrestleMania with the gold.
In 2008, Edge won the World Heavyweight Championship at No Way Out (also known as Elimination Chamber 2008) but lost it at WrestleMania 24 to The Undertaker.
Randy Orton retained the WWE World Heavyweight Championship in the 2014 Elimination Chamber but lost it at WrestleMania 30 to Daniel Bryan in a Triple Threat match.
Bray Wyatt won the WWE Championship in the 2017 Elimination Chamber but lost it at WrestleMania 33 to Randy Orton.
Alexa Bliss retained the Raw Women’s Championship in the 2018 Elimination Chamber but lost it at WrestleMania 34 to Nia Jax.
Daniel Bryan retained the WWE Championship in the 2019 Elimination Chamber but lost it at WrestleMania 35 to Kofi Kingston.
Shayna Baszler won the 2020 women’s Elimination Chamber match by eliminating all opponents but lost to Becky Lynch at WrestleMania 36.
Asuka won the 2023 women’s Elimination Chamber but lost to Bianca Belair at WrestleMania 39.
Roman Reigns won the 2018 Elimination Chamber (First Blood Match) but lost to Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 34.
Join us here this weekend at SEScoops for our coverage of WWE Elimination Chamber 2026.
This month one thing that I never thought would happen happened. I got to actually go to WWE Headquarters and get more of a look at how the machine runs. As someone who has been a fan and covered pro wrestling for so long, it was hard not to take in such a surreal experience pulling up to the building with the big WWE logo.
Now, this wasn\’t the original Titan Towers that the company housed much of its operations for the longest time up until 2023. However, it didn\’t make things less impressive.
No, I wasn\’t there for a job interview (although I\’d love for WWE to bring back its WWE Magazine; call me). It was to participate in the WWE 2K26 \”Creator Fest\” where I joined close to 200 members of the media, influencers, and content creators.
Over the years, 2K and WWE pull out all the stops to make the biggest splash for video game releases. Most of the time these gatherings happen tied to a Royal Rumble weekend for example. However, with the big event taking place in Saudi Arabia this year, organizers got the green light to host the festivities at the mother ship.
Now I\’ve had the opportunity to be backstage for a Raw and numerous times at the WWE Performance Center including when the state-of-the-art facility opened in 2013.
This was a different experience all its own. Most of the game playing and red carpet was hosted in the unique lobby of the facility. Right when you walk through the doors, you\’re immersed with all things WWE.
I\’m talking entrance music, screens and a massive Andre the Giant tribute mural that is truly awe-inspiring within the 13-story facility. One fully transformed from its roots as UBS trading floor and headquarters.
Amid all the activity, WWE opened its doors like perhaps never before by offering tours of the facility. Members of the team took guests around the hallways that consisted of WWE art, themed decor, repurposed pay-per-view pieces, bronze WWE legendary statues, and even SnackDown food spaces.
We were given an idea of how production was run with its show must-go-on mentality. It\’s hard not to walk away with newfound appreciation for how these hard-working and often unsung heroes get shows to screens each week.
I also walked away with some great interviews that were starting to get rolled out. My recent overall event coverage featuring comments from Tiffany Stratton, Chelsea Green, Trish Stratus, Blake Monroe, Joe Hendry, Tyler Breeze, and Ethan Page.
It was cool to see a cross-generational team-up when Trish and Blake posed for photos. Many who attended took the opportunity to take in WWE Headquarters themselves. \”All Ego\” even gathered some content.
Getting to interview Iyo Sky for the first time was a thrill. The way she exudes pure joy is infectious.
Paul Heyman was the perfect hype man as he started the proceedings, not missing a beat even after his mic had stopped working.
As CM Punk posed in front of the backdrop of his WWE 2K26 cover, you could see the moment was not lost on him. Even after all he has accomplished in his storied career, Punk remains humble and grateful for these opportunities.
Maybe even ones the \”Best in the World\” maybe didn\’t know would happen. As they say, never say never.
Elimination Chamber takes center stage this coming weekend as the last PLE stop on the Road to WrestleMania is guaranteed to have a big impact on The Showcase of the Immortals. It\’s a fitting time to look back on the history of what has become a near-quarter-century institution on the WWE landscape.
Thirty-six Chamber matches have occurred to date with two more set to join that catalog. For all the passage of time and different faces who\’ve made their way through this particular WWE battlefield, a surprising truth emerges. The original Elimination Chamber match is still the best of all time.
The Roster For The First Elimination Chamber Match Was Perfect
The Elimination Chamber has more often than not either seen a world champion put his or her title on the line or had WrestleMania implications with the winner getting a world title shot at the biggest show of the year. As such, the bout tends to be filled with big names.
It\’s debatable whether the first Elimination Chamber had the most star-studded field of competitors of all time. It\’s undeniable, however, that the match represented a combination of big stars, well-respected talents, and performers who played very different yet complementary roles.
Triple H and Shawn Michaels were the surest main eventers, not to mention that they had a world-class rivalry with one another underway. Add into the mix Kane as a big man base, crucial to a lot of the spots of a multi-man match like this. Then there was RVD, still an ahead-of-his-time athletic spectacle, in the hunt for his first world title. WWE was still putting the pieces together on Booker T, but two and a half years into his run with the company, he had become one of the top athletes on the roster. Rounding out the field? None other than Chris Jericho, quite arguably in his prime and on a short list of the best all-around wrestlers of the day.
These talents were well-suited to establish a new gimmick match and, indeed, delivered at the highest level when they came together at Survivor Series 2002.
The First Elimination Chamber Arrived At A Perfect Ending
There are those moments in wrestling history that went on to shape an era, like Shawn Michaels winning his first world championship at WrestleMania 12 in a victory that cemented his place as a defining main eventer for WWE for two years to follow, not to mention his \”second act\” after four years away from the ring.
By contrast, Michaels\’s fourth and final world title victory resulted in a reign that lasted less than a month. HBK would remain a top-level act for much of the following seven years, but this title win itself was less a watershed moment than a quintessential feel-good triumph for fans to relish for the victory itself.
The first Elimination Chamber delivered that moment of satisfaction and vindication as top heel Triple H dropped the title to a beloved legend who was still fresh off returning to the ring just three months earlier.
The moment\’s all the more remarkable in consideration that it came just shy of the forty-minute mark and with a pin on The Game, who\’d been badly hurt earlier in the match off an RVD frog splash gone wrong from the top of a Chamber entry pod. This element of unplanned near-catastrophe only adds to the story of a unique moment in wrestling when veteran hands worked together to preserve the magic moment planned despite nearly insurmountable obstacles.
The Elimination Chamber Is A Tricky Match To Diversify And Improve Upon
The original Elimination Chamber match was excellent. One reason why it remains the best version of this gimmick match, though, also relates to the match format itself.
While bouts like the Royal Rumble have enough different variations on entries, stories to tell, and high spots possible to remain thoroughly entertaining spectacles time and again, the Chamber is simply more limited. The structure can\’t quite compare to Hell in a Cell or War Games. The six-man format struggles to keep up with the Rumble, War Games, or even traditional Survivor Series elimination tag matches. For whatever combination of reasons, Elimination Chambers rarely compete with multi-person Ladder Matches like Money in the Bank.
Yes, there have been other good and arguably even great Elimination Chambers. Ultimately, though, it\’s one of WWE\’s less inspired annual spectacles. Most years, the match tends to be more engaging for its WrestleMania implications than the action inside the specialty cage itself.
Will WWE ever pull off an Elimination Chamber match that tops the original outing? Only time will tell. For now, though, a combination of the right talents, the right storytelling, and precisely the right booking for the debut bout seem to have realized the gimmick\’s fullest potential.
It can be fun to see WWE really get behind a rising talent, and there\’s been a lot of that going around of late on the main roster. Indeed, recent months have seen Lash Legend emerge as a new titan on the women\’s side of things, while Trick Williams has gotten the star treatment on SmackDown, and Je\’Von Evans has emerged as a human highlight reel on Raw.
Something different is happening for Oba Femi.
While other recent call-ups have arrived to some fanfare and early successes, the man who vacated the NXT Championship to move up to the big show has garnered borderline main event treatment right out of the gate, starting with a short, but arguably star-making performance in which he got the better of Cody Rhodes on Saturday Night\’s Main Event, despite the match officially ending in a draw.
Indeed, Femi\’s push since then has harkened back to memories of how WWE fans got introduced to Brock Lesnar when he was The Next Big Thing in 2002. The pushes aren\’t exactly the same, though.
Oba Femi Is Getting A Push That Feels Influenced By What Worked For Brock Lesnar
In 2026, Brock Lesnar is a WWE institution. He carries with him some real-life baggage connected to Vince McMahon\’s scandals, some fan fatigue from fourteen years of wrestling as a part-time attraction. He\’s a ten-time world champion under the WWE banner who has main evented five WrestleManias across a twenty-year span and as such, it\’s easy for fans to take him for granted nowadays.
When Lesnar first hit the main roster, though, he arrived with the perfect push and perfect skill set to come across as a monster. Early appearances saw him arrive unannounced and positively decimate mid-carders with a combination of strength and speed rarely seen.
Lesnar handily beat each of the Hardy Boyz individually, before besting the legendary tag team with no more impressive tag partner than Paul Heyman. All that\’s before winning King of the Ring and, a mere five months after first appearing on main roster television, beating The Rock clean for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam.
It\’s too soon to say how closely Oba Femi\’s rookie year trajectory will resemble Lesnar\’s. Nonetheless, seeing him singlehandedly dispatch the Viking Raiders, not so dissimilar from what The Beast did to the Hardys, and seeing Femi casually decimate Kit Wilson the way Lesnar dispatched guys like Spike Dudley certainly does feel reminiscent of The Next Big Thing\’s monster push.
Pushes That Come Before And After WrestleMania Come Across Differently
A key difference between Brock Lesnar and Oba Femi\’s initial main roster pushes comes down to timing. When Lesnar made his debut, it came on March 18, 2002, on the Raw after WrestleMania 18. This is a traditional spot for WWE to launch new talents and angles. \’Mania unofficially marks a sort of season finale in WWE programming, with WWE taking advantage of a rabid live audience hanging around town after the biggest show of the year and more fans watching from home than usual.
Lesnar starting his main roster run right after WrestleMania marked the start of a remarkable year that he capped with his own first \’Mania main event. Femi, on the other hand, has debuted months ahead of The Showcase of the Immortals.
Some of the shift in timing may be reflective of the changing times. After all, Trick Williams and Je\’Von Evans have also debuted well ahead of WrestleMania, and that\’s not altogether unlike how Tiffany Stratton debuted to much fanfare months ahead of WrestleMania 40, only to fully come into focus as a top star in her division over the year to follow.
The timing of Femi\’s emergence as a main roster force opens up different possibilities. Some have speculated he might get a real rocket strapped to him—inserted in the WWE Championship picture for WrestleMania, and even leaving the show with the title. Otherwise, it stands to reason he will have a featured role when WWE returns to Allegiant Stadium in April.
Is Oba Femi Vs. Brock Lesnar On Its Way?
If Oba Femi doesn\’t go straight to the world title picture for WrestleMania, it doesn\’t mean he won\’t find himself in that kind of role in time for SummerSlam or Survivor Series. If WWE does hold back that little bit, it stands to reason The Ruler will nonetheless work a high-profile spot at \’Mania.
Oba Femi vs. Brock Lesnar has a nice ring to it, as fans enjoy a clash of the titans, not to mention that the talents involved stand to deliver a solid match, especially if The Beast feels motivated to do business. WWE previewed this low-key dream match at the Royal Rumble, where Femi\’s dominant run to start the match resembled Lesnar\’s 2020 performance, only for Lesnar himself to eliminate the young upstart. WWE can use that foundation to build a proper \’Mania program; one which Femi would all but have to win.
Indeed, the most compelling reason not to run Femi vs. Lesnar may well be that Gunther vs. Lesnar is the longer speculated, arguably even more attractive match to build. That comes with the complicating factors that Gunther\’s recent booking and Lesnar\’s position in the twilight of his career would invite The Beast\’s retirement angle, meaning WWE wouldn\’t be able to come back to Femi vs. Lesnar. On the flip side, if Femi were to beat Lesnar at WrestleMania, that might take some of the luster off a prospective Gunther-Lesnar showdown for later in the year.
The bottom line surrounding Oba Femi is that he is a true blue-chip prospect for WWE—a guy whose look, athletic ability, power, and demonstrated ability to deliver in the ring all spell main event. Combine that with him being twenty-seven in a main event picture crowded with guys in their forties. Femi has every chance to represent the future of the company or, in Brock Lesnar parlance, The Next Big Thing.
The sixtieth edition of the Super Bowl is now in the books and, as is often the case, the game\’s halftime show has similar buzz to the game itself. While Bad Bunny\’s performance was received differently by different viewers, there\’s little question it was a newsworthy spectacle and the conversation was compounded by a prominent rival halftime broadcast.
Wrestling fans have long perceived WrestleMania as WWE\’s closest equivalent to the Super Bowl and that leads to the question of whether WWE ought to consider its own halftime show as part of the annual extravaganza. If so, what might such a show look like?
A Halftime Show Could Offer Organic Celebrity Involvement
WWE has a long history of courting celebrity involvement, and that\’s especially so throughout WrestleMania history where big names like Mr. T, Cyndi Lauper, Mike Tyson, Floyd Mayweather, Maria Menounos, Bad Bunny, and Donald Trump have played prominent roles, up to and including getting into the squared circle for matches.
Celebrities like Aretha Franklin, John Legend, and Joan Jett have appeared to sing \”America the Beautiful\” or play a WWE star down to the ring. A halftime show would offer an even more natural way for a major musical act to perform a full set in front of the stadium crowd.
Moreover, this kind of halftime exhibition need not be limited to musical acts alone but might, for example, integrate a promo segment akin to the Piper\’s Pits that occurred at WrestleMania 5 and 21, or perhaps a guest appearance by a standup comedian.
Halftime Could Break Up Long Shows
A signature element of WWE\’s presentation under Triple H has been scaling back the length of major shows which were growing unwieldy in the latter days of Vince McMahon\’s leadership, with WrestleMania 35 as a classic example of a show that got away from the company, stretching past midnight into the next day.
Even with greater restraint—often limiting PLEs to four or five matches—WrestleMania has tended to be the exception, with main card run times that still consistently clear three hours and that\’s not counting pre-show broadcasts.
Halftime offers a chance for fans to catch their breath and rally, visit concession stands and use the restroom. All in all, it\’s a chance for the audience to regroup, overcome wrestling fatigue that might otherwise set in, and ensure those live in the stadium and watching from home alike can bring the energy to the back half of the event.
Halftime Performances Might Attract Different Viewers
Not everyone is a football fan, but part of the tradition of Super Bowl halftime shows is their ability to hook casual or non-fans with a totally different form of entertainment.
WrestleMania has crossed a threshold such that there are casual fans who don\’t watch Raw week in and week out who will nonetheless seek out the biggest show of the year. A halftime show can offer them something else to consume besides providing WWE with opportunities for a totally different kind of social media engagement.
What Would Be The Right Halftime Attractions For WWE WrestleMania?
If one were to accept the premise of a WWE WrestleMania halftime show, the question quickly becomes which acts would fit this opportunity. Bad Bunny is a natural choice given his unique pairing of Super Bowl halftime credentials and having actually wrestled more than once for WWE and taken it quite seriously, giving performances that were well-received by the fans. Things get a little murkier after that.
While Bad Bunny himself drew polarized responses, particularly from an audience skewing toward the politically conservative who were unenthused about what he brought to the table, there are far more controversial choices out there. Despite lasting ties to WWE, acts like Kid Rock and Limp Bizkit have only aged well to a segment of the audience and bring their own baggage.
Other WWE loyalists like Snoop Dogg or Jelly Roll might strike a better balance. There\’s also the matter of drawing in major acts without meaningful ties to wrestling. While it may not be realistic at this point, if WWE could, for example, secure an act the caliber of Sabrina Carpenter or The Weeknd, they really might break down some walls in drawing an audience that wouldn\’t traditionally tune in for wrestling. (All that\’s not to mention that a celebrity with a real love for wrestling as a fan could make such an arrangement more attainable.)
For now, the idea of WrestleMania halftime shows is probably just a pipe dream. Nonetheless, when one considers how big this event has grown, pro wrestling\’s love of bringing in celebrities, and the potential to attract untapped viewer demographics there\’s a lot working in favor of the idea.
When I hear the term grifting, I think of the Chicago Cubs.
In 1983, Wrigley Field had no lights and all baseball games were played in the daytime. To this day, many Cubs fans believe this is how God intended baseball to be played. Former Cubs manager Lee Elia couldn\’t have disagreed with the fans, or God, more.
Weekday Cubs fans were vocal, and after a couple of innings very drunk and very vocal. After hearing thousands of fans trash his players for nine innings on a July afternoon, Elia\’s post-game press conference consisted of flames firing into the skies above the Friendly Confines. Some of the smoke trails are still floating over Lake Michigan.
\”Eighty-five percent of the world is f***ing working, the other 15 come out here,\” Elia foamed in a rant that included at least three F-bombs and variations of the term, \”Get a job.\”
A similar version of Elia\’s comments enters my brain repeatedly when I read social media. Maybe it\’s reels pounded into my eyes by Facebook and YouTube, maybe it\’s Twitter\’s distasteful \”For You\” tab, designed to hammer the web\’s foremost stupidity into your frontal lobe.
Sure, there\’s plenty of amateur hot-takers posting away inanity, but the real idiots are the hustlers, trolls and grifters. And pro wrestling is loaded with them.
I started to write this column several times over the last year, but in one of the few instances of this ever happening to me, I wasn\’t sure I could apply the proper amount of vehemence and volatility required. Grifting and hustling have existed as long as humans have, but this is how politicians and top corporate people now operate, let alone pro wrestling drones.
The grifters and hustlers are the worst of us. It doesn\’t matter what the subject is, our new 10-second attention spans and the lack of economically viable journalism has them delivering sound bites like some magician pulling the world\’s ugliest rabbit out of a hat repeatedly until the next ad times out or the next commercial break.
I could go into details and talk about snake-oil salesmen, hucksters, corner crooks, tabloids, the rabble rousers and other losers. They dress it up in other terms, like \”Skip Bayless\” and \”influencers,\” but it\’s the same thing – people starved for attention who need a real job.
In pro wrestling it\’s usually idiotic commentary or some version of \”content creation,\” whether it\’s taking valuable time at a press conference to ask a wrestler their favorite Waffle House meal, or going apoplectic over the wording of a Tweet. The most destructive are the former pros and their abundance of podcasts.
Pro wrestling grifters come in many forms – there\’s the former ECW guys complaining about the lack of storytelling and psychology or the former booker and company heads who ran companies into the ground and pontificate on how everything that followed them is worse. Most admit to not even watching the modern product, but who needs to actually see something to form an opinion?
Pro wrestling is rife with grifting because it comes naturally with the sport. Pro wrestling is based on a con and was a quasi-legal enterprise for a century. Many of the grifters preferred it that way. Guaranteed contracts and health care are great, but it was better when sex with the underage was just frowned upon and considered a perk in the 80s. Not to mention good times like having six hours to get to the next town and only gasoline and blow to get you there.
Audiences were cheated out of real fights for fixed ones, thus started the con. The biggest con of all was on the workers. Ask the wrestlers who died early for the so-called \’easy money.\’ Or had to survive Verne Gagne\’s grueling camps.
Maybe it annoys me because I know people who are trying to find work, dying to find it, and when they do, regularly do it for 60 to 80 hours a week. Then we have this new class of lowlife who gets off on not doing anything, and if they make a few pennies they see everyone else as suckers.
Social media has made \”hustle\” some kind of word to be proud of when it\’s nothing of the sort. There\’s a duality to the word people don\’t understand, it was that way with Charlie Hustle himself, Pete Rose, who annoyed veteran baseball players as an over-hustling fraud. It fits well with his post-baseball life of a lifetime suspension due to gambling, and his fortuitous timing of books and media appearances that made him short-term cash and killed his credibility.
You can go on Reddit, Twitter or TikTok and find them all over. Bruce Prichard created this new species of wrestling grifter when he lied so mendaciously and ridiculously on his podcast, leaving no trace of self-respect behind, enough to regain favor with Vince McMahon and get his old job back. Since then, retired wrestlers and bookers stomp over each other to throw away what little credibility they have for engagement or one last check.
The targets are frequent and simple, since this entire approach is mirrored off right-wing media, particularly Rush Limbaugh. Limbaugh pioneered much of this with his daily three-hour whine session about the press. I listened to Limbaugh back then as a dumb kid, and decided I was going to do something about it – I became a reporter. It didn\’t take long working at a paper to realize Limbaugh was drastically full of it, and he couldn\’t survive an eight-hour day as a journalist, even if it were typing in sports scores.
Translate that to wrestling, who is it the grifters aim at most? Dave Meltzer. Even if another reporter is targeted, it always comes back to Dave because he brings engagement. There\’s even a formula to it.
Reporter spends hours, days, weeks, months on a story.
Grifter reads the story and decides how it can attack it in bad faith in hopes of some sort of engagement
Grifter works in angry keywords like \”flippy\” as much as possible.
Grifter logs out, checks Cameo account hoping there\’s $10 for a sandwich.
Grifters can\’t do what Meltzer does or what an average reporter does. It\’s too hard. Eighty hours a week, every week for years on end? Forget it.
AEW is a frequent target as well. This shows how dirty the hustle is, considering what a second major company has done for wrestlers and salaries, but the hustlers don\’t care. Tony Khan confuses them. He\’s a billionaire, his dad owns teams in the world\’s two biggest sports leagues, why is he into pro wrestling?
In the past, anyone starting a company would go to some former booker wiseman to get them off the ground, and then find themselves out of business a couple years later. Khan has a passion for wrestling in and of itself, and that\’s what divides contemporary wrestlers and wrestling companies from past ones. It\’s still not what drives them to bash AEW and New Japan constantly – that\’s because courting favor with WWE is Job No. 1 if you have no job – but it\’s still part of the grifter mindset.
Look at the number of these people who ran TNA. The miracle of TNA isn\’t it lasting 20 years, it\’s that it survived the idiots who ran it. With the exception of the Jarretts and Jim Cornette, not one cared that the company genuinely succeeded.
The rules of diminishing returns apply to grifting. Prichard got his job back. At the same time, his rant against producers of Netflix\’s Mr. McMahon documentary was turned into a cultural \”SpongeBob moment\” that will last forever. And there\’s only so much groveling and self-flagellation one can do at the altar of WWE before even they get sick of it.
Bischoff did get a turn back with WWE in the late 2010s, but that lasted a couple months. He had some guest shots on AEW, then quickly burned those bridges when he went full Prichard and started spouting off at Meltzer and Tony Khan on a daily basis.
All of this gets to the real question – why won\’t any of these people get a job? I\’m not sure. NFL players, into the 1970s, often had full-time jobs in the offseason. This trend continued for referees until the last several years. Much of the talent from Crockett found success in real estate or their own businesses, killing the trope that all retired wrestlers end up on the indies forever.
It doesn\’t make money, it does kill credibility. But some people are lazy, some people don\’t want to work or they weren\’t good at this stuff to begin with. Eighty-five percent of us are working. The other 15 percent? Find them on the Conrad Thompson network.
Back in 2022, Liv Morgan transitioned from her perennial role as a face in the crowd for the WWE women\’s division to one of its stars. She won Money in the Bank and, in the same night, converted the briefcase into her first world championship. The reign itself was lukewarm but signaled that WWE saw something in her, and she wouldn\’t be on the chopping block when a wave of releases came.
Fast forward to 2024 and Morgan finishing first runner-up in the Royal Rumble for the second year in a row, then the first runner-up at Elimination Chamber too. The writing was on the wall that, in a new heel persona, she was moving up in the world. Her feud with Rhea Ripley was a huge success in generating heat and cementing Morgan\’s place as a top player.
After missing a substantial part of 2025 due to injury, Morgan is back and just won the Royal Rumble. With preceding Internet buzz that she was due for a big push, the question becomes: might WWE go from treating Morgan as a major star to the new face of the company?
Liv Morgan May Be Getting Her Biggest Push Yet
Liv Morgan has been a world champion, a Crown Jewel Champion, and Ms. Money in the Bank. Winning the Royal Rumble quite arguably elevates her to a new echelon of stardom, though. Indeed, while Morgan has existed in the upper card ecosystem for much of the last three and a half years, there\’s a reasonably well-defined list of women who\’ve remained a half-step ahead of her, with names like Asuka, Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Ronda Rousey, Rhea Ripley, and Bayley. In other words: the women who\’ve won Royal Rumbles.
So it is that Morgan has added a career milestone and punched her ticket for a featured title match at WrestleMania. Morgan has hitherto spent her WrestleMania career locked in battle royal and tag match scenarios—her biggest moment to shine a straightforward two-on-two bout last year. That all changes this year as Morgan may challenge Stephanie Vaquer or Jade Cargill in first-time lowkey dream matches, or else face off with someone else who captures the title in the interim. (A Triple Threat scenario with Raquel Rodriguez also looms as a possibility given recent tensions.) Regardless, between her credentials and the Rumble victory, there\’s reason to call Morgan the favorite to emerge from the biggest show of the year as world champion.
Liv Morgan Is A Young Veteran
When one thinks about the face of WWE in the last two decades, the conversation has turned to Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, and John Cena. While Reigns took up the mantle as a reasonably young man, there\’s no hiding that all of these men are north of 40 now. With Cena retired and Reigns working a selective schedule, not to mention other tip-top stars like CM Punk also finding themselves in the twilight of their careers, WWE has to be looking to the future.
At 31 years of age, Liv Morgan lands in a sweet spot. She\’s experienced enough that WWE knows what it has in her and she has buy-in from the fans. On the flip side, if she stays healthy and chooses to stay in the business, there\’s every reason to think she could have another decade at or around the top of her game. That\’s a solid space to build from in centering the company on what she brings to the table.
Liv Morgan Can Appeal To Fans On Multiple Levels
Liv Morgan is solid in the ring and solid on the mic. While it may not be the most politically correct consideration, she also has sex appeal that she\’s willing to lean into, recapturing some of the spirit of what made women like Sunny or Sable so over with wrestling fans back in the 1990s.
All these factors make Morgan a draw and an entertainer. WWE has also positioned her to have a wealth of creative possibilities around her. Her history of feuding with Rhea Ripley will always be there to return to. She also has fresh or at least under-exposed feuds awaiting her with the likes of established stars like Bianca Belair, Tiffany Stratton, or Charlotte Flair, besides helping elevate up-and-comers like Lyra Valkyria or Sol Ruca.
In addition to the possibilities outlined, there\’s the matter of The Judgment Day faction. One of the greatest successes of this group is the degree to which it has organically spun out in new creative directions across years and different membership rosters. Whoever may turn heel or babyface, leave the group or stay, there\’s reason to envision Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez as eventual rivals who\’d not only pose interesting in-ring rivals to Morgan but have rich stories to tell for the faction\’s history.
Might Liv Morgan Main Event WrestleMania?
One way of evaluating just how seriously WWE is taking Liv Morgan is whether she main events WrestleMania. It\’s a leap to imagine her closing out Sunday which, for better or worse, WWE has held out on making the truest, biggest main event since the show transitioned to its two-night format. But can she close out night one?
There is precedent, with Becky Lynch vs. Charlotte Flair vs. Ronda Rousey main eventing WrestleMania 35 and Sasha Banks vs. Bianca Belair closing Night One of WrestleMania 37. It\’s an uphill battle for women to secure such a spot, though, as CM Punk vs. Roman Reigns will presumably main event Sunday, and Morgan\’s title match would then have to beat out the other men\’s world title bout and other special attractions among top stars like Brock Lesnar and Gunther that will always be a threat to main event.
Morgan main eventing would make a statement, nonetheless, that WWE does seek to reaffirm women\’s wrestling as a top draw and Morgan in particular as a company leader moving forward.
Liv Morgan may well still feel like a dark horse to stand atop WWE. There\’s a catch-22 at play that longtime fans remember her as a lower and mid-card performer so it\’s hard to envision her as the main eventer, while that story of rising through the ranks is also what has created so much fan investment in her. Time will tell. Morgan has a lot of the tools to graduate to a new echelon of stardom in 2026.
It’s the most magical time of the year for WWE 2K26 fans as announcements are pouring in heading into the official release in March. This year’s cover superstar of the standard edition is none other than the WWE World Heavyweight Champion himself CM Punk! The “Best in the World” graces the cover for the first time since WWE ‘13.
And that’s not all as the Chicago native headlines the WWE 2K26 2K Showcase. Gamers will be able to relive some of his proudest WWE moments. Not to mention some \’what if\’ challenges he may have faced had he had the opportunity. The journey will also have a personal touch as it will be narrated by the “Best in the World.”
This goes along with the “King of Kings” edition celebrating the more than 30-year career of WWE Hall of Famer and Chief Content Officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque. Players will be able to use Triple H \’98 and Stephanie McMahon \’00 and a “Triple H Signature Taunt Emote” to The Island.
Leaning more into the nostalgia and one of the most influential times in pro wrestling history is the \”Attitude Era” edition, which puts the spotlight on the hellraising icons “Stone Cold” Steve Austin “Rattlesnake”, The Rock ‘99, Chyna ‘97, Kane ‘98, and The Undertaker to name a few. The “Monday Night War” release is an all-new super premium edition featuring content tied to WWE talent and WCW’s biggest names of the era. Not to mention classic playable characters like Shawn Michaels DX, “Macho Man” Randy Savage ‘98, and “Rowdy” Roddy Piper ‘98, and more fun bonuses.
The 2K visual concepts team members Lynell Jinks, Alan Flores, Cornell Gunter, Derek Donahue, and Bryan Williams helped break down all the exciting announcements during a recent roundtable. One that was interrupted by Liv Morgan, who let her thoughts be known that the Judgment Day (mainly herself and Dirty Dom Mysterio) should have been on the cover. Maybe next year?
“It\’s hard for us to narrow down which ideas that we have that we will be like, okay, we will only do these 50 ideas instead of all the ideas on our plate,” Donahue said. “I don\’t think we will ever run out of things to do in this game. Wrestling is infinite, and there\’s… even taking the existing things we have, there\’s a million ways we want to improve it. So, it\’s just about how much we can do in a single year, and I think we\’ve got a lot done in this year.”
“I think that\’s the hardest part, especially when you\’re trying to…recreate someone\’s career, or, you know, I think…people will be like, oh, it\’s a no-brainer to add this specific match or stretch of someone\’s career, but, you know, that person might not be under a Legends deal in WWE, and so there\’s limiting factors into what we could actually try to recreate in our game, or even just try to add to our game,” Jinks said of staying true to the stories told in the game while sometimes taking artistic freedoms. “And so we try to come up with, you know, alternatives and fun, creative ways to still, you know, try to capture the best of someone\’s career, and also just, you know. do something new with it, right? And I think that you\’ll see that with this year\’s showcases, that we\’re trying something new, and I hope, you know, people like it.”
THE ROSTER
The game will feature more than 400 legends and current superstars. Among the exciting editions is the viral sensation Joe Hendry. Say his name, and he appears as the popular performer will be available as a pre-order bonus. Others to join the recent WWE acquisition either making a game debut or triumphant return. Among them are Rey Fenix, Rusev, Izzi Dame, Myles Borne, and more.
“We do our best always to be as current, with programming as possible, but obviously, you know, the things… you know, things in WWE move at a warp speed compared to our, somewhat relative normal speed as developers,” Williams said of their challenges working to stay as current as possible.
In an update, the Ringside Pass live service model will replace the previous DLC. Developers made the change to offer players additional value and incentive to play, earning across all game modes, excluding online lobbies. Features include 60 free tiers and 40 premium tiers to reward gameplay with unlockable superstars, cosmetic customizable items, VC, MY Faction and The Island Content. Reward players with all-new playable characters unable on the base game including some “unexpected names.” Six ringside pass sessions are planned to roll out through the year with first one available at launch.
NEW MATCH TYPES
Many who grew up watching in the 1990s will enjoy the new stipulations you’ll be able to use. We’re talking I Quit, Inferno, Three Stages of Hell and Dumpster. Intergender matches across core game modes. Interactive entrances with commentary added by Booker T and Wade Barrett. No word if we’ll hear Shucky Ducky Quack Quack…
ENHANCED GAMEPLAY
You ask and will receive. There will be stackable tables, a shopping cart (Got Milk?) you can use it against opponents in certain environments and an improved reverse system. There are improvements to reversals and stamina and new mechanics including shopping thumbtack weapons, surprise attacks and more improvements to crowd and barricade combat. Other aspects to look forward to are visual upgrades, interactive entrances and updated commentaries.
MORE IN MyGM
MyGM is expected to have more shows and superstars per match including new intergender 5-, 6-, and 8-person matches. Support more match types. More shows per season means new management challenges.
FRESH MyRISE
MyRISE comes with a fresh theme and a player defined My Superstars journey will offer great replay value thanks to two new division based storylines. Whether you choose villain or hero, decisions will make an impact. Players can now keep players after main stories with more unlockable content and achievements to her.
MyFACTION RETURNS
The collectible card-battle mode is back. This time with new intergender lineups and quick swamp matches. Players can collect new card designs and boost their performance with new Faction Chemistry and run-in support. Expect a regular release of new themed packs with ongoing goals and seasonal content throughout the year.
BACK TO THE ISLAND
The themed world builds on the final chapter of WWE 2K25 story with Roman Reigns. However, there is no longer a “Tribal Chief” in this island of relevancy. This leaves it open for a power struggle among three factions. Players will choose their group and battle for control. new scrapyard brawl, fresh towers, new shops, and branded gear. Expanded MySuperstar builder with face-photo importing, upgraded quests compete with cutscenes and dialogue screens enhance the immersive experience.
UNIVERSE MODE BRINGS IN THE DRAFT
The WWE Draft has arrived to WWE 2K’s sandbox style simulation mode that fans can take full control to book and manage. Also, there is the new Universe Creation Wizard, Watch Show mode, improved Money in the Bank cash-ins, and additional Promo types.
RELEASE DATES:
The Standard Edition will be released on March 13. You can get the “King of Kings,” “Attitude Era,” and “Monday Night Wars” editions on March 6.
Look for more WWE 2K26 updates in the weeks ahead.
It\’s hard to believe January is about to come to a close. I say that because given all the pro wrestling news the last few weeks, it feels like we\’ve already been through a year. All signs point to Will Hobbs to WWE, The Rascalz from TNA to AEW…and then Trey Miguel back to TNA, and a host of other jumps. And Chris Jericho to…depends on who you believe.
These are exciting times that bring us \”old school\” fans flashbacks to the days of WWE, WCW, and ECW. With TNA Thursday Night iMPACT arriving on AMC, that means we once again have three viable companies on major cable networks.
Whether you enjoy a respective product or not, if you\’re a fan you appreciate the fact there are options for men and women to work. Having those options also brings a level of competitiveness as well. Rising tides lift all ships.
R-Truth Joins WWE\’s \’Unreal\’
This has been a fun start to 2026 for me. I enjoyed my candid talk with R-Truth leading into the premiere of WWE Unreal Season 2 on Netflix. Even if he still has me blocked on X, for what reason I don\’t know. I do remember it was around the time I did Total Divas recaps and may have mentioned his apparent fear of spiders? I\’m not sure, but the veteran certainly has one of the more intriguing stories on the docuseries.
I think the show really shines when it focuses on the human interest stories behind the performers like Chelsea Green. Speaking of the inaugural WWE United States Women\’s Champion, I think she has all the tools to be a main event caliber member of the division. A multi-faceted talent who can do it all, even headline WrestleMania. Yes, I said what I said. Remember Green is the same person who has overcome releases and injuries to be an important fixture on the shows.
TNA Talent Making Waves
In January, I also had a chance to sit down with Mike Santana shortly before TNA\’s debut on AMC. His authenticity shines through as the now World Champion reflected on his journey including a battle with alcohol and substance abuse. Santana doesn\’t shy away from all he has been through, inspiring others. Sometimes we do get that feel-good moment, which these days are needed perhaps more than ever.
Keeping with the TNA media blitz, getting to speak with Jody Threat was also a lot of fun. This was shortly before it was announced she had re-signed with the company. I think the promotion has only scratched the surface of what she is capable of post Spitfire. She brings a fun energy and want to help others while achieving her own aspirations. There was a reason why Trish Stratus wanted to work out with her leading into her entry into the Royal Rumble.
Royal Rumble and MLW\’s Battle Riot
Speaking of the iconic event, that\’s also right around the corner. Although I don\’t feel the hype has really been there, but let\’s be honest, the match over the years really sells itself. I know people who don\’t watch WWE regularly, but will tune in to watch the over-the-top elimination battle royal.
Days before the big show MLW will present its own top show Battle Riot on January 29. I\’m looking forward to the company running Orlando again. Some of my favorite experiences at wrestling shows were put on by MLW. First, in the early days covering pro wrestling as a college student in South Florida when they\’d run the War Memorial Auditorium and then when Court Bauer relaunched MLW during those GILT Nightclub days.
Gearing up for the upcoming string of shows MLW is running, I chatted with Joe and Mark Coffey. The brothers are looking to make the most of their opportunity in the Battle Riot. Earlier this month SEScoops also dropped my interviews with legends Mistico and Blue Panther. The partnership between MLW and CMLL has proven fruitful with the big Lucha Apocalypto 2026 show on February 7 in Chicago already sold out.
Rhonda Shear\’s Legacy
Closing out the month, it was a fun trip down memory lane with Rhonda Shear. If you watched USA Network in the 1990s including WWE, you may remember the USA Up All Night host. She relaunched the brand through streaming with hopes of growing it further.
Thinking about all her interactions with WWE superstars like Shawn Michaels and even appearances including WrestleMania X, it wouldn\’t be out of the question if we ever saw a Hall of Fame induction in the celebrity wing. She teased that Nic Nemeth will be on an upcoming episode of the new iteration of Up All Night. Your turn Silk Stalkings.
Let me know what you think of this new monthly column: @SMFISHMAN on X or @SMFISHMAN1 on Facebook.
And so our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant arrives at its conclusion—the top 20. This elite tier is almost exclusively Royal Rumble winners, including the lowest ranked multi-time winner, the first second-generation winner, the top-ranked non-winner in history, all four back-to-back winners, and the only three-time winner ever. Full-on Rumble royalty, with the cream of the crop at the very end.
#20: Drew McIntyre and Nia Jax (Tie)
Drew McIntyre and Nia Jax is as oddball a pairing superficially as they are in terms of how they each racked up 176 points to tie for 20th place. For McIntyre, the story centers on his 2020 Royal Rumble showing. His first of six eliminations saw him Claymore Brock Lesnar right over the top rope. Lesnar was not only his usual monster self, but was reigning Universal Champion and had an especially dominant run of tallying 13 eliminations before McIntyre entered at 16. McIntyre would go on to win the whole Rumble to set him up to unseat Lesnar for the title at WrestleMania. In The Scottish Warrior\’s seven other Rumble appearances, he recorded just under two hours more ring time and twelve more eliminations.
For Nia Jax\’s part, she\’s the highest ranked woman to have never won a Royal Rumble. She was only the fourth woman to enter a men\’s Rumble and the only person to ever work both the men\’s and women\’s Rumbles in the same night. Despite only getting a little over an hour of cumulative ring time in seven Rumble appearances, the biggest story for The Annihilator comes down to eliminations as she\’s credited with 29 over her career—enough to best John Cena and place ninth overall across men and women for most eliminations ever (and second most overall among wrestlers to have never actually won the Rumble).
#19: Bianca Belair
Photo: WWE
Bianca Belair\’s run in the 2021 Royal Rumble is about as traditional as a WWE rags-to-riches story can get. Often overlooked and underutilized, The EST went from just another face in a field of 30 women to lasting 56 minutes to emerge victorious in the Rumble from the #3 entry spot, before converting this triumph into winning a WrestleMania main event and her first world championship.
That performance alone would elevate Belair to Rumble royalty. She has worked four other Rumbles to date too, though, to accumulate just shy of four hours of total ring time in the match, not to mention sixteen career eliminations. Belair has every chance of winning another Rumble at some point or another in her career, but even if she doesn\’t, her endurance and power make her a real threat to put in further marathon performances and keep adding to her elimination total for years to come.
#18: Bayley
Photo: WWE
While Bayley stans won\’t hesitate to point out the ways in which Bayley has been under-utilized despite being among the greatest performers in WWE history, her steady space as one of the top names in the women\’s division has allotted her six Royal Rumble appearances, and, most remarkably, she has averaged over 30 minutes per outing. That substantial ring time facilitated her racking up 18 career eliminations to date.
Of course, the biggest story for Bayley comes down to 2024 when she lasted 63 minutes from the #3 entry position to win it all, last eliminating Liv Morgan, who had entered at #30.
#17: Batista
Photo: WWE
The 9 years that passed between Batista\’s two Royal Rumble victories are a testament to just how big a star he was in the world of professional wrestling. It\’s also fun to look back at the two victories in consideration of how different they were. In 2005, The Animal was an up-and-comer. Though he was a Rumble favorite, he was also very unproven as a singles talent, let alone a main eventer or babyface. A muddled finish with fellow rising star John Cena may not have added much confidence, but to Batista\’s credit, he saw his story through with an epic babyface turn against Evolution and unseating Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania to become a viable main eventer for years to follow.
Batista comes out the lowest ranked multi-time Rumble winner on this countdown, but that\’s largely on account of efficiency—winning two Rumbles in only five tries, with under 78 minutes in the ring total. His 13 eliminations are noteworthy, but not all that remarkable in comparison to other individuals who won it all twice.
#16: Seth Rollins
Photo: WWE
Seth Rollins represents an interesting case in Royal Rumble history. 2019 saw him do a lot of traditional things—be a top-performing, lowkey underdog babyface with a groundswell of support, win the Rumble from an early entry position (10), and go on to beat a top heel for a world title at WrestleMania.
The odd part is that, while this journey was as classic as could be, it also came well after Rollins was an established star—indeed, four years after he\’d won his first world title at a WrestleMania. Just the same, that victory was the key element of The Visionary\’s seven Royal Rumble appearances to date, complete with nineteen eliminations and just a shave under three full hours of ring time.
#15: Rhea Ripley
Image: WWE
Rhea Ripley is, by the numbers, an incredibly complete Royal Rumble performer. Her four outings have yielded one victory, an average of over 34 minutes in the ring per Rumble, and an average of 5 eliminations per Rumble.
The biggest story for The Eradicator naturally comes down to 2023 when she not only won, but did so from the #1 entry spot, lasted over an hour, and registered seven eliminations. That\’s an objectively great showing that readily enters the conversation for best Rumble performances ever.
#14: Rey Mysterio
Image Copyright: WWE
When Rey Mysterio entered the 2014 Royal Rumble, a surprise #30, he got booed because fans wanted Daniel Bryan in the ring and, even among those fans who liked Mysterio, it was a letdown to see a veteran with no real chance of winning enter the fray.
Rewind eight years, and the story couldn\’t have been more different for the Luchador. That year saw Mysterio win the Royal Rumble from the #2 entry spot, going just about wire-to-wire with Triple H, and tallying 6 eliminations, including no lesser names than Helmsley and Randy Orton. The hour and two minute performance was a proving ground for Mysterio en route to winning his first world title at WrestleMania 22. By 2014, Mysterio\’s status as a main event guy was well established, but in 2006, this was the victory that elevated him from beloved underdog to top-tier star for WWE.
This history combines with Mysterio working a total of 13 Rumbles, accumulating over four hours in the ring, and 14 eliminations total.
#13: Charlotte Flair
In 2020, Charlotte Flair became half of not only the first father-daughter pair to have won a Royal Rumble, but the first nuclear family pair of any gender permutation to win Royal Rumbles (Mr. McMahon and Triple H as a father-in-law and son-in-law, or Anoa\’i cousins Yokozuna, The Rock, Roman Reigns, and Jey Uso are probably the next closest things to this milestone otherwise).
Even more impressively, The Queen became the first woman to ever win the Royal Rumble twice when she did it again in 2025. She has 143 minutes of ring time and 15 eliminations to her name as well in four Rumbles. All that spells a .500 record in winning Rumbles she enters, besides the noteworthy bit of trivia that in the years she didn\’t win she was either first or second runner-up.
#12: Roman Reigns
Roman Reigns. Photo: WWE.com
The story of Roman Reigns\’s Royal Rumble trajectory is pretty interesting. Though he has only won the Rumble once, he has been a major factor in all six appearances in the match, drawing enormous reactions—for better and for worse—from fans.
In The Big Dog\’s Royal Rumble debut, he registered a then-record 12 eliminations in just under 34 minutes and finished first runner-up. Reigns had the fans behind him with the excitement of an upstart having a huge performance, besides fans actively rooting against a win for a returning Batista. A lot changed in a year, as Reigns won the 2015 Rumble to nuclear heat in front of a hostile Philly crowd. The 2016 Rumble saw Reigns defend the WWE Championship in the match, to notably lukewarm reactions, as it was all too predictable Triple H was going to screw him in the late stages of the bout.
2017, 2018, and 2020 saw markedly similar stories play out around Reigns as he entered very late and looked as though he might steal the victory—finishing first runner-up each time—and giving Randy Orton, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Drew McIntyre, respectively, big boosts for overcoming him. As it stands, OTC is probably the biggest WWE star of the last 40 years not to have won two Royal Rumbles. A main eventer in peak physical condition, though, there\’s every chance he\’ll still pick up that second victory before he hangs up his boots.
#11: Hulk Hogan
Photo: WWE
From a modern day perspective, fans take it for granted the Royal Rumble is one of the biggest matches of the year and that to win it is an honor quite arguably on par with winning a world championship. That wasn\’t always the case, though. The first two televised Rumbles were more novelty matches in which Jim Duggan and Big John Studd, respectively, winning was less a signal they were getting main event pushes than an affirmation of them as popular babyfaces whom fans would be happy to see win at the end of a fun battle royal variant.
Hulk Hogan played an enormous role in legitimizing the Royal Rumble. He won the match in 1990 as the reigning WWE Champion and again in 1991 as a springboard to challenging Sgt. Slaughter for the title at WrestleMania 7 (though there was no title shot officially on the line in that, the last Rumble with zero title implications). In so doing, Hogan contributed to this piece of WWE history like he did to so many others, establishing the Rumble as a match that top tier stars participated in and won, along the way becoming the first-ever back-to-back Rumble winner. It\’s worth noting that in just four Rumble appearances, he tallied no fewer than 27 eliminations.
#10: The Undertaker
The Undertaker is a defining icon of WWE history, but he isn\’t exactly synonymous with the Royal Rumble. Indeed, while The Dead Man had his WrestleMania streak, main evented SummerSlam with opponents ranging from Bret Hart to Edge to Brock Lesnar to an evil version of himself, and both debuted and commemorated his retirement at Survivor Series, the Rumble doesn\’t stand out as much on The Phenom\’s resume.
That said, The Undertaker did win it all in 2007, besides working a noteworthy 11 different Rumbles, credited with 40 eliminations across those years. It\’s also worth mentioning that every single time he entered the Royal Rumble, he was a credible threat to win it all.
#9: John Cena
Photo credit: WWE
John Cena\’s farewell tour of 2025 was littered with callbacks to his career as he tussled with some of his most iconic rivals, often as not putting a new spin on old moments. This was quietly the case in the Royal Rumble, his first match of his final year. Much like 20 years before, he found himself in the final two, and much like 2005, a very close finish emerged out of which Cena got the short end of the stick, only to wind up winning his way to a WrestleMania title shot anyway at the next PLE.
Between those runner-up bookends, Cena also finished in second place in the 2010 Rumble. More noteworthy, though, he was a two-time Rumble winner. In 2013, he emerged victorious to punch his ticket to a \’Mania rematch with The Rock. It\’s the 2008 performance that was particularly iconic, though, as Cena had a Mt. Rushmore surprise entry at #30, in Madison Square Garden, to win it all. Cena had been forced to vacate his WWE Championship due to a torn pec the preceding October, and even the most generous reports suggested he\’d be out for six months. Seeing him back in the Rumble was a legitimate shock and seismic shift to the main event picture at the launch of WrestleMania season.
Cena\’s 277-point total owes to nine Rumbles total, nearly two and a half hours in the ring, and 28 career eliminations.
#8: Randy Orton
Photo: WWE
There\’s something quite fitting about Randy Orton and John Cena placing just one spot, seven points apart as career-long rivals and peers as defining faces of two decades-plus of WWE history. Orton also won two Royal Rumbles and did so several years apart, in The Viper\’s case collecting victories in 2009 and 2017.
Orton edged out Cena despite tallying three fewer career eliminations because he worked four more Rumbles and nearly an hour and a half longer in Rumbles. Indeed, these numbers bespeak Orton maintaining more of a full-time schedule while Cena transitioned to off-and-on part-time status in his last decade as a pro wrestler.
#6: Brock Lesnar and Edge (Tie)
Image Copyright: WWE
Brock Lesnar and Edge have a lot of differences between them, but they share a space as two out of only three wrestlers with over a decade in between their Royal Rumble victories. Edge went 11 years, including a nearly 9-year layoff when he thought his career was over, between winning the match again. For his part, Lesnar holds the record at 19 years between wins, which encompasses 8 years away as he pursued MMA and other interests outside of WWE.
The numbers diverge from there, with Edge working 9 Rumbles to Lesnar\’s 6 and, in the process, accumulating over two-and-a-half hours more ring time. For The Beast\’s part, though, eliminations are the name of the game with a total of 32 to Edge\’s 25.
Lesnar\’s most memorable Rumble performance actually didn\’t fall in either year he won it all, but rather 2020, when he entered at number one, threatening to run the gauntlet as he did, in fact, score 13 straight eliminations—a record both for consecutive eliminations and most eliminations overall in a single Rumble—before Drew McIntyre spoiled his run.
2020 was also an iconic Royal Rumble year for Edge as he made the single greatest surprise return in Rumble history, nearly a decade after fans had accepted they\’d never see him work a match again.
#5: Kane
Image Copyright: WWE
Six wrestlers who never won a Royal Rumble nonetheless cracked the top 30 on account of how many times they entered the match, volume of eliminations, or minutes spent in the ring. Nia Jax stood out from that pack in making it to number 20. Only one non-winner placed higher than that, though, and most remarkably of all, made it all the way to the top 5, ahead of the overwhelming majority of people who actually won Rumble matches over the years. To quote Jim Ross, \”That\’s gotta be Kane!\”
The Big Red Machine famously holds the record for most eliminations (47, 5 more than the closest runner-up, Shawn Michaels, and, adding in The Undertaker to the mix, one of only three men to ever clear 40 career eliminations). Kane also holds the record for most Rumble appearances (20, 4 more than top runner-up, The Miz). Perhaps most surprising of all, Kane places second all-time for most Royal Rumble minutes without having won the match (behind Chris Jericho), and places 8th all-time overall in this category.
The funny thing is that Kane was never that serious a threat to actually win the Rumble, a three-time world champion (but only if one counts his ECW Championship reign) and often a main event level guy, but never really positioned as the guy. In some ways, that makes it all the more impressive that he remained a Rumble wrecking ball whom, even if fans didn\’t expect to win, nonetheless all but guaranteed some carnage once he hit the ring. This was the case, in particular, in 2001 when he tallied a then-single-night record of 11 eliminations and finished second only to Stone Cold Steve Austin.
#4: Triple H
Triple H. Photo: WWE.com
It\’s no surprise that Triple H would crack the top five of this list given his longevity and especially his longevity as a main event guy in WWE. He worked 9 Royal Rumbles all told (a figure that would probably have been much higher had he not also worked 6 singles title matches at the Rumble PLE). Along the way, his 32 career eliminations were enough to tie him for fifth all-time, and with 231 minutes he also finished 5th all-time for time spent in Royal Rumble matches.
The Game\’s two Rumble victories each tell their own story as well. In 2002, he was a conquering hero—a babyface returning from a legitimately catastrophic injury to pick up the inspirational win and get right back to WrestleMania main eventer status. By contrast, when he won again 14 years later, it was a predictable swerve that saw him enter at #30, a heel authority figure returning from a kayfabe injury to spoil Roman Reigns\’s good time.
Triple H\’s placement on this list says a lot about what he meant to WWE as an in-ring performer—an all-time great and major star who hung with WWE through thick and thin to remain relevant working Rumble matches in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s.
#3: Cody Rhodes
Image credit: WWE
Were it not for the numeric-formula-driven nature of this list, some readers would surely call recency bias and hold it against Cody Rhodes. The numbers speak for themselves, though, as not only two-time, but back-to-back Royal Rumble winner status immediately placed The American Nightmare in the rarefied air of Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, and Steve Austin (only one of whom he has topped).
Indeed, while Rhodes was never a serious contender to win the Rumble in his first WWE tenure, he did assemble noteworthy numbers, staying in the ring for long stretches and picking up his share of eliminations. Things went to a different level for him after returning to WWE in 2022, though. Winning first from the #30 entry spot (with a not-too-shabby 15 minutes in the ring and 5 eliminations), then from #15 (43 minutes and 4 eliminations) proved he was here to stay as a main event guy.
It\’s unlikely anyone is going to supplant the top two guys on this countdown anytime soon, but—particularly if he were to win a third Rumble—Rhodes is the current star who could feasibly make it happen before he retires, given 58 points separate him from the number one spot.
#2: Steve Austin
There\’s a real case to be made that no wrestler is more synonymous with the Royal Rumble than Stone Cold Steve Austin. Austin was the first and remains the only wrestler to date to have ever won the match three times. Moreover, his smashmouth, chaotic style was a near-perfect fit for the Rumble environment that, in his heyday, invited a huge pop when he hit the ring only to unleash a fury of offense, stunning anything that moved en route to elimination after elimination. Add on that, besides winning the 1997, 1998, and 2001 Royal Rumbles, Austin was the first runner-up in 1999 and made the final three in 2002.
The Texas Rattlesnake\’s every Rumble outing was memorable as well. A controversial finish saw a still-heel Austin manipulate a referee\’s distraction to steal the victory from Bret Hart in 1997. In 1999, the Rumble match revolved around Stone Cold\’s war with Mr. McMahon. Austin also memorably dispatched of a dominant Kane at the end of the 2001 edition and an upstart young star in The Rock to win in 1998.
A vocal contingent of WWE fans speculated John Cena might tie Austin\’s three Rumble victory mark in 2025, but in WWE not going there—giving the sentimental win to its biggest stars on his retirement tour, when he was headed for a WrestleMania main event anyway—it seemed like a testament to WWE seeing Austin\’s position as the only three-time winner as sacred and a mark unlikely to be matched, let alone exceeded, for a very long time.
With 36 eliminations (fourth most ever), The Bionic Redneck\’s efficiency also bespoke a downfall, though, as only working five Rumbles, despite logging two and a half hours in the ring, left him three points short of another performer\’s totals.
#1: Shawn Michaels
WWE
Call him Mr. WrestleMania. Cite his myriad great performances at SummerSlam. Note that, particularly in the second act of his career, he established himself as an elimination tag team match great at Survivor Series. Take all that into account, but Shawn Michaels also made a formidable case to be called the greatest Royal Rumble performer of all time.
HBK\’s Royal Rumble resume is incredible as the first man to win the Royal Rumble from the number one entry spot and just the second person to ever win back-to-back Rumbles (not to mention that he was the first to win back-to-back in the era of WrestleMania title shots being on the line). He was only the third heel to win the Rumble and the first wrestler to ever win it as both a heel and a babyface. When he wasn\’t winning, he had three other final four appearances.
With 42 eliminations to his name, Michaels is second only to Kane in that department, and his 225 minutes in the ring place him 6th all-time. All of that happened across twelve Royal Rumble appearances ranging from 1989 to 2010.
With an accumulated 388 points via the established scoring system, Michaels\’ longevity, talent, stamina in the ring, and ability to deliver exciting performances across eras all served him startlingly well. Many consider him the greatest professional wrestler of all time, and now he gets his just due, recognized as the greatest to ever enter the Rumble.
Series Complete
You\’ve reached the end of our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant ever!
This installment of our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant covers the elite tier from #21 to #49. Royal Rumble winners come fast and furious in this section, including the first man to ever win a Royal Rumble and our first serious contender for the single greatest Royal Rumble performance of all time. This portion also features an elimination machine who quite arguably should have won the 2020 women\’s Rumble, plus several names still active today who could climb even higher.
#45: AJ Styles and Natalya (Tie)
The 2016 Royal Rumble generally isn\’t remembered all that fondly for focusing so much energy on a tepid Roman Reigns vs. The Authority feud and culminating in an ultra-predictable \”surprise\” swerve of Triple H joining the match to screw Reigns in the end.
Amidst a lackluster Rumble, the brightest spot was a truly surprising entry on the part of debuting AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One had a strong showing with two eliminations and was the more legitimate iron man in that year\’s contest. Though Styles has not and probably will not ever win a Rumble, this showing was a sign of things to come as he has accumulated just shy of two hours of cumulative ring time and 11 eliminations in five Rumbles and counting.
For her part, Natalya has been a staple performer in women\’s Royal Rumble matches, working every single edition to date, tallying well over two and a half hours of ring time and eight eliminations, including one 56-minute showing.
#44: Bray Wyatt
Image credit: WWE
In just four Royal Rumble appearances, Bray Wyatt tallied impressive numbers—twelve eliminations, plus an hour and forty-eight minutes of ring time. It\’s a testament to his place on the card that he was always a threat but rarely \”the guy\”—someone who could slide into the main event picture but never got the full-throated push to the tip-top when it mattered.
Wyatt\’s run in the 2015 Rumble was especially noteworthy for lasting over 45 minutes and eliminating fan favorite Daniel Bryan, besides his 2017 outing in which he made it to the final three.
#43: Rikishi
Rikishi doesn\’t show up often enough in conversations about legends of the Royal Rumble, but it\’s noteworthy that he worked no fewer than ten editions of the match, spanning his time as a Headshrinker to playing The Sultan to his \”Make a Difference\” character, and both the fun-loving dancing big man version of Rikishi as well as the monster heel version who\’d run over Stone Cold. Speaking of that, Rikishi entered at number 30 and made it to the final five the year of Steve Austin\’s final Rumble win in 2001.
Despite impressive numbers that include nearly an hour and a half of cumulative ring time and twelve career eliminations, it\’s telling that Rikishi\’s most memorable Rumble work probably comes down to working a dance break alongside Too Cool mid-match in 2000, only to take down both his running buddies and toss them from the ring—a truly callous Rumble betrayal and months before he turned heel!
#40: Dolph Ziggler, Liv Morgan, and Shinsuke Nakamura (Tie)
Liv Morgan. Photo: WWE.com
Despite the wrestlers at #40 landing directly ahead of Rikishi, it\’s worth noting that this is the largest gap in point totals between adjacent rankings up to this point in the list, with the tying trio each racking up a full ten more points than the man they placed ahead of.
Ziggler\’s longevity facilitated 14 Rumble appearances, and his stamina facilitated him collecting over two-and-a-half hours of cumulative ring time. He accumulated ten eliminations. Lowlights of his Rumble resume include only lasting 21 seconds before Kane dumped him in 2009 and one of the most anticlimactic surprise entrant spots in 2018 when he joined the match at #30 after having kayfabe quit the company weeks earlier.
For her part, Liv Morgan has eight Rumble matches under her belt to date, highlighted by her 2023 performance, going wire to wire with Rhea Ripley with them starting at 1 and 2, only for Morgan to be the last woman eliminated after over an hour in the ring. Morgan was the first runner-up again in 2024, falling to Bayley.
Then there\’s Shinsuke Nakamura. The King of Strong Style may well represent one of the strangest Rumble resumes of all. He entered for the first time in 2018 and had a star-making performance with a lowkey upset victory, nearly 45 minutes in the ring, and eliminations including Roman Reigns and John Cena. In five more Rumble appearances, though, Nakamura only accumulated two more eliminations, averaged 11 minutes per outing, and never sniffed the final few again.
#39: The British Bulldog
In addition to capturing Tag Team, Intercontinental, and European Championship gold, Davey Boy Smith was a number one contender who challenged Bret Hart, Diesel, and Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship, as such marking himself as a quintessential New Generation upper-card talent. He never quite crossed over to full-fledged main event status, though, with a world title win.
Bulldog\’s Royal Rumble legacy is a testament to that narrative. He, perhaps most famously, went wire-to-wire with HBK in the 1995 Royal Rumble, entering at number two and proving the last man to be eliminated (after a fake-out victory when one of Michaels\’s feet hit the ground and Bulldog\’s music even played). Smith entered six Rumbles and had fifteen eliminations to his name, over two hours in the ring, and two final four appearances.
#38: Kofi Kingston
Image credit: Adrian Hernandez, Unlikely
Kofi Kingston has worked 15 Royal Rumbles to date, scoring nine eliminations and clocking over two and a half hours in the ring. He was never positioned as a meaningful contender to win the match, though it\’s especially interesting to look back on 2019 in that light, as he was a veritable non-factor in that Rumble but became a WrestleMania world title contender via star-making gauntlet match and Elimination Chamber performances in the weeks to follow.
The real story of Kingston\’s Royal Rumble legacy comes down to creatively escaping elimination as wild leaps from the apron, pogo-sticking on an announcer\’s chair, walking on his hands outside the ring, and falling into the arms of Rosebuds on parade all offered vehicles for wildly entertaining and memorable Royal Rumble moments.
#37: Shayna Baszler
Image credit: WWE
After a sensational run in NXT, Shayna Baszler\’s main roster run in WWE was defined by false starts and tepid booking. Her Royal Rumble stats speak to the potential some higher-ups in WWE clearly saw in her at times. The Submission Magician\’s 16 eliminations in 6 Rumbles is an objectively impressive mark, highlighted by her 2020 run that saw her enter at number 30 and toss eight other women en route to finishing as top runner-up.
Baszler never garnered the big Rumble push of actually winning, though, and while her two excellent reigns as NXT Champion are remembered fondly, this inconsistent usage on the main roster bespeaks why she never actually won a world title at that level.
#36: Becky Lynch
Despite being on the shortlist for women with the most iconic Royal Rumble performances—entering 2019 in impromptu fashion and with a kayfabe injury after wrestling (and losing) in a great match earlier in the night, only to win it all—Becky Lynch arrives as the second-lowest women\’s winner on the list. Chalk that up to her only working four Rumbles to date, in no small part because she was working title matches other years or out of action. Lynch\’s seven eliminations and cumulative 78 minutes of match time attest to her being a workhorse in this aspect of her WWE career, like so many others.
#35: Yokozuna
WWE
Yokozuna was all about efficiency when it came to Royal Rumbles, winning his debut outing in 1993 and, with only one more Rumble appearance to his name and only 34 minutes of cumulative ring time, nonetheless registering an impressive ten eliminations. The big man\’s Rumble legacy largely does come down to \’93, though. He got a monster push, last eliminating Randy Savage. That victory set the stage for him to unseat Bret Hart for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania before spending the second half of 1993 and the first leg of 1994 reigning as world champ.
#34: Asuka
Image credit: WWE
The list arrives at the original women\’s Royal Rumble winner, Asuka, who rode the wave of a dominant NXT run into a main roster winning streak and this victory—arguably the biggest of her career. It\’s unfortunate the triumph was overshadowed by Ronda Rousey debuting immediately afterward, and then The Empress ultimately proving unsuccessful at converting a Rumble win to championship gold, as Charlotte Flair beat her at WrestleMania 34.
Asuka nonetheless has a solid Rumble record with that original win, plus two other appearances, cumulatively tallying seven eliminations across over an hour of ring time.
#33: Bret Hart
It may surprise long-time fans to realize Bret Hart only worked five Royal Rumbles. He made the most of those opportunities, though, with 85 cumulative minutes and eight eliminations credited to him.
Interestingly enough, 1994 saw Hart work fewer minutes than he did on average per Rumble, but score more than half his eliminations in that single outing and emerge victorious. Hart was infamously one half of the only tie in Royal Rumble history as he and Lex Luger went over the top rope and hit the floor simultaneously to close the bout. Another interesting bit of trivia—that Royal Rumble show, followed by WrestleMania 10, marked an unusual circumstance of someone pulling double duty on back-to-back PPVs, but also losing his first match only to win the main event.
#32: Lex Luger
There\’s a certain irony that Lex Luger, who tied with Bret Hart for each man\’s only Royal Rumble victory, wound up almost tied with The Hitman on this list with only two points in between them. Luger worked three fewer Rumbles and a fair bit less time than The Excellence of Execution, but covered the difference by way of eliminations. Despite only entering the Rumble twice, Luger was a force, lasting about twenty minutes in each outing, racking up 11 eliminations total (7 in 1994 when he won).
#31: Jim Duggan
WWE
From one flag-waving, patriotic powerhouse to another. Jim Duggan holds the auspicious title of having been the first-ever Royal Rumble winner and winner of the only twenty-man edition of the bout.
Hacksaw\’s victory was a sign of the times as WWE didn\’t yet know what it had in the Rumble. By most accounts, Pat Patterson conceptualized and championed the idea until Vince McMahon gave it a try for a TV special, the success of which led to the iconic annual PLE. Before the match meant much—no stakes attached, no tangible reward, and less the start of an institution than a weather balloon—Duggan wasn\’t out of place winning it, a popular upper mid-card babyface. It\’s telling that in four other tries, he never came close to emerging victorious again, with relatively paltry cumulative totals outside that one win—just five total eliminations and a cumulative 45 minutes.
#30: Ric Flair
Ric Flair. Photo: WWE.com
Ric Flair may have just barely cracked the top 30 of this list, but it\’s worth noting that there is a very, very solid case that he gave the single greatest Royal Rumble performance of all time in 1992. (Incidentally, Bobby Heenan gave the greatest Rumble commentary performance ever as he cheered on The Nature Boy.)
Fans must keep in mind that, leading up to \’92, the earliest entry number anyone had won from was #13, and that was Jim Duggan in the 20-man Rumble. The longest performance a Rumble winner had ever given was Hulk Hogan in the preceding year, entering at #24 and working 21 minutes to last eliminate Earthquake.
By contrast, Flair entered at #3, which, in the moment, felt like a kiss of death. Instead, WWE offered The Nature Boy a showcase to demonstrate what he brought to the table—particularly to fans who hadn\’t followed his NWA career—against an expansive catalog of WWE talents. Flair lasted a full hour, making five eliminations and last dumping Hogan to become the original (almost) wire-to-wire Rumble winner. Flair won the star-studded edition of the bout and, in so doing, captured the vacant WWE Championship in what many still hold to have been the greatest Rumble of all time.
The Dirtiest Player in the Game entered four more Rumbles and registered three more eliminations over the course of his career, buffering an impressive legacy at the event, though nothing could compare to that 1992 coming-out party.
#29: The Rock
The Rock is, of course, one of the biggest names in WWE history, and he won the Royal Rumble at one of the high-water marks for the company\’s popularity, around the peak of the Attitude Era in 2000.
Some fans may be surprised not to see him closer to the top 10 on a list like this, but that largely boils down to him only actually entering three Rumbles. Putting that into perspective, he won one, was the first runner-up in another, and made the final three in his final Rumble appearance in 2001. In just three outings, he worked just shy of two hours, including a 51-minute run in 1998, besides racking up a total of ten eliminations.
#28: Braun Strowman
As a fun bit of list trivia, Braun Strowman is the sixth highest ranked wrestler to have never actually won the Royal Rumble (and, correspondingly, the guy whose list placement is most hurt by the Greatest Royal Rumble not factoring in—without getting into all the math, that performance would have vaulted him up at least ten spots).
Strowman makes all the sense in the world as a Rumble standout for his immense size and the consistent threat he posed at or around the main event level during his WWE tenure. This giant of the ring worked just shy of an hour in seven Rumble appearances, but most notably hit a career elimination mark of 22, ranking him #15 all time in that category.
#27: Chris Benoit
Peacock
It\’s very, very difficult to celebrate Chris Benoit after the tragic circumstances surrounding his death, so we\’ll keep this write-up short and factual. Benoit reaches 27th place largely for his Rumble performance in 2004—a wire-to-wire showing in which he entered at #1, lasted over an hour, and made six eliminations, last of all going one-on-one with The Big Show and, without any help, getting the giant over the top rope to secure the victory.
The Rabid Wolverine worked two other Rumbles, tallying three more eliminations and logging another hour and twenty minutes of ring time.
#26: Sheamus
Sheamus is, on paper, exactly the kind of talent who\’d thrive in a Royal Rumble. He\’s a powerhouse brawler who has enjoyed multiple main event pushes—case in point, he went so far as to win the Rumble in 2012.
To date, The Celtic Warrior has worked ten Rumbles, with nine eliminations to his name and a noteworthy three hours-plus of ring time placing him among the steadiest Rumble contributors of his time.
#25: CM Punk
A Royal Rumble victory is conspicuously missing from CM Punk\’s resume, but it\’s telling he has been in the conversation to win it all multiple times—including WWE explicitly showing on its Unreal docuseries that many championed him to take the 2025 Rumble before the conversation shifted to Jey Uso. Moreover, The Straight Edge Superstar isn\’t to be counted out in considering favorites to win it all sometime in the next few years.
Punk had perhaps his most memorable Rumble run in 2010, when he ran a gimmick of grabbing a mic and cutting promos during his time in the match, but he also had multiple lengthy runs, including going 35 minutes the following year as the anchor of a New Nexus vs. Corre sub-angle, besides lasting 49 minutes in what would turn out to be his last WWE match in nearly a decade in 2014. Punk was also the final man eliminated in a legitimately dramatic showdown with Cody Rhodes at the end of the 2024 Rumble.
#24: Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho was the first runner-up to win the Royal Rumble in 2012—a year when many pundits favored him to take it all. It turned out that was as close as he got to winning (at least to date, as the rumor mill continues to spin he could eye a WWE return).
Nonetheless, Jericho\’s Rumble resume is nothing to sneeze at with ten overall appearances that helped him accumulate no fewer than 18 eliminations. It\’s an interesting bit of trivia that he is also the all-time record holder for most minutes in the Royal Rumble at just over 297 total, less than three minutes shy of five full hours total.
Those are noteworthy numbers for anyone and bespeak both Jericho\’s length of tenure with WWE (including surprise returns) and that he spent so much of his time in at least the upper mid-card, if not the main event scene, in several years a legitimate threat to win it all.
#23: The Big Show
AEW
There\’s a substantial, ten-point leap between 24th and 23rd place, as we arrive at the #3 highest ranked performer to have never won a Royal Rumble. Indeed, it\’s less wonder that The Big Show would end up in the top 40 than that he wouldn\’t have a single Rumble victory under his belt.
Still, Show\’s 12 Rumble appearances rendered a monster 28 eliminations which was also enough for third most eliminations by a non-winner. His status as a six-time part of the Royal Rumble final four also indicates what a threat he was year after year, including that he was the top runner-up in 2000 and 2004 and reached the final three as late as 2015.
#22: Jey Uso
Ask someone in early 2020, and the idea of Jey Uso cracking the top 100 on this list would probably sound like a longshot. Ask someone as recently as early 2025, and the idea of him winning a Rumble would probably still feel highly unlikely.
A lot changed and Main Event Jey Uso became a legitimate player—a bona fide singles star and an underdog Rumble winner who last eliminated John Cena to win it all in 2025. It may surprise some to realize he has only worked four Royal Rumble matches and went a solid decade between his second and third appearances (to be fair, in three of the intervening years he worked tag title matches at the Rumble PLE). He made the most of the latter two opportunities, not just with his big win, but also a 50-minute run in 2024 that brought him from the number 1 entry spot to the final 7 competitors.
This installment of our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant covers the upper tier from #50 to #119. This portion cracks the top 100, includes the first Royal Rumble winners on our countdown, and features Hall of Famers, former world champs, and more than one top runner-up. Among the notable names: Andre the Giant, Kurt Angle, The Ultimate Warrior, Randy Savage, and the iconic Mick Foley with his legendary triple-persona 1998 performance.
#118: Billy Gunn and Lacey Evans (Tie)
WWE
Billy Gunn and Lacey Evans represent very different Royal Rumble stories. For Gunn, it\’s all about longevity with seven Rumbles to his name, out of which he registered three cumulative eliminations. For Evans\’s part, she only worked three Rumbles but turned heads in her main roster debut in the 2019 Rumble. From the number one spot, she proceeded to last just shy of a full half hour, laying a foundation for her to garner a big introduction to main roster fans by interrupting action to walk the ramp, before promptly transitioning to the Raw Women\’s Championship picture coming out of WrestleMania season.
#116: Greg Valentine and Test (Tie)
WWE
The stories of Greg Valentine and Test are fairly similar, with both being long-time veterans who appeared in Rumbles four and five times respectively. Test accumulated three eliminations across his tenure. For Valentine\’s part, a 44-minute run in the 1991 Rumble marked one of the most impressive performances from his body of work in WWE.
#110: Andre the Giant, Brie Bella, Bron Breakker, Sami Zayn, Sid Justice, and Smash (Tie)
Image credit: WWE
Battle royals are a huge part of Andre the Giant\’s legacy and, as such, it\’s a bit shocking that he didn\’t crack the top 100 for WWE\’s signature battle royal format. That said, he actually only ever worked two Royal Rumbles. Particularly at that stage of his career, he was never going to play the iron man role, but five career eliminations was a pretty solid stat—averaging almost exactly one elimination per five minutes spent in the match.
Sid Justice is also a noteworthy performer at this spot, particularly for an iconic dramatic performance in 1992 when he dumped Hulk Hogan from the match fair and square to reach the final two, only for Hogan to heelishly help Ric Flair dispatch of the big man to set the wheels in motion for WrestleMania 8\’s main event scene.
Smash racked up four eliminations across five Royal Rumble appearances, while Brie Bella and Bron Breakker not only share initials but near-identical Rumble numbers. To be fair, though, Breakker\’s just getting started, and between his powerhouse style and good outlook as a future main eventer, he will likely crack the top 100 before he\’s through.
#104: Dakota Kai, Goldberg, Kurt Angle, Ryback, Tito Santana, and Zelina Vega (Tie)
It\’s interesting to note the similarities between Tito Santana and Zelina Vega\’s stat lines as popular mid-card workhorses with two eliminations apiece across six Rumbles each. Vega will probably have future Rumbles and as such work her way up the rankings.
Despite only having two Rumbles under his belt and not lasting long in either, Goldberg\’s six eliminations bespoke how well he was suited to the match format. His less successful spiritual successor Ryback matched his numbers with one fewer Rumble and one more elimination. Kurt Angle falls a bit lower than fans would probably guess but worked a deceptively low four Royal Rumbles (offset by an impressive five world title matches at the Royal Rumble PPV across his career). That leaves us with Dakota Kai. Consistently underappreciated in her WWE efforts, this is one more area in which she performed quite respectably across her time in NXT and the main roster alike.
#102: Andrade and Piper Niven (Tie)
Image credit: WWE
This unlikely pairing has quite arguably overachieved in Rumble performances. For Andrade, a half-hour run in the Rumble while reigning as NXT Champion in 2018, followed by a nearly half-hour run the following year after joining the SmackDown brand, helped him to a higher placement on the list, combined with a surprise return to WWE in the 2024 edition of the match. Piper Niven doesn\’t necessarily have a single signature Rumble performance to hang her hat on but lived up to her size advantage, racking up four eliminations in three Rumble appearances to date.
#100: Bob Backlund and The Ultimate Warrior (Tie)
WWE
The aesthetics don\’t get much more different than comparing old school Bob Backlund with The Ultimate Warrior. Accordingly, Backlund climbing up to the top 100 has a lot to do with his hour-long run in the match in 1993. By contrast, Warrior demonstrated the efficiency of mowing his way through six eliminations in just two Rumble matches.
#98: The Road Dogg and Vader (Tie)
From a perennial mid-card and tag team wrestler with a gift for gab to one of the great super heavyweight monster heels, The Road Dogg and Vader don\’t have much in common aside from similar Rumble output numbers. Over four Rumbles, Road Dogg racked up five eliminations as a nice testament to his steady spot on the roster. Vader only worked this match three times and, despite never lasting that long, accumulated five eliminations befitting his dominant persona.
#95: Dominik Mysterio, Sasha Banks, and Wade Barrett (Tie)
Photo: AEW
For all his progress as a performer, Dominik Mysterio still lands a fair bit behind his father Rey in this countdown. He nonetheless occupies an interesting spot to be tied with Sasha Banks. Mysterio cites Eddie Guerrero as his kayfabe biological father and an influence, and Banks made no bones about Latino Heat being her favorite and a star she patterned aspects of her career after.
Mysterio seems certain to climb the list as he already has five Rumbles under his belt with respectable numbers, while The Boss may well find herself back in the Rumble mix someday too.
For his part, Wade Barrett appears altogether done in the ring but leaves behind a very respectable Rumble legacy with five eliminations across four appearances in the bout.
#92: Carlito, Cesaro, and Christian (Tie)
92nd place is a workhorse spot, populated by guys with six, seven, and eight Rumble appearances respectively. Carlito was the cumulative iron man of the group but only had three eliminations to his name, while Cesaro and Christian each had six.
Christian probably gets the nod here as the most memorable Rumble performer at this spot on account of a great moment in the 2020 Rumble, making a surprise return to the ring and having an emotional reunion moment with eventual winner Edge. The moment has largely been erased because Christian would jump ship to AEW for his in-ring endeavors to follow (only for Adam Copeland to ultimately join him), but it was nonetheless a special sight for long-time fans to behold.
#91: The Barbarian
WWE
Despite always being a tag team or mid-card wrestler in WWE, it feels fitting The Barbarian would snag this respectable spot on the list for a long run with the company and powerhouse, bruising style that fit the Royal Rumble format well. The big man worked four Rumbles, with 37 cumulative minutes in the ring and six eliminations. Another fun bit of trivia is that, after a late entry, he was among the final five men in the ring in consecutive Rumbles in 1989 and 1990.
#85: Alexa Bliss, Bobby Lashley, Booker T, Nikki Bella, One Man Gang, and Shelton Benjamin (Tie)
Photo credit: Booker T
It\’s interesting to find a quorum of elite-level Black stars tied at this spot with world champions Bobby Lashley and Booker T sharing the space with one of the best WWE performers to never get an earnest WWE main event push in Shelton Benjamin. Benjamin also garners the dubious distinction of being the lowest-ranked performer to have worked ten Rumbles.
It\’s also interesting to note the near-identical stat lines for Nikki Bella and the One Man Gang, each three-time Rumble participants with seven cumulative eliminations to their names. For her part, Alexa Bliss joined the fray with four Rumble appearances and six eliminations. Both women at this spot are still active and stand to move up in the rankings.
#83: Big E and Jake Roberts (Tie)
Both Jake Roberts and Big E benefited from longevity in their Rumble journeys. The Snake worked seven Rumble matches, averaging over ten minutes per outing and tallying five eliminations over his career. Big E worked eight, with a ten-and-a-half minute average time spent in the bout, but only four eliminations credited to him.
#81: Goldust and John Morrison (Tie)
Image credit: WWE, AEW
For all their differences, Goldust and John Morrison actually had a lot of similarities to their WWE careers. Each were ahead of their time—Goldust for his edgy character work, Morrison for his innovative high spots. Each were mostly locked in the mid-card aside from entertaining tag runs. So it was that each tied for 81st place. The second Rhodes on the countdown made an impressive eleven appearances in the match, while Morrison worked three fewer Rumbles but clocked an extra forty-three cumulative minutes in the ring, not to mention a cool spot to avoid elimination when he flew from the apron to cling to the barricade before leaping back into action.
#78: Daniel Bryan, Earthquake, and Mark Henry (Tie)
One of these stars was not like the others. Indeed, Earthquake and Mark Henry both make sense in top 100 spots as super heavyweights with main event stints to their credit. Earthquake clocked an especially impressive eight eliminations in just four Rumble appearances; Henry had six in his eight matches but also significantly more time in the ring.
A unique part of Bryan\’s legacy is that not once, but twice it really felt like his year to win the Rumble, but it never happened. Indeed, in both 2014 and 2021 he wound up main eventing WrestleMania with a world title shot anyway, but he never won the Rumble to get there. He was left out of the 2014 Rumble altogether in what was, in hindsight, a real booking blunder given how hot he was with the WWE audience.
#76: Luke Harper and Matt Hardy (Tie)
This tie speaks to the importance of eliminations, as Matt Hardy had twice as many Rumble appearances and, cumulatively, nearly a half hour longer in the Royal Rumble than Luke Harper. The late, great Wyatt family member had no fewer than seven eliminations to his name, though, proving himself a difference maker each time he joined this match.
#73: Michelle McCool, Owen Hart, and Ruby Riott (Tie)
Owen Hart probably would have had additional Rumble appearances were it not for his untimely passing. It\’s also worth noting that he actually did have a breakout performance at a Rumble PPV in 1994, but it was in tag team action as WWE firmly put him on a collision course with his brother for WrestleMania 10 that led to a world title feud. The King of Harts never got to work a Rumble during his bona fide main event run, though.
Hart\’s joined by two talented women with very different journeys. Michelle McCool\’s Rumble appearances all came post-retirement, but that didn\’t stop her from nearly 45 minutes of ring time and eight eliminations. Ruby Riott\’s stat line was markedly similar, but she did it all in her prime as an underappreciated asset to a women\’s roster crowded with star power on top.
#71: Finn Balor and The Great Khali (Tie)
WWE
Despite never winning, nor reaching the final stages of a Royal Rumble, The Great Khali makes sense as a top 100 guy with eight Rumble appearances and his massive size facilitating an average of one elimination per appearance. By contrast, Balor\’s Rumble record is more of a study in efficiency, with only three appearances anchored by a standout iron man performance in 2019 that saw him last just shy of 58 minutes, score four eliminations, and reach the final four of the match.
#69: Iyo Sky and Rusev (Tie)
Image credit: WWE
Despite only working three Royal Rumbles, Iyo Sky has impressively logged 110 minutes in the match with six eliminations to her name. In five Rumbles, Rusev has the same number of eliminations with just over an hour and a half of ring time.
Both of these talents stand to rise in the rankings. With Rusev back in WWE, his size and seemingly perpetual mid-card status place him as a likely Rumble participant for years to come with every chance of scoring an elimination here and there.
#67: Hardcore Holly and Mr. Perfect (Tie)
WWE
#67 is a spot for long-term, respected veterans it seems. Hardcore Holly scored five eliminations in seven Rumbles, while Perfect had seven eliminations in five Rumbles.
The main difference here comes down to likelihood of winning. Call him Hardcore, or call him racecar driver Bob—regardless, Holly never seemed like a credible candidate to actually take a Rumble. By contrast, in 1990 Perfect looked like a very legitimate threat to take it all (and by some accounts was originally planned to win) before Hulk Hogan took the duke instead, last eliminating Perfect.
#66: Damian Priest
With eight eliminations and forty-seven minutes of ring time across five Royal Rumbles, Damian Priest has a strong Royal Rumble record befitting his status as a rock-solid upper mid-card act who had a main event stint once and may well wind up back there down the road. Priest probably shouldn\’t be considered a favorite to win a Rumble at this point in his career, but more Rumbles and more eliminations seem all but certain.
#63: Crush, The Miz, and Rob Van Dam (Tie)
Image credit: Rosenberg Wrestling
It\’s a fun piece of trivia that, despite both being WWE veterans, The Miz actually has had ten more Royal Rumble matches to date than RVD. The Rumble isn\’t The A-Lister\’s match, though, as across sixteen appearances, he has only tallied two eliminations. He did have a particularly memorable run in the 2012 edition, though, lasting forty-five minutes with a fun running theme early in the match of him being \”haunted\” by ghosts of his past with former partners Alex Riley and R-Truth giving him a taste of comeuppance early on before it was The Big Show who ultimately tossed Miz.
Rob Van Dam more efficiently had six Rumble appearances with an average of one elimination per outing, highlighted by his surprise return in the 2009 edition.
Crush earns this high placement largely for eliminations—credited with a total of eight across four Royal Rumble appearances that spanned his time as half of Demolition, his heel incarnation managed by Mr. Fuji, and finally as part of The Nation.
#62: Randy Savage
The Macho Man Randy Savage has a very real claim to be the biggest WWE star to have worked Royal Rumbles in his prime but never actually won one. In five appearances, he registered eight eliminations, including back-to-back final four runs in 1992 and 1993 and, before more Rumble norms were established, being a rare active world champion to work the Rumble back in 1989.
#59: Dean Ambrose, Sonya Deville, and Viscera (Tie)
While their total numbers shook out quite similarly, Dean Ambrose, Sonya Deville, and Viscera have very different histories in the Royal Rumble match. Despite arguably never getting her just due in WWE, Deville had a solid Rumble record bespeaking the length of her tenure with six appearances and nine eliminations.
As Mabel, Viscera, and finally Big Daddy V, one of WWE\’s biggest superheavyweights worked an impressive nine Rumbles with eight eliminations, though it\’s telling his most memorable moment was probably getting abducted by The Undertaker\’s minions during the 1999 match to rebrand him as a member of The Ministry of Darkness.
Dean Ambrose made the most of his five Rumbles with six cumulative eliminations and a spotlight performance in 2016 when he was the last man standing opposite surprise entrant Triple H who took the match and the WWE Championship that year.
#58: Gunther
Photo: WWE
Gunther\’s big claim to fame in WWE comes down to long championship reigns, as his runs with the NXT UK, Intercontinental, and World Heavyweight Championships each ran incredibly long. He\’s no stranger to long runs in the Royal Rumble either. Despite only competing twice to date, he logged an impressive hour and forty-one minutes between those outings. In 2024, his half-hour run took him all the way to the final three; the year before, an over-hour-long tenure in the ring carried five eliminations and took him to the final two as he went wire-to-wire from the number one entry spot.
Gunther can\’t be ruled out as a prospective Rumble winner someday. For sure, he\’s proven both his skill and his endurance, likely setting him up for more impressive Rumble performances to come.
#57: Big John Studd
WWE
And so the list arrives at a space of dubious honor with the lowest ranked performer to have nonetheless won a Royal Rumble. Big John Studd won the second-ever edition of the match in 1989, which also meant he was both the first man to win a thirty-man Rumble and the first to anoint the lucky number twenty-seven entry position.
Studd\’s numbers are a bit underwhelming, with only one Rumble appearance. He took the duke in twelve-and-a-half minutes of ring time and only two eliminations. The victory was further neutered by the lack of follow-up. In those early days, before the Rumble had a WrestleMania world title shot attached to it, Studd pulled guest referee duty at Mania, then wound up leaving WWE that summer over purported financial disagreements with WWE management.
#56: The Big Boss Man
WWE
The Big Boss Man landing this high on the list is largely a testament to longevity and his relevance in two distinct eras. In the Golden Era, Boss Man was an iconic character, momentary heel main eventer, and steady upper mid-card babyface thereafter. In the Attitude Era, he was a steady heel enforcer type. All of this added up to nearly an hour of cumulative Rumble ring time with eight eliminations to his credit.
#55: Mick Foley
Mick Foley. Photo: WWE.com
A few spots earlier in the countdown, we noted Randy Savage was perhaps the biggest star to work a Rumble in his prime and not win it. Mick Foley also deserves a place in that conversation.
Despite only participating in four separate Royal Rumbles, Foley entered Rumble matches six times on account of an iconic 1998 showing when he worked as Mankind, Cactus Jack, and Dude Love, earning an extra boost in the rankings for the novelty of that effort. It\’s also worth noting that Foley gave two of the greatest performances of his career in working Royal Rumble PLE WWE Championship bouts against The Rock in 1999 and Triple H in 2000. Finally, Foley also made fun surprise returns in Rumble outings in 2008 and 2012.
#54: Mr. McMahon
Image credit: Netflix
So the list arrives at its second Royal Rumble winner, Mr. McMahon, who picked up the duke in his only Rumble appearance in 1999. For a Rumble winner, McMahon\’s stats were not super impressive. He only bagged one elimination against a distracted Stone Cold Steve Austin. Moreover, while he\’s credited with lasting nearly an hour in the match, that comes with a significant asterisk that he spent a majority of that time outside the ring, as this polarizing Rumble featured a lot of backstage shenanigans and even McMahon working commentary for a stretch of his participation in the match.
#53: Baron Corbin
Baron Corbin\’s relatively high placement is a testament to the big plans WWE seemed to have for him off and on throughout his tenure. Corbin tallied seven Rumble appearances with about an hour of ring time and an impressive ten eliminations. The Lone Wolf\’s most memorable performance came in his Rumble debut in 2017—a half-hour run that saw him cleanly clothesline a hitherto dominant Braun Strowman right over the top rope.
#52: Naomi
Seven Royal Rumble appearances with over three hours of cumulative ring time and five career eliminations offered Naomi a prominent spot on this list. Her work in the Rumble included a memorable return to WWE after a stint with TNA in 2024. She entered from the number two spot that year and lasted over an hour in the bout.
#51: Rick Martel
WWE
Despite once being a world champion in the AWA, Rick Martel\’s WWE career was defined first by being a tag team wrestler, then by working as a mid-card heel under The Model gimmick. It\’s a bit surprising to find a wrestler who never won a singles championship in WWE this high on the list, but Martel was a long-time respected hand in the company. Particularly noteworthy on his Rumble resume was his 1991 showing in which he lasted 52 minutes and registered four eliminations.
#50: Ronda Rousey
Image credit: WWE
2022 wasn\’t exactly a well-received year for the Royal Rumble. Both Rumble matches saw a polarizing MMA-crossover entrant who had been rumored and thus was only sort-of-surprising return to take the duke. On the women\’s side, that victory went to Ronda Rousey.
Rousey was a bit greater surprise than her male counterpart (more on him later in the countdown) as she had been missing from the WWE landscape for over two years leading up to her comeback moment. The Baddest Woman on the Planet had an iconic moment when she made her more legitimately shocking debut at the end of the 2018 Royal Rumble (also, the first-ever women\’s Rumble). This time, she drew a more mixed reaction from the crowd but nonetheless entered from the 28 spot, lasted over ten minutes, registered four eliminations, and, most importantly, won to punch her ticket to WrestleMania 38.
This installment of our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant covers the middle of the pack, from #120 to #274. With 446 participants in Royal Rumble history, this section marks the true halfway point. We still aren\’t broaching performers who actually won the match, but we do start to see names who had a significant impact, in addition to a higher volume of both major names from yesteryear and stars on the rise from the modern era.
#254: Bronson Reed, Carlos Colon, El Torito, Genichiro Tenryu, Giulia, Hillbilly Jim, Jim Brunzell, Kevin Thorn, LA Knight, Luther Reigns, Matt Morgan, Mr. Kennedy, Pierroth, Shane McMahon, Steve Blackman, The Hurricane, The Texas Tornado, Tiffany Stratton, Toni Storm, Tully Blanchard, and Xavier Woods (Tie)
This is an interesting spot on the list. LA Knight and Tiffany Stratton seem all but certain to climb to higher spots as they work future Rumbles, with neither out of the question as wrestlers who might one day win the whole match. While Bronson Reed and Giulia don\’t necessarily look as likely to emerge as Rumble winners, they had respectable runs and racked up an elimination each in their Rumble debuts, showing plenty of potential to be players in this bout for years to come.
The 254 spot also includes an eclectic mix of major stars who peaked outside WWE: Puerto Rican wrestling legend and one-off visitor Carlos Colon, World Class franchise player Kerry Von Erich (as The Texas Tornado), NWA upper mid-card tag team mainstay Tully Blanchard, and Toni Storm before she found her footing as a defining star for AEW.
Shane McMahon is also an interesting name to appear here, as fans may be surprised to realize he only ever worked one Royal Rumble (not counting the Greatest Royal Rumble), in what turned out to be his penultimate WWE match to date in 2022. This one is marred by extensive rumors of backstage drama around his appearance, but was nonetheless a better outing than he\’d put on a year later at WrestleMania 39, only getting about a minute into his impromptu match with The Miz before needing Snoop Dogg to sub in for him due to injury.
#239: Aldo Montoya, Aleister Black, Animal, Chavo Guerrero, Diamond Dallas Page, Ezekiel Jackson, Karrion Kross, Ken Shamrock, Maxxine Dupri, Mickie James, Nikolai Volkoff, Rene Dupree, Sarah Logan, The Berzerker, and Torrie Wilson (Tie)
Photo: WWE
With nine points apiece, the wrestlers tied for 239th are as eclectic as their means of earning this placement. All were multi-time Rumble entrants. Chavo Guerrero and Sarah Logan stood out for their prolific five Rumble berths apiece, though in each case that came with the asterisk that neither has a single elimination on record.
Mickie James probably stands out as the star of 239th place. Despite not scoring any eliminations, she led the pack with about a half hour of ring time across her three appearances, including the memorable moment of entering the Rumble as reigning TNA Knockouts Champion, complete with her TNA music years before WWE formalized its working agreement with the company. The Berzerker also feels worthy of some recognition here, given so much of his gimmick revolved around throwing people out of the ring. He underwhelmed in his two Rumble appearances but did at least score one elimination.
#234: Bo Dallas, Jamie Noble, Koko B. Ware, Ridge Holland, and Tegan Nox (Tie)
Photo: WWE
Bo Dallas, Jamie Noble, and Koko B. Ware represent a certain \”type\” as recognizable names for both their talent and their longevity with WWE, despite not breaking through to the main event level (though perhaps Uncle Howdy still has time). Ware entered three Rumbles to Dallas and Noble\’s one, respectively, but Dallas and Noble actually had more minutes in that single appearance than Ware did in his three. Each of these three performers had one elimination to their names.
Ridge Holland and Tegan Nox may be surprising names to see at this high a ranking. Holland had a fairly impressive run in his one Rumble to date, though, lasting nineteen minutes and serving as part of a brigade of men to team up and eliminate Omos from the proceedings. For her part, Tegan Nox quietly worked three Rumble matches with one elimination to her name as well.
#223: Ahmed Johnson, Carmelo Hayes, Chris Masters, Dino Bravo, Gangrel, Gene Snitsky, Mason Ryan, Maven, MVP, Rhyno, and Scott Steiner (Tie)
A number of powerhouses filled up this spot on the list, from perpetual mid-carders of different generations like Dino Bravo, Rhyno, Chris Masters, and Gene Snitsky, to talents WWE clearly had bigger plans for that never quite materialized like Ahmed Johnson, Mason Ryan, and Scott Steiner. A combination of factors like an elimination or two or multiple Rumble appearances contributed to this placement.
Carmelo Hayes certainly has the potential to ascend the list if he can truly find his footing on the main roster. Meanwhile, Maven probably gets the nod for top guy at 223rd for his legendary upset elimination of The Undertaker.
#217: Alicia Fox, Joey Mercury, Katana Chance, Lana, Molly Holly, and Xia Li (Tie)
WWE
Eclecticism is the name of the game at this stage of the list. Joey Mercury stands out for having worked only one Rumble match but lasting just shy of a half hour in it. Despite a brief and under-featured run on the WWE main roster, Xia Li racked up a deceptively high four Rumbles. Molly Holly and Alicia Fox are arguably the stars at 217th for having departed from WWE long before women got their own Rumble match, but going on to make three appearances each in the bout, including one elimination to each of their names.
#207: Arn Anderson, Ax, Bubba Ray Dudley, Dick Murdoch, Hawk, Kayden Carter, Lita, Mil Mascaras, Otis, and Rick Rude (Tie)
Image credit: TNA Wrestling
This is a pretty interesting spot on the list. It features guys who, at least as far as WWE was concerned, were primarily known as tag team wrestlers like Arn Anderson, Ax, Bubba Ray Dudley, Hawk, and Kayden Carter. From there, the spot also includes oddball one-off legend appearances from Dick Murdoch, Lita, and Mil Mascaras, each of whom scored two eliminations.
It\’s an interesting bit of trivia that Dudley actually only ever appeared in the Rumble match itself in 2015. In his WWE heyday during the Attitude and Ruthless Aggression Eras, he was focused on tag team action, working five tag bouts alongside his kayfabe brother D-Von, with four of those instances having tag titles on the line. It\’s unfortunate to see Rick Rude this low on the list, but he only ever worked one Royal Rumble match (in addition to one singles match on a Rumble show).
#199: Bushwhacker Butch, Jack Swagger, Kurrgan, Penta, The Godfather, Titus O\’Neil, Virgil, and X-Pac (Tie)
The Godfather. Photo: WWE.com
Recognizable names populate this portion of the list. The Godfather earns a mark of distinction for entering the Rumble under multiple personas including Papa Shango, Kama, and The Goodfather besides his most famous gimmick, for a cumulative seven Rumble appearances. Despite very different legacies, Virgil and X-Pac had strikingly similar records on paper to arrive at this spot, while Kurrgan\’s two appearances with two eliminations to his name feels more or less fitting for his legacy as a giant for whom the pieces never quite came together in WWE. Of everyone in this tie, Penta looks like a surefire name to enjoy some advancement up the list as he\’s still only in his first year with WWE and has enjoyed a solid upper-mid-card push; a 42-minute showing in his Rumble debut bespeaks a bright future.
#189: Dusty Rhodes, Ember Moon, Finlay, Hornswoggle, Ivy Nile, Jimmy Uso, Johnny Gargano, Jordynne Grace, Marty Jannetty, and Umaga (Tie)
189th place marks the first appearance for a Rhodes on this list; Dusty only worked one Rumble but did have two eliminations in it. He\’s joined by tag team guys Marty Jannetty and Jimmy Uso, not to mention Jimmy\’s uncle Umaga. Another oddity sees kayfabe father and son Hornswoggle and Finlay tie. Finlay worked one more Rumble and lasted longer than Hornswoggle in this match environment (especially if one were to deduct the leprechaun\’s time spent hiding under the ring), but Hornswoggle made an elimination, which is something Finlay never did.
#178: A-Train, Bad News Brown, Billie Kay, Chad Gable, Chyna, Erick Rowan, Jinder Mahal, Kharma, Peyton Royce, Ricochet, and Ron Bass (Tie)
This is an interesting point on the list for featuring the only two women who entered a men\’s Royal Rumble match but never entered a women\’s Rumble. Chyna was the truest trailblazer as the first woman to ever enter a Royal Rumble, let alone score an elimination. She had sadly passed before women got their own Royal Rumble. Kharma was the third woman in a Rumble, making a totally surprise one-off appearance in the 2012 edition—an unannounced return after she\’d stepped away due to pregnancy, and she\’d never appear on WWE television again.
178th place also includes former WWE Champion Jinder Mahal, both IIconics, and some brawlers who felt like natural fits for the Rumble environment in Ron Bass, Bad News Brown, and Erick Rowan, each of whom had two eliminations on their resumes.
#169: Candice LeRae, Dana Brooke, David Otunga, Heath Slater, Maria Kanellis, Val Venis, and Vladimir Kozlov (Tie)
Image credit: TNA Wrestling
It\’s interesting to note that Nexus alumni David Otunga and Heath Slater wound up tying at this spot, with strikingly similar records of three Rumble appearances apiece, each with two eliminations to his name. As a fun bit of trivia, Candice LeRae accomplished the unlikely in beating out her husband, Johnny Gargano, who was stuck back at 189th. Credit that in no small part to workhorse LeRae\’s five Rumble berths and counting, dating back to her days as an NXT roster member.
#164: D\’Lo Brown, Don Muraco, Jade Cargill, Phineas Godwinn, and Shotzi (Tie)
Though it seems likely Jade Cargill will climb higher on this list over the years to come, it\’s interesting to note her big push in the 2024 Royal Rumble with three eliminations only tied with Shotzi, who never found as much momentum on the main roster but did rack up five Rumble appearances before her release from WWE. Don Muraco was a bit past his prime by the time the Royal Rumble got rolling or probably would\’ve wound up higher; for his part, D\’Lo Brown\’s placement at 164th is largely a testament to his extended, highly respectable mid-card run, while Phineas Godwinn/Mideon\’s placement speaks to his own longevity in supporting roles.
#161: Brian Knobbs, Charlie Haas, and Chuck Palumbo (Tie)
WWE
It\’s tag team wrestler central at this point on the list with three decorated tag team champions who never enjoyed much singles success in WWE. Knobbs and Palumbo each registered a noteworthy three eliminations to get them to this spot.
#155: 8 Ball, Carmella, Jimmy Snuka, Kairi Sane, Mustafa Ali, and Savio Vega (Tie)
Image credit: WWE
Everyone at this spot in the list had at least two Royal Rumble appearances, with Carmella, Jimmy Snuka, Kairi Sane, and Savio Vega each boasting four outings. Out of this group, Carmella staged a memorable dance break, while Jimmy Snuka deserves some flowers for appearances ranging from his first in 1990 to his last in 2008—that last appearance spotlighting him squaring off one last time with Roddy Piper in front of a Madison Square Garden crowd.
#150: Austin Theory, Bad Bunny, Jim Neidhart, Logan Paul, and Tamina (Tie)
The 150th spot on the list—with the exception of Jim Neidhart—has a very modern feel to it. Austin Theory, Logan Paul, and Tamina remain signed to WWE at press time, and Paul in particular stands to rise up the ranks, likely to remain a featured player in WWE for years to come. Meanwhile, Bad Bunny impressed in his multiple WWE outings, and when the time is right, there\’s every reason to suspect he\’ll enter a WWE ring—and perhaps a Royal Rumble—again. In an interesting development, Tamina nudged out her father by a point for this higher placement on the countdown.
#149: Bam Bam Bigelow
WWE
In the first instance of a wrestler not tying with anyone at all, Bam Bam Bigelow racked up 22 points via his single Royal Rumble appearance in 1994 that saw him last a half hour and score five eliminations. His most memorable appearance on a Royal Rumble PPV would occur a year later, in tag team action away from the eponymous battle royal. He\’d go down in defeat, but the real story was a shoving match with Lawrence Taylor at ringside that set the wheels in motion for their WrestleMania 11 main event.
#145: JBL, Roddy Piper, Samoa Joe, and Zoey Stark (Tie)
Image credit: WWE
Despite a main roster run undermined by injuries, Zoey Stark has a respectable Royal Rumble resume with three appearances and two eliminations to date. That\’s good enough to place her in the company of respected legends whom she\’ll likely climb past in the rankings in years to come, as none of the others are likely to participate again.
For his part, Roddy Piper probably had the most memorable outing of the bunch with his 1992 appearance that saw him fend off Ric Flair across a half hour period during The Nature Boy\’s historically great run in the match. JBL made an impressive six Rumble entries, while Samoa Joe only had two but racked up three eliminations in the process.
#141: Haku, Mia Yim, Raquel Rodriguez, and Roxanne Perez (Tie)
In hindsight, it seems borderline criminal that one of wrestling\’s defining real-life badasses, Haku, would only have two eliminations and about twenty minutes in the ring at Royal Rumbles across four appearances. There\’s not much cohesion, either, to read into him tying with Mia Yim and tag team partners Raquel Rodriguez and Roxanne Perez.
For her part, Perez had an hour-long run in the 2025 Rumble that brought her all the way to the final two in the ring. The odds are she\’ll climb quite a few spots in the years ahead, and fans shouldn\’t count her out as a prospective Rumble winner one day.
#133: Al Snow, Eddie Guerrero, Elias, Jacob Fatu, Nikki Cross, Omos, Santino Marella, and Terry Funk (Tie)
133rd seems like the spot for respected veterans who didn\’t get to make as much of a dent in the Royal Rumble as their talents or legacies would suggest, highlighted by Eddie Guerrero, Terry Funk, and Al Snow. Santino Marella deserves a shoutout here for an iconic runner-up performance in 2011. Though he never graduated from the mid-card in WWE, fans were nonetheless genuinely excited when it looked like he had a chance at eliminating eventual winner Alberto Del Rio. Moreover, given how Del Rio\’s career and life played out from there, many suggest WWE history would\’ve been better off had Marella picked up the win.
Nikki Cross is still on the roster and stands to advance at least a bit on the list. The real movers and shakers looking ahead for this slot, though, are Jacob Fatu and Omos. Fatu has only worked one Rumble to date but had four eliminations in it and has a style well-suited to big runs in this match. Meanwhile, Omos is a legit, true giant of this era. After an absence from television, WWE reintroduced him where he promptly won a battle royal. He\’s an unlikely Rumble winner, but the kind of attraction well suited to appear in the match again and who will probably pick up at least one more elimination each time he does.
#131: Curtis Axel and Trish Stratus (Tie)
This is an interesting spot on the list for featuring two well-respected in-ring performers. After a brief over-push at the launch of the Curtis Axel persona, he was widely under-utilized relative to his talent. In the end, the most famous part of his Rumble legacy probably comes back to an extended comedic angle: because he was attacked before he could get into the 2015 Royal Rumble, he was never eliminated and thus had a claim to have been the match\’s true winner, or at least still in contention.
Had women had a Royal Rumble a decade or two sooner, Trish Stratus would surely land much higher on this list. As it stands, she was a fun returning legend to see in this environment, with four cumulative eliminations over two appearances.
#126: Jeff Hardy, Mandy Rose, Ron Simmons, R-Truth, and Ted DiBiase Jr. (Tie)
On paper, the Royal Rumble looks all but tailor-made for Ron Simmons to thrive in, but like a number of world champion legends, his heyday didn\’t coincide with his Rumble appearances. To his credit, he did work five Rumble matches and tally four eliminations, with a particularly noteworthy outing in 1998 when he made it to the final four.
Jeff Hardy is another noteworthy name whom some may have expected to land higher, but he spent the years when he might have most legitimately been a contender to win the match—2008 and 2009—in world title matches on the PPV, besides otherwise spending two Rumble PPVs working tag matches.
R-Truth\’s longevity—working no fewer than nine Rumble matches—helped him scale the list, not least of all including some comedic gold like a dance break and joining the match with a ladder in tow. Ted DiBiase Jr. and Mandy Rose each likely land higher than folks would expect. It\’s easy to forget that in the heat of DiBiase looking like a future main eventer, he got a 45-minute run in the match in 2009, alongside two other respectable outings, while Mandy Rose worked four Rumbles with three eliminations to her name.
#124: Hercules and Matt Riddle (Tie)
Powerhouse Hercules worked three early Rumbles with nearly a cumulative hour to his credit and three eliminations. Matt Riddle wound up boasting strikingly similar stats decades later, in a time when he looked like a prospective main event guy. There remains an outside chance WWE fans may see him in the Rumble again at some point in the future.
#120: Beth Phoenix, Chelsea Green, Jerry Lawler, and Tatanka (Tie)
Photo credit: WWE
Beth Phoenix stands out here as only the second woman to participate in a men\’s Royal Rumble. She\’d go on to make her presence felt in two women\’s Rumbles post-retirement. That included a memorable moment of squaring off with Nia Jax, then falling victim to betrayal by her friend Natalya in the inaugural women\’s match in 2018. She worked the Rumble again in 2020 with a 23-minute showing that memorably saw her keep going while visibly bleeding from the back of her head.
Out of this cluster, Chelsea Green and Jerry Lawler make a fair amount of sense coexisting. For all the differences and working in totally different eras, both are underappreciated talents who, particularly in WWE, engaged fans largely with comedic heel personas. To wit, one of Lawler\’s most famous Rumble moments saw him enter the 1997 edition only for long-time rival Bret Hart to dispatch of him in all of four seconds, so he could go straight back to brawling with Steve Austin. For her part, Chelsea Green made a dramatic surprise return to WWE to enter the Royal Rumble, only for Rhea Ripley to send her packing after five seconds. Their resumes shape up similarly otherwise too, each with four Rumbles apiece and three eliminations credited to them.
Tatanka may have had the least iconic Rumble work to his name, but showing up at this point on the list bespeaks the rock-solid place in the mid-card he held in the early-to-mid-1990s, including at one point looking like a prospective main event threat.
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