Top 10 of the Past Ten (Royal Rumble Edition)
By: Branden Mounts, PWTorch Specialist
Hello, and welcome to the Top 10 of the Past Ten. I am your columnist Branden Mounts and before we jump right into this amazing list provide by a man with great insight into the wrestling industry, me, a few ground rules need to be established.
For this Top 10 column I will be looking back at the past ten Royal Rumble matches to determine the best and worst Rumble winner. I will be ranking Rumble winners 1-10, with 10 being the worst and 1 being the best winner. I decided to rank the winners based on the impact of the win, overall buzz surrounding the Superstar after the Rumble event, and my opinion on the impact the winner made with the win. (For example: did it lead to an epic title match, a win at the following WrestleMania, or completely falling flat?)
Just a warning, this is not your normal top ten lists. No, this is the granddaddy of all top ten lists. The WrestleMania of top ten list (ok exclude Manias 9, 11 and 16). Yes, there will be ten items, that’s a given, but come on this is a wrestling news website and a new idea inside the world of wrestling hasn’t been pitched in years so give me a break.
Also, the winner of this list will be awarded no cash prizes (hey I’m a college student) but pride is always a great gift you know.
These are the Superstars I will be dealing with in the top 10 today…
A former champion turned Expendable Vince McMahons son-in-law A former UFC Heavyweight Champion A murderer An MMA wannabe whose daughter is now in porn A former damasked WCW cruiserweight A dead man who enjoys getting into cage side altercations A purple people eater chain gang soldier A third generation superstar who could make a great punter The injury prone now rated PG Superstar
Let’s get to it; I know the suspense is killing you.
10. Randy Orton (Entry #8)
RK(oh no). Yes, were starting off the countdown with the viper aka the pg stone cold. Orton’s win was somewhat predictable to most casual fans in 2009, but what hurt him the most was the god awful WrestleMania 25 main event he had with Triple H in Houston, Texas. All of the buildup of this match pointed to Orton walking away with the WWE Championship, but I guess everyone forgot who Randy was going up against. Yours truly was in attendance for this match and let me tell you those were the quietest 70,000 people I’ve ever been around in my life. If one word were too describe this match it would be, Boring!
9. Triple H (Entry #22)
“The Scrabble” comes in at number nine, mainly because everyone had trips winning the rumble and going on to the grand daddy of them all after coming back from injury. What also doesn’t help is trying to follow up the Legend vs. the Icon or The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan match from WrestleMania 18, yea good call on that one booking committee/Stephanie.
8. Steve Austin (Entry #27)
This win by Austin in 2001 gave him the hat trick on rumble wins, but it just felt as though something was lacking at the time. Yes, this win gave us what some call the greatest match in WrestleMania history between Austin and Dwayne aka the Hollywood guys, but I just can’t let that horrible heel turn go away! “Hey I think we should turn Stone Cold heel in his home state of Texas. God I’m a genius and a genetic jackhammer to boot.”-Vince
7. Batista (Entry #28)
The caged animal (you owe me for that Strikeforce) was the winner of the 2005 Rumble and ushered in somewhat of a new main event scene at the time in the WWE. He went on to have a great match with Hunter at WrestleMania 21 and even captured the World Title. To bad this Rumble is remembered by many for the Vinnie Mac injury entrance into the ring to restart the match. Ouch, dude.
6. Undertaker (Entry #30)
The Deadmans win in 07’ became the first by a number 30 entrant in Rumble history. (This feat would go on to be repeated the following year by a guy you can’t see if your 11 years old.) This match also set up the rivalry between HBK and Taker for the following years and led to The Undertaker winning the World Title from Batista at Mania 23. Some of you may be thinking this is too low for taker, but you know what this is my damn list and too bad if you don’t agree just stop reading now. (I’m just playing I love you all, please just keep reading, I beg of you.)
5. Edge (Entry #29)
A big surprise entrant in 2010, Edge shocked the wrestling world by returning to win the Royal Rumble and exacting revenge on his former tag team partner Chris Jericho. This win could have been a lot higher but because of a poor program leading into the matchup (SPEAR! SPEAR! SPEAR!), still annoying, and losing in his match at WrestleMania 26, this is where the Rated PG Superstar ends up.
4. Brock Lesnar (Entry #29)
At the time, Brock “I will never shave” Lesnar, became the latest entrant to ever come into the rumble and win at #29 in 2003. Yes, this win was somewhat predictable, alright everyone had him winning, (just like the Patriots over the Jets…Burn), but hey it’s my rankings and Lesnar did go on to win the Undisputed Title over a guy who had a broken ‘frickn’ neck, and perform a horrible shooting star press that will live in infamy. Cena has got to pull out the shooting star press at WrestlMania 27 right?
3. Rey Mysterio (Entry #2)
The first man to win the Royal Rumble at entrant number two since Vince McMahon in 1999! Sorry for the flashbacks. This guy also won the World Heavyweight Title at WrestleMania 22 besides only weighing 120 pounds. Yea, his title reign wasn’t that good, alright it was horrible, but the emotion in his win and everything it entailed was still real to me damn it! (Shoutout to YouTube).
2. John Cena (Entry #30)
No one could see this Royal Rumble entrant coming! (Ok, I suck.) But, really who had John Cena showing up and headlining WrestleMania 24 that year. (Shut up, you had no idea.) This would start the trend of the, hey I’m not really injured comeback rumble win. The guy also got a crowd of MSG haters to pop, so that’s got to be worth something right?
1. Chris Benoit (Entry #1)
This is from a wrestling standpoint only, and no matter what the man did in his personal life by living up to his wrestling nickname, that doesn’t erase him and what he accomplished from the wrestling history books, or DVD’s in which I currently own. Benoit was the first rumble winner to win after being the number one entrant since Shawn Michaels in 1995. A successful performance and win in his triple threat match at WrestleMania 20 also helped him land in the top spot on our, wait my countdown.
Now, a couple of facts to take with you:
If you want to win the Rumble enter in the 20’s Challenge for the World Title if you want to be champion Do not run and dive into a wrestling ring at full speed after sitting in the guerrilla position for three hours, it may lead to an injury.
So, that ends the top ten for today. Be on the lookout for a new top ten list every month either on the main PWTorch website or the new PWPotato.com website.