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00:00 Ah yes, the Royal Rumble.
00:08 To many wrestling fans, it's an annual tradition and maybe the biggest match they look forward to every single year.
00:14 Becky Lynch!
00:16 One foot, one blood!
00:18 Drew McIntyre's going to WrestleMania!
00:21 For 35 years, we've been spoiled with some of the wildest moments in the ring,
00:26 some of the funniest moments in interactions.
00:28 Oh my God, what the heck, what did Titus just...
00:31 I can't believe what I just saw!
00:33 And also some of the more serious ones.
00:35 As we get past 30 other people in one match trying to etch their name into history,
00:40 we also get these things we simply just can't forget.
00:43 It's been nine long years!
00:47 There's something about the Rumble that's so different from everything else we see in wrestling,
00:52 and there's something so wrestling about it at the same time.
00:56 This is Sportskeeda Wrestling, I'm Kevin Kellum.
00:59 Let us know what is your favorite Royal Rumble match or moment in the comments below.
01:04 Oh, and don't forget to hit the like button and subscribe for more videos just like this.
01:09 It could be the fact that superstars have to be thrown over the top rope,
01:12 or maybe the excitement of the crowd anticipating another surprise entrant,
01:16 or you could see all of the storylines active in WWE weave together
01:21 into one single match at one time with the last man or woman standing.
01:26 Or it could just be the combination of everything happening like that.
01:29 In the last three decades plus, the Rumble match has featured a combination of the most thrilling,
01:34 heartbreaking, hilarious, and downright crazy eliminations.
01:38 Seeing as how there have been 36 editions of the Rumble up to 2023,
01:43 we present to you the mix of some of the craziest and funniest eliminations in Royal Rumble history.
01:49 This is all in chronological order and isn't ranked in any way.
01:53 So join us. The first Rumble went down in 1988,
01:57 airing as a TV special from Canada with fan favorite hacksaw Jim Duggan
02:03 in the final moments breaking new ground as the first Rumble winner
02:07 by outsmarting the one-man gang who outsized him.
02:11 During one-man gang's big final charge,
02:14 Duggan pulled the top rope and one-man gang launched himself out of the match
02:19 with Duggan launching himself into history.
02:22 We go all the way back to the second edition of the Royal Rumble in 1989.
02:27 This is before the winner of the Rumble match earned a title shot at WrestleMania
02:31 and the entire presentation was still a relatively novel concept for mainstream pro wrestling television.
02:38 Andre the Giant should have been the one of the favorites to win the over-the-top elimination match,
02:43 something he had done in similar battle royal matches throughout his career.
02:47 But Jake the Snake Roberts outwitted him in a big way,
02:51 bringing his infamous pet snake Damien to the ring.
02:54 He unleashed it into the ring. Andre the Giant, a man who doesn't fear much, was terrified of snakes.
03:00 But his fear of snakes led to him hilariously eliminating himself.
03:04 The 1990 Royal Rumble saw the yellow polka-dotted working man hero,
03:08 the American dream, Dusty Rhodes, storm into the thick of the multi-man mayhem.
03:14 But he had one target, the royal pain in his ass at the time in the form of Macho King,
03:19 Randy Savage, delivering a quick blow of two bionic elbows
03:24 before using his thick frame to back body drop Savage out of the match.
03:28 The big man to beat in the 1991 Royal Rumble was the 6'7" Earthquake.
03:34 He scored a total of four eliminations at night,
03:37 but the most memorable one had to be his elimination of Bushwhacker Luke.
03:41 Luke marched into the ring, throwing his arms up and down in the air,
03:45 having a good old time before Earthquake quickly,
03:47 slowly, and casually guided him to the other side of the ring and sent him out of the match.
03:52 Earthquake didn't need a seismic effort to get Bushwhacker Luke out of the ring.
03:56 He just casually marched him away from it, basically.
04:01 It's still in WWE's Royal Rumble highlight reel three decades later.
04:05 The same night Hulk Hogan became the first man to not only win the Rumble twice,
04:11 but he was the first to do it in back-to-back years.
04:14 His final elimination was Earthquake, sending the crowd in Miami,
04:17 Florida, berserk as the Hulkster stood tall again.
04:20 And yes, he posed. The 1992 Royal Rumble match is still considered by many to be one of the best Royal Rumble matches in WWE history.
04:30 The lineup of star-studded Hall of Famers is incredible.
04:34 Hulk Hogan, Million Dollar Man Ted DiBiase, the British Bulldog, Nature Boy Ric Flair, Macho Man Randy Savage,
04:42 Rowdy Piper, The Undertaker, Jake "The Snake" Roberts, Sid Justice, and many more filled out this big match.
04:51 Up to that point, the only one man ever that had the Iron Man performance in the Rumble was the Million Dollar Man.
04:57 Two years earlier, he lasted 44 minutes,
05:01 a feat that hadn't been achieved and wasn't considered as common as it is today.
05:05 He earned a reputation for being a force to be reckoned with in the Royal Rumble,
05:09 which is why it was a huge shock at the time that the British Bulldog disposed of him in 78 seconds.
05:17 This was before the third entrant got into the match, Ric Flair.
05:21 Speaking of Ric Flair, he would go on to win that Rumble and become the WWE Champion in the process.
05:27 Yes, the WWE Championship was on the line in the Rumble,
05:30 a whole 24 years before Roman Reigns would do the same thing in the same match.
05:35 Sid Justice eliminated Hogan when the Hulkster was busy trying to get the Nature Boy out in the final moments of the match.
05:42 So Sid didn't even do anything wrong.
05:44 He simply capitalized on the fact that Hogan was distracted and took him out fair and square, or Flair and square.
05:52 So what did the beloved number one good guy in the wrestling world do?
05:56 He got bitter and tugged on Sid's arm and helped Ric Flair win the whole thing.
06:01 What a good guy thing to do. Oh, brother.
06:04 In 1993, it was the first time where the winner of the Rumble match would get that precious World Championship match at WrestleMania.
06:12 And the final moments of that year's Rumble saw Macho Man Randy Savage in the late great Yokozuna,
06:19 who was actually tearing up the entire roster by himself at the time.
06:23 He certainly did it in the Rumble.
06:25 And for some odd reason, Macho Man R-truthed it and went for a pinfall in a frickin' Rumble match,
06:31 where you're supposed to throw the guy over the top rope, and it's not easy to do that with Yoko.
06:35 But why did you go for the pin?
06:38 Yoko only needed to kick out and basically shoulder shove Macho Man, flying him out of the ring.
06:45 And it gave Yoko his big Rumble win and the main event at Mania.
06:50 Yes, he continued to march on into what was one of the weirdest and oddest WrestleMania main events,
06:56 defeating Bret Hart, only to lose seconds later to Hulk Hogan, and he lost the world title the same night he won it.
07:03 Yeah, it was weird. It was WrestleMania 9.
07:05 So in 1994, it was set to determine who would face Yokozuna in the WrestleMania match,
07:11 with the final moments of the Royal Rumble seeing Lex Luger and Bret Hart eliminate each other in a crazy double elimination.
07:19 Although it wouldn't fly today, the controversial double elimination saw Bret Hart and Luger become co-Royal Rumble winners.
07:28 The 1995 Rumble had some controversy as well.
07:32 Entry number one and entry number two, Shawn Michaels and British Bulldog lasted all the way until the final moments.
07:38 The Bulldog prematurely celebrated when he thought he eliminated Michaels,
07:43 but that was not the case since both feet had not touched the floor.
07:46 Yes, that was really a thing they had to enforce, and Shawn Michaels kept his balance,
07:51 swinging one foot above the floor, meaning he was technically not eliminated.
07:56 He would eliminate the Bulldog during his celebration and claim the first of his two Royal Rumble wins.
08:02 The next year saw a whole flurry of Iron Man performances from Triple H at 44 minutes,
08:08 Bob Holly at 39 minutes, and Jerry "The King" Lawler, of all people, with an impressive 36 minutes.
08:13 Lawler was the early proponent of the smart but not honorable strategy of hiding underneath the ring
08:20 and occasionally poking his head out underneath the curtain to see if it was okay to sneak back in there and eliminate somebody.
08:26 He was eventually caught and eliminated by Shawn Michaels in the end in the hilarious Iron Man not-so-manly performance.
08:33 But that wasn't even the craziest moment of that year's Rumble match.
08:37 The Big Men, Fader and Yokozuna colliding in a clash of titans before Shawn Michaels unceremoniously dumped them both out at the same time.
08:48 Now that was an elimination heard 'round the world.
08:52 Yeah, you big men gotta know where you are in that ring at all times.
08:55 In 1997, Jerry "The King" Lawler was on commentary bragging about what he would have done if he was in the Rumble match.
09:02 Entering at number 22, he lasted a whole four seconds before Bret Hart took him out.
09:08 "The King" went back on commentary to continue talking about what he would have done if he were in the Rumble,
09:13 only to be reminded that he was in fact just in the match.
09:16 The 1997 Rumble was also one that saw some of the funniest self-elimination moments of all time.
09:22 Mexican legend Mil Mascaras made a surprise appearance in the match,
09:26 and he probably didn't get the memo that you need to stay in the ring and not jump off the top rope to the floor.
09:33 Yeah, he did that.
09:34 Even the superstar who wore elbow pads on his shins for some reason,
09:38 Ahmed Johnson, eliminated himself earlier in that match when he got into an altercation with Farouk,
09:45 casually exiting the ring from over the top rope.
09:48 The Attitude Era was out there and pushed the limits of pro wrestling during a very peak period,
09:54 and someone who did that was Mick Foley.
09:56 In the 1998 Royal Rumble, he had a very unique performance, portraying all three of his famous characters,
10:03 opening it with steel chairs, clashing against chainsaws as Cactus Jack,
10:08 getting deranged in the middle of the match as Mankind, and being funky as Dude Love.
10:13 But it didn't matter, he was eliminated all three times.
10:16 Nobody would have expected in 1999 that Mr. McMahon, of all people, would win the Rumble.
10:23 The entire match was about Mr. McMahon and his cronies targeting Stone Cold Steve Austin,
10:29 and in the final moments of the match, The Rock's assist allowed McMahon to dump Austin out of the ring,
10:35 an elimination we're still trying to process to this day.
10:39 The next year, it was The Rock's turn to win the Rumble match.
10:42 While the match is remembered for the controversy where both the Brahma Bulls' feet touched the ground,
10:47 but somehow he still stayed in the match,
10:49 another unforgettable moment saw Rikishi dance with Scottie Tuhati and Grandmaster Sexe in the middle of the whole thing.
10:56 That's right, let's stop and have a dance party.
10:58 Interrupting their usual dance routine, he took advantage of this and dumped both of his "friends" over the top rope.
11:06 They were completely cool with each other after the match though.
11:10 In 2001, Drew Carey, yes, very famous comedian and TV actor,
11:14 became the first celebrity to ever occupy a spot in the Royal Rumble match,
11:18 but he seemingly didn't want to be there, and for obvious comedic relief, he lasted a little less than three minutes.
11:24 It was pretty ridiculous, especially in retrospect, when you consider that Drew Carey is the host of the show "The Price is Right",
11:30 that he offered Kane, once he saw him, some money to not beat him up.
11:35 And once Kane didn't care about the money,
11:38 Drew Carey eliminated himself.
11:40 Good call by Drew Carey, because that year, Kane would eliminate 11 other superstars in the Rumble,
11:45 a record that would stand for 13 years.
11:48 The next year, there was an incredible moment in the Rumble match,
11:52 where we got to see three legends stand in the ring together.
11:55 Stone Cold, Triple H, and...
11:58 The Hurricane?
11:59 Hurricane Helms got a little bit too cocky and thought he could double chokeslam the two legends
12:05 before he was caught and thrown out of the ring.
12:08 The same match saw arguably what remains as the most shocking elimination in Rumble history.
12:13 The Undertaker was verbally abusing the Hardy Boys,
12:17 and he was certainly the ring general and the boss of his yard and WWE,
12:23 but it proved to be the perfect distraction when the young upstart rookie, Maven,
12:28 shocked the world and dropkicked The Undertaker from behind, eliminating him from the match.
12:36 It's still one of the most shocking moments in WWE history,
12:40 the greatest in Maven's short WWE career,
12:43 but don't worry, it was taken away very quickly,
12:46 and Taker went on to assault him all the way to the backstage area.
12:50 In 2003, the Heartbreak Kid once again would make a big splash in the Rumble match
12:55 as the first entrant, and Chris Jericho was supposed to be second.
13:00 Christian came out dressed in Jericho's gear,
13:02 and the real Chris Jericho snuck up from behind him and launched a brutal assault on HBK.
13:09 This easily allowed him to dispose of the two-time Royal Rumble winner in just two minutes.
13:16 Make sure you subscribe to Sportskeeda Wrestling.
13:18 We have another video dropping soon with even more wild Royal Rumble eliminations.
13:23 Get into the comments below and let us know what you think,
13:25 or we're going to throw you over the top rope.
13:27 (upbeat music)
13:29 (upbeat music)