Another interesting fact about Hall...despite his long career in WWF/WCW, he only had 2 world title matches. Bret Hart at RR 93 and Sting at some PPV in the late 90s.
Taka wasn't the first Light Heavyweight Champion. The belt has been defended in Japan for years before that and was part of the J-Crown. The WWF demanded it back. That, as part of the J-Crown, the strap appeared on WCW-TV might've factored into that decision.
Whether as a Mountie, a Quebecer, or a Fabulous Bro, Jacques Rougeau was on the roster at the first seven Rumbles. It's just that he was always on the undercard at a time when undercard performers rarely entered the Rumble as well. Except for the first Rumble that was televised for free on USA. The Rougeaus were at the other house show scheduled for the same night headlined by Randy Savage and the Honky Tonk Man
Funny that in 1992, Rougeau's IC title match opponent (Roddy Piper) WAS in the Royal Rumble match. That made sense in kayfabe, as Piper had previously been announced for the Rumble match, and only stepped in to challenge the Mountie at the last minute after Bret Hart was too ill. (I'm not sure if the illness was real or kayfabe.)
@@daviddalrymple2284 I _think_ it was kayfabe, setting up Bret's subsequent victory over Piper for the IC belt that Wrestlemania. Extraordinary to think that the couple of months in between represents Roddy's only ever title in his top-tier wrestling career.
@@Somnogenesis Popular lore is that Piper never held a belt because he refused to lose cleanly. You can't give someone a belt if they can't be trusted to pass it on when the time comes. It's the same reason that Jim Duggan never had a belt in WWE despite his popularity. But Duggan, at least, was honored with an early Royal Rumble win.
@@daviddalrymple2284 Haha, this is perhaps a fair point about Piper! It says a lot about his regard for Bret that he took the IC title for just that brief interlude in order to then put Hart over clean that Wrestlemania. I've never heard it said before about Duggan though, i.e. that he was relucant to "do the job". Because he seems rarely to have been in high-profile feuds (and, I suppose, _because_ he didn't hold titles), he's never come across to me as someone with a high enough status to be dictating when and to whom they're happy to lose. And, I guess, because he seems like just this happy-go-lucky, not terribly bright character he doesn't come across like someone with that sort of stroke.
To be fair, it was a pretty awesome and sadisticly comical bump, until you realized Taka was legitimately injured, then you feel bad for enjoying it so much. And Chinaman? Different times
Can you really count Paul Orndorff since he was gone from the WWF by the time the first Royal Rumble took place and he never returned? Thats like having Bruno Sammartino on this list.
You said no one was laughing when Taka took that awful bump in 2000 but that's not true. Lawler was laughing his ass off and I guarantee you that means Vince was too.
Scott Hall always had a title match at the Royal Rumble and they never put him in. It was weird the intercontinental champion never entered in the rumble from 1994-1996 🤷🏻♂️
@@michaelreich4827yeah it was pretty smart. Can't have every big star be in the rumble and then the other spots are left empty. Some people did a match and did the rumble, but it'd be unreasonable to do that for everybody.
@@michaelreich4827 could’ve added some star power to the rumble as well that was extremely thin in those years especially the 1995 rumble which had to be shortened to every 60 seconds another superstar entered and not a lot of star power
4:034:28 "Nobody was laughing when Gangrel and The Big Boss Man threw Taka out of the ring so hard that he over-rotated and landed directly on his face". Unless you're Jerry "The King" Lawler, and busted out laughing everytime he seen Taka Michinoku fell flat on his face.
Even though they didn't have many opportunities to enter a Royal Rumble match, I'd put the Dynamite Kid, and especially Sting on the list. Also Jacques Rougeau (The Mountie).
Jaque has been on the card in 1990 , 1992 and 1994 and both of his partners haven't been in the Rumble match either his brother Raymond and his partner Quebecer Pierre (PCO)
Hard work pays off, dreams come true, bad times don't last but Bad guys do. - Scott Hall. I will say Scott was most likely the greatest wrestler to never enter the rumble or be World champ. A shame that drugs took over his life as he could have been a bigger legend than he was.
This is why the Royal rumble should be expanded to a 50 man and 50 woman Battle Royale. On the triple h he should invite people from New Japan, tna, aew (yeah right), nwa, MLW and other independent wrestling companies. The 20 man and a woman Royal rumble should be a scramble and then the rest of the 30 wrestlers should come out one by one.
I mean tbf lots of the same wrestlers do appear more than once in the Rumble which does take a lot of space so it's not super surprising that some have missed out
@@supersasukemaniac Didn't find an official statement from WWE that stated they're just live events or anything other than they're PPVs, not to mention that there was a championship change when goldberg defeated the fiend
Now this a great idea to keep the rumble from becoming stale. They should def have at least one first timer from the past each year; ideally with at least one elimination as well.
Does anybody else feel like 30 men just isnt enough anymore for a rumble ? Todays roster is enormous compared to way back when the traditional 30 was set, so many people miss out on getting a spot in it now and i always find myself thinking "oh were nearly at the end already" i think they need to evolve it and move to atleast 40 permanently
@@BryRobinsonmaybe that's a good concept but it'd work better in another promotion. Like the casino battle royal in AEW. WWE is just too stubborn to change that drastically
@@BryRobinson 1. People who was there said the crowd was noisy, seemingly the stadium/production was poor on picking up the noise. 2. 30 too many and falling asleep by number 8? You either have the attention span of a toddler or are just a troll trying to get reactions. The Rumble match is considered by most the best PPV and match in WWE so you wont get many with you here. 3. "Grow up" - Should take your own advice there. If you come with ideas that are much worse than what you are complaining about, expect people to criticize your ideas.
Non-WWE would be Lou Thesz the NWA World Champ between 1948-1956 (The Original Sammartino). Lou Thesz wrestled his last match in 1990, but not in WWE. Royal Rumble debuted in 1988, so as of 1990 there had been 3 Royal Rumble's already.
Surely Sting ought to be mentioned on this list even if his time on the active roster was short-lived, he was still signed to the company between 2014-2020? Yes he did have the neck injury so this obviously curtailed what he could do but if there had been scope for him to make a surprise appearance etc.
They say John Cena was in multiple Royal Rumbles but I didn't see him anywhere, also does anybody else still find it weird that the crowd at the 08 Rumble went berserk even though there was no 30th entrant?
Scott Hall never entered a Royal Rumble but Razor Ramon did however in 1997 lol oddly enough Scott Hall did compete in wcw's version World War 3 and won in 1997
That's so wild about Scott Hall man I did not know that but I think it highlights how damn good of an intercontinental champ Razor was Surely none else has ever defended the IC title in 1v1 match 3 rumbles in a row. Always my Foavorite R.I.P... For life Scott Hall, as he would say to us "see ya in heaven buddy"
Scott Hall is best known for his time in WCW, not for his time as Razor in WWE. Same with Nash/Diesel. They were both bigger stars in WCW than they ever were in WWE.
Guys like Scott Hall really show how ridiculous is that so many people want theirr favorite wrestlers to be THE GUY and get frustrated when they're just near the top.
Steamboat wasn't in WW(F) that long after the 1988 Rumble happened, plus he was in the opening match of the card. And they shortened it to 20 men anyway because of time I guess..... Maybe he was supposed to compete, I wish he would have. Then he went to NWA/WCW before next year's Rumble happened.
The irony of Razor Ramon or Scott Hall never being in it because he was always in a title match is that you could probably fill a whole Rumble of forgettable randoms that were in it between 93-96
Somewhat beside the point here, but in regards to #8 on the list, is that to suggest Roddy Strong is more of a "great" wrestler than Kyle O'Reilly? Obviously Roddy's been the far more relevant one recently, but still, is that a hot take? I feel like a couple years ago, that would've been considered a hot take.
Well, TECHNICALLY "Razor Ramon" did enter a Rumble Match, namely the one in 1997...it just wasn't Scott Hall...
Was just on my way to comment the same lol
😂😂
Yep, he really should have put Scott Hall instead of Razor Ramon because you walk straight into that lol
Justice for Sullivan
@@namo9690 Indeed! Much like Curtis Axel, Sully's still in that Survival Series! A true Iron Man
Au contraire - Razor Ramon has indeed been in a Royal Rumble. Scott Hall hasn't though.
4:28
“Nobody was laughing…”
I’ll have you know Jerry Lawler laughed….A LOT.
Kept asking for a replay too…
@@travismiller4320 And they gave it to him. Every. Single. Time.
🤣🤣🤣🤣 was looking for this comment
I remember watching it live. They replayed that bump like 4 times 🤣💀
Another interesting fact about Hall...despite his long career in WWF/WCW, he only had 2 world title matches. Bret Hart at RR 93 and Sting at some PPV in the late 90s.
Iirc Uncensored 1998 was the ppv
Actually, there was a third. He took the fall in a triple threat WCW title match at Superbrawl 2000 against Jeff Jarrett and champion Sid Vicious.
Thought he was in some triple threat ladder match in late WCW with Road Warrior Animal and... someone else. I really dunno. Could be a fever dream.
@@sirekumasutra7022and that was four months after winning World War 3.
That's actually crazy to think about, considering his look and size too.
That shot of The Undisputed Era with all the NXT belts is a great image!
The closest Hall got was 1996 when he did a run-in to attack the 1-2-3 Kid for costing him the IC Title to Goldust earlier in the night.
d-von not being in when bubba ray came back the other year and used truth as d-von was just weird
Remember when Roderick Strong beat AJ Styles and Shinsuke Nakamura in a triple threat champions match? Pepperidge Farm remembers.
Mr. America never been in a royal rumble, either. Surprised he wasn't included.
Man, that Mr. America really had a great physique - I'm surprised VKM never did anything with him. Hope he had a profitable career.
I remember Baron Corbin saying in an interview once that Kamala was his dad’s favorite wrestler
Kamala is a legend, I remember his match with Randy Orton
They have similar workrate
They have similar workrate
It took me a couple of years that John Layfield never entered the Rumble as the character of JBL while being an active wrestler.
Taka wasn't the first Light Heavyweight Champion. The belt has been defended in Japan for years before that and was part of the J-Crown. The WWF demanded it back. That, as part of the J-Crown, the strap appeared on WCW-TV might've factored into that decision.
Whether as a Mountie, a Quebecer, or a Fabulous Bro, Jacques Rougeau was on the roster at the first seven Rumbles. It's just that he was always on the undercard at a time when undercard performers rarely entered the Rumble as well. Except for the first Rumble that was televised for free on USA. The Rougeaus were at the other house show scheduled for the same night headlined by Randy Savage and the Honky Tonk Man
Funny that in 1992, Rougeau's IC title match opponent (Roddy Piper) WAS in the Royal Rumble match. That made sense in kayfabe, as Piper had previously been announced for the Rumble match, and only stepped in to challenge the Mountie at the last minute after Bret Hart was too ill. (I'm not sure if the illness was real or kayfabe.)
@@daviddalrymple2284 I _think_ it was kayfabe, setting up Bret's subsequent victory over Piper for the IC belt that Wrestlemania. Extraordinary to think that the couple of months in between represents Roddy's only ever title in his top-tier wrestling career.
@@Somnogenesis Popular lore is that Piper never held a belt because he refused to lose cleanly. You can't give someone a belt if they can't be trusted to pass it on when the time comes.
It's the same reason that Jim Duggan never had a belt in WWE despite his popularity. But Duggan, at least, was honored with an early Royal Rumble win.
@@daviddalrymple2284 Haha, this is perhaps a fair point about Piper! It says a lot about his regard for Bret that he took the IC title for just that brief interlude in order to then put Hart over clean that Wrestlemania.
I've never heard it said before about Duggan though, i.e. that he was relucant to "do the job". Because he seems rarely to have been in high-profile feuds (and, I suppose, _because_ he didn't hold titles), he's never come across to me as someone with a high enough status to be dictating when and to whom they're happy to lose. And, I guess, because he seems like just this happy-go-lucky, not terribly bright character he doesn't come across like someone with that sort of stroke.
How i miss Billy kidman
I was just thinking that!
Dude was great!!
RIP Scott Hall 🙏
Jerry Lawler laughed about the Taka thing. Like way too much
I was gonna say...
And repeatedly called him a Chinaman
To be fair, it was a pretty awesome and sadisticly comical bump, until you realized Taka was legitimately injured, then you feel bad for enjoying it so much. And Chinaman? Different times
was it rude or something?
It is still hilarious
Can you really count Paul Orndorff since he was gone from the WWF by the time the first Royal Rumble took place and he never returned? Thats like having Bruno Sammartino on this list.
You said no one was laughing when Taka took that awful bump in 2000 but that's not true. Lawler was laughing his ass off and I guarantee you that means Vince was too.
Bubba Ray's one appearance in the actual Royal Rumble match had him execute two Dudley Boyz signature moves with R-Truth
Scott Hall always had a title match at the Royal Rumble and they never put him in. It was weird the intercontinental champion never entered in the rumble from 1994-1996 🤷🏻♂️
They needed solid singles matches to fill out the card. Hall filled that role.
@@michaelreich4827yeah it was pretty smart. Can't have every big star be in the rumble and then the other spots are left empty. Some people did a match and did the rumble, but it'd be unreasonable to do that for everybody.
@@michaelreich4827 could’ve added some star power to the rumble as well that was extremely thin in those years especially the 1995 rumble which had to be shortened to every 60 seconds another superstar entered and not a lot of star power
Happens more frequently than one would think
I hope Buffer doesn't hit this video with a copyright claim after using his phrase
Should know better than to trust someone from Holllllywoooood!!!!!
Oh I’m sure he’ll find it
“No one was laughing” I seem to remember quite a lot
4:04 Well no one was laughing except for Jerry Lawler
It’s still funny today
There's a coliseum exclusive on one of the Rumble VHS tapes where Razor Ramon talks about never being in the Royal Rumble match.
Dean Malenko vs. Lance Storm. The most serious match ever possible😂😂😂😂
That tripel threat at survivor series was 🔥
1:49 RARE NWA ANGLE JEFF JARRETT GEAR SIGHTING! This attire was so damn fire and he only wore it for like 3 episodes of Raw.
The last three words should've been "too damn sweet" instead.
4:03 4:28 "Nobody was laughing when Gangrel and The Big Boss Man threw Taka out of the ring so hard that he over-rotated and landed directly on his face".
Unless you're Jerry "The King" Lawler, and busted out laughing everytime he seen Taka Michinoku fell flat on his face.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN RAZOR RAMON WAS NEVER IN A ROYAL RUMBLE MATCH?!
Channeling your inner Sullivan Bo Brown, I see?
@@iamfiefoTempest screwed him over
@@iamfiefoWho is that again?
@itsOasus I was just raging, lol my bad 😅
Razor the biggest on the list
Why is former world heavyweight champion David Arquette not on this list?!
He doesn't deserve to
@@stevenpagnani7005Bro, we're just joking.
Hah!
Was he ever employed to wrestle for the WWE?
@@stevenpagnani7005 He could have fitted in during 1995.
Lol the king was laughing when dude fell on his head they kept replaying it 😂😂😂
Even though they didn't have many opportunities to enter a Royal Rumble match, I'd put the Dynamite Kid, and especially Sting on the list. Also Jacques Rougeau (The Mountie).
Jaque has been on the card in 1990 , 1992 and 1994 and both of his partners haven't been in the Rumble match either his brother Raymond and his partner Quebecer Pierre (PCO)
Correct. Yeah I was just meaning the actual Royal Rumble match.@@robertclark2253
Hard work pays off, dreams come true, bad times don't last but Bad guys do. - Scott Hall.
I will say Scott was most likely the greatest wrestler to never enter the rumble or be World champ. A shame that drugs took over his life as he could have been a bigger legend than he was.
Something that I noticed recently was the JTG appeared in 3 consecutive rumbles, all whilst Cryme Tyme were together and yet Shad Gaspard did not!
Steve Blackman and Dean Malenko should’ve been a tag team. We could’ve called them Black Ice
This is why the Royal rumble should be expanded to a 50 man and 50 woman Battle Royale. On the triple h he should invite people from New Japan, tna, aew (yeah right), nwa, MLW and other independent wrestling companies.
The 20 man and a woman Royal rumble should be a scramble and then the rest of the 30 wrestlers should come out one by one.
Re: Razor Ramon
Who came in at Number 3 and was the first elimination in the 1997 Royal Rumble?
That wasn't the real Razor Ramon played by Scott Hall. It was a fake Razor Ramon played by Richard Bognar. Scott left the WWF for WCW in early-1996.
@@Breythat’s the joke
Brian Pillman in the Royal Rumble would've been interesting
Did he never enter one?
@cjwhits9813 no
Pillman was in the WWF from July 96 to Early October 97 (Passed away)
Hall got a word war 3 win..... so there's that😂
I mean tbf lots of the same wrestlers do appear more than once in the Rumble which does take a lot of space so it's not super surprising that some have missed out
I don't understand what's unofficial about GRRs since they were PPVs about royal rumbles
Because Saudi Arabia. Also alot of the Saudi shows are just glorified live events, outside of the Saudi Elimination Chamber.
@@supersasukemaniac Didn't find an official statement from WWE that stated they're just live events or anything other than they're PPVs, not to mention that there was a championship change when goldberg defeated the fiend
So far, we have Tommasco Ciampa, Solo Sikoa and LA Knight too.
Now this a great idea to keep the rumble from becoming stale. They should def have at least one first timer from the past each year; ideally with at least one elimination as well.
Sting, Tommaso Ciampa, Stevie Richards, The Mountie/ Jacques Rougeau some honorable mention to never compete in a Rumble
Good chance Ciampa enters one in the future.
Ricky would have got a pop if he ever enter a Royal rumble
Does anybody else feel like 30 men just isnt enough anymore for a rumble ? Todays roster is enormous compared to way back when the traditional 30 was set, so many people miss out on getting a spot in it now and i always find myself thinking "oh were nearly at the end already" i think they need to evolve it and move to atleast 40 permanently
So... Not Quite Greatest Royal Rumble is your suggestion?
@@BryRobinsonthis idea sucks I’m glad your not a booker bro
@@BryRobinsonmaybe that's a good concept but it'd work better in another promotion. Like the casino battle royal in AEW. WWE is just too stubborn to change that drastically
35 ?
@@BryRobinson 1. People who was there said the crowd was noisy, seemingly the stadium/production was poor on picking up the noise.
2. 30 too many and falling asleep by number 8? You either have the attention span of a toddler or are just a troll trying to get reactions. The Rumble match is considered by most the best PPV and match in WWE so you wont get many with you here.
3. "Grow up" - Should take your own advice there. If you come with ideas that are much worse than what you are complaining about, expect people to criticize your ideas.
It's insane undisputed era was never promoted
Maybe because they’re the definition of Indy vanilla midgets
Okay, Watch that Taka Part again. Lawler was laughing his ass off and he replayed it many times.
Non-WWE would be Lou Thesz the NWA World Champ between 1948-1956 (The Original Sammartino). Lou Thesz wrestled his last match in 1990, but not in WWE. Royal Rumble debuted in 1988, so as of 1990 there had been 3 Royal Rumble's already.
Surely Sting ought to be mentioned on this list even if his time on the active roster was short-lived, he was still signed to the company between 2014-2020? Yes he did have the neck injury so this obviously curtailed what he could do but if there had been scope for him to make a surprise appearance etc.
Love the ending of this one. Respect for the bad guy
I would of had Sting & Dynamite Kid on this list. Sting in theory could of been in Rumble 2015 & Dynamite was around when the first took place in 1988
Possible list idea: babyfaces who were horrible people behind the scenes.
The only names that mattered were Ricky Steamboat, Razor Ramon, Barry Windham, Kamala, and Paul Orndorff.
Windham also returned to the WWF in 1989 as the Widowmaker
The Orient Express and former intercontinental champion The Mountie also never competed in a Royal Rumble match.
I'm 48 years old and I hope that there never comes a day when the pronunciation of the word "titular' doesn't make me smirk.
In 1985 Mr T was known as the star of Rocky III which he starred in with Hogan.
A haircut you could set your watch to 😂
I blame Gary Spivey for Mr Wonderful for not being in the Royal Rumble we saw all this being foreshadowed
I love the Royal Rumble.
They say John Cena was in multiple Royal Rumbles but I didn't see him anywhere, also does anybody else still find it weird that the crowd at the 08 Rumble went berserk even though there was no 30th entrant?
This joke is getting so old now, it is wearing thin!
@@jasonjimerson7046 Thinner than Baron Corbin's hair?
@@jasonjimerson7046what joke? I can't see it
Grow up
@@waxmandr Tried it, wouldn’t recommend
Scott Hall never entered a Royal Rumble but Razor Ramon did however in 1997 lol oddly enough Scott Hall did compete in wcw's version World War 3 and won in 1997
That's so wild about Scott Hall man I did not know that but I think it highlights how damn good of an intercontinental champ Razor was Surely none else has ever defended the IC title in 1v1 match 3 rumbles in a row. Always my Foavorite R.I.P... For life Scott Hall, as he would say to us "see ya in heaven buddy"
Scott Hall is best known for his time in WCW, not for his time as Razor in WWE. Same with Nash/Diesel. They were both bigger stars in WCW than they ever were in WWE.
Guys like Scott Hall really show how ridiculous is that so many people want theirr favorite wrestlers to be THE GUY and get frustrated when they're just near the top.
5:43 is it just me or does that redhead look like a video game character?
Fake Razor was in the rumble. That still counts.
Ricky Steamboat and Razor Ramon not being in the royal rumble should be a crime.
Steamboat wasn't in WW(F) that long after the 1988 Rumble happened, plus he was in the opening match of the card. And they shortened it to 20 men anyway because of time I guess..... Maybe he was supposed to compete, I wish he would have. Then he went to NWA/WCW before next year's Rumble happened.
The irony of Razor Ramon or Scott Hall never being in it because he was always in a title match is that you could probably fill a whole Rumble of forgettable randoms that were in it between 93-96
La Resistance should be on this list.
Come on guys, Razor Ramon has absolutely been in a royal rumble, Scott Hall hasn't but Razor Ramon most definitely has
Eddie never winning a Rumble before his unfortunate death is pretty sad 😢
where'd you get that FR t-shirt???
D-Von should have been in the 2015 Rumble instead of Titus O’Neil.
RazorGate is spreading to other channels!
Justice for Sully!
Wait... Kamala's real last name is Harris?
Somewhat beside the point here, but in regards to #8 on the list, is that to suggest Roddy Strong is more of a "great" wrestler than Kyle O'Reilly? Obviously Roddy's been the far more relevant one recently, but still, is that a hot take? I feel like a couple years ago, that would've been considered a hot take.
thanks!
4:30 Except for Jerry
I'm the only wrestling fan who probably don't like royal rumble
Well technically, Razor Ramon has been in a Rumble, but Scott Hall wasn't
Has Sting been in a rumble?
No he hasn't. He was with wwe from late 2014 to 2015 so Rumble 2015 was his chance 👍
Outside WCW, no.
I’m 23 and I know who Barry Windham is
I liked that Kamala Randy Orton match
Did ye ever play smackdown 2 on the ps2? Dean malenko was lethal in the royal rumble.
Most wrestlers I've spoken with detest battle royal type matches
Justice por Hiroki Sumi!!
Sting
Brian Pillman
Scott hall
The Mountie
Kamala
Ricky steamboat
Barry Windham
Dr death Steve Williams
Dvon Dudley
Stephanie McMahon
Brian Pillman
razor ramon did participate technically but not Scott Hall
Your number one in this list is misleading.
Razor, Steamboat and a bunch of WCW, older or underneath guys. Okay...
Taka was IN a rumble (99 or 2000) ... Just not a legal entrant 😏
Razor Raymond in 1997 ….
Did Kidman hand his Jorts down to Cena?
Loved Kamala
List time