WWE Royal Rumble 2012: Ranking the Last 10 Winners of the Royal Rumble

Since 1993, the Royal Rumble match has guaranteed one wrestler a push in the company for at least two months. After all, the guy who wins has a set title match at WrestleMania (unless he waves the right).

But what about after WrestleMania?

Once the big day has come and gone, the success of the winners has varied. Some have gone on to have a decent run while others have failed to capitalize on their momentous victory.

So who in the last decade has made the most of their victory and who has let the big one go by without much of a challenge?

This is my ranking of the last 10 winners of the Royal Rumble match.

#10) 2010: Edge

Edge had comeback luck on his side. When a wrestler spends time off injured and needs an instant push back into the main-event scene, the Royal Rumble is the best place to achieve this.

Entering in at No. 29, Edge quickly re-ignited his feud with Chris Jericho, who had mocked him for getting injured during their tag-team run. And with Jericho's world championship victory at that year's elimination chamber, Edge looked destined to have the storybook return.

In a shocker, Jericho managed to retain his belt in a hard-fought contest. On the next episode of Smack Down, Edge was firmly booted out of the title picture when Jack Swagger cashed in his Money in the Bank contract.

Edge would be drafted to Raw after fighting Jericho once more at Extreme Rules, but was left without a true rival. Creative seemed to have no clue what to do with him as he floated between feuds and never really made clear whether he was a face, heel or tweener.

It took Edge until the end of the year to gain any true momentum back. While he did have the odd championship match before facing Kane at Survivor Series, he was never presented as the main threat.

Luckily, upon arriving back at Smack Down in October, Edge began to rebuild what he had lost during the spring.

#9) 2008: John Cena

As with Edge, John Cena was returning from an injury, although unlike the rated-R superstar, his return was more of a surprise.

Entering in at No. 30, Cena become the second man to win from the last slot. He also became the first person since Vince McMahon in 1999 to relinquish his title match at WrestleMania.

In this case he wanted to face WWE champion (and the man who injured him) Randy Orton as soon as possible.

Cena wanted to originally face Orton on the following edition of Raw, but the Viper declined, stating he would only defend the title at a PPV. Despite this, Cena failed to win the title at No Way Out in February after RKO got himself DQed.

In the end, it didn't matter as Cena went on to join Orton and Triple H in their WrestleMania match. Ironically, Cena would get pinned by Orton following a Pedigree from Triple H.

Cena did get more title opportunities in the next few months, but the main focus was on Orton and Triple H.

Cena started to feud with JBL and later Batista before getting injured again. His Rumble momentum burned out quickly.

#8) 2011: Alberto Del Rio

Coming off a strong debut in the WWE, Alberto Del Rio was a favorite to win the 2011 40-Man Royal Rumble.

He had big wins over Rey Mysterio and Christian, and while he lost a world championship match the month before, it looked as if nothing was going to stop the Mexican Aristocrat from winning the big one at WrestleMania XXVII.

Unfortunately for Del Rio, his main event spot at April's PPV turned out to be a bit of a lie. Edge defeated him during the opening match of the event. While being good, the match lowered the prestige of a Rumble victory somewhat.

Del Rio used his momentum to gain another title shot at the next PPV, Extreme Rules. Edge had been forced to retire due to a neck injury and thus he fought Christian for the vacant championship.

He once again lost and was promptly drafted to Raw.

Del Rio then floated around the mid-card and was not placed back into the main-event picture until his Money in the Bank victory in July.

#7) 2002: Triple H

Triple H was yet another wrestler coming in on a wave of comeback momentum.

The Game hadn't been seen since tearing his quadriceps during the summer of 2001. It was one of those Rumble victories most could see coming from a mile off.

At WrestleMania X8, Triple H defeated Chris Jericho in the main event to win the WWE undisputed championship. The victory was shortlived, however, as Hulk Hogan won it off Hunter the next month at Backlash.

The Game would then be forced into another feud with Chris Jericho, briefly challenge The Undertaker for the WWE championship before taking part in an aborted NWO storyline.

A trade to Raw and heel turn helped Triple H stay prominent, and he was rewarded by being allowed to become the first-ever WWE world heavyweight champion.

While he managed to recover from losing to Hogan, the Rumble failed to help Triple H in the way it should have. His Rumble moment in the end was pretty poor.

At least he managed to win the belt .

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#6) 2007: The Undertaker

As it stands, The Undertaker is the last wrestler to win the Royal Rumble match and be victorious for a world championship at WrestleMania.

Undertaker made history at the event by becoming the first person to win the match after entering at No. 30.

The match at WrestleMania was pretty much guaranteed to be huge. The Undertaker had the choice of WWE champion John Cena, world heavyweight champion Batista and ECW champion Bobby Lashley (well, OK, it might have been a bit weird if that had been his choice).

The Undertaker opted to face Batista, who barring time injured had remained the most dominant force on SmackDown. It was one of the few times where as fans we could realistically see The Streak come to an end.

Undertaker was victorious and would carry the belt for a couple of months before Edge cashed in Money in the Bank on him.

The reign was not fantastic since he only really feuded with Batista over the belt, but at least Taker had another Mania victory under the belt.

After losing the belt, Taker needed time off as he picked up an injury and thus was not a challenger until he returned.

#5) 2005: Batista

In my opinion, Batista was first person for whom it didn't really matter if he won the Rumble or not. After all, John Cena, that year's runner-up, also went on to win the WWE championship at WrestleMania 21.

Batista used his Rumble victory as a path to his first world championship. In addition, he defeated Triple H in three consecutive PPVs. No one has dominated The Game like that in a long time.

Batista would go on to have many convincing wins until January when he injured himself and was forced to give up the championship.

Had it not been for this unfortunate turn of events, who knows how long Batista's first run at the top would have lasted?

#4) 2006: Rey Mysterio

Going into January 2006, Rey Mysterio was riding a wave of pity momentum.

Mysterio was close friends with Eddie Guerrero. Before his death a few months earlier, they had been e competing a lot in matches against each other.

Whether he deserved the Rumble victory because of this or not is irrelevant to this slideshow. In the end,  Mysterio went on one of the best runs off a Rumble victory in the past few years.

At WrestleMania 22, he pinned Randy Orton in a Triple Threat match (which also included Kurt Angle) to capture the world heavyweight championship.

Rey continually defended the belt until July when he lost to Booker T at The Great American Bash. Rey would not get back into a serious main event for a while.

Still a few months with the belt is better that most have achieved in recent years.

#3) 2004: Chris Benoit

It is unfortunate that WWE doesn't like talking about Chris Benoit anymore since his Road to WrestleMania is the way to do it.

Before January, Benoit had a massive run of wins that put him over as a legitimate threat in the match.Yet it was was done so subtlely that no one really expected him to win. Even less so when he was given the No. 1 entry.

Still, Benoit went the distance and continued his impressive run of wins after the match going on to make Triple H tap out at WrestleMania XX.

Shawn Michaels followed suit next month at Backlash.The Rabid Wolverine even made Kane tap during a defense.

If there was a downside to his reign as champion, it was that WWE never really treated him as a true main-eventer. When he wasn't defending the title against one of the regulars, he was never given a main event slot on PPV (Bad Blood saw Triple H vs. Shawn Michaels close the show instead of Benoit vs.  Kane).

Benoit's reign lasted until SummerSlam in August when he lost to Randy Orton. Once out of the big picture, he never managed to regain his spot as Triple H once again began to dominate the title picture shortly after.

#2) 2003: Brock Lesnar

During Brock Lesnar's brief run with WWE (he was only with the company for two years), he was given everything.

He dominated well-established stars such as Ric Flair, Hulk Hogan and The Rock. He won the King of the Ring crown and became the youngest WWE champion at 25 years of age.

The Royal Rumble was just a formality for him by the time the event rolled around.

At WrestleMania XIX, Lesnar would defeat Kurt Angle for the WWE championship. He would keep the belt until July when he lost it back to Kurt Angle.

Despite this setback Lesnar recaptured the title shortly after in August on an episode of SmackDown and remained champion until February.

After a loss to Eddie Guerrero at No Way Out, Lesnar left the company following a poor match with Goldberg at WrestleMania XX.

#1) 2009: Randy Orton

In 2009, Randy Orton became the first true heel in 10 years to win the Rumble match (while officially being a heel in 2005, Batista was already being cheered before the match).

In addition, Orton was the first in 16 years to do so at main event WrestleMania. As of today, he is the last Rumble winner to close WrestleMania.

Despite having an awesome buildup to his match, which saw him take out the McMahon family, he couldn't overcome WWE champion Triple H at WrestleMania XXV. This didn't matter so much, however. He won the belt at the next event, Backlash.

Orton's title reign went on for two months before losing to Batista. But this would be brief. He regained the belt eight days later.

Throughout autumn Orton traded the belt back and forth with John Cena before being displaced at Bragging Rights.

Shortly after, Orton turned face and grew into one of the top stars in WWE today.

If you are wondering why Orton gains the top spot on my list despite losing his match at Mania, I'll give you my answer.

Before winning the Rumble, Orton was struggling to get back into the title picture. He injured his shoulder the year before, wasn't getting the usual comeback treatment and was stuck in irrelevant feuds with mid-card wrestlers.

Even though he lost the big match and failed to have a significant run with the title, he managed to stay relevant in the main-event scene for almost a whole year.

Orton had none of the special cards that allowed others to be propelled into the main event quickly and none of the setbacks to halt his push.

Unlike Triple H and Rey Mysterio, he was not riding a wave of momentum caused by pity or a comeback.

Staying healthy meant he had a longer run of main events in comparison to The Undertaker and Batista.

He was treated with more respect than Chris Benoit, who was taken off the main event card whenever he wasn't facing a member of Evolution.

Unlike Brock Lesnar, Orton wasn't given any special treatment to keep him sweet to stay in the company.

Unlike all the other wrestlers in the past 10 years, Orton worked hard for his win and continued to work hard over the following year to maintain his spot.

The others may have done well, but Orton simply did better.