WWE Royal Rumble 2014: Worst Battle Royal Winners in Event's History
The Royal Rumble match is the one contest every year that the creative team gets largely right in terms of winners.
Whether it was Ric Flair in '92, Yokozuna in '93, Bret Hart in '94 or Steve Austin in '98, the winners have traditionally been Superstars the company has great plans for in the new year, and more times than not their gamble on the Rumble winners have paid off.
But there have been a few instances where the winner of the Rumble, for whatever reason, was the wrong choice.
Whether it was the Superstar themselves, the reasoning for the win, the timing of the win or the effect the win had on programming, it just did not pan out in the same excellent manner that some of the better winners in Rumble history did.
As the 2014 Royal Rumble approaches, here is a look back at the five worst winners in the huge Battle Royal's long and illustrious history.
Big John Studd (1989)
1 of 5
In 1988, Jim Duggan won the very first Royal Rumble. While his name may not belong among the other great Rumble winners such as Steve Austin, The Rock, Hulk Hogan and John Cena, he was an extremely over babyface who was as good a choice to win the contest as anyone else entered in the match.
Fast-forward a year and you have Big John Studd, who was returning to the company after a nearly two-year absence and was slated to play a big role in one of the top rivalries at WrestleMania V. What better way to reintroduce him to the audience by giving him a big win in a fairly new and exciting gimmick match, right?
Right?
Wrong.
The 1989 Royal Rumble featured the likes of Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage, Andre the Giant, Jake Roberts and "Million Dollar Man" Ted DiBiase yet the company decided to go with Studd as the winner.
Even Big Boss Man, who had made a great impact since debuting and being inserted into a feud with Hulk Hogan, would have been a far better choice to leave The Summit in Houston with a win.
Studd would go on to referee the match between Jake Roberts and Andre the Giant at WrestleMania V and tease a potential match with Andre. That match never came, however, as he wrestled his final match for the company in June of '89.
So what good came of Studd's win? He did not become a valuable mid-card act for the company over the next five years, as Duggan did. He was not elevated by the win as Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Yokozuna and Steve Austin did. There was no title match for him like there was for Hogan or Rock.
Instead, it was a one-shot win for a guy that would be out of the company again six months later.
Stone Cold Steve Austin (1997)
2 of 5
It is difficult to say that anytime Steve Austin won anything was a mistake given the success he had in World Wrestling Entertainment and his status as the greatest Superstar in WWE history.
But in 1997, he won the Royal Rumble match in controversial fashion, sneaking back into the ring behind the official's back after being previously eliminated and dumping his top rival Bret Hart over the top and to the arena floor for the win.
It continued the Austin-Hart conflict but, at the same time, the win watered down the stipulation that had been officially attached to the match since 1993. Since that year's event, the winner of the Rumble match has received a shot at the WWE or World Heavyweight Championship. However, with Austin not in the plans for the main event and a title shot at WrestleMania XIII, one has to wonder why they went the route of him winning the Rumble match.
Sure, the title match for WrestleMania was constantly changing thanks to backstage politics, but Austin was never in consideration for that spot.
Instead, the company opted to deliver a swerve and have Austin win with little or no followup, rendering the 1997 Rumble largely meaningless.
Luckily, Austin's wins in 1998 and 2001 would have a far greater impact on WWE and help the company achieve its greatest success.
Rey Mysterio (2006)
3 of 5
There was nothing wrong with Rey Mysterio winning the Royal Rumble match in 2006. It resulted in an emotional World Heavyweight Championship win at WrestleMania 22 and gave the luchador, a workhorse for WWE for a long time, a shot he never would have received in any other national promotion.
The problem with Rey's win, and why he should be considered one of the worst Rumble winners ever, lies in the reason that he won.
Following the untimely and unfortunate death of Eddie Guerrero, World Wrestling Entertainment did everything in its power to exploit the Guerrero name. He became a central part of storylines and, in one case, Randy Orton evoked Guerrero's name in one of the most vile, despicable ways possible in order to generate heat that could have been gotten any number of other ways.
Rey's win in the Rumble match, as well as his title win a few months later, was done "in the memory of Eddie Guerrero" rather than as a legitimate reward for his work and dedication to the company.
Each time Guerrero's name was used in an angle, it came across as in bad taste and really devalued Mysterio's win.
The whole situation was unfortunate because the talented Mysterio, one of the best of his generation and a surefire Hall of Famer, deserved the accolades he received in 2006.
Alberto Del Rio (2011)
4 of 5
Alberto Del Rio's win in the 2011 Royal Rumble was bad. Not because he is not a talented worker, nor was it because he did not deserve the World Heavyweight Championship match he received at WrestleMania 27 as a result.
It was bad because the creative team attempted to make him into a huge star in one fell swoop rather than gradually building him up and paying off the push with the Rumble win.
In fact, that was the problem with Del Rio right out of the gate.
Rather than allowing him to gain traction with the audience, he was pushed to the moon from the minute he made his debut on SmackDown and never really had the opportunity to play the role of anything but a championship contender. That is a major problem he has to this day and a reason he grew as stale as he did.
In the 2011 Rumble, he had a solid performance but he was not quite as over as he and the creative team probably would have liked for a Superstar heading into one of the marquee matches at WrestleMania.
Pushing him harder by giving him the Rumble win and hoping he would connect with audiences as a result was a mistake and, unfortunately in hindsight, has made him one of the worst winners in match history.
Sheamus (2012)
5 of 5
There were two legitimate choices to win the 2012 Royal Rumble match and go on to WrestleMania 28 to challenge for either of the top two titles in professional wrestling.
Sheamus was surging on the SmackDown brand and had become one of the top babyfaces in WWE. With the obnoxious Daniel Bryan reigning over the Friday night program as World Heavyweight champion, it made sense that the Celtic Warrior would have a fairly decent shot to win the match and challenge the Aberdeen, Wash. native.
Chris Jericho had just returned to the company at the turn of the year and all signs pointed to a match between he and WWE champion CM Punk to determine who really was the Best in the World. Naturally, that match would take place at WrestleMania 28 and, in all likelihood, be one of the best matches on the card.
When the match came down to the two of them, few were surprised.
When Sheamus dumped Jericho and scored the win, it took the audience by surprise. After all, it seemed as though the match was tailor-made for Jericho to win.
Instead, the Celtic Warrior rode the wave of momentum from his victory into WrestleMania and defeated Daniel Bryan for the World title.
Sheamus' win was not one of the worst because he did not deserve it. Instead, it was one of the worst because there was a better option that the company failed to capitalize on.
The story between he and Bryan was simple enough that it did not need the Rumble win to set it up whereas the Jericho-Punk story struggled early and could have used a Jericho win in the Rumble to help energize it.
.jpg?w=600 "WWE Raw Results & Grades 🔠")
