Kane and the Biggest Breakout Performances in WWE Royal Rumble History

The Royal Rumble is a concept that works a lot better in theory than it does in practice. On paper, it's a grandiose spectacle: 30 hungry WWE superstars, all hoping to fulfill a childhood dream of main-eventing WrestleMania, competing to be the last man standing.

But the truth of the matter is that there's a lot of downtime during Rumble matches. There's plenty of laying about the ring and hugging the ropes in between the major spots. And the vast majority of wrestlers last under 10 minutes, if that. It's difficult to stand out from the rest of the pack.

These five WWE superstars, however, managed it. Here are the top breakout performances in Royal Rumble history.

Shawn Michaels (1995)

Credit: WWE.com

In 1995, Shawn Michaels was the Heartbreak Kid—a cocky, vain, pretty-boy heel. He was also on his way to being a career midcarder; he was comparatively small in a WWE field that was filled with giants.

Although he had a few landmark matches—the ladder match against Razor Ramon at WrestleMania X, for example—he was far from the living legend that he's considered today.

But then, he won the Royal Rumble after entering at No. 1—the first time that anyone managed that feat. And even though he lost his main-event match against Diesel at WrestleMania XI, the die was cast. He had carried the entire feud on the back of his microphone work, and he was headed for bigger and better things.

He won the WWE championship at WrestleMania XII one year later.

Kane (2001)

For most of his career, Kane was a gatekeeper—the path to the main event went through him, even if he never got there himself.

Basically, his job was to be scary, seem like a dangerous menace and then barely come up short. This made his opponent look great, but it also allowed him to continue doing his job—if Kane lost too easily, then no one would respect him in defeat.

Kane tossed 11 men out of the ring at the 2001 Royal Rumble. That record stood for over a decade, and it took no less than "Stone Cold" Steve Austin to put him over the top rope.

Austin was extremely over afterwards, and it made his eventual heel turn and alliance with Mr. McMahon all the more heartbreaking.

Brock Lesnar (2003)

Brock Lesnar didn't have a breakout performance so much as a breakout year. He debuted on March 18, 2002. He main-evented WrestleMania on March 30, 2003.

In a little under a year, he had become WWE champion twice. And a major part of this meteoric, unprecedented rise was his 2003 Royal Rumble victory.

Lesnar broke through quickly—too quickly, in fact. The Beast burned out. One year later, fed up with the road, he left WWE.

It's safe to say that WWE has learned from its mistake. No wrestler would ever be pushed this quickly to the top of the mountain ever again.

Chris Benoit (2004)

Like Shawn Michaels, Chris Benoit could have easily been a midcarder for the rest of his life. He was an intense, driven, gifted worker, but he didn't have much charisma and likability outside of that.

He was purely a physical storyteller—what you saw is what you got. And in the pageantry driven world of WWE, that usually wouldn't be good enough to be the top guy.

But Chris Benoit got a Cinderella run at the 2004 Royal Rumble, when (like Shawn Michaels) he entered at No. 1 and won the entire thing.

He then won the heavyweight title at WrestleMania. There was no going back to the midcard after that.

If not for his shocking suicide in 2007, he would have been a multi-time world champion, without a doubt.

AJ Styles (2016)

AJ Styles was a massive star when he debuted at the 2016 Royal Rumble, but he was only a star overseas and on the indie circuit. He was unknown to the majority of WWE fans, as many watch the WWE product exclusively.

But when Styles entered the arena in Orlando, Florida, in front of a smark crowd, the fans roared their approval. It was a palpable, electric response. And even if a casual fan watching on the WWE Network didn't know Styles from a hole in the ground, they were forced to ask themselves, "Who IS this guy?"

It was the beginning of an incredible WWE career. Today, AJ Styles is deservedly the WWE champion and the face of SmackDown Live. And it can all be traced back to this moment, when the diehard fans went hard and the casual fans got swept along for the ride.