The ten Best WWE Royal Rumble Winners From The Last 10 Years, Ranked

Over the past 10 years, it’s fair to say that there is been some talent who deserved to win the Royal Rumble and go on to headline WrestleMania, while others were poor creative decisions that led to fan disappointment. This list will concentrate on the previous, as we rank the last decade of Royal Rumble winners whose victories weren’t only well received, but in addition deemed the precise selection to challenge for a world title at WrestleMania. 

From the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble to this past January’s edition of the event, there have been several winners that made WrestleMania more memorable due to their involvement within the foremost event, while some did not deliver of their eventual match at “The Grandest Stage Of Them All,” but are still praised for his or her performance within the over-the-top rope competition. Now that this 12 months’s event is within the books, listed here are the ten best WWE Royal Rumble winners from the last decade, ranked.

The opening entry on our list is the first-ever WWE Women’s Grand Slam Champion, Bayley, who won the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble. “The Role Model’s” victory is usually remembered fondly because of the epic match that followed at WrestleMania 40 between herself and IYO SKY for the WWE Women’s Title, but in addition since it kickstarted the eventual breakup of Damage CTRL. After months of Bayley spearheading one among WWE’s top women’s factions, IYO SKY, Asuka and Kairi Sane betrayed their Damage CTRL leader on “WWE SmackDown,” leading to Bayley’s Rumble win being greater than nearly being champion, but in addition getting revenge.

Along with WWE picking the suitable winner and story that fans desired to see featured at WrestleMania, the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble is widely considered top-of-the-line on the event for the reason that introduction of the ladies’s Rumble in 2018. Overall, Bayley’s victory is an awesome example of the corporate following through on a well written storyline, which concluded with the hero becoming champion and overcoming her former stablemates. 

In 2018, Seth Rollins was WWE’s ultimate workhorse, along with his ability to have the most effective match on TV each week and making the Intercontinental Championship a very powerful title on “WWE Raw” leading him to be one of the respected wrestlers on the roster. Subsequently, coming into the 2019 Men’s Royal Rumble, fans desired to see Rollins inserted back into the world title picture after having not been WWE Champion since 2016. 

On the time, the highest champion on “Raw” was Brock Lesnar, who was within the midst of his second WWE Universal Title reign, but unlike Rollins, was rarely featured on the promotion’s weekly television. Consequently, “The Visionary” winning the 2019 Men’s Royal Rumble allowed Lesnar’s title defense at WrestleMania 35 to be a story a few part-timer clashing with the last word ironman, while granting fans their wish of Rollins difficult for a world championship again. The 2019 Men’s Royal Rumble shouldn’t be remembered the most effective for its quality, but fairly WWE awarding one among its top stars for his or her exertions over a complete calendar 12 months.

Although this 12 months’s Women’s Royal Rumble received mixed reviews with fans criticizing the match for its poor pacing (while crediting it for the exciting drama within the latter half) Liv Morgan was undoubtedly the precise selection to emerge victorious. Since Morgan returned on the 2024 Royal Rumble, she’s taken her profession to the subsequent level, having change into Women’s World Champion and elevating her character from the mid-card to the foremost event. Nevertheless, one among the feathers missing from Morgan’s cap was a Royal Rumble win, and after two of the most effective years of her profession, she’s deserved the chance to challenge for a world title at WrestleMania.

Morgan will likely face Stephanie Vaquer for the Women’s World Championship come this April, and if each women impress on WWE’s biggest stage, the perception of the 31-year-old’s victory this past weekend will only proceed to be remembered with admiration. Moreover, Morgan had been the runner-up in back-to-back Royal Rumble’s in 2023 and 2024, and the runner-up within the last two Women’s Elimination Chamber matches, turning this 12 months’s win right into a moment of redemption after several failed attempts.

Before Rhea Ripley punched her ticket to WrestleMania 39, no other women in WWE history had won the Royal Rumble from the primary position, making “Mami’s” performance in 2023 top-of-the-line outings on the event in recent memory. Along with having seven eliminations within the Royal Rumble, essentially the most out of all women’s competitors that 12 months, Ripley went toe-to-toe with Liv Morgan, who entered at number two, and outlasted her former tag team partner until the ultimate bell. 

Although Ripley’s showing within the Rumble was memorable, perhaps more impressive was her match at WrestleMania, where she challenged Charlotte Flair for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Title. To today, Ripley’s battle with “The Queen” is arguably top-of-the-line women’s WrestleMania matches in history, which concluded with Flair passing the torch to the Australian star. Similarly to Bayley, Ripley’s Rumble win was on par with the standard of her WrestleMania match that followed, which was not the case for our next entry.

The 2018 Men’s Royal Rumble shouldn’t be only thought to be top-of-the-line 30-man competitions of the last decade, but in addition one of the entertaining for the reason that event began in 1988. A loaded talent pool and star-studded surprises eventually led to top-of-the-line final six lineups in Rumble history, which included Roman Reigns, Shinsuke Nakamura, Finn Balor, John Cena, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio. After spending a 12 months dominating in “WWE NXT,” fans were shocked when Nakamura was the last man standing, as many didn’t imagine that the corporate would push him to the foremost event scene just yet. As well as, wrestling fans were thrilled when it was announced that Nakamura would challenge AJ Styles for the WWE Title at WrestleMania 34, which could be their first match together since their iconic battle at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 10. Unfortunately, they did not recapture that very same magic.

As a substitute of Nakamura becoming WWE Champion and having one other five-star classic with Styles, the Japanese legend did not capture the gold, and turned heel after an underwhelming 20-minute match. Eight years later, the WrestleMania 34 clash between each veterans has since left a stain on Nakamura’s Rumble win, but it surely definitely hasn’t taken away from his hard fought performance and the fan excitement that followed when he outlasted a few of the most effective the business had to supply. 

Coming into the 2024 Royal Rumble, CM Punk and Cody Rhodes were the odds-on favorites to come back out victorious, and despite fans being split concerning the latter winning back-to-back Rumbles, WWE ultimately selected him to foremost event WrestleMania for the second 12 months in a row. At first, many questioned if the promotion would have the ability to put in writing a greater story for Rhodes’ second clash at WrestleMania with Undisputed WWE Champion Roman Reigns, especially after “The American Nightmare” initially gave his title shot to The Rock. Nevertheless, after fans practically forced WWE to have Rhodes face Reigns as a substitute of “The Great One,” the construct to the match that followed is top-of-the-line in company history.

The infamous WrestleMania 40 press conference, The Rock attacking Rhodes outside of his tour bus on “WWE Raw,” followed by the “Tribal Chief” being dethroned in top-of-the-line WrestleMania foremost events of all-time, proved that the previous AEW star was the proper selection to win the 2024 Royal Rumble. Although WWE almost ruined their very own story by having Rhodes quit his Rumble victory, it’s top-of-the-line examples of harm control done near perfectly.

It was expected that the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble would have loads of surprises, with legends reminiscent of Trish Stratus, Lita and Beth Phoenix appearing, but coming into the match, the final result was unpredictable, with there being many names on the present roster that were deserving of the glory. WWE ultimately selected to go along with Asuka, whose revolutionary 510-day NXT Women’s Title reign had just come to an end. Similarly to Nakamura, fans were thrilled to see the corporate elevate a brand new star on the foremost roster, but unlike “The King Of Strong Style,” Asuka delivered in her first WrestleMania match.

After winning the Rumble, Asuka would challenge for Charlotte Flair’s SmackDown Women’s Title. Although she could be unsuccessful in capturing the gold, Asuka proved why she deserved to win the Royal Rumble, as her 13-minute match with Flair was arguably the most effective contest on the whole lot of the WrestleMania 34 card. WWE could’ve picked a veteran like Nikki Bella or a longtime star like Sasha Banks to win the Women’s Royal Rumble that 12 months, but taking a likelihood on Asuka not only kickstarted a brand new rivalry, but set the bar high for Rumble winners within the years that followed.

On the 2020 Men’s Royal Rumble, Edge did the unthinkable by returning to WWE for the primary time in nine years after sustaining a career-ending neck injury and being told that he could never wrestle again. Although he survived until the ultimate 4 in his returning match, Edge would must wait a full 12 months before punching his ticket to WrestleMania, as he won the 2021 Men’s Royal Rumble from the primary position. 

Originally of 2021, Edge had made it his goal to be world champion one last time after he was forced to vacate the title he never lost because of injury. Subsequently, his victory within the Royal Rumble was not nearly attending to live out a dream match against Roman Reigns, or headlining WrestleMania again, but to finally have the chance to redeem himself. Edge would likely be featured in the highest two spots of this list if the 2021 Men’s Royal Rumble didn’t happen through the Thunderdome era, or if he had defeated Reigns at WrestleMania, but with or without the audience, it’s one of the memorable victories in “The Rated-R Superstar’s” WWE profession. 

Coming into 2019, there was no greater star in WWE than Becky Lynch, who had quickly change into the fan favorite to win that 12 months’s Women’s Royal Rumble. Generally, there’s often multiple stars that the WWE Universe could be completely satisfied to see headline WrestleMania, but in 2019, fans didn’t want anybody else to win the Royal Rumble except Lynch.

To kickoff the show, Lynch did not defeat Asuka for the WWE SmackDown Women’s Championship, leaving fans to query if she’d be inserted into the Royal Rumble later within the night. Nevertheless, when Carmella entered at number 30 as a substitute of Lynch’s music hitting the speakers, the audience became noticeably uninterested, as there was no person within the ring they desired to see emerge victorious. That was until Lynch replaced Lana, who had entered at number 28, but in storyline suffered an ankle injury, allowing “The Man” to take her spot.

When Lynch replaced Lana, Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona became unglued, leading to one among the largest pops for a superstar in Rumble history. “The Irish Lass Kicker” would go on to famously be one among the primary three women to foremost event WrestleMania alongside Charlotte Flair and Ronda Rousey, where she became a double champion. Lynch’s Rumble win not only led to one of the vital WrestleMania foremost events ever, but signified change in the corporate, who couldn’t deny her star power and the evolution of the ladies’s division.

All of the entries mentioned above were either heartwarming or monumental in their very own way, but Drew McIntyre’s win in 2020 might just be essentially the most perfect conclusion to top-of-the-line Royal Rumbles of all-time. Ahead of the primary 30-man competition of the last decade, fans were bracing for impact after WWE announced that Brock Lesnar could be entering the match at primary, despite being world champion. The concept was that “The Beast” would attempt to outlast his competitors in an effort to not face anybody at WrestleMania, and it felt like a gimmick that might break the Royal Rumble, but thankfully that wasn’t the case.

After Lesnar dominated for the primary half of the match, McIntyre entered at number 16 and eliminated the champ, with an assist from Ricochet. The audience in attendance erupted for “The Scottish Warrior” after he took out Lesnar, a moment that felt as special as his eventual victory. Moreover, the rest of the match was booked to perfection, with entrants reminiscent of Randy Orton, Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins making the Rumble feel unpredictable, while fans were also treated to Edge’s surprise return. 

McIntyre would unfortunately headline WrestleMania and defeat Lesnar for the WWE Championship in front of no fans because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but it surely doesn’t take away from his Royal Rumble win, which completely modified the trajectory of his profession, as he’s felt like a foremost event star ever since.