Royal Rumble Fun Facts: 2019 Hyper Edition

I did a post back in 2016 featuring some fun facts about my favorite match type; the Royal Rumble match. This will be the exact same post but updated to include stats from the 2017 Rumble and all three Rumbles in 2018, including the men, the women and the Greatest from Saudi. Think of it as the remastered version. Hey, it's the hip thing to do nowadays.

-The first three spots in the Royal Rumble have the worst odds, as you have to basically to last the whole match to reach the end. In a surprising number, the first three numbers have produced almost the same amount of winners as the last three numbers. Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit won from the #1 entry in 1995 and 2004 respectively, Vince McMahon and Rey Mysterio won from the #2 entry in 1999 and 2006 respectively and Ric Flair won the match and the WWE Title from the #3 entry in 1992. The number 28 has been very good to Batista as he won the Royal Rumble in 2005 and 2014. Brock Lensar and Edge won from #29 in 2003 and 2010 respectively. The Undertaker was the first man to win from the coveted #30 spot in 2007, John Cena followed up in 2008 and Triple H shocked no one when he did it in 2016. 5 winners from the first three compared to 7 winners from the last three. Odds are good with those numbers!

-#27 gets a lot of credit as being the luckiest number to draw as the most number of winners have come from it. Big John Studd in 1989, Yokozuna in 1993, Bret Hart in 1994 and Stone Cold in 2001 have all won from that entry. Have you ever wondered what's the next best number? There's now two answers. That would be #24 as that number has produced 3 different winners in the 33 Royal Rumbles and they are an elite list of superstars. Hogan did it first in 1991 followed by Stone Cold's win in 1998 and then The Rock in 2000. The Mt. Rushmore of professional wrestling! How is Stone Cold's name associated with TWO of the best numbers to draw? Will another elite star enter 24 and win in 2019? #30 has crept up and tied this record in 2016 as described in the paragraph above. Speaking of #30, did you know The Undertaker is the only man to have entered #30 three different times? That was in 1997, 2003, and 2007.

-The 14th entrant has long thought to have been cursed in WWE. It was usually given to stars with not much direction or tragically, to stars who passed from us way too young. When 2018 Rumble favorite Shinsuke Nakamura made his way out to the ring, it looked like the curse was finally broken and indeed it was as Nakamura was able to punch his ticket by winning from the cursed number. It's the first winner from a new number since Orton won from #8 in 2009. Granted, you can make an argument for Del Rio, who won from #38 in 2011 and Braun Strowman, who won from #41 in 2018's Greatest RR but since the 40 and 50 man Rumbles aren't the norm, I'm sticking to my guns.

-History shows that the person who controls the match the most usually doesn't win. Look at some of the great performances in the last couple years as proof. Kane eliminated 11 guys in 2001, only to be the runner up. Likewise, Reigns took out 12 men in 2014, only to lose to Batista. CM Punk had impressive Rumbles in 2010 and 2011, eliminating over 10 stars between the both of them but couldn't win either one. Wyatt had a breakout performance in the Rumble in 2015 but couldn't turn it into a win. If you want to win, be a surprise entrant or don't do too much work. Braun Strowman proved my stat wrong when he eliminated 13 men in the Greatest Royal Rumble and won. 50 guys, but still, impressive. Strowman's 13 eliminations is now the record, beating Reigns by 1. Those two will never stop will they?

-The 2010 Royal Rumble is currently the only one in history where the #30 entrant came out and was automatically apart of the Final Four. Edge, Cena and HBK were already in the ring when Batista came in at #30. That has to be one of the best Final Four in history, in terms of star power. 2018's Men's Final Four was pretty awesome as well, featuring Finn Balor, Shinsuke Nakamura, John Cena and Roman Reigns. Amazing.

-All but five of the men's Rumble winners have been World Champions. The only five that haven't won a World Title are Lex Luger, John Studd, Jim Duggan, Shinsuke Nakamura and Braun Strowman. Nakamura and Strowman have plenty of time though.

-Big Show, Triple H, John Cena and Roman Reigns are the only men to be the runner up at multiple Royal Rumbles. Big Show in 2000 and 2004, Triple H did it BACK TO BACK years in 2008 and 2009 while Cena did it five years apart, once in 2005 the other in 2010. Roman Reigns stands alone in this category, being a runner up three times! That happened in 2014, 2017 and 2018. He was apart of the Final Three in 2016 as well. I said this before but it really should be called the Reigns Rumble.

-Starting in 2005, the final four/three/two reflected what the main events or World Title matches were going to be for Wrestlemania. 2005, Batista won by eliminating Cena. They both went on to win titles at Wrestlemania 21. In 2006, Rey Mysterio won by eliminating Triple H and Randy Orton. Mysterio and Orton were involved in a Triple Threat for the title while Triple H went onto main event against John Cena. In 2007, Undertaker won by eliminating HBK. At Wrestlemania 23, HBK and Taker would face their respective brand champions. In 2008, John Cena shocked the world and won the Rumble match by last eliminating Triple H. The two were apart of the WWE Title match at Wrestlemania. In 2009, Orton won by eliminating Triple H last. They WERE the main event at Wrestlemania 25. In 2010, the final four of Edge, HBK, Cena and Batista were all in main event matches at Wrestlemania 26; Edge against Jericho, Cena against Batista and HBK VS Taker. It happened also in 2012 when Sheamus won by eliminating Jericho. Sheamus faced Daniel Bryan and then Jericho would face CM Punk at Wrestlemania 28 in both brand's respective World title matches. 2016's Final Three were Roman Reigns, Triple H and Dean Ambrose. Ambrose was featured in a big match with Brock Lesnar while Reigns and HHH were the main event. 2017's Final Three were Randy Orton, Bray Wyatt and Roman Reigns. Wyatt and Orton faced each other in the WWE Title match while Reigns main evented against The Undertaker. 2018's final two in the men's Royal Rumble, Shinsuke Nakamura and Roman Reigns, both challenged their respective brand's champions....and lost. Regardless, it fits my criteria.

-With the women's Royal Rumble now being a yearly tradition, there's even more stats! Per usual, the first two entrants lasted the longest. Becky at #2 lasted a little over a half hour while #1 Sasha Banks lasted almost 55 minutes, being apart of the Final Four with The Bellas and eventual winner Asuka. No longer cursed #14, Michelle McCool, who happened to be a surprise but not unexpected entrant, eliminated 5 stars in her 8 minutes in the Rumble. Nikki Bella and Nia Jax weren't far behind with 4, while Trish, Sasha Banks, Natalya and winner Asuka had 3. Finally, Asuka won at #25, making her the 2nd winner from this number, joining Hulk Hogan. Looking forward to more stats to come!

-Here's a strange one. You would think that the longer you stay in the match, the more stars you would eliminate right? Well only 13 times out of 33 Rumble matches has the person who's lasted the longest also eliminated the most stars in the match. That's about 39%. Here's who did it: Finn Balor (2018), Roman Reigns (2016), Bray Wyatt (2015), CM Punk and John Cena (2011), Triple H (2009), Rey Mysterio (2006), Chris Benoit (2004), Chris Jericho (2003), Stone Cold Steve Austin actually did it three times (1997, 1999 and 2002), Kane (2001), and HBK (1995).

-Daniel Bryan destroyed a 12 year old record at the Greatest Royal Rumble back in April 2018. Bryan lasted 76 minutes, that's an hour and 16 minutes, in the match. Did I mention that he was the #1 entrant? He broke Mysterio's record by nearly 14 minutes. Now, again, this was a longer match with 20 more entrants than Mysterio's Rumble in 2006 but it's still impressive nonetheless. Speaking of time spent in the Rumble, Chris Jericho holds the record for cumulative time spent in the match. Currently in his 11 appearances in the match (I say currently because you know, Jericho is Jericho), Jericho has lasted 5 hours, 1 minute and 30 seconds. That includes the 51 minutes from 2016, nearly 48 minutes from 2013, the near 39 minutes from 2003 and his best time; 1 hour and and 13 seconds from 2017. He's the one hour man baby!

-Kane, one of the best Royal Rumble performers in history, currently holds two records for the event. We all know Reigns broke his most eliminated in a single Rumble record back in 2014 (Kane held that title for 13 long years) but he still holds the most Royal Rumble appearances and the most cumulative eliminations. He has 44 eliminations in 19 Royal Rumble matches. Quite impressive. The closest currently active superstars who could top his eliminations are Triple H with 33, Big Show with 31 and Randy Orton, John Cena and Braun Strowman with 25 each. Roman Reigns has 30 himself and Lord willing that he comes back after spearing leukemia, he has the best chance at taking another record from Kane. While we're on eliminations, let's look at some more eliminations numbers.

-Austin competed in 6 Rumbles in his career and eliminated 36 SUPERSTARS total. That's an impressive average of 6 stars each match. That's insane, especially considering Shawn Michaels, who's been in double the amount of Rumbles than Austin at 12, only has 40 eliminations. Triple H has an impressive 33 eliminations in 9 Rumble matches. As I said with Roman, he's sitting at 30 eliminations in 5 appearances. He's averaging Austin numbers right now with 6 eliminations per match. Mr. Braun Strowman is not far behind. The guy has 25 eliminations in 3 appearances. That's basically 8 eliminations per Rumble. Lord, help the other competitors if Strowman loses to Lesnar and enters the 2019 Rumble.

-As far as appearances, Kane's 19 is crazy impressive. 13 of those he did in a row. Ironically, Goldust is the only one close to Kane and he sits at 13 appearances. Depending on how long Kofi Kingston, Dolph Ziggler and The Miz all stay in WWE, (they're all in their late 30s) one of them could break the record. They all sit at 11 appearances. It also depends if WWE does anymore Royal Rumbles in Saudi Arabia or around the world. If the GRR becomes a tradition and Kingston, Miz and Ziggler compete in both yearly, the record could be shattered. Goldust is in the same boat. Time will tell.

1/6/19 UPDATE

-Final Four stats! Here's a unique one; the 2005 Final Four, consisting of John Cena, Edge, Rey Mysterio and 2005 winner Batista, showed the future of the company. It also would showcase the four winners of the event for the next half decade. Batista won in 2005, Mysterio the following year in 2006, Cena two years later in 2008 and Edge in 2010. There isn't another final four with this unique stat. There's never been a Final Four where all the competitors were former Rumble winners.  It's been close a few times. 2010's Final Four of Edge, Batista, HBK and Cena featured three former winners and the actual winner of that year's Rumble and 2016 featured Roman Reigns, Triple H, Sheamus and Ambrose, another three former winners and maybe a future one in Ambrose. 2019 could finally feature a Final Four of all past winners, if some combination of Mysterio, Sheamus, Orton, Cena, Shinsuke Nakamura or Braun Strowman survive. Not likely, but it is possible.

1/7/19 UPDATE

-Which number is the most likely to be eliminated first each year? Based off of the 33 Rumbles, if you enter #3, you have a 45% chance of being the first one out of the match. 15 Royal Rumbles in history have had the #3 entry eliminated first. The #2 entry is next with 9 overall first eliminations which is followed by  #5 with 5 overall first eliminations. If you get #1 or #4, chances are you won't be eliminated first, as only 3 times has the #1 entry gone out first and only ONE TIME has the #4 entry left the Rumble first. The #1 entry being eliminated first was first done in 2003 (Shawn Michaels) then again in 2007 (Ric Flair) and lastly in 2015 (The Miz). The only time the #4 entrant was eliminated first was in 2018 in the women's Royal Rumble and that was none other than Mandy Rose.

-Speaking of runner ups, did you know the #30 has been a runner up 7 times in Rumble history? It happened five times alone before Undertaker finally won from #30 in 2007. The #30 was also apart of the final two three years in a row from 2006-2008, with a 2-1. Sorry Randy Orton. Overall, the #30 was apart of the final two 10 out of 33 Royal Rumbles. If you take out the 2011 and 2018's Greatest, since they were 40 and 50 men respectively, it's 10/31, which is a 32.25% that being the #30 will get you close to winning to event. Only three have converted though.

-Did you know that before the 2018 Women's Royal Rumble, if you drew #27 and made it to the Final Two, you had a 100% chance of winning the match? When Big John Studd, Yokozuna, Bret Hart and Stone Cold drew #27, they were the only superstars to make it to the final two from that number. Between 2002-2017, there were no #27s apart of the Final Two. That changed in 2018 when Nikki Bella entered at the coveted number. She wasn't able to continue on the streak. Still, if you #27 and make it to the Final Two, you have an 80% chance of winning the match.

-Did you know #1 and #2 have only been the Final Two in the Royal Rumble match twice? And it happened in the same decade as well. Shawn Michaels and The British Bulldog first did it in 1995 followed by Stone Cold Steve Austin and Vince McMahon in 1999. #1 eliminated #2 in 95 while #2 beat #1 in 99. Also, never in the 33 Rumbles have the Final Two been the #1 entrant and the #30 entrant. It came close in 2006, when Rey Mysterio from #2 lasted to the end with #30 Randy Orton. What about the last two entrants, #29 and #30 being the last two? That's happened twice. It first happened in 2003 with #29 Brock Lesnar eliminating #30 Undertaker and again in 2008 with #30 John Cena eliminating #29 Triple H. In fact, the Final Two being numbers that follow each other in numerical order has only happened a total of 6 times. The four times mentioned already and two more times; 2009 and 2011. #8 Randy Orton eliminating #7 Triple H in 09 and #38 Alberto Del Rio eliminating #37 Santino Marella.

-The only numbers without winners as of 2019 in a traditional 30 superstar Royal Rumble are as followed; 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 20, 21 and 26. Only 4, 6, 7, 15 and 26 have even been apart of the Final Two. #15 did it back to back years in 2014 and 2015. Ironically, Roman Reigns drew #15 in 2014 and was the runner up, then had to eliminate #15 last in 2015 to win his only Rumble.  #26 did it twice as well, in 2000 and 2002 with Big Show and Kurt Angle unable to win from those years respectively. The others may have gotten to the Final Four (haven't checked that stat) but never a runner up or a winning berth. The only winning numbers with sole winners as of 2019 in a traditional 30 superstar Royal Rumble are as followed: 3, 5, 8, 13, 14, and 18. All winners above 22 (as 20 and 21 don't have winners yet), have multiple winners. In the 31 traditional 30 superstar Rumbles, 20 winners have come from #22 and up. Adding 2011's 40 man Rumble and 2018's Greatest Rumble with 50 stars, it goes to 22.

And that's all I got for you this time! I'm currently doing my yearly watching of all the Royal Rumbles (I'm on the 2008 edition) so if any other weird or interesting stats or facts come to my mind, I will post and update.