Royal Rumble match

The Royal Rumble match is a professional wrestling match based on the classic Battle Royal match in which a number of wrestlers (traditionally 30) aim at eliminating their competitors by tossing them over the top rope, with both feet touching the floor. The match is typically the main event of WWE's January pay-per-view event known as the Royal Rumble. The winner of the event is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated. According to Hornswoggle, who worked for WWE from 2006 until 2016 and participated in three Royal Rumbles, participants may learn their eliminations by knowing the two wrestlers who are eliminated before them and which wrestlers are entering the Royal Rumble before and after their elimination. According to CM Punk, who worked for WWE from 2006 until 2014, wrestlers are given a list of entry numbers and eliminations and are supposed to build the match from there.

## Royal Rumble records

### **Males**

#### **Longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble**

Top 20 individual longest times in a single Royal Rumble match. As of the 2019 Royal Rumble. Where they were winners in the respective match, the names have been bolded.

#### **Longest cumulative time spent in Royal Rumbles**

Only wrestlers who have spent more than 3 cumulative hours are shown. As of the 2019 Royal Rumble.

 Cody Rhodes/Stardust | 3:15:53

#### **Shortest time spent in a single Royal Rumble**

Only wrestlers who spent 10 seconds or less in a single rumble are shown. As of the 2019 Royal Rumble.

#### **Non-eliminated wrestlers**

Several times, wrestlers were drawn to compete in the match, but did not actually compete. Their participation is counted as zero seconds, with the exception of Hornswoggle's appearance in 2008:

1. In 1991, "Macho King" Randy Savage was drawn 18th, but no-showed due to leaving the building after costing Ultimate Warrior the WWF Championship against Sgt. Slaughter.
2. In 1994, Bastion Booger was drawn 25th, but no-showed due to suffering food poisoning before the match.
3. In 1998, Skull was drawn 22nd, but no-showed due to being attacked by Los Boricuas after having been mistaken for Stone Cold Steve Austin.
4. In 2004, Spike Dudley was drawn 13th, but was attacked on the ramp by Kane.
5. In 2005, Scotty 2 Hotty was drawn 15th, but was attacked on the ramp by Muhammad Hassan.
6. In 2008, Hornswoggle was drawn 9th, but was not brought into the ring until towards the end of the match by Mark Henry and was saved by Finlay (who was drawn 27th) and escorted to the back and never re-entered the match. Finlay would later be disqualified after coming out before his number came up and using his shillelagh to help Hornswoggle.
7. In 2015, Curtis Axel was drawn 6th, but was attacked on the ramp by Erick Rowan, who was illegally entered the match as it was stated on commentary and therefore was not a competitor. Unlike other occasions, this was notable for actually being worked into a gimmick for Axel, where he began to imitate Hulk Hogan and wear shirts emblazoned with "AxelMania" and claim that he was never eliminated from the Royal Rumble, therefore he won it, deserving a spot in the main event of WrestleMania.

#### **Wrestlers who had their number stolen or were replaced**

Several times, wrestlers were drawn to compete and were instead either attacked backstage or pulled from the match at the last minute and replaced by other wrestlers.

1. In 1999, Mosh was drawn 11th, but was attacked by Mabel, who took Mosh's spot.
2. In 2001, the team of Lo Down (Chaz and D'Lo Brown) defeated Kaientai (Funaki and Taka Michinoku) to earn one entrance spot in the Royal Rumble match, but that was later overturned by Vince McMahon who entered Drew Carey in their spot.
3. In 2004, Test was drawn 21st, but was attacked by Mick Foley, who took Test's spot.
4. In 2005, Nunzio was drawn 20th, but had his spot stolen by Kurt Angle before the match, Angle then challenged Nunzio to fight for the spot.
5. In 2018, Tye Dillinger was drawn 10th, but was attacked by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, the latter of whom took Dillinger's spot.
6. In 2019, R-Truth was slated for the 30th spot, but was attacked by Nia Jax, who took his spot.

#### **Most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble**

Top wrestlers with most eliminations in a single match. Only wrestlers with at least six eliminations for the men are shown. As of the 2019 Royal Rumble. Note that bold indicate’s winner of that year's match.

#### **Total eliminations in cumulative Royal Rumbles**

Top wrestlers with the most eliminations. Only wrestlers with at least 20 eliminations are shown. As of the 2019 Royal Rumble.