Welcome to another eWrestlingNews Question of the Day!
The final spot in the Royal Rumble match signals not just the person with the best chances to win (mathematically speaking), but also the final entrant where there are no more surprises and everyone who can possibly come out the victor is either currently in the ring, or was already eliminated.
It’s been used to create massive pop moments with shocking returns, put up foreboding challenges with giants like Big Show coming out with the biggest advantages, and, sadly, it’s also been completely ignored and just featured some guy and gone over like a lead balloon.
My question for you today is “Who do you think are both the best and worst #30 entrants ever?”
Remember to answer with your response in the comments below.
As far as my answer…
Honorable mentions for best (in my opinion, obviously) would go to The Undertaker in 2007 and Trish Stratus in 2018 for the inaugural Women’s Royal Rumble, but I have to go with the photo above and say John Cena’s return from injury in 2008 is the best #30.
That shock was insane. Nobody saw that coming, as he wasn’t expected to return for a few more months. He was WAY ahead of schedule, and even though the crowd would eventually realize that Cena being in the match meant he would almost assuredly win, and even though his match at WrestleMania was super flawed (why was Triple H there?), you can’t deny the pop.
As far as worsts are concerned, I’m sure a lot of people might go with Rey Mysterio in 2014 since he was booed for not being Daniel Bryan, but I think that’s harsh and unfair, as if Rey came out at #29, he’d have just been straight-up cheered, and it was WWE the crowd was booing, not Rey himself. I’m not even picking that as an honorable mention.
We’ve got people like Tugboat in 1991 and Warlord in 1992—IE, people who didn’t serve much of a purpose and were never big enough to be considered an OMG type of reaction. Then, we’ve got Duke “The Dumpster” Droese in 1996 spoiling the surprise by winning a match against Triple H to determine who was #1/30. I like testing out the bookend concept, but I’m glad WWE didn’t continue to do it, and even still, someone more menacing should’ve been in that #30 spot, like just swapping him out for British Bulldog from #29.
On the women’s side, Carmella is the most blah option in 2019. Don’t get me wrong—I like Carmella a lot—but that wasn’t some wow factor entry worth putting her in the final spot.
My ultimate pick for this, though, is Nia Jax in the 2019 Men’s Royal Rumble. After already establishing a women’s match, why was Jax added into this for any reason other than to get people to go “Wait, what?” All too often, I think Vince McMahon just got bored and decided he wanted to do something to wake himself out of the creative coma, thinking the audience wanted the same “shake things up, no matter if things spill” approach.
What do you think? Drop your thoughts below!
