There have been 32 men and women who have won the Royal Rumble, and billions that haven't. Of those billions, Tempest has narrowed down the ten that should have. Who are your biggest should-be Royal Rumble winners? Let us know in the comments!
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SportsTranscript
00:00Hello, my name is Tempest and I am an agent of the TVA.
00:03I've been sent here because there have been a number of disturbances in the Sacred Timeline.
00:08Disturbances very specifically relating to Royal Rumbles and people who were meant to
00:12win them.
00:13As history passes and infinite possibilities are created across our multiverse each day,
00:18sometimes we have these variants who will wander from their assigned paths, paths that
00:23would have seen them win the Royal Rumble.
00:25Some may have never been in the right place at the right time, others were a victim of
00:29booking malpractice and managerial negligence, but the one thing the following ten variants
00:34have in common is they should all have won the WWE Royal Rumble.
00:39Let's get ready to clean up the Sacred Timeline!
00:44Sorry to steal your bit, Adam.
00:45I'm Tempest hailing from the TVA, I mean PartsFunKnown, and these are ten stars that
00:50should have won the WWE Royal Rumble, but never did.
00:54Do you want to keep your place on the Sacred Timeline?
00:57Well, you better subscribe to PartsFunKnown, or I'll prune ya.
01:00You don't want that, trust me, there's a big smoke monster over there.
01:04If you haven't seen Loki, go watch Loki, it's great.
01:06Number ten, Andre the Giant.
01:08This list will be taken in a few directions over the next eight to twelve minutes.
01:12I don't know how much time is left, I'm merely writing a script.
01:15However, a few of the names chosen have been chosen to help give the legacy of the Royal
01:20Rumble a boost.
01:21Having a long lineage of impressive winners is important to a match like this, and the
01:25Rumble accomplishes this better than most.
01:27I mean, the phrase, Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Winner Mojo Rawley, doesn't
01:32exactly light a fire in my loins.
01:34Now with that in mind, why did Andre the Giant, the King of the Battle Royal, not win one
01:39of the most Royalist of Rumbles?
01:41I have a lot of love for Jim Duggan, don't get me wrong, but it is hard to argue that
01:45the sentence, winner of the first ever Royal Rumble dot dot dot, wouldn't sound better
01:50with Andre the Giant at the end of it.
01:52The first Royal Rumble didn't play into the plans for WrestleMania 4 whatsoever, but
01:57that doesn't mean they couldn't have.
01:58Have Andre win the match just two weeks ahead of him winning the WWF title in the whole
02:03Double Hebner Schmoz, and tell me this match wouldn't be more memorable for it.
02:079.
02:08CM Punk
02:09Given how popular and influential CM Punk was from 2011 to 2014, it does seem rather
02:15blasphemous that he didn't manage to win the Royal Rumble match or main event Wrestlemania
02:19during that time.
02:21Sure, he was WWE Champion at the time of the Rumble event in 2012 and 2013, but still,
02:26book something else, find a way.
02:28Anyone but Daniel Bryan winning the Royal Rumble in 2014 would have likely been a tough
02:32sell for that crowd in Pittsburgh, but maybe I'm crazy for thinking CM Punk would have
02:36been a more welcome second choice than Mr. Hinks over here.
02:39What's even crazier to ponder though, is that CM Punk would have been a more than fitting
02:43choice to win the Royal Rumble earlier as well.
02:46As the leader of the Straight Edge Society, Punk was the best working heel in WWE from
02:502009 to 2010, and was incredibly underutilized at the time.
02:54As he said in his Best in the World DVD, the best good guy should fight the best bad guy
02:59at the biggest show of the year, and you could easily make the argument that Punk qualified
03:02for much of his career.
03:03Should have won the Rumble, what a robbery.
03:068.
03:07The Ultimate Warrior
03:08Now I will not be the one to sing the praises of The Ultimate Warrior, but if I'm booking
03:12the Royal Rumble in 1990, and am handed the notepad that says WrestleMania 6, Hulk Hogan
03:17vs The Ultimate Warrior, my immediate thoughts are not, hey, WWF Champion Hulk Hogan really
03:22needs to win the Royal Rumble.
03:24The 1990 Rumble is a good one, in no small part to the intense stare down between these
03:28impending Mania main event mountainous men.
03:31However, whereas Hogan gets the better of the exchange and eventually wins the match,
03:34I propose that Warrior should have been the final man standing.
03:37The Royal Rumble may not have had the, win a one way trip to WrestleMania, and also here
03:41is your complimentary title shot, stipulation added just yet, but I don't know, having
03:45your top contender win a huge match before challenging for the WWF Championship sounds
03:49like a solid piece of booking regardless of what era it takes place in.
03:527.
03:54Eddie Guerrero
03:55It remains truly remarkable just how big of an impression Eddie Guerrero made on the lives
03:59of so many fans who watched him.
04:01There's a whole generation of current talent that have come up idolizing Eddie Guerrero,
04:05and for good reason.
04:06The man was a generational talent, by all accounts a wonderful human, and a proper icon
04:11in pro wrestling.
04:12With regards to this list, it would simply mean more to scroll through Wikipedia on the
04:16list of Royal Rumble winners and see Eddie Guerrero's name.
04:19There is a slight issue as to when this should happen, as Eddie's main event run really
04:23only came at the tail end of his career, but if this is a fantasy world where we get to
04:26access the fabric of reality and warp all Royal Rumble happenings to our whim, I don't
04:31know, just book him better as a main event talent from the start and bada bing bada boom
04:34problem solved.
04:35You can surely find a year in which one of the best wrestlers of all time can make it
04:40go for the title at WrestleMania.
04:42Number 6, Kofi Kingston
04:44It was booked by Adam Blampied himself once upon a time, so you know it has his seal of
04:48approval.
04:49Straight up, the conclusion and follow up, or lack thereof, to Kofi Kingston's WWE Championship
04:54reign remains one of the most disheartening things I've ever witnessed as a wrestling
04:59fan.
05:00I know it, you know it, your mom knows it, Nathan, your boss at Starbucks knows it, they
05:04did my boy Kofi dirty.
05:06The easy way to remedy this?
05:08By having Kofi Kingston win the 2020 Royal Rumble.
05:11Now at the same time, yes, I like Drew McIntyre a lot and don't want to advocate for time
05:16travels to go back and take away his moment, but for the purposes of this list and Kofi
05:21Kingston's place on it, 2020 is when this needs to happen.
05:24In theory, Kofi Kingston losing to Brock Lesnar in 8 seconds could be an intriguing story
05:29if that is then used to propel Kofi's own personal battle, motivating him to win the
05:33Rumble and reclaim his title at WrestleMania.
05:36A Rumble win would have given Kofi the momentum to remain a main event talent after that 8
05:40second nightmare, and think how happy it would have made everyone.
05:44People f***ing love Kofi Kingston.
05:475.
05:48Randy Savage
05:49Randy Savage, brother of Fred, is among the first 5 or 6 names an older casual fan might
05:54recall from WWE's big boom period of the 80s.
05:57In many ways, he was the number 2 star in the company behind Hulk Hogan, even if people
06:01like The Ultimate Warrior were being pushed ahead of him.
06:04Randy Savage, cousin of Rick, should have won the Royal Rumble in place of Yokozuna,
06:08and that is a hill I will die on.
06:10Not only would it have meant that Randy Savage, inspiration for Vandal, versus Bret Hart would
06:15have been added to a WrestleMania card that was crawling through the Nevada desert in
06:19search for a decent match, but it would have allowed Bret to have a classic coronation
06:23as the next guy, something that was sorely needed after winning the title from Ric Flair
06:27at a house show, and then defending it against then-Mid-Carter Shawn Michaels and Razor Ramon.
06:32Not only that, but being able to include Randy Savage, line-mate of Reggie, in WWE's annual
06:37By The Numbers video would be pretty swell, and it would erase the dumbest Royal Rumble
06:42finish in history from existence.
06:43We're really cleaning up the timeline today.
06:464.
06:47Chris Jericho
06:48If you want to talk about timelines, and the various ripple effects and branches created
06:52by one small decision in wrestling, I want you to ponder this.
06:55Chris Jericho, at one point, was penciled in to win the 2017 Royal Rumble and main event
07:00WrestleMania 33 against Kevin Owens.
07:02That plan changed.
07:03Instead, Randy Orton won the Rumble, and Owens and Jericho went on second at WrestleMania,
07:08ultimately being a big reason for Jericho's departure from WWE.
07:11In his absence, Jericho faces Kenny Omega at WrestleKingdom 12, doing big numbers for
07:16New Japan Pro Wrestling, and putting the idea in Tony Khan's mind that there is an audience
07:20for a wrestling alternative to WWE.
07:23One year later, All Elite Wrestling was launched, with Chris Jericho as a major player, and
07:27they've been off to the races ever since.
07:29Does All Elite Wrestling exist if Chris Jericho simply wins the Royal Rumble in 2017?
07:33Would the entirety of the wrestling business have changed so vociferously if Vinnie Mac
07:38had just let Jericho carve his name into the slab of granite that lists every Royal Rumble
07:42winner?
07:43It exists at Titan Towers, I've seen it.
07:44We'll never know.
07:45I mean, I know, because I'm from the TVA.
07:48But you?
07:49No.
07:50You'll never know.
07:513.
07:52Daniel Bryan.
07:53I mean, f*** obviously, right?
07:55Like we've all been on our own separate but collective emotional journeys as a result
08:00of Daniel Bryan not winning the Royal Rumble in 2014, and then again in 2015, and it goes
08:05without saying that he definitely should have won one if not both of those matches.
08:09However, for the sake of sprucing things up because a few of these entries have been covered
08:13by Adam in his list of 10 times WWE got the Royal Rumble wrong, allow me to say that WWE
08:19missing the boat on Daniel Bryan's return from retirement is as sinful and as baffling
08:24as either the 2014 or 2015 Royal Rumbles.
08:28Daniel Bryan, returning hero of the people, had to turn heel to be booked well.
08:33Goodness me.
08:35You had three chances to finally give Daniel Bryan the Royal Rumble win he had been destined
08:40for following his return.
08:42Again, some of these are tough because I have nothing wrong with Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre,
08:46or Edge winning the Royal Rumbles in 2019, 2020, and 2021, but Daniel Bryan having never
08:51won the Royal Rumble just does not sit right in my jellies.
08:54And again, if you don't want to pick any of those three years, just have him win when
08:58he was supposed to, you absolute bowling balls.
09:01Number two, Christian.
09:03This might be a controversial one.
09:05It might not.
09:06I don't know.
09:07I don't really ever see this opinion get aggressively typed and shouted into the big blue bird box
09:11that is Twitter.
09:12Hell, Christian is f***ing brilliant and he should have won the Royal Rumble.
09:16More specifically, he should have won the Royal Rumble in 2011.
09:19At the time, Christian was recovering from a torn pectoral and eventually made his return
09:23at Elimination Chamber three weeks later.
09:25It is possible that he hadn't recovered at the time, and if that's the case, fair play
09:29to them, but my guess is he could have done it.
09:32Christian never truly busted through the glass ceiling of WWE's incredibly crowded Greenhouse
09:37Prison, but a Royal Rumble win would certainly have gone a long way towards making that happen.
09:43It would have been the perfect time to pull the trigger on the most hideous Canadian,
09:46Vince McMahon's thoughts, not mine, as Edge was World Heavyweight Champion at the time,
09:51and seeing Edge and Christian battle over the big gold belt at a WrestleMania would
09:55have legitimately made my heart emit an angelic chorus.
09:59Edge even used the Kill Switch to beat Dolph Ziggler on this show.
10:03It's like this was the plan, but they just didn't do it.
10:06And finally, if Christian won the Royal Rumble in 2011, that would mean the match wouldn't
10:10have been won by a colossal piece of s***.
10:12This is the ultimate timeline, trust me.
10:15At number one, Kurt Angle.
10:18Some careers are made by having won the Royal Rumble.
10:20In this case, the Royal Rumble is worse off because Kurt Angle didn't win it.
10:25Despite being one of the best to ever pull down a singlet strap, put it back on, and
10:29pull it down again, the Royal Rumble match barely played a role in Angle's career.
10:33He was the runner-up in 2002 and was in the final three in 2004, but otherwise the Rumble
10:38was simply a WWE accomplishment that passed Angle by.
10:41He was often champion in January, missing the Rumble match in 2001, 2003, and 2006,
10:46so finding a year to slot him into becomes a little bit more difficult, but I can close
10:51my eyes and envision his goofy ass celebrating the Royal Rumble match, and it is glorious.
10:56So here's what I propose.
10:57Kurt Angle wins the 2004 Royal Rumble match in place of Chris Benoit.
11:02Angle would go on to wrestle Eddie Guerrero for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 20
11:06anyway, and honestly, it would make the 2004 Rumble about 10,000% more watchable.
11:11I don't really have a fun way to end this now, so here's a picture I took with Kurt
11:15Angle in dual cowboy hats in 2019.
11:17I feel like a real cowboy.
11:19Yippee-ki-yay.
11:20And that's our list.
11:22Make sure of course that you like and share this video, and subscribe to PartsFunKnown
11:26for more corrections to the Sacred Timeline, just like this one.
11:29For all time, always.