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Pod Warriors 13: Royal Rumble By The Numbers, Ultimate Edition
9 Plays1 year ago
Heel Husband and The Fig God cover the history of the Royal Rumble by entry positions. They count up from 1 to 30 recapping the historically significant performances from each number in their trademark Pod Warriors style. Plus, Listener Mail!
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Transcript
Introduction to Royal Rumble History and Sponsors
00:00:13
Speaker
What is up Holy Fan? We are back with the Pod Warriors Royal Rumble history episode. So me and Jordan are going to be going ridiculously deep on Royal Rumble stats. This is basically like we're doing the history of the Rumble by order position. So we'll get into it in a little bit, but first let me introduce my partner, my compadre Jordan. What is going on, man?
00:00:38
Speaker
Not too much, man. Just ready to get into the Royal Rhombus with you. It's going to be a fun night. This might be a long episode. Like Seth said, we're going to get deep into the Royal Rumble facts and have some beers and just talk wrestling with
Royal Rumble Stats Overview: Entry Positions and Performances
00:00:54
Speaker
you guys. So it should be fun.
00:00:56
Speaker
want to remind you guys before we get into it that this episode is brought to you by ringside collectibles use code chick Foley to save 10% on all your figure purchases at ringside it is January 25th as we record this and elite 101 is in stock today so to go pick that up you know
00:01:14
Speaker
or grab anything else missing from your collection over the past couple months alright so again we're going to go starting from one all the way up to 30 just going through the historical significance of every entry position. We're going to talk about you know I kind of broke it down on
00:01:32
Speaker
historical noteworthy performances. I broke it down into five categories. I said, you know, you could win the rumble, you could be the runner up. You could have the most time in the ring, the shortest time in the ring. So that that was kind of how we how we caged it in, because honestly, like you could really you can actually make this a whole spin off podcast series. You know what I mean?
Royal Rumble: Kickoff to WrestleMania Season
00:01:52
Speaker
Yeah, 100 percent. This dude, the Royal Rumble is like one of the easiest things to talk about just because
00:01:58
Speaker
I mean, for me, it's the most exciting match of the year. I always look forward to this more than anything. So, um, and I mean, we've got a lot of years of it to talk about. So, um, yeah, this is going to be, you're going to be a good time. There's going to be a lots of facts thrown out, lots of numbers thrown out. So yeah, just sit back and enjoy.
00:02:16
Speaker
Yeah, it's a gimmick match that's been relatively unchanged for going on over 30 years now. So you got some serious statistical breakdown you can do on this. It's like the baseball of wrestling events. Baseball is like the easiest thing to compare the different areas to. Same thing with the rumble. Jordan, what does the Royal Rumble mean to you?
00:02:38
Speaker
I mean, the biggest thing is that you know, this is the kickoff to WrestleMania season, right? Like, you know, this is going to be the big event, you're going to find out who's going to be in one of the main events at WrestleMania every year. And it's just, it's always so fun to watch it. Like you're counting down at home, who's the next competitor. It's, it's just really cool. And like Seth said, it hasn't changed much.
00:03:02
Speaker
the years they've done it other outside of they've had a 40 man rumble and then like the times have changed every once in a while. But yeah, it's been pretty much the same thing since they started doing it. So
00:03:15
Speaker
All right.
Unique Royal Rumble Stats and Beverage Break Format
00:03:16
Speaker
For the beverage break this week, we are going to kind of do a rolling beverage break because we're not exactly sure how this is going to go, man. The format for this show is 19 pages long. We got a huge spreadsheet charting basically every Royal Rumble entrant ever, how long they were in the match, where they finished that. And we're going to be kind of, we're not hitting on every single person, but we're going to be kind of going, weaving a lot of different conversations in and out of this. And because of that, we're thinking we're probably going to go a few beers deep.
00:03:41
Speaker
It's going to be a rolling beverage break. Jordan, feel free. When you pop the top, that'll be the cue that we're going to talk about a new beer, man. So what are you starting off the episode drinking?
00:03:50
Speaker
I started off with a Bushlight Apple, just a real easy drinker. Nothing fancy to start it off. Just something to dip your toe in, man. You're waiting around in the shallow end before you start really doing some hardcore swimming, right? Yeah. I mean, I'm already about seven beers deep and a couple of shots because I had a work thing today. So I needed to start it off a little light and finish strong.
00:04:12
Speaker
So I got some catching up to do. So I'm starting with an 8% ABV double IPA. Jesus, bud. This is via our good friend, one of the Pod Warriors most devoted listeners, Zach Hertzler. He sent me a little care package of beer. This is by Cloudberry Brewing out of York, Pennsylvania. It's gelato. It's a double India pale ale.
00:04:33
Speaker
brewed with mango, raspberry, passion fruit, apricot, lactose, sugar, and vanilla. So it's like straight up candy, man. It's supposed to be like some sort of, you know, sherbet or gelato. Very, very tasty. And I can already tell it's boozy as hell, man. It tastes almost like a cocktail instead of a beer.
Analysis of Entry Position 1: Winners and Ironman Performances
00:04:49
Speaker
Yeah, diving right in with that is certainly a choice considering how much we got to do here tonight. This is gonna be a very interesting show.
00:04:58
Speaker
Yeah, if you're into wrestle math, this is the episode for you. Jordan, what were your thoughts when you got that email with the spreadsheet that I put together?
00:05:07
Speaker
Honestly, my first thought was, Jesus Christ, dude, how do you have enough time to do this? Because Seth said, when we talked about this, he's like, we're going all in on this. We're not going to half-ass it at all. And man, if you guys saw the email that I saw on Sunday night, I was like, Jesus, dude, that's definitely not half-assing it.
00:05:29
Speaker
As a bonus for the premium foley fam members, I will upload the spreadsheet that was basically like my magnum opus of research for this thing into the group just so you guys can kind of poke around and take a look at it because it's pretty handy little cheat sheet if you don't look back at historical Royal Rumble performances. And if you want to sign up for that, if you're listening and you're not a premium foley fam member, hit up chickfoley.com and you can sign up. Jordan, you ready to get into this? Let's do it, man.
00:05:58
Speaker
Alright, so we are starting off with number one. So the number one spot at the Royal Rumble. Alright, in theory, right, if this is a shoot, this is obviously the worst spot to be in. Mathematically, it's actually one of the best though, if you look at a number I call the Royal Rumble quotient.
00:06:15
Speaker
which is the finished position relative to your entry. Number one is the best spot to be in right so you think if you're coming in number one, you should finish in 30th place right be the first one out the number one entrant actually finishes average a 12.94 place so about 13 place right that's damn near halfway through the rumble.
00:06:33
Speaker
There have been 17, what I classified as historically notable performances.
Entry Position 2: Performance Comparisons with Position 1
00:06:40
Speaker
That's the second most in Royal Rumble history. So what's your reaction to hearing those numbers just off the rip, Jordan? I mean, it makes sense. Like, obviously, I've watched every Royal Rumble, so it makes sense. One is a gigantic number.
00:06:55
Speaker
Like you said, it does not make sense that number one should be this highly as far as the average finish. But I mean, dude, there's been some damn good people that have come on number one. So when you look back at it, it's not really that surprising.
00:07:10
Speaker
Yeah, it's a prime spot. You're starting off the match. Remember, for the first eight years of the Rumble, number one and number two were the only ones that got full entrances. So this is somebody you're obviously wanting to showcase most of the time. We'll get into it. There have been three winners from the number one spot. It is Shawn Michaels in 1995, Chris Benoit in 2004, and Edge in 2021. Now, going back to Shawn, a couple of notes on that. So he was the first guy to go the distance.
00:07:39
Speaker
This was the 30 minute rumble. Remember, we kind of talked about this on the main show last night, had the mid 90s. Some of those rumbles, the talent pool was really thin. And I think to compensate for that and the 95 rumble was probably when it was absolutely at the rock bottom. It was every minute people were coming in. So it's a really quick rumble. So it set him up for success, but it was still a really good performance. What's your thoughts on Sean and 95 rumble, Jordan?
00:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, looking back on this, this is definitely not a good rumble. Still impressive, nonetheless, going from one to 30. But yeah, this rumble is filled with so many bad people, though. Yeah, it's horrible. This is not your hall of fame class in this rumble. I think there's about five to seven good people, and the rest of it's pretty bad.
00:08:23
Speaker
If you go back, it's really Sean Bulldog and Lex Luger. I think are the only three viable people that could have actually won this rumble and Luger wasn't nearly as hot as he was in 94. I think this is one of the most needed Sean figures, man. We haven't really gotten a good 95 Sean with the mullet and the beard combo. Yeah, this would be a great figure to have. Hopefully we get it in Legends or something along, or even the Royal Rumble line. I'm thinking Royal Rumble line with, how about this man, with a buildup figure, Pamela Anderson.
00:08:55
Speaker
And I just, the celebrity ones are just tough for me to think that we're ever gonna get. I would love to see it. I just, I don't see it happening. Yeah, especially her. She's got some baggage. Chris Benoit won it in 2004. Obviously impressive performance, but that's basically been erased from history. I don't think we need to talk about that. And then Edge in 2021, he won the Thunderdome Rumble, man. What's, do you miss the Thunderdome at all, Jordan?
00:09:22
Speaker
I don't miss anything about the Thunderdome. I mean, it's it definitely served its purpose. But it's just it's just one of those things that like it had to happen obviously at the time. And we were all happy to still have wrestling while that was going on. But now I definitely don't miss the Thunderdome at all. What if that was the next crowdfund at Thunderdome, a scale Thunderdome playset?
00:09:45
Speaker
I'd rather just not remember that time. That two years sucked, man. That was a shitty two years of life and wrestling and basically just everything.
00:09:55
Speaker
All right, moving on from the so three winners. So that is tied for the second most winners from from one position.
Historical Performances of Entry Position 3
00:10:03
Speaker
So again, that kind of kills some of the kayfabe for the number one spot. But like we said, that's a, you know, it's a motivator coming in at number one, there have been 10 Ironman from the from the number one spot. So again, Ironman, that's the person who lasted the most time in the war rumble. So we had Ted DiBiase in 1990, which
00:10:21
Speaker
That was really the kind of the debut of that spot. This, you know, it's kind of become a staple at this point. There's always somebody who gets a really long run, but doesn't win it. And DBSC and 90, we didn't really see it in 88 or 89. So DBSC was kind of the first guy to kick that off. Shawn Michaels, this previously mentioned in 1995. We had Triple H in 1996. Do you remember Jordan, why Triple H was the number one spot in the 96 Rumble? I remember this match and everything.
00:10:48
Speaker
I read it down here and I was like, man, I really remember that match in the free for all against Duke, the dumpster dickhead.
00:10:55
Speaker
Yeah, the free for all for the, for the younger ones listening, man, that used to be the kickoff show. It would actually air. So if you got the pay-per-view, you can watch it on the pay-per-view channel. But if not, we used to have this thing called the preview channel. This is before you have like a guide on all your cable systems. And it was just like, it would show you what was on it. It was constantly scrolling, right? So you had to put it on there for a minute. You know, if you missed your channel, what was on your channel, you were checking out, like you had to wait about two minutes.
00:11:19
Speaker
And up in the top right corner of the screen, they would have live TV going and you can watch the free for all on that. But yeah, Triple H lost to a guy named Duke, the dumpster Drosie on this. The winner got to go in number 30, loser number one. It's just, it'd really be kind of crazy just plotting the course from, because the month before this, he was in the hog pin match with Henry Godwin. So he went from, you know, hog pin matches with Henry Godwin to losing on the pre-show to Duke, the dumpster Drosie. And now he's running the freaking company. It's what a career trajectory.
00:11:46
Speaker
Yeah. And I mean, uh, shortly after this, he, uh, got beat by ultimate warrior after giving a pedigree. And then, I mean, this was not a good year for triple H at all. What are the all time squash jobs at WrestleMania? It's not good, man. I mean, I enjoyed it because I'm obviously an ultimate warrior fan, but yeah, not good at all for triple H.
00:12:07
Speaker
Steve Austin in 1999. I think this is the worst rumble ever, man. What's your thoughts on the 99 rumble? I don't even think it's close either, dude. Any rumble that McMahon wins is instantly the worst rumble ever. And this rumble was, I mean, the rumble was such a beloved match and the rumble was, it wasn't really a match this year. It was just an angle, right? Austin McMahon are wanted to, they lead the ring that, you know, we were getting constant cuts in them outside of the arena and you knew it was coming down to those two anyways. Like, yeah, go out of your way to avoid the 99 rumble.
00:12:37
Speaker
Chris Benoit previously mentioned in 2004, The Miz in 2012, Dolph Ziggler in 2013, CM Punk in 2014, which would be his last match for over seven years. So I got back in the game shortly after this. Jordan, any memories of Punk's last appearance in WWE?
00:12:54
Speaker
I mean, I vaguely remember this Royal Rumble, um, basically 2005 to 2014 kind of just blend together for me as far as wrestling is concerned. It just wasn't a great time for wrestling at that point. Um, I mean, I, like I said, I vaguely remember this. I've went back and watched this, but yeah.
00:13:14
Speaker
Sucks that this is how it all ended. But I mean, obviously you don't hate it because you don't love seeing punk. So there we go. Edge is previously mentioned it in 2021 and AJ Styles actually did it again last year. So the last two years, the number one spot stayed in the longest. Jordan, you were in the house last year, man. What was it like being alive at a Royal Rumble?
00:13:32
Speaker
it was awesome the only problem was last year was so bad like AJ Styles was the best person in the ring through like 18 people and it wasn't even really close that he was the best person in the ring so it kind of ruined it a little bit that that's the rumble I was there for however still absolutely awesome being there seeing the countdown on the jumbo tron and all that stuff uh women's rumble was awesome so um
00:13:58
Speaker
Yeah, it's really cool to see in person. I mean, it's definitely something you should put on your bucket list as a wrestling fan. I thought it was really good card last year outside of the men's rumble. I thought everything else was really, really good. Do they stack that card? That's why I had so much hope for that rumble. And then yeah, the men's rumble just kind of killed it.
00:14:16
Speaker
There's been one runner up from the number one spot, Steve Austin, as previously mentioned in the 99 Rumble. And only three times in history, man. This is pretty crazy. So there were one thing I need to mention, I forgot to mention in our kind of methodology on this. I did not include any of the women's rumbles just because we're only five years deep on that. So it wasn't really enough statistical precedents to base it off of. I didn't include 88, which was the 20 man Rumble. And I didn't include 2011, which was the 40 man Rumble.
00:14:44
Speaker
And obviously, I didn't include the greatest Royal Rumble, which is, you know, not a Royal Rumble at all. Yeah, the less said about that, the better. But in 32 years, the person coming in first overall has only been the first eliminated from the Rumble three times. That's pretty wild, right?
Exploration of Entry Positions 4 to 9 Performances
00:14:58
Speaker
Yeah. And the more wild thing, I know you're going to disagree with me on this, but all three of these guys are Hall of Famers.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, I think Mrs. I mean, Mrs. The double grand slam champ now, like the stats don't lie. I'm not a fan of the guy, but I also am a big believer in kayfabe and Mrs. Kayfabe accomplishments are right up there with some of the greats of all time. I mean, like we said earlier, these are the only guys that get a full entrance. So you can't really bring out a shit bird at one or two because otherwise it's going to just set the tone for the whole night that it's going to suck. So I mean, it's not surprising that there's only three of these guys on this list.
00:15:34
Speaker
So we had Shawn Michaels in 2003, which I believe that was done to really set up.
00:15:41
Speaker
to set up his match with Chris Jericho at WrestleMania, right? Yep. And then we had Ric Flair in 2007. What was the deal with that one? And I don't remember that one. Honestly, I really don't remember that rumble. Yeah, I don't either. But I think this is definitely during Ric Flair's evolution time, if I remember right. Yeah, I mean, he's about a year and change out from being retired by Shawn Michaels at this point. Yeah, I mean, he's definitely old as dirt at this point. And I just don't think they wanted him out there very long, honestly.
00:16:11
Speaker
you
00:16:12
Speaker
Yeah, going back to, I'm looking at the list of all time number ones. There's really only, so you got Crush in 97, Delo Brown in 2000, which he's kind of borderline. Other than that, it's pretty much been all Hall of Famers. You had Big Cass in 2017, so they could do the Enzone Cass entrance, Rusev in 18, and Elias in 2019. Other than that, it's been straight up Hall of Famers at that one spot. So yeah, if they're putting you in that number one spot, the company has got a,
00:16:41
Speaker
a ton of faith in you. And I don't know, do you get anything else to say about being the first gentrant in the Royal Rumble, Jordan? No, I mean, it's a cool spot, like you said. It's always fun to watch to see how long they can make it. But yeah, I love the one spot. It's fun. It's exciting to see how far they make it in the Rumble.
00:17:03
Speaker
Alright so moving on to the number two spot so it's a little bit less mathematically as efficient as the one spot the average finish, if you come in number two is 10.88, but still relative to the entry spot it's still it's the second best position in BM, and it's actually got the most historically notable performances so I told you.
00:17:23
Speaker
Coming in at number one, you had 17 historically notable performances. The number two spot has produced 24 of these performances like this. So it's far and away got the most memorable performances. Let's get into it. So there have been two winners from the two spot, Vince McMahon, who we talked about, and then Ray Mysterio in 2006.
00:17:44
Speaker
You know, they give Ray a lot of shine. I think at the time he had spent the most time anyone had ever been in the rumble. Do you think he would have won that rumble if it wasn't for Eddie Guerrero passing away? That was like, you know, for lack of a better term, a sympathy push. Oh, 100 percent. He won that rumble because of that. Doesn't take away from it at all for me, though, because that if you have not watched that rumble, it's a really fun watch, even though you know he wins.
00:18:10
Speaker
Yeah, just there's so many times where you just assume he's gonna get eliminated and just keeps going so I love that rumble
00:18:18
Speaker
All right, there have been 10 Ironmen from the two spots. So we had Bob Backlund in 93, British Bulldog in 1995, which I think we really need a figure of this, man. We haven't gotten a good like 90, 95 baby face Bulldog with like the booty shorts and the long hair. What do you think, Jordan? Did the Bulldog get screwed at this Rumble? I think he did because they started playing his entrance music, man.
00:18:40
Speaker
yeah this is uh this is definitely a controversial rumble but 100 agree we need a figure of this um i i didn't even need you to tell me i just remember the look but yeah he definitely got screwed and i i didn't love shawn at this time i was definitely rooting for bulldog so pisses me off a little more that we have talked about it now
00:19:01
Speaker
If you want to go back and watch the ending of this, it is absolutely incredible. All the amazing things Shawn Michaels has done in his career, this might be the most impressive. I mean, they were freaking riding the lightning on this. Like he could not have come any close to having two feet touch the floor.
00:19:17
Speaker
You know, he gets down over the top rope, it hangs on, feet, you know, one foot touches the ground, the other foot barely misses. And in the meantime, I don't think the bell rang, but they did start playing British Bulldogs music, right? So obviously, you know, Davey Boy Smith being a big goon starts celebrating. Sean Skins the cat goes back and eliminates him, man. I just thought that was really unfair to Bulldog. The fact that they started playing his music, you know, if they didn't play his music, yeah, screw it. You're just being an idiot, man. But I feel like Bulldog got screwed and, you know, he never really got any justice for that.
00:19:46
Speaker
Yeah, he's not like Vampiro that when he gets his music going, he just gets all excited and jacked up. Bulldog gets more like relaxed and is just ready to go to the back and probably have a beer, a couple of Royds, you know, it's just, it's one of those things. But yeah, it definitely sucks that he didn't win this, this match, but
00:20:04
Speaker
man looking back at the like you said Sean Michael skin in the cat on this rumble it looks so much more impressive because I mean we see it more now but up until about 10 years ago we still didn't see this spot a whole ton in the Royal Rumble now they kind of overuse it but dude 1995 and he did that like pretty incredible
00:20:27
Speaker
Yeah, Sean's the man. I used to really hate Sean just because of his part in the screw job, but his time goes on. He's in my top five favorite wrestlers ever for sure. Pre-2002 comeback. I was not a fan of Sean when he switched it to the slacks. I don't know why, dude. It just, I just felt like it just, when he went from the tights to like the chaps, I felt like it immediately aged him like 10 years. Yeah. I hear a top popper, man. What are we on now? We're on a Kieran Ikibon now. So I love this beer so much.
00:20:56
Speaker
Yeah, I like that. And the Asahi super dry. That's my two like go to Japanese beers. Uh, all right. Let's keep going through the Ironman from the two spots. He had Vince at night's 99. We talked about Jericho in 2003, Chris Benoit, 2005, mystery in 2006. Talk about both of those. Here's an outlier fit Finley in 2007. Jordan, again, I was out of rest at this point. What the hell, how in the hell did fit Finley get the most time in the rumble in 2007?
00:21:22
Speaker
If I remember right, this is kind of when he was getting a push again. I know it doesn't make sense or anything, but I feel like he was pretty over at this time. This might have been near. I want to say this was near the beginning of Hornswoggle and he might have even had Hornswoggle in his corner at this point. I'm not sure about. Yeah, I think so. Okay.
00:21:44
Speaker
Alright, Jericho did it again. So Jericho's actually been the Iron Man twice from the two spot. He did in 2017. Finn baller did it in 2018 and Randy Orton in 2021. There have been two runner ups from the two spot. It's just interestingly enough, both of those they both times they've been eliminated by the guy in the number one spot that happened in 95 with the with the Bulldog and in 2021 with Randy Orton. So
00:22:07
Speaker
That's definitely one that's in you know deep in the playbook of WWE but to go to they've done it twice in the 30 year history of the rumble having having one and two go the distance and number one ended up getting the win. All right, so we talked about the number one spot being really lucky and only being the first eliminated three times from the two spot there have been 10 times so about a third of the the royal rumbles that we looked at if you come in at the number two spot your ass is getting dumped out first.
00:22:33
Speaker
This is definitely not the Hall of Fame list. There's definitely a lot less Hall of Famers on the names you're about to read through. Yeah, the star quality goes down dramatically from one to two. So one of my favorite, low-key favorite Rumble moments, 1989, Axe and Smash were number one and number two. I feel like this was the first proper Rumble. 88 was a 20-man. It just aired on the USA Network. And I think they were trying to just get a feel for the match.
00:22:59
Speaker
In 89 they really lean heavily into the friend versus friend foe versus foe thing and ax and smash the demolition with a first tee entrance and smashed it ended up getting dumped first in 89. Yeah, it's really cool moment. Coco beware in 90, Dino Bravo 91, Ted DiBiase 92, Sam Mahou 94,
00:23:18
Speaker
Bowl Buchanan, 2001, Evan Bourne, 2010, Alex Riley in 2012. And then we had the music man going back to back. Double J in 2019 and Elias in 2020. So, real murderer's row right there.
Significant Performances from Positions 10 to 15
00:23:32
Speaker
Bowl Buchanan, B2, give me a beat. That was Cena's beat boy. You don't remember that at all, do you? I have no idea. You're talking gibberish to me right now. Yeah, Bowl Buchanan was the one that had to give Cena the beat when he wrapped.
00:23:47
Speaker
Nice. You would think number two would do a lot better than number one, man, if I'm like using kayfabe logic, right? Why, the match hasn't started when neither one of them come out. Yeah, but number one is going out there completely facing the unknown. They have no idea what's going to be waiting for them on the other side of the curtain. Number two at least has a minute to gather themselves and know the first opponent they're going to be facing. Okay, first, your last, baby.
00:24:11
Speaker
All right, let's go on to number three. So again, going back to some Russell math, we taught number one, the average finished position is around 13th place. Number two, the average finished position is around 10th place. If you come in at number three, your chances of success dropped by about 50%. The average finish for whoever comes at number three
00:24:29
Speaker
is is 25th place man so it's not a good spot to be in there have been 16 historically notable performances that's good for third overall so if you are coming in first three you're in good shape but a lot of that is due to there's the number three spot has the highest number of first outs man it's got 12 people that have been out first time but there was one winner I think the greatest rumble ever was my retro pick last week Rick flair 1992
00:24:59
Speaker
This is definitely the best Royal Rumble ever by far. I don't even think it's really that close to be completely honest with you. Like if I was going on a rating scale, this would be like a, this is about as close to a perfect 10 Rumble as you can get and everything else is 8.5 or less for me.
00:25:15
Speaker
Yeah, I think this, as far as star power goes, this one and the 2001 Rumble, the one that Austin won for 2017, I'd have to go back and tally it up. That one's got a ton of Hall of Famers too. And it's a really good match. But I think this one gets the nod because this one was for the championship. This was the first Royal Rumble with stakes.
00:25:33
Speaker
Yeah, they were definitely going for it all here and dude, Rick Flair puts on an absolute show on this one too. Um, yeah, do yourself a favor. I know a lot of people for some reason don't go back and watch the old rumbles, which I don't get. Like a lot of people think it's just such a gimmick. So much fun, man. I know, but dude, a lot of people think it's like a gimmicky and hokey match and they're just not a big fan of the rumble and I don't get it. I think this is the funnest thing of the year.
00:26:00
Speaker
I mean, you're not going to get a ton of high spots, but yeah, it's just still fun. It's a great barometer, right? The Royal Rumble is a great time where you get to see how over people are because you get to see 30 entrance pops right in a row. And especially in the, you know, really up into the attitude era, they would have like low, low mid carders mixed right in with the main eventers, you know, for now, for the most part, it's kind of mid carders and up, but they used to have straight up jobbers in the Royal Rumble. So you just got to see a wide range of crowd reactions from like straight up crickets to
00:26:29
Speaker
the freaking roof blowing off the place. Yeah. So one Iron Man from the three spot, which also Ric Flair in 92. 12 times people have been eliminated from the rumble first out of the three spots. You thought the lineup from number two were bad. You ready for this murderer's row here, Jordan? This ain't going to be good. We got one of your favorites, Papa Shango in 93. There will be no Papa Shango hate.
00:26:55
Speaker
Yeah, one of the most underrated, uh, like underutilized wrestlers ever. 96 Bob Backlund, 97, the fake razor Ramon. Jesus. Yeah. That's fucking solid. Basically the fat face razor Ramon.
00:27:10
Speaker
I still think dude, they could tell they don't we don't even necessarily need a whole figure of him. Give us a fake razor head sculpt with a razor remote in the Legends line, right? Like you could make this the bodies were close enough. Like give us razor. Give us a razor figure, but include a fake razor head sculpt. I think that would be awesome. Yeah, it'd be great. I would love to see that just fatten up the face a little bit like draw on the beard and everything. It'd be great.
00:27:35
Speaker
Tom Brandy in 1998 what what's your favorite Tom Brandy match Jordan? The only reason I know who this is is cuz first he was Salvatore sincere That's the only reason I know who this was cuz I'm pretty sure he did a shotgun Saturday night here if I remember right But I think my favorite match is probably wrestled Marc Marrow There you go, man. We had you weren't prepared for that. Were you?
00:27:59
Speaker
I didn't think you're going to have an answer, man. So I'm impressed. We had Golga in 1999, better known as John Tinta, a.k.a. Earthquake. Action Figure Attack actually today was chiming up on the WrestleFigs message board said that Golga is a possibility for future figure lines. Dude, we need all the oddities, though. I don't just want Golga. I want them all.
00:28:19
Speaker
They definitely got to get with Paramount get the licensing because dude I don't want global if he's not in his Cartman t-shirt with his Cartman stuffed animal. Oh, yeah, it has to be in all the garb Yeah, who would we need for the oddy? So we need Golda. We need Luna and I mean, I think if we got Golda giant Silva and Luna we'd be good Yeah, that'd be fine. That's like the insane clown posse of just beer. That'd just be reaching. We'd be being greedy at that point Yeah, I don't need them
00:28:45
Speaker
Yeah, Headbanger Mosh in 2000, Big Bossman in 2002, Daniel Pewter in 2005, Simon Dean in 2006, Santino in 08, Damian Sandow in 2014, and most recently, Rhino in 2018.
00:29:00
Speaker
The three spot also in gloriously has two members. They had the shortest time in the rumble. Yeah. Previously mentioned Tom Brandy, one of Jordan's favorites back in 1998 and Eric Rowan in 2020. I don't remember this man. I was overseas on a military deployment in the 2020 rumble. What the hell happened to Eric Rowan in 2020, Jordan?
00:29:18
Speaker
I don't remember this either, honestly. Dude, I get it. Let me look at the stats real quick. Oh, that was the Brock Lesnar rumble. Oh, yeah. Eric Rowan got in the ring and lasted eight seconds with Brock. Solid work. That's longer than he lasted with the Rock at WrestleMania 32. That's something, I guess. How crazy is it that if things hold, the Rock's last ever match is going to be against Eric Rowan?
00:29:46
Speaker
It's not good. Let's just say that not good at all. All right, so things should start moving. You know, we spent a half hour on the first three entrants, things should start moving a little bit more fast and furious. Speaking of the rock, the historical performance has dropped down dramatically after the first three and really don't pick back up until the
00:30:06
Speaker
the last five of the rumble, but this is kind of the meat and potatoes of
Memorable Performances of Positions 16 to 19
00:30:09
Speaker
the show, man. This is stuff I'm really looking forward to, like the random ass performances from the sixth spot, the eighth spot, whatever. But Jordan, you good, man? You need a piss break or anything? You're ready to power through. Just keep rolling. All right, so go into the number four spot. So number four, fair slightly better than number three. The average finish is around 24th place. There have been four historically notable performances from the four spots.
00:30:32
Speaker
There have been two people that we've never had a winner from the four spot, right? So if you do four and the chick foley lotto, or if you got four and some sort of, you know, pool with your buddies, you know, I think it could be a good sign, right? Because I think WWE always likes to make history. But as of now, no winners from the four spot. There have been two ironmen though. So Mr. Perfect did it in 1989 in the first ever 30 man Royal Rumble. This was also the first one that was on pay-per-view.
00:30:55
Speaker
Hold on a second. I'll pull it up, but he was only in there for 27 minutes. I mean, that's still a long time to be in the match, but you know, nowadays we're used to what, like about like 43, 44 minutes, right? Yeah. You got to be getting close to the hour mark to be considered the iron man now. And the rock had a really impressive, like he was already a really strong mid Carter. I felt like he broke out to be like damn near main eventer in the 98 rumble. He lasted from the four spot and then he ended up being the runner up to Steve Austin in 98.
00:31:22
Speaker
Yeah. He wins this if it's not for Austin. Cause I mean, overall this isn't a great rumble, but I mean the rock and stone cold are definitely bringing the star power for this one. Yeah. Rock was intercontinental champion at the time and you know, they would go from being the last two members of the rumble in 98 to main of any WrestleMania the next year at WrestleMania 15 and 99. And just last year, the first person eliminated from the Royal rumble was Bobby rude. Um,
00:31:48
Speaker
I'm really wanting some Dirty Dog's elites, man. I feel like the boat's kind of sailed on that, though, since they've really been on TV in almost a year, huh? Dude, I don't remember the last time we saw Bobby Roode. I'm thinking he might be making a big comeback, man. He was a Triple H favorite down in NXT. Maybe he just repackages and goes back to the glorious thing and kind of goes back to the game. Oh, God. We couldn't go back to the game.
00:32:11
Speaker
Yeah, that was awesome. The problem was that was back during that time period in 2017 when he got called up when they were just boiling down the NXT gimmicks to like one note of whatever your character was in NXT, they were picking out like one thing of it. And that was going to be what you were, you know? Yeah, yeah, it's definitely unfortunate.
00:32:31
Speaker
Alright so the five spot is a little bit better than four, your average finish is still going to be around 24th place but there have been nine historically notable performances so we did have one winner, one of my favorite rumbles 1997 Steve Austin wins that was a really fun rumble it's in the Alamo Dome. First time the rumble was in a giant stadium like that, and Austin pretty much cheats to win you know it's really kind of started Bret Hart getting screwed.
00:32:56
Speaker
after WrestleMania 12, and Austin sneaks back in and wins this one. Any memories of the 97 Rumble, Jordan? I just remember thinking there was no way that Brett or Austin was gonna win, because Taker was 30 at this Rumble. I just, I still can't believe Taker didn't win this Rumble, honestly. We had some real characters in here, too. He had fake diesel in this Rumble. Real quality stuff.
00:33:24
Speaker
Yeah. We previously mentioned fake razor was the first one eliminated from this rumble. It was in San Antonio. So they had a ton of, uh, luchadores in there as well. Yeah. This was, this was in that weird time period. I mean, I love it. It was probably my favorite time in wrestling, but that weird blend of, uh, new gin and the stars of the attitude era, we're all kind of there at once. And yeah, it was just like the God ones are both in this match. Like it's just, you know, a really funny little time capsule of the state of WV at the time. Um,
00:33:52
Speaker
two Ironman from the spots Steve Austin and they both kind of had similar performances man yet Steve Austin in 97 and Bray in 2015 both of those got the run where they're just clearing the ring right wherever comes in there eliminating them and just waiting on the next opponent and we had the iconic shot 97 where Steve Austin sitting on the turnbuckle checking his watch and all of a sudden Brett Hart's music hits and Steve Austin just flips out.
00:34:14
Speaker
Yeah man both of these both these guys Austin and Wyatt both put on an absolute clinic in their um rumbles. I really thought Bray was going to win this rumble and I know it wasn't the popular choice but dude he was getting cheered
00:34:30
Speaker
This is when Roman gets booed out of the absolute building, even with the rocks blessing. So I think if they went back on it, I think they would have Bray win this just because dude, and this is for everyone. It's like, Oh, break can't work very long, dude. He worked his ass off in this rumble.
00:34:47
Speaker
Yeah, let me check the stats real quick. I mean, that's when I was 99 for worst rumbles ever. And Bray was the only good thing about that rumble. Yeah, he was in the match 46 minutes and 50 seconds and came in fifth and finished in sixth place. He was 25th eliminated. This is when everybody wanted Daniel Bryan to win the rumble, too, and he only lasted 10 minutes. The crowd literally died the minute he got eliminated.
00:35:11
Speaker
And who eliminated him? Bray Wyatt. The crowd literally... I was absolutely shocked when he got eliminated. The crowd just absolutely died at that point of this Roman Bull. Because you knew Roman was winning at that point, man. So they still would have booed Roman at the end if it ended with Roman eliminating Daniel Bryan.
00:35:30
Speaker
But yeah, they gave the crowd a chance to get nice and rabid by the time Roman came out. From the five spot, there's been six times where the first person eliminated came from that position.
Winners and Surprises from Positions 20 to 23
00:35:46
Speaker
One second, we'll see where that ranks at all time. So that's third, behind number three and number two. If you're in the five spot, you got a good chance that your ass is getting dumped out first.
00:35:56
Speaker
And this is actually the latest so the the No one past five spot has ever been the first eliminated from the rumble So if you if you draw number six and beyond, you know, you're at least not getting fucking last place So starting off we had Jimmy Del Rey in 1995 that previously mentioned rumble It was just you know stacked to the fucking rafters with talent. What's your favorite Jimmy Del Rey match Jordan?
00:36:17
Speaker
It's got to be a Royal Rumble 1995. Good choice. We had Bradshaw in 2004, the Great Cali in 2009, Santino in 2013. It's a couple of times Santino's appeared in this category. Jack Gallagher in 2017 and Jeff Hardy of all people in 2021.
00:36:35
Speaker
I don't remember Jeff Hardy getting eliminated that fast. That's weird. I don't either. And dude, Jeff was over in 2021, man. I remember on the show, we were calling for him to get another main event push before he ended up, you know, whatever he had when he self-destructed and got released. Cause dude, he was getting huge baby face reactions. I remember at Smackdown in Norfolk that year in November, 2021, dude, aside from Roman Reigns, Jeff Hardy was the next most over person in the building, man. The crowd was just eating up every single thing he was doing. So.
00:37:03
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if we were going to see Jeff again at this point. It sucks, man. It really sucks that Jeff Hardy's demons got the best of him. Because, yeah, dude, like you said, he was over. And yeah, we were calling for him to get another title run on this show. So sucks, man.
00:37:18
Speaker
All right, moving on to number six. So if you are the sixth entrant in the Royal Rumble, historically you average finishing in 22nd place. There have been four historically notable performances, zero winners from the sixth spot. So that's another one where you could pop the cherry if you if you end up winning from that spot this year. Two Ironmen. Both of these are pretty damn good performances. I remember I remember Rick Martell last in forever in 1991.
00:37:43
Speaker
I was kind of just starting to like become a, you know, a tiny little bit of a smart fan in 91 because I knew Rick Martell had some pretty good bangers as a babyface with Strikeforce knew he was a good wrestler. But I remember in 91 just being like puzzled, like, why the hell is the model lasting fucking 45 minutes in the world? Like he had just a hell of a run in 91 and then Kane in 2001, which is one of the all time rumble performances.
00:38:07
Speaker
Yeah. Kane in 2001 is like one of the most memorable things about in Royal Rumble history. Just all the guys he tossed in that Rumble. And then just to come one person short of winning was pretty shitty for him, but definitely an awesome showing. So as Jordan mentioned, Kane was the runner up that year in that legendary Rumble. And then one person at the shortest time and that dog shit, 99 Rumble, Gilbert came in at number six and had the shortest amount of time in the Rumble. Oh, Dwayne Gill.
00:38:37
Speaker
Dude, if they brought Goldberg back for another match, how good would it be if they dug Dwayne Gillip and we actually had Goldberg versus Gilbert? Just see him just spear the shit out of him like fucking five times. Oh god, that would be fantastic, but he has to come out with sparklers and everything.
00:38:52
Speaker
Oh yeah, definitely. He's got to, yeah, he's got to really get Goldberg fucking pissed. All right. So the seven spot, that's kind of a dead area, man. You're going to be average finishes 22nd place. Only two notable performances from the seventh spot ever, both in 2009 by the same person. It was a two for one special in 2009 from the seven spot. Triple H was the iron man and the runner up.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah, that's pretty crazy. I think this is, if I remember right, this isn't a great rumble either. It's got good people in it. It's just, I don't know, for some reason the rumbles every once in a while just don't flow very well. And I feel like this was one of them.
00:39:28
Speaker
The eight spots similar, so a little bit better chances. Your finish is going to be 20th, a little bit better than seventh. Again, only two notable performances though. So going back to 2009, that one that you said was kind of clunky, Randy Orton won that year from the eight spot. And Batista was the Iron Man in 2008, which was actually a really good rumble. I think he ended up being like last three with him, Cena, and Triple H in 2008. He was the Iron Man that year. Yeah, that was a good one.
00:39:55
Speaker
Number nine, another dead spot. One notable performance. In 1994, Billy Gunn spent the shortest amount of time in the rumble. Where in the blue hell are our smoking gun figures? I don't know, man. That's definitely, yeah, we're missing those for sure.
00:40:13
Speaker
I mean, dude, like, yeah, it's such an easy figure to do, man. It'd be perfect for the Legends line. It's not a lot of deco. Couple guys in blue jeans, give them a vest, and some cowboy hats, we're good to go. Like, Bart Gunn, literally, man, like, there have been a lot of people who have way less, like, you know, significance that have so many more figures. Like, it just blows my mind that Bart Gunn only has one figure. How was he never made by Jax all those years? Dude.
00:40:37
Speaker
That's a great question and one I don't have the answer to. I don't work for Jack, so I wish I could tell you the answer to that one, Seth. I think it kind of lends credence to that old story that he really pissed a lot of people off backstage when he won tough enough. Here's my thing. Can we just get a Bart gun with Butterbean? Dude, just peel the Band-Aid off and give us that at least. That would be cool, Butterbean with the Elite Articulation.
00:41:03
Speaker
Alright, number 10. So 10 is a much better spot to come into 789 you're pretty damn well fucked 10s a good spot to come in at those so there have been six historically notable performances in this one average finish is going to be around 21st 20th place but there is a winner from this one Seth Rollins in 2019. Obviously you guys know how much I love Seth and that had a really cool ending where he curb stops.
00:41:27
Speaker
Braun Strowman on the ring apron to end it. He was the iron man that year also and get this This is one of the day one of the names I did not expect to show up in like the highlight section in the year 2000 Royal Rumble Test of all people was the iron man. Oh, yeah, what's wrong with test test is the man? Oh
00:41:45
Speaker
I mean, Test is pretty good, man. I feel like in another, I feel like he was just in the wrong place. Like they were just so loaded with talent at that time. Like, Test could have been Diesel, you know what I mean? Not that I think Test is as good a performer as Kevin Nash, but I think that he definitely could have had a similar career arc, you know? Dude, he was the Iron Man at 26 minutes. The next closest was Gangrel. I guess Gangrel did 23, but everybody else was under 20 minutes in that rumble.
00:42:13
Speaker
Yeah, this is the peak of the Vince Russo era where work rate like there was no early 2000 was the time where work rate mattered the least in the history of WWF I'd say pretty bad Test as at the best best big boot of all time. I'll die on that hill dude. His big boot looks like it could kill you It was like a big boot superkick combo platter type deal. It was quality
00:42:37
Speaker
All right, and we have three people that had the shortest amount of time in the rumble from the 10 spots. You had the hurricane in 2004, Sylvan in 2006. Jordan, I'm gonna hit you with it, man. What's your favorite Sylvan match? Sylvan Granier. I think he wrestled Tatanka in that same year, if I'm correct, but I could be wrong. All right, so get on YouTube and look up Sylvan and Tatanka and Epico in 2012.
00:43:01
Speaker
Quality moving on to number 11 and number 11 is not a good spot to be in the only so they do got a decent shot at having finished in the middle of the pack right average finish is 19th place. There's four historically notable performances and all of them were for the shortest time in the rumble.
00:43:18
Speaker
You got Owen in 95, which that was, you know, Brett came out, wasn't even in the match and dumped Owen right away. Bullby Cannon in 2003, James Ellsworth in 2017, and Seamus in 2018. Jesus. Owen, Bullby Cannon, James Ellsworth, and Seamus. What a faction. That is definitely a pathetic number. I hope you didn't get 11.
00:43:39
Speaker
Worse than number 11 is number 12, man. So number 12, average finish is 20th spot, 20th place, which is whatever. Zero notable performances, man. There's absolutely nothing historic about coming in 12th in the Rumble. Let me kind of run through and see. Tito Santana, Red Roost, Undertaker came in. Undertaker was in that spot in 91. Timothy Will was in the 10th spot in 95. Triple H in 97. You got Kurgan.
00:44:08
Speaker
In 2001, the Honky Tonk man was out at this spot. Just not against, let's see who it was the last three years. Last three years, it was Ricochet has been at the last two years and MVP was it in 2020. So yeah, 11 is not a spot. Like I said, we're kind of in the dead area where it's just throw away, excuse me, 12 is a spot you don't want to be in. Let's go to 13. One notable performance on this one, Booker T's, but the shortest time in in 2006. Any memories of this, Jordan?
00:44:37
Speaker
No, I'm guessing you probably got eliminated right after doing the spinner Rooney or something. So it sounds about right. Yeah, some, some goofy like that. Average finish it from the 13th spot. It's going to be about 18th place. 14. All right. We're back to hitting some winner winner chicken dinners. All right. So the 14th spot, you coming to 14th, you're going to be looking at finishing around 17th place in the rumble. The winner 2018 Shinsuke Nakamura. This was a really fun rumble.
00:45:02
Speaker
This was a great rumble. I still wish they would have done one more with Nakamura this year, but it is what it is.
00:45:10
Speaker
Yeah, I think, yeah, I don't know what would happen with Nakamura, man. Cause you know, he won this rumble, but that was after we saw him fail to get the belt from fucking Jinder Mahal like three times. Yeah, dude, it just, it didn't seem like Swagsuke hit the same on the main roster. Him and NXT was just like unstoppable. Like the entrance, the showmanship, just everything about it. For some reason, dude, it just never translated to the main roster. I don't know why.
00:45:37
Speaker
I think he worked better for special attraction. You know, this was back during the golden era of NXT when it was the one hour on Wednesday, on Wednesday nights. And you didn't see Shinsuke every week and he was hardly ever on the mic. Whereas, you know, he gets on the main roster, you've seen him every single week and he's on the mic most weeks. And, you know, he just, it's not the strong seats of his game, man. He's all about the presence and the, and the in-ring performance. And, uh, you know, sadly I felt like a lot of that got stripped away on the main roster.
00:46:02
Speaker
Yeah, two people that spent the shortest time in the rumble from the 14th spot Hercules in 1992 and MVP in 2010 Yeah, that's two notable characters
00:46:17
Speaker
All right, we are about to be halfway through with the rumble, the 15th spot. So the average finish is 16th place. So, you know, kind of, you're finishing about where you're entering at. Five historically notable performances. So from the 15th spot, Bambam Bigelow was actually the Iron Man, even though he entered halfway through the rumble in 94. Two runners up, Roman Reigns in 2014, which is really crazy. Because if you go back and watch, Steve, the crowd is on fire for Roman to win that rumble. And then the very next year, he gets booed out of the place when he wins it.
00:46:46
Speaker
They picked the wrong year. Notable WWE botch, especially when Braun was so over. WWE is always a year late on getting people the title. Yeah, they rarely hit it right at the peak, man. And then Rusev, speaking of the 2015 Rumble, Rusev was the runner-up that year. He was hiding under the ring and came out for Roman to dump him at the end. Good God. Yeah, real quality when you're hiding under the ring.
00:47:14
Speaker
Two people spent the shortest time in, uh, from this position. We had no way Jose 2019 and going back Taz in 2001. And I want to pose the question here. We really don't talk about Taz is, you know, we're a really, we talk about all wrestling, but it's safe to say we're WWE centric and his run was kind of just blinking. You miss it. And there on the main roster, I remember how awesome this dude was in ECW. Do you think he is? Is there a case where him being the most wasted free agent signing in WWE history?
00:47:43
Speaker
the worst thing is is it started off so well dude him and angle in his first match was phenomenal and then it just i don't know man this dude was so underused i i think his biggest problem was vince at this time was i mean vince has always been into big dudes taz is not a big dude he's just a tiny guy and um absolutely awesome all the fans loved him but vince has got to love you too
00:48:06
Speaker
If he would have came in mid 90s, he would have been okay. But I feel like early 2000s, it was starting to go back to kind of like the 80s, like freaking big dude season, you know, like just a big freaking guys built like a fucking barn door. Well, yeah, I mean, look who wins those rumbles like it's I mean, it's pretty telling. Yeah.
00:48:26
Speaker
Dude, I love Taz. I remember getting WrestleMania 2000 on N64, and the first thing I did was spend like two hours making Taz on Creative Player. Dude, Taz, just his suplexes and stuff. I mean, he was the human suplex machine, so that tells you all you need to know about him. Just absolutely awesome. You know what I never understood about that? They call him the human suplex machine, but there's no such thing as an actual suplex machine. So why did they need to say human? Why couldn't he just be the suplex machine? I don't know, man. That's a good question, that you're overthinking it, I think.
00:48:56
Speaker
All right, we're halfway through the rumble. Let's go to the 16 spot. So again, you're kind of going to, there's not a lot of change here on where you enter and where you finish at. Average finishes, 15th place on this one, six historically notable performances. So we recently had our first winner from the 16th position in 2021, Drew McIntyre. I think that was one time where you kind of mentioned, you know, talking about Roman in 2015 and being a year late, I think they hit Drew right on time.
00:49:22
Speaker
Yeah, this was perfect timing for him still sucks. This had to happen when it did as opposed to he didn't get his big moment. Yeah, he did. He just made this WrestleMania ever. God, dude, it was.
Final Positions Analysis and Forgotten Moments
00:49:35
Speaker
Yeah, and he was also the iron man that year. So that was the year that Brock came in number one. I still don't, I'd never really, cause again, I was gone when that was all that was going down. What was the point of Brock coming in number one and being the rumble just to show his dominance over everyone? Was there any like objective to him doing that? No, it was just basically for Vince to show off how good Brock is and shows dominance and then finally have Drew get over on him.
00:50:01
Speaker
All right, so listen to these names. There have been four people that came in at the 16 spot. You spent the shortest time in the rumble. You got the Red Rooster, Terry Taylor in 93, Mo from men on a mission in 95, squat team number two in 1996. What's your favorite squat team match, Jordan?
00:50:18
Speaker
I don't even remember this, so it has to be Royal Rumble 1996. Do you remember the squat team? No, I don't. That's what I just said. I don't even know who this is. Google image real quick. Just Google image WWE squat team, not the SWAT team. We're not talking the Simone SWAT team right here. We're talking the squat team.
00:50:38
Speaker
What Jordan's looking up that I'll tell you guys 2014 great. I do remember these guys dear God They came in back to back in the 96 Trumbull. I don't remember being around I'm assuming they were probably just on the couple house show circuits because I don't remember them at all on TV And this was kind of like my peak of speed, you know absorbing all WWE content possible. Oh, they were in ECW That's why they were the head hunters in ECW Yeah, okay. That makes sense. But yeah, this was still my favorite match of them. I
00:51:08
Speaker
All right, so back into another dead spot. 17th average finish is going to be around 16th place. Only two notable performances and they were both for having the shortest time. He had Shelton Benjamin in 2008 and then the Godfather in a little nostalgia spot in 2013. The Hoes!
00:51:26
Speaker
All right, 18 we're back into what you got a little bit of juice for 18 so average finish on this one you're going to be in 13th place at coming in for the 18th spot for notable performances we had the winner in 1996 Shawn Michaels he went back to back after winning 95. This was also notable for being the first rumble with entrance music I feel like that added so much to it.
00:51:47
Speaker
Oh, 100%. Just having some music going as opposed to just dead air made it so much more exciting, I feel like. And you knew who was coming through the curtain before they actually got out. For some reason, that actually made it more suspenseful, surprisingly. I'm not sure how that works, but it did.
00:52:05
Speaker
Yeah, I'm still nostalgic for the older ones where you just had the air horn going off and then a couple seconds of silence and then you get the reaction from the crowd but but yeah, putting the entrance music in there made it so much better, especially, you know, this isn't 96. So you're kind of starting to round the curve into the attitude error. And so many of those attitude error themes had that initial like sound drop to just give you that kind of like Pavlovian response from the crowd, you know, hell yeah.
00:52:30
Speaker
Shawn Michaels also in 94 was the runner-up another fun fact here He is the only ever runner-up to finish in 28th place because you know, this was the room or excuse me to finish in third place 28 eliminated because this was the year where there were two winners with Lex Luger and Bret Hart time and two people spent the shortest time in the rumble from the 18th spot yet for Rook in 2000 and Simon Dean in 2005 and I got to ask the question again Jordan What's your favorite Simon Dean match? So
00:52:58
Speaker
I'm not going to go Simon Dean. I'm going to go when he was Nova, much better as Nova than Simon Dean. So I'm not real sure what my favorite matches, but I did like him as Nova.
00:53:09
Speaker
Today I was today years old when I learned that Nova was Simon Dean. I'm familiar with Nova. I didn't realize he was Simon Dean. I've seen the Simon Dean pop up on reading about different stuff and reading about old cards, but I've never actually even seen the guy wrestling a match because again, this was in my black period of wrestling. So missed out on that. So good to know. Glad I could share that with you.
00:53:29
Speaker
All right, so we're starting to get a little more juice here as we round into the bottom third of the rumble. So if you come in at 19th, you got a good chance of finishing 12th or higher in the rumble. Two winners from this spot. All right, so in 2013, you had John Cena in 2015, Roman Reigns. It's two pretty quality names. I mean, you're not going to get two better people as your winner.
00:53:54
Speaker
We're gonna keep going. Yeah, the 19 spots good on this one, man. So John Cena was also the runner up from this spot in 2010. And in 2002, Steve Austin was the Iron Man. So this is the latest entry ever to be the Iron Man. I guess they were just, you know, nobody felt like putting in the minutes in the 2002 Rumble. Yeah, but 2002 Steve Austin came in at 19 and somehow lasted the longest, had everyone in the match. Jesus, 26 minutes was the Iron Man.
00:54:19
Speaker
And then John Cena, John Cena did it in 2010. So yeah, from the 19 spot, you're looking at Roman Cena and Austin is the names that are in the record books. That's, you can make a case that's, you know, 75% of the Mount Rushmore right there. That's definitely first ballot hall of famers all around.
00:54:34
Speaker
So I was really surprised by this one man the 20 spot zero notable performances man I feel like 20 is a nice round number like I feel like if I've, you know, got the legal pad out, you know, that's what they said Vince and Pat Patterson always used to book on. I feel like if I got the legal pad my eyes are going to be drawn to that number 20 and I'm going to put, you know, somebody good in that that's going to do something. I mean, that's kind of crazy right.
00:54:55
Speaker
Yeah, that's really crazy. I'm looking back on it now. Matt Riddle last year. I mean, that's a good person. Otis Carl Anderson, Apollo Cruz, Cena. That's pretty good one. God, dude, this is pretty bad. Xavier Woods, Sami Zayn. Yeah, that's crazy, man. One of the final 10 people and none of them have really even had a chance of winning.
00:55:17
Speaker
Only thing I can think is maybe there's a lot of years where like they start to look at it and they're like maybe the 20s like the flush spot for anybody who's left who's not quite like main event caliber, you know, like fucking let's, let's stick them in the 20 spot and have them come out. But you think there'd be something there. That's well moving on to 21. So now we're getting into the creme de la creme. These are the spots that, you know, if you're on the old school Royal Rumble drawing, if you know, you get one of the ping pong balls with this number on there, you're feeling pretty good about yourself. If you're in the bottom 10, I think
00:55:44
Speaker
Coming in at 21st, three notable performances. There's no winners from 21. He had, he had Brett Hart in 1997 who arguably, you know, could say he, he should have won that thing, right? Steve Austin had been eliminated, but the fans didn't see it. Then he comes back in and dumps Brett. So Brett's the runner up in 97.
00:56:01
Speaker
Drew McIntyre just last year in 2022 was the runner up when Brock came in at 30 and dropped him. And then the shortest time ever, the first ever Rumble, the 21 spot, featured the man with the shortest amount of time in the match. It was the Warlord.
00:56:16
Speaker
God, that sucks that that's Warlords record, because I do love the Warlord. Me too, dude. I don't know. I mean, obviously, he's not Will Ossipre or anything, dude. But he was decent enough in the ring, and he looked like a million bucks, man. As far as straight up powerhouses go, he had one of the best physiques ever. I don't know why. I'm assuming he had to have done some main events with Hogan on the house show circuit, but I don't know why Warlord never really got more of a push on TV.
00:56:43
Speaker
Yeah, two seconds in the Rumble. Like, dude, come on. The Warlord was a brick shit house and gets treated like he's Santino Marella. Yeah. That's the shortest ever in the Rumble, though, Santino Marella, just sort of clear.
00:56:59
Speaker
Uh, number 22, the five notable performances from this one, two winners. All right. 20 in 2002, Triple H one. That's when he's, you know, Cody's looking at drawing the parallels to that this year with his big return from injury and time for the rumble and then Seamus in 2012. So I admittedly have never seen this one. This one rumble gets a lot of flack. Do you think the 2012 was the worst rumble ever, Jordan? Let me just read through who was in it real quick.
00:57:23
Speaker
God this or if not that was shame. It's the worst rumble winner. Oh god. This is bad Yeah, this is probably the worst rumble. I really remember this one. Yeah, this is bad. Michael Cole was in this rumble Yeah, this is the worst rumble ever. Well, we'll just go with that. We'll we'll let it take over 1999
00:57:41
Speaker
All right, there had been two runner ups from the 22 spot. You had earthquake in 91 and diesel in 96. I love the ending to that 96 rumble with Shawn Michaels, super kicking diesel over the top rope. I just thought that was just a really beautiful ending. Yeah, they did a really good job with that one. And then in 97, the King Jerry Lawler spent the shortest amount of time in the rumble from the 22 spot. Bret Hart dropped his ass right away.
00:58:03
Speaker
All right, 23, that is produced two winners, Lex Luger in 94 and Randy Orton in 2017. Let's start with Luger, man. What's your thoughts on doing the tie for the Rumble winners?
00:58:18
Speaker
don't love it at all. I think it's just such a cop-out, dude. Ro Rumble needs one winner and one winner only. I just... I'm like that with every Matso, dude. I hate draws. I hate all that stuff. I just... I want to see a winner and I want to see a loser. There's no draws in wrestling.
00:58:35
Speaker
It ended up working out because WrestleMania 10, I think, is definitely one of the best WrestleManias ever. And it worked out for filling out that card. But it was the most awkward execution ever. If that happened nowadays, it would just be like, bam, we're going to do a triple threat match. But this was, triple threat matches really weren't a thing yet in WWE. So that's why you had the convoluted setup of Luger gets to fight Yoko Zuna first, and the winner fights Bret Hart in the main event. But to make it fair, Bret Hart's got to have just this random one-off match with Owen Hart also on the show.
00:59:04
Speaker
It's really weird setup, but like I said, it all worked out to one of my favorite paper views ever. And then Randy Orton in 2017, man, this was when the Wyatt family was kind of at their peak, like the late stages of the Wyatt family. It came down to Randy, Bray, and Roman.
00:59:20
Speaker
And Randy kind of gets the win out of nowhere. I remember this one, it got telegraphed if you were on like the dirt sheets, because randomly, you know, Randy Orton wasn't even really being mentioned or thought of as being somebody that was going to win the belt or win the rumble. Cause this was before Bray won the championship that year. And it was like the day before the rumble, all of a sudden it came out that the betting odds shifted and Randy Orton was suddenly like a heavy favorite to win the rumble. There was like a period there for about two years for somebody, some insider in WWE was laying big money on these matches.
00:59:49
Speaker
Dude, look at the last 10 people in that rumble. So Bray, Apollo Crews, Randy Orton, Ziegler, Luke Harper, Lesnar, Enzo, which doesn't belong in there, Goldberg, Undertaker, and Roman. God damn, dude, that is a stacked final 10.
01:00:09
Speaker
Dude, you say that Enzo was over like fucking Rover that year, man. Go back and watch when Enzo makes his interest for that. But when you mention those people.
01:00:20
Speaker
Yeah, out of context, yeah. If you go back and look at it now, it's like how the fuck did Enzo and up there? I think it's like a credit to how over he was back then. Enzo and Cass were crazy over where they got caught up. Yeah, those final 10 people that came out for that rumble were crazy. Like that was a fun one. That was the year when Roman dumped Undertaker out to sit up there and match at Mania. Yep. Sure wish we could have avoided that.
01:00:44
Speaker
Yeah, should have been so much better, man. Unfortunately, Undertaker was just so banged up going into that one. Couldn't really do what he needed to do. WWE put him in a bad spot. They should have gimmick that match. They shouldn't have sent those guys out there to have a standard 25-minute main event match. You know what I mean? Should have been a little bit more of a, they should have done something closer to what Goldberg and Brock did at that mania. Yep, I agree.
01:01:03
Speaker
All right, one runner up from this spot, 2007, Shawn Michaels. This was arguably the best finish to a Royal Rumble ever when, I mean, how long did him and Undertaker go back and forth? About six or seven minutes, right? When it was down to just the two of them? Yeah, it was a long time. I just remember not knowing or having any idea who was actually gonna win this match. Cause yeah, dude, it went on a long time. Undertaker was out at number 30. So yeah, it was a great finish. Not a great rumble, but it's still a good finish.
01:01:32
Speaker
Yeah, this was kind of the precursor to their series of matches at WrestleMania in 2009 and 2010 kind of set it up and then appeared on the list. I think this is the third time he's appeared in this category in 2021. The hurricane was in the Royal Rumble for the shortest amount of time ever from the 23 spot. Stand back. There's the shortest elimination ever coming.
01:01:53
Speaker
All right. If you are at the Royal Rumble bingo popper and you draw the 24 spot, you need to at least get a half chub. It has produced three winners from that position. Very good spot. That's second ever, only to the 30 spot and the 27 spot. Three winners from 24 spot. You had Hulkster in 1990, Stone Cold Steve Austin in 1998, and The Rock in 2000.
01:02:18
Speaker
I mean, if you're going to join this list, you're joining a pretty quality list. I mean, fuck Hulk Hogan, the racist piece of shit. But I mean, Austin and The Rock by themselves, like if you're joining that list, you're feeling pretty good, you know.
01:02:31
Speaker
Yeah. 24 spots. A good spot to be one runner up from this big show in 2004. The end of this match still to me is so depressing. Like obviously we know who won Ben. Wah won. I really thought big show was going to win this rumble. Uh, do you, do you remember this or do you even know how this ends? This was big show. This was, they did the chin lock start, right? Didn't Ben, we'll put him in a chin lock and basically passed him out and pulled him over the top.
01:02:55
Speaker
Yeah, he's basically going for a superplex and instead turned it into a chin lock Big shows in the ring and pulled him out of the ring as he passed out as he's going out. So It sucked man. I really wanted big show to win Last year we saw Kofi. This was a botch Kofi actually spent the shortest time in the rumble from the 24 spot when he messed up his spot in some ways I feel like it actually almost
01:03:19
Speaker
Made it a little bit more impressive the fact that he did miss it because we know just how difficult and how like non-gimmicked it was when he's done the spots all the years before but But what do you think now that we saw Kofi botch one of these once is it time to just retire the Kofi spot from the rumble? I like the fun spots in the rumble dude. The rumble is not supposed to be a wrestling classic by any means so I Mean it makes it more interesting
01:03:46
Speaker
The, I, if we could just go on a quick Kofi sidebar man, I still feel like, I feel like Kofi even though he had the world, the big WrestleMania run, I just feel like it's been such a letdown since then because, you know, he had the belt for, you know, a pretty significant amount of time. He ended up with the belt for about seven months and had a solid rate. He had some good matches with
01:04:05
Speaker
with, uh, with Randy Orton and a few others during that time. And then, you know, as soon as he lost the belt, he gets squashed by Brock never makes any type of it. He never lifts a finger to try to get a rematch or do anything. He immediately went back to just being portrayed as just a tag team wrestler in the new day, man. And I hate that. I feel like not saying he can never go back to just, you know, goofing off with the new day, but it just didn't elevate him. You know what I mean? I felt like that whole run was for nothing.
01:04:31
Speaker
It does, dude. I mean, looking back on it, and I got a bad feeling the same thing's gonna happen with Big E, it's just gonna be a forgotten time in wrestling.
01:04:40
Speaker
They had their moment. It was kind of a, it was a great moment at the time. And then everything after it was just, just kind of mediocre. It was just there. And there was nothing exciting about it after they actually had their win, which it really does suck all three of those guys, dude.
Are Successful Tag Teams Pigeonholed in WWE?
01:04:57
Speaker
Honestly, now that I think about it, like Xavier wins the king of the ring and they did nothing with it.
01:05:03
Speaker
I guess, I don't know if it's just, I feel like they're just like pigeonholed and they've been so successful as a tag team. Like they got a legit case. I mean, whether they're not my favorite of all time, but you could totally make the case that the new day is the best tag team in the history of wrestling at this point. I feel like maybe it's just like Vince kind of just gives them each a little bit of, you know, Vince, Triple H, whoever now they're going to be is giving them a little bit of solo shine just as like a thank you, but it doesn't actually change their character. You know, it's just, it's like empty calories as far as for a
New Day vs. The Shield: Success and Popularity
01:05:32
Speaker
wrestling fan.
01:05:32
Speaker
I mean, you have, you, you can easily argue that, I mean, yeah, the shield is obviously the best three man group ever, but I mean, you could put the new day up there. Like, dude, they've been so popular ever since they came in with, with the same exact things, dude. Like it's crazy to think about. I mean, we're going on.
01:05:53
Speaker
I can't even think of how many years they've been the New Day, but dude, it's been popular since the beginning and it still sells merch. Yeah, 2014. We're closing in on a decade, man, of the New Day.
Speculation on WWE Storylines and Fan Reactions
01:06:02
Speaker
They still sell merch. I'd give them the nod over the shield, man. I mean, the shield is more significant for... It was an awesome run that they had, but it's just the success that all three guys had once they split up. New Day's done this shit together. When Kofi, Mania happened, Biggie, and Xavier were in the ring celebrating with him. Yeah, it's the longevity of it.
01:06:22
Speaker
They've been they've never broke up. They've been together the whole time of that 10 years. So yeah, it's pretty impressive.
01:06:29
Speaker
I'll still take it to my grave, man. WWE should have taken my idea. WrestleMania 35 in New York, Kofi, Kofi hits trouble in paradise on Daniel Bryan. One, two, somebody pulls the ref out of the ring. Oh my God. Xavier Woods pulled the ref out of the ring while the refs distracted big E fucking levels Kofi and Daniel Bryan gets the win, man. And the new day fucking turns on Kofi Kingston.
01:06:54
Speaker
Dude, I think they would have jumped the ring if that would happen. I think the fans would have stormed the ring. There was so much goodwill for Kofi D like, yeah, the fans were right. That was like, that was the, the WrestleMania where they didn't service. Do you remember the three big baby faces going into it were Seth, Becky and Kofi and everybody at the time was thinking like one of them's got to get fucked. Like there's no way they're going to have, let us have all three win and they all three came out with the belts, man.
Jokingly Blaming WWE for the Pandemic
01:07:19
Speaker
Yeah, that's one of the only times, probably the only time where WWE gave us exactly what we wanted.
01:07:28
Speaker
Yep, and then the next year the fucking pandemic hits. So that's what happens when David if he gives the fans what they want The world goes to shit fucking pandemic fucking Kobe died the pandemic fucking everything after it all came out of that WrestleMania man We burn up all our
Vince McMahon's Infamous Quad Injury
01:07:42
Speaker
goodwill for like the next two years Kofi mania turned into fucking pandemic mania like what a shitbird of your god
01:07:51
Speaker
All right, let's go on to number 25. Surprisingly, only two notable performances from this one, man. In 1990, you had the Hulkster winning it. And then the runner up in 2005 was John Cena. And this was the year when Vince blew out both quads after Cena and Batista kind of did a replay of Luger and Bret. Now you're probably smarter on this event than I am, dude. I've never been able to get like a solid read on this. The Cena and Batista India, was that a botch or was that meant to happen?
01:08:21
Speaker
I think it was meant to happen. Just based on the way everything happened after it, it looked like it was meant to happen. Obviously they didn't script Vince blowing his hammies out on the way to the ring.
01:08:34
Speaker
I'm not kidding you, dude. I don't think I've ever left more than I did when Vince blew both the strings out because he just runs into the ring. That's so fucking hilarious, dude. Just runs dead into the ring and then just sits on the ground. I think it was his quads. I think it was he tore his quads, right? Yeah, I think he tore one quad getting into the ring and then when he tried to get up, he tore the other quad.
01:08:57
Speaker
No, you can tell when he tore him, dude, he runs into the actual ring. Like, Oh, he actually like makes contact. He makes contact with the actual ring. You can tell what happens that he pulls himself in and realizes, Oh, shit, pal, this is bad. Goddamn pal. All right, what'd you pop top on?
Beer Discussions: Blue Moon vs. Belching Beaver
01:09:18
Speaker
So I definitely recommend this this is something new so Blue Moon is starting to branch out and makes a new brew So this is moon haze. It's by Blue Moon. It's a hazy juicy IPA So it's a kind of standard IPA but brewed with dried whole oranges in the beer. It's delicious, man So I'm never again. Never been a huge Blue Moon fan, but I've tried this and their mango wheat both really really good So yeah, if you get a chance to find moon haze at one of your local beer shops, definitely pick it up What'd you just pop the top on?
01:09:44
Speaker
I pop the top on Belching Beaver, Deftones Phantom Bride Hazy IPA. This beer... That's got to have a high ABV, dude. This beer is phenomenal. Here's the only problem with it. It's being discontinued and this is like one of my favorite IPAs. It's a 7.1.
01:10:00
Speaker
There was a O'Connor brewing in Norfolk had this beer called surface up. It was like a it was like a craft beer version of like Corona, right? It was a Mexican lager, but just like exquisitely well done had lime and salt already brewed into the beer and it was fucking awesome and I found out they were just continuing it and I got him to hook me up. This is one of those breweries. It was like five minutes from my house in Norfolk and I went and bought like the last like 48 that they had and I remember popping the top on that last one was like fucking tear in my eye, man. That was one of my all time favorite beers.
01:10:30
Speaker
I only have two left of these but I decided to pop one tonight just because of what we were doing and I was so excited for this one so Yeah, this is a good one. It's gonna be a sad day when I drink the last one All right, you ready to move into the final five you bet
01:10:46
Speaker
All right, so here we are in the home stretch. Shockingly, the number 26 position has produced zero winners, man.
Controversies in Royal Rumble Outcomes
01:10:53
Speaker
That's crazy, but there have been three runner-ups. Big Show in 2000, which a lot, this one's a controversial one, man. A lot of people think that the Rock, it was similar to the HBK in 1995, finished. A lot of people say if you go back and watch it that both feet hit for the Rock and Big Show is the true 2000 Rumble winner.
01:11:11
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, everybody's got their opinion, but again, man, why do they screw the big show at the end, dude? What's wrong with the big show winning the Royal Rumble?
01:11:21
Speaker
Well, that's like the old, you know, the old trope is every time there's some, even though we've never seen one of the gigantic guys when the rumble, it's always, you know, how's anybody going to eliminate this guy? Like every time Mabel or Audrey or Braun Strowman would come into the rumble and then the guys always get eliminated, man. 2002, Kurt Angle was the runner up to Triple H. And then in 2020, Roman Reigns, this was during that stretch of time where it seemed like Roman Reigns was just the go-to silver medalist for the rumble.
01:11:51
Speaker
Dog food medal. Yeah. You know, they were trolling the fans, right? Because this was the time where everybody just assumed Roman was one of the main events. So they'd always put Roman in a fan favorite as the last team in the Rumble every year. Shortest time in the Rumble. So this is a guy who's one of the all time greatest World Rumble performers. But in 1990, Shawn Michaels spent the least amount of time in the match from the 26 position. And then Titus O'Neill did it in 2015.
01:12:16
Speaker
I mean, we don't need to spend much time on Titus O'Neill, but Sean Michaels being on this list as a travesty. Titus O'Neill's greatest rumble moment came at the greatest war, but when he almost split his freaking head open, when he tripped, run it down to the ring, full speed. That's his only moment. Let's be honest. Yeah. I don't know what the fuck he's doing. He's written down a ramp. Like he's running the 40 at the fucking draft combine and just fucking clips the ring apron.
01:12:38
Speaker
I'm telling you, dude, like Steve Austin was breaking down on his podcast. Like if he would have fallen forward another like six or seven inches, dude, that would have been fucking bad news, man, because that's a big guy coming down full speed. And we know from here and Michael Cole, man, that apron is the hardest part of the ring. Oh, dude, he's extremely lucky that nothing worse came out of this. I mean, yeah, now it just looks like a big goof spot. But dude, if he would have hit his head on the apron, that would have been an ugly scene.
01:13:06
Speaker
All right, so we talked about if you draw number, which was it, we talked about if you draw number 22, you're getting a, or 24, you're getting a half chub.
Success of Position 27 in Producing Rumble Winners
01:13:17
Speaker
If you draw a number 27, you're getting a fucking boner like the Statue of Liberty, man. There have been, this is tied for the best spot in the Rumble, four winners from the 27 spot, man.
01:13:27
Speaker
Big John stud in 1989 the first ever rumble he got it 1993 we saw Yoko Zuna win This was the first year when the winner of the Royal Rumble would go to WrestleMania to fight for the championship Do you remember the finish of this rumble Jordan? Which one 93?
01:13:44
Speaker
Yeah, no. So macho man, it comes down to macho man and Yoko Zuna macho man hits the flying elbow drop on Yoko Zuna and then inexplicably tries to cover him. He tries to pin him and Yoko Zuna presses him and macho man goes flying over the top rope and gets eliminated like
01:14:01
Speaker
I want to know, where does Macho Man trying to pin Yoko Zuna to win a Rumble rank on your list of dumbest moves in wrestling history? I mean, this might be worse than being thrown out in one second, honestly, before being completely honest. Like, what the hell was Macho Man thinking? What kind of drugs did he have before the show to think that that was going to work? You know what sucks about it, man? Looking back at that Rumble, obviously, we love Yoko Zuna, right? No heat on Yoko Zuna whatsoever.
01:14:29
Speaker
But you could still have given Yoko Zuna his title win down the road. Imagine if Macho ends up winning, getting Yoko Zuna out, and we get Macho Man versus Bret Hart to main event WrestleMania IX. Think about what that does to change the trajectory of how WrestleMania IX looked at historically. Because like I said, you could still have Yoko Zuna going over strong, and Yoko Zuna could even get the belt from Bret at King of the Ring or SummerSlam or something, man. I feel like that's a real fork in the road moment in wrestling.
01:14:55
Speaker
And honestly, like, you know, as a Brett, be my all time favorite. I feel like that's a match. If they would have done that, they could have took Brett up even another notch. Cause you know, that match would have been a banger, dude. You know, that would have been an all time classic. And I'm picturing Brett, you know, somehow winning a really hard fought battle against him to retain the belt. I feel like that just would have put Brett over so strong.
01:15:15
Speaker
And just been a really incredible moment, man. But, you know, we had to, you know, Hogan had to pose, so we had to have Hogan come in and do the original cashing at WrestleMania. Hogan must pose. All right. Speaking of Brett, 1994, Brett won. I think this is my most wanted Brett figure right now, man, with the splatter paint all over it. You know, this was the night Owen kicked his leg out of his leg and then he comes back to tie Luger. Two days selfish.
01:15:39
Speaker
You're too damn selfish. All you had to do was tag me, Brett, but you're too damn selfish. And that's why I kicked your leg out of your leg. This is his best gear. I think this is one of my favorite gears you ever wore.
01:15:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's sick, man. I'm sure we're going to get it sooner rather than later. And then 2001, Austin won. This was peak Steve Austin. He comes back from the neck injury and he's on his way to WrestleMania 17, the biggest WrestleMania ever to face the rock for the championship. One runner up from this spot, Braun Strowman. We touched on it briefly earlier. Jordan, give us your opinion, man. Where did the WWE go wrong with Braun?
01:16:21
Speaker
So when he was originally over, I can't remember the exact year, you probably remember it better. 2017. That's when he should have gotten his push and actually got the title. I feel like him getting the title at that point would have changed his career trajectory because when he actually finally did win the title, it meant almost nothing at that point. Like nobody cared. It just
01:16:45
Speaker
WV is famous for not striking why the iron's hot and waiting too long and I just feel like dude that that's part of it is him not winning it at that point people just kind of fell off the brawn train and When he finally did win it nobody cared
01:17:00
Speaker
Yeah, he had this big match with Brock for the belt at No Mercy 2017. It seemed like he was going to win it, man. Like I said, he was the most over baby face on the roster. And for whatever reason, dude, Brock went over with one F5. You know what I mean? Kind of made Braun look like a chump. And then it wasn't until the lame WrestleMania and the Performance Center that Braun finally beats a stale Goldberg to win the Universal Championship. God, that sucks, man. Braun had so much potential, too, and they just
01:17:30
Speaker
They ruined it, man. They ruined it, damn it. God damn it.
01:17:35
Speaker
And then somehow, this just goes to show you how Royal Rumble booking has evolved over the years. Shortest time in the Rumble at the 27th spot. In 1991, they put Bushwacker Luke in the 27th spot. Isn't this where he comes in, gets thrown out and does the Bushwacker walk right back? Yeah, he does the Bushwacker walk through the entrance, comes in the ring, does the Bushwacker walk across the ring, and when he gets close to the opposite ropes, Earthquake just dumps him like a sack of potatoes, and he never even breaks stride. He just does the Bushwacker walk right to the back.
01:18:02
Speaker
I mean, it's a really, it's really great moment, but it's just, it's an interesting choice for the 27 spot. What a performer. All right. The 28, two, there have been two winners from this position, both the same guy, Batista in 2005 and 2014, one from the 28 spot.
Batista's Achievements from Position 28
01:18:18
Speaker
Blue Tista.
01:18:20
Speaker
Yeah, he was Bootista in 2014, man. That was the year when everybody wanted Daniel Bryan. He was supposed to be a baby face and gets booed out of the building. It ends up turning heel off of this one finish. Was not great. Definitely was not a great moment. Bootista definitely is going to go down as one of the better big men ever. But pretty crazy, dude. He's only won it twice and it's from the same exact spot.
01:18:44
Speaker
Roman was the runner-up in 2018. This was the year with Shinsuke. And then once again, appearing on this list, Santino Marella was the shortest amount of time in the Rumble in 2009. Good God. Santino Marella and the Hurricane. You can count on them for two things. Coming into the ring and being thrown out immediately. This is the shortest time ever, too. This is one second.
01:19:08
Speaker
Let me see what, I was going off Wikipedia for all my notes. What do Wikipedia have it as? I mean, you put it in the notes as one second. One second, okay, yeah. That was shortest time ever. I mean, it gets no shorter than that, so. Yeah, good on you, Santino. All right, last two spots, 29. We've had two winners from the 29 spot. Brock won it in 2003 and Edge in 2010. I don't really got any big memories from either one of these rumbles. How about you?
01:19:30
Speaker
No, but you can't just skip over the fact that you're coming in 29 and your average finish is fifth. That's pretty pathetic, actually. That is pretty bad, yeah. 29's kind of, you're kind of clearing the deck. Typically, like, you know, they usually end up stacking it with about anywhere from like six to like 10 people at the very end. So if you're 29, you definitely just kind of in the mix, because they almost always have somebody big for the number 30 spot. Yeah, it's pretty bad that your average finishes fifth place from the second to last spot.
01:20:00
Speaker
But yeah, I got no memories of either one of these. Making his first appearance on the list. There were three runner ups from the 29 spot. We have Sid in 1992. This is when that bitch Hulk Hogan fucked over Sid. Sid eliminates Hulk fair and square. He was probably on his way to eliminating a highly fatigued Ric Flair, becoming WWF champion for the first time. And Hulk fucking grabs onto Sid's wrist and helps Ric Flair eliminate him to give Flair the belt, man.
01:20:26
Speaker
I remember just being like, what the fuck is a kid? Cause I was still a Hulk maniac in 92, but I could, I was already old enough to kind of see like, damn, that was kind of messed up there. Holster. Uh, what's kind of your overall thoughts on Sid as a performer, Jordan? Dude, I love Sid. I never really feel like he got his deserved due. Um, this should have probably been it for him. Um, going to WrestleMania and fight for the title, but
01:20:50
Speaker
I don't know, man. It's kind of a mixed bag with him. He was a great performer as a big man. I always felt like the Psycho Sid character always kind of resonated with me. The dude literally looked like he would kill you in a back alley. I feel like it was an incomplete for as far as his career goes.
01:21:13
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. We know he had his obsession with softball, right? Which I can respect that man. I love fishing and stuff, dude. So I would love to just be able to take off work when I fucking wanted to and just go fishing for a few months. But it seemed like that was always kind of, it's become a little bit of a joke now, but that's why Sid never really had any extended runs. You know, he was typically around WWE for, you know, six, eight, nine months at a time. Then he disappeared for a few months because he was going off to play with some softball team somewhere. But I thought Sid was awesome.
01:21:38
Speaker
It seems like people are coming around on him a little bit, man. I think he definitely though for a long time, like you said, he was one of the really kind of underappreciated guys because he's obviously he's not, you know, he's not a luchador. He's not the great mood or something like that. But for what he did, he executed very well. He had an awesome presence and just a charisma, right? Like he had, he was decent enough on the mic. He had a lot of unintentionally funny moments, but he was good at being like super intense and scary.
01:22:03
Speaker
And I just thought he really executed his character to the fullest, man. Whether he was Sid Vicious in WCW, Sid Justice that first time with WWF were coming back as Psycho Sid. I thought he rocked. I always look forward to a Sid match coming up on an old paper review I'm watching. Yeah, and he was the master and the ruler of the world. Yeah, and he was twice the man that Kevin Nash and Scott Hall was, but he had half the brains that they had. And his legs snapped like a turkey leg.
01:22:30
Speaker
Hey, speaking of which, I can't remember if Sheena mentioned on the pot last night. We're getting turkeys this year, dude. So be ready for that. We may have them by the time you guys come out for WrestleMania. So be ready for some little baby turkeys running around. Looking forward to it. All right. Also runner up. 2008 Triple H. That was the year Cena came back. We'll get to that in a sec. Chris Jericho in 2012. And there has been one person that spent the shortest amount of time in a rumble from the 29 spot. That was the Miz in 2007. That's very early in his career.
01:22:57
Speaker
You ready to finish this thing up man? I am All
Recent Success of the 30th Spot in Royal Rumble
01:23:00
Speaker
right. So the number 30 spot this says tied for the most winners with 27 and this has the third most historically notable performances
01:23:10
Speaker
after spots one and two. So we'll kick it off with the winners, man, four winners for, from the number 30 spot. And they didn't do this for a long time, man, which, you know, the 30 spots really had a resurgence over the last decade and a half you in kayfabe it's automatically should be, you know, 30 spots should be the betting favorite every year. But we didn't have a winner until 2007 when the undertaker got it from the 30 spot and they went back to back.
01:23:33
Speaker
John Cena got it in 2008 with the big shocking return. Triple H in 2016, another kind of surprise appearance, and then Brock last year, the one you were in the house for.
01:23:43
Speaker
Yeah, these usually are surprise returns. Well, Brock wasn't last year. People tried to act surprised when he came out, but everybody knew he was coming. But the scene of return, dude, this is probably one of my favorite Royal Rumble moments, just because nobody thought he was coming back. I mean, he was three months removed from a torn pack. The fact that he came back and won was incredible. And the entrance was crazy. The crowd was insane at this one. So yeah, it was a good moment.
01:24:13
Speaker
Yeah, for me, it's tied for my favorite John Cena moment ever his return at the 2008 Rumble and his ring entrance at ECW one night stand in 2006. That's my two favorite Cena moments. Yeah, those are good ones. All right, the 30 spots also produce seven runners up. So 1989 the million dollar man Ted DiBiase.
01:24:32
Speaker
1990 mr. Perfect 93 macho man. We talked about before 2003 the undertaker 2006 Randy Orton 2013 Ryback Was a freakin runner-up. Let's not list million-dollar man. Mr. Perfect macho man undertaker Randy Orton and the Ryback And Roman Reigns
01:24:51
Speaker
Yeah, one of these things is not like the others. It's not good, not good at all. And then closing it out, in 2002, I think this was kind of just to complete the total burial of the WCW ECW Alliance. Booker T spent the least amount of time in the rumble from the 30 spot. Yeah, also not good.
01:25:11
Speaker
Yeah. And that's it, dude. That is the rumble by the numbers. Jordan, we did it, man. We actually did it in an hour and 25 minutes, man. That wasn't bad. We definitely could have went longer on every person. But like we said, we just kind of wanted to run through this with you guys and have some fun with it. And I feel like we did a pretty good job. Seth didn't mumble too many words. I'm not too drunk yet. So I feel like we did pretty well on this. I mean, all things considered.
01:25:37
Speaker
I kind of I cut down on the wrestle math after the first view because I can tell it was it was going to be a mouthful dude if I was going to do the wrestling math all the way through, I thought it was going to run together and like, you know, if anybody's wanting details, feel free to hit us with follow up on the comments whether on Sheena's Instagram post or the Facebook group and, and we could dive deep on it but I figured unless somebody sitting there with a notepad or something I didn't think it was adding a lot so that's why that definitely helped out on speeding it up but
01:26:02
Speaker
But yeah, like I said, this is something we'd want to do for a while. Put a ton of research into it, and we hope you guys enjoy it. Jordan, we do got some listener mail though, man. Are you ready for some questions from the listeners? Yeah, let's do it.
Should Mid-Carters Win the Royal Rumble?
01:26:13
Speaker
All right, let me pull these up if my Facebook app will cooperate. All right, we'll start it off with the man, the myth, the legend, Tony Barker. What are your thoughts regarding a mid-carter or a dark horse coming out on top in the Royal Rumble match? Could this be done to get a new star over, or should the winner always be a top guy or gal?
01:26:33
Speaker
I feel like this would be a great opportunity to get someone over. I feel like they don't, they don't use it that way at all. I mean, if you look at the history of it, it's almost always somebody that's already established, right? Um, I do feel like it would be awesome. Well, I mean, shit, we got our chance this year. Did Sammy Zane wins it? I mean, he's definitely not a main eventer right now. So he'd be about as close as you got to a mid-quarter at this point to win on the Royal Rumble.
01:27:01
Speaker
Yeah, I think it's a little bit trickier now with the belts back unified I think during the various time periods where there have been two world championships. That's the perfect time to do it because you can still tell your traditional WrestleMania main event storyline with whoever
01:27:17
Speaker
with whoever, you know, whichever championship doesn't get, you know, pursued by the rumble winner. And then you could have that mid Carter that gets immediately elevated. But, um, yeah, it's, it's definitely a great way to do it if that's the way to go. I don't know if they're going to do it this year or not though, with it being WrestleMania in LA. We talked about it a lot on the show last night. Well, you know, we still don't really know exactly which direction we're going for the main event at mania this year. What, what the end game is going to be for Roman. Um, but Sammy would be an interesting choice and would definitely fit the bill for a dark horse.
01:27:42
Speaker
Alright, Chris Foreman, we just talked about this one a second ago. When Vince blew out his legs when hitting the ring, do you think his NDAs were a little less frequent afterwards? I don't think so. But God, that was a great moment. I feel like if anything, they'd be more frequent because it's only so much you can do if you're stuck in a wheelchair. You know what I mean? Yeah. I imagine you can still screw. Laid up on a bed. You have to be a little bit creative on the positions. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, who cares if we got both legs in a cast like your Willy still works. Yeah.
01:28:11
Speaker
All right. So yeah, I think our answer is no on that one, Chris. All right. Zach Hertzler. Do you think we will ever have a wrestling World Cup tournament involving stars from WWE, AEW, and New Japan Pro Wrestling? No. I find it very hard to believe that three owners of a company are going to get together and be like, hey, we'll do it a fair way. We'll split proceeds, everything like that.
01:28:37
Speaker
It's just never going to happen, man. I mean, there's there's no sport in the world that this has ever happened. There's it's just not going to happen. That's too many, too many guys swinging around their meat thinking that they're the big shot. It's just not going to happen.
01:28:52
Speaker
Yeah, I think we're closer to it than we have been in the last five or 10 years. Triple H would definitely be open to it, assuming he stays in creative control in WWE. And we know Nick Khan is just about making money. So I don't think it's as long a shot as Jordan does. I still think it's
01:29:09
Speaker
It's unlikely in the next year. So I think talent sharing can definitely happen. I can totally see more scenarios where you have, um, you know, you have WWE, you guys shouldn't have been, we've already seen, you know, we saw Shinsuke at pro wrestling, Noah here recently, you see new Japan guys coming to WWE and vice versa. And Tony Khan said he's open to it. I think Tony Khan would jump at it if they want to do a little talent exchange with WWE.
01:29:30
Speaker
But as far as the joint card goes, yeah, just be tricky. You got to, you got to figure out how the money's going to be split. And then more importantly than that, who's going over? How do you keep all three? You know, I think, you know, those are the big three in the world right now. How do you keep all three organizations looking strong? Dude, back in the eighties, there was something similar. There was a
01:29:47
Speaker
a supercar that was held between AWA, NWA, WCCW down in Texas, and it ended up being a mess, dude. Business-wise, it wasn't a success, and it ended up with Jerry Lawler kind of low-key stealing the AWA championship and basically holding it hostage in Memphis for a few months.
01:30:04
Speaker
Imagine just for a minute, imagine we did this and the main event was Roman versus Kenny versus Okada, which one of those owners is going to be like, all right, man, I'm good with my guy taking the pin because it ain't going to be Triple H. He's going to be OK with Roman taking the pin.
01:30:21
Speaker
I can assure you that, uh, new Japan is not okay with Ocada taking that pin. He's taking that pin. I see, I honestly did. I see, I see that Matt, if they did that man in my mind, I'm some scenario where Roman and Ocada both pin Kenny at the same time. Like it's all three guys are laid out and they somehow get a finger on him. Then you do Roman and Ocada down the road. Cause I think they're both a half step above Kenny. Ocada is just on another level.
01:30:48
Speaker
Yeah, would be cool though, man. It's a great idea. You know, I just I wonder how you execute it at the current, you know, with the current climate and stuff. Be tough. All right. Let's see what we got next.
01:31:02
Speaker
Alright Sam bro says do you guys think the rumble should open or close the pay-per-view? I think it just depends I think It's I'm cool with either one I think it really depends on what the world championship match is at the rumble if the if the winner of the world championship match is gonna Telegraph who's winning the rumble then you need to do the rumble first if it doesn't then I try to keep the rumble the main event unless There's something else on the card that's basically gonna like giveaway who's winning the rumble, you know, I feel like
01:31:32
Speaker
I agree with what you just said, but I feel like if the rumble is not the main event It takes away a little bit from the event because I mean the event is the Royal Rumble and the rumble is the match that That made it so I feel like if you're doing the sign pointing thing which the reason love with now That needs to be the end of the show like that needs to be what what you see when the show goes off there
01:31:56
Speaker
Let's go back and take a look, man. So in 96, I remember Bretton Undertaker was the main event. They went after the Rumble, which, I mean, that's Bretton Taker. So I'm not going to complain about that going on after. 97, they put Sean and Sid on after the Rumble, which that was when the Rumble was in the Alamo Dome. The whole reason for being there was to see Sean win the belt back from Sid. I think that's OK. You can get with that. 98, it was Sean and Undertaker in a casket match. It ended with Kane sitting the Undertaker on fire in a casket.
01:32:25
Speaker
That's got to go on last three years in a row it went on last Yeah, but then I'm looking I don't know when the next time they did it was man. I think in 2006 I think Undertaker and Kurt Angle was the main event after the Rumble Yeah, the most they haven't done it recently the majority of time the Rumbles last it was really just a three-year stretch I can't really speak to the Undertaker and Kurt Angle. I'm assuming that's probably when they want to have back but Brett taker
01:32:52
Speaker
Sean and Sid in San Antonio and Sean and undertaking a casket match. Like I can't really complain about those being the main event. So I guess it really just, if you got just a straight up fucking bang up main event that it has to go or a world championship match that has to go on last, I wouldn't complain about it, but I agree with Jordan in general, the rumble needs to be the focus of the show. All right. Zach Hertzler says, are any certain beers you have on the menu to drink during the rumble?
01:33:20
Speaker
I do not, man. I'll probably go to the liquor store on Friday, pick some new ones out, but I don't have anything that's on the docket as of right now.
01:33:30
Speaker
So I'm going to be doing a little smokey in the bandit action on Saturday, man. I actually got to go down to Dallas Fort Worth for work on Friday, and I'll be finishing up Saturday morning at about 11. And it's a little bit under an eight hour drive, which if I time up my gas stops smooth, no hiccups, no traffic, I should be walking in the front door.
01:33:52
Speaker
right around the time that the main show is kicking off. And I'm thinking I'm going to do some Jameson, man. I think I'm going to go with the hard stuff, dude, after fucking eight hours on the road and being out of town for a couple of days, man. I think I'm going to come back and go with some Jameson ginger ale and lime. And I think that's what I'm going to drink during the rumble. Nice.
01:34:11
Speaker
All right, let's go to Johnny JB. Is there a winner of a rumble where you were legitimately, legitimately mad or happy that they won? So let's start off, let's go mad first. Who's the one that made you mad? And then we'll go with one that made you glad, Jordan.
01:34:25
Speaker
91, when Hogan won the Royal Rumble instead of Earthquake, complete garbage. As a seven-year-old, you were one Earthquake to beat Hulk? Hell yeah. Bro, we would have been fighting if I was at your house, dude. I fucking hated Earthquake for what he did to Hulk. I'm just kidding. Like, looking back on it, that's why I was mad. Like, as an adult, that's why I'm mad about it. I can't speak to when I was a kid, dude. When I was a kid, I barely even knew what I was doing. I was probably eating my boogers while I was watching the wrestling match.
01:34:54
Speaker
um happy I don't dude I mean Cena coming back like I keep going back to that but dude that was a happy moment for me Ray winning the rumble was really happy moment for me um yeah I mean that's really it
01:35:11
Speaker
I, in 1994, I remember being pissed that they made it a tie and didn't just have Brett and Lex Leaver go to like fucking overtime or something, right? Like, why does Brett get to just, you know, why is it a tie? Like, when do you ever have ties in sports, right? Like they didn't have a tie at the Ironman match at WrestleMania 12, right? But when it was convenient to screw over Brett, sure, make it a tie. I was mad about that one. As far as GLAAD goes,
01:35:40
Speaker
I'd probably say 2019 when Seth won because even though he'd been getting the push all year, I still wasn't for sure if they were going to pull the trigger on Seth actually went in the rumble and going on to WrestleMania face Brock, but, but he did it. And yeah, I just remember being really, really psyched for that one.
01:35:57
Speaker
All right, and last question, this from our newest Foley fan, Foley fam. Oh, wow. That eight for that freaking gelato 8% double IPA starting to kick in, man. All right, last question from our newest Foley fam member. There we go. Easy for me to say. Brett Sherrow. My most memorable rumble in relation to when I was watching the most was watching Ray go for number two to win the whole thing. Second most memorable was John Cena returning in 08. Probably the biggest pop in a rumble match.
01:36:27
Speaker
And that's it. It was just a statement. He's just sharing a thought. No question. I think I'm just going to go off that. I think my favorite thing is still AJ Styles debuting in 2016. It was just something that I never thought I would see. Um, like I, I've said it before, I was a huge TNA Mark and I loved AJ Styles and I really wanted to see him get his shot on the big stage. And I just remember kind of being like,
01:36:51
Speaker
in awe of the fact that WWE actually signed this guy and admitted that he was he was worth enough to get under WWE contract and dude the last seven years with AJ Styles has been really memorable for WWE.
01:37:05
Speaker
Yeah, it's been awesome. My most memorable is probably still going back to 1992, man. I was still such a little mark at the time. And I just knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Hulk Hogan was going to win the championship. This was the rumble that was for the vacated title after all the controversy between Hulk and the Undertaker. I just knew that Hulk was winning that belt. And it was just shocking to me when he actually got dumped out by Sid Justice. And it just burned into my memory, man. So I go with the 1992 rumble. There is nothing better than that rumble, though.
01:37:35
Speaker
That's like comfort wrestling is watching the 92 rumble.
01:37:38
Speaker
Yeah, if you want to get excited, little appetizers sit down Friday night after Smackdown goes off and watch that rumble. It's the perfect thing to get you all all lubed up for for Saturday night's event or watch instead of Smackdown. I mean, that's what I would advise. Yeah, it's going to be awesome. We're super stoked for the rumble. It's going to be a blast. One of the most fun events of the year. We got a we got a little lotto actually went on the Foley fam. This is going to be dropping Friday morning. So if you're listening to this, hopefully you get a chance to listen for the rumble to help you get excited.
01:38:06
Speaker
It's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait man. I want to remind you guys use code chick Foley to save 10% at ringside collectibles and find links to all things chick Foley my lovely wife Sheena at www www.chick Foley.com Jordan hit us with some closing thoughts as we tie a bow on this episode and I feel like I get in my feels whenever I do the closing thoughts for podware. That's good. That's what they want dude.
01:38:29
Speaker
I just want to say and I keep repeating this man, me and Seth are so thankful that you guys give us feedback on these episodes and that you guys like listening to me and Seth banter on because dude, this is easy for me and Seth to do. I mean, we're best friends. We this is how we talk on the phone. You guys are getting a peek behind the curtain of Jordan and Seth's friendship. And we want you guys to give us feedback and and stuff that you guys want to hear, because I mean, we're open to doing anything.
01:38:56
Speaker
But yeah, we appreciate you guys listening and I hope you guys have a great Rumble weekend.
01:39:23
Speaker
Not bad for a boy from Mississippi Yeah, I could buy Maybach But I'm still in my F-150 And my last name Is a whole lot bigger than I thought it'd be A lot of things changed Except one thing
01:39:46
Speaker
still the same old red neck fuck don't give a damn ain't afraid to throw a dead fuck on my instagram grain after all and my cup got the whole mouth water wall and i still ain't sold out water wall and i still ain't sold out