History YMMV / RoyalRumble

** 2024: Wrestling/TheUsos facing off against each other as numbers 1 and 2, Andrade and Naomi returning and the debut of Jade Cargill. On a sillier note, [[Wrestling/RonKillings R-Truth's]] antics in both Rumbles and Pat [=McAfee=]'s swift exit.

** 2024 had a return for each of the Royal Rumble matches that many didn't expect. For the Women's it was Naomi due to a fallout she had with the company before she left and for the Men's, many didn't expect Andrade to return so soon.

*** Additionally, the Women's Rumble also had TNA Knockout Champion Jordynne Grace, who was never even employed by the WWE, and Jade Cargill, as it was well known at the time that she was being trained at the performance center. Meanwhile, Pat [=McAfee=] was a bit of a surprise in the Men's Rumble to the point where even he didn't know that he was an entry.

** The 2024 had a return for each of the Royal Rumble matches that many didn't expect. For the Women's it was Naomi due to a fallout she had with the company before she left and for the Men's, many didn't expect Andrade to return so soon.

* HarsherInHindsight:
* Wrestling/BrayWyatt was getting a ''massive'' push leading into the 2023 Royal Rumble, with a sub-plot of the return of Alexa Bliss as part of the Fiend's stable, with an epic match against LA Knight, akin to the Firefly Funhouse match against Cena at Wrestlemania... then Bray Wyatt was taken out of action by COVID, dying to heart complications and Alexa had to step back due to ending up pregnant. Only [[Wrestling/BoDallas Uncle Howdy]] was left behind, and seemingly the Firefly Funhouse closed for good that night...

*** To a lesser extent, Wrestling/BookerT (who hadn't wrestled in close to 10 years and was on the pre-show panel ''right before the match started'') and Wrestling/MichelleMcCool (who was with her daughters ''in the crowd'') were both entrants.

* HeartwarmingInHindsight: Wrestling/BeckyLynch and Wrestling/SethRollins winning their respective Rumble matches in 2019 becomes much sweeter with the revelation that they had actually begun their romantic relationship around that time.

* OvershadowedByControversy: The 2014 and 2015 matches are remembered for the ''tremendous'' backlash that ensued. In both matches, a homegrown [[CreatorsPet pet project]] of Wrestling/VinceMcMahon and his associates won, Wrestling/{{Batista}} and Wrestling/RomanReigns, respectively, despite the fact that the crowd overwhelmingly wanted [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] to win the match; unfortunately, Bryan wasn't even in the 2014 match and was quickly eliminated in 2015. The 2014 Rumble is also remembered for being the final straw that led to Wrestling/CMPunk quitting WWE the day afterward, while the 2015 edition is also remembered for a spot in which older stars Wrestling/BigShow and Wrestling/{{Kane}} eliminated other beloved {{Ensemble Dark Horse}}s like Wrestling/DolphZiggler and [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] from the match as well, to thunderous chants of "PLEASE RETIRE!". It says a lot about a promotion's booking when post territory fans riot in protest to a babyface's victory.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** Some people were somewhat annoyed at Wrestling/KellyKelly's appearance in the 2018 and 2020 Women's Royal Rumble matches, as they felt that she personified many bad things that the division had gotten away from in recent years. It should be noted that in both cases, Kelly was a last-minute replacement for someone else; in 2018, Wrestling/AliciaFox and Wrestling/{{Paige}} both got injured shortly before the Rumble, so she may have been a last minute replacement (it was later revealed Kairi Sane was Fox's replacement), while in 2020 Kelly was reportedly a replacement for Wrestling/SashaBanks, who was injured.
** Some people were baffled at the appearance of [[Wrestling/SantinoMarella Santina Marella]] at the 2020 Women's Royal Rumble match, due to being a comedy character who is actually played by a man in drag.

** The ''entire idea of the Royal Rumble itself'' was actually this, with Wrestling/VinceMcMahon not at all sold on it when Wrestling/PatPatterson pitched him the idea back in 1987, and only agreeing to give it one shot to simultaneously placate Patterson and a network exec that had been badgering him about fresh match gimmicks. They had the first one on PPV in 1988, and the rest is history.

* AuthorsSavingThrow:
** The 2005 finish was a great fix to a hilarious screw up. After Wrestling/{{Batista}} botched the ending, sending both himself and Wrestling/JohnCena to the floor at the same time, the referees improvised a bit until things were restarted to get a proper ending.
** The 2018 Men's Rumble, and the finish with Wrestling/ShinsukeNakamura eliminating Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/RomanReigns, was regarded as an apology to the Philadelphia crowd for 2015.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Back in 2000, the WWE held the Miss Royal Rumble bikini contest in which Mae Young won and exposed her breasts before Mark Henry covered her up. With the [=#MeToo=] Movement, this segment would not happen ever again in the WWE.
** The main reason why the WWE has both the men's Royal Rumble and women's Royal Rumble matches these days is because of gender equality.

* ContestedSequel:
** 2014 ended with a floodgate of resentment against WWE over the apparent shafting of [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] in the Rumble, alongside a lackluster performance of the rest of the other matches, and Wrestling/{{Batista}} winning the event for a second time. To put this into perspective, Bryan's match against Wrestling/BrayWyatt (which the former lost) was largely declared "Match of the Night". Although it didn't rule him out on being excluded from the Royal Rumble, as the number of entrants appeared and Bryan became a no-show, other superstars (like fan favorite and perpetual-{{Face}} Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}) [[XPacHeat were met with boos]] when they appeared...yes, '''BOOS'''; no other Royal Rumble in its 20+ year history prior to that event ended with hisses and jeers from the audience, face or heel winner, be they {{Smark}}s or not.
*** As if that wasn't enough, when the event went off the air, with people doing the "NO!" chants, Wrestling/{{Batista}} starts mocking Bryan and [[FlippingTheBird flips off the crowd]].[[note]]However it should be noted that this was arguably the ''correct'' thing for Batista to do. He'd wanted to return as a heel, knowing full well the crowd would slaughter him when he won the Rumble, but WWE insisted he return as a face. Batista was basically defying management to play the reaction he was getting the way it ''should'' be played, leading to the proper FaceHeelTurn he needed and him putting over Bryan in the ensuing Wrestling/WrestleMania match with Wrestling/RandyOrton.[[/note]]
*** Even Wrestling/MickFoley would take to Website/{{Twitter}} to criticize WWE management:
----> "Does WWE actually [[TakeThatAudience hate their own audience]]? I've never been so disgusted with a PPV."
*** It also had the "honor" of being Wrestling/CMPunk's last match, until 2021 when he signed with Wrestling/AllEliteWrestling. Punk was probably the only other superstar in the Rumble that the fans would have accepted as a replacement winner for Daniel Bryan. When he got eliminated by an already eliminated Wrestling/{{Kane}} (who was pulling the "Corporate Kane" schtick at the time, which wasn't being well-received at all), the fans lost all hope and started cheering anybody who wasn't Batista. Then Punk legit quit the company the day afterwards, and the 2014 Royal Rumble was such a PR disaster that the entire "Road to ''Wrestling/WrestleMania''" had to be rewritten just so the event wouldn't implode in on itself.
** The 2015 Royal Rumble was ''somehow'' even '''worse'''. The event ended with the live crowd loudly booing winner Wrestling/RomanReigns in similar fashion, including chants for Bryan long after his elimination (including a Wrestling/CMPunk chant, despite his departure from the company). This has produced [[BrokenBase a similarly split reaction]], with some fans angry at the company as a whole for more or less {{Retcon}}ning what happened in the previous year, others angry at the creative team (but not ''at'' Reigns) for derailing Bryan's return momentum, and another group simply happy with how things turned out.[[note]]Reigns being given the win coincides with his rumored bump to main event status prior to the Rumble[[/note]] [[Wrestling/DwayneJohnson The Rock]] coming out to support his cousin's victory and endorsing it didn't stop the jeers.
*** The crowd started booing the moment Bryan was eliminated. Oddly enough, when [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]] made his entry, things started winding down a bit. With his elimination, the outcome became more obvious. The appearance of last hope Wrestling/DolphZiggler also got cheers and heavy support, which quickly died down when he was eliminated.
*** Worth noting that near the end of the match there were "We Want Wrestling/{{Rusev|AndLana}}!" chants. That's right, ''Rusev''; fans would rather have had [[ForeignWrestlingHeel an anti-American heel]] win over Reigns. {{Irony}} ensues, when the crowd in the 2014 Rumble cheered on ''Reigns to win'' when he and Batista were the last ones in the match.
*** The negative reaction was so massive that [=#CancelWWENetwork=] became the number one trending topic on Website/{{Twitter}} ''worldwide'', and so many subscribers attempted to cancel their subscriptions that [[DemandOverload the website couldn't handle the traffic and crashed]].
*** How did Wrestling/VinceMcMahon handle this you might ask? By going to Twitter and "thanking" the fans for helping the Network reach a million subscribers. Of course, most people know this was Vince's way of giving the middle finger to the [=#CancelWWENetwork=] people.
*** To top it off, the PPV was in ''Philadelphia''. Truth of the matter is, had anyone short of Bryan, Ambrose, or Ziggler had won, the crowd wouldn't have gone home happy. The fact that it was ''Reigns'' means that while most fans around the world were mad, Philly was going to be downright ''impossible'' to placate.
** The 2022 Men's Rumble was also considered one of the worst ones ever because ''nothing happens in it''. The Rumble has always been about telling mini-stories, kicking off or advancing feuds between competitors, bold ironman performances and surprise returns to pop the crowd. This one had ''nothing''. The Iron Man was AJ Styles, who came in at #1 and lasted for 29 minutes before being eliminated by the ''patently'' not-over Madcap Moss. Practically no stories were advanced at all apart from celebrity entrant [[Series/{{Jackass}} Johnny Knoxville]] being eliminated by Wrestling/SamiZayn to develop their feud; people had been wondering whether Wrestling/ReyMysterio and his son Dominik would finally implode with one of them eliminating the other, only for them to not even be in the ring at even anything ''close'' to the same time. Wrestling/KofiKingston's trademark "desperate elimination escape" spot was botched when he attemped to land on the crowd barricade only to not make it, with both of his feet hitting the floor, causing him to be eliminated in only 20 seconds. The only surprise entrants[[note]]Johnny Knoxville had announced his participation in advance[[/note]] were the returning rapper Music/BadBunny (who came in near the end, causing him to completely miss reuniting with his former partner Damien Priest, who'd entered and been eliminated near the beginning) and ''Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon'', who was ''not'' well-received (especially when he eliminated Wrestling/KevinOwens and made it to the final 4) and who had apparently been pushing backstage to rebook half the Rumble around himself, causing so much trouble that his father was forced to ''fire him'' afterwards. And the winner was ''tiresomely'' predictable from the start of the match- Wrestling/BrockLesnar had lost his WWE Championship to Wrestling/BobbyLashley earlier in the night, but ''everybody'' knew that WWE was running back Lesnar/[[Wrestling/RomanReigns Reigns]] '''[[HereWeGoAgain yet again]]''' at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'', so to the surprise of absolutely nobody Lesnar came out at #30 and quickly threw out the remaining competitors (ending with Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre, the man who'd eliminated him in 2020) with contemptuous ease to win the Rumble for the first time since 2003, simultaneously setting a new record for the longest time between Rumble wins and ''smashing'' the record for "shortest time in a Rumble match before winning it" by only taking ''2 minutes and 30 seconds'' from his entry to the finish[[note]]the previous record, Wrestling/{{Edge}}'s time of 7 minutes and 37 seconds, was so long by comparison that nobody had ever bothered taking note of it before[[/note]]. Critics noted that WWE's plans for the Rumble basically amounted to "Lesnar wins. What else happens? Don't care. Lesnar wins, the end." and the match ended up as #1 on many people's "Worst matches of 2022" list.

** 2023: Wrestling/SamiZayn turned on Wrestling/RomanReigns and gets kicked out of the Bloodline (along with Jey Uso walking away in tears), Logan Paul and Ricochet's mid-air collision, or Asuka going back to her Kana gimmick.

*** To a lesser extent, Wrestling/BookerT (who hadn't wrestled in close to 10 years and was on the pre-show panel ''right before the match started'') and Wrestling/MichelleMccool (who was with her daughters ''in the crowd'') were both entrants.

* AndYouThoughtItWouldFail: Many expected the first women's Royal Rumble in 2018 would be an epic botch fest that would convince the company to never do it again. The match turned out to be on par with some of the better men's Royal Rumble matches over the years, exceeding many people's expectations. While opinions vary as to whether or not it was as good as the men's Rumble that year (as that Rumble was one of the best Rumbles in a ''long'' time), the women's Rumble is regarded as deserving of its main event spot.
** The ''entire idea of the Royal Rumble itself'' was actually this, with Wrestling/VinceMcmahon not at all sold on it when Wrestling/PatPatterson pitched him the idea back in 1987, and only agreeing to give it one shot to simultaneously placate Patterson and a network exec that had been badgering him about fresh match gimmicks. They had the first one on PPV in 1988 and the rest is history.

** 2014 ended with a floodgate of resentment against WWE over the apparent shafting of [[Wrestling/BryanDanielson Daniel Bryan]] in the Rumble, alongside a lackluster performance of the rest of the other matches, and Wrestling/{{Batista}} winning the event for a second time. To put this into perspective, Bryan's match against Wrestling/BrayWyatt (which the former lost) was largely declared "Match of the Night". Although it didn't rule him out on being excluded from the Royal Rumble, as the number of entrants appeared and Bryan became a no-show, other superstars (like fan favorite and perpetual-{{Face}} Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}) [[XPacHeat were met with boos]] when they appeared...yes, '''BOOS'''; no other Royal Rumble in its 20+ year history prior to that event ended with hisses and jeers from the audience, face or heel winner, be it {{Smark}}s or not.
*** As if that wasn't enough, when the event went off the air, with people doing the "NO!" chants, Wrestling/{{Batista}} starts mocking Bryan and [[FlippingTheBird flips off the crowd]].[[note]]However it should be noted that this was arguably the ''correct'' thing for Batista to do- he'd wanted to return as a heel, knowing full well the crowd would slaughter him when he won the Rumble, but WWE insisted he return as a face. Batista was basically defying management to play the reaction he was getting the way it ''should'' be played, leading to the proper FaceHeelTurn he needed and him putting over Bryan in the ensuing Wrestling/WrestleMania match with Wrestling/RandyOrton.[[/note]]

** The 2022 Men's Rumble was also considered one of the worst ones ever because ''nothing happens in it.'' The Rumble has always been about telling mini-stories, kicking off or advancing feuds between competitors, bold ironman performances and surprise returns to pop the crowd. This one had ''nothing.'' The ironman was AJ Styles who came in at #1 and lasted for 29 minutes before being eliminated by the ''patently'' not-over Madcap Moss. Practically no stories were advanced at all apart from celebrity entrant [[Series/{{Jackass}} Johnny Knoxville]] being eliminated by Wrestling/SamiZayn to develop their feud; people had been wondering whether Wrestling/ReyMysterio and his son Dominik would finally implode with one of them eliminating the other, only for them to not even be in the ring at even anything ''close'' to the same time. Wrestling/KofiKingston's trademark "desperate elimination escape" spot was botched when he attemped to land on the crowd barricade only to not make it, with both of his feet hitting the floor, causing him to be eliminated in only 20 seconds. The only surprise entrants[[note]]Johnny Knoxville had announced his participation in advance[[/note]] were the returning rapper Music/BadBunny (who came in near the end, causing him to completely miss reuniting with his former partner Damien Priest, who'd entered and been eliminated near the beginning) and ''Wrestling/ShaneMcMahon'', who was ''not'' well-received (especially when he eliminated Wrestling/KevinOwens and made it to the final 4) and who had apparently been pushing backstage to rebook half the Rumble around himself, causing so much trouble that his father was forced to ''fire him'' afterwards. And the winner was ''tiresomely'' predictable from the start of the match- Wrestling/BrockLesnar had lost his WWE Championship to Wrestling/BobbyLashley earlier in the night, but ''everybody'' knew that WWE was running back Lesnar/[[Wrestling/RomanReigns Reigns]] '''[[HereWeGoAgain yet again]]''' at ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'', so to the surprise of absolutely nobody Lesnar came out at #30 and quickly threw out the remaining competitors (ending with Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre, the man who'd eliminated him in 2020) with contemptuous ease to win the Rumble for the first time since 2003, simultaneously setting a new record for the longest time between Rumble wins and ''smashing'' the record for "shortest time in a Rumble match before winning it" by only taking ''2 minutes and 30 seconds'' from his entry to the finish[[note]]the previous record, Wrestling/{{Edge}}'s time of 7 minutes and 37 seconds, was so long by comparison that nobody had ever bothered taking note of it before[[/note]]. Critics noted that WWE's plans for the Rumble basically amounted to "Lesnar wins. What else happens? Don't care. Lesnar wins, the end." and the match ended up as #1 on many people's "Worst matches of 2022" list.

* RootingForTheEmpire: It really says a lot about how hated Wrestling/RomanReigns is when the fans are willing to cheer for Wrestling/TripleH to win the title in 2016 as long as Reigns isn't the one to hold it. In fact, one of the only times Hunter was not universally cheered during that match is when it was down to the final two and his last opponent was EnsembleDarkHorse [[Wrestling/JonMoxley Dean Ambrose]], and the pop Hunter got when he personally eliminated Reigns (and followed it up with Wrestling/DGenerationX crotch chops) was one of the biggest in the entire match. It's all but confirmed that the reason Ambrose was the runner-up was because eliminating him was the only way Hunter was going to get heel heat after eliminating Reigns.

** 2023: Wrestling/SamiZayn turned on Wrestling/RomanReigns and gets kicked out of the Bloodline, Logan Paul and Ricochet's mid-air collision, or Asuka going back to her Kana gimmick.

** 2023: Wrestling/SamiZayn turned on Wrestling/RomanReigns and gets kicked out of the Bloodline or Logan Paul and Ricochet's mid-air collision.

* UnexpectedCharacter:

* The ''entire ide of the Rumble itself'' was actually this, with Wrestling/VinceMcmahon not at all sold on it when Wrestling/PatPatterson pitched him the idea back in 1987, and only agreeing to give it one shot to simultaneously placate Patterson and a network exec that had been badgering him about fresh match gimmicks. They had the first one on PPV in 1988 and the rest is history.

** 2006: Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}} surviving the Royal Rumble match in over an hour or Wrestling/TheUndertaker destroying the ring with his electrokinetic abilities.

** 2023: Wrestling/SamiZayn turned on Wrestling/RomanReigns and gets kicked out of the Bloodline.

***

** Wrestling/MickieJames being announced for the 2022 women's Rumble doesn't seem like this, as she's been in multiple Rumbles previously. Mickie James being announced for the Rumble not only almost a year after being released from WWE, but ''as the [[Wrestling/ImpactWrestling Impact Knockouts Champion]]''? ''Definitely'' this.
* ValuesDissonance: Back in 2000, the WWE held the Miss Royal Rumble bikini contest in which Mae Young won and exposed her breasts before Mark Henry covered her up. With the [=#MeToo=] Movement, this segment would not happen ever again in the WWE.

** 2009: Wrestling/MattHardy betraying his brother Wrestling/{{Jeff|Hardy}}, allowing Wrestling/{{Edge}} to win the WWE championship. Also Wrestling/RandyOrton winning his first Royal Rumble.
** 2010: Wrestling/{{Edge}} returning from injury and winning the Rumble or Wrestling/ShawnMichaels' HeroicBSOD after getting eliminated by Wrestling/{{Batista}}.

** 2020: Either Wrestling/CharlotteFlair [[XPacHeat controversially]] winning the Women's Royal Rumble, Wrestling/{{Edge}} making his return in the Men's Royal Rumble match, or Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre ''eliminating Wrestling/BrockLesnar'' who earlier had eliminated 13 wrestlers in a row, and then winning the Men's Royal Rumble match.
** 2021: Wrestling/{{Edge}} winning the the Men's Royal Rumble match from the number 1 spot, also Edge reuniting with his long-time partner Wrestling/{{Christian}}, or Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre defeating Wrestling/{{Goldberg}} in less than 3 minutes.

** In the 2020 Men's Royal Rumble, pretty much no one saw Wrestling/{{Edge}} returning, after nine years in retirement due to a neck injury,[[note]]as while there were some rumors beforehand, Edge's denials about it were generally taken at face value due to said career-ending injury,[[/note]] let alone lasting until the final three.

** 2018: Wrestling/ShinsukeNakamura's celebration after winning the Royal Rumble, Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}}'s return during said Rumble, [[Wrestling/KanakoUrai Asuka]] winning the first-ever Women's Royal Rumble, and Creator/RondaRousey's debut afterwards.

** 2022: Wrestling/SethRollins entering in Wrestling/TheShield theme and gear for his Universal Championship match with Wrestling/RomanReigns, as well as Creator/RondaRousey's comeback and Rumble victory.

** 2006: Wrestling/{{Rey Mysterio|Jr}} surviving the Royal Rumble match in over an hour.
** 2007: Wrestling/TheUndertaker winning the Royal Rumble as the last entrant (the first wrestler to do so) by last eliminating Wrestling/ShawnMichaels.

** 2009: Wrestling/MattHardy betraying his brother Wrestling/{{Jeff|Hardy}}, allowing Wrestling/{{Edge}} to win the WWE championship.
** 2010: Wrestling/{{Edge}} returning from injury and winning the Rumble.

** 2017: Either Wrestling/JohnCena winning the WWE World Title for the 16th time, tying Wrestling/RicFlair; or Wrestling/RandyOrton winning his second Royal Rumble. Wrestling/RomanReigns entering at #30 is also infamously remembered.