It's Rumble season again and time to reflect on history of the Royal Rumble. This week we look back on the Royal Rumble winners and put them in the Tier list. This is a first for us so please let us know if you agree or disagree.
Dropkick Basement
Dropkick Basement- Royal Rumble Tier List
(upbeat rock music) ♪ Got a toe from a guy named Joe ♪ ♪ Cost $60, hope I don't run out of dough ♪ ♪ Told me about a sex offense for him ♪ ♪ Three days and two ♪ ♪ Stopping in, getting that was hope I lived in town ♪ - Welcome back into the dropkick basement. January timeframe here, it's kind of late part of January. We are slowly approaching Royal Rumble season and the road to WrestleMania, so to speak. So we're glad you're spending that time with your favorite pro wrestling history podcast, dropkick basement here, I am your host, Mike Madden. I am joined always by my co-host, Tommy Schultz, Tommy. How we be today? - Mike, I drew the unlucky number of number one. Gonna have to outlast 29 other men in order to survive this show. - Well, yeah, the good thing is that there aren't 29 other men of participating in the show. Normally we would have a certified five, Matt Geiger, part of this, and we would enter him in as the number five competitor, but he had prior commitments today. - Or the Bushwacker Luke treatment. - Yes. - He went over in three seconds. - Three seconds and then hobbled back to the locker room. So the top good conversation as we will continue to make puns about them are Royal Rumbles from the past. I don't know what number of Royal Rumble we at. Like is this the 30th anniversary of it? - So started in 1988. - 88, yeah. - So 2018 would be the 30, so 2025 is gonna be what? One, two, three, four, five, six, 37th annual Royal Rumble. - That's pretty impressive. - Royal Rumble is older than me. We're almost at the 40th anniversary of the Royal Rumble. So to celebrate the Royal Rumble, the history of the Royal Rumble, and the men and the women who have won the Rumble, we are, or this is the debut of draft kick basements, tier lists. So we're going to tier list the men and women who have won Royal Rumbles in the past. We'll briefly discuss it, but I don't know if this is gonna be that hard to drop them into tiers, because a lot of times you're gonna have people that are prominent in WWE history, whether they're current competitors that are on the roster now, past champions, Hall of Famers, you name it, there's a lot of big names that have won the Royal Rumble in the past. So we're gonna go year by year, starting with the very first Royal Rumble, and we're going to kind of pick through and give everybody a tier listing based on a couple of criteria, the Rumble itself that they were in, how good or how bad it was, and kind of what they did in that particular, I guess that particular year in the WWE after they won the Rumble. So their path to success post-Rumble. Couple things to keep in mind, Tom, you know this, but maybe the listeners need to be refreshed. The Royal Rumble was not, first of all, it wasn't always a pay-per-view, the first year Royal Rumble was on the USA Network as a network special. It ran opposition to an NWA pay-per-view that was running the same night, which was their annual bunkhouse stampede from Nassau Coliseum, which we made reference to a few weeks back when I did my re-booking of the UWF NWA merger. So Vince was basically like, all right, well, you know, want to play fire with fire, like they're gonna have a pay-per-view, we're gonna put a free show on and we're gonna have our own version of about a Royal. It was also not, the winner of the Rumble did not get an automatic title shot until the 1993 Royal Rumble. That was the first one. There've been a couple of rumbles where the world title has been on the line and we'll point them out as we talk about those particular rumbles. But for the most part, you know, your Royal Rumble has always been the kickoff to WrestleMania season and a way for you to maybe annoy a new top contender or a new main event caliber person as you're preparing to get them ready for, for Mania season. So Tom, we feel good about this so far? - I am feeling great. I am very, very interested to see how this goes because in my opinion, there are, so I guess we're gonna go with the standard like the internet tier listing, right? - Yes, yeah, it's like S is the standard. - It's AP top, yep. - A, B, C, D. - A, B, C, D, right, there's no Fs, there's no E's, we go to D. So you got four tiers to rank these. - Well, five. - Competitors. Five, two. - Five. - S, A, B, C, D. - Oh yes, I'm sorry, yeah, that does make five. - But, so let's, why don't we try and like keep it to the, throw a little wrinkle in it? - Mm-hmm, okay. - There can only be five S tier. - Okay, I like that. - So, there can only be five, so even, so as we're going through it, we can put somebody in S tier, but if we get to more than five by the end. - Got to cycle them. - Re-visit it and cycle things out. - Okay, all right, I'll agree with that. - Okay. - All right, let's start off with the winner of the very first Royal Rumble. 1988, Haxle, Jim Duggan. - See, most of the time, they say that like the first has to be paid respect. - Mm-hmm, okay. - I disagree with you. - Oh, all right. - In my, so I have to say that I don't remember the last time I watched the 1988 Royal Rumble. I may have seen it one time in my life. - Oh, okay, all right. Because it, to me, it was like before my time and I was never a Haxle guy. - Oh, okay. - So I never really went back to care about it. I think I should be able to re-watch. - Yeah, yeah, it's worth it. But just from memory, I'll say C. - Okay, you would say C. I would probably put it. Duggan was good. Duggan was over. - Yeah, I will agree with you. - He lasted in the WWE for a long time. But the Rumble itself was, it was mid-card city. The tag team champions at the time were strike force and they were in it, but there was no other champions in there, hogging out of the business. Savage was working in another town that night. So he didn't even appear on the show. No, I'm sorry, not Savage, but Honky Tonk man. Because he was working with Savage at another town. So you kind of didn't even have your full roster at the end. - Yeah, it was a kind of an afterthought. - So it was, but it was, you know, again, it was a test run. Normally I would give it D, but because it was the first one, I think I'll agree with you. And we're gonna chuck all hacks all into that C tier and make him the first C tier. This could, again, depending on how things move and shake, this could change. - Yeah, we know it's moving around. - I don't think he's-- - Because we're going year by year, you know, like the more people that we get, it could shift around. - It certainly could shift around. Okay, so the 1989, the first Rumble that they had that was on pay-per-view, the 1989 Royal Rumble, the winner of the 1989 Royal Rumble is Big John Studd. - D. - I'm gonna agree with you. That's a D tier. It was, I actually watched this one not too long ago because I was like, you know what, like, I'm-- - That's another one where I have to revisit it because I've probably seen it once or twice. - I'm gonna say you're gonna look at the list of people and you're gonna be like, how is this a bad Royal Rumble? Believe me, it's a bad Royal Rumble. But they had a lot of, again, a lot of heavy hitters in it. The champions were well-represented. I think Warrior had opposed down with Rick Roode in the undercard. - Oh, okay. - So he wasn't in the Rumble itself, but Hogan was in there and Savage. Savage was the world champion at the time. And this sort of, like, continued their back and forth feud. You know, they were, Hogan eliminated Savage and then it led to Hogan getting knocked out shortly thereafter. But Big John Studd threw out Ted DiBiase to win it and a collective sigh of why came over the crowd. - So-- - Especially in 1989. - Yeah, it just didn't hit in the way it should have. So we're gonna put the giant John Studd in the D tier. The next Rumble that came up was the Rumble from 1990. Do I not have a picture of our 1990 Royal Rumble winner? - You want a picture of Terry? - Of Terry? I thought I had a picture of Terry. Did I lose my picture of Terry? Well-- - You got boot out of the build. - I got a course correct this. Hold on, let me see if I can, little technical difficulty. Let me see if I can-- - No, no. - If I can add him after, but. All right, well, let's pretend that Terry was here. I think, see, Hogan won it two years in a row. Spoiler alert, they were both, I believe, while he was world champion. So-- - 90, yeah, and 91. - With that being said, I think he would end up in like a, well, let's put Hogan in, 'cause he's the first one that won it twice. So I would say he's a-- - And back to back. - He's an A tier guy. - Yeah. - Right. - I would agree. I would agree with that. - I mean, we're not in love with him. And he, by far, has, you know, he's got that reputation of, well, you're in, you know, you're in Hogan mode, where, you know, all you're worried about is like his ego kind of taking over. But-- - He won everything. - Yeah, but it-- - You never lost. So it's like-- - The one thing can't deny is the fact that he was their main guy for such a long time. So Hogan would pop into the A tier. - Yeah, I would say A tier. I don't particularly remember the rumble matches that he won fondly, but the fact that he won it twice in a row, the first guy to win it twice in a row, and he went through it as the champion, and I don't think that the title was on the line. - No, no. - But yeah, I would say for now, I would put him in A. - Okay, all right, yeah, yeah, a good old exchange. So Hogan A tier, the next one that there was a static winner was 1992, arguably the best row rumble there is. The first one for any stakes world title was Rick Flair in 1992. - That's S tier. - Yeah, I am certainly getting that up into S tier. - I mean, that was for sure the best-- - It's the best wrestled? - Yeah, it's the best rumble. He came in at what, three that year? - Yeah. - And went to distance. Again, it's for the world title, and it's like critically acclaimed as the best row rumble of all time. - Yeah. - Yeah. - So, yeah. - So we, yeah, we-- - S tier. - We honor that as S tier. And we moved to '93. The first year that this was for a title shot at the WrestleMania, and that was WrestleMania 9, that particular winner was Yoko Zuna. - Okay. So this one is, to me it's a little tricky, 'cause I'm not a, I hated the way he wanted. - I thought it looked very hokey. I don't know if you remember the, like Randy Savage was like a pinfall for him, for any reason. - Yeah, and he tossed. - He tossed some, and like you could see Randy like pushed himself over the ropes. - Yeah. - So the elimination itself kind of takes away points for me. - That makes sense. - He did put on like a dominant performance in the match, and he is the first one to then go on and face someone for the world title, and win at WrestleMania. - True, true. - Being the Royal Rumble winner. - Right. - Right. - So I would put Yoko's performance in this. It helped solidify him, 'cause I think up until, up until Kane, it was like one of the most eliminations, like one of those guys where it's like, you get the most eliminations or whatever. You know where they start keeping track of what kind of stuff. - Yeah, yeah. - The buy the numbers. - So I put 'em light beads. - Okay, light bead. I kind of want to put it at C tier. - I can, see that's where it's between, I would say it's between P and C for me. - Okay. - So I could concede to a C tier. - Let's put 'em C tier with the-- - I'm ahead of Duncan, though. - Okay, we can do that, okay. All right, so we're-- - Like if we're gonna rank them in that kind of order? - Afterwards, right, right. - I would say that Yoko goes ahead of Duncan. - Duncan, okay. But for now, they are resting at that C tier, just because, and again, with Yoko, they were really getting him over, like he was fairly new to the company when they put him in the rumble. So it was like the proverbial rocket ship strapped to his back. The only problem, though, was, you know, and he did have a decent run with the belt, holding it all the way, you know, after winning it back from-- - After winning it, losing it, and then winning it back, yeah. - He did have it for, you know, what was a close to, yeah, close to a year, yeah. So he had a nice title around that came out of it. It's just, once he dropped that title, he wasn't made of it anymore. So that's, you know, when we're comparing him, especially on the early side of rumble winners, I think, you know, as great as he is, I think he ends up a couple of rungs down from the main tier. So C is nice in the average sweet spot. - And I also, I will put in, like, so I would say Hogan's 90 and 91 rumble wins. Like, I would say probably almost identical. There are other people who we have not gotten to yet who have won multiple royal rumbles, where I think we have to differentiate their particular performances based on year and rank them year by year. Like Hogan, I don't think that you're getting a different performance. I think that if you watched the 1990 royal rumble and then watched the 1991 royal rumble, he probably did the exact same thing in both years. - Yeah, I mean, he, yeah. - We're getting close to one. - We're here. - One is far superior to the next. - True. - And we're getting close to it, and we'll get to it at that point. - Okay. - But I would say Hogan, kind of, I would kind of clump those two together. There are a few people who have won it multiple times who I think we have to differentiate once we get to them year by year, they're wins in terms of tears. - Okay, all right. We'll cross that as we get to it. Yeah, you're right. We are getting close to some multiple winners and some interesting conversations to have. The next winner, the first co-winners of the royal rumble were the 1984 edition, where you've got both Bret Hart and Lex Luger, made in the USA, Lex Luger, knocking each other out simultaneously and leading to a, at the time, felt like a very convoluted WrestleMania main event that involved multiple matches for each of the main event guys. So a year after they started this kind of process of saying like, oh, you know, the winner's gonna, you know, get a chance to go to WrestleMania. Then they had two guys get a chance to go to WrestleMania. So I put them together. - Yeah, they have to be put together. - Because they won the same one. And neither guy won a royal rumble afterwards or before it. - Correct. And one thing I will know is they did this strictly because they didn't think Lex was the guy but they were trying to still position him as the guy just in case, where something happened to Bret. - Right, right. - Two, I would say this is one of, if not, the best, no, not the best, I won't. It's one of the best finishes for a royal rumble. - Very creative, yeah. - They actually pulled it off. - Yeah, yeah. - They, it happened again years later. - Oh yeah. - I don't think intentionally. - And yeah, yeah. - They didn't pull it off. - No, no, clung city. - This one, this one, Bret Hart, the consummate, the professional that he is, made sure that those motherfuckers hit that floor at exactly the same time. - Right, right. - It looked great. It did, it told a good story. And then the story carried to WrestleMania. I gotta give him that. - It's, I would say it's high, if not the highest beats here, that there could be only because of the, the creativity of the finish and the story that they got another three months out of-- - And what, I was just gonna say, what they spun it into became the stuff of legend. - Genius. - Pat Patterson, genius. - Pat Patterson, genius. So let's put that at B tier. Bret and total package, Lex Luger, together. - Together, as the world intended them to be together, on that tier. - The total package. - Together they are the total package. 1995. - And now this is where, this is what I'm talking about. Heartbreak. - Heartbreak Kid. - Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. Wire to wire, right? - Number one, I, to me, this is the, this is the S tier of S tier. - Yeah, this is iconic performance Shawn Michaels. - This is the, this made Shawn Michaels, Shawn Michaels. - Yes, yes. - This match, in and of itself. And again, back to back, years. - Yeah, yeah. - Pat Patterson, this is the best finish to a Royal Rumble there ever was. - Mm-hmm, yep. - Skin the cat, knock the bulldog off. - Yeah, yeah. - Because everyone thinks Bulldog wins. - Yep. - Everyone thinks Bulldog wins. I remember as a kid, I was like, oh my God, the Bulldog. - How did the Bulldog win? - The British Bulldog versus Diesel. (laughing) That seems weird. And then I was like, wow. It's a real in your house finish, yeah, yeah. No, he, he proved his, he proved his merit on that, on that particular day. So, so yeah, with that being said, I agree, Shawn Michaels. - 1995, his 1995 Royal Rumble win is an S tier. I will say his 1996 Royal Rumble win is maybe a B tier. - Maybe B, maybe B, but that was also like, that was what he came back from Syracuse. - Mm-hmm. - Which was a big angle for them, the Syracuse B town. The Insegiri from All In Heart, where they were playing the clips. So I think with, with that said, then the story of him versus Brett, we knew it was gonna be babyface versus babyface. - It was good, but it was just like, I feel like, if they had done that the year before, like if they had inverted. - Yeah, yeah. - Does imagine him winning the way he did in '95, in '96 to go on to face Brett, how much more that would have just- - Oh, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - I mean, I, that, that '95 win, it was like, to me, it felt like a remarkable. It was like, what the fuck, how did he do it? - Yeah. - How do you, 'cause in '96, he comes in middle of the pack. It's a kind of shitty royal rumble. - There, yeah, there were a lot of like, borrowed talent and, yeah. I mean, we'll get to another one that had a lot of borrowed talent and kind of head scratchers filling it out, but yeah, these ones like, they were, '96 is thin on talent, '97 is thin on talent, but still like, once you got towards the finish of it, they still, again, they told a great story, they recycled some of the, you know, some of the best parts of the one before. - Yeah. - I would also like, law of averages, Sean, winning back-to-back. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - His back-to-back is better than Hogan's back-to-back. Let's put it that way. - Oh, 100%. - So, yeah, I would confidently say, Sean in the S tier for '95, and maybe just a little bit below it for '96, but his picture goes into the S here. - I would say for '96. - So '97 brings us, again, a rumble that was filled with luchadores. - Wild rumble. This is one of the craziest rumble. - This is one with Doug Gilbert too, like they had USW8 guys in this one, or was that, or am I thinking of '96? - There's no need to bring up a whole list of guys, but like-- - Yeah, there was, like, Mill masquerist was in this one. - And he eliminated himself, yeah, idiot. - Well, no, no yup, no yup. - So, it was won by, officially won by Steve Austin. - Which, again, that's-- - It was a fucked finish. - But I think that this is what put Austin on the map. - Yeah, his run was really ramping up. It showed that he had, this was, like, he had that feud stemming from the Survivor Series 96 with Brett, and he had such a vendetta with Brett where it didn't matter what Brett did. He just wanted to show Brett up and make his life miserable. So this led to, which, again, is of great in your house main event, which was the Fatal Four way. - Yeah, Final Four. - Final Four with, so it's Austin, it's Brett, it's Vader, and it was Sid, or was it Taker? - Taker, Taker, Sid was the champ. - Right, and then Taker won that Fatal Four way and went on to wrestle Sid eventually, like when Sean lost his smile and all the other backstage bullshit happened. - It did give us Brett and Austin at Mania, which we probably wouldn't have had without playing what we did. - It was gonna be, it was gonna, without all of that, it was gonna be Brett and Sean again. - Yeah, exactly, yeah, yeah. They were still-- - So that would have been Brett's win. - It would have been Brett's win. Yep, he gets the rumble win, and he challenges Sean if that were to be the case. But in this case, we lucked out, we got Steve Austin, not a great rumble. - You have that iconic shot of him sitting on the corner. - Yeah, yep, looking at his watch, and then hearts music hits, and just like-- - He's stunned. - Fear panic. - Yeah, yeah. - That was awesome. I would give this, I would give, so again, this is another one where like Sean, I think we have to, being that Austin won three, I think we have to kind of differentiate them, and maybe do like a lot of averages. - Okay. - But I would give this one a high B low A, maybe? - Okay, right. - It was like, it was good because it really, I would probably put it in A actually. - I think I'm gonna give him A. - Yeah. - It got him over, he fucking cheated to win. - Mm-hmm, yep. - And it propelled him into the main event, and got him to be like one of the top guys. This was the start of that movement. - Yeah, yeah, no doubt about it. So we're giving Steve Austin the A. - For 97. - And for 97, for, he wanted a 98 as well. - And that one, I would give an S. - You would say an S for the second one. - I would say of the three that he won, this is the one where this propels him to the main event, this propels him to get a title shot. - Mm-hmm, okay, right. - He has a bounty on his head, and everyone is gunning for him. - Everyone, right, right. - The entire, that's the story of the entire rumble, is whoever eliminates Stone Cold Steve Austin gets like $100,000 down here, something like that. - Was that one, that wasn't, I think that was the year after. I think that was 99. - Was it? - Yeah, yeah. - I think, unless I did it twice in a row, because this-- - 98, he wasn't in the feud with Vince yet in 98. This was after the Tyson, or right before the Tyson confrontation. - But for some reason, everybody is gunning for him. Like, when he comes in, everyone swarms. - Right, but then-- - But everyone works together. - But you know, he's like, he's also like the badass, and he's picking people off, left and right. He's throwing out, he's chucking God ones out by their fucking shirts. - Yeah, I might've gotten those confused. - Yeah, yeah. The next year is the one with the bounty, which was an overbook mess of a royal rumble, by the way, which had-- - But this is, this is the rumble where the poster is like, it's the back of his head-- - With the pins in it. - With the royal rumble nailed into his head. - I think so, yeah, yeah. - So I think, maybe they didn't put like a dollar value on it, but they were like, you can't let him win or something. There was something along the lines of like, stone cold, can't win the rumble, or everyone is working against stone cold, winning the rumble. - And-- - I could have swore that was the year after, but-- - Well, no, they probably did it twice. - Yeah, tropes are gonna trope. - 'Cause the next year he came in at one, like this one, he comes in like, kind of maybe like 12 or like in the middle, but this was the one that propelled him to be stone cold, Steve Lawson. - Right. - This was the, this was the career-defining moment. This put him in the main event of WrestleMania and made him the guy. - Yeah, oh, it rode the wave of popularity. 99 again was the one with, I, this is the one with the bounty. - I know, yes, Vince puts the bounty on him. - And Vince wins the rumble at the end. He lost the title match to Austin and at the St. Valentine's Day Massacre. So, Austin still gets the main event of WrestleMania. Vince gets nothing. Vince's D tier. - I love the story of this. I, I love this rumble. Because I think it's-- - It's overbooked. You get Ministry of Darkness getting like, dragging people out in the middle of it. - It is overbooked, but that's the only way that you could completely convince anyone that he, that Vince could win. - Yeah, China's in it. - Is to just completely make it a shit show. - Yeah. - And it's just, it's just a side show until it gets down to the two of them. And Austin is about to get rid of him. - Mm-hmm. - And Rock comes out and fucks him over. - Yeah, yeah. - I, I like the story. - Would you move it higher? - This is like my pee fandom as well. - We gotta remember that it's just, it's a non-wrestler winning the rumble. So like, you could say the match was good, but you still gotta look at the person who's winning it at the end. And it's like, this is such a fluke. - Yes, but at the same time, you could make the argument that he's the greatest heel in the history of the company. - All right. - I at least bring him up to see. - All right, well. - If you bring him up to see, I'll concede. - Okay, all right. We'll bring-- - See for a cunt 'cause he's a asshole. (laughing) - Vinny Mac, we'll move up. Okay, all right. I've been convinced now we're at the 2000 Royal Rumble. - Yeah, this, this. - Rocky won, but again, they-- - This was another fuck finish. - They did the two guys were supposed to be hitting the floor at the same time. - And they met, I don't know if they fucked it up or-- - Oh, they screwed it up. - That's what, that's what it was. - Yeah, 'cause in the record books, the big show's not even mentioned as a Royal Rumble winner. But-- - Well, no, no, I know that like, they have the rock winning overall, but like, was that supposed to be the finish? It was supposed to be like a-- - I think there, I think it was supposed to be a lot clearer that it was a photo finish, let's say. And the big, half the big show's fucking body is on the ground 'cause he's so much taller than Rocky. - Yeah, right. - And they were like, "Well, no, the rock's still won, "but he got screwed out of it." And it's like, so it just wasn't a, it wasn't memorable. - See, see, all day, maybe D. - And I think it's-- - It's bad. - I think it's D, yeah. - Yeah, I fondly remember that show and it's not for the Royal Rumble. - Yeah. - It's for everything else. - Everything else on it was great, yeah, yeah. But yeah, that Rocky's only Rumble win too. - Yeah. - Which is crazy to me. When I was going through the notes for this, I was like, "You didn't win another one?" - It's nuts, but it's not good. Austin won it in 2001. - So again, like this is where we're differentiating this one, I would put like, seat here, like this is-- - Okay. - Again, a very forgettable Royal Rumble. Drew Carrey was in this Royal Rumble, so like-- - Yeah, well this is-- - It was not a good Rumble match. - Is this the one that had all the hardcore? - Yeah, it was strictly to get back to Rock and Austin for WrestleMania. So, what I mentioned earlier about Yokozuna, like eliminating a lot of people, this was the one where they had Kane like eliminate like 50 people or something like that, where like they started keeping track of the eliminations. So they had Kane put on like a good performance, but like the rest of the, it was like, I don't know, it's very of the time. If you watch it, like it's not like a typical Royal Rumble that you would have seen in the past. There's like, they're doing like fire extinguisher spots, chair shots and stuff. Yeah, it's just like this era, not crazy. - It was the end of the attitude. - So on average, would that like, would that bring Steve Austin down to like A tier? Or should we leave him like on average as an S tier guy? - For right now, I would leave him as S tier, but I think you just have to differentiate. - Yeah. - Like 98 is S, 97 is A and-- - And this is sick. - 2001 is sick. - Sick, okay, all right. That makes sense. - 2002, whenever the Royal Rumble, first Royal Rumble win for Brock Lesnar, the next big thing. - No. - You say no? - Hunter. - Oh, that's right, yeah. Yes, Gene Jack and Hunter. - Yeah. - Big comeback, Hunter. - Yeah. - This led to, all right, oh, it led to him in Jericho at Mania. - Yeah. Yeah. I don't like when-- - B plus, Hunter. - I don't like, first of all, I don't like when the winner comes in so late. I know it makes sense. - Yeah, fresher. - But it doesn't get them over as strong. It kind of is like, oh, well, you got lucky that you had like the best draw. - Yeah, you're right. It's not really enhancing. When you come in early and you make it through, that's what makes it like special. - Okay, let me see that. - Between 25 and 30 and you win, it's like, all right, well, you should have. - Yeah, you're not the right. You're not the Iron Man that-- - Yeah. - The winner of this should be, yes. - Also led to one of the worst WrestleMania main events up until that time. - Yeah. Yeah. See? - We say see. Okay, all right. I'm not gonna disagree with that, 'cause it could have been a whole lot better. And it was very much catered to, and it was telegraphed. Like the second, like he announced it, he was coming back at that. - Yeah, as soon as he came back out on Raw, in that gene jacket and leather jacket combination, which is the craziest outfit at all. (laughing) - Yeah, that's where it was. - I mean, you're a jacket over a jacket. - Yeah. - It was overdressed. In a business where you really shouldn't be wearing a shirt, you should just be wearing shorts. This brother's overdressed on his way to the building. So, all right, so Hunter 2002 is C-tier. Then we get Brock Lesnar. Next big thing, Brock Lesnar. - I have to be honest with you, I don't remember this. - It's not a big, it's not a big, memorable one. No. - I don't, I didn't remember that he even won the Rumble. - Yeah. - I would put, I would say D. - He might be, he might be D. - It's not a member. - Like I said, I don't remember the match. He did go. - Did he end up winning another one? - He did, yeah. - Okay. - Much later. - This one, I will say this one, I would put D. Because it's just like completely... - It exists. - It happens, I don't remember it happening. - Right, and he's another one, I think he came in like late and just sort of like rec shop for, you know, 15 minutes or 12 minutes. And then it was like, all right, well, you know, there's Brock Lesnar going to the main event of WrestleMania and he had that monster year leading into it where it's like, they, you know, the second this guy debuted on TV, they were ready to hand him the world belt. So, there's no way that he's not winning this thing. You know, despite, you know, any other main event guys, they were ready to, you know, anoint him. So, he, the performance isn't as special as it could have been. So, yeah, I think D tier makes sense. The next year, 2004, I was at this one in person. - Oh yeah? - Mm-hmm. - Where was it? - In Philadelphia at the, at the Wacovia Center, Chris Benoit went from a number, I believe he was a wire to wire guy. - He was either one or two. - So he was one or two. - He might've been one. - I know that him and Ray, like, were one or two. - Yes, yes. There was a lot of like-- - He might've been one. - There was a lot of bullshit that went into this one. Ernest, the cat Miller was in this Royal Rumble. - Sick. - Randy Orton had a really good performance in it. Cena was in it. You know, a lot of young up-and-comers were part of it. So, a good showing. Benoit had a very good showing. Benoit wins, you know, as the underdog goes into WrestleMania, has a triple threat wins, has a lackluster title match. Title, I should say, title reign after that. Not really too much to say about his life after winning the World Belt. So-- - That's what makes this hard. - It's a good match. - I would personally put this, like, if we completely put this in a vacuum of winning the Royal Rumble, and I don't know anything else you've ever done in your life. - Yeah, yeah. - I would say it's an A tier win. - Let's put it at B, just out of respect. But it's also, like, again, it's a really fucking good match. - It's just, when it comes to him, it's so hard to-- - Yeah. - Talk about anything because it's just, he's such a fucking asshole. - So, let's throw the compromise out. We'll put him in there. - No, no, we'll put it in B. - Yeah. - That's totally fair. - Yeah, yeah. - But it's just, it sucks. - Oh, I know, I know. The next one, I don't have a picture, I don't have a picture for the next one, but it was Batista, correct? - So this was another one. - 2005. - They totally fucked up. - This one was a true mistake, because Batista was supposed to win this. - Yes. - And him and Cena hit the floor at the same exact time. And then-- - And then they didn't know what to do, and then Vince came out, tore both of his quads. - Tore both of his quads. (laughing) So they were eliminated right away. - And then, I think your comedy factor, this is S tier. (laughing) If we're gonna talk about like what it led to, it can't be higher than a C. - Yeah, I think it's, it's probably C. - It was a total fuck job. - Oh yeah. - They fucked it all up. - Then they restarted it, and Batista won, and-- - Within like 10 seconds. - 10 seconds, right, 'cause they, 'cause all they-- - And they were like a half hour over. - And also the owner of the company is like sitting on his ass in the middle of the ring, like, let's, you know, we have to bring him to a medical facility. So yes, that's a consensus C for that one. Who's the year after? Is that Ray Ray? - Ray Ray. - Which, again, another one I don't have a picture for, but Ray Ray goes wire to wire. - Yeah. - I think he came in at, so-- - He came in at two. - He came in at one, Ray came in at two. - He came in at two. - Still wire to wire. - Still wire to wire, which is so stupid. - Yeah, because the match didn't start yet. - Yeah, right. - So it doesn't matter. - Right. - I would put this A tier for sure. - It's a great one. - This was right after Eddie's death. - It's a tribute to Eddie. - It was, yeah, it was, this was, everything about this was awesome. - It was, yeah, feel good story. Randy Orton looks great in it. Angle was the champ going in. So they had some like beef on TV, which, you know, always kind of, you know, alert you to, something big is gonna happen here. But yeah, Ray Ray, that's an A. - And then he goes on to win the title at WrestleMania in that awesome, awesome three-way match. - Right. - One of the more underrated WrestleMania matches of all time. - It gets lost, it certainly gets lost, so. - Yeah. - I would agree. - Ray Mysterio is the man. - Ray gets in there, so Ray gets an A. The next year, Sean again? - No, it went down to Sean and this man's first row rumble and the undertaker. - Undy, okay, all right. First and only, right? - First and only. - Now. - Now I have to say, I'm biased to this row rumble because I was in a row rumble pool for this, or this row rumble. - Oh, okay. - And the two people that I drew were the undertaker and Sean Michaels. So as soon as we got down to the last two, I said, give me my fucking money. - Pay me, pay me my money. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, I like that. It's good memory. - It's like, again, you thought Sean Michaels won, so how memorable was it? - Yeah, yeah, that's a weird brain on me. But Taker, he did end up having a really good match with Batista at the Mania afterwards. Can we call it, and I think it was, so I kind of remember this row rumble being another one where it was, there was a lot of like dead spots in it, and a lot of like sort of like fill-in-the-blank eyes until they got to like the final four. - The final four was Taker, Sean, Edge, and Ray, Randy Orton. - Okay, right. And they were like the rated RKO at that time, so. - Yep. - Let's give them a B. - I would accept a B. - Let's go with a B for mean mark, not an A. A B for. - This next one is a memory for me. - Is this the Cina? - This is the Cina. - This is the Cina at Madison Square Garden. - I was there for this. - With, okay. With the notion that Cina was gonna be out until at least mania. - For a year. - Yeah. - It was supposed to be out for a year. This is four to five months after the injury. - That crowd went bananas. - I. - Bananas. - Did not. - You were not happy? - I. - I, at the time, was not a Cina guy. - Okay, all right. - Did not appreciate Mr. John. - Okay. - In retrospect, this is A.T. or B.T. or B.T. or B.T. - Yeah. I was gonna say like, it's an awesome pop. It's a surprise. The rest of the, like, excuse me. That was a good one because there was, they, the Piper Snooka involvement. - And then one and two was Sean and Taker who were the last two from the year before. - Yep. - It was a great rumble. Good eliminations, Cactus Jack is in there too. Yeah. It's a fun, that's a fun rumble. They had a lot of good pop ins on that one. - I will tell you that I said things in front of children about John Cina, I regret to this day. - Good thing is, like, isn't Cina's catchphrase is you can't hear me? - Yeah, yeah, exactly. So, yeah, it's a good one, it's memorable. It's one that they, like, they love, like, the highlight clip. They love showing that, like, that zoom shot of him in the old Madison Square Garden, like, entryway. It, again, I remember watching it on pay-per-view and saying like, fuck this guy, but Jesus Christ, they love him today. - That place went nuts. - Mm-hmm. - Yeah. Yeah. - And myself and Joey Janello are the only ones that were not happy. - It's not Cina, what's there? - Every other child in the building was losing their shit and being thrown in the air, and the two of you were like, come here, you guys, what work, right? - Fuck you, seat off! (both laughing) - We're here for John Morris in the windness. All right, who wins it the year after that? - Randy Orton. - Randall, Keith Orton. First Randy Orton when not memorable. - Don't remember it at all. - By the way, I think all of Randy Orton's Royal Rumble wins. - Don't remember it at any of them. - Fucking double ski. - D. - Yeah, I think all three of them might be D tier. - Just this, this, he won three Royal Rumbles. - I think, yeah, at least two. - Oh my God. - Look at that list of you. - I like, there is, well, I, I, John Cina won two of them. - Yeah. - Nothing, you are the team, God damn. - Yeah, it's just, the redundancy, I guess, is like, it's just the same guys. - This is where they found their main event guys and they were like, well, same guy, no, no need to change until we get a few years into this, but. - A lot of these, I'm gonna be honest with you, between 2009 to 2014, I don't remember any of these Royal Rumbles. - So that's, that's part of the problem is that, like they, they had such bloated rosters with like, there was, and there was such a clear delineation between the guys that they really booked strong, a few guys that were bubbling under that had good rumble performances that would be your Iron Man of that particular year, punk or Rhodes or, or, you know, Kofi Kingston started doing his like insane spots at this time, but then there was so many like, newer guys or joke guys that they threw in, you know, like great colleagues and Santino's that were like, there's no way that they're like winning this, like why the fuck are they in this match? - Yeah, and it's the other thing is like, when you, when you put, I get, I understand that you have to put people in that are not gonna win. - Yeah. - But when you put people in that are obviously not gonna win, and they like make it deep. - Yeah, yeah. Like I'm looking at one right now, I can't believe that this happened. We'll get to it in two years. - We'll talk about it, yeah. - And fucking believe it. - I know which one you're talking about too. All right, so the, so after Randy's first win is... - Hope. - 2000, is this 2010? - Yeah. - 2010. I think he was another one that came off of an injury. - I don't remember this at all. - What WrestleMania did this lead to? Can you, do you know, by any chance? Is this the one against Taker? - Yes, yes. With Vicki Guerrero involved. - '24? - No, '24. No, '24. Now, let me think, let me think. - So Randy Orin won 20, so that would be one. Okay, hold on, let me just do the math on this. 21, 22, 23, 24, 25. 25 would be the edge winning the, going into WrestleMania 25. - Was he in a three way with Big Show and Cena? Is this when he beat Alberto Del Rio? - No, that would, Del Rio would win the Rumble then, and Edge was the champ, going into that one. - Oh, so that's not when he retired? - Yes, the Del Rio one was when he retired. - Okay, no, no, I'm saying, okay. - So that's like the year, yeah, that's like the year after. - Yeah, I don't even, I am sure. - This edge, I think, was, they did the, it was a three way between Cena, Edge, and Big Show. In the, in like the, one of the main events of Mania. - That's horrid. - I know, yeah, can't, can't undo it. And then I think the other one was Sean and Taker. - Yeah, but then there, then it was Randy Orin and Triple H. - Yes, yes, for possession of his soul. - D, D. - You think Edge, Edge is, yeah, I mean, we basically had to. This one, well, the other one is pretty D too. - The next one? - Yeah, pretty bad. - D for Del Rio? - Oh, the, no, no, I'm saying Edge's next win is also probably D here. - Oh, that's, yeah, that's, yeah, that's for a while, yeah. That's post retirement. - Alberto Del Rio is D as, D as D can get. - Yeah, D for dog shit. - Yeah, dick. - He eliminated Santino, in the Royal Rumble in 2011, where this schmuck and Santino Morella, that's as D as D can get. - Yeah, yeah, that's, there is no argument on how bad this, like what a bad look it was. - I think we're gonna have a run of like 10 Ds in a row, dude. - So the next D. - I'm just looking at these and it's like, what are we doing? - Seamus, next one? - Seamus. - Seamus. - He's a D. - Don't remember Seamus winning a Royal Rumble. - So Seamus wins a Royal Rumble. This was, this was the first Royal Rumble. - Is this when he-- - This is the one, when they have 40 people, by the way, in this Royal Rumble. - No, I thought that was the one with Alberto Del Rio. - Oh, was that, okay, so he, he wins the biggest one of all time and then they had all the announcers jump in, piece of shit. But yeah, Seamus wins it. - This one he beats by Daniel-- - Danny, Danny went in to beat Daniel Seamus. - Danny Seamus. - Yep, after the fatal kiss from AJ Lee. This is D, this is D for sure. The year after is-- - John Cena won again, which I had no idea that, I didn't know that he's won multiple times. - Yeah, yeah. - And he, do you know who he beat? - No, but no, that was, this was Batista. - No, not yet, next one. - Not yet, who did he throw out in this one? - Ryback. - Oh, I don't like any of that. - No, D tier. - No, that would, yeah. Yeah, that's, we're gonna leave the-- - John Cena, we're leaving 2008 and eight here. - Yeah. - John Cena's 2000-- - It's D. - 13 is D as D as D as D-- - Mucho did, boy, they were really fucking up these Royal Rumbles in the-- - And now the next year-- - In the 2000s. - Batista. No picture available for-- - Also. - Big Dave, but also D because it was the wrong decision to make and they didn't even have dragon in the fucking rumble that year. They had dragon at-- - This is what forced him punk to quit. - Right, yeah, oh. Doc on Concussed, can you finish the match? Fuck you. (laughing) - Oh my goodness. - The next year is Old Roman, right? - Old Roman, do you know who he eliminated to win the Royal Rumble? - I couldn't even believe this when I read it. - He threw out Kane. - Rusev. - Oh, okay. - The last two people. - No, you know what, you know what was, 'cause it was sort of like everybody in the building. This is another one that was in Philly. And they wanted, they wanted Danielson in it. - Wait, they went back to back in Philly? - No. - 'Cause wasn't Petista's in Philly? Everyone hate, I don't know if it was in Philly, but everyone hated the fact that Petista won. - Maybe, maybe they did go back to back in Philly, but either way-- - No, you're right about the Roman one though, I do remember. - Rusev snuck up, like they played Roman's music, then like Rusev snuck up and like tried to like do the, you know, the Shawn Michaels beatin' the Bulldog thing, and surprise him, and Roman reversed that, and he won, and again, this was another rumble where they left Brian Danielson out of it. And then they had the rock come out and try and celebrate with Roman, and Roman was gettin' booed in rocks like, why, he's, I'm here. So, this was a terrible royal rumble. I remember like, big showing, big showing cane were like throwing all the popular guys out, and making them look like shit, so yeah, I hate to say it, like, that's Roman's only rumble win, correct? - Dude, I, yeah, I can't believe the list that I'm looking at, I am the Fuddles. - Where do we go from here? - Rains. - Daddy H. - Well, Daddy H, world title. - Wains the world title. - World title. He's in C from his previous rumble win. I would still, I'll give this one C. We'll keep him C, because this one I actually remember being entertained by, probably because it was for the world title. - Dude, 'cause it's for the title. - Yeah, yeah. - Like at least you put something. - Yeah, I mean, it was stupid that Triple H won the title, but it was also like. - But it's someone for Roman to be that wrestling. - That was, there was Palace Intrigue, for sure. - So, the next one, I, again, no, I don't remember this happening, Randy Orton. - Yeah, right, that led to the mania where he wrestled Bray Wyatt in the sperm match. - Well, I was at that WrestleMania too. - Oh yeah. - Oh, God. - Well, you didn't see the sperm from home. - No, I saw they reflected the sperm on the canvas. - And then the maggots on the canvas too. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - Yeah. - That was weird. That shit sucked. - Forgettable, it's day. It's day, 'cause Randy was undeserving of a-- - The thing is, so this is like another thing that kind of irks me, is when they have someone win. - Mm-hmm. - That's going to go for what they, what's not gonna be the main event. - Yeah, yeah. - Like if you're doing the Rumble, it should be for the world title-- - Top prize. - The main event of WrestleMania. - I agree with you. Top prize. - You shouldn't, like you shouldn't win the Rumble, and then wrestle, like, the other champion, 'cause we all know that, like, there's one, you know, champion, and then there's another guy that they say is the champion, so that they could sell more replica title bells. (laughing) - Money grabs. - If you're gonna win, if you're gonna make the Rumble winner, the main event of WrestleMania, it has to be the main event of WrestleMania. - I agree. - And, like, the next, like, four people that we're gonna talk about, that's not the case. They're either undercard, or they're jerking curtains. - Yeah. - Also the next-- - That was the Randy Orton one. - D, keep it D, that's-- - Yeah, keep 'em D. - The next one, I loved. I thought that this was awesome, and I'm so disappointed that they didn't strap the rocket to fucking Shinsuke Nakamura. - Yeah, this was-- - This was one where it's like, holy shit, they finally did right by us. - Yeah, like, not WWE fans, like wrestling fans. They finally did it. They did it, like, they made the guy win the title. - Yeah, or the Rumble. - And he's gonna go win the title. - Yeah. - This is an A-tier Rumble win. - Without questions. - It sucks what happened afterwards. - They didn't do the right thing. (laughing) - Of course, but this A-tier Rumble win. - Absolutely, absolutely, no question. But this is also the first year that we had ladies. - Correct, and so the winner of this year, I would say this was a double A-tier. - Double A-tier, 'cause Asuka was awesome. - Yeah, there were two that you didn't see coming. - Mm-hmm, and they did right by the hardcore fans. And it's almost as if they were just like, you know what, for one year, one year only. - We're gonna help you out. - We're gonna cater to the Japanese wrestling fans. - Yeah, yeah. - And after this, go fuck. - Fuck yourselves, right? (laughing) - We're gonna make these people a joke. - Yeah, yeah. But yeah, you're right, both of them, and well, it was only one night at the time. - Two great Rumble matches, and two like surprises. That's the thing, is like most of the time, you don't get surprise wins. - I think the women's being so unique. Whoever was gonna win is a surprise. And they did the surprise of surprises, and allowed them to continue the moment that Asuka had. So yeah, she's definitely was well-deserved, and it kinda came out of nowhere. The Nakamura win, again, as we said, it goes against everything that they normally set you up with. And even the other red herring of Finn Balor being going that late into it makes you think, all right, well, there's two guys in the Final Four that are like, it was like Reigns and Cena with the other two in the Final Four. - And Shinsuke winds up eliminating Roman. - And it's also sort of like, well, to think to yourself, boy, they could've really played off of, you know, even if you were gonna turn Nakamura heel at, you know, he should've won the belt off of AJ at the at Mania and gone heel. And you could've had like a nice program with him and Cena or him and Roman Reigns or Balor like after Mania that would've like, you know, kinda showcased him a little bit, and they decided not to do that and they fucked it up. But, you know, can't fix stupid. So that was 2018, correct? - 2018, yeah. - 2018, 2019. Seth Rollins. - Yep. - That was your winner. Not memorable. - No, especially then he goes on to open up the show. - Open the show with Brock because Brock didn't want to wrestle later and he wanted to get the fuck out of there. - Yeah. - And I mean, he wins the title, but... - Unspectacular. - I think we're gonna put it in C-tier. - I would say that. - Just because probably if you look back at the roster of people that were in there, it was probably, you know, he could probably go back and say like, all right, that was a pretty decent, you know, Mania. You know, Mania lead up, but it doesn't really ring any bells. - Bad Mania. - Bad Mania. And that was, did Becky win that? - Yep. - So Becky's was her, this was her ascent. - Yeah. - I'm giving this one A-tier because they told a great story with her and the injured, no, who was he? Oh, the injured one was Lana. The Becky took her spot in the rumble. - And then she winds up going to literally main event for us. - Yeah, yeah. The first time, so yeah, so that's... - And win. - Should that be S-tier? - I'm just looking at who we have left, I would say, possibly. - I think she's S-tier. I'm gonna move it up, always room to move it back. - I would say so. - I'm gonna move her to S-tier because they told a great story and they paid it off at Mania even though they felt like, all right, we have to add Charlotte Flair to this because Vince loves Charlotte. 2020 is Edgeword? - Drew. - Drew, right, Drew. - This was right before COVID. - Yeah, poor fucking dude. - I, this was one of the best. - I liked it a lot, yeah. - This is one of the best royal room performances of all time. This Drew's 2020, see what sucks is that it never got to pay off. - Yeah. - And I think it's, it's hurt him since, I think that like, this has been in his head since this fucking happened. - But it also makes him the better heel and more bitterness makes more better heel, yeah. - He's done a lot of good shit, but like, this could have propelled him into a, like a different stratosphere. - Yeah, yeah. - And he just, he got fucked by the pandemic. - Wasn't this also Brock Lesnar? - Yeah, this was Brock went. - He started at one. - He was eliminated, he was just eliminating one person. - Yeah, yeah. - Like one by one. And then Drew eliminated Brock way later on. - And everybody went nuts for that. I think this is an A. - I would say this is A or S. - This is A. - This is as close to S as it could be. - Okay. - It was awesome. It just, the follow up to it got fucked by. - Yeah, yeah, by COVID, right? - By COVID. COVID was the enemy of the pandemic. - Let's put him in S. - Let's put him in S. Why not? - I mean, we can get five, so. - Yeah, yeah. He might be our last one. - I don't see anyone else. - Women's Rumble that year was. - Charlotte Flair. - Charlotte Flair. I remember being very disappointed in that, in that rumble. - If I'm going to be honest with you, anything Charlotte Flair does, I'm disappointed in it. Not a fan. - Not a fan. - Do you put it at? See? - I would say at least see. - At the novelty of it. - You could, yeah, I remember the next, I don't wanna spoil anything, but next few years of the women's rumble were not great. - Yeah, that's true. So we'll put her at sea. The year after that was the Brock Lesnar. - It was 2021. - 2021 was Brock. - This was the, no, this was the COVID rumble. - Edgeward, okay, all right, this was Edgew. This was not memorable. I won money on it, I know that. - This is D. - This is D, we're keeping Edgew. Edges to D's, his double D's. - I mean, it's the COVID era. Whoever won on the woman's side is gonna be D too. - Bianca? Was that Bianca or Rhonda? - Bianca. No one gave a shit. - Yeah, yeah. - I'm granted. - She did have a great match. - The mania, I think it was in my top 10, my top 10 WrestleMania match, it's of all time. - Yeah. - But the rumble, it's up, you couldn't have a, the rumble in that year just lost its luster. 'Cause there's no crowd, there's no countdown. It's just like, it was just a shit show. - Yeah, it was a hairdryer. Next, as you said, was Brock Lesley. - It was Brock. - This is the deist of the D. - Yeah. (laughing) - This was hard. - Yeah. - Hard. This was the worst royal rumble in, of all time. The 2022 royal rumble was the worst royal rumble. - It was, yeah, it was bad. And even like Rhonda-- - This was like the Shane McMahon booked royal rumble. - And this was, no, this is the one that he wanted to be booked in. - Well, he, no, he showed up. - This has got him fired. - Yeah. - He wanted-- - He like tried to book it. - Yeah, yeah. - He was like, I want to be the agent for it. And they're like, this sucks. - No, yeah, yeah. And it cost him his job. Yeah, yeah, it was bad. - That was 2002. - And Rhonda's rumble win was anticlimactic. - He won me a few hundred bucks, but hard. - Yeah, yeah, not anybody's, not anybody's-- - Hard. - Right, you felt bad about winning it. You're like, oh, this bitch. Who did she work at Mania that year? Is it her and Charlotte again? - Hold on, so I don't know. She eliminated Charlotte. - Okay. - What WrestleMania is that? - I'm just trying to remember it. That's 30. - I don't want to-- - 35? - I don't want to drag this out. 35. Was that the one-- - Or 36, 36, maybe. - I, yeah, maybe Charlotte. - Yeah. - I don't know. - So good we have a committed to memory. - No, it's having to be 37. - Okay. - 38, no, 38. - 38. - What? - The last year was 40. - This was 40, all right. - Dude, that 20, 24 was-- - 39, 40. - 38. Yeah, I could, I-- - Got it. - All right, so, I-- - Yeah, whoever she rests on. - Cody Rhodes. - Cody Rhodes. - Cody Rhodes. - What did you think about that? - He was back to back. - They're too predictable to me. - I liked the first one more than I liked the second one. - I liked the first one in the sense that, it was a, actually, good match. It got Gunther over. - I was gonna say, it was a good interaction between him and Gunther. - But I just thought going into both of these years, I don't know that he's, to me, these are like Hogan's wins, where they're like the same thing to me. - Yeah, yeah. - Like they don't, I can't differentiate the two. - They were too predictable. I knew he was gonna win them. So, be it best. - Be. Yeah, easy bees. Rhea. - I mean, she's-- - I didn't she have like a wire to wire? - I think so. - I'm gonna-- - I would put her in A. - I'm gonna put her in a-- - I would put her in an A. - Yeah. - I would put it Rhea in A. - Put it-- - Rhea is-- - Yeah. - She's a-- - She's a fucking star. - Yeah. - Going on, right? - Yeah, yeah. The second Cody, I mean, if we're gonna say B or C for the second Cody rumble. - They're the same. So, me, they're the same. - And they're like literally the exact same thing. - The Bayley win is a good payoff for the character, but-- - It did nothing. - I don't think it's that spectacular. And I don't think there was enough star power in the rumble. - I didn't remember that she won the last year. (laughing) And it was less than a year ago. - Less than 12 months ago. Yeah, she nestles securely in a D. - Yeah. - Okay. So, yeah, I mean, we'll tweak this. We'll add a couple of extra pictures. But the-- - Yeah. - The right now, if we're looking at the top, we have five at the top that were considered STers. Rick Flair for '92, Sean Michaels for '95, Austin for '98, Becky Lynch, her win in 2019, I'm sorry, and Drew McIntyre from 2020. Those are, in our opinion, the STer top. - I think I might want to move one. - Okay, all right. I think I might want to switch the 2020 Drew McIntyre and the 2008 John Cena. - Okay, for impact, for impact. - Straight up, like that Cena pop was nuts. - Yeah, yeah. - I think that-- - The McIntyre is good for A tier, by the way, like it's still gonna be considered a great match. - It was in the top, it was in the top 10 of all time. - Yeah, yeah. - But I'll stand behind that one. - Okay, all right, I like to hear it. So then the A tier includes, we're just combining, we're rolling Hogan's. And I think we're gonna just drop Hogan to B. Hogan doesn't need to be an A, because those weren't good matches, it was just the legacy of Hogan as the top guy winning. If you're gonna bury Cody for having identical ones and put him at B, Hogan belongs in B. But A tier is certainly Nakamura and Asuka's, both of their wins in 2018. Rhea Ripley for 2023, and now Drew McIntyre for 2020. B tier interest, again, the B tier ends up being interesting, 'cause you got your double dips. Cody Cody, Hogan Hogan, Benoit, Undertaker, Brett and Lex Luger as the co-winners. C tier, chock full of mediocrity, but Hall of Fame people nonetheless. Yoko Zuna, Duggan might have to be bumped to D tier, but he was the first one. He was the first one, so he gets a, right, he gets a legacy bump. But Duggan would be in there, Vince, you have a soft spot for it. - I love that, I love that, right, I remember. - Hunter for his two, little bit higher for winning the title. Seth Rollins, only one at once, and it was kind of a dud or unspectacular in Charlotte in the same boat. So we'll see if they end up before the end of their careers, if they end up winning again. The D tier is a real motley crew. Including John. - It's a mix of Hall of Famers. - Yeah, I know, and then. - Two groans. - Yeah, Hall of I would never want to see you again. John Stud, The Rock, two Brock Lesnar's, two Randy Orton's, two edges, four cope. If there was an F tier, I would put this Del Rio on in the F tier. - Oh yeah. - Hello and Seamus. Roman, who's got a chance to redeem himself, I guess at some point during his career and win a rumble that's good. Same could be said for Bianca Belair, but yeah, unspectacular trio of women with Bianca, Ronda Rousey's, and Bayley's all being a little bit more unforgettable than the other. - And we did forget, we didn't have a photo for it, but Ray Ray was in the A tier as well. - That's right, yeah, that was a good one. - Yes, right, and Batista, Batista was in the C tier. - Batista in the C tier. - Yeah, yeah, he was a victim of circumstance on his second one, but his first one was. - His machine gunning us right now. - Yeah, it's memorable, it's good. I would put Batista right next to Vince on the C tier, 'cause if it wasn't for his torn quads, that might be a B tier. So that's it, we'll post this on our socials. On the week of this show, so you guys can check out our magnificent work and put it to rest, and maybe you can have your own debates, and you start a podcast and start to tell us what you think of the Royal Rumbles. This is the week of, this'll come out the week, I believe, of the rumble, or the week before the rumble. I think this one's a very interesting one, but I do think, I know Matt mentioned something on the last episode where he thinks it's gonna be somebody brand new that they choose to elevate. They might elevate somebody, but it ain't gonna be anybody new one in that rumble. You got a Cina in there, you got Seth Rollins, you got Roman, you got punker. Guys that have had-- - Punk is never won. - Punk is never won. There's reason to believe that you could see that. So it should be good. The women's side of the rumble, I think that's a little bit more up for grabs, depending on who comes back at what time. But I think they still wanna have their top girls in prominent spots, so, you know, a Becky or a Charlotte winning is not out of the question. They seem to like Nia Jax, and she could be a dark horse to win it. I think she'll probably be in the final five, or the final four, for sure, 'cause she's a tough one to get out. But yeah, I mean, I think it's between Charlotte and Becky, in my opinion, if I'm looking at my crystal ball. But you know-- - Yeah, I mean, I think we're getting redundancies this year. - Yeah, yeah, it could be that way. We're in the Netflix era, so, you know, we'll see what comes up. But with that being said, we had a good, you know, breakout of our tier list concepts. And we are, we're healthily on the road to WrestleMania, so as we get a little bit closer, we'll talk a little bit more about how things are shaping up while we also dip back into the past. So, for Tommy Schultz, my co-host with the Mo-host, we hope you have a great night, and we will see you all at the matches. ♪ All the troubles that I had ♪ ♪ First time I called her in 10 days ♪ ♪ Guess that later man ♪ ♪ Far as she's ca-- ♪