Reality From Ringside #95
January 24, 2011
By: Doug Lackey of Wrestleview.com
The 2011 Reality from Ringside Royal Rumble Rundown! 5R!
It’s no secret to everyone on the Wrestleview staff and the VIP subscribers that tolerate me on a near-daily basis, I love the Royal Rumble. It is my annual numerical wet dream.
Every year, I dust off the folders chock full of statistical goodness and peruse through them. I look back on Royal Rumbles past, look forward to the present, and do more than just try to predict a winner. I try to assemble the entire match itself.
With the recent revelation of this year’s Rumble participants being increased by ten, culminating in a massive 40-man main event, it makes this year’s Rumble pontification nearly impossible. While many would argue that this will only lead to ten more no-names entering the match, I beg to differ. Look at the 1995 Royal Rumble’s list of participants and find for me the names that are just as big as Shawn Michaels, Davey Boy Smith, and Lex Luger. You can’t. Argument dispelled, unless you’re going to try and convince me that Kwang was an able-bodied, mid-card, gate-keeping talent.
I digress.
For the past month and a half, I have been littering the Wrestleview Radio Network with Royal Rumble stats. These are statistics you will not find or hear of anywhere else, not even from the WWE whose own statistics are flawed. Here’s just a sampling of their calculators’ batteries needing replaced:
“656: Since 1988, 656 superstars have tried to win the Royal Rumble match, only to be eliminated.” FALSE.
Very lazy statistical gathering by the WWE indeed; just because you multiplied the number of Royal Rumbles by 30, subtracted 10 for the 1988 Rumble’s 20-man field, and subtracted the number of winners does not necessarily give you the correct figure. When counted correctly…
“237: Since 1988, 237 superstars have tried to win the Royal Rumble match, only to be eliminated.”
This number includes all the various characters portrayed by one individual (Rikishi aka Fatu aka The Sultan, Kane aka Isaac Yankem DDS aka Fake Diesel, etc.). But this week’s column is not about the faults of the WWE but the findings that I have done on my own volition.
Through painstaking analyzing and obnoxious number-crunching, I found as many empirical anomalies as I could involving all of the performers believed to be participating in this year’s Royal Rumble. Here is what I could dig up on the 25 talents officially confirmed:
CM Punk has eliminated more competitors (8) than The Great Khali (7).
Cody Rhodes has entered at #13 in two of his three Royal Rumble appearances.
John Cena has been one of the final two participants in the Royal Rumble in his past 3 consecutive appearances (’05 Runner-Up, ’08 Winner, ’10 Runner-Up).
John Morrison, though appearing in the past three Royal Rumbles, has not eliminated a competitor since he was known as Johnny Nitro (2007).
Kane has appeared in 14 Royal Rumbles, the most in WWF/E history.
Mark Henry is the only healthy member of WWE’s active roster to have appeared in the 1998 Royal Rumble.
Rey Mysterio has come out as one of the first 8 entrants in each one of his Royal Rumble appearances (’03 #4, ’05 #8, ’06 #2, ’09 #1).
Sheamus is the only former WWE Champion on WWE’s active roster to have never appeared in the Royal Rumble.
William Regal, though a WWE veteran of over 10 years, has only made 2 Royal Rumble appearances (’01, ’09).
Yoshi Tatsu is only the 7th Japanese-born performer to ever compete in the Royal Rumble (Genichiro Tenryu, The Great Kabuki, Hakushi, Kenzo Suzuki, Tajiri, Takao Omori).
Though they have not been officially announced as participants in this year’s Royal Rumble (as of the posting of this column), I think it is pretty safe to say that the following will be:
Big Show has only come out as one of the first 10 entrants once in all 7 of his Royal Rumble appearances (’06). In all other appearances, he has come out as one of the final 10 entrants.
Chavo Guerrero has as many Royal Rumble eliminations as Hornswoggle (1).
Chris Masters has come out as one of the final 10 entrants in all of his 3 Royal Rumble appearances (’06: #26; ’07, ’10: #24).
Hornswoggle has just as many Royal Rumble eliminations as Scott Steiner (1).
Jack Swagger is the only former World Heavyweight Champion on WWE’s active roster to not have eliminated anyone in the Royal Rumble.
JTG has come out as one of the first 10 entrants and one of the first 10 eliminated in every Royal Rumble appearance (’09: In #9, Out #7; ’10: In #4, Out #3).
Kofi Kingston & CM Punk are the only two active members on WWE’s roster to have debuted on ECW and appeared in more than one Royal Rumble [Punk (4), Kingston (2), Bourne, Swagger, Tatsu (1), Sheamus, Reks, Kidd (0)]
Triple H has eliminated at least 3 participants in his last 5 Royal Rumble appearances, 26 eliminations in 8 appearances.
While all of these facts, figures, and pieces of completely obscure trivia make you react in various ways, the real statistics of the Royal Rumble to take note of are these…
Of all 58 active WWE roster members, 21 (37%) have never appeared in the Royal Rumble.
10 titles have been held among 21 active WWE roster members who have never appeared in the Royal Rumble.
Only 5 performers on WWE’s active roster remain from those who participated in the 2005 Royal Rumble.
Labeling the past twelve months in the WWE as a ‘transitional period’ would be putting it very, very lightly.
Until next time, mouth-breathers!
Annoy me with your assumptions and affronts… adore me with your adulations and acknowledgements: doug@wrestleview.com.
Don’t forget to check out “Reality from Ringside Radio: 3R” this Tuesday on Wrestleview! It’s only available to Wrestleview VIPs though… so sacrifice a Big Mac value meal! Become a VIP!
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