All 30 Royal Rumbles, Ranked from Worst to Best

The Royal Rumble is the best part of being a pro wrestling fan.

Stripped to its bare essentials, the Rumble is exactly what we want from “sports entertainment” — a story told through controlled chaos. Although it may look like a bunch of guys slugging it out without any overarching plan or organization, the match is actually anchored by a dogmatic, disciplined structure, with rules dictating exactly who enters, how often they enter, and how they are eliminated; there are assigned numbers, countdowns, entry lists, and all the other minutia that makes real sports so obsessively fascinating — the kind of aspects that are fun to mull over, but that wrestling promoters usually assume their fans are too dumb to follow.

Rewatching every edition of the annual event was an interesting opportunity to observe the WWE change over the years — the Rumble is truly a microcosm of the direction and tone of American pro wrestling. After each match, I’ve included the star rating (out of five) of Dave Meltzer, noted wrestling journalist and historian. It should help counterbalance my own biases, like my eternal love of Haku.

30. Royal Rumble 1999

For years I hated this Rumble, which Vince McMahon wins, because it seemed emblematic of how the McMahon family was shoehorned into every main event feud from this…