The Royal Rumble is a beloved tradition among WWE fans. The matches themselves are fundamentally entertaining, with Pat Patterson's concept of a "reverse battle royal" in which the ring keeps filling as opposed to only emptying out has proven out as an engaging spectacle time and again. Indeed, even bad Rumbles tend to be at least OK—more defined by disappointing booking than poor action. Moreover, since the event took on direct world title and WrestleMania implications dating back to 1992, it has become a rite of passage for top stars in the business, and a ceremonial way of launching WrestleMania season.

Since its inception, the Royal Rumble has featured 446 different wrestlers across 38 major events, 46 Royal Rumble matches (given the addition of a women's version of the match in 2018). Not every participant has contributed equally to the history of this match, though. There have been Rumble winners, "iron men" who've lasted for remarkable stretches in the match, and elimination machines who have tallied the highest body count of victims thrown over the top rope. In contrast, while part of the fun of watching back Rumbles is seeing a catalog of who was in WWE in a given year, there are those talents who quietly participated—working just one Rumble and for less than five minutes with no eliminations or memorable spots, mere cannon fodder for bigger names to plow through.

Notes:

This list does not include early house show versions of the Royal Rumble, The Greatest Royal Rumble held in Saudi Arabia in 2018, nor Raw or SmackDown free TV versions staged periodically for different prizes. The decision is ultimately arbitrary, but sticking to only the universally recognized lineage of January (or most recently February) PPV or PLE events (plus the original free TV special) felt like the cleanest manner of assembling this list.

Criteria:

In the interest of instating a reasonable degree of objectivity, the following point system was implemented to evaluate each Royal Rumble performer.

Royal Rumble Victories: 50 Points

Winning the Royal Rumble may not bespeak quality of performance, but it does connote importance to the history of the match. As such, it was the most heavily weighted factor in evaluating each wrestler, with 50 points awarded per Royal Rumble win.

One way of separating the meaningful contributors to Royal Rumble history from the also-rans came down to how productive they were in terms of eliminating other performers. While 1-2 eliminations may not amount to anything more than a throwaway creative choice or even a joke, it nonetheless suggested having a meaningful spot in the match. Racking up double digit eliminations over the years only applied to legitimate "players."

Time Spent: 2 Points Per 10-Minute Interval

This was one of the trickier pieces of Royal Rumble history to pick apart, but both for significance of performance and ease of tabulation, earning two points for every cumulative ten minutes spent in the Royal Rumble felt like a fair way of recognizing those talents who had a substantial presence in a match.

For ease of tabulation, and because it didn't, for example, feel fair to dismiss the efforts of someone who lasted nine minutes but not ten, intervals of more than five minutes were rounded up to ten. So, for example, a talent who lasted six minutes earned two points for that performance; a performer who lasted twenty seven minutes earned six points (credit for three 10-minute intervals, at 2 points per interval).

Everyone who has set foot in a Royal Rumble got some credit for doing so with a minimum of one point. From there, performers who stayed relevant enough to hang around for multiple years—or were noteworthy enough to justify a surprise, nostalgia entry—also collected extra points in this vein.

Other Milestones/Superlatives/Intangibles: 10 Points

In planning this list, there were certain factors not represented that were harder to put into numbers because they were unique to a specific performer. For example, though he was never a Royal Rumble winner, a proper iron man, or elimination machine, didn't Kofi Kingston deserve special consideration for his athletic, dramatic escapes from elimination that became an annual highlight of Rumbles for a period of years? Or what of back-to-back Rumble winners? Or people who truly ran the distance, entering at one or two, and winning the whole match? This category topped out at 10 points per special consideration and no one earned more than twenty points total in this area. (Interestingly enough, these two wrestlers were finished as the list's top two and, out of fairness, they would have been the top two even without "bonus points" attached.)

A Note On Human Error And Arbitrary Choices

Despite the choice to base these rankings on reasonably well-defined, specific, measurable metrics, lists like this are nonetheless inherently arbitrary. After all, the math here would suggest all eliminations and all Royal Rumble victories are created equally or that ten eliminations is the equivalent of having won a Rumble. These calls are totally up for debate.

Finally, I gathered the data and completed the tabulations for this project on my own. In the process of double- and triple-checking certain factors, I was caught off guard by how many times I spotted a significant error. While I'd like to think I caught everything, this process taught me there were more likely than not other errors "hiding in the weeds." I apologize for an inevitable mistake here and there and hope there was nothing too dramatic.

On to the list.

379. Adam Rose, Aidan English, Barry Horowitz, Bill DeMott, Boogeyman, Boris Zhukov, Brodus Clay, Butch Reed, Cameron, Chris Nowinski, Cybernetico, Dan Severn, Dory Funk Jr., Doug Gilbert, Elijah Burke, Enzo Amore, Epico, Evan Bourne, Gillberg, Grayson Waller, Hakushi, Ivory, Jack Gallagher, Jacob Blu, Jacqueline, James Ellsworth, JD McDonagh, Joe Hendry, Johnny Knoxville, Keith Lee, Kenny Dykstra, Iron Sheik, Kenzo Suzuki, Latin Lover, Luke Gallows, Max Moon, Melina, Michael Cole, Muhammad Hassan, No Way Jose, Nunzio, Paul London, Primo, Psicosis, Rick Steiner, Rico, Saba Simba, Sandman, Santana Garrett, Sgt. Slaughter, Skull, Squat Team #1, Squat Team #2, Steven Dunn, Summer Rae, Sylvan, Takao Omori, Tazz, The Fake Razor Ramon, Tiger Ali Singh, Timothy Well, Tom Brandi, Tye Dillinger, Tyler Breeze, Tyler Reks, and Vickie Guerrero (tie)

The inauspicious 379th spot is reserved for 65 talents who only made one Royal Rumble appearance each, didn't win, lasted less than five minutes, didn't score a single elimination, and didn't do something noteworthy enough to score any of the ten "superlative points" available.

To be fair, there is some room for distinction based on quality of performance, and all the more so memorable spots some of these performers were involved in. Muhammad Hassan is a prime example, for coming out on the short end of an iconic (if arguably problematic) moment in the 2005 Rumble, when the entire field of men in the ring stopped what they were doing and teamed up to immediately eliminate him from the fray.

There's also a case like Michael Cole, a non-wrestler who entered from the announce booth and was memorable in his minute-and-a-half of participation.

Then there's Keith Lee, who notably stood up to Brock Lesnar in the 2020 Rumble while The Beast dominated the field. Lee temporarily derailed Lesnar's momentum and was the first of twelve challengers to last more than three minutes with The Beast in that contest.

There are also those wrestlers who may well move up the ranking via future Royal Rumble participants. Grayson Waller, in particular, stands out here. He has only worked one Rumble to date but there's every reason to believe he'll have future berths in the match and, as such, gain additional points regardless of how well he fares.

Finally, this portion of the list includes an oddball entrant like The Iron Sheik, who actually only appeared as Col. Mustafa, well past his heyday in 1992, but nonetheless is a worthy footnote as a forgotten player who had a three-minute stint amidst arguably the most star-studded Rumble field of all time.