This installment of our ranking of every WWE Royal Rumble entrant covers the elite tier from #21 to #49. Royal Rumble winners come fast and furious in this section, including the first man to ever win a Royal Rumble and our first serious contender for the single greatest Royal Rumble performance of all time. This portion also features an elimination machine who quite arguably should have won the 2020 women's Rumble, plus several names still active today who could climb even higher.
#45: AJ Styles and Natalya (Tie)
The 2016 Royal Rumble generally isn't remembered all that fondly for focusing so much energy on a tepid Roman Reigns vs. The Authority feud and culminating in an ultra-predictable "surprise" swerve of Triple H joining the match to screw Reigns in the end.
Amidst a lackluster Rumble, the brightest spot was a truly surprising entry on the part of debuting AJ Styles. The Phenomenal One had a strong showing with two eliminations and was the more legitimate iron man in that year's contest. Though Styles has not and probably will not ever win a Rumble, this showing was a sign of things to come as he has accumulated just shy of two hours of cumulative ring time and 11 eliminations in five Rumbles and counting.
For her part, Natalya has been a staple performer in women's Royal Rumble matches, working every single edition to date, tallying well over two and a half hours of ring time and eight eliminations, including one 56-minute showing.
#44: Bray Wyatt
In just four Royal Rumble appearances, Bray Wyatt tallied impressive numbers—twelve eliminations, plus an hour and forty-eight minutes of ring time. It's a testament to his place on the card that he was always a threat but rarely "the guy"—someone who could slide into the main event picture but never got the full-throated push to the tip-top when it mattered.
Wyatt's run in the 2015 Rumble was especially noteworthy for lasting over 45 minutes and eliminating fan favorite Daniel Bryan, besides his 2017 outing in which he made it to the final three.
#43: Rikishi
Rikishi doesn't show up often enough in conversations about legends of the Royal Rumble, but it's noteworthy that he worked no fewer than ten editions of the match, spanning his time as a Headshrinker to playing The Sultan to his "Make a Difference" character, and both the fun-loving dancing big man version of Rikishi as well as the monster heel version who'd run over Stone Cold. Speaking of that, Rikishi entered at number 30 and made it to the final five the year of Steve Austin's final Rumble win in 2001.
Despite impressive numbers that include nearly an hour and a half of cumulative ring time and twelve career eliminations, it's telling that Rikishi's most memorable Rumble work probably comes down to working a dance break alongside Too Cool mid-match in 2000, only to take down both his running buddies and toss them from the ring—a truly callous Rumble betrayal and months before he turned heel!
#40: Dolph Ziggler, Liv Morgan, and Shinsuke Nakamura (Tie)
Despite the wrestlers at #40 landing directly ahead of Rikishi, it's worth noting that this is the largest gap in point totals between adjacent rankings up to this point in the list, with the tying trio each racking up a full ten more points than the man they placed ahead of.
Ziggler's longevity facilitated 14 Rumble appearances, and his stamina facilitated him collecting over two-and-a-half hours of cumulative ring time. He accumulated ten eliminations. Lowlights of his Rumble resume include only lasting 21 seconds before Kane dumped him in 2009 and one of the most anticlimactic surprise entrant spots in 2018 when he joined the match at #30 after having kayfabe quit the company weeks earlier.
For her part, Liv Morgan has eight Rumble matches under her belt to date, highlighted by her 2023 performance, going wire to wire with Rhea Ripley with them starting at 1 and 2, only for Morgan to be the last woman eliminated after over an hour in the ring. Morgan was the first runner-up again in 2024, falling to Bayley.
Then there's Shinsuke Nakamura. The King of Strong Style may well represent one of the strangest Rumble resumes of all. He entered for the first time in 2018 and had a star-making performance with a lowkey upset victory, nearly 45 minutes in the ring, and eliminations including Roman Reigns and John Cena. In five more Rumble appearances, though, Nakamura only accumulated two more eliminations, averaged 11 minutes per outing, and never sniffed the final few again.
#39: The British Bulldog
In addition to capturing Tag Team, Intercontinental, and European Championship gold, Davey Boy Smith was a number one contender who challenged Bret Hart, Diesel, and Shawn Michaels for the WWE Championship, as such marking himself as a quintessential New Generation upper-card talent. He never quite crossed over to full-fledged main event status, though, with a world title win.
Bulldog's Royal Rumble legacy is a testament to that narrative. He, perhaps most famously, went wire-to-wire with HBK in the 1995 Royal Rumble, entering at number two and proving the last man to be eliminated (after a fake-out victory when one of Michaels's feet hit the ground and Bulldog's music even played). Smith entered six Rumbles and had fifteen eliminations to his name, over two hours in the ring, and two final four appearances.
#38: Kofi Kingston
Kofi Kingston has worked 15 Royal Rumbles to date, scoring nine eliminations and clocking over two and a half hours in the ring. He was never positioned as a meaningful contender to win the match, though it's especially interesting to look back on 2019 in that light, as he was a veritable non-factor in that Rumble but became a WrestleMania world title contender via star-making gauntlet match and Elimination Chamber performances in the weeks to follow.
The real story of Kingston's Royal Rumble legacy comes down to creatively escaping elimination as wild leaps from the apron, pogo-sticking on an announcer's chair, walking on his hands outside the ring, and falling into the arms of Rosebuds on parade all offered vehicles for wildly entertaining and memorable Royal Rumble moments.
#37: Shayna Baszler
After a sensational run in NXT, Shayna Baszler's main roster run in WWE was defined by false starts and tepid booking. Her Royal Rumble stats speak to the potential some higher-ups in WWE clearly saw in her at times. The Submission Magician's 16 eliminations in 6 Rumbles is an objectively impressive mark, highlighted by her 2020 run that saw her enter at number 30 and toss eight other women en route to finishing as top runner-up.
Baszler never garnered the big Rumble push of actually winning, though, and while her two excellent reigns as NXT Champion are remembered fondly, this inconsistent usage on the main roster bespeaks why she never actually won a world title at that level.
#36: Becky Lynch
Despite being on the shortlist for women with the most iconic Royal Rumble performances—entering 2019 in impromptu fashion and with a kayfabe injury after wrestling (and losing) in a great match earlier in the night, only to win it all—Becky Lynch arrives as the second-lowest women's winner on the list. Chalk that up to her only working four Rumbles to date, in no small part because she was working title matches other years or out of action. Lynch's seven eliminations and cumulative 78 minutes of match time attest to her being a workhorse in this aspect of her WWE career, like so many others.
#35: Yokozuna
Yokozuna was all about efficiency when it came to Royal Rumbles, winning his debut outing in 1993 and, with only one more Rumble appearance to his name and only 34 minutes of cumulative ring time, nonetheless registering an impressive ten eliminations. The big man's Rumble legacy largely does come down to '93, though. He got a monster push, last eliminating Randy Savage. That victory set the stage for him to unseat Bret Hart for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania before spending the second half of 1993 and the first leg of 1994 reigning as world champ.
#34: Asuka
The list arrives at the original women's Royal Rumble winner, Asuka, who rode the wave of a dominant NXT run into a main roster winning streak and this victory—arguably the biggest of her career. It's unfortunate the triumph was overshadowed by Ronda Rousey debuting immediately afterward, and then The Empress ultimately proving unsuccessful at converting a Rumble win to championship gold, as Charlotte Flair beat her at WrestleMania 34.
Asuka nonetheless has a solid Rumble record with that original win, plus two other appearances, cumulatively tallying seven eliminations across over an hour of ring time.
#33: Bret Hart
It may surprise long-time fans to realize Bret Hart only worked five Royal Rumbles. He made the most of those opportunities, though, with 85 cumulative minutes and eight eliminations credited to him.
Interestingly enough, 1994 saw Hart work fewer minutes than he did on average per Rumble, but score more than half his eliminations in that single outing and emerge victorious. Hart was infamously one half of the only tie in Royal Rumble history as he and Lex Luger went over the top rope and hit the floor simultaneously to close the bout. Another interesting bit of trivia—that Royal Rumble show, followed by WrestleMania 10, marked an unusual circumstance of someone pulling double duty on back-to-back PPVs, but also losing his first match only to win the main event.
#32: Lex Luger
There's a certain irony that Lex Luger, who tied with Bret Hart for each man's only Royal Rumble victory, wound up almost tied with The Hitman on this list with only two points in between them. Luger worked three fewer Rumbles and a fair bit less time than The Excellence of Execution, but covered the difference by way of eliminations. Despite only entering the Rumble twice, Luger was a force, lasting about twenty minutes in each outing, racking up 11 eliminations total (7 in 1994 when he won).
#31: Jim Duggan
From one flag-waving, patriotic powerhouse to another. Jim Duggan holds the auspicious title of having been the first-ever Royal Rumble winner and winner of the only twenty-man edition of the bout.
Hacksaw's victory was a sign of the times as WWE didn't yet know what it had in the Rumble. By most accounts, Pat Patterson conceptualized and championed the idea until Vince McMahon gave it a try for a TV special, the success of which led to the iconic annual PLE. Before the match meant much—no stakes attached, no tangible reward, and less the start of an institution than a weather balloon—Duggan wasn't out of place winning it, a popular upper mid-card babyface. It's telling that in four other tries, he never came close to emerging victorious again, with relatively paltry cumulative totals outside that one win—just five total eliminations and a cumulative 45 minutes.
#30: Ric Flair
Ric Flair may have just barely cracked the top 30 of this list, but it's worth noting that there is a very, very solid case that he gave the single greatest Royal Rumble performance of all time in 1992. (Incidentally, Bobby Heenan gave the greatest Rumble commentary performance ever as he cheered on The Nature Boy.)
Fans must keep in mind that, leading up to '92, the earliest entry number anyone had won from was #13, and that was Jim Duggan in the 20-man Rumble. The longest performance a Rumble winner had ever given was Hulk Hogan in the preceding year, entering at #24 and working 21 minutes to last eliminate Earthquake.
By contrast, Flair entered at #3, which, in the moment, felt like a kiss of death. Instead, WWE offered The Nature Boy a showcase to demonstrate what he brought to the table—particularly to fans who hadn't followed his NWA career—against an expansive catalog of WWE talents. Flair lasted a full hour, making five eliminations and last dumping Hogan to become the original (almost) wire-to-wire Rumble winner. Flair won the star-studded edition of the bout and, in so doing, captured the vacant WWE Championship in what many still hold to have been the greatest Rumble of all time.
The Dirtiest Player in the Game entered four more Rumbles and registered three more eliminations over the course of his career, buffering an impressive legacy at the event, though nothing could compare to that 1992 coming-out party.
#29: The Rock
The Rock is, of course, one of the biggest names in WWE history, and he won the Royal Rumble at one of the high-water marks for the company's popularity, around the peak of the Attitude Era in 2000.
Some fans may be surprised not to see him closer to the top 10 on a list like this, but that largely boils down to him only actually entering three Rumbles. Putting that into perspective, he won one, was the first runner-up in another, and made the final three in his final Rumble appearance in 2001. In just three outings, he worked just shy of two hours, including a 51-minute run in 1998, besides racking up a total of ten eliminations.
#28: Braun Strowman
As a fun bit of list trivia, Braun Strowman is the sixth highest ranked wrestler to have never actually won the Royal Rumble (and, correspondingly, the guy whose list placement is most hurt by the Greatest Royal Rumble not factoring in—without getting into all the math, that performance would have vaulted him up at least ten spots).
Strowman makes all the sense in the world as a Rumble standout for his immense size and the consistent threat he posed at or around the main event level during his WWE tenure. This giant of the ring worked just shy of an hour in seven Rumble appearances, but most notably hit a career elimination mark of 22, ranking him #15 all time in that category.
#27: Chris Benoit
It's very, very difficult to celebrate Chris Benoit after the tragic circumstances surrounding his death, so we'll keep this write-up short and factual. Benoit reaches 27th place largely for his Rumble performance in 2004—a wire-to-wire showing in which he entered at #1, lasted over an hour, and made six eliminations, last of all going one-on-one with The Big Show and, without any help, getting the giant over the top rope to secure the victory.
The Rabid Wolverine worked two other Rumbles, tallying three more eliminations and logging another hour and twenty minutes of ring time.
#26: Sheamus
Sheamus is, on paper, exactly the kind of talent who'd thrive in a Royal Rumble. He's a powerhouse brawler who has enjoyed multiple main event pushes—case in point, he went so far as to win the Rumble in 2012.
To date, The Celtic Warrior has worked ten Rumbles, with nine eliminations to his name and a noteworthy three hours-plus of ring time placing him among the steadiest Rumble contributors of his time.
#25: CM Punk
A Royal Rumble victory is conspicuously missing from CM Punk's resume, but it's telling he has been in the conversation to win it all multiple times—including WWE explicitly showing on its Unreal docuseries that many championed him to take the 2025 Rumble before the conversation shifted to Jey Uso. Moreover, The Straight Edge Superstar isn't to be counted out in considering favorites to win it all sometime in the next few years.
Punk had perhaps his most memorable Rumble run in 2010, when he ran a gimmick of grabbing a mic and cutting promos during his time in the match, but he also had multiple lengthy runs, including going 35 minutes the following year as the anchor of a New Nexus vs. Corre sub-angle, besides lasting 49 minutes in what would turn out to be his last WWE match in nearly a decade in 2014. Punk was also the final man eliminated in a legitimately dramatic showdown with Cody Rhodes at the end of the 2024 Rumble.
#24: Chris Jericho
Chris Jericho was the first runner-up to win the Royal Rumble in 2012—a year when many pundits favored him to take it all. It turned out that was as close as he got to winning (at least to date, as the rumor mill continues to spin he could eye a WWE return).
Nonetheless, Jericho's Rumble resume is nothing to sneeze at with ten overall appearances that helped him accumulate no fewer than 18 eliminations. It's an interesting bit of trivia that he is also the all-time record holder for most minutes in the Royal Rumble at just over 297 total, less than three minutes shy of five full hours total.
Those are noteworthy numbers for anyone and bespeak both Jericho's length of tenure with WWE (including surprise returns) and that he spent so much of his time in at least the upper mid-card, if not the main event scene, in several years a legitimate threat to win it all.
#23: The Big Show
There's a substantial, ten-point leap between 24th and 23rd place, as we arrive at the #3 highest ranked performer to have never won a Royal Rumble. Indeed, it's less wonder that The Big Show would end up in the top 40 than that he wouldn't have a single Rumble victory under his belt.
Still, Show's 12 Rumble appearances rendered a monster 28 eliminations which was also enough for third most eliminations by a non-winner. His status as a six-time part of the Royal Rumble final four also indicates what a threat he was year after year, including that he was the top runner-up in 2000 and 2004 and reached the final three as late as 2015.
#22: Jey Uso
Ask someone in early 2020, and the idea of Jey Uso cracking the top 100 on this list would probably sound like a longshot. Ask someone as recently as early 2025, and the idea of him winning a Rumble would probably still feel highly unlikely.
A lot changed and Main Event Jey Uso became a legitimate player—a bona fide singles star and an underdog Rumble winner who last eliminated John Cena to win it all in 2025. It may surprise some to realize he has only worked four Royal Rumble matches and went a solid decade between his second and third appearances (to be fair, in three of the intervening years he worked tag title matches at the Rumble PLE). He made the most of the latter two opportunities, not just with his big win, but also a 50-minute run in 2024 that brought him from the number 1 entry spot to the final 7 competitors.
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