The Royal Rumble is where the road to WrestleMania begins. This means that it kickstarts the most important period of the WWE calendar year and subsequently is part of the most important period of the year. Apart from just tradition, the Royal Rumble match has serious implications.
However, only one person can win. As we’ve seen through the years, it isn’t even the winner itself who leaves the biggest mark (there have been many exceptions, of course). There’s often superstars who are there who have career-defining performances at the Rumble yet somehow just fall short.
Regardless, there have been many such memorable performances, and we look at the five greatest ones.
#5.) Shawn Michaels – 1995
This Rumble wasn’t particularly impressive for a few reasons. For one, it was amongst the shortest Rumble matches ever and didn’t really feature a lot of star power. Regardless, it was an important Rumble in the WWE timeline because it was the first time that the number one entry went on to win the match.
Shawn Michaels had entered at #1, but believe it or not, he only needed to go through 38 minutes before winning the entire match. It was a great performance from The Heartbreak Kid and he was nearly eliminated, as one foot of his was on the floor. This was when WWE began to use the saying “both feet must hit the floor”, so as to prevent any potential slip-up. Michaels showed a lot of heart as he won and booked his ticket to WrestleMania XI.
Next Page: 5 best individual performances in Royal Rumble history
