Two Times Surprise Entrants Won the Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble is one of the most iconic events in professional wrestling, and it’s notorious for surprise entrants. In the last few years, there have been plenty of those, with AJ Styles making his debut in 2016 and Edge returning from what was meant to be a career-ending injury to stun Milk Maid Park in 2020. But it is very rare for those surprise entrants to go on and actually win the match.

Look, we love to see The Godfather and Booker T as much as the next man, but is it believable that they will win the 30-man extravaganza? Unfortunately not. However, these two gentlemen did exactly that.

Triple H – 2016

Next is Triple H’s win in 2016. It was widely believed that Roman Reigns was going to win the match, despite being forced by Mr. McMahon to enter the match as number one and defend his WWE Championship against 29 other men. However, Triple H made a shocking appearance as the surprise 30th entrant, helping out the McMahon family by dethroning the Big Dog as champion. It came as a surprise to almost everyone in attendance however, for those in the know, the surprise somewhat fell flat.

For weeks in the build-up to the match, online bookmakers had made the Game a heavy favourite for victory, thus potentially spoiling the result of the match to any eagle-eyed viewers. Unfortunately, punters aren’t allowed to bet in play on wrestling events by most bookmakers however, if they were, they’d have seen odds on HHH tumble once Roman Reigns went down with a kayfabe injury and was stretchered into the back. With the 2024 installment of the event less than a month away, viewers will soon be able to see the betting list for this year’s match and see who the favourites for glory are.

Unbeknownst to many, WWE writers were changing the script on the fly. Triple H was meant to eliminate Reigns last however, such were the thunderous boos he received from the Amway Center crowd – just as he did en route to victory the previous year – they changed the script so that the reigning champion was the penultimate elimination and Dean Ambrose was the final man to be sent over the top rope. The result did indeed shock many in attendance

however, it led to one of the worst WrestleMania main events of all time as Triple H faced Roman Reigns one-on-one, with the latter coming out victorious.

John Cena – 2008

Next up is John Cena’s victory at the 2008 Royal Rumble. Cena winning shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone however, when you consider the fact that the Leader of the Cenation wasn’t even supposed to be in the match having lost his World Championship to Randy Orton and sitting out for months with a pectoral injury. He wasn’t expected to be cleared for action for at least another three months however, he made a miraculous recovery and appeared as the 30th entrant, much to the surprise of the crowd. Cena went on to eliminate Triple H and win the match, securing his spot in the main event of WrestleMania 24.