Every Botched WWE Royal Rumble Elimination

As far as booking minutiae are concerned, the Royal Rumble is WWE’s most complex match to produce. 

With 30 (or more) wrestlers involved, everyone has to know their cues, and if one thing is messed up, the entire match could fall apart, depending on the severity of the mistake.

This has been true for some previous Royal Rumble eliminations, which got so screwed up they threatened to throw WWE’s best-laid plans out of the window. 

This is every botched WWE Royal Rumble elimination. 

11. Randy Savage - 1992

The 1992 Royal Rumble is still considered one of the greatest – if not the greatest Rumble – in the history of the genre, but it wasn’t perfect. 

When Randy Savage entered the match at #21, he was less concerned with becoming WWE Champion and more concerned with getting a measure of revenge on Jake Roberts, the man who had not too long ago unleashed a king cobra on Savage’s arm.

The Macho Man exited the ring to chase Roberts after eliminating him but, in his haste, did so by launching himself over the top rope to the floor. Per Rumble rules, this should have been an automatic elimination, but Savage wasn’t scripted to be thrown out until later, so he was brought back into the ring by The Undertaker, much to the confusion of announcers Bobby Heenan and Gorilla Monsoon.

Savage would eventually reach the final four of the match before being dumped over the top rope by Sid Justice. 

Savage is somewhat infamous for his Royal Rumble eliminations, particularly one year later when he was the final wrestler to be eliminated on Yokozuna’s path to victory due to his inexplicable attempt to pin his much larger foe. 

10. Steve Austin - 1996

The 1996 Royal Rumble marked the first WWE pay-per-view appearance of newcomer Steve Austin, who was still in his Ringmaster guise at this point as opposed to Stone Cold. 

Even though the gimmick had very little potential, WWE still had enough faith in the former WCW star to book him as one of the Rumble’s final four after entering the fray at #24. That isn’t what happened, though.

While Austin was working with Fatu (AKA the future Rikishi), the plan was for Austin to take a clothesline from the Anoa’i family member but hang on and pull himself back into the ring, in a common Rumble spot. 

On this night, however, the force of Fatu, combined with the ropes being slippery from the sheer amount of baby oil being used that night, caused Austin to lose his grip and tumble to the floor by accident. 

Austin was, understandably, gutted and worried that he had already screwed up his chances in the promotion. Little did he know an attitude change would lead to him winning the 1997, 1998 and 2001 Rumbles instead.

9. TAKA Michinoku - 2000

TAKA Michinoku wasn’t technically eliminated from the 2000 Royal Rumble, as he wasn’t technically in the match, but there was no way we couldn’t mention this one.

TAKA and his Kaientai teammate Funaki were not officially entered into the 2000 Rumble, but they were scripted to randomly enter the match on three different occasions, only to be thrown out with ease each time. 

During the second time, however, something went badly wrong for Michinoku, who over-rotated and violently faceplanted onto the ringside mats below. 

It was a sickening fall that sent the former Light Heavyweight Champion to the hospital with a dislocated shoulder and probable concussion. When Funaki emerged for the third time, TAKA was nowhere to be seen.

Despite this botch being painful to watch, WWE’s production staff seemingly delighted in replaying it over and over again, while Jerry Lawler apparently found it hilarious on commentary.

Michinoku didn’t see the funny side and was understandably unhappy at the company revelling in his pain.

8. The Big Show - 2000

With Steve Austin on the shelf and a heel WWE Champion in the form of Triple H to challenge for the gold, the 2000 Royal Rumble was, really, The Rock’s match to lose, which is exactly what almost happened. 

The Brahma Bull entered the match at #24 and eliminated three people before it came down to him and #26 entrant The Big Show, who had notched four eliminations of his own. 

The Big Show had The Rock scooped over his shoulder and went to throw him over the top rope when Rock used Show’s momentum to send him over instead, holding onto the top rope and bringing himself back into the ring to win the Rumble. 

That’s what fans watching the pay-per-view saw anyway. In actual fact, both of Rock’s feet had touched the floor before Show’s. 

Rather than ignore it, WWE instead opted to incorporate the controversy into the storyline, with Show providing footage that proved he was the rightful Rumble winner, leading to a singles match with The Rock for the WrestleMania main event spot at No Way Out.

16 years later, WWE called back to the Rumble botch in a humorous backstage segment with The Rock and Big Show.

7. John Cena & Batista - 2005

2005 saw a changing of the guard in WWE, as both John Cena and Batista ascended to the main event level and won their first world titles at WrestleMania 21. 

It was fitting that the fastest-rising stars on SmackDown and Raw were the final two of the Rumble that year, and there was a genuine sense that either man could have won it. 

And, really, either man could have won it by accident, given how badly they bungled things during the closing stretch. The Animal was going for a Batista Bomb when the pair lost their balance and sailed backwards over the top rope before crashing to the floor at – mercifully – exactly the same time. 

Nobody knew what to do with the unplanned photo finish, which led to an irate Vince McMahon marching out to set things right, famously tearing his quads in the process when he hit the ring apron. 

A seated McMahon ordered the match to be restarted, with Batista and Cena improvising a new finish that ended with Batista winning as scheduled.

6. Finlay - 2008

While the likes of Randy Savage were allowed to re-enter the Royal Rumble match after botches, that wasn’t the case for Finlay, who was unjustly prevented from entering the 2008 Rumble.

Finlay’s leprechaun friend/son Hornswoggle had entered the bout at #9 and lasted approximately 26 minutes, though most of that was spent hiding under the ring. 

Swoggle managed to eliminate The Miz before he found himself looking up at Mark Henry and Big Daddy V. That was the cue for Finlay - the scheduled #27 entrant - to jump the gun and to run in to save Hornswoggle by blasting the superheavyweights with his shillelagh, before rescuing his kayfabe son.

Finlay, however, was disqualified for using the weapon, despite the fact there had been plenty of instances of Rumble entrants using them in the past without being DQ’d.

5. Alex Riley - 2011

The 2011 Royal Rumble was the first-ever 40-man Rumble in WWE history, and Alex Riley had a major role in the match due to his closeness to then-WWE Champion The Miz. 

Riley entered at #34, but he was supposed to last a lot longer than 2 minutes 50 seconds. Things went awry, though, when Riley simply lost his grip and fell to the floor following a spot with John Cena and Kofi Kingston. 

The commentary team didn’t initially acknowledge his elimination and people backstage were reportedly wondering why Riley wasn’t in the ring, before Michael Cole wondered aloud where he was. 

Naturally, WWE had to come up with a new plan and later sent Riley back to the ring to distract Cena so that WWE Champion The Miz, who was on guest commentary, could sneak in and dump Cena out of the match. 

Rumour has it the original plan was for The Miz to distract Cena, allowing Riley to eliminate him.

4. Titus O'Neil - 2015

The 2015 Royal Rumble was such a notorious disaster that, in the grand scheme of things, Titus O’Neil’s botched elimination was not really of much consequence. 

When the entire crowd turns on the match, the winner, and then the show after it, leading to #CancelWWENetwork trending worldwide, Titus O’Neil not going out exactly as he was supposed to wasn’t the main focus. 

Vince McMahon, however, was furious about it. Titus entered the fray at #26 and was duly dumped out by Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose in 4 seconds after The Shield men hit him with a double clothesline. 

A short stint for Titus, but it was supposed to be even shorter, as the idea had been for O’Neil’s elimination to tie the two-second record set by Santino Marella when he was eliminated by Kane in 2009.

While The Big Red Machine and Milan Miracle had their timing down to perfection, Titus, Roman and Ambrose did not, and it took two attempts and twice as long to get the job done.

If you didn’t know about the booking, this botch wouldn’t seem so bad.

3. Kofi Kingston - 2022

For years and years, Kofi Kingston made it his mission to steal the show with his creative, intricate and quite often breathtaking ways to avoid being eliminated from the Royal Rumble elimination. 

With such a high degree of skill and timing typically required to pull off his escapes without a hitch, Kofi’s luck was always going to run out and it did just that in 2022.  

Kofi entered at #24 and did a spot with Kevin Owens that ended with the New Day member attempting a springboard, only for KO to push him off the top rope. This resulted in Kingston turning in mid-air and colliding with the barricade. 

Kingston was supposed to catch himself, climb onto the barricade, and then somehow get himself back into the ring from there, but both of Kofi’s feet accidentally hit the floor. 

It was too obvious to ignore and backstage the decision was made to call it as a shoot and send Kingston for an early shower. The other stuff he had planned in the match had to be scrapped as a result.

2. Kofi Kingston - 2023

One year after his feat of athleticism ended in disaster, it happened again during the 2023 Royal Rumble. 

Kingston was the #4 entrant and lasted close to 15 minutes in the Rumble before he was eliminated. Xavier Woods - Kofi’s New Day stablemate - entered at #6 but he had already been eliminated by Gunther when Der Ring General launched Kofi off the apron. 

Kingston was supposed to land on a chair at ringside that Woods had strategically placed in the correct position, but Kofi got it all wrong and, rather than land on it cleanly, recklessly collided with the chair and fell to the floor, narrowly avoiding hitting his head on the announce desk in the process. 

The plan had been for Kingston to land on the chair and, through some type of shenanigans, make his way back into the match, but his night was over.

1. Drew McIntyre - 2025

Even if you're not winning the Royal Rumble, if you're a major WWE star then the Rumble can be a significant match for you, as it often sets your WrestleMania plans in motion. 

In 2025’s edition, 2020 Rumble winner Drew McIntyre was eliminated by Damian Priest, setting the Scottish Warrior and Archer of Infamy on a collision course for the Showcase of the Immortals. 

Towards the end of the marathon contest, Drew went to eliminate eventual winner Jey Uso when Damian got behind McIntyre and sent him sailing over the top rope instead.

Unfortunately, LA Knight was in the middle of the ring doing a spot with Logan Paul and Priest bumped into him, meaning Drew’s elimination was not as clean as it should have been. 

Really, it was a very minor mishap, and most viewers wouldn’t have even blinked, but McIntyre was so furious at Knight ‘trying to get his moves in’ and messing up his and Damian’s big moment that he ended up storming out of the building after he returned backstage.