WWE Royal Rumble 2019: 10 Greatest Individual Performances in History

The Royal Rumble is, by its very structure, a team effort. It takes a lot of choreography and in-ring communication to make such a sprawling match work.

But among the group dynamics, there are always noteworthy individual performances. Maybe the wrestler eliminates a record number of people. Maybe the person has an early entry and lasts a long time. Maybe the performance is just plain memorable and silly. But whether they end with a victory or not, these displays are what wrestling fans are talking about the following morning.

Here are the 10 greatest individual performances in WWE Royal Rumble history.

From 1991 to 1993, a brief window by professional wrestling standards, Ric Flair was in WWE. But he made efficient use of his time, and in 1992, he captured the vacant WWE Championship by winning the Royal Rumble match.

He entered the contest at No. 3, and The Dirtiest Player in the Game won in classic Ric Flair fashion: by hanging on to ropes, hugging opponents' legs and picking his spots. He dumped a distracted Sid Justice over the top rope to become the last man standing.

Entering at No.1, Shawn Michaels had little chance of lasting until the end of the 1995 Royal Rumble. That his nemesis, The British Bulldog, entered at No. 2 didn't help matters.

But Michaels lasted and won with one of the most memorable finishes in Rumble history.

The Bulldog thought he had triumphed and celebrated early, but only one of Michaels' feet had touched the outside floor. HBK re-entered the ring, sneaked behind Davey Boy and pushed him off the turnbuckle to punch his ticket to WrestleMania XI.

The final image of Michaels planting face-first on the mat after his victory is iconic for all the right reasons.

Pre-botched piledriver at SummerSlam 1997, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was a sight to behold. He was leaner, meaner and quicker, and he had the sort of technical acumen that he lost after his neck surgery, when he switched to a safer brawler style to lengthen his career.

It was this version of Austin that won the 1997 Royal Rumble. He dominated the first half of the match; at one point, he "checked his watch" as he waited for the next entrant to arrive.

And the finish of the match positioned Austin as a top guy in the company. He went through The Undertaker, Vader and Bret Hart to emerge victorious.

WWE comedy is often bad; the funniest moments are sometimes unintentional. But Mick Foley's performance in the 1998 Royal Rumble was funny on purpose. He entered as all three of his character gimmicks—Mankind, Cactus Jack and Dude Love—to loud audience approval. 

Foley didn't win that night—that honor belonged to Austin, who sealed his second Rumble—but his three spots have arguably become more memorable than the match's (predictable) result.

Before he was unmasked and before he was the mayor of Knox County, Tennessee, Kane was a scary customer. He was more an agent of angry chaos than a heel or a face. His attitude never changed; the only thing that changed was those he beat up.

And in 2001, Kane came extremely close to winning the Rumble, one of the only honors that has eluded The Big Red Machine in his two-decades-plus career. He eliminated 11 other competitors, a record that stood for nearly 15 years. More on that later.

In the 2004 Royal Rumble, Chris Benoit was gifted Shawn Michaels' 1995 storyline. A smaller guy with lots of talent and lots to prove, he entered at No. 1 and outlasted the field to main-event WrestleMania XX.

Along the way, there was a nice thematic David vs. Goliath motif to this match; every one of Benoit's eliminations (six in all) was an archetypal big man: Mark Henry, Bradshaw, Rhyno, Matt Morgan, A-Train and Big Show.

Rey Mysterio rode a wave of emotional support to win the 2006 Royal Rumble; he was doing it for the late Eddie Guerrero, and the fans couldn't help but root for him.

However, Triple H, who entered at No. 1, was the low-key star of the show. He lasted more than an hour, scored six eliminations and nearly won the whole thing.

The Game usually served as the foil to his flashier contemporaries in a necessary but unappreciated role. At the 2006 Rumble, though, he was an undisputed star.

At the end of the 2006 Royal Rumble, Rey Mysterio was in trouble. As the No. 2 entrant, he was gassed. He would have to eliminate both Triple H and protege Randy Orton to win the match. The odds seemed impossible.

However, that's exactly what The Ultimate Underdog managed to do. First, he eliminated Triple H, which caused The Game to pummel Mysterio outside the ring. And he then eliminated Randy Orton with a textbook head-scissors reversal over the top rope.

In the 2010 Royal Rumble, Shawn Michaels didn't care about anything other than a WrestleMania rematch with The Undertaker.

And this level of drive and focus, to win the Rumble and make the 'Mania rematch possible, showed in his non-verbal performance. He eliminated six competitors, most notably D-Generation X teammate Triple H.

It was a great reversal of expectations. Triple H is usually the one who sticks the knife in people's backs, but Michaels was single-minded that night.

And when he was eliminated late in the match by Batista, the disappointment on HBK's face was similarly palpable.

At the 2014 Royal Rumble, when the fans realized Daniel Bryan would not be in the match after Rey Mysterio entered at No. 30, they booed vociferously. And they pinned all their hopes on Roman Reigns, who was riding high with The Shield at the time.

Reigns eliminated 12 competitors, breaking Kane's longstanding record of 11. However, Batista then dispatched The Big Dog to win the match, and the boos rained down twice as hard.

It was the last time in a long time that the audience was united in its love for Reigns. The backlash would start soon afterward.