WWE Royal Rumble 2017: Ranking All 30 Match Winners

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22. Sheamus – 2012

Everything pointed to Chris Jericho winning the Royal Rumble match in 2012, but WWE decided to pull a quick one and have him lose as one of the final two in the bout. Instead, they gave the win to Sheamus in a surprising move. It sounds similar to his Money in the Bank 2015 win when he claimed the briefcase over favorite Roman Reigns.

The other similarity is how quickly the Celtic Warrior won the World title with his guaranteed title shot. He defeated Reigns in 34 seconds at Survivor Series 2015, but that was after the Big Dog wrestled a title match against Dean Ambrose. However, at WrestleMania 28, Sheamus won in 18 seconds by defeating Daniel Bryan for the World Heavyweight Championship.

The positive about this reign would be that it lasted over 200 days. The only gripe is Jericho still went on to challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 28, so why not have him win the Royal Rumble as the more appealing name? Sheamus’ momentum with the fans had dissipated since his 2009 debut, and Y2J always remained a top name. Given all that he did in his WWE career, 2012 could have been the year that he added one of the biggest achievements to his resume.

Instead, the Royal Rumble win got used for one of the shortest WrestleMania matches ever.