WWE Royal Rumble: Ranking Every Winner After Lynch, Rollins Wins

Credit: WWE.com

18. Triple H (2016)

In 2016, for the second time in history, the WWE Championship was placed on the line in the Royal Rumble match.

The 2016 Royal Rumble was in many ways the sequel to the 1999 Royal Rumble. Both matches featured a hero who was forced to enter at Number 1. In both matches, the hero was stretchered out without being eliminated, only to make a return in the match’s closing stages. And in both matches, the victor was not the hero, but his authoritarian arch-nemesis.

Triple H entered the match from the Number 30 spot and scored four eliminations, including both Roman Reigns and Dean Ambrose, to win the match and become WWE Champion for the ninth time.

He would successfully defend the belt against Dean Ambrose at March’s Roadblock event, but would ultimately fall to Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 32, at which point he vanished from television for a while before returning to his role as a villainous authority figure and starting a feud with Triple H.

Triple H had already cemented his legacy by 2016, so this push really served no purpose beyond being yet another of WWE’s attempts at getting Roman Reigns over as their top star. Yet, predictable as it was, sometimes the most predictable choice is also the most logical for the story the company is trying to tell. Triple H was hardly the best Royal Rumble winner, but he was far from the worst.