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

Credit: WWE.com

 17. Hulk Hogan (1991)

The Hulkster’s second Royal Rumble victory marked his true return to the main event spotlight after he had “passed the torch” to The Ultimate Warrior at the previous year’s WrestleMania. Hogan entered the 1991 Royal Rumble at Number 24 and proceeded to eliminate seven competitors, last throwing Earthquake over the top rope to claim his victory.

While the WrestleMania title shot was still not yet a formal stipulation of a Royal Rumble victory, Hogan did in fact challenge Sgt. Slaughter, who had won the WWE Championship from The  Ultimate Warrior the same night that Hogan won the Royal Rumble, at WrestleMania VII.

The feud between the two was based on a tasteless angle involving Slaughter turning his back on the United States to align himself with Saddam Hussein and Iraq. The angle was met with harsh backlash due to its exploitation of the real life on-going Gulf War conflict, and interest in WrestleMania VII proved to be so low that the show was moved from the massive Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum to the much smaller Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena.

Hogan triumphed over Slaughter (for America!) and embarked upon a title reign that lasted until Survivor Series, where he was defeated by The Undertaker, only to regain the belt less than a week later at This Tuesday in Texas. Due to some controversy surrounding these matches, the belt was vacated, to be placed on the line at the next year’s Royal Rumble.

Again, this was a very good year for most, but Hogan’s fortunes had little to nothing to do with winning the Royal Rumble. As such, it ranks as a drop in the bucket for both his career and the Royal Rumble.