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

Credit: WWE.com

32. Lex Luger

Poor Lex Luger. Earmarked as the next Hulk Hogan and relentlessly pushed as such, he never managed to connect with fans in the manner of his would-be predecessor. After his slamming of Yokozuna on board the U.S.S. Intrepid in the summer of 1993, WWE strapped a rocket to Luger’s back.

Unfortunately, the Lex Express gimmick came off as more awkward than anything, and Luger proved to be in over his head as a main event patriotic babyface, as fans began to drift away from the larger than life musculature of performers like Luger and Hogan, and began gravitating toward the immaculate in-ring work of the likes of Bret Hart and Shawn Michaels.

While Luger never captured the WWE Championship, he did manage to become the co-winner of the 1994 Royal Rumble, alongside Bret Hart, when both men went over the top rope and hit the floor at the same time.

As such, an agreement was worked out in which both Luger and Hart would receive a title shot at WrestleMania X, with one challenging toward the beginning of the show and the other doing so at the end. Luger got the first shot, falling short in his effort against Yokozuna.

This effectively ended Luger’s time at the top of the card. He hovered in the upper midcard before famously exiting WWE and appearing on the first episode of Nitro the next year.  In spite of his success in WCW, Lex Luger was never able to make an impact at the top of the card in WWE, and his Royal Rumble “victory” did little to curb that.