WWE Royal Rumble: Ranking The Top 10 Surprise Returns
10. Diesel (2011)
In one of the largest rumble matches of all time, one of the largest men in WWE history made his shocking return. Under the Diesel name, Kevin Nash returned as number 32 in the first 40-man Royal Rumble match. Rumors were spreading all rumble weekend that Nash may be participating in the Rumble match and the crowd was waiting in anticipation.
The crowd had already been hyped up by the return of Booker T earlier in the night by the time Nash arrived. However, that didn’t take anything from the pop that was heard when Diesel’s theme began to play. For the first time in 15 years, the iconic truck horn sounded, and the crowd about blew the roof off the place.
The crowd showed Diesel nothing but love as he made his way to the ring. Diesel’s time in the rumble was short but was memorable. He entered the ring and was met by a fury of attacks but was able to clear the way in the beginning. He would get caught up by a double team by Sheamus and Drew McIntyre, which is ironic for obvious reasons, before being eliminated by Wade Barrett.
9. Bubba Ray Dudley (2015)
When the Royal Rumble came to ECW’s home Philly, the roof was about blew off when ECW original Bubba Ray Dudley’s music hit. The position was perfect sending out Bubba as the third entrant into the match. The Miz and R-Truth were down in the ring when the countdown clock began counting down. All eyes were on the clock, including The Miz.
The WWE universe showed Bubba Ray nothing but love when he came walking out. The Miz helped sell the moment as he stared at Dudley like he had seen a ghost. The time Bubba spent in the match was entertaining. He substituted D-Von for the night as he pulled off some Dudley Boy tandem offense alongside R-Truth.
Dudley would eliminate Truth and The Miz before being outnumbered soon after. Dudley was a victim of lucky numbers for Luke Harper and Bray Wyatt who came out as numbers 4 and 5 respectively. The two former Wyatt family members made quick work of Dudley. With only a few minutes to do so, Bubba certainly made his impact known on the 2015 rumble.