#9: Royal Rumble 1996
Winner: Shawn Michaels
This was the first year they really started using surprise entrants to excite crowds during down periods in the Rumble match. Jake “The Snake” Roberts, Dory Funk, Jr., Japanese star Takao Omori and the part-time “would-be-president” Bob Backlund all made appearances, with a big crowd chant for Jake’s DDT – he had been a huge favorite in the first several Rumble matches.
If you watch this match in context, it’s almost perfection compared to the 1995 Royal Rumble, as the inexperienced and lackluster roster at the time forced the WWF to release competitors every 60 seconds, least the fans get bored. In a year’s time, Vader and Yokozuna had risen up, Hunter Hearst Helmsley grew into his role, and both Diesel and Shawn Michaels were top-tier contenders to go on to WrestleMania. While predicting HBK to win his second back-to-back Rumble match was fairly obvious, some great late-game action between him and The Ringmaster, Big Daddy Cool and the British Bulldog made this one of the best matches of its kind in the 90s. While this is certainly a hotly debated topic, I also much prefer Shawn winning the Rumble clean, as the top babyface, over the false-finish with Davey Boy in 1995.
