FanPost

How Rare Was Roman Reigns' Royal Rumble Win?

WWE.com

(If I could have found a decent synonym for 'win' that began with the letter R, trust me, I would have used it).

So a discussion in the Daily got me thinking about how unusual it actually was for someone with Roman Reigns' somewhat skimpy resume to actually win a Royal Rumble. In the current WWE, we tend to think of a Money In the Bank win as the accomplishment that signifies an attempt to push a new star into the main event, while the Rumble is seen more as a storyline device to add an already-established main event draw to the top of the card at Wrestlemania, rather than as a star-making turn. But is that perception accurate? Let's find out.

Since Money in the Bank was introduced in 2005, there have been nine Rumble winners (John Cena and Batista each won twice during that period) including Reigns and 14 MITB winners (with CM Punk winning twice), including Senor Traitorface himself, Seth Rollins. But while the two lists have some overlap, there is one glaring difference between them:

Rumble winners since 2005: Batista (0), Rey Mysterio (0), Undertaker (4), Cena (3), Randy Orton (3), Edge (8), Alberto Del Rio (0), Sheamus (2), Cena (12), Batista (6), Reigns (0)

MITB winners since 2005: Edge (0), RVD (0), Mr Kennedy (0), CM Punk (0), CM Punk (1), Jack Swagger (0), Kane (1), The Miz (0), Daniel Bryan (0), Del Rio (0), Dolph Ziggler (1), Cena (12), Damien Sandow (0), Orton (9), Rollins (0)

Did you spot the difference? Did you figure out what the little numbers next to their names represent? That's right. The number in brackets is the number of WWE/World Heavyweight title reigns each wrestler had prior to winning that particular Rumble or MITB match.

Even including the double zeros of Batista and Rey in '05/'06, the average Rumble winner over the last 11 years has had about three and a half title runs to their credit before winning the Rumble. In the last nine years, only Alberto Del Rio has won a Royal Rumble without previously holding a world championship in WWE. Every other Rumble winner had some sort of track record as a draw prior to sending their last opponent over the top rope.

By contrast, nine of 14 Money In The Bank winners prior to Rollins had never been a world champion in WWE before, just like Roman Reigns. And of those five former champions, two almost shouldn't count, as one is Ziggler getting handed the belt and then losing it back to Edge on Smackdown 600, and the other is Punk whose only previous title run came the year before... after winning the previous MITB. Only Cena and Orton in the last couple of years, and Kane in 2010, were what you could call established main eventers before pulling down the briefcase. Based on recent history, Reigns profiles much more comfortably as a Money In The Bank winner than a Royal Rumble winner.

Does that spell automatic disaster for Reigns' ascent? Of course not. From the WWE's perspective, Batista and Mysterio turned out pretty well (Del Rio, maybe not so much). But it is a very clear sign of just how far from their usual formula the company has strayed this year, and how big a gamble they're taking by trying to build a new main event star on the Road To Wrestlemania rather than sticking to a known quantity on the Grandest Stage of Them All.

The FanPosts are solely the subjective opinions of Cageside Seats readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cageside Seats editors or staff.