Royal Rumble 1995 Dumbest Ass Award: Lex Luger

The Royal Rumble match is a 30 man over the top rope battle royal, and it's every man for himself. That invites strategy. It's a tactical war as much as a test of physical strength and endurance. Too often, wrestlers either forget this fact or ignore it completely. They do so by engaging in such ridiculously dumb behavior like outright stopping eliminations from occurring. There are exceptions, of course, like tag teams or factions attempting to work together to give themselves the best chance to win but generally, it's a really stupid idea to stop an elimination.

In each Royal Rumble, there are always wrestlers who stop multiple eliminations. In some cases, a wrestler will stop an elimination that has a monumental effect on the match and is detrimental to his chances of winning in a way he ultimately cannot overcome. I like to refer to such a wrestler as the "Dumbest Ass."

Here, we'll hand out the award for "Dumbest Ass" in each of the Royal Rumble matches that have taken place so far.

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1995

The shortest Royal Rumble match in history, which is good because it sucked and featured one star. Still plenty of time for stupidity.

Dumbasses

Jimmy Del Ray

1. A special kind of stupid. He was busting hump trying to get Shawn Michaels out but failing to do so. British Bulldog came over to lend a hand. Del Ray then inexplicably broke away and attacked Bulldog, who eliminated him not long after. He was so pissed, he slammed his hands down on the apron. That'll learn him.

Doink the Clown

1. Duke The Dumpster Droese was trying to get Shawn Michaels gone when Doink ran up from behind and blasted him in the back.
2. It wasn't very long after that happened that Michaels had gone over to help Eli Blu toss British Bulldog out when Doink walked over to pull Shawn away to start throwing punches.

Eli Blu

1. After Doink Michaels away, Blue just stopped trying to eliminate Bulldog in favor of punching Doink. What the hell were any of these people thinking?

Rick Martel

1. As soon as he got in the match, the one guy he went right after was Doink the Clown, who was the one guy actually trying to eliminate someone from the match, in this case Eli Blu.

Kwang

1. Dear god, this man. He sees British Bulldog trying to toss Shawn Michaels and hauls ass across the ring to stop him, only to try to eliminate Shawn right after. What a ridiculously stupid play.

Shawn Michaels

1. King Kong Bundy gets in the match and starts working on British Bulldog. For some reason, Michaels clubs him in the back. Naturally, Bundy no sells it before letting Bulldog go to blast Shawn in his big dumb head.

Lex Luger

1. Mantaur was fresh into the match and trying to toss British Bulldog. Luger didn't want to let him. I suppose you could make an argument for wanting fatigue over size but that falls apart quickly.
2. Luger saw Shawn Michaels trying to eliminate Aldo Montoya and rushed across the ring to stop him. I'm not entirely sure Lex knows what he's supposed to be doing here.
3. I would cry conspiracy if I didn't know better at this point. Dick Murdoch was on the verge of sending Shawn Michaels out when Luger saw it and came over to deliver a kick to stop it. Guess who he started fighting with right after. It sure as shit wasn't Murdoch.
4. SERIOUSLY, LUGER, YOU DIPSHIT. It's a short time later and Michaels was vulnerable, having just tossed Aldo Montoya. Murdoch was right next to it and had no one around him, so he made the smart play and snuck up behind to take Michaels out. Luger sees it and again RUNS over with a double axe handle smash.

Billy Gunn

1. As soon as he got in the ring, with a full head of steam, he went right for Mantaur. That would have been fine had Mantaur not been tied up trying to eliminate Aldo Montoya.

Adam Bomb

1. He sees Crush trying to toss British Bulldog, so he puts a stop to it. Karma collects quick. Crush sends him flying not long after.

British Bulldog

1. I'm going to put Bulldog here for the fact that he threw Michaels over, saw he was holding on to the top rope, and never made sure he was actually eliminated. I don't blame him for celebrating on the second rope because by that point his music was playing. He was just far too sure of an elimination despite Michaels clearly still hanging on to the top rope. Still, they kind of jobbed Davey Boy here playing his music like that.

The Dumbest Ass

Lex Luger

Bulldog's mistake was bad, and obviously the most costly, but Lex goes back-to-back on the strength of being one of only two guys to stop multiple eliminations in this match and the fact that he continuously kept the winner in when Dick Murdoch very nearly had Michaels out on two separate occasions. Murdoch was crafty as hell while he was in there and it all went to waste because Luger is one impressive dumbass. It will not surprise you to learn that he was eliminated from the match by none other than Shawn Michaels.

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Previous "Dumbest Ass" award winners:

1989: Bad News Brown
1990: Ultimate Warrior
1991: British Bulldog
1992: Hulk Hogan
1993: Randy Savage
1994: Lex Luger