Royal Rumble 2008 Dumbest Ass Award: Undertaker

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." Special considerations made for other stupidity.

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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2008

A great rivalry continues, as does the stupidity surrounding it.

Dumbasses

Undertaker

1. The first two in are the last two from the year before, Undertaker and Shawn Michaels. Right away, the former picks the latter up over his head and holds him there. Then, and I will never understand this, he throws him into the turnbuckle instead of out of the ring. Guess who eliminated him later?
2. Undertaker was in the corner and Michaels went up to the second rope. At first, The Phenom just pushed him off. Then Michaels inexplicably went back up to the second rope and 'Taker picked him up and walked over a few steps to throw him out over the top. He's a dumbass for the first decision but the second is also baffling for not just chucking Shawn backwards.
3. He comes up from behind on John Morrison and grabs him up to attack. This would have been fine if Morrison wasn't pushing Shawn Michaels to the brink, nearly eliminating him. I've worked this "guess who eliminated him later" gimmick to death on these posts. Just so dumb.
4. What in the world. Not long after saving Michaels from Morrison on one side of the ring, Undertaker did the same thing on the other. This time Morrison had Michaels in a head scissors and was working on getting him out when Undertaker came over, REACHED OVER Shawn, and yanked Morrison off. Then, incredibly enough, he grabbed Morrison from off the ring apron and threw him back into the ring.
5. Once again, he fails to learn from past mistakes. This time it's Batista who goes up to the second rope while Undertaker is in the corner. Easy position to eliminate him from. But nope, Undertaker lifts him up, takes a few steps forward, and drops him down in the ring. So unbelievably dumb he deserves an award. Good thing we're here!

Shawn Michaels

1. Stupidly going up to the second rope on Undertaker, a much bigger man who would, theoretically, have an easy time sending him out. I'm tempted not to include this considering the fact that 'Taker never made him pay for these mistakes.
2. This is the weirdest thing ever. He's laying in one corner with no one around him. He gets up, walks over to the opposite corner where CM Punk is laying down, and climbs up to the top rope. No one was even around. What's even the plan? Why the hell go up top with Punk literally RIGHT THERE? He was only saved because Punk was a dumbass when presented with this gift.
3. He was teaming with Cody Rhodes to eliminate Undertaker when he stopped to watch Roddy Piper walk to the ring.
4. After smartly coming up from behind Undertaker to take him out with Sweet Chin Music just after The Phenom had tossed Snitsky, he stood there shrugging his shoulders at Undertaker, leaving himself wide open to be tossed out. Sure enough, Mr. Kennedy came over and did just that.

John Morrison

1. Undertaker is trying to clothesline Batista over the top rope when Morrison rushes over and attacks the guy who is doing the right thing. Then, because he's a complete idiot, he turns his attention to Batista.
2. I'm not sure Morrison is aware he's in an over-the-top-rope battle royal. Cody Rhodes gets in hot and is working on sending CM Punk out when Morrison comes up from behind with a shot to the back.
3. Just after Cody Rhodes went flying over to jump Snitsky's back in a desperate attempt to eliminate him, CM Punk rushed over to help. Morrison saw this and quickly attacked Punk.
4. Once his tag partner at the time, The Miz, got in they both went to work on CM Punk. This included fighting with him over into a corner, where they both went up to the second rope on the outside of the ring. After fighting off Punk from there, Shelton Benjamin comes into the ring, sees them there, and rushes over to knock them both down. He knocked them down back into the ring, but his dumbass act doesn't excuse their dumbass decision.

The Miz

1. See above.
2. He stopped helping Cody Rhodes with an elimination attempt on Snitsky just to run into a Kane choke slam. Kane had JUST gotten in the ring. What on Earth could possibly be going through this man's dome to do such a thing?

Cody Rhodes

1. I legitimately laughed my ass off watching this happen. After John Morrison stopped him from eliminating CM Punk, Rhodes went to work on Morrison. He's got him up and on the top rope and is trying to finish the job when he looks back, sees Undertaker across the ring, gives one final little push on Morrison, and runs across to punch 'Taker in the back. "To hell with eliminating this guy, I'm going to go piss off the biggest guy in the match!"
2. He was teaming with Shawn Michaels to eliminate Undertaker when he stopped just to watch Roddy Piper walk to the ring.

CM Punk

1. As noted earlier, he's just hanging out in the corner when a wild Shawn Michaels appears above him, up on the top rope for reasons no one will ever understand. He throws a punch at first, which is fine, and then slams Michaels back into the ring, which is the opposite of fine.

Shelton Benjamin

1. As noted above, he came into the ring totally fresh, saw The Miz and John Morrison up on the ropes on the outside of the ring, and instead of pushing them out he pushed them down and neither were eliminated. Joey Styles made sure to note how athletic it was.

Batista

1. He went up to the second rope in the corner to throw punches at Undertaker. This is always a ridiculously stupid thing to do, although at this point I might stop marking it against those who do it to Undertaker because they have every reason to believe he won't eliminate them because he never does, as was the case here. So dumb.

The Dumbest Ass

Undertaker

Both Undertaker and Michaels were really dumb in this match, but the former saved the guy who would go on to eliminate him four different times. I thought Big Show was way out in the lead for the dumbest Royal Rumble competitor of all time but Undertaker kept himself in the race with this performance.

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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
1995: Lex Luger
1996: Diesel
1997: Mil Mascaras
1998: Disciples of Apocalypse
1999: Stone Cold Steve Austin
2000: Big Show
2001: The Rock
2002: Undertaker
2003: Undertaker
2004: Big Show
2005: Rey Mysterio
2006: Big Show
2007: Shawn Michaels