Royal Rumble 2012 Dumbest Ass Award: Chris Jericho

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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2012

Swerve the Internet.

Dumbasses

Primo

1. This thing where guys go running at other guys who are near the ropes but do nothing and get eliminated is the worst. It's so dumb. Primo did it here and he literally jumps up to get more air when Mick Foley throws him.

Michael Cole

1. He was so terrified of Kharma, he went over the top rope to beg off on the apron. Jerry Lawler and Booker T quickly ran over and pulled his legs out from under him.

Cody Rhodes

1. Sheamus is trying to get Dolph Ziggler up and out when Rhodes runs over and starts beating on him.
2. While Randy Orton is working on getting The Miz out, Rhodes comes over and kicks Orton.

Big Show

1. It's down to the final four and Randy Orton, Sheamus, and Chris Jericho all decide to gang up on Show. Good strategy. He fights them off at first, enough so that he sets Jericho up for a choke slam. He picks him way up and ... drops him to the mat. Welp!

Randy Orton

1. He eliminated Big Show and then stood near the ropes looking down at him with Sheamus and Jericho in the ring behind him. It was Jericho who ran up behind him and threw him out.

Chris Jericho

1. He went for a pin on Sheamus. The first thing he did when he realized he was in a Royal Rumble match was to yell at Sheamus to "get out of my ring." How about you throw him out instead of trying to pin him?
2. The finish of this match was made possible by Jericho being dumb. He manages to save himself by hanging on to the top rope after Sheamus threw him over but instead of rolling back into the ring when he got his legs up, he stood up and watched Sheamus hit him with a Brogue Kick to eliminate him and win the match.

Dumbass Special

The bookers

1. For deciding it was a good idea to book ALL THREE announcers for this match, including Michael Cole.

The Dumbest Ass

Chris Jericho

This is almost unfortunate considering 95-percent of what Jericho and Sheamus did once it got down to one-on-one was really well laid out to tease eliminations for both without either looking stupid in the process. Then Jericho went for a pin and watched as Sheamus was coming in with a Brogue Kick. It cost him the match and was easily the worst mistake in a match with so few.

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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
2008: Undertaker
2009: Undertaker
2010: John Cena
2011: Rey Mysterio