It’s safe to say Roman Reigns is one of the greatest Royal Rumble performers of all time. He has won one of the titular matches and is always one of the favourites to walk away with his ticket punched to the main event of Wrestlemania.
In this article, we’ll look at his performance in every Royal Rumble match he has been a part of, seeing how many people he eliminated, when he entered the match and how well in did in the bout itself.
Roman Reigns In The Royal Rumble
2014 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 15th
- Final Position – 2nd
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 12 (new record)
Roman Reigns put on an impressive performance in his debut Royal Rumble match. He entered the match at number 15 and quickly made light work of the rest of the field, clearing the ring with a number of eliminations. He even eliminated the giant The Great Khali and both of his Shield teammate, Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins.
Roman Reigns eliminated 12 people in the 2014 Royal Rumble, breaking Kane’s record of 11 from the 2001 Royal Rumble. He came second in his first rumble match, last being eliminated by the winner Batista.
2015 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 19th
- Final Position – WINNER
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 6
Despite everybody that 2014 was Daniel Bryan’s year, WWE made the curious decision to have Roman Reigns win the 2015 Royal Rumble. He entered at number 19th and eliminated 6 people en route to his victory.
However, the fans weren’t buying it. They booed him out of the building, even drowning out the cheers for The Rock when he made a shock appearance to help him fight off The Big Show and Kane toward the end of the match. He last eliminated Rusev to win the match in probably the most unpopular winner in Royal Rumble history.
2016 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 1st
- Final Position – 3rd
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 5
2016 was a unique year for the Royal Rumble. For only the second time in the matches history, the winner would become the WWE Champion. In 1992 it was the prize because the WWE title had been vacated. In 2016 it was because Vince McMahon had forced Roman Reigns to put it on the line in his war with The Authority.
He also forced Reigns to enter at number 1, making him winning back-to-back rumbles an insurmountable task. He did a good job, lasting nearly an hour before being thrown out before the final two. However, it was slightly less impressive considering he spent half an hour in the back getting medical treatment, impressing nobody.
2017 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 30th
- Final Position – 2nd
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 3
Roman Reigns kept up his streak of never finishing below to final three when he appeared in the 2017 Royal Rumble. He entered last, despite fans clamouring for a debuting Samoa Joe instead of a Samoan named Joe, eliminating three wrestlers including his Wrestlemania opponent – The Undertaker.
With fans praying to god that he wouldn’t win the Royal Rumble match again and take the main event scene hostage again, they were relieved when he was thrown out by Randy Orton to end the match. Randy Orton won his second Rumble match and it took fans a while to realise that they’d now have to see The Legend Killer as a world champion in 2017.
2018 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 29th
- Final Position – 2nd
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 4
How is Roman Reigns so good in the Royal Rumble. For the second year in a row he scared fans to death by coming 2nd in the match, although his position as the rumbles top heel makes whoever does win into the biggest babyface in the world. He threw out three men before being eliminated by the winner Shinsuke Nakamura in one of the all-time great Royal Rumble matches.
2019 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – N/A
- Final Position – N/A
- Wrestlers Eliminated – N/A
Unfortunately, Roman Reigns did not enter the 2019 Roman Rumble. This was due to his leukaemia returning, 11 years after suffering with the disease. He left the WWE for treatment in February 2019.
2020 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – 26th
- Final Position – 2nd
- Wrestlers Eliminated – 2nd
Despite wrestling King Corbin earlier that night, Roman Reigns entered the 2020 Royal Rumble at the 26th position. Having missed last years edition due to his receiving treatment for cancer, he was keen to impress and get back on top of the world of professional wrestling.
He put on a good show in the last rumble before the pandemic. He lasted until the final two (again) and was eliminated by the winner, Drew McIntyre. He would be booked to wrestle against Goldberg for the Universal Championship at Wrestlemania 36, but pulled out of the event due to the danger he faced from COVID-19 due to his leukaemia.
2021 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – N/A
- Final Position – N/A
- Wrestlers Eliminated – N/A
Roman Reigns did not compete in the 2021 Royal Rumble match. Instead, he defeated Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match to retain his Universal Championship. It would have been one of the matches of the year, had he not got stuck trying to remove handcuffs from himself and stayed down for much longer than the 10 seconds required to lose the match.
2022 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – N/A
- Final Position – N/A
- Wrestlers Eliminated – N/A
Roman Reigns did not compete in the 2021 Royal Rumble match. Instead, he wrestled Seth Rollins earlier in the show, defending his Universal Championship, He lost the match by DQ but retained his title due to championship advantage
2023 Royal Rumble
- Entry Number – N/A
- Final Position – N/A
- Wrestlers Eliminated – N/A
Roman Reigns is not planned to be in the 2023 Royal Rumble and will defend his WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens at the event.