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- Royal Rumble 2011 was a night of ups and downs. With just four matches on the card, there wasn’t much room for error, and WWE did a fairly decent job at producing a decent night overall. The undercard was a mixed bag, as was the Rumble match itself. This show began a trend of several years of unpopular Royal Rumble winners, a curse which was lifted in 2018, a whole seven years later, when WWE finally listened to the fans and booked a winner that was unanimously loved. With this being a Rumble event, there were plenty of talking points both in and out of the marquee battle royal.
The 2011 Royal Rumble event wasn’t the best WWE have ever produced, though it did offer up some notable moments here and there. The card was only four matches long, with the show dominated by an extra long Royal Rumble match.
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Three title matches kicked things off, with the World Heavyweight, WWE, and Divas Titles all on the line, all of which were pretty decent. The Rumble match itself was poorly received, though it had some fun spots and returns. There are certainly some things fans should know about this event, from interesting facts to unplanned moments to the winners of all four bouts on the card.
UPDATE: 2023/01/26 06:30 EST BY ANDREW KELLY
Royal Rumble 2011 was a night of ups and downs. With just four matches on the card, there wasn’t much room for error, and WWE did a fairly decent job at producing a decent night overall. The undercard was a mixed bag, as was the Rumble match itself. This show began a trend of several years of unpopular Royal Rumble winners, a curse which was lifted in 2018, a whole seven years later, when WWE finally listened to the fans and booked a winner that was unanimously loved. With this being a Rumble event, there were plenty of talking points both in and out of the marquee battle royal.
13 John Morrison’s Insane Save
John Morrison’s impressive athleticism and parkour skills became a big part of his character upon his 2009 babyface turn, and perhaps one of his most incredible feats came at the 2011 Royal Rumble.
Morrison was pushed off the apron and managed to latch onto the barricade, avoiding elimination as his feet didn’t touch the floor. He tightrope walked on the barricade, jumped onto the steel steps, and returned to the ring. This began a tradition of superstars trying to find creative ways to avoid elimination each year, with the most notable example being Kofi Kingston’s Rumble antics.
12 Corre Vs Nexus Gang Warfare
The 2011 Royal Rumble saw CM Punk enter first, but before number 2 got a chance to make an appearance, The Corre faction arrived to beat down Punk. This brought out The Nexus, igniting a huge multi-man brawl.
With The Corre consisting of three former Nexus members, the story was there and it did feel like a fun moment, though it received zero follow-up, with both factions getting booked terribly in the months that came after this event.
11 Dolph Ziggler Was The First Ever 31st Royal Rumble Entrant
With this being the first-ever 40-man Royal Rumble match of all time, Dolph Ziggler made history by becoming the first man to ever enter after the 30th spot, as he came out at number 31.
Ziggler was pulling double duty for the night after having lost in the opening match on the card, and he didn’t fare too well, getting unceremoniously dumped out after 7 minutes by The Big Show without doing too much to impact the match.
10 First Time A World Title Match Opened A Big Four PPV
By the time 2011 rolled around, the Royal Rumble was entering its 24th year of existence, with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series all in and around that number too, give or take a few years.
However, in that quarter of a decade, Edge vs Dolph Ziggler for the World Heavyweight Championship was the very first time one of WWE’s marquee “big four” PPVs had kicked things off with a World Title match.
9 Edge Cheated To Retain The World Heavyweight Championship
At the time of this show, Edge was the number one babyface on the SmackDown brand. After some back and forth with Dolph Ziggler, Edge entered the PPV as World Heavyweight Champion to battle him once again, but this time there was a stipulation.
The acting General Manager, Vickie Guerrero, had ruled that if Edge used the Spear, he would lose the match. During the bout, Kelly Kelly arrived to attack Guerrero, and following a referee bump, Edge hit his finisher, followed it up with a Killswitch, and won the match. Despite being a face, Edge had to go behind the ref’s back to pull off a win.
8 CM Punk Cost Randy Orton The WWE Championship
The Miz defended the WWE Championship against Randy Orton at the Royal Rumble PPV, in a match which was pretty basic but fine nonetheless.
The final portion of the match saw CM Punk interfere and attack Orton, in what was explained as payback for an attack three years prior. It set up their match at WrestleMania 27, and allowed The Miz to once again escape with the gold.
7 Eve Torres Was An Unannounced Participant In The Divas Title Match
Natalya was set to defend her Divas Championship against both Michelle McCool and Layla at the Royal Rumble in a handicap match, but prior to the event, WWE were selling shirts which also included Eve Torres as a participant.
When it came to the match, Eve Torres was in fact involved as a surprise per the Anonymous Raw General Manager who made it a fatal four way, and she even won the match too. However, WWE spoiled this, though it wasn’t a very interesting surprise and they would have been better suited to just advertising her involvement ahead of time.
6 CM Punk Was The Star Of The Royal Rumble Match
Each year at the Royal Rumble, there are often one or two participants who stand out head and shoulders above the rest, even in defeat. In 2011, much like he shone in 2010, CM Punk was the MVP of the match.
RELATED: 10 Things WWE Fans Should Know About Royal Rumble 1995
Punk spent the most time in the 2011 match at over 35 minutes, and also picked up the most eliminations too with 7, dumping out the likes of Daniel Bryan, John Morrison, R-Truth, and more.
5 Unplanned Diesel Vs Big Show Staredown
Diesel made a surprising return in the 2011 Royal Rumble match after agreeing a deal to exit TNA, in what was a great moment. After his elimination, WWE called an audible after fans negatively received his exit.
WWE made the call to linger on Diesel’s walk to the back, allowing him time to stare down with Big Show, who was making his entrance. Nothing came of it, but it was nice to see these two giants and former allies/rivals go face to face once again.
4 Only 40-Man Royal Rumble In History
Conventionally, the Royal Rumble match has mostly consisted of 30 competitors. It started off with 20, but the following year WWE upped that number. It then took over 20 years for this concept to be altered, with WWE announcing 2011 to be the biggest Rumble match in history.
The addition of 10 extra spots meant for many more meaningless entries which bogged down the bout. WWE reverted to 30 the following year, with this remaining as the only 40-man iteration of the concept.
3 Alex Riley Eliminated Himself By Accident
Alex Riley looked to be a star of the future during his alliance with The Miz, with him primed to eventually break out from his role as sidekick. However, the 2011 Rumble saw a spanner thrown into the works as he accidentally lost his grip and eliminated himself.
This caused a rework of the match on the fly, as he had to come back out to distract John Cena to allow The Miz to throw him out the match. This, among other things, allegedly caused heat to land on Riley’s back.
2 The Most Shocking Runner-Up Ever
The 2011 Royal Rumble nearly ended up with the biggest shock winner of all time, as Santino Marella found himself in the final two after everyone else forgot about him, as he had been knocked out and rolled under the bottom rope.
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For a moment, it looked as though WWE had booked the most surprising upset of all time, but this was just a false finish as his brief flurry was cut short, and he was eliminated.
1 Alberto Del Rio Was An Unpopular Winner
The newly debuted Alberto Del Rio was booked to win the Royal Rumble match, though this choice was quickly resented by fans who simply didn’t connect with his character.
His match against Edge was not given the main event spot at WrestleMania, and WWE would hold off on him winning World Title gold for several months. Looking back, WWE should have just bit the bullet and gone with Marella instead.
