Number 2 Ric Flair
In what was only the fifth Royal Rumble match, Ric Flair entered at number 3 and went the distance much to the shock of so many at the time. Flair was well known from his time in the NWA, and was first introduced on WWF television holding the Big Gold Belt claiming to be the real worlds champion as he had a legitimate claim to keep the title after parting ways with WCW.
This claim would mean little in the eyes of the WWF fanbase, so it came as a surprise when the dirtiest player in game proved everyone wrong by not only winning the Rumble but with it winning the then vacant WWF Championship! As mentioned earlier by 1991 the WWE still hadn’t established that the Royal Rumble winner would go on to the main event of Wrestlemania, so this was by far the highest stakes Rumble they had done to date (and would stay that way until Roman Reigns put his WWE Championship on the line in the 2016 Rumble match)
Another recurring theme on this list is that like the heel HBK winning legitimately, so too did the Nature Boy after Hulk Hogan’s aforementioned sore losing effort to help Flair eliminate Sid Justice for the Victory. The fans were stunned, but with Flair as Champion it set the stage for one of the all time great Wrestlemania World title matches where Flair would take on the Macho Man Randy Savage at Wrestlemania 8.
