A List of Every Royal Rumble Betting Upset

With so many participants in the Royal Rumbles, you might expect there to be numerous big upsets over the years.

You would be wrong.

Prior to 2020, almost every single favourite had won the Royal Rumble. The only anomaly was Becky Lynch winning as 2nd favourite in 2019 at +120 odds which is practically favourite levels. Even the individual matches prior to the Rumble don’t seem to have too many upsets.

If you’re looking for betting upsets, the Royal Rumble is not the best place to do so. The rate of upsets is much lower than most other PPVs.

If you’re interested in betting on this years Royal Rumble, check out my articles listing the Royal Rumble Betting Odds and the much more fun one – Royal Rumble Betting Props.

Firstly, let’s look at every Royal Rumble we’ve had, the winner, and their odds – all betting odds are taken usually 1-2 days prior to the Rumble so that “smart money” odds aren’t factored in:

• Royal Rumble 2013: John Cena -175. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2014: Batista -335. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2015: Roman Reigns -165. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2016: Triple H +105. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2017: Randy Orton. +150. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2018 – Men: Shinsuke Nakamura +100. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2018 – Women: Asuka +125. Joint favourite with Ronda.
• Royal Rumble 2019 – Men: Seth Rollins -110. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2019 – Women: Becky Lynch. +120. 2nd Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2020 – Men: Drew McIntyre +500. Roman was favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2020 – Women: Charlotte +500. Shayna was favourite followed by Ronda.
• Royal Rumble 2021 – Women: Bianca Belair +175. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2021 – Men: Edge. +225. Second Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2022 – Men: Brock Lesnar +300. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2022 -Women: Ronda Rousey -143. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2023 – Men: Cody Rhodes -245. Favourite.
• Royal Rumble 2023 – Women: Rhea Ripley -200. Favourite.

17 Royal Rumbles. 13 favourites. 2 second favourites.

So that’s something to remember. It’s easy to try and convince yourself not to back the favourite but the data over all those years since 2013 is right there – there’s a reason these wrestlers are the favourites. Because they normally win.

I should note that those two wins by Drew and Charlotte are NOT the biggest upset at a Royal Rumble ever. I’ll break that one down below.

Now lets’ go through every single betting upset that has occurred at the Royal Rumble, including non-Rumble matches with a special look at the top 5.

• +120 Odds: Becky Lynch wins the Rumble. (2019)
• +120 Odds: Bobby Lashley defeats Brock Lesnar (2022)
• +180 Odds: The New Age Outlaws defeat Cody/Dustin (2014)
• +180 Odds: Bray Wyatt defeats Daniel Bryan (2014)
• +180 Odds: The Bella Twins defeat Paige & Natalya (2015)
• +200 Odds: Seth Rollins defeats Roman Reigns (2022)
• +225 Odds: Edge wins the Rumble. (2021)

(In regards to 2021, Edge did drift out to +500 just prior to the show. This was based on money coming in on Seth Rollins with people incorrectly attributing that to the “smart money”).

#5: +240. Shinsuke Nakamura defeats Rusev (2019)

This was a pre-show match. The general idea is that on the pre-show, the face goes over and gets the crowd hyped up etc. Of course, that’s not always the case and it certainly wasn’t the case with good ol Rusev Day. Rusev won the US Championship on the Christmas Day Smackdown, defeating Nakamura.

It ended up being a short reign as he lost it back to Nakamura here a month later. Nakamura’s’ stock had fallen greatly at this time and although Rusev no longer had Aiden English with him, he was still a crowd favourite. Nakamura was able to hold the title for a whopping two days, before losing it to R-Truth on Smackdown.

#4: +315. Kalisto defeats Alberto Del Rio (2016)

This is one of those upsets that are primarily made based on expected plans, as Kalisto won the United States Championship. Del Rio just won the title off Kalisto 12 days prior, after a 3-day title reign for Kalisto….who won it from Del Rio.

The general expectation was Kalisto won the belt off Del Rio just for a bit of a shock, and that Del Rio would go on to have a longer reign now he had won the title back. Sin Cara was expected to return and that’s one big reason Del Rio was a favourite – it was strongly expected he would be back and teaming with Kalisto again.

Instead, Kalisto pulled off the upset – again – and held onto the belt for the next 126 days prior to losing it at Extreme Rules to Rusev.

#2 – Tie. +500. Drew McIntyre wins the Royal Rumble (2020)

This was actually one Royal Rumble where there actually was no obvious winner, unlike previous years. The favourite was Roman Reigns with the expectation that he would challenge Bray Wyatt at Wrestlemania but there were valid reasons for Drew McIntyre as well. There were a couple of other possibilities like Baron Corbin, Randy Orton and as crazy as it sounds at this point in time – Aleister Black.

The showdown with Bray Wyatt seemed inevitable. The fact that Reigns, since returning from his battle with leukaemia, had been kept out of the top title pictures added to the theory that he would return to that scene here. Drew ended up being quite the surprise, even if he was expected to at least be in the final four by the majority of people.

#2 – Tie. +500. Charlotte wins the Royal Rumble (2020)

My golden rule – “Always bet on Charlotte”. I backed a full unit on her here and it paid off big time. Shayna Baszler was the -250 favourite, with Ronda at +400.

Ronda didn’t even enter the Rumble. The expectation was that Shayna would win it and challenge Becky Lynch at Wrestlemania. That ended up happening but not because she won the Rumble. She had just recently lost the NXT Women’s Title and the expectation was that this was all set up so she could go over Becky at Mania.

Instead, Charlotte eliminated Baszler for the upset and challenged Rhea Ripley at Wrestlemania for the NXT Women’s Championship (where she again won as an upset. Always bet on Charlotte!).

#1: +600. Team Hell No defeat the Rhodes Scholars. (2013)

Like I said – the #1 was going to be a surprise. These type of odds for a rather small match in the grand scheme of things. Bear in mind it was back in 2013 when betting on wrestling was still in its infancy.

Team Hell No had been teasing dissension and everyone expected them to self-combust here and the Rhodes Scholars to win the tag titles. The Team Hell No segments with Dr. Shelby seemed over with and it looked like the ideal time to give the Rhodes Scholars that push and the belts.

The inevitable break up between Kane and Bryan looked like it was going to come to a head here. That was not the case and Team Rhodes Scholars didn’t get that expected elevation. Team Hell No would actually hold onto the belts until Extreme Rules that year.

While the Rhodes Scholars never won the tag titles, both Cody and Sandow won the tag titles with other partners in the years following this. And both get the achievement of being the biggest betting upset in the history of the Royal Rumble!

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Current Wrestling Betting Odds:

Event:	Match:	Where To Bet:
Wrestlemania	All the matches	BetOnline
Elimination Chamber	All the matches	BetOnline
AEW Revolution	Both Rumbles	BetOnline