Per tradition, the Royal Rumble is filled with surprises meant to entice the fans into cheering, and also setting up storylines for the upcoming season.

In recent years, these surprises often come in the form of a surprise entrant, someone who was not announced to be participating beforehand. These entrants tend to come in three forms: a new debut, someone from NXT (in more recent years), and someone to catch a “nostalgia pop”. The latter often comes in the form of a star from the past, who has not been seen on WWE TV recently.

Recently, I have compiled statistics for everyone that had ever entered the Royal Rumble and I have noted many anomalies. Some, were things only nerds would love (Virgil had eliminated more participants than 43% of all participants combined) and others were just weird.

I have compiled a list of names that a nerd like me would find random. Mind you, I have done very little research to provide context to that specific Rumble (so there may be more to the story). I also tried to separate “expected” surprises: such as seeing a former WWE/F champion, a gimmick that is weird, but was an established roster member, etc. from a true dubya tee eff moment, but there are always exceptions.

As so, I present to you my list of the most random Royal Rumble participants from its inception:

Saba Simba (1991) When Tony Atlas was down on his luck, Vince gave him a job. With this job, came a price. A price named Saba Simba. Being announced as a man going back to his roots, the Virginia born Atlas started coming to the ring with a spear, shield, and mask.

The African savage gimmick was already passé by the time Atlas was given the role, but to run with it for the better part of a year and giving no storylines to further develop the gimmick makes this a head scratcher. As such, Simba didn’t last long in the Rumble, and is best not to be remembered.

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