The history of the Royal Rumble match is associated with the PPV of the same name, but a few matches have taken place on lesser known shows. WWE saves the big attraction for the January event to set up the road to WrestleMania. Careers like Steve Austin, Batista and Becky Lynch changed for the better after their Rumble wins. The winners of the less celebrated Rumble matches received less attention.

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We will look back at the strangest Rumble matches that most fans have little to no memory of. The battle royals in question took place on shows like Raw, Smackdown and non-televised events. WWE will get fan interest for any show marketed as a Rumble match. They used to run it quite often in the past as a special attraction. Find out which ones you need to learn about with the ten craziest Royal Rumble matches you didn’t know existed.

10 St. Louis Royal Rumble (One Man Gang wins)

One Man Gang

The first-ever Royal Rumble match strangely took place on a house show. WWE experimented with new concepts on the non-televised shows before bringing them to PPV. The ladder match was another one that they wanted to perfect before showing on the national stage.

One Man Gang won the first Rumble match at a St. Louis live event in 1987. The big man last eliminated Junkyard Dog to win the match and earn a future WWE Championship match. One Man Gang lost his title shot against Hulk Hogan at the next house show in the area.

9 2018 NXT Male Halloween Royal Rumble (Stacey Ervin Jr.)

NXT live events are often a fun time with the talent getting to let loose. There are a few high-caliber matches, but certain times will see them go for more comedic fun than the intense action. An NXT show in 2018 on Halloween night allowed the wrestlers to sport costumes.

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The Royal Rumble match saw the male talent wearing costumes like dinosaurs, superheroes, cartoon characters and everything in between. Stacey Ervin Jr. won the Rumble match and a title shot later in the night against Ricochet for the North American Championship. Ricochet defeated him to retain the gold.

8 Mini Royal Rumble (Hornswoggle)

Hornswoggle

One strange Royal Rumble match came on Raw as part of a storyline between Vince McMahon and Hornswoggle. The angle that revealed Hornswoggle was Vince’s long-lost son featured McMahon putting him through the ringer.

McMahon booked a Mini Royal Rumble match consisting of six little people and The Great Khali. Hornswoggle overcame the odd to pull off the victory and ruin Vince’s plan of making him look like a fool. History shows Hornswoggle as a Rumble winner even if it wasn’t the main Rumble match.

7 Hartford Royal Rumble (Rick Rude)

Another house show to feature the Royal Rumble match came in Hartford. The attraction match in 1988 added excitement to a generally pointless live event with little importance to the overall product. Twenty men competed in the battle royal to see who would reign supreme.

Rick Rude won the match as a heel to upset the audience. There was no real prize on the line like with most other Rumble matches. Rude just enjoyed showboating and having the bragging rights of beating nineteen competitors in one match.

6 Tag Team Royal Rumble (Kane and Mankind)

The tag team division joined the history of Royal Rumble matches for WWE in June of 1998. Raw featured the battle royal of ten tag teams trying to survive to earn a future tag title shot. Every team on the roster was involved with a few singles wrestlers partnering up.

Kane and Mankind scored the victory by remaining until the end of the match. The unlikely duo received the Tag Team Championship title shot against the New Age Outlaws. Fans weren’t too surprised to see two of the biggest stars in the match winning out.

5 Corporation vs DX Royal Rumble (Chyna)

The storyline heading into the 1999 Royal Rumble match featured Vince McMahon trying to win the match to screw Steve Austin out of a title shot. McMahon’s Corporation faction faced off against D-Generation X in a smaller Rumble match on Raw.

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The prize would see the winner getting the 30th and final entry spot in the Rumble match. McMahon seemingly had the win until Chyna made her way to the ring to eliminate him. Chyna won the match to become the first woman allowed in the official Rumble match at the event.

4 MSG Royal Rumble (Owen Hart)

Madison Square Garden was WWE’s main home venue from the 70s to the 2000s. Many fun events would be booked to add extra perks for fans attending the non-televised shows. WWE booked a Royal Rumble match for MSG in 1994.

Thirty men competed in this battle royal with no real prize on the line. Owen Hart pulled out the victory by eliminating Fatu last. The win gave Owen more momentum heading into his singles feud with Bret Hart. Owen and Bret had their classic at MSG a few months later at WrestleMania 10.

3 2017 NXT Women's Halloween Royal Rumble (Shayna Baszler)

Another NXT Halloween Royal Rumble match allowed the women’s division to have fun with the costumes in 2017. The entire division had a great time showing off the comedic chops in this match. Shayna Baszler won the Rumble match with her costume of Darth Vader.

Other memorable costume choices included Ruby Riott as Where’s Waldo, Nikki Cross as No Way Jose and Dakota Kai as Scarecrow. The live reports claimed that the match was a tremendous time for everyone in the venue. Darth Shayna even used “the force” to hit a choke slam during the match.

2 9-man KFC Colonel Rumble (Ric Flair)

KFC’s sponsorship with WWE would see them have a dark match Royal Rumble to film an advertisement. The big reveal would see Ric Flair enter the match dressed as Col. Sanders, the character associated with the KFC franchise.

Flair last eliminated The Miz to win the battle royal for the commercial spot. This was one of the more shameless ideas from marketing to cross-promote WWE’s brand with a sponsor. KFC might have received a few extra sales from the diehard fans of Flair after seeing the spot.

1 Japan Royal Rumble (Undertaker)

WWE has always tried to create a couple of special attractions for the events to take place in Japan. One of the earliest WWE events in Japan featured a house show loop in May of 1994. The Rumble name value was huge at the time and created a nice spectacle for the event.

Fans were in awe when The Undertaker won the match as the biggest star of the night. Eighteen men competed in the match coming to the ring one by one. Bam Bam Bigelow made it to the end as the last man eliminated by Undertaker in Osaka.

NEXT: 10 Most Shocking Eliminations In Royal Rumble History