With the Rumble around the corner and my mind open for some trivia, I remember reading an article a year ago on Lordsofpain.net. It was about how wrestlers who get the 14th entrance usually have a bad future coming for them.
By the way, let me say that I don't believe in curses and stuff, but I found this very interesting.
Well, unfortunately the article has been taken off the net, but I was able to find a website which had a copy, so here is it:
Well, let's take a look who entered at 14 the Rumbles after that article was written.
2007 - Hardy, as stated above. He was released for still drugging, but is now the TNA World Champion. However, he still has to face the court and doesn't seem to be fully clean.
2008 - Umaga. Rest in peace.
2009 - Finlay. He did nothing of note afterwards, but admittedly, he was old.
2010 - MVP. Yeah.
That being said, take a close look at this years number 14.
By the way, let me say that I don't believe in curses and stuff, but I found this very interesting.
Well, unfortunately the article has been taken off the net, but I was able to find a website which had a copy, so here is it:
Reading the 2003 paragraph made me a bit sad.1988: This was the original 20-man Royal Rumble, way back in 1988. Even with the reduced number, there were still enough people to include the unlucky number 14. In ’88, it happened to be ‘The Outlaw’ Ron Bass. He debuted in 1971 and won various NWA titles before settling into the WWF. He left the company soon after this match and bounced around the independent circuit until he retired just 2 years later.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1989: At number 14 this year came Marty Jannetty. As this was right at the beginning of his WWF career, you may think he escaped the curse. He had success after this, capturing Tag Team and Intercontinental titles. But just a year after this match, Jannetty screwed up his end of the Rocker Dropper and broke another wrestler’s neck. This led to Jannetty, Michaels and the WWF being successfully sued for $26.7 million. Jannetty then left the company in 1992. He tried to come back in 1993 and again in 1995, but it was no use. And then he had to watch his old tag-team partner become one of the biggest stars of the business. Is there any greater curse than that?
VERDICT: Cursed!
1990: The rumble of Hulk Hogan. He managed to eliminate 5 people. He also managed to win it. But one man wasn’t quite as lucky as the Hulkster. In fact, he was eliminated by the Hulkster. It was number 14, Haku. In the previous year, he held the Tag Team titles along with Andre the Giant. But he never achieved high success in the WWF after this Rumble encounter. Just 18 months later, he left. He now paints cars in Florida.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1991: Enter the British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith. A full 4 years before his classic Rumble rendezvous with Shawn Michaels, he came out at number 14. To be fair, he later became an Intercontinental champion, a Tag Team champion, a 2-time Hardcore champion and a 2-time European champion. But although he had a glittering career in the ring, he wasn’t having the best of times outside the ring. He married into the Hart family. Then he divorced out of them. He was plagued by injuries, especially to his back near the end of his career. He had a few drug problems, even visiting a rehab clinic on one occasion. Then, on May 18th, 2002, he died at only 39 years old.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1992: In the classic WWF Title Rumble match, which Ric Flair went on to win, the number 14 entrant was a man named Hercules Hernandez. He had been in the WWF since 1985, even once getting a title shot at Hulk Hogan. But leading up to this match, he had been losing matches to everyone. He left the company soon after this match and went to WCW for a year. He then wrestled on the independent circuit until he retired in 1999. He died in his sleep 3 years ago, at just 46 years old.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1993: Yokozuna won this year. Could he really lose at his size? Maybe… but unlucky 14, as per usual, had no chance. This time round it was The Berzerker. He left soon after the match. He bounced around AJPW and WCW until he retired in 1997. He now works at a car dealership.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1994: Number 23 was Lex Luger. He won the Rumble this year. Number 27 was Bret Hart. He also won the Rumble this year. Number 14 was Doink the Clown. He wasn’t so lucky. While Luger and Hart were celebrating their co-operative win, the man who portrayed Doink at the time was celebrating the arrival of his walking papers. The actual Doink character (played by various other people) disappeared from our screens within a year.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1995: The year of the classic Bulldog/Michaels battle. We all know how it ends by now. We’ve seen the clips. Mr Bulldog throws Mr Michaels out of the ring and he wins! But wait… HBK amazingly flings himself back up into the ring without touching the floor, catches Bulldog unawares and throws him out of the ring! Shawn Michaels accomplishes the impossible by winning the Royal Rumble match from entering at number 1. While history is being made, the WWF pushes out a debutante into the match. Maybe he’s the new Hulk Hogan. Maybe he’s the new Ric Flair. Maybe he would’ve been, had he not come out at number 14. I speak of Eli Blu. He (along with his twin brother) lasted only 9 short months with the company. They came back again in 1996 and yet again in 1997, but they failed to do well each time. Eli Blu (real name Don Harris) now works as head of security for TNA. His brother works for a Christian music label.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1996: Now we come to another history-making night. Shawn Michaels becomes not only the first man to two Royal Rumble matches, but he wins them back-to-back as well. I can only surmise that they brought outside talent into the ring on this night, as I can find no record of this man in the WWF outside of this match. Doug Gilbert was number 14 on this night. I don’t think he ever wrestled in the WWF again.
VERDICT: Cursed!
1997: This year we come to Goldust. He picked number 14 on the night of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s first Rumble win. Goldust goes on to win 3 Intercontinental titles, has a nice run in WCW, before coming back to the WWE to win Tag Team gold with Booker T. Now his dad is best buddies with Mr. McMahon and his younger brother Cody is chugging along nicely in WWE. So Goldust may be an exception to this rule.
VERDICT: Has enough post-curse success to break it.
1998: Stone Cold Steve Austin becomes the second man consecutively to win two consecutive Royal Rumble matches. This next man could be classed as a curse-breaker although he did leave the WWF within 2 years. Number 14 in 1998 was the world’s most dangerous man, Ken Shamrock. He had limited success, but never really become a truly powerful force in the WWF. Then again, he’s done alright for himself out in the real world. I’m not sure how to call this one.
VERDICT: Unconvinced.
1999: The sneakiness of Vince McMahon can be seen in the result of this match. Stone Cold goes for the trio of Rumbles, starting from number 1 this time, but McMahon has other plans and eventually manages to eliminate Austin to scupper his hat-trick hopes. With Austin being the last man left, McMahon wins the 1999 Royal Rumble. He came in at number 2. Meanwhile, a man named Kurrgan came in at 14. I gather that this was a tall person, over 7ft tall. It’s a shame that McMahon didn’t have his love of big guys back then. Before the end of the year, not only was Kurrgan out of the WWF, but the WWF kept the copyright on the name Kurrgan so that he couldn’t use it elsewhere. He now wrestles in Canada and plays monsters in Frank Miller adaptations.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2000: Ah, yes. The greatest Rumble of them all. 2000 was the year that the Big Show won it. And no one will convince me otherwise. The Rock’s feet touched the floor first. He cheated. And maybe if our number 14 pick wanted to be more successful in politics, he shouldn’t have chosen the ill-fated number 14. Yes, Bob Backlund came back for one month only, mainly to get some voters on his side as he stood for election. Not only did he not win the Royal Rumble, but he lost his election, only getting 29% of the votes. Poor ol’ Bob.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2001: This time, there was no stopping him. If you saw his eyes when he sat in the turnbuckle opposite the Rock, bleeding profusely from the forehead, you’ll understand when I say that he was a man possessed. I had the picture as my desktop background for a month afterwards. Stone Cold Steve Austin came back triumphantly to take an unprecedented third Royal Rumble victory. But the number 14 still could not shake its evil curse. This year, it was the Goodfather’s turn. After the god-awful Right To Censor group was disbanded, the Goodfather had no gimmick left. I believe he tried to go back to the Godfather gimmick for a short while, but to no avail.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2002: The return of Triple H. But a different Triple H than we’d seen previously. Whereas the previous one would sell for people, lose matches, and wrestle well, this new Triple H was no-selling machine that didn’t lose cleanly to many people, winning everything in sight worth winning and he had even lost the use of one leg. While Triple H triumphed over the other 29 men, one of them would have to be number 14. Diamond Dallas Page was given the honour. He was so injured within one year of his number 14 Rumble entry that he had to retire from wrestling altogether. And now he faces the ultimate humiliation; Randy Orton has stolen his finishing move.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2003: And here we are. This was the most recent Rumble when I first wrote about the curse. For this, the 14th number 14, I shall simply paste word-for-word what I did back then.
“I’d like to say that we’ve finally come to a break-out superstar who has freed himself from the curse, but there hasn’t been enough time passed yet for us to say for certain. Before Brock Lesnar lifted Undertaker over the top rope to win his first Royal Rumble, Eddie Guerrero came in at number 14. I’m not saying that he will have a run of severe bad luck in the near future, but this evidence is pretty damning.”
VERDICT: Cursed.
2004: Chris Benoit became the second person to win from number 1 in an emotional win that sent him on to Wrestlemania to collect his first and only World Title. However, in at number 14 was the popular Rikishi. The day after, I was certain he’d be a curse-breaker. But after numerous calls for him to lose weight, he proved me wrong and proved that the curse was strong as ever. WWE released him in June 2004. They also owned the rights to the name “Rikishi”, so he couldn’t use it elsewhere.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2005: Orlando Jordan. Yeah.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2006: You know when a tag team comes along that’s so great, you just know that one of them is going to go on to bigger and better things? Edge and Christian are an example. I picked Christian to go all the way. The Hardy Boyz are another example. I picked Matt. Well, 2005 was a big year for our next entrant. I was a big fan and I picked him to do great things over his tag team partner. But then Joey Mercury entered at #14. Five months later he failed a WWE Wellness Policy drug test and was forced to serve a 30-day suspension. He was then kept off TV for 6 months while his partner, Johnny Nitro, went on to bigger and better things. He came back for a short while before being smashed in the nose with a ladder. He was finally dropped in March 2007.
VERDICT: Cursed!
2007: This is an odd one. In at #14 this year was Jeff “the Lemming” Hardy. At the moment, he seems to have truly broken the curse. He’s been slowly pushed throughout the year and will be in a World Title match next Sunday. Of course there’s still time though. And judging by past performances, Hardy is an unpredictable prospect in WWE. He was released in 2003 with “erratic behavior, drug use, refusal to go to rehab, deteriorating ring performance, as well as constant tardiness and no-showing events” cited as reasons. He spent a year off before heading to TNA for a few years. He no-showed a couple of their events too, eventually being suspended for it. Now he’s back in WWE and it seems as if he’s hit the big time. Only time will tell if he’s a true curse-breaker…
VERDICT: Yet to suffer effects.
Well, let's take a look who entered at 14 the Rumbles after that article was written.
2007 - Hardy, as stated above. He was released for still drugging, but is now the TNA World Champion. However, he still has to face the court and doesn't seem to be fully clean.
2008 - Umaga. Rest in peace.
2009 - Finlay. He did nothing of note afterwards, but admittedly, he was old.
2010 - MVP. Yeah.
That being said, take a close look at this years number 14.
