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While every year, WWE seems to instruct its announcers and talent to refer to the coming one as “the most star-studded Royal Rumble match EVER!” this year, that could actually be the case. Some major names announced thus far include Brock Lesnar, Goldberg, and The Undertaker. Part-timers, yes, but it makes the Rumble match appear to be something of which everyone wants to have a piece.

But the Rumbles haven’t always been bursting at the seams with major names. The 2012 Royal Rumble, for example, may rival 1995 for the weakest in that regard. This one fell near the bottom of my rankings. Included in the match were all three announcers calling the match (Booker T, Michael Cole, and Jerry Lawler), Kharma, Jim Duggan, and Road Dogg.

Other “Superstars” featured were Ricardo Rodriguez, Hunico, Santino Marella, Mick Foley, and Jinder Mahal. That’s more than one-third of the Rumble with those names listed. It was also a Rumble high in the comedy factor, which is fine in small doses, but should not be something the match comes back to time after time. After all, it’s a battle for a shot at the WWE/World Title and (theoretically), the main event at WrestleMania.

Speaking of which, in the last ten years, how many Rumble winners have actually gone on to main event that year’s WrestleMania? That is, wrestle in the last match on the show? According to my calculations, four of nine earned the main event at Mania, with Triple H having won the title itself in the 2016 match. Hunter, though, did defend the title in the last match against Roman Reigns, so we can consider this five of 10, or 50 percent.

Even more interesting, four of those five have occurred in the last four years, which means from 2007-2012, only once was the Royal Rumble winner challenging for a major title in the final match at WrestleMania. Also in the last ten years: Twice did the winner of the Rumble match challenge for the title in the opening WrestleMania encounter (Alberto Del Rio vs. Edge in 2011, Sheamus vs. Daniel Bryan in 2012).

But back to the Rumble re-watches. What was interesting to see is the progression of wrestlers through the years. Take Miz for example. He participated in the 2007 Rumble, still in the character of Real World-era Mike Mizanin role-playing a pro wrestler. He next progressed into semi-serious tag team partner of John Morrison as part of that successful duo.

Miz continued to climb, leading around Alex Riley and ending up in the main event of WrestleMania. Now, already entered in the 2017 Rumble, Miz is doing some of the best work of his career, inside and out of the ring, alongside his wife, Maryse. His rise up the ranks hasn’t been steady, with some pitfalls along the way, but he has recovered nicely and is a valuable member of the Smackdown Live brand.

Curiously, Miz has entered number one twice in the past ten years: In 2012, and again in 2015. Even more curious, number two each time was an ex-tag team partner of his: Riley in 2012, and R-Truth in 2015. Sometimes, in watching these Rumbles again, I’ll gain a different perspective, allowing me to change a long-standing belief about the quality of a particular match.

That was the case with the famed attempt at a 40-man Royal Rumble in 2011. I recall not liking that match, thinking 40 men made it too big and too bloated. However, while it was bloated, I found it spaced-out pretty well, and ranked it number five of the past ten Rumble matches.

I really enjoyed Santino Marella almost stealing a win at the end, as that was a finish WWE hadn’t really done before, teasing an underdog the level of Marella getting a WrestleMania main event. The other thing I noticed about this match was how WWE teased a Randy Orton-John Cena stare-down TWICE during the match and, yet both times, there was absolutely no crowd heat for it.

The mid-ring Rumble stare-down, whether between former feuding wrestlers or future feuding wrestlers, is usually guaranteed to garner some level of heat. It was like the first time failed, so they ended up going back to it later in the match… and still nothing. By then, I’m sure the fans had all they could stand of Cena vs. Orton matches. Or even match teases.

Ranking as my favorite Rumble match of the past ten years was 2010. I didn’t rate it highly upon initial viewing, and I’m still not without my reservations, but I really enjoyed it. This was the year of C.M. Punk’s sermon at the beginning of the match, full-on in his Straight Edge Savior gimmick.

It also featured a continuation of the Miz-MVP feud. Shawn Michaels went crazy following his elimination from the match, leading to him putting his career on the line against The Undertaker’s Streak at WrestleMania. And we know how that turned out for the Heartbreak Kid.

The 2010 Rumble was known for Edge’s surprise return from injury, in which he won the match and went on to face Chris Jericho at WrestleMania. Edge’s return was tempered a bit by John Cena having done the same thing in the 2008 Rumble match, complete with win, but in the moment, it was certainly a big surprise that popped the audience.

Unlike other Rumble matches, the entrants in this one were of a high quality. Some years, there were a lot of “do you recall?” names involved. In 2007, with the ECW brand still somewhat resembling the original letters, Sabu and Sandman were involved, as were the likes of Super Crazy and Kevin Thorn.

The 2011 Rumble match featured Tyler Reks and Mason Ryan, among others. The cameos and surprises really kicked into gear in 2008 with Jimmy Snuka and Roddy Piper at Madison Square Garden. It was followed with Rob Van Dam and Jim Duggan in 2009, Booker T and Diesel in 2011, Kharma and Road Dogg in 2012, Goldust and The Godfather in 2013, Kevin Nash and JBL in 2014, Bubba Ray Dudley, The Boogeyman, and DDP in 2015, and A.J. Styles in 2016.

While I felt the 2010 Rumble was the apex of the last ten years, one Rumble match had to come in last. And it was the 2015 version. This was the “Roman Reigns is Going to Win and You’re Going to Like It” Rumble, showing WWE didn’t learn its lesson from booking Batista to win and having him booed out of the building one year earlier.

It wasn’t just WWE completely misreading the room in booking Daniel Bryan to exit the match early (as opposed to the year before, where he plain wasn’t in the match). It was thinking a Reigns win would go over well with the Philadelphia crowd, of all places.

It was WWE at its tone-deaf peak. The final four wasn’t even inspiring, with Kane, Big Show, and Rusev there to offer resistance to The Big Dog. It was obvious at once who was walking out of the match the winner. The booking throughout the match was suspect, and no one came out of the match more over than when they went in. Hard to believe when you have 30 guys to work with.

WWE made up for it somewhat with the surprise of Seth Rollins running in during the Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar title match at WrestleMania, cashing in his Money in the Bank briefcase to make the match a Triple Threat, then walking out a winner.

What’s interesting is there doesn’t seem to be a pattern of high-quality matches or low-quality from year-to-year. I rated 2014 and 2015 pretty far down my list, but 2013 came in at number two, and 2016 at number four. The 2010 version of the match, as stated before, was number one; 2011 was number five and 2012 was number nine of ten.

In other words, we have no idea what to look forward to with this year’s Rumble match, as past quality doesn’t predict future success. Perhaps that’s part of what makes the Rumble match itself unique and so anticipated each year: We can only imagine what 2017’s version with bring.