5. Brock Lesnar – 2003
Brock Lesnar
WrestleMania XIX was headlined by a terrific match between Kurt Angle and Brock Lesnar, a match which could be the greatest technical WrestleMania Main-Event of all time. Lesnar won the match and won the title, but what he shouldn’t have won was the Royal Rumble match months earlier.
Watching from Survivor Series 2002 until the 2003 Royal Rumble, Brock Lesnar had been screwed out of the WWE Championship by his former-manager Paul Heyman, and Kurt Angle had picked up the WWE Championship and was being represented by, (you guessed it) Paul Heyman. Brock was already in the thick of the storyline and was going to get his title shot eventually and it would have been against Kurt Angle. Everything was set into place before WrestleMania. Brock then won the Royal Rumble, ensuring an inevitable title match. This is something he didn’t need to do as Brock didn’t need another accolade to his list of accomplishments.
ALTERNATIVE WINNER: Booker T
Booker T was the #1 contender for the World Heavyweight Championship heading into WrestleMania XIX and would have been an easy choice as an alternative Royal Rumble match winner. This is something the crowd would’ve loved, to see a legitimate fan-favourite overcome the odds to fulfil his dream of headlining WrestleMania. They ended up doing this anyway, but having him win the actual Royal Rumble match instead of Brock Lesnar would have been a much better story in the long run.
