The royal rumble has always been my favorite WWE Pay Per View event.  Some were disappointments and some were awesome.  Here are my rankings of the past 21 Royal Rumble matches from worst to best:

1999 - Worst.  Hardly a royal rumble match; it was just spot after spot of storyline things (Kane and the straight-jacket men, Austin going to hospital and returning, Vince ending up winning)... not many points where possible winners were battling besides Austin/McMahon.

2001 - Poorly faught as a rumble.  Drew Carey was stupid.  Again, just a lot of random spots with no good rumble drama.

2005 - Crappy participants for the most part.  Granted, the winner wasn't very predictable, but also wasn't very cared about overall, at least to me.

2006 - Some parts were well faught and performed by the superstars, but it totally ruined it for me that Rey went from number 2 to win it when Benoit just did it at number 1, 2 years before.  It made the luck of the draw not cool anymore.  Nothing against Rey, but at the time the underdog thing was predictable and unrealistic, and just annoying.  Also, bad unclimactic ending.

2003 - Jericho did an amazing job, but it wasn't enough to save the whole thing.  Lesnar winning; kinda unclimactic.  Besides Jericho, overall entertainment wasn't that great for a rumble match.

1998 - Fun to watch sometimes, but watching it live was boring.  Austin was the guaranteed winner.  The whole rumble was based on his storyline and everyone else was just in it to make the match a rumble.  He was entertaining though.

1996 - Great entertainment by Shawn Michaels, and I loved seeing him win it twice in a row, but he and Diesel were the only 2 guys in it who could've won, and the drama energy just wasn't there.  There were a lot of annoying no-names.  Vader was cool, but it was soon known that his impact wasn't that big.  Owen Hart also did a good job.

1988 - The only 20-man Rumble was very well performed, for what a Royal Rumble match should look like.  First rumble; well done.

1997 - Pretty decently performed, however it had a lot of unentertaining portions and entrants that not many people even knew.  That was a mistake, however Austin's performance was awesome, and a very clever ending (being eliminated and sneaking back in).

2004 - Greatly performed Rumble, especially by Benoit and Randy Orton.  Not too much drama, but the surprise Mick Foley entrant was pretty good.  Ending could've been better.

1993 - A really fun Rumble that had a lot of good Rumble battling, as well as surprises, an unpredictable ending, and even some great single performances by Ric Flair and Mr. Perfect.  Some entrants were a little cheesy, but it was good for the time.

2000 - Again, well faught action-packed Rumble that even made time for a Too Cool/Rikishi dance session.  Only thing keeping it down was that only 2 guys (Big Show and The Rock) could've possibly won, and everyone knew it was gonna be The Rock.

2002 - Performed very well overall, even though most people predicted Triple H to win based on him returning from a huge injury.  But what made this Rumble jump ahead of other average Rumbles was the return of Mr. Perfect, who lasted to the final 3 and looked awesome.

1995 - Only 60 seconds between entrants coming out, not to mention about 25 of the participants were guys no one even knew yet... this rumble had an awesome showing from Shawn Michaels and the British Bulldog and had one of the most clever endings for that era of WWE history.  Both 2 guys who started it were the last 2, and only 1 of Michaels' feet hit the floor.  Poor rumble, but the overall moment makes up for it.

1989 - The first 30-man rumble was another well-performed match.  A lot of good contenders, unpredictable winner, some twists and turns, etc.  Nothing too special, but very well done and classic.

1994 - Fun to watch.  Bret Hart and Diesel were the only 2 that could've won, but yet another clever ending of going over the top rope at the same time.  Also, Diesel showed something new to a Rumble match by eliminating so many people, one-by-one.  Michaels - of course, entertaining yet again...also had a fun Marty Jannetty encounter.

2008 - Classic start with HBK and Undertaker, very well-performered throughout.  Roddy Piper and Jimmy Snuka as surprise entrants back in the Garden was great.  And of course, the big John Cena return... have to admit it was a big fun moment, even though the number 30 return thing is kinda cheesy.  Also, a lot of great participants made it unpredictible.

1990 - Great participants, Hogan/Warrior encounter, awesome Ted DiBiase performance, plus Koko B. Ware drew number 1, so you got to hear his great entrance music.

2007 - This was a good one because of the number of main-event status names involved, and well-performed throughout.  But what made it amazing was the HBK/Undertaker ending, having not fought eachother in almost 10 years, and both being WWE legends for nearly 20.

1992 - Classicly performed amazingly; that's all there is to it.  Ric Flair awesome lengthy victory (Bobby Heenan's commentary is what made it that much memorable and awesome to watch).

1991 - Just.  Plain.  Great.  Hulk Hogan winning in a time of war.  I can't help the childhood memory.  Overall, it was just entertaining, had ups and downs, most of the best WWE superstars were in it.  Just good fun times.

As you can see, Rumbles started off pretty good and entertaining, really gained awesomeness in the early 90's with the superstars really knowing how to perform a rumble well.  Then a bit of cheesyness came into wrestling and the rumbles got kinda dumb in the mid 90s, then a little bit more entertaining in the late 90's with Attitude.  Then, the early-mid 2000's were very crappy, and finally these days, rumbles have everything they need to be great - A lot of big name participants with unpredictable winners, usually a dramatic/clever ending, a few entrants reserved for surprises, and no spots wasted on pretending a favorite superstar might not show because of an earlier injury.  Rumbles are great because of the performance by the superstars, not because of a storyline or gimmick that goes along with it.  3....2....1.... let's hope 2009 is killer!