Royal Rumble 2021 and the "Age" myth: A Comparison of WWE Tenures

There has been a decent number of debate lately about the average age of the recent men's rumble match on account of it skewing to be the oldest in history, with the winner being the 2nd oldest in history right behind Vince McMahon. Now, the majority of fans are very happy with the win. 47 or no, Edge is still beloved, and can still put on a good match and have a good feud, so why should his age matter? Many feel insulted that people are putting down the Rumble competitors because of their age, and not judging them based on their talents.

The counter-argument then is that when most complain about "Old" stars, they aren't so much talking about the literal age of an individual, or rather, that shouldn't be the actual focus. Rather, the idea of "New Stars" and "Old Stars" is related to the time since they were established as a star, not the actual time since they were born. It's an argument of Staleness vs Freshness as opposed to Youth vs Age. And for that reason, looking at the age of the roster is missing the forest for the trees. Sure, a guy like Keith Lee is older than the current world champion, but in terms of time the TV Audience have known Keith Lee, he's a considerably newer face. As far as the tv audience is considered, Keith Lee might as well be in his 20s.

So ignoring the argument of Age, is the argument that the current roster is more stale and has hung about longer valid? Looking at the time since they were first established as a regular character on Main Roster WWE tv, does that number also skew upwards in this rumble compared to, for instance, Edge's first rumble win?

The short answer is yes, but let's do the math anyway.

For the purposes of this, I'm counting the date of someone's official debut, meaning I'm not counting Jeff Hardy or Edge's time as uncontracted enhancement talent, or Kane's time as Isaac Yankem, or Ziggler's time as Nicky in the Spirit Squad or Kerwin White's Caddy. I'm starting from the point we as an audience were introduced to these characters as we know them, and since they officially became a regular recurring character on tv, because that is what matters in the context of this conversation of fan perception. So, starting with the 2010 Rumble:

​

Entrant	Date of Official Debut	Days Since Debut
Dolph Ziggler	15/9/2008	503
Evan Bourne	3/6/2008	607
CM Punk	24/6/2006	1317
JTG	16/10/2006	1203
Great Khali	7/4/2006	1395
Beth Phoenix	8/5/2006	1364
Zack Ryder	11/6/2007	965
Triple H	30/4/1995	5390
Drew McIntyre	28/08/2009	156
Ted Dibiase	26/05/2008	615
John Morrison	1/3/2004	2162
Kane	5/10/1997	4501
Cody Rhodes	2/7/2007	944
MVP	4/8/2006	1276
Carlito	7/10/2004	1942
The Miz	21/4/2006	1381
Matt Hardy	27/9/1998	4144
Shawn Michaels	7/7/1988	7878
John Cena	27/6/2002	2775
Shelton Benjamin	26/12/2002	2593
Yoshi Tatsu	30/6/2009	215
Big Show	14/2/1999	4004
Mark Henry	11/3/1996	5074
Chris Masters	21/2/2005	1805
R-Truth	29/8/2008	520
Jack Swagger	9/9/2008	509
Kofi Kingston	22/1/2008	740
Chris Jericho	9/8/1999	3828
Edge	22/6/1998	4241
Batista	4/11/2002	2645

That comes to a combined number of 66,692 days since the cumulative debuts of these characters, or simplified to 182.7 years. This leads to an average of 2,223 days, or 6.09 years for the competitors.

Now for the 2021 Rumble:

​

Entrant	Date of Official Debut	Days Since Debut
Edge	22/6/1998	8259
Randy Orton	25/4/2002	6856
Sami Zayn	4/5/2015	2099
Mustafa Ali	23/1/2017	1469
Jeff Hardy	27/9/1998	8162
Dolph Ziggler	15/9/2008	4521
Shinsuke Nakamura	4/4/2017	1398
Carlito	7/10/2004	5960
Xavier Woods	18/11/2013	2631
Big E	17/12/2012	2967
John Morrison	1/3/2004	6180
Ricochet	18/2/2019	713
Elias	10/4/2017	1392
Damian Priest	31/1/2021	0
The Miz	21/4/2006	5399
Riddle	29/6/2020	216
Daniel Bryan	15/8/2010	3822
Kane	5/10/1997	8519
King Corbin	3/4/2016	1764
Otis	14/1/2019	748
Dominik Mysterio	3/8/2020	181
Bobby Lashley	23/9/2005	5609
Hurricane Helms	5/7/2001	7150
Christian	27/9/1998	8162
AJ Styles	24/1/2016	1834
Rey Mysterio	25/7/2002	6765
Sheamus	30/6/2009	4233
Cesaro	20/4/2012	3208
Seth Rollins	18/11/2012	2996
Braun Strowman	24/8/2015	1987

That comes to a combined number of 115,200 days since the cumulative debuts of these characters, or simplified to 315 years. This leads s to an average of 3,840 days, or 10.5 years for the competitors.

So it's pretty clear that the current prominent guys hit the scene a much further ago than the average competitor of yesteryear. I would argue that this statistical stagnation is more the cause of some viewer fatigue, rather than the much more superficial "Edge is in his 40s" that is more hotly debated online.

Another bonus point of trivia to leave you out on:

7 men from the 2010 Rumble also appeared in this years. In comparison, 4 men from the 1999 Rumble competed in the 2010 Rumble. 2 of those men (Kane and Edge) have competed in all three.

Addendum: I strongly debated with myself on two points of debut; whether to count R-Truth's time as K-Kwik, since while it is a different gimmick name and not very prominent a run, it was still recurring enough to be notable, and the gimmick similar enough to what R-Truth started as, and whether to count Dominik Mysterio's time as an recurring on-screen character where he was only a cornerman for his father and not a wrestler himself. I decided against both in each case, going from Killing's debut as Truth and Dominik throwing his hat in the ring as an official wrestler. If you think I was wrong in both cases, then count R-Truth as 3366 days, and Dominik as 684 days.