Royal Rumble Explained

Royal Rumble
Created By:	Pat Patterson
Promotion:	WWE
Brands:	Raw (2003–2011, 2017–present) SmackDown (2003–2011, 2017–present) ECW (2007–2010) 205 Live (2019)
First Event:	1988
Signature Match:	Royal Rumble match

Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. After the inaugural 1988 event aired as a television special on the USA Network, the Royal Rumble has been broadcast via pay-per-view since the 1989 event and livestreaming since the 2015 event. From 1988 until 2024, it was held in late January, but will be held in early February in 2025. It is one of WWE's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five".

The Royal Rumble match is generally held as the main event of the annual event. There are some exceptions, such as the 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, and 2023 events. In 1988, the main event was a tag team match, while for all the others, it was a men's world championship match. While originally only for men, a women's version of the Royal Rumble match was held as the main event at the 2018 event, which was also the first event to have two Rumble matches on one card. It subsequently became standard to have both a men's and women's Royal Rumble match at the annual event.

History

Event

The Royal Rumble match was created by wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson and the event was established by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). After the match was first tested at a house show in October 1987,^[1] the first Royal Rumble event took place on January 24, 1988, and was broadcast live as a television special on the USA Network.^[2] The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV),^[3] and thus became one of the "Big Four" annual PPVs, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam, the promotion's then-four biggest shows of the year.^{[4] [5]} From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring, but that PPV event was discontinued after 2002 (although it to returned to PPV in 2024).^[6] In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five".^{[7] [8]}

In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism.^[9] In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism.^[10] Also in March 2002, the promotion introduced the brand extension, in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform on their respective weekly television shows^[11] —ECW became a third brand in 2006.^[12] The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011,^[13] but it was reintroduced in July 2016 (other brands, including NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live, would also be active during this second brand split).^[14] The Royal Rumble, along with the other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. The 2008 Royal Rumble was the first WWE pay-per-view to be available in high-definition.^[15] In 2015, the Royal Rumble began to air on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014,^[16] and in 2022, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021.^[17]

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in March 2020, WWE had to hold its events behind closed doors. The 2021 event was in turn held in WWE's bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which at the time was hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.^{[18] [19]} WWE resumed live touring in July 2021 and the 2022 event was held at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri.^[20]

From its inception in 1988 up through the 2024 event, the Royal Rumble was held annually in late January. On June 24, 2024, WWE announced a partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp which would see the 2025 Royal Rumble, as well as a future WrestleMania and a future SummerSlam, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana. The date for the 2025 Royal Rumble was announced for February 1, thus marking the first Royal Rumble held outside of January.^[21]

Due to the Rumble matches taking up a large amount of time (most Rumble matches last roughly one hour), the Rumble event tends to have a smaller card than most other pay-per-view events, which routinely have six to eight matches per card though with the Royal Rumble expanding to a five-hour show as well as a two-hour kickoff pre-show starting in 2018, the card then mainly featured anywhere from nine to twelve matches with two or three of those matches taking place on the kickoff show. In 2022, however, WWE phased out the pre-shows with the Rumble returning to around six matches on the card and a runtime of around three to four hours. The men's Royal Rumble match is usually located at the top of the card, though there have been exceptions, such as the 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, 2018, and 2023 events.^[22] In these cases, 1988's main event was a tag team match, while the others were men's world championship matches, except in 2018. The 2018 Royal Rumble was the first to include a women's Royal Rumble match, which was the main event for that year. It was subsequently the first in which two Rumble matches were contested on one card and it is now standard for the event to include both a men's and women's Rumble match.^[23]

Match

See main article: Royal Rumble match. The Royal Rumble match is based on the classic battle royal, in which a number of wrestlers (traditionally 30) aim at eliminating their competitors by tossing them over the top rope, with both feet touching the floor. The difference between a Royal Rumble and a standard battle royal is that in a standard battle royal, all participants start the match in the ring at the same time, where in a Royal Rumble match, two participants start and then the rest enter at timed intervals.^{[24] [25]} The winner of the match is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated. Since the 1993 event, the prize for winning is a world championship match at WrestleMania, with the exception of the 2016 event, where the prize was the WWE Championship (at the time known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship) as reigning champion Roman Reigns defended the title in the match.^{[24] [26]} According to Hornswoggle, who worked for WWE from 2006 until 2016 and participated in two Rumbles, participants may learn their eliminations by knowing the two wrestlers who are eliminated before them and which wrestlers are entering the Royal Rumble before and after their elimination.^[27]

Events and winners

	Event	Date	City	Venue	Winner				Ref.
					Men	No.	Women	No.
1	1988	January 24, 1988	Hamilton, Ontario, Canada	Copps Coliseum			^[28] ^[29]
2	1989	January 15, 1989	Houston, Texas	The Summit					^[30] ^[31]
3	1990	January 21, 1990	Orlando, Florida	Orlando Arena					^[32] ^[33]
4	1991	January 19, 1991	Miami, Florida	Miami Arena					^[34] ^[35]
5	1992	January 19, 1992	Albany, New York	Knickerbocker Arena					^[36] ^[37]
6	1993	January 24, 1993	Sacramento, California	ARCO Arena	Yokozuna				^[38] ^[39]
7	1994	January 22, 1994	Providence, Rhode Island	Providence Civic Center					^[40] ^[41]
8	1995	January 22, 1995	Tampa, Florida	USF Sun Dome					^[42] ^[43]
9	1996	January 21, 1996	Fresno, California	Selland Arena					^[44] ^[45]
10	1997	January 19, 1997	San Antonio, Texas	Alamodome	Stone Cold Steve Austin				^[46] ^[47]
11	1998	January 18, 1998	San Jose, California	San Jose Arena	Stone Cold Steve Austin				^[48] ^[49] ^[50]
12	1999	January 24, 1999	Anaheim, California	Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim					^[51] ^[52] ^[53]
13	2000	January 23, 2000	New York City, New York	Madison Square Garden					^[54] ^[55] ^[56]
14	2001	January 21, 2001	New Orleans, Louisiana	New Orleans Arena	Stone Cold Steve Austin				^[57] ^[58] ^[59]
15	2002	January 20, 2002	Atlanta, Georgia	Philips Arena	Triple H				^[60] ^[61] ^[62]
16	2003	January 19, 2003	Boston, Massachusetts	FleetCenter					^[63] ^[64]
17	2004	January 25, 2004	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wachovia Center					^[65] ^[66] ^[67]
18	2005	January 30, 2005	Fresno, California	Save Mart Center	Batista				^[68] ^[69] ^[70]
19	2006	January 29, 2006	Miami, Florida	American Airlines Arena					^[71] ^[72] ^[73]
20	2007	January 28, 2007	San Antonio, Texas	AT&T Center					^[74] ^[75] ^[76]
21	2008	January 27, 2008	New York City, New York	Madison Square Garden					^[77] ^[78] ^[79]
22	2009	January 25, 2009	Detroit, Michigan	Joe Louis Arena					^[80] ^[81]
23	2010	January 31, 2010	Atlanta, Georgia	Philips Arena	Edge				^[82] ^[83]
24	2011	January 30, 2011	Boston, Massachusetts	TD Garden					^[84]
25	2012	January 29, 2012	St. Louis, Missouri	Scottrade Center	Sheamus				^[85] ^[86] ^[87]
26	2013	January 27, 2013	Phoenix, Arizona	US Airways Center					^[88] ^[89]
27	2014	January 26, 2014	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	Consol Energy Center	Batista				^[90] ^[91]
28	2015	January 25, 2015	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wells Fargo Center					^[92]
29	2016	January 24, 2016	Orlando, Florida	Amway Center	Triple H				^[93] ^[94]
30	2017	January 29, 2017	San Antonio, Texas	Alamodome					^[95]
31	2018	January 28, 2018	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	Wells Fargo Center			Asuka		^[96] ^[97] ^[98]
32	2019	January 27, 2019	Phoenix, Arizona	Chase Field					^[99]
33	2020	January 26, 2020	Houston, Texas	Minute Maid Park					^[100]
34	2021	January 31, 2021	St. Petersburg, Florida	WWE ThunderDome at Tropicana Field	Edge		Bianca Belair		^[101]
35	2022	January 29, 2022	St. Louis, Missouri	The Dome at America's Center					^[102]
36	2023	January 28, 2023	San Antonio, Texas	Alamodome
37	2024	January 27, 2024	St. Petersburg, Florida	Tropicana Field			Bayley		^[103]
38	2025	February 1, 2025	Indianapolis, Indiana	Lucas Oil Stadium					^[104]

Video box set

In March 2007, WWE released a complete DVD box set titled Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology, which showcases every Royal Rumble event in its entirety, up to the 2007 Royal Rumble.^[105]

References

General

• Web site: Longest Pro Wrestling Matches. Internet Wrestling Database. December 1, 2013.
• Web site: Royal Rumble Statistics. MondayNightWarriors.com. December 5, 2009. March 7, 2012. https://web.archive.org/web/20120307063529/http://www.mondaynightwarriors.com/other-royalrumblestats.php. dead.
• Web site: Royal Rumble results. ProWrestlingHistory.com. December 5, 2007.
• Web site: Royal Rumble History. Eric Cohen. About.com. December 9, 2007. December 8, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081208114111/http://prowrestling.about.com/od/ringresults/a/royalrumble_2.htm. dead.
• Book: Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition. 1-4116-1210-8. Lulu.com. 2006.
• Book: Ric Flair. Ric Flair: To Be the Man. Simon and Schuster. 2004. 0-7434-5691-2.
• Book: Brian Shields. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. Simon and Schuster. 2006. 1-4165-3257-9.

Specific

Further reading

• Book: Harley Race and Gerry Tritz. King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story. Sports Publishing. 2004. 1-58261-818-6.
• Book: Davies, Ross. Kevin Nash. The Rosen Publishing Group. 2002. 0-8239-3492-6.
• Book: Meltzer, Dave. Tributes II: Remembering More of the World's Greatest Professional Wrestlers. Sports Publishing LLC. 2004. 1-58261-817-8.
• Book: Brian Fritz and Christopher Murray. Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures. ECW Press. 2006. 1-55022-726-2.
• Book: Steve Austin and Jim Ross. The Stone Cold Truth. Simon and Schuster. 2003. 0-7434-7720-0.
• Book: Scott Keith. Wrestling's One Ring Circus: The Death of the World Wrestling Federation. Citadel Press. 2004. 0-8065-2619-X.

External links

• • WWE.com: Royal Rumble match description
• WWE.com: Royal Rumble Facts & Figures
• Royal Rumble History at About.com
• WWE Royal Rumble

Notes and References

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