The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced every January since 1988 by professional wrestling promotion WWE. It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a battle royal whose participants enter at timed intervals.
After the initial event was broadcast as a television special on USA Network, the Royal Rumble has been shown on pay-per-view and is one of WWE's "Big Four", along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series.
Video Royal Rumble
History
Event
The Royal Rumble is a pay-per-view consisting of the Royal Rumble match, title matches, and various other matches. The first Royal Rumble event took place on January 24, 1988, and was broadcast live on the USA Network. The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view and thus became one of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam.
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, and 2018 events. Due to the Rumble match 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. The 2008 Royal Rumble was the first WWE pay-per-view to be available in high-definition. The 2018 Royal Rumble was the first to feature a women's Royal Rumble match, which was the main event for that year.
Match
The Royal Rumble is based on the classic Battle Royal match, 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 winner of the event is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated. 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 in between their elimination.
The Royal Rumble differs from the classical Battle Royal as the contestants do not enter the ring at the same time, but instead are assigned entry numbers, usually via a lottery, although desirable spots are occasionally assigned by other means, the most common being winning a match. This lottery is usually staged right before the event begins. The match begins with the two wrestlers who have drawn entry numbers one and two, with the remaining wrestlers entering the ring at regular timed intervals, either 90 seconds or two minutes, according to their entry number. This format is credited to Pat Patterson. To date, only four men who have been one of the starting wrestlers have won the Royal Rumble: Shawn Michaels, Vince McMahon, Chris Benoit, and Rey Mysterio. The most common number to win is number 27.
The Royal Rumble match traditionally involves 30 wrestlers and usually lasts an hour, with the longest match, at the 2011 event, lasting over one hour and nine minutes of a three-hour pay-per-view. However, the first televised Rumble match, contested in 1988, involved only 20 men, and lasted 33 minutes of the two-hour broadcast. The 1998 Royal Rumble nominally had the traditional 30-man field, but only 28 individual wrestlers competed; Mick Foley entered the Royal Rumble match three different times--first as Cactus Jack, then as Mankind, and finally as Dude Love. The 2011 Royal Rumble was the first and only to have a 40-man field, out of whom Alberto Del Rio was victorious. The 2018 Royal Rumble was the first to feature a women's Royal Rumble match, with Stephanie McMahon making the official announcement on the December 18, 2017 edition of Raw. The women's Royal Rumble match has all of the same rules as the men's match, including having 30 participants.
The match has no stipulations or rules other than that elimination must occur by a participant being placed over the top rope and both feet touching the floor. A wrestler who only touches the floor with one foot is not eliminated from the match, a rule which greatly affected the 1995 match, allowing Shawn Michaels to re-enter the ring and win the match. This has been popularized by Kofi Kingston, who although has not won a match, he has found various ways to keep both of his feet from touching the floor. Subsequently, a wrestler who exits the ring without going over the top rope is not eliminated from the contest. For example, during the 1999 match, both Vince McMahon and Steve Austin left the ring, only to return later in the match. In the 1994 match, the last two participants, Bret Hart and Lex Luger, were declared co-winners when it was decided that both of their feet touched the floor at exactly the same time. A similar situation occurred in the 2005 match. However, the match was instead restarted after Batista and John Cena eliminated each other at the same time (as their simultaneous elimination was actually an accident); Batista eliminated Cena afterwards to win the match. Though various referees are charged with observing the match, some eliminations have gone unnoticed to allow the eliminated participants to sneak back into the ring to continue. Steve Austin was able to win in this way during the 1997 match after re-entering following an unacknowledged elimination and eventually tossed Bret Hart, who was the last legal wrestler in the ring, over the top.
Although the vast majority of eliminations are caused by active participants, eliminations caused by other means have occurred, and have been ruled legitimate, including self-eliminations (such as Andre the Giant jumping out of the ring after seeing a snake in 1989, Kane eliminating himself in 1999, and Drew Carey eliminating himself in 2001; however, Randy Savage's jump over the top rope in 1992 was not ruled as self-elimination), elimination from previously-eliminated participants (such as The Undertaker eliminating Maven in 2002, Kurt Angle eliminating Shawn Michaels in 2005, Kane eliminating CM Punk in 2014, and The Wyatt Family eliminating Brock Lesnar in 2016), and elimination from non-participants (such as Shane McMahon eliminating Shawn Michaels in 2006 and The Miz eliminating John Cena in 2011). Furthermore, if an injured wrestler is taken away by medical staff, he can return to the match as long as the match is still ongoing (such as Steve Austin in 1999 or Roman Reigns in 2016), but if the match ends without the injured wrestler returning, he is deemed eliminated (such as Scotty 2 Hotty in 2005 or Curtis Axel in 2015).
Prize
Since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble match is traditionally awarded a title match for WWE's top championship at WrestleMania - presently, there are two top championships, the Universal Championship on Raw and the WWE Championship on SmackDown. Similarly, the winner of the women's Royal Rumble match (first contested in 2018) is awarded a match at WrestleMania for either of WWE's top two women's championships, the Raw Women's Championship or the SmackDown Women's Championship.
With the brand extension introduced in mid-2002, the 30 male entrants from 2003 to 2006 consisted of 15 wrestlers from both the Raw and SmackDown brands. At first, the winner of the match received a shot at their brand's top champion. Starting in 2004, the Rumble winner had the option of challenging any brand's champion. For instance, Chris Benoit switched brands after winning the 2004 Royal Rumble and won the World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XX. From 2007 to 2010, participants from the ECW brand competed along with the Raw and SmackDown brands, with the ECW World Championship added as an option for the winner to challenge for, although no winners ever did. During ECW's participation, the entries for each brand were not evenly divided. The ECW Championship was deactivated in 2010, and the World Heavyweight Championship was unified into the WWE Championship in 2013, leaving the latter as the only title to challenge for until July 2016, when the brand extension returned. With the new brand extension, the winner of the 2017 event earned a match for their brand's top championship, Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's WWE Championship, but beginning in 2018, the winner has a choice. Conversely, beginning with the 2018 event, women receive a title opportunity of their choice for a women's championship: the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship. Due to free agents, Hall of Famers, and wrestlers from the NXT brand also participating, there has not been an even division of wrestlers (in either the men's or women's Rumbles) between Raw and SmackDown since the second brand extension went into effect.
WWE's top championship has been booked as on the line during the Royal Rumble match on two occasions. In 1992, the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship was contested in the 1992 Royal Rumble match, eventually won by Ric Flair, while in 2016, Roman Reigns was scheduled to defend his WWE World Heavyweight Championship as a participant of that year's Royal Rumble match and was entrant number one. This marked the first time that a reigning champion had to defend his title in the match, which was ultimately won by Triple H, who eliminated Reigns before lastly eliminating Dean Ambrose to win. Reigns would go on to earn a match against Triple H at WrestleMania 32 and won back the title.
From 2001 to 2007, the Royal Rumble match winner had gone on to win a world championship title at WrestleMania. After winning the 2008 match, John Cena became the first winner to use his championship opportunity at an event (No Way Out 2008) other than WrestleMania. He also became the first since The Rock in 2000 to win the Royal Rumble match but fail to win the title in his championship opportunity.
The Royal Rumble winner may also choose to put his championship opportunity on the line in a match. This was first done in 1996, when Shawn Michaels risked his WrestleMania XII title shot in a match against Owen Hart at In Your House 6. The second time was in 1999, when Stone Cold Steve Austin offered to forfeit his title opportunity to the Big Boss Man, who won third place in the Rumble (Austin was actually the runner-up in that rumble, but the winner, Vince McMahon himself, had voluntarily given up his title opportunity) if McMahon could beat him in a cage match at St. Valentine's Day Massacre: In Your House, which Austin would go on to win. The third time was in 2002, when Kurt Angle convinced Triple H to put his WrestleMania X8 championship spot on the line at No Way Out, a match which Angle won. However, Triple H would later defeat Angle and regain his WrestleMania championship spot. The fourth time was in 2006, when Randy Orton goaded Rey Mysterio into putting his main event spot at WrestleMania 22 on the line at No Way Out, a match which Orton won. Mysterio was eventually reinserted into the main event at WrestleMania, making it a triple threat match, and went on to win the World Heavyweight Championship. On the February 25, 2013, edition of Raw, John Cena successfully defended his WrestleMania 29 WWE Championship opportunity in a match against CM Punk. On February 22, 2015, at Fastlane, Roman Reigns defended his WrestleMania 31 WWE World Heavyweight Championship opportunity against Daniel Bryan.
In 2000, The Rock was declared the victor, as the storyline intended. However, it was later revealed that his feet had actually touched before those of the Big Show. A singles match was held at No Way Out, the event following the Royal Rumble, to determine who received the WrestleMania title shot against the reigning champion Triple H. Big Show won with the help of Shane McMahon. Rock then defeated Big Show in a rematch in March on Raw with the help of Vince McMahon, which earned him a title shot and converted the match at WrestleMania into a triple threat that was later made a four-way match when Linda McMahon inserted the recently retired Mick Foley into the match.
Non-PPV Royal Rumble matches
WWE has booked several Royal Rumble matches outside of the annual Royal Rumble event:
- The very first Royal Rumble match took place at a house show in St. Louis, Missouri on October 4, 1987 where the One Man Gang won a 12-Man Royal Rumble, last eliminating the Junkyard Dog, to earn a WWF World Heavyweight Championship match against Hulk Hogan at the following month's St. Louis house show.
- A 20-man Royal Rumble match took place at a house show in Hartford, Connecticut on March 16, 1988 where Ravishing Rick Rude was the winner.
- A 30-man Royal Rumble on January 17, 1994 at Madison Square Garden was won by Owen Hart, last eliminating Fatu.
- An 18-man Royal Rumble match took place on May 9, 1994 in Osaka, Japan and was won by The Undertaker who last eliminated Bam Bam Bigelow.
- There was a Tag Team Royal Rumble on the June 15, 1998 episode of Raw Is War. Kane and Mankind won the match and earned an opportunity for the WWF Tag Team Championship against The New Age Outlaws.
- On January 11, 1999, a "Corporate Royal Rumble" involving members of The Corporation and D-Generation X was held on Raw to determine the 30th entry in the Royal Rumble that year. The match was won by Chyna, who last eliminated Mr. McMahon.
- A 15-man Royal Rumble was held during the January 29, 2004, edition of SmackDown to crown a contender for Brock Lesnar's WWE Championship at No Way Out. Eddie Guerrero won the match, last eliminating Kurt Angle.
- On January 14, 2008, Mr. McMahon organized a mini-Royal Rumble, involving midget wrestlers. Hornswoggle won the match.
- On the January 31, 2011, episode of Raw, a Royal Rumble to crown the contender for The Miz's WWE Championship at Elimination Chamber was held. Jerry Lawler won the match, last eliminating Sheamus.
Maps Royal Rumble
Dates, venues, and winners
Male Royal Rumble winner's championship opportunity
- - WrestleMania victory
- - WrestleMania loss
Note: There was no WrestleMania title opportunity for the winners of the 1992 and 2016 Royal Rumble matches. In 1992, Ric Flair won the Royal Rumble match, which was for the vacant WWF World Heavyweight Championship. In 2016, Triple H won the Royal Rumble match in which Roman Reigns defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Both ultimately lost their championship defenses at WrestleMania (to Randy Savage and Reigns, respectively).
Female Royal Rumble winner's championship opportunity
Royal Rumble records
Males
Most Rumble victories
Most times being a Rumble runner-up
Winners by entry number
Longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble
Top 20 individual longest times in a single Royal Rumble match. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Note: bold indicates the winner of that year's match
Longest cumulative time spent in Royal Rumbles
Only wrestlers who have spent more than 3 cumulative hours are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Shortest time spent in a single Royal Rumble
Only wrestlers who spent 10 seconds or less in a single rumble are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
(*) - WWE's official source mistakenly reports the time as 20 seconds.
Non-eliminated wrestlers
Several times, wrestlers were drawn to compete in the match but did not actually compete. Their participation is counted as zero seconds, with the exception of #6 Hornswoggle:
- In 1991, "Macho King" Randy Savage was drawn 18th, but no-showed due to leaving the building after costing Ultimate Warrior the WWF Championship against Sgt. Slaughter.
- In 1994, Bastion Booger was drawn 25th, but no-showed due to suffering food poisoning before the match.
- In 1998, Skull was drawn 22nd, but no-showed due to being attacked by Los Boricuas after being mistaken for Stone Cold Steve Austin.
- In 2004, Spike Dudley was drawn 13th, but was attacked on the ramp by Kane.
- In 2005, Scotty 2 Hotty was drawn 15th, but was attacked on the ramp by Muhammad Hassan.
- In 2008, Hornswoggle was drawn 9th and eliminated The Miz, however he wasn't brought into the ring until towards the end of the match by Mark Henry and was saved by Finlay, who was drawn 27th, and escorted to the back and never re-entered the match. Finlay would later be disqualified after coming out before his number came up and using his shillelagh to help Hornswoggle.
- In 2015, Curtis Axel was drawn 6th, but was attacked on the ramp by Erick Rowan. Unlike other occasions, this was notable for actually being worked into a gimmick for Axel, where he began to imitate Hulk Hogan and wear shirts emblazoned with "AxelMania" and claim that he was never eliminated from the Royal Rumble, therefore he won it, deserving a spot in the main event of WrestleMania.
Wrestlers who had their number stolen or were replaced
Several times, wrestlers were drawn to compete and were instead either attacked backstage or pulled from the match at the last minute, and replaced by other wrestlers.
- In 1999, Mosh was drawn 11th, but was attacked by Mabel, who took Mosh's spot.
- In 2001, the team of Lo Down (Chaz and D'Lo Brown) defeated Kaientai (Funaki and Taka Michinoku) to earn one entrance spot in the Royal Rumble match, but that was later overturned by Vince McMahon who entered Drew Carey in their spot.
- In 2004, Test was drawn 21st, but was attacked by Mick Foley, who took Test's spot.
- In 2005, Nunzio was drawn 20th, but was bullied by Kurt Angle before the match, and took Nunzio's spot.
- In 2018, Tye Dillinger was drawn 10th, but was attacked by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, the latter of whom took Dillinger's spot.
Most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble
Top wrestlers with most eliminations in a single match. Only wrestlers with at least seven eliminations are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Total eliminations in cumulative Royal Rumbles
Top wrestlers with the most eliminations. Only wrestlers with at least 20 eliminations are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Most Rumble appearances
Only wrestlers with at least 10 appearances are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Female entrants in male Royal Rumbles
- Only wrestler to appear in both the male and female Royal Rumbles.
Females
Longest time spent in a single Royal Rumble
As of the 2018 Royal Rumble, only one match has occurred; the top ten times are shown.
Note: bold indicates the winner of that year's match
Shortest time spent in a single Royal Rumble
As of the 2018 Royal Rumble, only one match has occurred; the top ten times are shown.
Most eliminations in a single Royal Rumble
As only one match has occurred, only wrestlers with at least three eliminations are shown. As of the 2018 Royal Rumble.
Note: bold indicates the winner of that year's match
Non-Royal Rumble branded event matches
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.
See also
- List of WWE Network events
- List of WWE pay-per-view events
References
- General
- "Longest Pro Wrestling Matches". Internet Wrestling Database. Retrieved 2013-12-01.
- "Royal Rumble Statistics". MondayNightWarriors.com. Retrieved 2009-12-05.
- "Royal Rumble results". ProWrestlingHistory.com. Retrieved 2007-12-05.
- Eric Cohen. "Royal Rumble History". About.com. Retrieved 2007-12-09.
- Ian Hamilton (2006). Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition. Lulu.com. ISBN 1-4116-1210-8.
- Ric Flair (2004). Ric Flair: To Be the Man. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-5691-2.
- Brian Shields (2006). Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 1-4165-3257-9.
- Specific
Further reading
- Harley Race and Gerry Tritz (2004). King of the Ring: The Harley Race Story. Sports Publishing. ISBN 1-58261-818-6.
- Davies, Ross (2002). Kevin Nash. The Rosen Publishing Group. ISBN 0-8239-3492-6.
- Meltzer, Dave (2004). Tributes II: Remembering More of the World's Greatest Professional Wrestlers. Sports Publishing LLC. ISBN 1-58261-817-8.
- Brian Fritz and Christopher Murray (2006). Between the Ropes: Wrestling's Greatest Triumphs and Failures. ECW Press. ISBN 1-55022-726-2.
- Steve Austin and Jim Ross (2003). The Stone Cold Truth. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-7434-7720-0.
- Scott Keith (2004). Wrestling's One Ring Circus: The Death of the World Wrestling Federation. Citadel Press. ISBN 0-8065-2619-X.
External links
- Royal Rumble Official Website
- WWE.com: Royal Rumble match description
- WWE.com: Royal Rumble Facts & Figures
- Royal Rumble History at About.com
- WWE Royal Rumble
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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