The Royal Rumble event is widely considered to be one of the most popular shows in all of professional wrestling. In addition to serving as the official kick-off point for the road to WrestleMania, it also features the always entertaining 30-man Royal Rumble match.
As we all know by now two men start off in the ring, and every 90 seconds another entrant enters until all thirty entrants have been revealed. You eliminate your opponents by throwing them over the top rope, and if you’re the last man standing at the end of the match, then you earn a world championship bout at WrestleMania.
It is one of the ‘Big Four’ pay per view events that WWE runs alongside SummerSlam, WrestleMania and Survivor Series, and starting with the 2018 edition of the show, there will also be a 30-woman Royal Rumble match from this point onwards.
Locations
San Antonio, Texas – 3 – 1997, 2007, 2017
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – 3 – 2004, 2015, 2018
Phoenix, Arizona – 2 – 2013, 2019
New York City, New York – 2 – 2000, 2008
Orlando, Florida – 2 – 1990. 2016
Fresno, California – 2 – 1996, 2005
Atlanta, Georgia – 2 – 2002, 2010
Boston, Massachusetts – 2 – 2003, 2011
Miami, Florida – 2 – 1991, 2006
Hamilton, Ontario – 1 – 1988
Houston, Texas – 1 – 1989
Albany, New York – 1 – 1992
Sacramento, California – 1 – 1993
Providence, Rhode Island – 1 – 1994
Tampa, Florida – 1 – 1995
San Jose, California – 1 – 1998
Anaheim, California – 1 – 1999
New Orleans, Louisiana – 1 – 2001
Detroit, Michigan – 1 – 2009
St. Louis, Missouri – 1 – 2012
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – 1 – 2014
Non-Rumble Main Events
1988: The Islanders vs. The Young Stallions – Tag Team Match
1996: Bret Hart vs. The Undertaker – WWF Championship
1997: Sycho Sid vs. Shawn Michaels – WWF Championship
1998: Shawn Michaels vs. The Undertaker – WWF Championship
2006: Kurt Angle vs. Mark Henry – World Heavyweight Championship
2013: CM Punk vs. The Rock – WWE Championship
Interesting Facts
Potential Future
WWE officially announced last week that on April 27th, 2018 they will host The Greatest Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia which will feature the first ever 50-man Royal Rumble match. The event has been arranged in order to build WWE’s growing relationship with the nation, and will include several high profile superstars such as Triple H and John Cena.
There has been no confirmation as of yet regarding how the event will work or what the reward will be for the winner, and it’s not yet been confirmed as to whether or not it’ll air on the WWE Network. What we do know, though, is that it’ll take place at King Abdullah Sports City which is a stadium that has a capacity of more than 60,000.
In terms of the future for the actual Royal Rumble event, the January spectacular’s destination in 2019 has been confirmed as Phoenix, Arizona. It’ll mark the second time that Phoenix has hosted the Rumble PPV, with the first being in 2013 when John Cena won the 30-man battle royal and The Rock defeated CM Punk to capture the WWE Championship.
The specific venue will be Chase Field, marking the first time the Royal Rumble has been held at a baseball stadium. The confirmation of Chase Field likely means that we’ll be seeing many big stars appearing in the Rumble match next year, in a similar fashion to what happened back in 2017 when WWE visited the Alamodome and had The Undertaker, Brock Lesnar and Goldberg all featuring in the contest.
It’d be a safe bet to assume that the likes of Triple H, Kurt Angle and other part timers of that nature will be popping up in Phoenix, as WWE continues down the path of turning the Big Four pay per views into weekend-long spectaculars.
It seems like the Royal Rumble will only continue to get bigger, too, with the Alamodome, the Saudi Arabia show and the 2019 event all signalling that WWE is putting their trust in the Rumble to be held in a stadium, unlike SummerSlam and Survivor Series which are almost exclusively held in arenas.
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