6 Times WWE Has Altered the Royal Rumble

At the end of this month, WWE will promote The Greatest Royal Rumble event from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, airing the event globally on the WWE Network (and giving those of us fans in the United States a sample of the strange times of day when fans around the world have to catch Network events if they want to watch live).

The event's eponymous match, presumably the main event unless the Roman Reigns vs. Brock Lesnar cage match takes top honors, will be an expanded version of WWE's hugely-successful progressive battle royal concept; rather than the traditional 30 men coming to the ring at regular intervals to toss each other over the top rope, The Greatest Royal Rumble will expand that number to 50 to maximize WWE's star power on the show (and tax their international travel budget).

This is not the first time WWE has tweaked its own signature match; here are 6 other times and ways WWE has changed the rules or structure of the Royal Rumble match.

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#6 Jeddah will be the fifth time WWE has changed the number of participants on television

Duggan only had to outlast 19 other men to win the Rumble match

The very first Royal Rumble match to use the concept aired on broadcast television in 1988; won by "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan, the match was a 33-minute affair which only featured 20 wrestlers taking part. This was after the WWF tested the concept at a house show, that time with only twelve men, then tried another 20-man version weeks after this one aired. The event was broadcasted on the USA Network and held the record for highest cable television rating for decades with an 8.2.

In January of 1989, McMahon opted to make the event a pay-per-view, in order to provide more content to lure cable companies to prefer his product over Jim Crockett Promotions and their NWA affiliates; this was the first Royal Rumble to feature the traditional 30 entrants, with Big John Studd leaving victorious after entering at number 27.

The 2011 Royal Rumble can no longer make this claim, and will more than likely also lose its claim as the longest Rumble contest in history

In 2011, to accommodate various invasion and faction storylines, WWE expanded its 24th televised Royal Rumble match to include 40 superstars; one of the most noteworthy criticisms of this iteration of the event was its length, being the longest (so far in its history). Alberto Del Rio took home the win this time, entering at number 38.

These were official changes to the number of competitors; WWE has frequently changed the number of competitors unofficially, like in 1998 when Mick Foley entered the match three times (once each as his three different personas) or in 2015 when Curtis Axel never actually made his way into the ring for the match.

#5 WWE frequently changes the official entrance intervals

WWE has, on occasion, changed the official time between entrants (while frequently unofficially changing the interval times to accommodate story and match flow)

Traditionally, most Royal Rumble matches have featured intervals of two minutes between competitors' entrances into the match (officially, of course; the times mentioned in this section are purely kayfabe, as WWE will frequently stretch its own timing rules during the match in order to structure the contest better for the live crowd and for the television broadcast)

The 1995 edition of the match shortened this interval to 60 seconds, partially to quicken the match (its biggest critic was always Vince McMahon, who felt the contest often dragged and was too long) and partially because the contest's winner, Shawn Michaels, was a heel who would be entering from the number one spot. WWF creative feared that HBK winning while also being the contest's longest-lasting competitor in history would force a babyface turn (an idea Bruce Prichard has said McMahon was vehemently opposed to at the time), so the intervals were shortened.

Performing a feat like this after 60 minutes of competition would likely have made Shawn Michaels too sympathetic for Vince McMahon's tastes in 1995

The intervals changed again in 1997, as the then-most-attended Royal Rumble match saw intervals of 90 seconds between competitors; WWE has alternated between the 90-second and the two-minute intervals for the past two decades, with 90 seconds being the norm throughout the rest of the 90s.

WWE's 2018 contests, owing both to momentum and to the fact that the broadcast would feature two Royal Rumble matches, kept the intervals to 90 seconds

#4 The winner didn't main event WrestleMania until 1993

Yokozuna prepares to become the first man to claim a WrestleMania main event in the Royal Rumble match.

We should clarify that main eventing WrestleMania wasn't a condition of a Royal Rumble victory until the 1993 edition of the event; Hulk Hogan won the 1990 and 1991 Rumbles, and would close out the WrestleMania broadcast in both years, but neither year had a connection between the pay-per-view events (although Hogan was the challenger at WrestleMania VII in 1991 after winning the Rumble, that was more in line with Hogan defending America against the evil Sgt. Slaughter than it was Hogan earning a title shot by outlasting 29 other men).

It wasn't until 1993, when Yokozuna won the sixth televised Royal Rumble match, that the winner was guaranteed a number one contender spot for the main event at WrestleMania; that accolade has continued for the past 25 years with very few exceptions. The championship opportunity is transferable in storyline, and is often defended at the February pay-per-view; the win also does not guarantee that a winning superstar will be the only challenger for the belt, as numerous WrestleMania main events have seen triple threat matches where the champion and Royal Rumble winner are joined by a third competitor.

Roman Reigns had his hand raised in January of 2015 but failed to win the resulting title match in March

Male superstars are 14-10 in the resultant championship match at the Showcase of the Immortals (women, so far, are 0-1, as Asuka lost to Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34); two men's Royal Rumble winners (Steve Austin in 1997 and Vince McMahon in 1999) did not receive their WrestleMania match, the former because he re-entered the match after being eliminated and the latter because he renounced the title shot the following night on RAW is WAR.

#3 The WWE's top title has been contested for twice in the Royal Rumble Match

Easily one of the greatest moments, and promos, in Flair's lengthy career

In the late summer and fall of 1991, Bobby "The Brain" Heenan proclaimed the coming of "The Real World's Champion" to the WWF, carrying around NWA/WCW's World Heavyweight Championship (which, in real life, Ric Flair was held hostage until a disputed $25,000 deposit was returned); Flair eventually made his way north to the WWF, and instantly became an agent of chaos, costing Hulk Hogan his WWF Championship against The Undertaker at Survivor Series, then interfering again in the championship rematch at This Tuesday in Texas.

WWF [kayfabe] President Jack Tunney vacated the belt due to the illegitimacy of the two title matches, and announced that a new champion would be crowned in the 1992 Royal Rumble Match; in what many consider both the best Rumble match ever and the best commentary performance of Heenan's career, Flair entered at number three and outlasted the field, last eliminating Sid Justice with assistance from an already-eliminated Hogan to claim his first WWF/E title.

Unlike 1992's match for a vacated title, 2016 saw Reigns defending his title in the Rumble contest

Roman Reigns entered 2016 the defending WWE World Heavyweight Champion, having defeated Sheamus on Monday Night RAW to reclaim the belt (which Sheamus himself beat Reigns for at Survivor Series just over five minutes after Reigns won a tournament for the vacated title). Looking to rekindle some of the "Stone Cold" Steve Austin magic, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon joined his daughter Stephanie and son-in-law Triple H in opposing The Big Dog's rise.

As retaliation for Reigns attacking the Chairman during that RAW title change, McMahon announced that Reigns would have to defend the title against 29 other men in the 2016 Royal Rumble match; the match, which saw the WWE debut of AJ Styles, also saw The Game become a surprise entrant at number 30. Unfortunately, Helmsley received more cheers than boos for eliminating the future yard owner, before electrifying the crowd in a back-and-forth battle with Dean Ambrose. Helmsley backdropped The Lunatic Fringe over the top, claiming his 14th world title reign with a Royal Rumble win.

#2. This is the tenth time a Royal Rumble match has occurred outside of a Royal Rumble January broadcast

Owen Hart's stellar 1994 also included a seldom-seen Royal Rumble win

Aside from the two house show Rumble matches mentioned in the first slide, where the WWF was testing and tweaking the concept, WWE has held five Royal Rumble-style matches on its broadcast television shows and two on non-televised house shows; The Greatest Royal Rumble will be the tenth time WWE has put on this style of match without it being a part of its January event.

The RAW and SmackDown editions have included a Tag Team Royal Rumble, won by Kane and Mankind, to determine number one contenders for the Tag Team Championships, a Corporate Royal Rumble, won by Chyna, to determine the 30th entrant into the pay-per-view contest, and several contests to determine one show's number one contender when the other show won on premium television.

SmackDown's 15-man Rumble gave us Eddie Guerrero's classic WWE Championship win in February of 2004

Additionally, 1994 featured two different non-televised Royal Rumble matches which seemed to have nothing at stake and did not seem to affect ongoing storylines; Owen Hart won a 30-man contest at Madison Square Garden in January, while The Undertaker last eliminated Bam Bam Bigelow to win an 18-man Rumble match in Osaka, Japan, in May.

#1 The Women's Revolution makes history

Thirty women received nearly an hour of pay-per-view time and the word "puppies" was nowhere to be found

Originally branded the "Divas' Revolution" when it began in the summer of 2015, the nearly three-year Women's Revolution in WWE has produced a number of historic firsts, as Stephanie McMahon's announcements always like to remind us.

In addition to honors like the first women's pay-per-view main event, the first women's Hell in a Cell match, and a much-overdue rebranding of female competitors as "superstars" (rather than "divas," which was often seen as pejorative) complete with its own, more serious-looking championship belt, WWE gave its women's roster the spotlight in January of 2018 with the very first Women's Royal Rumble match.

Closing out this year's Royal Rumble broadcast, the match saw the returns of women like Trish Stratus, Lita, Michelle McCool, Molly Holly, and Beth Phoenix (among others), sneak peek debuts of women like Ember Moon and Kairi Sane, and the mainstays of WWE's current women's roster like Becky Lynch, Bayley, and Sasha Banks; ultimately, Asuka would continue her then-undefeated streak by last tossing Nikki Bella.

In another picture of progress, Flair went from slave girl to Queen

While Asuka's momentous win would be slightly overshadowed by Ronda Rousey's WWE debut, and The Empress of Tomorrow would also lose her WrestleMania championship match to Charlotte Flair (albeit in one of the card's top-rated matches), the contest was a big achievement for the women of WWE, taking 60 minutes of pay-per-view time to tell a wrestling story not involving romantic storylines or crass humor from commentators about the women's attractiveness.

Unfortunately, cultural norms dictate that this is one change fans will not see at this April's broadcast from Saudi Arabia.