Royal Rumble
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- This article is about the professional wrestling pay-per-view event. For the video game named after this event for the SNES and Sega Genesis, see WWF Royal Rumble.
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by World Wrestling Entertainment. The event's main featured match is a battle royal-type match, also titled the Royal Rumble. It is usually called one of the "Big Four", as along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series, it was one of the original four annual WWE pay-per-views. As with the other three, this event also brings together the RAW, ECW and SmackDown! brands onto the same card, something that hasn't been true of the remaining pay-per-views of the year since 2003.
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[edit] Royal Rumble match
| Year | Winner and Entry # | |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | Jim Duggan | 13 |
| 1989 | Big John Studd | 27 |
| 1990 | Hulk Hogan | 25 |
| 1991 | Hulk Hogan | 24 |
| 1992 | Ric Flair | 3 |
| 1993 | Yokozuna | 27 |
| Bret Hart | 27 | |
| Lex Luger | 23 | |
| 1995 | Shawn Michaels | 1 |
| 1996 | Shawn Michaels | 18 |
| 1997 | Steve Austin | 5 |
| 1998 | Steve Austin | 24 |
| 1999 | Vince McMahon | 2 |
| 2000 | The Rock | 24 |
| 2001 | Steve Austin | 27 |
| 2002 | Triple H | 22 |
| 2003 | Brock Lesnar | 29 |
| 2004 | Chris Benoit | 1 |
| 2005 | Batista | 28 |
| 2006 | Rey Mysterio | 2 |
The first Royal Rumble took place on January 24, 1988 in Hamilton, Ontario. Jim Duggan won, and the first pay-per-view Rumble occurred a year later. It has been traditionally booked by Pat Patterson, who is credited with "inventing" the match.[citation needed] Since his departure from WWE, the Rumble is booked by WWE's creative team. [citation needed]
[edit] Rules
The Royal Rumble is comprised of 30 men; beginning with two men in the ring, and at regular timed intervals (usually, but not always, every 90 seconds), one of the remaining 28 wrestlers enters the ring. Participants must eliminate all other opponents and the winner of the event is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated.
A wrestler is eliminated when leaving the ring over the top rope, and then having both feet touch the floor (although this latter specification was not specified until the 1995 Royal Rumble, where the "both feet" stipulation played a crucial role in the final moments of the match). An egress between the second and third rope or under the bottom rope is not a valid elimination.
An elimination can also occur when a wrestler is thrown off the top rope by a non-competing opponent, or by one who had already been eliminated, or when the participant deliberately jumps outside the ring, for instance to take out someone who is outside the ring. Other wrestlers can be de facto eliminated due to interference preventing the wrestler from entering the ring, or due to a prolonged absence from the ring.
[edit] Rewards for winning
Since the 1991 event, every winner (other than in 1992, 1997, 1999) has gone on to challenge the WWE Champion or the World Heavyweight Champion at WrestleMania, but this was not made an official stipulation of the match until 1993. This stems from 1992, when the Royal Rumble decided who would win the then-vacant WWF Championship (Ric Flair won the match). This championship match is often the last event on the WrestleMania card according to principles in the WWE that states that "the Royal Rumble winner gets a first-class ticket to WrestleMania", which means that the Royal Rumble winner gets to be in the 'first class' top spot in the main event at WrestleMania. In some cases, this can be part of a stipulation for a match between the Rumble and WrestleMania, where the winner may lose his WrestleMania spot by losing another match.
[edit] Brand extension
With the brand extension in mid-2002, the 30 entrants consist of 15 wrestlers from the RAW brand and 15 from the SmackDown! brand. This is, therefore, one of the few pay-per-view events (and certain combined non-televised shows held around WrestleMania time) with inter-brand competition on a regular basis. The official declaration for the first post-brand extension event in 2003, the Rumble winner faced their brand's champion at WrestleMania, but starting in 2004, due to a supposed "loophole" in the Rumble's stipulations, the Rumble winner has the option of challenging either brand's champion (Chris Benoit switched brands in 2004 and won the World Heavyweight Championship, which was the basis for a storyline the following year when Batista won the Rumble, but ultimately remained on RAW).
It is not yet known if the ECW brand will be participating in the upcoming Royal Rumble Match at the 2007 Royal Rumble event (which would likely lessen the number of participants from RAW and SmackDown!), or if the ECW World Heavyweight Championship will be an option to the winner.
[edit] Royal Rumble dates and venues
[edit] Records and statistics
- Most wins: Steve Austin (3; 1997, 1998, 2001)
- Wrestler who spent longest amount of time in the Rumble: Rey Mysterio (1:02:15; 2006)
- Wrestler who spent shortest amount of time in the Rumble: The Warlord (0:02; 1989)
- Longest Royal Rumble match: 2002 (1:09:23)
- Shortest Royal Rumble match: 1988 (33:00; note that the match only had 20 entrants.)
- Most consecutive appearances in the Rumble: Kane (8; 1999-2006)
- Most appearances in a single Rumble: Mick Foley (3; 1998)
- Most eliminations overall: Steve Austin (36)
- Most eliminations in a single Rumble: Kane (11; 2001)
- Winners who entered in the No. 1 slot: Shawn Michaels (1995), Chris Benoit (2004)
- Winners who entered in the No. 2 slot: Vince McMahon (1999), Rey Mysterio (2006)
- Wrestlers who won two Royal Rumble matches in a row: Hulk Hogan (1990 & 1991), Shawn Michaels (1995 & 1996), Steve Austin (1997 & 1998)
- Royal Rumble Entry Number with the most wins: No. 27 (4 times, drawn by Big John Studd (1989), Yokozuna (1993), Bret Hart (1994), Stone Cold Steve Austin (2001))
[edit] Trivia
-
- The number 30 (the slot most likely to allow someone win the Rumble) is one of the 17 numbers that no Rumble entrant has ever won with.
- In the 1997 Rumble, Steve Austin was eliminated, but no referee saw the elimination, so he slipped back in and eliminated everyone else who was in the match at the time to become the Royal Rumble winner.
- Starting with Steve Austin in 2001, every Royal Rumble winner has won a world championship at the Wrestlemania event following the Royal Rumble.
- Vince McMahon is the only Royal Rumble winner who didn't fight for a world championship after the right to challenge for the title became the prize for winning the Rumble.
- Rikishi has entered the most Royal Rumbles, competing in 10 and eliminating 12 participants.
[edit] Video box set
WWE announced that they will release a complete DVD box set of every Royal Rumble event in its entirety (in similar fashion to the WrestleMania Anthology releases in 2005). Note that the 1988-1999 events have never been released on DVD in North America (they were released as Tagged Classics in UK). Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology will be released on March 13, 2007.
[edit] Footnotes
- ↑ The first Royal Rumble featured only 20 men; the stipulation was changed to 30 the following year.
- ↑ Both Bret Hart and Lex Luger were declared winners when it was decided that they both touched the floor at exactly the same time.
- ↑ Steve Austin was eliminated, but no referee saw the elimination and made the call, so he slipped back in and eliminated everyone to become the Royal Rumble winner.
- ↑ Big Show, who was the last man eliminated, claimed he won the 2000 Royal Rumble, as both of the Rock's feet hit the floor first. He later showed video footage proving his statement right, and was awarded a match with The Rock with the WrestleMania title shot on the line (Big Show won the match, but The Rock was also granted a title shot after winning a stipulation match) The Rock is still, however, listed as the official winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble.
- ↑ The 2004 Royal Rumble only contested 29 superstars, as Spike Dudley was attacked on the ramp on his way to the ring by Kane who had been eliminated, as a result Spike Dudley never entered the ring. The 2005 Royal Rumble also only contested 29 superstars, as an enraged Muhammed Hassan attacked Scotty 2 Hotty as he was on the way to the ring, and as a result Scotty didn't compete.
- ↑ Batista and John Cena were eliminated at the same time similar to the 1994 event. Instead of co-winners, WWE chairman Vince McMahon rushed to the ring and restarted the Royal Rumble with Batista and Cena as the only participants, with Batista eventually being the victor.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
| Current World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events | |
|---|---|
| Joint productions | Royal Rumble | WrestleMania | SummerSlam | Survivor Series |
| RAW events | New Year's Revolution | Backlash | Vengeance | Unforgiven | Cyber Sunday |
| SmackDown! events | No Way Out | Judgment Day | The Great American Bash | No Mercy | Armageddon |
| ECW events | One Night Stand | December to Dismember |
| Current WWE championships and accomplishments |
|---|
| Promotion championships |
| RAW championships WWE | Intercontinental | World Tag Team | Women's |
| SmackDown! championships World Heavyweight | United States | WWE Tag Team | Cruiserweight |
| ECW championships ECW World Heavyweight |
| Developmental territories |
| Ohio Valley Wrestling championships OVW Heavyweight | OVW Television | OVW Southern Tag Team | OVW Women's |
| Deep South Wrestling championships DSW Heavyweight | DSW Tag Team |
| Other accomplishments |
| Royal Rumble | Money in the Bank | King of the Ring (SD!) | Diva Search |
| Royal Rumble |
|---|
| 1988 | 1989 | 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 1996 | 1997 | 1998 | 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 |
