Royal Rumble: Difference between revisions
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* [[Glen Jacobs|Kane]] currently has the most consecutive appearances in the Rumble with 8 appearances from 1999 to 2006. Kane is also set to be participating in the 2007 Royal Rumble. |
* [[Glen Jacobs|Kane]] currently has the most consecutive appearances in the Rumble with 8 appearances from 1999 to 2006. Kane is also set to be participating in the 2007 Royal Rumble. |
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* Both [[Solofa Fatu]] (who participated as Fatu, The Sultan and Rikishi) and [[Glen Jacobs]] (who participated as Issac Yankem DDS, "Diesel" and Kane) have made more Royal Rumble appearances than anyone else with 10. |
* Both [[Solofa Fatu]] (who participated as Fatu, The Sultan and Rikishi) and [[Glen Jacobs]] (who participated as Issac Yankem DDS, "Diesel" and Kane) have made more Royal Rumble appearances than anyone else with 10. |
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* In 1998, [[Mick Foley]] made the most appearances in a single Rumble, when he entered as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love. |
* In 1998, [[Mick Foley]] made the most appearances in a single Rumble, when he entered as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love. He is even said to have (kayfabe) requested three pay checks for working the one night. |
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* Stone Cold Steve Austin has made more eliminations overall than anyone else with 36. |
* Stone Cold Steve Austin has made more eliminations overall than anyone else with 36. |
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* Kane has the record for most eliminations in a single Rumble when he eliminated 11 wrestlers in 2001. |
* Kane has the record for most eliminations in a single Rumble when he eliminated 11 wrestlers in 2001. |
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Revision as of 18:40, 21 January 2007
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.
Royal Rumble match
| Year | Winner and Entry # | |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 [1] | 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 [3] | Steve Austin | 5 |
| 1998 | Steve Austin | 24 |
| 1999 | Vince McMahon | 2 |
| 2000 [4] | The Rock | 24 |
| 2001 | Steve Austin | 27 |
| 2002 | Triple H | 22 |
| 2003 | Brock Lesnar | 29 |
| 2004 | Chris Benoit | 1 |
| 2005 [5] | 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. Pat Patterson has been credited with "inventing" the match. [6]
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). Going out 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 over the top rope, outside the ring. In other words, if a wrestler goes over the top rope, regardless how it happened, he's out. Other wrestlers can be de facto eliminated due to interference preventing the wrestler from entering the ring (examples being Spike Dudley in 2004 and Scotty 2 Hotty in 2005).
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.
Brand extension
With the brand extension introduced in mid-2002, the 30 entrants from 2003 to 2006 consisted of 15 wrestlers from the RAW brand and 15 from the SmackDown! brand. This makes it 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, was that 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).
In the upcoming Royal Rumble in 2007, participants from the 2006-established ECW brand will be attending along with the RAW and SmackDown! brands. It is not yet known whether or not the 2007 winner will have his choice of competing for the ECW World Championship. The total number of wrestlers from each brand allowed in the Rumble has not been yet revealed but with 11 RAW superstars included so far it will not feature an even split like the previous years.
Royal Rumble dates and venues
Records and statistics
- Stone Cold Steve Austin has won the most Royal Rumble matches by winning the 1997, 1998, and 2001 Rumbles.
- Rey Mysterio has spent the longest time in a Royal Rumble when in 2006 he lasted a time of 1:02:12. Conversely, The Warlord has spent the shortest time in a Royal Rumble when in 1989 he lasted a time of 0:02.
- The longest Royal Rumble match was held in 2002 with a time of 1:09:23. The shortest Royal Rumble match was held in 1988 with a time of 33:00. It should be noted that that match only had 20 entrants. The shortest Royal Rumble with 30 entrants was the 1995 Royal Rumble at 38:39, where entrants entered at 60 second intervals.
- Kane currently has the most consecutive appearances in the Rumble with 8 appearances from 1999 to 2006. Kane is also set to be participating in the 2007 Royal Rumble.
- Both Solofa Fatu (who participated as Fatu, The Sultan and Rikishi) and Glen Jacobs (who participated as Issac Yankem DDS, "Diesel" and Kane) have made more Royal Rumble appearances than anyone else with 10.
- In 1998, Mick Foley made the most appearances in a single Rumble, when he entered as Cactus Jack, Mankind and Dude Love. He is even said to have (kayfabe) requested three pay checks for working the one night.
- Stone Cold Steve Austin has made more eliminations overall than anyone else with 36.
- Kane has the record for most eliminations in a single Rumble when he eliminated 11 wrestlers in 2001.
- Three wrestlers have won two Royal Rumble matches in a row. They are Hulk Hogan (1990 & 1991), Shawn Michaels (1995 & 1996), Steve Austin (1997 & 1998).
- Shawn Michaels and Chris Benoit have both won the Royal Rumble at number 1, the slot theoretically least likely to allow someone win the Rumble. Ironically, the slot most likely to allow someone win the Rumble, number 30, is one of the 17 numbers that no Rumble entrant has ever won with.
- The number 27 slot has given more wins than any other slot. Big John Studd, Yokozuna, Bret Hart and Stone Cold Steve Austin each won a Royal Rumble at 27.
- Rey Mysterio is the shortest winner of the Royal Rumble, and is also the only masked wrestler to win.
- Chyna is the only woman who has ever participated in the Royal Rumble.
- Stone Cold Steve Austin spent the shortest time in a Rumble to win when in 2001, he spent around 9 minutes in the match.
- André the Giant, Drew Carey, Kane, Mick Foley and Farooq each eliminated themselves from their respective matches.
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 (All except the 1999 event were released as Tagged Classics in UK). Royal Rumble: The Complete Anthology will be released on March 13, 2007. [7]
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 later stipulation match) the Rock is still, however, listed as the official winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble.
- ^ 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.
References
- ^ "WWE Webcast on Demand: Royal Rumble 2005". Retrieved January 18.
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- "WWE.com: Royal Rumble Facts & Figures". Retrieved January 19.
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