Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling event, produced annually since 1988 by WWE, the world's largest professional wrestling promotion. It is named after, and centered on, the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. After the inaugural 1988 event aired as a television special on the USA Network, the Royal Rumble has been broadcast via pay-per-view since the 1989 event and livestreaming since the 2015 event. The event is traditionally held in late January, but in 2025, it was held in early February, and it will again be held in early February in 2027. It is one of WWE's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five".
The Royal Rumble match is generally held as the main event of the annual event. There are some exceptions, such as the 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, and 2023 events. In 1988, the main event was a tag team match, while for all the others, it was a men's world championship match. While originally only for men, a women's version of the Royal Rumble match was held as the main event at the 2018 event, which was also the first event to have two Rumble matches on one card. It subsequently became standard to have both a men's and women's Royal Rumble match at the annual event. The 2025 event was the first to be held in a National Football League stadium, while the 2026 event was the first to take place outside of North America as it was held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which was the first of WWE's "Big Five" held in the country.
History Event The Royal Rumble match was created by wrestler and WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson and the event was established by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). After the match was first tested at a house show in October 1987, the first Royal Rumble event took place on January 24, 1988, and was broadcast live as a television special on the USA Network.Ric Flair. Ric Flair: To Be the Man (p.161) The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view (PPV), and thus became one of the "Big Four" annual PPVs, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam, the promotion's then-four biggest shows of the year.Brian Shields. Main Event: WWE in the Raging 80s (p.166)Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160) From 1993 to 2002, it was considered one of the "Big Five", including King of the Ring, but that PPV event was discontinued after 2002 (although it returned to PPV in 2024). In August 2021, Money in the Bank became recognized as one of the "Big Five".
In May 2002, the WWF was renamed to World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) following a lawsuit with the World Wildlife Fund over the "WWF" initialism. In April 2011, the promotion ceased using its full name with the "WWE" abbreviation becoming an orphaned initialism. Also in March 2002, the promotion introduced the brand extension, in which the roster was divided between the Raw and SmackDown brands where wrestlers were exclusively assigned to perform on their respective weekly television shows—ECW became a third brand in 2006. The first brand extension was dissolved in August 2011, but it was reintroduced in July 2016 (other brands, including NXT, NXT UK, and 205 Live, would also be active during this second brand split). The Royal Rumble, along with the other original "Big Four" events, were the only PPVs to never be held exclusively for one brand during either brand split periods. The 2008 Royal Rumble was the first WWE pay-per-view to be available in high-definition. In 2015, the Royal Rumble began to air on WWE's online streaming service, the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014, and in 2022, the event became available on Peacock as the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in March 2020, WWE had to hold its events behind closed doors. The 2021 event was in turn held in WWE's bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome, which at the time was hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. WWE resumed live touring in July 2021 and the 2022 event was held at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri.
From its inception in 1988 up through the 2024 event, the Royal Rumble was held annually in late January. On June 24, 2024, WWE announced a partnership with the Indiana Sports Corp which would see the 2025 Royal Rumble, as well as a future WrestleMania and a future SummerSlam, held at the Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis, Indiana, marking the first Royal Rumble held in a National Football League stadium. The date for the 2025 Royal Rumble was announced for February 1, thus marking the first Royal Rumble held outside of January. This was also the first Royal Rumble, and WWE's first PPV and livestreaming event, to air on Netflix following the international WWE Network's merger under the platform in January 2025.
In early 2018, WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The first event in this partnership was the one-off Greatest Royal Rumble, which featured a 50-man Royal Rumble match. In May 2024, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, announced that the country was in talks with WWE to bring either the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania to the country in 2026 or 2027. Ahead of Raws premiere on Netflix on January 6, 2025, WWE officially confirmed that the 39th Royal Rumble would be happening in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia at the Kingdom Arena as part of Riyadh Season in January 2026, marking the first Royal Rumble to be held outside of North America, and the first of the "Big Five" held in Saudi Arabia. The 2026 event was also the first Royal Rumble to air on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, as WWE's contract with Peacock to air main roster PPV and livestreaming events expired at the conclusion of Clash in Paris in August 2025.
Due to the Royal Rumble matches taking up a large amount of time (most Rumble matches last roughly one hour), the Royal Rumble event tends to have a smaller card than most other pay-per-view events. The men's Royal Rumble match is usually the main event, though there have been exceptions, namely the 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, 2018, and 2023 events. In these cases, 1988's main event was a tag team match, while the others were men's world championship matches, except in 2018. The 2018 Royal Rumble was the first to include a women's Royal Rumble match, which was the main event for that year. It was subsequently the first in which two Rumble matches were contested on one card and it is now standard for the event to include both a men's and women's Rumble match.
Match
The Royal Rumble match is based on the classic battle royal, 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 difference between a Royal Rumble and a standard battle royal is that in a standard battle royal, all participants start the match in the ring at the same time, where in a Royal Rumble match, two participants start and then the rest enter at timed intervals. The winner of the match is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated. Since the 1993 event, the prize for winning is a world championship match at WrestleMania, with the exception of the 2016 event, where the prize was the WWE Championship (at the time known as the WWE World Heavyweight Championship) as reigning champion Roman Reigns defended the title in the match. 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 before and after their elimination.
Events and winners # Event Date City Venue Main event Royal Rumble Winner Ref. Men's No. Women's No.1 Royal Rumble (1988) January 24, 1988 Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Copps Coliseum colspan="2" rowspan="31" 2 Royal Rumble (1989) January 15, 1989 Houston, Texas The Summit 3 Royal Rumble (1990) January 21, 1990 Orlando, Florida Orlando Arena 4 Royal Rumble (1991) January 19, 1991 Miami, Florida Miami Arena (2) 5 Royal Rumble (1992) January 19, 1992 Albany, New York Knickerbocker Arena 6 Royal Rumble (1993) January 24, 1993 Sacramento, California ARCO Arena Yokozuna 7 Royal Rumble (1994) January 22, 1994 Providence, Rhode Island Providence Civic Center 8 Royal Rumble (1995) January 22, 1995 Tampa, Florida USF Sun Dome 9 Royal Rumble (1996) January 21, 1996 Fresno, California Selland Arena (2) 10 Royal Rumble (1997) January 19, 1997 San Antonio, Texas Alamodome "Stone Cold" Steve Austin 11 Royal Rumble (1998) January 18, 1998 San Jose, California San Jose Arena "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (2) 12 Royal Rumble (1999) January 24, 1999 Anaheim, California Arrowhead Pond of Anaheim 13 Royal Rumble (2000) January 23, 2000 New York City, New York Madison Square Garden 14 Royal Rumble (2001) January 21, 2001 New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans Arena "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (3) 15 Royal Rumble (2002) January 20, 2002 Atlanta, Georgia Philips Arena Triple H 16 Royal Rumble (2003) January 19, 2003 Boston, Massachusetts FleetCenter 17 Royal Rumble (2004) January 25, 2004 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wachovia Center 18 Royal Rumble (2005) January 30, 2005 Fresno, California Save Mart Center Batista 19 Royal Rumble (2006) January 29, 2006 Miami, Florida American Airlines Arena 20 Royal Rumble (2007) January 28, 2007 San Antonio, Texas AT&T Center 21 Royal Rumble (2008) January 27, 2008 New York City, New York Madison Square Garden 22 Royal Rumble (2009) January 25, 2009 Detroit, Michigan Joe Louis Arena 23 Royal Rumble (2010) January 31, 2010 Atlanta, Georgia Philips Arena Edge 24 Royal Rumble (2011) January 30, 2011 Boston, Massachusetts TD Garden 25 Royal Rumble (2012) January 29, 2012 St. Louis, Missouri Scottrade Center Sheamus 26 Royal Rumble (2013) January 27, 2013 Phoenix, Arizona US Airways Center (2) 27 Royal Rumble (2014) January 26, 2014 Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Consol Energy Center Batista (2) 28 Royal Rumble (2015) January 25, 2015 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wells Fargo Center Royal Rumble (2015)#Results29 Royal Rumble (2016) January 24, 2016 Orlando, Florida Amway Center Triple H (2) 30 Royal Rumble (2017) January 29, 2017 San Antonio, Texas Alamodome (2) 31 Royal Rumble (2018) January 28, 2018 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Wells Fargo Center Asuka 32 Royal Rumble (2019) January 27, 2019 Phoenix, Arizona Chase Field 33 Royal Rumble (2020) January 26, 2020 Houston, Texas Minute Maid Park 34 Royal Rumble (2021) January 31, 2021 St. Petersburg, Florida WWE ThunderDome at Tropicana Field Edge (2) Bianca Belair 35 Royal Rumble (2022) January 29, 2022 St. Louis, Missouri The Dome at America's Center (2) 36 Royal Rumble (2023) January 28, 2023 San Antonio, Texas Alamodome 37Royal Rumble (2024)January 27, 2024St. Petersburg, FloridaTropicana Field (2)Bayley 38 Royal Rumble (2025) February 1, 2025 Indianapolis, Indiana Lucas Oil Stadium 20 (2) 2739 Royal Rumble (2026) January 31, 2026 Riyadh, Saudi Arabia Riyadh Season Stadium at King Abdullah Financial District Roman Reigns (2) 26 Liv Morgan 1440 Royal Rumble (2027) February 2027 Glendale, Arizona State Farm Stadium
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.
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