The 2015 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 28th annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 25, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which was the second Royal Rumble event held at the venue, after 2004 when it was known as Wachovia Center. The event was based around the men's Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-man battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the winner received a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 31.
Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The main event was the 2015 Royal Rumble match, which was won by Roman Reigns, who last eliminated Rusev. Also on the event's card, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Miz and Damien Mizdow to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship, while WWE World Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar successfully defended his title against Seth Rollins and John Cena in a triple threat match in the penultimate match.
Like the previous year's event, the 2015 Royal Rumble was marred by a strongly negative audience reaction to the Royal Rumble match and its winner Roman Reigns. However, the WWE World Heavyweight Championship triple threat match received high praise from critics and fans. This was also the first Royal Rumble to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014. The event received 145,000 pay-per-view buys (excluding WWE Network views), down from the previous year's 467,000 buys.
Production Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event, produced every January by WWE since 1988; that first event was a television special before it became a pay-per-view (PPV) event beginning in 1989. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". It is named after and centered on the men's Royal Rumble match.
Announced on October 7, 2014, the 28th Royal Rumble event was scheduled to be held on January 25, 2015, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, marking the second Royal Rumble to be held at this venue, after the 2004 event when it was formerly known as the Wachovia Center; the arena changed its name to Wells Fargo Center in 2010. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view, this was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on the WWE Network, which launched in February 2014.
The Royal Rumble match is a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time, and the match generally features 30 wrestlers. Since 1993, the winner earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2015, the winner earned a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania 31.
Storylines The event comprised six matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw and SmackDown.
At SummerSlam, Brock Lesnar defeated John Cena and won the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Cena would receive his rematch the following month at Night of Champions which he would win by disqualification after Seth Rollins interfered and attempted to cash-in his Money in the Bank contract. At the next event, Hell in a Cell, Cena defeated Authority member Randy Orton in a Hell in a Cell match to earn a future title shot at Lesnar. The Authority was then removed from power after losing the 5-on-5 Survivor Series elimination match at Survivor Series with Cena being the only one who could bring them back if he chose to. At TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs, Cena faced Rollins in a tables match which he won to retain his number one contender status. Later in the event, it was announced that Cena would face Lesnar for the title at the Royal Rumble. On the final Raw of 2014, Rollins attacked special guest host Edge and threatened to perform a Curb Stomp on him if Cena did not reinstate The Authority. Cena came down to save Edge but reluctantly brought The Authority back after Rollins held Edge hostage. On the January 5, 2015, episode of Raw, Rollins was added to the Lesnar-Cena title match by Triple H as a reward for bringing back The Authority, turning the singles match into a triple threat. That same episode, the members of Team Cena from Survivor Series (Dolph Ziggler, Ryback, and Erick Rowan) were fired by The Authority for helping Cena to remove them from power. The following week, Lesnar returned for the contract signing with Cena and Rollins. A brawl broke out between all three men and ended when Rollins performed a Curb Stomp each on Cena and Lesnar. On the final Raw before the Royal Rumble, Triple H forced Cena to compete in a 3-on-1 Handicap match against Rollins, Big Show and Kane to not only secure his spot in the triple threat match, but also win Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan their jobs back. During the match, Sting, who previously assisted Team Cena at Survivor Series, caused a distraction which allowed Cena to roll-up Rollins for the win to keep his spot in the match and reinstate Ziggler, Ryback and Rowan. Lesnar then came down to the ring and attacked Rollins before executing an F-5 each on Kane and Big Show. Rollins then retreated to avoid further punishment.
On the December 29 episode of Raw, The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso) defeated The Miz and Damien Mizdow to win the WWE Tag Team Championship. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that The Usos would defend the titles against Miz and Mizdow at the event.
On the January 5 episode of Raw, Paige came out and helped Natalya to defeat Nikki Bella. On the January 6 episode of Main Event, Natalya came out and helped Paige to defeat Nikki Bella. On the January 12 episode of Raw, Brie Bella defeated Paige due to distraction by Tyson Kidd. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, Natalya defeated Nikki via submission. On the January 19 episode of Raw, after Paige and Natalya defeated Summer Rae and Alicia Fox, it was announced that The Bella Twins (Brie and Nikki) would face Paige and Natalya in a tag team match at the event.
On the January 5 episode of Raw, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd attacked Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods, which let Adam Rose to defeat Big E. On the January 19 episode, Big E and Kofi defeated Cesaro and Kidd. Later in the night, it was announced that The New Day would face Cesaro, Kidd and Rose in a six-man tag team elimination match on the Royal Rumble Kickoff Show. On January 25, it was changed to a tag team match with Cesaro and Kidd (accompanied by Rose) vs. Big E and Kingston (accompanied by Woods) due to Woods being unable to compete.
On the December 29 episode of Raw, The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) made their WWE debut. Over the next few weeks, the duo would easily defeat local preliminary wrestlers and compare themselves to famous tag teams, like The Road Warriors. On the January 19 episode of Raw, the Ascension were confronted and attacked by the New World Order(nWo), the APA and New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn and Road Dogg) after the Ascension interfered in the nWo reunion segment. Later in the night, it was announced that the Ascension would face the New Age Outlaws at the event.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeJerry LawlerJohn "Bradshaw" LayfieldSpanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraMarcelo RodriguezInterviewerTom PhillipsRing announcersLillian GarciaEden StilesRefereesMike ChiodaJohn ConeDan EnglerRod ZapataDarrick MooreChad PattonPre-show PanelRenee YoungBooker TCorey GravesByron Saxton
Pre-show During the Royal Rumble Kickoff pre-show, Cesaro and Tyson Kidd (accompanied by Adam Rose and Natalya) faced The New Day (Big E and Kofi Kingston, accompanied by Xavier Woods). Kingston and Big E were in control for most of the match until Cesaro executed a European uppercut on Kingston (from the outside) and Kidd executed a fisherman's neckbreaker on Kingston to secure a decisive victory.
Preliminary matches The actual pay-per-view opened with The Ascension (Konnor and Viktor) facing The New Age Outlaws (Road Dogg and Billy Gunn). The Ascension had control for the majority of the match, however, Gunn came back with a tilt-a-whirl slam and positioned Viktor for the "Famouser". Viktor made a blind tag to Konnor and executed the "Fall of Man" on Gunn for the win.
Next was the WWE Tag Team Championship match between The Miz and Damien Mizdow and The Usos (Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso). During the match, The Miz refused to tag Mizdow into the match, but Mizdow made a few saves. Miz executed a "Skull Crushing Finale" on Jey for a near-fall. Mizdow did the same to Jey but earned a near-fall again. The Usos won the match with a "Samoan Splash" on Miz.
After that, The Bella Twins (Brie Bella and Divas Champion Nikki Bella) faced Paige and Natalya. Nikki executed a forearm smash on Natalya for the victory.
In the fourth match, Brock Lesnar (accompanied by Paul Heyman) defended the WWE World Heavyweight Championship against John Cena and Seth Rollins in a triple threat match. Lesnar dominated the match early with multiple Suplexes on both Cena and Rollins, at one point even executing a double German suplex on Rollins' associates J&J Security, briefly taking them out of the match. Lesnar then applied the Kimura Lock on Cena, but Rollins broke it up. Cena executed an Attitude Adjustment on Lesnar, but Rollins threw Cena out of the ring to steal a pin attempt, but Lesnar kicked out at one. Lesnar caught Rollins and executed an F-5 on him, but Cena broke up the pin. Cena executed three more Attitude Adjustments on Lesnar, but Rollins broke up the pin. Rollins then executed a Curb Stomp on Lesnar, but Cena broke up the pin. Cena tackled Lesnar through the barricade in the timekeeper's area, threw him to the steel steps, hit him with the same steel steps putting him on an announce table and Rollins finished the combo with a Diving Elbow Drop on him through it. Doctors came from backstage to check on and eventually attempt to stretcher out Lesnar. Cena eventually locked in the STF on Rollins, but J&J Security (Jamie Noble and Joey Mercury) interfered once more, resulting in Cena executing a Double Attitude Adjustment on Mercury and Noble, finally ending their involvement in the match. Cena then executed an Attitude Adjustment on Rollins and Rollins would execute a Curb Stomp on Cena in turn with both resulting in near-falls. Eventually, Rollins repositioned Cena and performed a Phoenix Splash on him, and was about to cover Cena. But; an angry Lesnar quickly recovered from the broken announcers table and rushed past the EMTs sent to check on him, returned to the ring, took down both men with German suplexes and one of those threw Cena out of the ring. Rollins tried to take advantage after landing on his feet after an attempted German from Lesnar failed; hit Lesnar twice with his Money in the Bank briefcase, and positioned the briefcase under Lesnar's head. As Rollins attempted a second Curb Stomp to Lesnar (with the briefcase still underneath his head), Lesnar countered with a second F-5 on Rollins to retain the title by pinfall.
Main event