The 2023 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling premium live event (PLE) produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 36th annual Royal Rumble and took place on Saturday, January 28, 2023, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas. The event was held as part of the Alamodome's 30th-anniversary celebration and was the third Royal Rumble to take place at the venue, after 1997 and 2017. It was subsequently the fourth overall Royal Rumble held in San Antonio, including the 2007 event at the AT&T Center.
The event was based around the Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-person battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the respective men's and women's winners received a world championship match at WrestleMania. For the 2023 event, only the women's winner received a choice of which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 39. Due to Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship being held and defended together as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship since WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, the men's winner received a match for the undisputed title, while the women had their choice between the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship. This was the first and only Royal Rumble since 2016 in which the men only had one choice. While the men's Royal Rumble match is typically the main event of the card, this was the eighth Royal Rumble event in which the match was not the main event, after 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, 2013, and 2018, the latter of which the main event was the inaugural women's Rumble match. It was also the first Royal Rumble event where the eponymous match opened the show.
Five matches were contested on the card. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. On the undercard, Raw's Rhea Ripley won the 2023 Women's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating SmackDown's Liv Morgan, becoming the first woman to win the match from the number one spot as well as setting the record for longest time spent in the women's Rumble at 1:01:08 (which was broken in 2024 by Bayley at 1:03:03), while Raw's Cody Rhodes won the 2023 Men's Royal Rumble match in the show's opener by last eliminating No. 1 entrant Gunther from SmackDown, with Gunther setting the record for longest time spent in a men's 30-man Rumble at 1:11:40 and the second man to draw No. 1 and emerge as runner-up. In another prominent match, Bray Wyatt, in his first televised match since WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, defeated LA Knight in a Pitch Black match in a cross-promotion with Mountain Dew. This would also be Wyatt's final televised match as he contracted COVID-19 the following month, which exacerbated a heart issue and he died of a heart attack in August. The event also saw the return of color commentator Pat McAfee, who joined Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary, Cody Rhodes, Edge, Beth Phoenix, Asuka, Chelsea Green and Nia Jax made returns, and Logan Paul made his first Royal Rumble appearance. Former WWE wrestler Michelle McCool also made an appearance in the women's Royal Rumble match, while WWE Hall of Famer and NXT commentator Booker T appeared in the men's.
This was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on Disney+ in the Philippines, following the shutdown of its version of the WWE Network in November. It was also WWE's first PLE to livestream on Binge in Australia following the merger of its version of the WWE Network under Binge just five days before the event on January 23. This was the last Royal Rumble in which the women's world championships were named after their respective brands, as during the 2023 WWE Draft, the titles switched brands with the Raw and SmackDown titles renamed as WWE Women's Championship and Women's World Championship, respectively, in June. A new World Heavyweight Championship was also introduced in April and became exclusive to Raw after the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship became exclusive to SmackDown in the draft, giving future men's Royal Rumble winners two choices again.
Production Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling premium live event (PLE), 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 and then also simulcast on WWE's livestreaming platforms since 2015. It is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four", and as of August 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five", along with Money in the Bank. It is named after and centered on the Royal Rumble match.
Announced on September 7, 2022, the 36th Royal Rumble was scheduled to be held on Saturday, January 28, 2023, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, featuring wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. It was held as part of the Alamodome's 30th-anniversary celebration and was the third Royal Rumble event to be held at the venue, after the 1997 and 2017 events, and the fourth overall to be held in San Antonio, including the 2007 event, which was at the AT&T Center. Tickets went on sale on September 30, 2022, with premium hospitality packages also available. The official theme song was "Sold Out" by country music singer Hardy, who performed the song live during the event.
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 traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2023, just the women's match winner received a choice of which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 39. Due to Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship being held and defended together as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship since WrestleMania 38 in April 2022, the men's winner received a match for the undisputed title, while the women had their choice between the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship.
Broadcast outlets The PLE was available through traditional PPV outlets worldwide. It was also available to livestream on Peacock in the United States, Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia, Disney+ in the Philippines, Binge in Australia, and the WWE Network everywhere else. It was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on Disney+ in the Philippines, following the shutdown of its version of the WWE Network in November 2022, and it was WWE's first PLE to livestream on Binge in Australia after the Australian version of the WWE Network merged under Foxtel's channel Binge on January 23, just five days before the Royal Rumble.
Storylines The event included five matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
On December 26, 2022, WWE's YouTube channel promoted a "Pitch Black match" to be held at the Royal Rumble in a cross-promotion with Mountain Dew for the return of the "Pitch Black" flavor. On the December 30 episode of SmackDown, following a couple of months of alleged attacks by Bray Wyatt on LA Knight, with Wyatt claiming it was someone named Uncle Howdy, Knight challenged Wyatt to a match at the Royal Rumble, and Wyatt accepted. Howdy then appeared and attacked Wyatt. It was later confirmed that this would be the Pitch Black match. This would also notably be Wyatt's first televised match since WrestleMania 37 in April 2021. During an appearance on the WWE After The Bell podcast on January 4, 2023, Knight said the only thing he knew about the match was that it would essentially be a street fight "kind of in the dark". On the January 6 episode of SmackDown, commentator Michael Cole further stated that the match would be "anything goes" and could only be won via pinfall or submission, but nothing else was known.
At Survivor Series: WarGames, Kevin Owens, who had past issues with Roman Reigns, was one of the members of the opposing team in a WarGames match against Reigns's team, The Bloodline. The two previously feuded over the Universal Championship only for Owens to constantly lose due to interference from members of The Bloodline, including their manager Paul Heyman—Owens and Reigns's last title match was at the 2021 Royal Rumble. The Bloodline was victorious at Survivor Series thanks to Sami Zayn—Owens's former best friend—betraying Owens to show his loyalty to The Bloodline. Despite the loss, Owens continued to target The Bloodline over the next few weeks and Owens teamed with a returning John Cena to defeat Reigns and Zayn on the December 30, 2022, episode of SmackDown, where Owens pinned Zayn. The following week, Owens challenged Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble, which was made official.
On the December 12, 2022, episode of Raw, Alexa Bliss defeated Bayley to become the number one contender for the Raw Women's Championship. After the match, champion Bianca Belair congratulated Bliss and as the two hugged, Bray Wyatt's logo appeared on the TitanTron (due to Bliss's past association with Wyatt) and Bliss positioned Belair for a Sister Abigail but came back to her senses before performing the move. The following week, Belair and Bliss were interviewed backstage, where at the end of the segment, Wyatt's logo again appeared on the screen and Bliss hit Belair over the head with a vase of flowers. During her championship match against Belair on January 2, 2023, episode, Bliss was distracted by people wearing Uncle Howdy masks, and after Wyatt's logo appeared on the TitanTron, Bliss attacked the referee, forcing a disqualification and allowing Belair to retain. After the match, Bliss attacked Belair, performing two DDTs on the steel stairs. On the January 16 episode, Belair challenged Bliss to a championship rematch at the Royal Rumble, and Bliss accepted. The two then brawled with Bliss getting the upper hand after an appearance by Howdy.
On the January 16, 2023, episode of Raw, after weeks of footage showing Cody Rhodes's journey to recovery from a torn pec he suffered before Hell in a Cell in June 2022, Rhodes announced that he would be returning from his injury as an entrant in the men's Royal Rumble match.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael ColeCorey GravesPat McAfeeSpanish commentatorsMarcelo RodriguezJerry SotoRing announcersMike Rome Samantha Irvin SingerHardyRefereesDanilo AnfibioJason AyersShawn BennettDan EnglerDaphanie LaShaunnEddie OrengoChad PattonCharles RobinsonRyan TranRod ZapataPre-show panelKayla BraxtonKevin PatrickPeter RosenbergBooker TJerry Lawler
Preliminary matches