Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Royal Rumble
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It takes place in January of each year. The main event is the actual Royal Rumble; however, other matches also take place at the event.
The actual Royal Rumble is a thirty-man event, which begins with two men in the ring, then other wrestlers come and join the fray one at a time, at timed intervals. The order of entry is decided by random draw. A wrestler is eliminated from the Rumble by exiting the ring over the top rope and having both feet touch the floor. The winner of the event is the last wrestler remaining after all others have been eliminated, and ever since the 1993 event that wrestler goes on to challenge the champion at WrestleMania.
The first Royal Rumble took place January 24, 1988 in Hamilton, Ontario. The winner of that Royal Rumble was Jim Duggan.
Royal Rumble winners
| Royal Rumble winners | ||
| Year: | Winner(s): | |
|---|---|---|
| 1988 | "Hacksaw" Jim Duggan | |
| 1989 | Big John Studd | |
| 1990 | Hulk Hogan | |
| 1991 | Hulk Hogan | |
| 1992 | Ric Flair | |
| 1993 | Yokozuna | |
|
19941 | Bret Hart | |
| Lex Luger | ||
| 1995 | Shawn Michaels | |
| 1996 | Shawn Michaels | |
| 1997 | Stone Cold Steve Austin | |
| 1998 | Stone Cold Steve Austin | |
| 1999 | Vince McMahon | |
| 2000 | The Rock | |
| 2001 | Stone Cold Steve Austin | |
| 2002 | Triple H | |
| 2003 | Brock Lesnar | |
| 2004 | Chris Benoit | |
| 2005 | Batista | |
1: Both, Bret Hart and Lex Luger were declared winners when it was decided they both touched the floor at the exact same time.
Facts and trivia
- The first Royal Rumble in 1988 aired on the USA Network.
- While the #1 draw may seem like the worst possible position, it's actually prety good; the first entrant has won twice at the Royal Rumble: Shawn Michaels in 1995, and Chris Benoit in 2004.
- There have been seventeen Royal Rumble matches and fourteen winners. Multiple winners include Steve Austin (three times -- 1997, 1998, 2001), Shawn Michaels (twice -- 1995, 1996) and Hulk Hogan (twice -- 1990, 1991).
- Despite being ostensibly the best draw possible, no wrestler has ever won the Royal Rumble from the #30 position. The closest was Brock Lesnar in 2003, who won with #29.
- The record for total eliminations by a single competitor is ten. This record is held by Kane; in 2001, Chris Jericho; in 2003 and Randy Orton; in 2004.
- The 1991 Royal Rumble was the first to have a WWF Title Match on the card featuring The Ultimate Warrior defending the title against Sgt. Slaughter.
Individual Royal Rumble events
The contents of this article is licensed from www.wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License. Click here to see the transparent copy and copyright details