History Wrestling / RoyalRumble

** The 2024 Women's Rumble had Wrestling/{{Naomi}}, Jordynne Grace and Jade Cargill.

** The early Royal Rumble matches also did not play entrance music for its entrants, they simply walked out. This deprives those first number of Rumbles of the famous pops for major names and surprise entrants.

** Triple H became the fourth previous Rumble winner to finish as runner-up.

** Triple H becomes the first person to finish as runner-up consecutively and the third person overall to finish in this position twice.

** Brock Lesnar eliminated 13 men, setting the record for most eliminations in a traditional Rumble and tying the official record with Wrestling/BraunStrowman. Brock entered at 1 and scored his eliminations consecutively before [=McIntyre=] eliminated him with an assist from Ricochet.

** [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Lana]] came out as the #28 entrant, but a storyline ankle injury suffered on the pre-show (where she had been at ringside for Rusev, and likely sustained in part due to wearing high heels during the pre-show match) kept her from competing. Becky Lynch was allowed to take her spot.

* '''[=WrestleMania=] 39 Result''': Ripley won the Rumble as a Raw wrestler but chose to challenge Wrestling/CharlotteFlair for the [=SmackDown=] Women's Championship. At the event, she defeated Charlotte to win the [=SmackDown=] Women's Championship.

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or [[Wrestling/{{Walter}} Gunther]] holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Wrestling/RheaRipley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023. The record for ''shortest'' iron(wo)man time belongs to John Cena in 2010, as his time of only 22:11 weirdly gave him the honors that year in a Rumble with 40 men. This is far from a guarantee of actually winning, the ironman/woman has only won 10 of 43 Rumbles and neither Danielson nor Gunther won the matches they set the record in, though Ripley did. Wrestling/SethRollins is the only one of those winners to enter after #3 , winning as the 10th entry (with a time of 43:00) in 2019. Wrestling/TripleH (in 1996) has an ironman record with a twist; he lasted 48 minutes without making a single elimination.

* Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar are tied for the single match elimination record with 13. Wrestling/BiancaBelair and Wrestling/ShaynaBaszler are tied for the women with 8 apiece.

** Wrestling/{{Kane}} has appeared in more Royal Rumbles than any other wrestler in history (regardless of whether or not you count Glenn Jacobs' previous gimmicks towards his total) and the most combined eliminations from his Royal Rumble appearances, yet he has never won.
** Subverted by Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/TripleH, Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/RomanReigns, Wrestling/RandyOrton, Wrestling/CharlotteFlair, and Wrestling/DrewMcIntyre. HHH already won the Rumble before he became a two time runner-up, while Orton already won ''twice'' when he finished 2nd again. The rest have already won a single Rumble during the second time they finished in the spot (in Reigns' case, he would finish second three more times, which gives him a record which will be detailed below). In fact Cena and HHH won the Rumble again after their second stints as second placers.

* BestForLast: Theoretically, the last entrant has the most advantage in the Rumble match due to still being fresh while the other participants are already worn out. Indeed, the #30 spot produced the most winners with five [[labelnote:LIST]]Wrestling/TheUndertaker in 2007, Wrestling/JohnCena in 2008, Wrestling/TripleH in 2016, Wrestling/BrockLesnar in 2022; Lesnar himself has previously won the Rumble as #29 further proving this, Wrestling/CodyRhodes in 2023[[/labelnote]], while similarly late entries #27[[labelnote:LIST]]Wrestling/BigJohnStudd in 1989, Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}} in 1993, Wrestling/BretHart in 1994; shared his Rumble victory with Wrestling/LexLuger who entered fairly late himself at 23, Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin in 2001[[/labelnote]] and #28[[labelnote:LIST]]Wrestling/{{Batista}} in 2005 and 2014, Wrestling/BeckyLynch in 2019 (as an emergency substitution for an injured [[Wrestling/RusevAndLana Lana]]), Wrestling/RondaRousey in 2022[[/labelnote]] are tied with second by producing four winners. Neither #40 in 2011 nor #50 in the ''Greatest'' Rumble won those respective matches, although both were won by a number never before drawn in a Rumble. In the second Rumble from 1989, Wrestling/TedDiBiase tried to take advantage of this by "buying" the No. 30 position; that, or he learned who drew No. 30 and paid off that wrestler to enter with his number. [=DiBiase=] saw his scheme blow up in his face when he was beaten down by a newly-turned-face Wrestling/BigJohnStudd and was the last elimination.

* CainAndAbel: As the saying goes, it's every man or woman for themselves. Siblings like the Hardy Boyz and the Bella Twins were more than ready to fight and backstab each other if they were in the Rumble at the same time. This is averted at certain times, such as by Wrestling/TheNewDay in 2020, and The [[{{Wrestling/Kane}} Brothers]] of [[Wrestling/TheUndertaker Destruction]] in 2001, in which cases the teammates will refuse to fight one another. Interestingly, the Rumble has never come down to the final two participants being members of the same team or stable.

** First happened in 1994 when Wrestling/BretHart and Lex Luger eliminated each other. The event has only been repeated itself since in 2005, when the match was simply restarted when Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/{{Batista}} eliminated each other. While the former was done on purpose, the latter was an accident. It is one of the few times that instant replay can be used to decide a match in WWE. There are three contingencies for this event according to an episode of WWE's [=YouTube=] series, ''5 Things...'' - declare both of the last two men the winner, as seen in 1994; order [[TiebreakerRound Sudden Death]] Overtime, and have the last two men fight until one is thrown over the top rope again, as in 2005; or restart the match in its entirety, which hasn't happened (yet).

* ExactWords: The rules state that “both feet” must touch the floor for a participant to be eliminated from the match, leading to many of the more athletic participants (especially Kofi Kingston) being taking advantage of this by either keeping one foot off the floor, being held by an ally who was conveniently eliminated immediately before, or is about to enter the match, or jumping to the barrier and back. {{Wrestling/Naomi|Wrestler}} made a RunningGag of this, doing everything from walking along the barrier, climbing into a chair and pulling it with her hands to get back to the ring, or using a plank to walk from the barrier to the ring steps without touching the floor.

** In the 2021 Women's Rumble match Rhea Ripley demonstrated that TransformationIsAFreeAction does not apply when Alexa Bliss started transitioning into her Fiend persona by quickly running up behind Alexa and throwing her over the top rope as soon as the screens in the Thunder Dome started to show the image of a purple sky.

** Wrestling/RomanReigns and Wrestling/KevinOwens have faced each other for the Universal Championship in this event three times (2017, 2021, and 2023), with Kevin winning the first bout while Reigns won the latter two.

* LiteralCliffhanger: Expect to see a lot of wrestlers hanging to the ropes for dear life.

** Shawn Michaels became almost catatonic on the outside of the ring after Wrestling/{{Batista}} eliminated him in 2010. Then, after a HeroicBSOD, he started manhandling and [[FinishingMove superkicking]] referees out of frustration despite being a {{face}} (Michaels had become [[SanitySlippage obsessed]] with redeeming his ''[=WrestleMania=]'' XXV loss to Wrestling/TheUndertaker, and winning the Royal Rumble match was his only guaranteed chance).

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or [[Wrestling/{{Walter}} Gunther]] holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Wrestling/RheaRipley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023. The record for ''shortest'' iron(wo)man time belongs to John Cena in 2010, as his time of only 22:11 weirdly gave him the honors that year in a Rumble with 40 men. This is far from a guarantee of actually winning, the ironman/woman has only won 10 of 43 Rumbles and neither Danielson nor Gunther won the matches they set the record in, though Ripley did. Wrestling/SethRollins is the only one of those winners to enter after #3 , winning as the 10th entry (with a time of 43:00) in 2019.

[[folder:N-U]]

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: The winner of the first Greatest Royal Rumble (Wrestling/BraunStrowman) was awarded a championship belt, which disappeared afterwards and is never mentioned again.

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or [[Wrestling/{{Walter}} Gunther]] holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Wrestling/RheaRipley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023. The record for ''shortest'' iron(wo)man time belongs to John Cena in 2010, as his time of only 22:11 weirdly gave him the honors that year in a Rumble with 40 men. This is far from a guarantee of actually winning, the ironman/woman has only won 10 of 43 Rumbles and neither Danielson nor Gunther won the matches they set the record in, though Ripley did. Wrestling/SethRollins is the only one of those winners to enter after #3, winning as the 10th entry in 2019.

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or [[Wrestling/{{Walter}} Gunther]] holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Wrestling/RheaRipley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023. The record for ''shortest'' iron(wo)man time belongs to John Cena in 2010, as his time of only 22:11 weirdly gave him the honors that year in a Rumble with 40 men. This is far from a guarantee of actually winning, the ironman/woman has only won 10 Rumbles and neither Danielson nor Gunther won the matches they set the record in, though Ripley did.

* Wrestling/BryanDanielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or [[Wrestling/{{Walter}} Gunther]] holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Wrestling/RheaRipley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023.

** Wrestling/{{Naomi}} has taken a page from Kofi's book and made a running gag of somehow saving herself from elimination and creatively getting back in the ring. Sadly, she's usually eliminated for real soon after.

** In the 2019 Women's Royal Rumble, Mandy Rose, after being eliminated by Wrestling/{{Naomi}}, attacked her and eliminated her.

** In the 2022 Women's Royal Rumble, Wrestling/SonyaDeville, after being eliminated by Wrestling/{{Naomi}}, interfered and eliminated her.

* ExactWords: The rules state that “both feet” must touch the floor for a participant to be eliminated from the match, leading to many of the more athletic participants (especially Kofi Kingston) being taking advantage of this by either keeping one foot off the floor, being held by an ally who was conveniently eliminated immediately before, or is about to enter the match, or jumping to the barrier and back. {{Wrestling/Naomi}} made a RunningGag of this, doing everything from walking along the barrier, climbing into a chair and pulling it with her hands to get back to the ring, or using a plank to walk from the barrier to the ring steps without touching the floor.

** During the first Women's Royal Rumble in 2018, Wrestling/{{Naomi}} combined three of Kofi's saves in ''one''. She landed on the guardrail, walked her way on the guardrail towards guest ring announcer Maria Menounos, convinced her to give up her chair, put her feet on said chair, and ''walked with her hands'' to the ring steps with her feet still not touching the floor thanks to still being on the chair. Corey Graves lampshaded the similarities to Kofi, wondering if Naomi had been watching one of Kofi's Rumble highlight reels. Naomi has made a RunningGag of this in seeming to be eliminated, only to somehow keep her feet from hitting the floor and then creatively making her way back into the ring. Sadly, she's [[DownerEnding usually eliminated for real soon after.]]

* '''[=WrestleMania=] X Result''': The concept of the Triple Threat Match didn't exist yet, as a result, a compromise was reached: Lex Luger would face Wrestling/{{Yokozuna}} for the WWF Championship in the middle of [=WrestleMania=] and the winner of that match would face Bret Hart in the main event (in the interest of fairness, Bret would also wrestle his brother Wrestling/{{Owen|Hart}} in the opening match of the night). Luger lost to Yokozuna by disqualification after shoving Special Guest Referee [[Wrestling/CurtHennig Mr. Perfect]], but Bret would defeat Yokozuna in the main event to win the WWF Championship.

** The only 20-Man Rumble and the only event to air on cable rather than PPV.

* Unsurprisingly, #30 has the most winners (across both genders), with 5. What probably ''is'' surprising is that the #1 entry has won 4 times and the #2 entry (which is essentially the same thing as being #1) has won twice. #27 and #28 have also produced 4 winners each. Both Rumbles that had more than 30 people had the winner enter after #30 (Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio from #38 in 2010, Wrestling/BraunStrowman from #41 in the ''Greatest Royal Rumble''.) Batista is the only person to win twice with the same number, as both his wins came from the #28 spot.

* Unsurprisingly, #30 has the most winners (across both genders), with 5. What probably ''is'' surprising is that the #1 entry has won 4 times and the #2 entry (which is essentially the same thing as being #1) has won twice. #27 and #28 have also produced 4 winners each. Both Rumbles that had more than 30 people had the winner enter after #30 (Wrestling/AlbertoDelRio from #38 in 2010, Wrestling/BraunStrowman from #41 in the ''Greatest Royal Rumble''.)

* Royal Rumble winners have won 20 of their automatic ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' title matches and lost 14, with 4 winners not getting the automatic title shot[[note]]Steve Austin in 1997, Wrestling/VinceMcMahon in 1999, John Cena in 2008, and Triple H in 2016. If those numbers seem a bit off remember that the 1994 Rumble had two winners and the ''[=WrestleMania=]'' title match stipulation wasn't added until the sixth Rumble in 1993[[/note]], though if you want to include Triple H's defense of the title he won in the 2016 match at ''[=Wrestlemania=]'' 32 it drops to 20-15. Rumble winners had a 7 year win streak from 2001 to 2007. The men are 16-12, the women are 4-2.

* Braun Strowman and Brock Lesnar are tied for the single match elimination record with 13. Wrestling/BiancaBelair and Wrestling/ShaynaBaszler are tied for the women with 8 a piece.

* In 43 attempts[[note]]42 attempts for numbers 21-30, the first Rumble only had 2 people[[/note]] entry numbers 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, and 26 have never won.

* Royal Rumble winners have won 20 of their automatic ''Wrestling/WrestleMania'' title matches and lost 14, with 4 winners not getting the automatic title shot[[note]]Steve Austin in 1997, Wrestling/VinceMcMahon in 1999, Wrestling/JohnCena in 2008, and Triple H in 2016. If those numbers seem a bit off remember that the 1994 Rumble had two winners and the ''[=WrestleMania=]'' title match stipulation wasn't added until the sixth Rumble in 1993[[/note]], though if you want to include Triple H's defense of the title he won in the 2016 match at ''[=Wrestlemania=]'' 32 it drops to 20-15. Rumble winners had a 7 year win streak from 2001 to 2007. The men are 16-12, the women are 4-2.

* In 43 attempts entry numbers 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 15, 20, 21, and 26 have never won.

* Wrestling/BraunStrowman and Brock Lesnar are tied for the single match elimination record with 13. Wrestling/BiancaBelair and Wrestling/ShaynaBaszler are tied for the women with 8 a piece.

* Wrestling/SteveAustin is the only person to win the match more than twice, with 3 (1997, 1998, and 2001). 8 guys have won it twice (in chronological order of their second win): Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/{{Batista}}, Triple H, Randy Orton, Wrestling/{{Edge}}, and Wrestling/BrockLesnar. There's yet to be a two-time women's Rumble winner, but there's also only been 6 women's Rumbles.

* Unsurprisingly, #30 has the most winners (across both genders), with 5. What probably ''is'' surprising is that the #1 entry has won 4 times and the #2 entry (which is essentially the same thing as being #1) has won twice. #27 and #28 have also produced 4 winners each.
* Given that he has the most appearances it's not a shock that Kane also the most total eliminations, with 45 (46 if you count the one he got as Isaac Yankeem). Shawn Michaels and Wrestling/TheUndertaker are next on the list with 40, Rhea Ripley leads the women's side with 20.

!! Royal Rumble records, stats, and oddities[[note]]Courtesy of [[https://www.smarkoutmoment.com/p/wwe-royal-rumble-statistics-records.html this website]], current as of the 2023 show

* Kane holds the record for most appearances, with 18. Add in his entry to the 1996 Rumble as Isaac Yankeem D.D.S. and his 1997 entry as Fake Diesel and Glenn Jacobs has 20 in total. Dolph Ziggler is the runner up with 15, Randy Orton and Kofi Kingston each have 14.
* Dana Brooke, Liv Morgan, Tamina, and Natalya are the only wrestlers to appear in all six women's Rumbles.
* Chris Jericho has the longest cumulative time in Rumble matches at 4:59:33, spread out over 11 entries. Randy Orton, Rey Mysterio, and Triple H have also spent over 4 hours in Rumble matches. Charlotte Flair is the current women's record holder, at 2:21:28 over four matches.
* Bryan Danielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or Gunther holds the record at 1:11:40 in the 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Rhea Ripley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023.
* Steve Austin is the only person to win the match more than twice, with 3 (1997, 1998, and 2001). 8 guys have won it twice: Hulk Hogan, Shawn Michaels, John Cena, Batista, Triple H, Randy Orton, Edge, and Brock Lesnar. There's yet to be a two-time women's Rumble winner, but there's also only been 6 women's Rumbles.

* Given that he has the most appearances it's not a shock that Kane also the most total eliminations, with 45 (46 if you count the one he got as Isaac Yankeem). Shawn Michaels and The Undertaker are next on the list with 40, Rhea Ripley leads the women's side with 20.
* Braun Stroman and Brock Lesnar are tied for the single match elimination record with 13. Bianca Belair and Shayna Baszler are tied for the women with 8 a piece.

* Bryan Danielson holds the ironman record at 1:16:05 if you count the Greatest Royal Rumble, or Gunther holds the record at 1:11:40 in 2023 Rumble if you only count the ones in January. Rhea Ripley is the current ironwoman record holder at 1:01:08, also in 2023.

* Unsurprisingly, #30 has the most winners, with 5. What probably ''is'' surprising is that the #1 entry has won 4 times and the #2 entry (which is essentially the same thing as being #1) has won twice. #27 and #28 have also produced 4 winners each.

** First happened in 1994 when Wrestling/BretHart and Lex Luger eliminated each other. The event has only been repeated itself since in 2005, when the match was simply restarted when Wrestling/JohnCena and Wrestling/{{Batista}} eliminated each other. While the former was done on purpose, the latter was an accident. It is one of the few times that instant replay can be used to decide a match in WWE. There are three contingencies for this event according to an episode of WWE's [=YouTube=] series, ''5 Things...'' - declare both of the last two men the winner, as seen in 1994; order SuddenDeath Overtime, and have the last two men fight until one is thrown over the top rope again, as in 2005; or restart the match in its entirety, which hasn't happened (yet).

* HeelFaceTurn: The 2023 edition has Wrestling/SamiZayn hitting Wrestling/RomanReigns from behind with the steel chair, tired of his abuse of him and his brutal beatdown of Kevin Owens.

** Wrestling/StoneColdSteveAustin has won the event a record three times, while Wrestling/HulkHogan, Wrestling/ShawnMichaels, Wrestling/TripleH, Wrestling/JohnCena, Wrestling/{{Edge|Wrestler}}, Wrestling/{{Batista}} and Wrestling/RandyOrton have all won twice.