Let's Rumble

The road to Wrestlemania starts right now! The kickoff of the Pay Per View year for World Wrestling Entertainment is here, with the first of the big four events tonight!. The Royal Rumble is here! Winners of tonight's Rumble matches will get a title shot at any title of their choosing at Wrestlemania. There are other matches on the card, but the Rumble are the big ones.

Here's the full card:

Sasha Banks (C) vs Carmella for the Smackdown Women's Title

Asuka & Charlotte (C) vs Shayna Baszler & Nia Jax for the Women's Tag Team Titles

Drew McIntyre (C) vs Goldberg for the WWE Championship

Roman Regins (C) vs Kevin Owens Last Man Standing Match for the Universal Championship

Women's Royal Rumble (Nia Jax, Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Bayley, Mandy Rose, Dana Brooke, Peyton Royce, Alexa Bliss, Shayna Baszler, Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott, Tamina, Natalya and 17 more)

Men's Royal Rumble (Daniel Bryan, Bobby Lashley, AJ Styles, Randy Orton, Otis, The Miz, Jey Uso, Cesaro, Jeff Hardy, Sami Zayn, Dolph Ziggler, Shinsuke Nakamura, Big E, John Morrison, Sheamus, Mustafa Ali, Edge, King Corbin, Rey Mysterio, Dominik Mysterio, Braun Strowman and 9 more).

Rumble matches are always the best part of the big event. There's a lot of history behind it too. Some of the numbers and records for the big even are pretty eye opening.

For the men's Rumble, if you come in at number 27, you got the best odds. That number has produced the most winners at four (Big John Studd 1989, Yokozuna 1993, Bret Hart co-winner 1994, and Stone Cold Steve Austin 2001). If you draw 26, 21, 20, 15, 12, 11, 9 7, 6, or 4, you haven't had any luck as none of those numbers have never won. The coveted final number, 30, has produced three winners (Undertaker 2007, John Cena 2008 and Triple H 2016). Two men ever have started at number 1 and gone the distance (Shawn Michaels 1995 and Chris Benoit 2004).

Ever since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble has been granted a shot at the title at Wrestlemania. Since 2005, the winner of the Rumble got to choose which title he would challenge for at the show of shows. The last two Rumble winners, Drew McIntyre and Seth Rollins, have gone on to win the title at Mania, giving the Rumble winners a 16-10 all time record in the Mania main event. The only two times ever that the Rumble winner didn't challenge for the title were Stone Cold in 1997 (due to re entering the rumble after elimination which wasn't seen by the refs) and Mr McMahon in 1999 (he gave up the title shot which ended up going to Stone Cold a month later).

Only five men in history have ever lasted an hour or more in the Rumble match (Greatest Royal Rumble isn't being counted here). They are Rey Mysterio in 2006 (1:02:12 winner), Chris Benoit in 2004 (01:01:13 winner), Bob Backlund in 1993 (01:01:10), Triple H in 2006 (01:00:16) and Chris Jericho in 2017 (01:00:10). Brock Lesnar set the record last year with 13 eliminations in a single Rumble, and four other men have eliminated ten or more opponents in a single match. The others were  Hulk Hogan in 1989 (10), Steve Austin in 1997 (10), Kane in 2001 (11), and Roman Regins in 2017 (12).

The Women's Rumble is only three years old, with Asuka, Becky Lynch and Charlotte being the only winners. Natalya has the record for longevity in the match at 56:01, which was set in 2019. Shayna Baszler and Bianca Belair set the record last year with 8 eliminations each.

This years Rumble should be an enjoyable show, it usually is!