The annual WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view, which features the highly entertaining Royal Rumble match itself, a match concept that was created by veteran WWE executive Pat Patterson, takes place this Sunday night in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Rumble match is a unique version of a Battle Royal, where two men enter the ring, and in timed intervals, which have ranged from one minute to three minutes over the years, new competitors will enter the match. To be eliminated from the match you must be thrown over the top rope, with both feet hitting the floor. This continues until there is only one man standing. The Rumble winner then goes on to receive a WWE World Heavyweight Championship match, usually at the WrestleMania pay-per-view later in the year.
The Royal Rumble is a rare match concept in that it is one of few where rabid wrestling fans will analyze it inside and out. Statistics are a big part of the Rumble, as nearly every year since the match began, fans will look at stats such as who eliminated the most competitors, who lasted in the match the longest, who lasted the least amount of time, and so on and so forth. We saw an example of the statistics craze in a cool video package on Monday’s RAW (which you can check out by clicking here).
On the next page, we’ve compiled a number of interesting statistics related to the annual event, which since 1988 has been one of the “big four” pay-per-views in WWE. Let’s take a look at some interesting facts connected to the unique match.
