Royal Rumble (2023)

The 2023 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 36th annual Royal Rumble and took place on Saturday, January 28, 2023, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the Alamodome's 30th-anniversary celebration, held for wrestlers from all three of WWE's brand divisions. It was the fourth Royal Rumble event to be held in San Antonio after the 1997, 2007, and 2017 events and the third to take place at the Alamodome, following 1997 and 2017. It was also WWE's first event to be livestreamed on Binge in Australia following the merger of the WWE Network under Binge in the country.

The event is based around the Royal Rumble match and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2023 event, only 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, the men's winner received a match for the tandem titles, while the women had their choice between the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship. While the Royal Rumble match is typically the main event of the card, this was the seventh Royal Rumble event in which the match was not the main event, after 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, and 2013. 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. For the Royal Rumble matches, Raw's Rhea Ripley won the women's match, 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 men's in the opening match by last eliminating #1 entrant Gunther, who also set the record for longest time spent in a men's 30-man Rumble at 1:11:40 and the second man to draw #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.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick event produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. 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 as part of the Alamodome's 30th-anniversary celebration. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. In addition to airing on pay-per-view worldwide, it was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in international markets. It was also WWE's first event to air on Binge in Australia after the Australian version of the WWE Network merged under Foxtel's channel Binge on January 23. Tickets went on sale on September 30 with premium hospitality packages also available. The official theme song of the event was "Sold Out" by country music singer Hardy, who performed the song live at the Royal Rumble.

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and 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, the men's winner received a match for the tandem titles, while the women had their choice between the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship.

Storylines

The event included five matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. 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' 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' last title match was at the 2021 Royal Rumble. The Bloodline was victorious at Survivor Series thanks to Sami Zayn—Owens' 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' 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' 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.