Royal Rumble (2026)

The 2026 Royal Rumble, also promoted as Royal Rumble: Riyadh (Arabic: رويال رامبل, romanized: ruyal rambil), was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by the American professional wrestling promotion WWE. It was the 39th annual Royal Rumble and took place on Saturday, January 31, 2026, at Riyadh Season Stadium, a purpose-built temporary outdoor stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia as part of the 2025–2026 Riyadh Season. The event featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT WWE brand divisions, along with special appearances of wrestlers from WWE's Mexican sister promotion Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide.

This was the first traditional Royal Rumble to take place outside of North America, the 14th event WWE held in Saudi Arabia as part of its 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, the second to feature a Royal Rumble match after the Greatest Royal Rumble in April 2018, which was a non-traditional 50-man match, and the first of WWE's "Big Five" events to take place in the country. It was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on the ESPN app in the United States.

The event is based around the Royal Rumble match, and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. The men's winner could choose to challenge for Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship, while the women had the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42. The women's match, which was the opening bout, was won by Raw's Liv Morgan, while the men's match, which was the main event, was won by SmackDown's Roman Reigns, marking his second Royal Rumble victory, after 2015, and making him the 12th overall two-time winner.

In addition to the two Royal Rumble matches, two other matches were contested on the main card, as well as two dark matches before the event. In the other two televised matches, Gunther defeated AJ Styles by technical submission in a Career Threatening match, forcing Styles to retire, while Drew McIntyre defeated Sami Zayn to retain SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship. The event also saw the debut of Royce Keys, formerly known as Powerhouse Hobbs in All Elite Wrestling, as well as the returns of Brie Bella, Tiffany Stratton, and Chad Gable, the latter as the original El Grande Americano.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event that is traditionally held in January by the American company 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". The concept of the event is based around 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.

From 1988 up through the 2025 event, the Royal Rumble was held annually in North America, with the inaugural 1988 event in Canada and the rest in the United States. In early 2018, WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The first event in this partnership was the one-off Greatest Royal Rumble, which featured a 50-man Royal Rumble match. In May 2024, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, announced that the country was in talks with WWE to bring either the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania to the country in 2026 or 2027. On January 3, 2025, PWInsider reported that WWE would be holding the 2026 Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, with Fightful later confirming an official announcement would come during the Raw premiere on Netflix.

Ahead of the Netflix debut, WWE officially confirmed that the 39th Royal Rumble, and 14th event in the Saudi Arabian partnership, would be happening in Riyadh in January 2026 as part of the 2025–2026 Riyadh Season, an annual series of entertainment events that previously hosted WWE's Crown Jewel; the 2025 Crown Jewel was moved to Perth, Australia as a result. It was later confirmed that it would be held on Saturday, January 31 at a purpose-built temporary outdoor stadium called Riyadh Season Stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District. With the 2026 Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, the 2026 calendar year will host three events in the country instead of two, as 2025 only had one. This also returned the Royal Rumble to its traditional January slot as the 2025 event was held in February. The event primarily featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The January 30 episode of Friday Night SmackDown was also held at the same venue. The main theme song was "Heavy Is the Crown" by Linkin Park.

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2026, the men and women could choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 42; the men could choose Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Championship, while the women had the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship.

Broadcast outlets

The event was available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, the WWE Network in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Abema in Japan. This was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on ESPN in the United States, as WWE's contract with Peacock to air main roster PPV and livestreaming events expired at the conclusion of Clash in Paris in August 2025.

Storylines

The event included four matches that resulted from scripted storylines. 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 the January 9 episode of SmackDown, the brand's General Manager Nick Aldis announced that a tournament would begin the following week, with eight wrestlers competing against each other in four singles matches, with the winners advancing to a fatal four-way match at Saturday Night's Main Event XLIII, and the winner of that bout would earn an Undisputed WWE Championship match at the Royal Rumble. Later that night, Drew McIntyre defeated Cody Rhodes to win the title, confirming his status as the defending champion. At Saturday Night's Main Event XLIII on January 24, Sami Zayn won the fatal four-way. Additionally, as McIntyre's win over Rhodes had an extra stipulation in that Rhodes would not receive an automatic rematch for the title and would instead have to earn one, Rhodes became the first to declare himself for the men's Royal Rumble match.

At Saturday Night's Main Event XLII on December 13, 2025, Gunther defeated John Cena in the latter's retirement match by making Cena tap out. Over the following episodes of Raw, Gunther continuously gloated about making Cena tap out. Several wrestlers took issue with this, including AJ Styles, who confronted Gunther several times. During the Raw on Netflix Anniversary Show on January 5, 2026, Styles interrupted Gunther, however, Gunther did not allow Styles to speak, resulting in Styles slapping Gunther. They faced each other on the next episode where during the match, Gunther feigned a tap out during a Calf Crusher by Styles out of sight of the referee. Styles released the hold thinking he had won and during the distraction, Gunther delivered a low blow and a Powerbomb on Styles to win the match. The following week, Styles interrupted Gunther and challenged him to a rematch at the Royal Rumble. Gunther initially declined but later proposed that he would accept if Styles put his career on the line, as during the Crown Jewel Kickoff pre-show in October 2025, Styles stated that he would retire in 2026. Later that night after consulting his wife, Styles accepted, with Raw General Manager Adam Pearce making the match official.

Event

Preliminary matches

The event began with the women's Royal Rumble match. Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss began the match as the first and second entrants, respectively, and rather than fight each other, decided to wait for Kiana James, who entered third. Nia Jax entered fourth and dominated all three. Lola Vice entered sixth but was taken out before long by Jax. James performed a Samoan Drop on Jax and the remaining competitors tried to eliminate Jax. Candice LeRae entered seventh and formed a brief alliance with Jax, her former tag team partner. Jordynne Grace entered eighth and eliminated LeRae, Vice, and Ivy Nile (who entered fifth). Flair and Bliss attempted to eliminate Jax; Flair knocked Jax off the ring apron, inadvertently eliminating Bliss. Becky Lynch entered ninth, immediately reigniting an historic rivalry with Flair. Both rolled out of the ring and brawled at ringside. Nattie entered 13th and was targeted by Maxxine Dupri who entered 12th. When Lynch eliminated Dupri, Nattie eliminated Lynch.