Royal Rumble (2022)

The 2022 Royal Rumble is the upcoming 35th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling event produced by WWE. It will be held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event will air on pay-per-view (PPV) worldwide and will be available to stream through Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network elsewhere, which will make it the first Royal Rumble to air on Peacock. It is scheduled to take place on January 29, 2022, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

Royal Rumble
PromotionWWE
Brand(s)Raw
SmackDown
DateJanuary 29, 2022
CitySt. Louis, Missouri
VenueThe Dome at America's Center
WWE Network event chronology
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Royal Rumble chronology
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Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) and WWE Network event, produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, originally dubbed the "Big Four",[1] and as of October 2021, it is considered one of the "Big Five" PPVs, along with Money in the Bank.[2] 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. The 2022 event will be the 35th event in the Royal Rumble chronology and is scheduled to be held on Saturday, January 29 at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri. It will feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands with a select few NXT wrestlers and WWE veterans expected to appear in both the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches.[3] It will also be the first Royal Rumble to air on Peacock after the American version of the WWE Network merged under Peacock in March 2021.[4]

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2022, the men and women can choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 38; the men can choose Raw's WWE Championship or SmackDown's Universal Championship, while the women can choose the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship.[5][6] In September 2021, NXT was rebranded as "NXT 2.0" and reverted to being WWE's developmental territory. While NXT's championships—the NXT Championship and NXT Women's Championship—were also eligible choices for the Rumble winners in 2020 and 2021, it has not yet been confirmed if NXT's championships will remain as eligible choices for the 2022 Royal Rumble.[7]

Storylines

The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portray heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results are predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands,[8][9] while storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.[10]

References
  1. Hamilton, Ian. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition. p. 160.
  2. Desilva, Kristen (October 25, 2021). "WWE's Money In The Bank coming to Las Vegas in July 2022". KVVU-TV. Retrieved October 30, 2021.
  3. Lambert, Jeremy (September 27, 2021). "WWE Announces Date And Location For Royal Rumble 2022". Fightful. Retrieved September 27, 2021.
  4. WWE.com Staff (March 8, 2021). "WWE Network to launch on Peacock March 18". WWE. Retrieved March 9, 2021.
  5. "Specialty Matches: Royal Rumble". WWE. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
  6. Waldman, Jon (February 2, 2005). "Statistical survival – breaking down the Royal Rumble". SLAM! Wrestling. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
  7. Wrestlenomics Staff (October 4, 2021). "The future of WWE NXT 2.0 on the USA Network". Wrestlenomics. Retrieved November 10, 2021.
  8. Grabianowski, Ed (13 January 2006). "How Pro Wrestling Works". HowStuffWorks. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on November 18, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  9. "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on February 26, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  10. Steinberg, Brian (May 25, 2016). "WWE's 'Smackdown' Will Move To Live Broadcast On USA (EXCLUSIVE)". Variety. Archived from the original on May 26, 2016. Retrieved May 25, 2016.
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