WWE made two big Royal Rumble announcements during Tuesday night’s Smackdown tapings:
– The 2015 Royal Rumble pay-per-view will happen at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, PA, on January 25th. Tickets go on sale this Friday, although some were made available to people at the tapings.
– The 40-man Royal Rumble match will return.
There have been 27 Royal Rumbles since its creation in 1998, and 26 of them have featured 30 of fewer WWE Superstars. Only one other Rumble match has featured 40: the 2011 edition, won by entrant #38, Alberto Del Rio. The conspiracy theorist in me wonders if Del Rio’s recent firing and post-firing complications made WWE remember his “winner of the biggest Royal Rumble in history” bragging point and want to change that. Sorta like when Brock Lesnar became the youngest WWE Champion of all time, quit the company on bad terms, and a few months later Randy Orton was the youngest WWE Champion of all time.
Regardless, this is great news for the Slater Gators of the WWE world, as they’re almost guaranteed a spot in the 2015 Rumble. Will we see a bunch of special guests? Legends? NXT talent? Daniel Bryan? CM Punk? A wrestling bear? ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN.
