Royal Rumble

Royal Rumble
The 2017 Royal Rumble logo
Information
Created by	Pat Patterson
Promotion(s)	WWE
Brand(s)	Raw (2002–2011, 2017–present) SmackDown (2002–2011, 2017–present) ECW (2007–2010)
First event	Royal Rumble (1988)
Signature match types	Royal Rumble match

The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by professional wrestling promotion WWE. The event is named after the Royal Rumble match, a Battle royal match whose participants enter at timed intervals.

With the exception of the initial Royal Rumble event in 1988, which was shown as a television special on USA Network, the Royal Rumble has been shown on pay-per-view (first in 1989) and is one of WWE's "Big Four", along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. The Royal Rumble is considered one of WWE's most popular pay-per-view events.

The Royal Rumble is a pay-per-view consisting of the Royal Rumble match, title matches, and various other matches. The first Royal Rumble took place on January 24, 1988 and was broadcast live on the USA Network. The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view and thus became one of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam.

The Royal Rumble match is usually located at the top of the card, though there have been exceptions such as the 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, and 2013 events. Due to the Rumble match taking up a large amount of time (most Rumble matches last roughly one hour), the Rumble event tends to have a smaller card than most other pay-per-view events, which routinely have six to eight matches per card. The 2008 Royal Rumble was the first WWE pay-per-view to be available in high-definition.