Royal Rumble (2009)

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Royal Rumble
World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)Raw
SmackDown
ECW
DateJanuary 25, 2009
CityDetroit, Michigan
VenueJoe Louis Arena
Attendance16,685
Buy rate450,000[1]
Pay-per-view chronology
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Armageddon 		Next →
No Way Out
Royal Rumble chronology
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2008 		Next →
2010

The 2009 Royal Rumble was the 22nd annual

ECW Championship at WrestleMania 25
.

Five

Jack Swagger and Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship, which Swagger won to retain. This event also marked the first appearance of Rob Van Dam in WWE since One Night Stand
in June 2007.

Production

Background

The event was held at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan.

The

World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four".[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 2009 event was the 22nd event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands.[3]

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a

ECW Championship at WrestleMania 25
.

Storylines

The event included matches that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed

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, SmackDown, and ECW brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Raw, SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi.[6][7][8]

John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) who faced off with John Cena
at the Royal Rumble.

The main

fatal four-way elimination match—a standard match in which the last remaining competitor who has not been eliminated is declared the winner—on the December 29, 2008, episode of Raw by defeating Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels.[9]

Another rivalry from the Raw brand came with Melina challenging Beth Phoenix for her WWE Women's Championship in a singles match. Melina won the opportunity to face Phoenix on the December 29, 2008. episode of Raw by winning a battle royal, a match similar to the Royal Rumble, though with fewer competitors.[9]

The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand incorporated into the Royal Rumble featured Jeff Hardy and Edge, with the two feuding over the WWE Championship. At WWE's previous pay-per-view event, Armageddon, Hardy had defeated both defending champion Edge and Triple H in a Triple Threat match, a standard match involving three wrestlers, to win the WWE Championship. On the January 2, 2009, episode of SmackDown, on-air authority figure Vickie Guerrero announced that Edge would face Hardy for the WWE title at the Royal Rumble.[10]

The ECW brand's main rivalry, that between

ECW Championship
. On the January 13, 2009, episode of ECW on Syfy, Swagger defeated Hardy to capture the ECW Championship. On the January 16 episode of Friday Night SmackDown, WWE announced that Swagger would defend the ECW title against Hardy in a rematch at the Royal Rumble.

Event

Other on-screen personnel
Role: Name:
English
commentators
 Michael Cole (Raw)
Jerry "The King" Lawler
(Raw/Royal Rumble)
Jim Ross (Smackdown/Royal Rumble)
Tazz
(Smackdown)
Todd Grisham (ECW)
Matt Striker (ECW)
Spanish commentators Carlos Cabrera
Hugo Savinovich
Interviewer
 Todd Grisham
Ring announcer Lilian Garcia (Raw)
Justin Roberts (SmackDown/Royal Rumble)
Tony Chimel (ECW)
Referees Charles Robinson
Mike Chioda
Chad Patton
Marty Elias
Jack Doan
Scott Armstong

Preliminary matches

The first match of the evening saw

Jack Swagger defend the ECW Championship against Matt Hardy. The match started with both wrestlers countering each other's moves until Swagger injured Hardy's left shoulder and then targeted it for the rest of the match. Swagger ultimately defeated Hardy by pinning him after slamming him to the mat with a gutwrench powerbomb. Swagger thus retained the ECW title.[11]

The second match involved the WWE Women's Championship, where Beth Phoenix defended her title against Melina. The match ended when Phoenix attempted the Glam Slam on Melina, but Melina countered into a roll-up pin, to win the Women's Championship.[12]

Main event matches

The Royal Rumble match in progress
Randy Orton after winning the 2009 Royal Rumble

The third match on the card pitted

Sweet Chin Music finisher both on JBL and Cena. He then left ringside, leaving JBL's arm on top of Cena. Cena however managed to get a shoulder up and performed an Attitude Adjustment to retain his World Championship.[13]

In the fourth match,

con-chair-to maneuver. He instead hit Jeff in the head with the chair, allowing Edge to then pin Jeff and become the new WWE Champion.[14]

The Big Show, The Undertaker, Triple H and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Randy Orton). While the Undertaker and Big Show brawled on the outside apron (both went over the top rope, but had not hit the floor), Orton eliminated Big Show with an RKO, causing him to fall off the apron. Big Show eliminated The Undertaker shortly thereafter when he pulled his opponent off the apron by his leg. Despite being at a disadvantage against the Legacy, Triple H eliminated both DiBiase and Rhodes. With Triple H by the ropes, Orton quickly clotheslined him from behind to send him over the top rope and become the winner of the Royal Rumble match.[15]

Aftermath

Shane McMahon returned after the Royal Rumble and attacked Randy Orton

On the January 26 episode of Raw, The Legacy came out with two lawyers and a therapist. Randy Orton then revealed that he suffers from IED, which causes him to experience violent outbursts when provoked, losing all control of his emotions and actions. According to Orton and his lawyers, Orton had told Stephanie McMahon that if fired, he would not only take DiBiase and Rhodes with him but the whole locker room, as he would bring in a lawsuit against the company.[16]

The Raw brand started the qualifying matches for the brand's upcoming Elimination Chamber match at WWE's next pay-per-view event, No Way Out. Three of the qualifying matches saw Kofi Kingston defeat Kane, Rey Mysterio defeat William Regal and Chris Jericho defeat CM Punk to qualify. In a fourth qualification match, Shawn Michaels failed to win a match against John Cena that would have made JBL eligible to participate in the Elimination Chamber.[17]

The ECW Championship feud between Jack Swagger and Matt Hardy had officially finished when ECW's on-air authority figure

Finlay, urged Hornswoggle to give the title back to Swagger, Swagger shoved Hornswoggle to the ground, which caused Finlay to knock down Swagger with his own championship belt.[18]

On the January 30 episode of SmackDown, Matt Hardy proclaimed that he had no remorse about smashing his brother Jeff in the head at the Royal Rumble and costing him the

The Big Show defeating Festus with a K.O. Punch. The last qualifier was a triple threat match featuring Triple H, The Great Khali and Vladimir Kozlov. Triple H won the match after he delivered a Pedigree to Khali to pick up the victory.[20]

During the 2009 WWE Draft, the World Heavyweight Championship and WWE Championship switched brands.[21]

Results

No.ResultsStipulationsTimes
dark match

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

  – Raw
  – SmackDown!
  – ECW
  – Legend
  – Winner


Draw[23] Entrant[23] Brand Order[24] Eliminated by[23] Time[23] Eliminations
1 Rey Mysterio Raw 20 Big Show 49:26 1
2 John Morrison ECW 5 Triple H 19:35 0
3
Carlito
 SmackDown 3 Vladimir Kozlov 06:11 0
4 Montel Vontavious Porter SmackDown 2 03:52 0
5 The Great Khali SmackDown 1 01:30 0
6 Vladimir Kozlov SmackDown 4 Triple H 02:40 3
7 Triple H SmackDown 29 Randy Orton 50:00 6
8 Randy Orton Raw — Winner 48:30 3
9 JTG Raw 7 The Undertaker 11:59 0
10 Ted DiBiase Raw 27 Triple H 45:11 1
11 Chris Jericho Raw 23 The Undertaker 37:17 1
12 Mike Knox Raw 19 Big Show 32:42 0
13 The Miz ECW 6 Triple H 01:21 0
14
Finlay
 ECW 21 Kane 30:00 0
15 Cody Rhodes Raw 28 Triple H 37:01 2
16 The Undertaker SmackDown 26 Big Show1 33:30 4
17
Goldust
 Raw 8 Cody Rhodes 01:11 0
18 CM Punk Raw 18 Big Show 22:29 1
19 Mark Henry ECW 9 The Undertaker & Rey Mysterio 03:14 0
20 Shelton Benjamin SmackDown 10 The Undertaker 04:17 0
21 William Regal Raw 11 CM Punk 04:23 0
22 Kofi Kingston Raw 12 The Brian Kendrick 06:58 0
23 Kane Raw 24 Cody Rhodes, Randy Orton & Ted DiBiase 18:21 3
24 R-Truth SmackDown 17 Big Show 12:06 0
25 Rob Van Dam Unbranded 22 Chris Jericho 14:00 0
26
The Brian Kendrick
 SmackDown 13 Triple H 00:15 1
27 Dolph Ziggler Raw 14 Kane 00:21 0
28 Santino Marella Raw 15 00:01 0
29 Jim Duggan Raw 16 Big Show 02:50 0
30 Big Show SmackDown 25 Randy Orton 09:32 6

1 Big Show's elimination of Undertaker came after Big Show was eliminated by Randy Orton.

References

  1. ^ "WWE Pay-Per-View Buys (1993-2015)". Wrestlenomics. March 25, 2020. Retrieved January 22, 2021.
  2. ^ Ian Hamilton. Wrestling's Sinking Ship: What Happens to an Industry Without Competition (p. 160)
  3. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 3, 2009.
  4. ^ "Specialty Matches: Royal Rumble". WWE. Archived from the original on July 14, 2005. Retrieved December 3, 2007.
  5. ^ Waldman, Jon (February 2, 2005). "Statistical survival – breaking down the Royal Rumble". SLAM! Wrestling. Archived from the original on October 19, 2015. Retrieved December 9, 2007.
  6. Discovery Communications. Archived
    from the original on November 29, 2013. Retrieved March 5, 2012.
  7. ^ "Live & Televised Entertainment". WWE. Archived from the original on February 18, 2009. Retrieved March 21, 2012.
  8. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved June 1, 2009.
  9. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved December 29, 2008.
  10. Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on July 16, 2012. Retrieved April 30, 2012.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link
    )
  11. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  12. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . January 25, 2009. Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  13. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  14. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 25, 2009.
  15. ^
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  16. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . January 26, 2009. Retrieved January 27, 2009.
  17. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 28, 2009.
  18. World Wrestling Entertainment
    . January 27, 2009. Retrieved January 28, 2009.
  19. World Wrestling Entertainment
    Retrieved on February 1, 2009
  20. ^ HHH, Taker and Big Show in the Chamber Retrieved on February 1, 2009
  21. ^ "Rough Draft". WWE. April 13, 2009. Retrieved November 29, 2021.
  22. ^ a b "Royal Rumble". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved February 23, 2009.
  23. ^ a b c d "2009 Royal Rumble Statistics and Eliminations".
    World Wrestling Entertainment
    . Retrieved January 6, 2009.
  24. ^ "Royal Rumble 2009". Pro Wrestling History. Retrieved December 20, 2012.

External links

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