While it may not be the biggest, longest, or most historic, WWE Royal Rumble is unquestionably the best event of the year
Anyone denying the importance of the WWE Royal Rumble is either misinformed or misguided. There’s no mistaking that WrestleMania is the biggest show of the year in WWE and Royal Rumble sets the stage for that. Yes, that clearly includes the winner of the Rumble match itself facing the champion at Mania. However, the match and the card at WWE Royal Rumble also helps being or continue the feuds that will comprise the entire card at WrestleMania.
However, the fact that it sets the stage for a show like Mania that is bigger, draws more eyes, and even has more relevance in popular culture leads to another misconception about WWE Royal Rumble. While mainstream popularity is great, Royal Rumble is the best event of the year for wrestling fans.
Top-to-bottom, WWE Royal Rumble offers everything that fans love about the business. There’s nothing better than a surprise return, a call-up from NXT (obviously a recent development), or even a debut like AJ Styles’ in the 2016 Rumble match. If you need any evidence that these things are both important and appreciated by fans, just go back and listen to the crowd pop for Styles walking out at No. 3 one year ago.
Beyond the potential for the big pops and the surprises, though, the Rumble match itself also offers opportunities that no other show has the benefit of. With 30 men in the ring throughout the match, you have diverse and complex stories being told. While one young guy is proving himself with a strong showing, two other superstars are getting under one another’s skin to set up a feud either for Mania or in the future. Additionally, you get callbacks to long-lasting feuds and storylines that have persisted. Considering that WWE has the propensity to abandon quality storytelling at times, that’s also refreshing in the match itself.
However, we’re talking about the show as a whole being the best of the year. Indeed, the Rumble match is the chief reason why that’s the case. That being said, the storytelling component that stands out in the 30-man over-the-top-rope battle royal is also the biggest strength of the entire show.
As previously stated, the primary purpose of the WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view when broken down to its simplest form is to set the stage for WrestleMania. But to achieve that, WWE has to put a premium on how they tell stories at the Rumble PPV. Just saying, “well these two guys are both working for WWE and appeared at the Rumble” isn’t grounds for starting a feud that will be settled at Mania. Instead, it takes a bit of work to put these superstars in positions where they can foreseeably have a conflict worthy of settling the score at Mania.
On a more micro level, though, the storytelling being told throughout the show at WWE Royal Rumble is unparalleled. Because of the 30-man main event—or at least traditionally the main event—there is a necessity for WWE to tell a complete story from the start of the show to the end. And it’s one that ultimately serves to drive speculation and interest as the show goes on.
Particularly when there was only one world championship—but even still the case with two after the brand split—it’s incredibly fulfilling as a fan to watch the contenders to win the Rumble and move on to Mania start to emerge. You start to see things like this throughout the show as the result of the other matches on the card.
For instance as we look at the 2017 Rumble, the winners of the two title matches could tell us quite a bit about who is going to win the Rumble match. If John Cena were to top Styles for the WWE World Championship, we may get a better idea that a heel could win the Rumble. That’s even more so the case if both Cena and Roman Reigns were to usurp the current title-holders at WWE Royal Rumble 2017. Sure, there are still pay-per-views remaining for each brand between now and WrestleMania. But it’s exceedingly rare that changes much of anything in terms of the title picture—even if fans hope that it would at times.
Outside of just the titles, though, there are also the subplots that develop throughout the show that can play out at WWE Royal Rumble. You could get someone attacking a competitor in an early match on the card. However, when those two both find themselves in the Rumble match later on, they can get started with the physicality of their budding feud and hit the ground running. It’s an advantage that no show has and that the Rumble booking routinely takes advantage of.
Next: 50 Best Professional Wrestlers Of All-Time
Every wrestling fan is quite simple in what they desire from a great show. While 5-star matches are exceptionally fun, the more simple solution for entertainment in WWE is to have proper storytelling and the shock-factor working to their advantage. No other show offers that on the scale and with the quality that WWE Royal Rumble does. Subsequently, any answer other than Royal Rumble as it pertains to WWE’s best show of the year is wrong.