WWE to hold 50-man Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia
By Luke Norris
WWE will hold a 50-man Royal Rumble match in Saudi Arabia on April 27 as part of a new agreement with the Saudi General Sports Authority.
While the 2018 WWE Royal Rumble pay-per-view event, which this year featured two of the timed battle royal matches (including the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble), has come and gone, WWE isn’t quite done with the format for the year.
In an announcement that came Monday on WWE.com, the world’s largest professional wrestling (or sports entertainment if you want to go that way) company said that as part of a partnership with the Saudi General Sports Authority, a Royal Rumble event featuring 50 WWE superstars will take place at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Friday, April 27.
Dubbed as the “Greatest Royal Rumble,” the 50-man Royal Rumble event will be the first professional wrestling event in the 62,000-seat venue, and, among others, will feature such superstars as John Cena, AJ Styles, Roman Reigns, Triple H, Randy Orton, Braun Strowman, Bray Wyatt, The New Day and Shinsuke Nakamura.
WWE Chairman & CEO Vince McMahon seemed to be very excited about this historic event.
"“The Greatest Royal Rumble will be a spectacle of historic proportions. Our partnership with the Saudi General Sports Authority reflects a long-term commitment to present WWE’s world-class entertainment to a global audience on a grander scale than ever before.”"
While there has been no official word on whether or not the “Greatest Royal Rumble” will be broadcast on the award-winning WWE Network, the official press release stated that ticket and broadcast information would be released in the coming weeks, so there is a chance that the WWE Universe will be able to witness this historic event. The current record for number of participants in a Royal Rumble match is 40, which occurred at the 2011 event that was won by Alberto Del Rio.
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What do you think of the announcement of a 50-man Royal Rumble match? Would you tune in if it were on the WWE Network? Feel free to join in the conversation in the comments section below.