| Royal Rumble 2016 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Promotion | WWE |
| Theme | TBA |
| Date | January 24, 2016 |
| Venue | Amway Center |
| City | Orlando, Florida |
| Last Event | TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs 2015 |
| Next Event | Fastlane 2016 |
Royal Rumble (2016) is the twenty-ninth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by WWE. It took place on January 24, 2016 at the Amway Center in Orlando, Florida. This was the second Royal Rumble match that was contested for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship, as the first was in 1992.
Background[]
Royal Rumble consisted of professional wrestling matches that involved wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds or storylines that played out on WWE's primary television programs, Raw and SmackDown. Wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or more ambiguous characters as they followed a series of events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Traditionally, the winner of the 30-man Royal Rumble match is awarded a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania. However, as a culmination of his attempts to deprive WWE World Heavyweight Champion Roman Reigns of the championship (for attacking his son-in-law Triple H and overall disrespecting the McMahon family), WWE owner/chairman/CEO Vince McMahon decided on the January 4, 2016 episode of Raw that Reigns would defend his title in the match.
On the December 28 episode of Raw, Big Show was the first wrestler to announce his participation in the Royal Rumble match. Early in January, Curtis Axel, Ryback, The Wyatt Family, Dolph Ziggler, Chris Jericho, Stardust and Sheamus were added to the match. On the January 11 episode of Raw, Stephanie McMahon announced that Brock Lesnar would compete in the match in spite of Lesnar's advocate Paul Heyman arguing that Lesnar should bypass the match and face the winner at WrestleMania 32. During the January 18, 2016 episode of Raw, a rigged lottery assigned the #1 spot to Reigns, meaning that he will be the first contestant to enter the match.
At the TLC: Tables, Ladders and Chairs event, Dean Ambrose defeated Kevin Owens to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship. Their rivalry begin to intensified for over weeks, including a match ending in a double countout for the Intercontinental Championship. On the January 14 episode of SmackDown, Owen's accepted Ambrose's challenge to a Last Man Standing match for the Intercontinental Championship at the Royal Rumble.
On the January 7, 2016 episode of SmackDown, John Cena introduced Kalisto as an opponent for United States Champion Alberto Del Rio. After Kalisto won the match, he was granted a title match on the January 11 episode of Raw, where he defeated Del Rio to win the United States Championship. Del Rio went on to win the championship back the following night on SmackDown. Subsequently, another title match between the two was scheduled for the Royal Rumble.
On the January 4 episode of Raw, Becky Lynch was attacked by Divas Champion Charlotte after defeating her in a non-title match. With the help of father Ric Flair, Charlotte defeated Lynch to retain the championship on the January 7 episode of SmackDown. Subsequently, Lynch challenged Charlotte for another title match at the Royal Rumble. Though Charlotte was unwilling to grant Lynch another title opportunity, Lynch goaded Flair to accept the challenge on his daughter's behalf.
On the January 11 episode of Raw, The Usos defeated The New Day. The following week on Raw, a tag team title defense by The New Day against The Usos was scheduled for the Royal Rumble.
On January 20, a fatal four-way tag team match between Darren Young and Damien Sandow, The Dudley Boyz, The Ascension, and Mark Henry and Jack Swagger was scheduled for the Royal Rumble pre-show, with both members of the winning team earning a spot in the Royal Rumble match later in the night.
Results[]
- Kick off: Mark Henry and Jack Swagger defeated Darren Young and Damien Sandow, The Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray & D-Von Dudley) and The Ascension (Konnor & Viktor)
- Dean Ambrose (c) defeated Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match to retain the WWE Intercontinental Championship
- The New Day (Big E & Kofi Kingston) (c) (w/ Xavier Woods) defeated The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso) to retain the WWE Tag Team Championship
- Kalisto defeated Alberto Del Rio (c) to win the WWE United States Championship
- Charlotte (c) (w/ Ric Flair) defeated Becky Lynch to retain the WWE Divas Championship
- Triple H won by last eliminating Dean Ambrose in a 30-man Royal Rumble match to win the WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Royal Rumble Entrances and Eliminations[]
Every 90 seconds a new entrant enters.
| Entrant | Eliminated By | Time | Eliminations | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Roman Reigns (c) | 28 | Triple H | 59:48 | 5 |
| 2 | Rusev | 1 | Reigns | 1:30 | 0 |
| 3 | AJ Styles | 11 | Owens | 28:58 | 2 |
| 4 | Tyler Breeze | 2 | Styles and Reigns | 1:18 | 0 |
| 5 | Curtis Axel | 3 | AJ Styles | 1:30 | 0 |
| 6 | Chris Jericho | 26 | Ambrose | 51:20 | 1 |
| 7 | Kane | 9 | Strowman | 19:07 | 1 |
| 8 | Goldust | 4 | O'Nieil | 6:18 | 0 |
| 9 | Ryback | 8 | Big Show | 12:37 | 0 |
| 10 | Kofi Kingston | 6 | Jericho | 8:26 | 1 |
| 11 | Titus O'Neil | 7 | Big Show | 9:06 | 3 |
| 12 | R-Truth | 5 | Kane | 00:59 | 0 |
| 13 | Luke Harper | 19 | Brock Lesnar | 24:16 | 4 |
| 14 | Stardust | 14 | Luke Harper | 14:12 | 1 |
| 15 | Big Show | 10 | Braun Strowman | 4:58 | 2 |