Royal Rumble (2023)

The 2023 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 36th annual Royal Rumble and took place on Saturday, January 28, 2023, at the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, as part of the Alamodome's 30th-anniversary celebration, held for wrestlers from all three of WWE's brand divisions. It was the fourth Royal Rumble event to be held in San Antonio after the 1997, 2007, and 2017 events and the third to take place at the Alamodome, following 1997 and 2017. It was also WWE's first event to be livestreamed on Binge in Australia following the merger of the WWE Network under Binge in the country. The event is based around the Royal Rumble match and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2023 event, only the women's match winner received a choice of which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 39 in Inglewood, California. Due to Raw's WWE Championship and SmackDown's Universal Championship being held and defended together as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, the men's winner received a match for the tandem titles, while the women had their choice between the Raw or SmackDown Women's Championship. While the Royal Rumble match is typically the main event of the card, this was the seventh Royal Rumble event in which the match was not the main event, after 1988, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2006, and 2013. It was also the first Royal Rumble event where the eponymous match opened the show. Five matches were contested on the card. In the main event, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship. For the Royal Rumble matches, Raw's Rhea Ripley won the women's match, becoming the first woman to win the match from the number one spot as well as setting the record for longest time spent in the women's Rumble at 1:01:08 (which was broken in 2024 by Bayley at 1:03:03), while Raw's Cody Rhodes won the men's in the opening match by last eliminating #1 entrant Gunther, who also set the record for longest time spent in a men's 30-man Rumble at 1:11:40 and the second man to draw #1 and emerge as runner-up. In another prominent match, Bray Wyatt, in his first televised match since WrestleMania 37 in April 2021, defeated LA Knight in a Pitch Black match in a cross-promotion with Mountain Dew. This would also be Wyatt's final televised match as he contracted COVID-19 the following month, which exacerbated a heart issue and he died of a heart attack in August. The event also saw the return of color commentator Pat McAfee, who joined Michael Cole and Corey Graves on commentary, Cody Rhodes, Edge, Beth Phoenix, Asuka, Chelsea Green and Nia Jax made returns, and Logan Paul made his first Royal Rumble appearance. Former WWE wrestler Michelle McCool also made an appearance in the women's Royal Rumble match, while WWE Hall of Famer and NXT commentator Booker T appeared in the men's.