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Royal Rumble (2009) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It was the 22nd event produced under the Royal Rumble name and featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. Five matches were featured on the event's card.

The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all the three brands. Randy Orton, the eighth entrant, won the match by last eliminating Triple H, the seventh entrant. As a tradition, Orton received a World Championship match at WrestleMania XXV for his choice of the WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship. For the third straight year, there was an uneven distribution of participants in the Royal Rumble match among the brands (with fifteen from Raw, ten from SmackDown, four from ECW, and one special guest entrant).

The predominant match on the SmackDown brand was a No Disqualification match between Jeff Hardy and Edge for Hardy's WWE Championship, which Edge won via pinfall after Jeff's brother, Matt Hardy, interfered in the match and hit Jeff with a steel chair. The primary match on the Raw brand featured John Cena defending the World Heavyweight Championship against John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), which Cena won by pinfall after performing an Attitude Adjustment. The undercard consisted of Jack Swagger versus Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship and Beth Phoenix versus Melina for the WWE Women's Championship.

Background

Royal Rumble featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw, Friday Night SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi—World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. The event featured wrestlers from WWE's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands—a storyline division in which WWE employees were assigned to a television program of the same name.

The prime match scripted into the Royal Rumble was the annual Royal Rumble match, which has been held at every Royal Rumble event since its inception. The match featured 30 male wrestlers from WWE's three brands; 23 participants were officially announced for the match. The match ends when one wrestler remains in the ring, after all 29 other wrestlers have been eliminated via being tossed over the top ring rope and having both feet touch the floor. The winner earned an opportunity to challenge for the WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship at WWE's April WrestleMania XXV pay-per-view.

The main rivalry from the Raw brand was between John Cena and John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL), over the World Heavyweight Championship. JBL earned his championship match against Cena after winning a 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.

Another rivalry from the Raw brand was Melina (Melina Perez) challenging Beth Phoenix (Elizabeth Carolan) 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.

The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand heading into the Royal Rumble was between Jeff Hardy and Edge with the two feuding over the WWE Championship. At WWE's previous pay-per-view event, Armageddon, Hardy defeated 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.

The ECW brand's main rivalry was between Jack Swagger (Jake Hager) and Matt Hardy with the two feuding over the ECW Championship. On the January 13, 2009 edition of ECW, Swagger defeated Hardy to capture the ECW Championship. On the January 16 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that Swagger would defend the ECW title against Hardy in a rematch at the Royal Rumble.

Event

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 for some time, until Swagger injured Matt's left shoulder and thus targeted it the entire match. Swagger ultimately defeated Matt by pinning him after a Gutwrench powerbomb and retained the ECW title.

The second match on the card was for the WWE Women's Championship, where Beth Phoenix defended her title against Melina. Phoenix was mostly in control of the match after working on Melina's legs in some point of the match. The match ended as Phoenix attempted to deliver the Glam Slam to Melina, but the latter countered it into a roll-up pin, giving her the win and the Women's Championship.

Main event matches

The third match on the card was John Cena versus JBL for the World Heavyweight Championship. JBL was accompanied to the ring by his employee Shawn Michaels. Shawn Michaels first got involved in the match when the referee was incapacitated, where came into the ring and performed his 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 FU to retain his World Championship.

The fourth match on the card was for the WWE Championship, as Jeff Hardy defended his title against Edge. Before the match began Vickie Guerrero came out and announced that the match would be a No Disqualification match. Edge then revealed that Chavo Guerrero would be in his corner. The first big action came in the match when Jeff Hardy brought a ladder out and set it up near the Spanish announce table. When Chavo tried to interfere, Jeff put him on the table and jumped off the ladder connecting Chavo and breaking the table. Jeff then had the match won when he hit the Swanton after kicking Vickie off the apron when she tried to interfere. When Jeff went for the pin, Vickie stopped referee Scott Armstrong from making a three count. Jeff's brother Matt then made his way to the ring, placing a chair under Edge's face. Grabbing another chair, Matt at first appeared to be setting Edge up for his own version of Edge's con-chair-to manuever. However, he instead smashed Jeff in the head with a chair. Edge then pinned Jeff to become the new WWE Champion.

The main event was the Royal Rumble match. Rey Mysterio (Oscar Gutierrez) and John Morrison (John Hennigan) started the Rumble. The final six participants left in the match were Big Show (Paul Wight), The Undertaker, Triple H and The Legacy (Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase and Randy Orton). While the Undertaker and Big Show were both brawling 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. The Undertaker was shortly eliminated afterwords when Big Show pulled him out of the ring by his leg. Despite being at a disadvantage against the Legacy, Triple H managed to eliminate both DiBiase and Rhodes. With Triple H by the ropes, Orton quickly clotheslined him from behind to send him over and become the winner of the Royal Rumble match.

Aftermath

On January 26 edition 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 told Stephanie McMahon, if she is to fire him, he will not only take DiBiase and Rhodes with him but the whole locker room as he will bring in a lawsuit against the company.

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 (Kofi Sarkodie-Mensah) defeat Kane, Rey Mysterio defeat William Regal (Darren Matthews) 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.

The ECW Championship feud between Jack Swagger and Matt Hardy was officially over when ECW's on-air authority figure Theodore Long announced on January 27 edition of ECW that Hardy requested to be moved to the SmackDown brand. Swagger had other problems as his ECW title belt was stolen by Hornswoggle (Dylan Postl). When Hornswoggle's father, Finlay (Dave 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 title.

On January 30 edition of SmackDown, Matt Hardy came out to ring and told the WWE Universe that he had no remorse about smashing his brother Jeff in the head at the Royal Rumble and costing him the WWE Championship. He then told the universe that he no longer considers Jeff a partner or a sibling. There were three Elimination Chamber qualifiers for No Way Out. The first match being The Undertaker versus Mark Henry, which Taker won via submission with the Hell's Gate. The second qualifier match was 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.

Results

- The winner had the option of choosing which championship he would challenge for.

Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations

Red ██ and "Raw" indicates a Raw superstar, blue ██ and "SD" indicates a SmackDown superstar, purple ██ and "ECW" indicates an ECW superstar, and white indicates a special guest entrant.

The Big Show had already been eliminated by Randy Orton prior to his eliminating of The Undertaker.

See also

• List of WWE pay-per-view events

References

1. "WWE Royal Rumble". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-09. Special thanks to Kevin Rudolf, whose "Let it Rock" is the official theme of the Royal Rumble. The track is off his Cash Money Records debut, In the City, which is available now.
2. "WWE Royal Rumble event details". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-03.
3. "Live & Televised Entertainment of World Wrestling Entertainment". World Wrestling Entertainment Corporate. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
4. "WWE Launches ECW As Third Brand". World Wrestling Entertainment Corporate. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
5. ^ "Preview: 30-Man Royal Rumble match". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
6. ^ Adkins, Greg (2008-12-29). "Results: And they're off..." World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
7. Passero, Mitch (2009-01-02). "Results: Hardy New Year!". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-11.
8. ^ Burdick, Michael (2009-01-25). "Results:Solidification with a Swagger". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
9. ^ "Results:Viva Melina!". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2009-01-25. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
10. ^ Sitterson, Aubrey (2009-01-25). "Results:Beating the odds". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
11. ^ DiFino, Lenny (2009-01-25). "Results:Royal Rumble: Hardy's twisted fate brings gold to Edge". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-25.
12. ^ Tello, Craig (2009-01-25). "Results:Detroit "RKO" City". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
13. "The son also rises". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2009-01-26. Retrieved 2009-01-27.
14. "Preview:World Heavyweight Title Elimination Chamber Match". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
15. "Extreme changes". World Wrestling Entertainment. 2009-01-27. Retrieved 2009-01-28.
16. Matt Hardy says the incident was no accident World Wrestling Entertainment Retrieved on February 1, 2009
17. HHH, Taker and Big Show in the Chamber Retrieved on February 1, 2009
18. ^ "Royal Rumble". prowrestlinghistory.com. Retrieved 2009-02-23.
19. "2009 Royal Rumble Statistics and Eliminations". World Wrestling Entertainment. Retrieved 2009-01-06.

External links

• Official RR website

• 2009 in professional wrestling
• Royal Rumble