One Wrestler Every 90 Seconds

I’ve always been a casual fan of wrestling. I don’t actually follow it, but I’ll watch the odd match on Youtube now and then. But there is one event that I always try to see, and that is the Royal Rumble. It’s a massive event that leads down the road to Wrestlemania, the actual biggest wrestling event of the year. Personally though, out of the big events, I have always preferred the Royal Rumble.

It’s not hard to see why. The Royal Rumble has lots of people fighting together in one go. The rules for a royal rumble match are not the same as normal matches.

Basically, you have thirty wrestlers, but they are drip-fed in. You get a new wrestler entering the match every 90 seconds, and there’s no limit to how many wrestlers are in the ring at any given time. The only way a wrestler can be eliminated is by being thrown over the top rope and having both your feet touch the ground. There’s no pin falls or submissions, the only way out is via that top rope. These rules apply for both men and women royal rumbles.

Of course, with hectic rules like that, the match quickly turns into quite a spectacle of bodies, people being thrown around like rag dolls. The ring quickly fills up with wrestlers, although many of them will reel back to the corners of the ring while cameras focus on whoever is currently still standing.

What I do find obvious though is how everyone comes into the ring. There’s definitely templates that each wrestler uses. You get popular people coming in and immediately start throwing other people around, while newer wrestlers typically don’t stay long after their little intro. Someone very popular will normally go in and clear out a bunch of wrestlers, and the more massive wrestlers are normally thrown out by several people working together to get rid of the giants. Most wrestlers at least get a few hits in before they’re eliminated, but if someone is really new or unpopular, they get thrown out of the ring pretty much instantly.

The best thing about royal rumbles though is that you don’t really get that “oh I’m hurt but suddenly I have massive energy” thing going on in a single match. Well, you do, but while a wrestler is rolling around being injured, there’s other people fighting as a distraction. There’s pretty much no downtime what so ever, the action keeps on rolling in.

Unfortunately, in order to keep things interesting, you need to have plenty of wrestlers on hand. Well, you need 30 of them. But there’s not always 30 popular wrestlers in the ring, so you get odd down times. Luckily, there’s always some giant for everyone to gang up on, or a rivalry or something to keep momentum.

And should you be the last person in the ring? Well, whoever wins ends up mainlining Wrestlemania, getting a shot at a title belt. Which is a massive event in of itself.

Either way, a royal rumble is always a bit of fun. I just wish they happened a bit more often.