The 2023 edition of WWE’s annual Royal Rumble was a blockbuster event, featuring
The show opened with the men’s Royal Rumble match. GUNTHER entered as the number one participant and stayed until the bitter end, eventually being eliminated by the returning Cody Rhodes, who entered at number 30 and won the match when he eliminated the Austrian standout.
Rhodes hadn’t been seen on television since the night after Hell in a Cell in June due to undergoing surgery for a torn pectoral muscle. His return was highly anticipated, being announced weeks in advance as anticipation for the Rumble built.
Meanwhile, the women’s Rumble match saw Rhea Ripley enter at number 1 and go on to win the entire match with a record-setting 60 minutes and 15 seconds in the bout. She is also the first woman in history to win from the number one position as well as the youngest woman to win the iconic match.
The main event of the show saw Roman Reigns defeat Kevin Owens to continue his record-breaking title reign. Sami Zayn accompanied Reigns to ringside alongside Paul Heyman, while The Usos and Solo Sikoa were told to stay in the back in order to test Zayn’s loyalty to The Bloodline.
While Zayn tried to remain loyal to the Tribal Chief, he reached a breaking point when all members of The Bloodline beat up Owens after the match. Zayn ended up hitting Roman Reigns in the back with a chair, and he received a beating for his actions; however Jey Uso refused to participate in the beating of Sami Zayn and walked out on his family members, leaving the audience stunned as the show went off the air.
The 2023 Royal Rumble Smashed Gate And Social Media Records
Rhea Ripley wasn’t the only record-setter inside the Alamodome, as WWE also smashed two company records at the event.
The January 28th event broke the previous Royal Rumble gate record set in 2017 by more than 50%, and also broke all-time merchandise and venue records in addition to having a stellar social media reception.
WWE sent along the following information about these astounding records:
WWE® SMASHES ALL-TIME GATE & VIEWERSHIP RECORDS AT ROYAL RUMBLE®
STAMFORD, Conn., January 30, 2023 – WWE® (NYSE: WWE) today announced that the 2023 Royal Rumble, which emanated from the Alamodome in San Antonio, Texas, became WWE’s highest-grossing and most-viewed Royal Rumble in company history.The event set a new all-time gate record at more than $7.7 million, far surpassing the previous Royal Rumble high in 2017 by more than 50 percent. Viewership of the event saw a 52 percent increase versus the previous record set in 2022.
In addition, the 2023 Royal Rumble broke all-time venue merchandise and sponsorship records. Merchandise sales were up 135 percent versus the record set in 2022. Royal Rumble sponsorship revenue was up nearly 200 percent versus 2022 and featured the first-ever sponsored match (MTN DEW PITCH BLACK) and sponsored countdown clock (Applebee’s).
On social, the Roman Reigns-Sami Zayn videos generated 20 million-plus views across all WWE platforms and became the most-viewed WWE clip of 2023. Additional highlights include Logan Paul and Ricochet’s high-flying collision amassed 26.5 million views across WWE and Paul’s platforms, and the launch of Reigns’ TikTok account netted 100K followers in the first 24 hours.