page_title: Royal Rumble (2008)
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Royal Rumble (2008) / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: John Layfield from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) visits, signs autographs and talks with U.S. Soldiers at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2008. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kani Ronningen/Released)
context_page_description: Royal Rumble (2008) was the twenty-first annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment. It took place on January 27, 2008, at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The event was also the first WWE pay-per-view broadcast in high definition. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a match at that year's WrestleMania, for his choice at either the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship, or the ECW Championship.
  Five professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard. The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all three brands. John Cena, the thirtieth entrant and returning from a torn Pectoral muscle, won the match by last eliminating Triple H, the twenty-ninth entrant. The primary match on the Raw brand was Randy Orton versus Jeff Hardy for the WWE Championship, which Orton won by pinfall after performing an RKO.
context_section_description: The card consisted of six matches, as well as one dark match. The matches resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters to build tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands, with storylines produced on their weekly television shows, Raw, SmackDown, and ECW on Sci Fi.
  Prior to the annual Royal Rumble match, several qualifying matches for the match took place on Raw. The first qualifying match was on the December 31, 2007 edition of Raw as Umaga squashed Jim Duggan to earn a place in the Rumble. Snitsky also defeated Drew McIntyre at a house show in White Plains, New York to also qualify for the Royal Rumble. Triple H was disqualified against Ric Flair after interference from Raw general manager William Regal; therefore he was no longer allowed to compete in the Royal Rumble match, per the orders of Regal. After Triple H destroyed part of the lower TitanTron on the January 14 Raw, however, Vince McMahon announced he would allow Triple H a second chance at the Royal Rumble if he could defeat his opponent on the January 21 edition of Raw. Triple H defeated Snitsky, Mark Henry, and Regal in a gauntlet match to gain entry.
  Royal Rumble Qualification Matches
  Umaga defeated Jim Duggan – Raw, December 29 (aired December 31)
  Snitsky defeated Drew McIntyre – Raw house show, January 4
  Hardcore Holly defeated Trevor Murdoch – Raw house show, January 5
  John Morrison and The Miz defeated Jimmy Wang Yang and Shannon Moore – SmackDown/ECW house show, January 6
  Hornswoggle and Mick Foley defeated The Highlanders (Robbie and Rory McAllister) – Raw, January 7
  Jamie Noble defeated Chuck Palumbo – SmackDown, January 8 (aired January 11)
  Cody Rhodes defeated William Regal – Raw house show, January 11
  Carlito and Santino Marella defeated DH Smith and Super Crazy in a tag team match at a Raw house show, January 12
  Shawn Michaels defeated Trevor Murdoch – Raw, January 14
  Triple H defeated Snitsky, Mark Henry, and William Regal in an Over the Top Rope Gauntlet match – Raw, January 21
  CM Punk defeated Chavo Guerrero – WWE supershow, January 26
  The main feud on the Raw brand was between the Intercontinental Champion Jeff Hardy and Randy Orton, with the two feuding over the WWE Championship, which was held by Orton. Orton retained the title at Armageddon against the returning Chris Jericho after being disqualified, when the then-SmackDown! broadcaster John "Bradshaw" Layfield interfered and booted Jericho in the head. Orton retained the championship, as a result, due to titles not changing hands on disqualifications. On the same night earlier, Jeff Hardy had defeated Triple H to earn the opportunity to face Orton at the Royal Rumble for the WWE Championship. The following night, on the December 17, 2007 edition of Raw, Hardy teamed up with Shawn Michaels to defeat Orton and Mr. Kennedy after Hardy pinned Orton. Two weeks later on the last Raw of 2007, Hardy and Orton had a face-to-face confrontation. Orton looked set to RKO Hardy, but Hardy countered and delivered a Twist of Fate to Orton. Later in the night, during Hardy's match with Santino Marella, Orton appeared on the Raw TitanTron and stated that he had kicked Jeff's brother Matt where his appendix used to be, proceeding further to punt him in the head. The following week on a special "Raw Roulette" edition of Raw, Hardy retained his Intercontinental Championship against Umaga in a steel cage match after performing a Whisper in the Wind from the top of the cage. On the January 14, 2008 edition of Raw, Hardy agreed to face Orton that night with his Intercontinental Championship on the line. However, as soon as the bell rang for the match, Orton immediately low-blowed Hardy, getting himself disqualified. Orton tried to deliver an RKO to Hardy on the concrete floor outside, but Hardy retaliated and the two began to brawl up the ramp. When Orton looked set to kick Hardy in the head, the Intercontinental Champion countered and bac
caption: John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) who faced off against Chris Jericho
exif: {"Image ImageDescription": "John Layfield from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) visits, signs autographs and talks with U.S. Soldiers at Forward Operating Base Brassfield-Mora, Iraq, Dec. 4, 2008. (U.S. Army photo by Sgt. Kani Ronningen/Released)", "Image Make": "NIKON CORPORATION", "Image Model": "NIKON D3", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "300", "Image YResolution": "300", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS3 Windows", "Image DateTime": "2008:12:04 00:00:00", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "472", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "Image GPSInfo": "1124", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1236", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "6360", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/50", "EXIF FNumber": "14/5", "EXIF ExposureProgram": "Aperture Priority", "EXIF ISOSpeedRatings": "2000", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2008:12:04 10:30:05", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2008:12:04 00:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "4", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "3", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF LightSource": "Unknown", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire", "EXIF FocalLength": "70", "EXIF SubSecTime": "88", "EXIF SubSecTimeOriginal": "88", "EXIF SubSecTimeDigitized": "88", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "1848", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "2784", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1094", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF SceneType": "Directly Photographed", "EXIF CVAPattern": "[0, 2, 0, 2, 0, 1, 1, 2]", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF FocalLengthIn35mmFilm": "70", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard", "EXIF GainControl": "High gain up", "EXIF Contrast": "Normal", "EXIF Saturation": "Normal", "EXIF Sharpness": "Normal", "EXIF SubjectDistanceRange": "0"}