Royal Rumble (2010)

**Royal Rumble (2010)** was a pay-per-view event which took place on January 31, 2010 at the Philips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia.

Royal Rumble was an interpromotional event, featuring performers from the Raw, SmackDown and ECW brands. Including two matches on the *Countdown* broadcast, seven matches were featured on the event's card.

Four of the matches on the card were promoted as main events. The first of these matches was the annual 40-wrestler Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all three brands. Triple H, the fortieth entrant, won the match by last eliminating CM Punk, the thirty-eighth entrant, earning a world championship match at WrestleMania XXVI. In the main event of the Raw brand, John Cena defeated Shelton Benjamin to retain the WWE Championship. In the main event of the SmackDown brand, Batista defeated Randy Orton to win the World Heavyweight Championship. In the main event of the ECW brand, Christian defeated Mr Kennedy to retain the ECW Championship.

In the featured undercard match, The Gatecrashers (The Miz and Dolph Ziggler) defeated Finlay and Hornswoggle to retain the Unified Tag Team Championship.

## Background

#### Championship matches

On the January 11 episode of *Raw*, before his own match for the WWE Championship against John Cena, Raw General Manager William Regal announced that he wanted to give someone who has never held a world championship the opportunity to challenge for the title at Royal Rumble. Regal booked an eight-man "Breakthrough Battle Royal" to determine the next contender. Shelton Benjamin defeated Ted DiBiase, Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP), Matt Hardy, Daniel Bryan, John Morrison, Jack Swagger and R-Truth to win the match. Cena, who appointed Benjamin to lead the Raw lumberjacks at the Extreme Rules: Raw vs. ECW special, was thrilled with the match, however Benjamin took the emotion shown from Cena as condescension. Regal would team the pair up the following week in a victorious tag team match over Matt Morgan and The Great Khali. The next week, during the contract signing for the match, Benjamin proclaimed that he would win the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble. Later that night, in a "Champions vs. Challengers" tag team match, Cena and the World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defeated their pay-per-view opponents, Benjamin and Batista.

Following Batista's victory over CM Punk at Breaking Point to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship, later that night the title was transferred to Raw when John Cena defeated Edge. On the December 12 episode of *SmackDown*, interim General Manager Armando Estrada announced that Batista's number one contender status was still intact, but he would now be recognised as the top contender for Randy Orton's World Heavyweight Championship. On the January 1 episode of *SmackDown*, Batista received his title match against Orton. Batista won the match via disqualification, meaning Orton retained the title. The following week, new General Manager Bret Hart announced a rematch would take place at Royal Rumble.

On the January 12 episode of *ECW*, Christian defeated Jeff Hardy and Sheamus in a Triple Threat match to become the number one contender for the ECW Championship. The following week, Christian would defeat Mr Kennedy to win the title. On the January 26 episode of *ECW*, ECW General Manager Tiffany Terrell announced that Kennedy would get his rematch against Christian at Royal Rumble. Tiffany booked a match, teaming Kennedy and Christian against Jeff Hardy and Hurricane Helms. Tensions between Christian and Kennedy led to the team losing the match to Hardy and Helms.

Following their successful title defence against Hurricane Helms and Cody Rhodes on the January 12 episode of *ECW*, The Gatecrashers announced themselves as "the greatest tag team in WWE history", and issued a challenge to any teams they had yet to face for a future title match. Three nights later on *SmackDown*, Finlay and Hornswoggle accepted the champions' challenge. The following week, on the January 22 episode of *SmackDown*, Finlay defeated The Miz in a singles match, with Miz being distracted by Hornswoggle and Alicia Fox outside the ring. On the January 26 episode of *ECW*, Finlay and Hornswoggle would defeat The Miz and Alicia Fox, and later that week on *SmackDown*, Finlay defeated Dolph Ziggler in a Belfast Brawl. With three successive victories over The Gatecrashers, Finlay and Hornswoggle appeared confident heading into the title match at Royal Rumble.

#### 40-man Royal Rumble match

As has been customary since 1993, the winner of the Royal Rumble match would receive a world championship match at WrestleMania, and, since 2008, could select either the WWE Championship, World Heavyweight Championship, or ECW Championship to challenge for. For the third year, 40 wrestlers were scheduled to compete in the match. In the weeks preceding Royal Rumble, qualifying matches were held to determine 16 of the entrants in the match.

## Event

#### *Countdown*

The first of two matches on *Countdown* was a non-title match between the Women's Champion Beth Phoenix and Gail Kim. After a dominating display by Phoenix, Kim used a School Boy to pin Phoenix and win the match,

The second match on *Countdown* was originally scheduled to be Kofi Kingston versus CM Punk for the United States Championship. After both wrestlers had made their entrance, they were interrupted by Brian Kendrick and Ezekiel Jackson, with the former insulting Kingston and Punk. Kingston and Punk agreed to delay their match and challenge Kendrick and Jackson to a tag team match. In the end, Punk performed a GTS on Kendrick to win the match.

#### Preliminary card

The pay-per-view opened with Randy Orton defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista. After a back and forth match, Batista countered Orton's RKO and performed a Batista Bomb to win the match and become the new World Heavyweight Champion.

Next, Christian defended the ECW Championship against Mr Kennedy. Kennedy dominated for the majority of the match, however following a gouge of the eyes by Christian, Christian performed a Killswitch to win the match and retain the title.

Following this was a match for the Unified Tag Team Championship. The Gatecrashers defended their title against Finlay and Hornswoggle. In the opening moments of the match, Hornswoggle chased Alicia Fox out of the arena, leaving Finlay to wrestle both opponents. Finlay held his own against the champions. When Hornswoggle returned, he performed a Tadpole Splash on The Miz to a near-fall. In the closing moments of the match, with Finlay incapaciated outside the ring, Dolph Ziggler gave Hornswoggle a Superkick to win the match and retain the title.

The next match was the Raw brand main event for the WWE Championship between John Cena and Shelton Benjamin. After an even match, with numerous near-falls by both wrestlers, Cena performed an Attitude Adjustment on Benjamin to retain the title. Post-match, Cena and Benjamin shook hands to the applause of the crowd.

#### Main event

The 2010 Royal Rumble match was the final match on the card. The first two entrants in the match were SmackDown wrestler Big Show and Raw wrestler Chris Jericho.

## Results

 2✝ | CM Punk & Kofi Kingston defeated Brian Kendrick & Ezekiel Jackson
 3
 4
 5
 6
 7

## Match graphics

 Former