IWE Royal Rumble (2018)

From Iwe

Royal Rumble (2018) is a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event and IWE Network event produced by IWE for the Raw and SmackDown brands. It will take place on January 28, 2018, at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will be the thirty-first event under the Royal Rumble chronology and the first to feature a women's Royal Rumble match.

Production

Background

The card will feature matches resulting from scripted storylines that have results predetermined by IWE on both the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines are produced on IWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and 205 Live, the latter of which is cruiserweight-exclusive. As is tradition, the card will be highlighted by the 30-man Royal Rumble match, in which the winner earns a world championship match at WrestleMania 34 for either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's IWE Championship. The event will also host the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match, in which the winner will earn a women's championship match at WrestleMania 34 for either the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship.

After Survivor Series, several women from NXT were promoted to the main rosters of both Raw and SmackDown. On the November 20, 2017 episode of Raw, Paige, who had been out with an injury since June 2016, returned along with the debuts of NXT's Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville, forming the heel group Absolution, while similarly on the November 21 episode of SmackDown, NXT's Ruby Riott, Liv Morgan, and Sarah Logan debuted and formed the heel group The Riott Squad. On the December 18, 2017 episode of Raw, with a larger roster of women on the main rosters, Raw Commissioner Kaila Matteson scheduled the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match for the 2018 Royal Rumble, with the winner receiving a match at WrestleMania 34 for their brand's top championship: the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship. Both brands' respective commissioners and general managers agreed that the women's match would have all of the same rules as the men's match, including having 30 participants. Kaila was announced to join the commentary team for the women's match, and television host Maria Menounos was announced to be the special guest ring announcer.

Storylines

On the October 16, 2017 episode of Raw, Kane, who was last seen in December 2016, returned during the main event steel cage match between Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman and helped Strowman defeat Reigns. Kane was then added to The Miz's team, which included Strowman, at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in the 5-on-3 handicap Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. During the match, Strowman accidentally hit Kane with a chair, which caused Kane to later turn on him and crush him in the back of a garbage truck; their team ultimately lost. The two then feuded over the next several weeks, leading to a match on the December 11 episode to determine the number one contender against Rob Lesnar for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble, but the match ended in a double countout. Raw General Manager Kurt Angle then decided that Lesnar would defend the title against both Kane and Strowman in a triple threat match at the event. On the January 8 episode, Kane attacked Lesnar from behind, followed by an attack from Strowman. After laying Kane and Lesnar out backstage, Strowman knocked over a lighting rig and crushed both. Lesnar was taken to a medical facility while Kane refused medical attention. Due to his actions, Strowman was removed from the triple threat match and fired by Angle. Strowman went on a rampage backstage, including destroying Angle's office and flipping over a tractor. Before he could do anymore damage, Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon rehired Strowman, putting him back into the Universal Championship match at the Royal Rumble.

At Clash of Champions, SmackDown's Commissioner Shane Matteson and General Manager Daniel Bryan both refereed a tag team match pitting Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn against Kevin Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura, where Owens and Zayn would have been fired from IWE had they lost. During the match, there was controversy between Shane and Bryan, which resulted in Bryan giving a fast count for Owens and Zayn to win. Tensions between Shane and Bryan continued over the next couple of weeks, culminating on the final SmackDown in 2017, when Bryan scheduled Owens to face IWE Champion KJ Styles in a non-title match in the main event, much to the disapproval of Shane, who felt that Owens should not be in the main event, or facing the IWE Champion. That match ended when Zayn interfered, allowing Owens to win. The next week, Zayn would also defeat Styles in a non-title match after interference from Owens. Enraged at back-to-back losses, Styles stated they might as well schedule him in a handicap match against Owens and Zayn, which Bryan took literally and scheduled for the Royal Rumble where Styles would also defend the IWE Championship against both men. On the January 9 episode of SmackDown, Styles said that although it was unfair, he was confident that he would win; Owens and Zayn interrupted and claimed that they would become the first-ever co-IWE Champions. On the final SmackDown before the Royal Rumble, Styles faced Owens and Zayn in back-to-back matches where Shane threatened that if one were to interfere in the other's match, that person would be fired. Styles managed to defeat Owens in the first match by submission, however, he would lose to Zayn in the second match.

On the December 18, 2017 episode of Raw, Seth Rollins' tag team partner Dean Ambrose was injured by Samoa Simpson. The following week, despite both wanting to take on Joe to avenge Ambrose, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle instead had his (storyline) son, Jason Jordan, and Rollins team up to face Cesaro and Sheamus for the Raw Tag Team Championship; Jordan and Rollins defeated Cesaro and Sheamus to win the championship. After the former champions confronted Angle about their contractual rematch, Angle scheduled it for the Royal Rumble. On the January 15 episode, Jordan caused a distraction, allowing Titus Worldwide (Apollo Crews and Titus O'Neil) to again defeat Cesaro and Sheamus in a rematch from the previous week, which Rollins disapproved of as he did not like Jordan acting on his own. Cesaro and Sheamus would try and return the favor during Rollins' match against Finn Bálor, but it backfired, resulting in Rollins winning, and Cesaro and Sheamus brawling with Bálor Club members, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, at ringside. On Raw 25 the next week, Jordan and Rollins were the guests on Christian's The Peep Show, which Cesaro and Sheamus interrupted and the two teams brawled where Rollins accidentally hit Jordan with a knee attack that was intended for Cesaro.

At Clash of Champions, The Usos (Jey and Jimmy Uso) retained the SmackDown Tag Team Championship in a fatal-four-way match against Rusev and Aiden English, The New Day's Big E and Xavier Woods, and Chad Gable and Shelton Benjamin. On the following episode of SmackDown, Gable and Benjamin defeated The Usos in a non-title match, and they were awarded with a championship match on the first SmackDown of 2018, where they defeated The Usos to initially win the titles after pinning Jimmy Uso; however, Jimmy was not the legal man, and thus the match was restarted and The Usos retained their championship. The following week, Gable and Benjamin confronted SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan over the incident. After questioning if they should have to defeat The Usos twice in the same night, Bryan decided that at the Royal Rumble, The Usos would defend the SmackDown Tag Team Championship against Gable and Benjamin in a two-out-of-three-falls match.

On January 26, three matches were announced for the Royal Rumble pre-show. For SmackDown, it was announced that United States Champion Bobby Roode would have an open challenge for the title. Two tag team matches were scheduled for Raw: a rematch between Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson and The Revival (Dash Wilder and Scott Dawson) from Raw 25, and a six-man tag team match for the cruiserweight division with Kalisto, Gran Metalik, and Lince Dorado against Drew Gulak, TJP, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher.

Cancellations

Two other matches had been promoted for the event, but were later removed.

The first was the tournament final for SmackDown's then-vacant United States Championship. Originally scheduled for the PPV, the finals were instead contested on the January 16 episode of SmackDown, where Bobby Roode defeated Jinder Mahal to win the title.

The second was a championship match for the Raw brand where IWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore was scheduled to defend the title against Cedric Alexander. However, after Amore was suspended from IWE on January 22 due to allegations of sexual harassment and sexual assault, the match was cancelled. Amore was released the next day and the title was vacated.

Results

Men's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

     – Raw

     – SmackDown

     – Free agent/unassigned

     – NXT

     – Winner

(*) - Tye Dillinger was announced as the #10 entrant, but was attacked backstage by Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn, resulting in Zayn taking his spot.

Women's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

     – Raw

     – SmackDown

     – Free agent

     – NXT

     – Winner

References

External links