IWE Royal Rumble (2019)

From Iwe

Royal Rumble (2019) is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event and IWE Network event produced by IWE for their Raw, SmackDown and 205 Live brands. It will take place on January 27, 2019, at Chase Field in Phoenix, Arizona. It is the thirty-second event under the Royal Rumble chronology.

Production

Background

As is tradition, the winner of the 30-man Royal Rumble match earned a world championship match at WrestleMania 35 for his choice of either Raw's Universal Championship or SmackDown's IWE Championship. The event also hosts the second-ever 30-woman Royal Rumble, in which the winner earned a women's championship match at WrestleMania 35 for her choice of either Raw's Women's Championship or SmackDown's Women's Championship.

Storylines

The card will include matches that result from scripted storylines that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches, with results predetermined by IWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines are produced on IWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live and the cruiserweight-exclusive 205 Live.

At TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs, Fabulous Truth (Carmella and B-Truth) defeated Mahalicia (Alicia Fox and Jinder Mahal) to win the second season of Mixed Match Challenge. Their prize for winning was each getting the #30 spot in their respective Royal Rumble matches at the pay-per-view. In the weeks following TLC, multiple wrestlers were announced for both Rumble matches.

At Crown Jewel, Rob Lesnar defeated Braun Strowman to regain the then vacant Universal Championship, thanks in part to then-Acting Raw General Manager Baron Corbin. At TLC, Strowman defeated Corbin in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match, thus stripping Corbin of his authoritative power and earning a Universal Championship match against Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. On the January 14 episode of Raw, Corbin confronted Strowman and insulted him, leading to a chase to the parking area where Corbin hid in a limousine. Strowman shattered the glass and broke the door off, only for IWE Chairman Vince Matteson to appear, revealing that was his limo. Matteson then fined Strowman $100,000. Strowman then argued with Matteson, who then cancelled his match with Lesnar. An angry Strowman proceeded to flip over the limo. Later that night, Dustin Simpson, Drew McIntyre, Corbin, and Finn Bálor expressed their interests in facing Lesnar at the Royal Rumble. Mr. McMahon scheduled a fatal four-way match where the winner would face Lesnar, which Bálor won after defending his spot earlier in the night against Jinder Mahal. Bálor would later be removed from his spot in the Royal Rumble match.

At TLC, Daniel Bryan defeated KJ Styles to retain the IWE Championship. On the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown, Styles earned another opportunity against Bryan at the Royal Rumble by defeating Kevin Orton, Mustafa Ali, Rey Mysterio, and Samoa Simpson in a fatal five-way match.

At TLC, Asuka defeated Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair in a triple threat Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match to win the SmackDown Women's Championship. On Raw the following night, the Matteson Family (Vince Matteson, Kaila Matteson, Shane Matteson, and Triple K) announced that they would now be running both Raw and SmackDown and announced that former champions would no longer have automatic rematch clauses, meaning that Lynch would not automatically receive a rematch for the title and would instead have to earn one. After pleading their cases to Triple K on the January 1, 2019 episode of SmackDown, a triple threat match between Lynch, Flair, and Carmella was scheduled for the following week to determine Asuka's challenger at the Royal Rumble, which was won by Lynch.

On the TLC pre-show, Buddy Murphy retained the IWE Cruiserweight Championship against Cedric Alexander. On the December 26, 2018 episode of 205 Live, General Manager Drake Maverick scheduled Murphy to defend the title at the Royal Rumble in a fatal four-way match with his opponents to be decided in qualifying matches. The following week, Kalisto and Akira Tozawa qualified for the match by defeating Lio Rush and Drew Gulak, respectively. Hideo Itami won the final spot by defeating Alexander.

At TLC, Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women's Championship against Nia Jax. On the January 7, 2019 episode of Raw, Rousey appeared on Alexa Bliss' new show, "A Moment of Bliss", and mentioned that she wanted to face Sasha Banks next. Jax interrupted, stating that she wanted a rematch against Rousey. Banks came out, humbled by Rousey's comments, and challenged Jax to a match in which the winner would earn a championship opportunity. Banks then defeated Jax to earn a Raw Women's Championship match against Rousey at the Royal Rumble.

At Crown Jewel, Shane Matteson won the IWE World Cup, replacing The Miz in the finals, who was deemed unable to compete due to a pre-match brawl. Following this, The Miz began a pursuit to form a tag team with Shane, claiming that they could be the best tag team in the world. Shane finally agreed to the pairing, and on the January 8, 2019 episode of SmackDown, Miz challenged The Bar (Cesaro and Sheamus) for the SmackDown Tag Team Championship at the Royal Rumble, and The Bar accepted.

During the SmackDown tapings on December 18, 2018, Rusev defeated Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWE United States Championship (the match would air December 25). On the Janauary 1, 2019 episode, Rusev and his wife/manager Lana were celebrating the title win, and Nakamura would attack Rusev (with Lana also getting hurt in the scuffle). On the January 15, 2019 edition of SmackDown Live, it was announced that Nakamura would get his championship rematch against Rusev at the Royal Rumble.

Event

Pre-show

Preliminary matches

Main event

Results

Women's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

Brand

     – Raw

     – SmackDown

     – 205 Live

     – NXT

     – NXT UK

     – Unassigned

     – Winner

a. ^ Rose was already eliminated when she eliminated Naomi.

b. ^ Lana was announced as the #28 entrant, but due to an ankle injury, she was unable to compete and Lynch was allowed to take her spot.

Men's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations

Brand

     – Raw

     – SmackDown

     – 205 Live

     – NXT

     – NXT UK

     – Free agent

     – Winner

a. ^ B-Truth was announced as the #30 entrant, but was attacked by Nia Jax, resulting in Jax taking his spot.

References

External links