The 2020 Royal Rumble was the 33rd annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on January 26, 2020, at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas.
Traditionally, the Royal Rumble match winner receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2020 event, the winners of both the men's and women's matches received a choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 36. The men could choose to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship or SmackDown's Universal Championship, while the women had the choice between the Raw Women's Championship and the SmackDown Women's Championship. Additionally and for the first time, NXT's championships were eligible choices, which added the NXT Championship and the NXT Women's Championship, thus being the first Royal Rumble since 2010 in which there were three eligible championships for the Rumble winner to challenge for.
Eight matches were contested at the event, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Raw's Drew McIntyre won the men's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating SmackDown's Roman Reigns, while Raw's Charlotte Flair won the women's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating NXT's Shayna Baszler. Other prominent matches saw "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt retain the Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan in a strap match, Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and Becky Lynch defeated Asuka by submission to retain the Raw Women's Championship. The event also featured the in-ring return of Edge, who last wrestled in April 2011 before retiring from a neck injury, as well as MVP, who last wrestled for WWE in December 2010.
Production
Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick event produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views (PPV), along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four". It is named after the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time. Announced on February 15, 2019, the 2020 event was the 33rd Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 26, 2020, at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions, with some NXT wrestlers and WWE veterans appearing in both the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches. In addition to airing on traditional PPV, the event was available to livestream on the WWE Network. Travel packages became available on September 12 while individual tickets went on sale on September 20.
The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the past two years, the men and women had the choice to challenge for the top championships of the Raw and SmackDown brands at WrestleMania. In September 2019, NXT was recognized as WWE's third main brand, evidenced by its inclusion in the brand competition at the 2019 Survivor Series. Although the 2020 Royal Rumble was not promoted as an NXT event, for the first time, its titles became eligible for the Royal Rumble winners to challenge for, also marking the first time since 2010 in which the men had three championship choices. For the 2020 event, the men could choose between Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's Universal Championship, and the NXT Championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 36, while the women had the choice between the Raw Women's Championship, SmackDown Women's Championship, and NXT Women's Championship. This also made the 2020 event the first time women had three options.
Storylines
The event comprised eight matches, including two on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines, where wrestlers portrayed heroes, villains, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.