Royal Rumble (2009) was a wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) made by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place in Detroit, Michigan at the Joe Louis Arena. The event was held on January 22, 2009.
The event had the 22nd annual Royal Rumble match as the main event, which Randy Orton won. One of the matches was Jeff Hardy defending his WWE Championship against Edge. Another was John Cena defending his World Heavyweight Championship against John "Bradshaw" Layfield with his employee Shawn Michaels. A third match was Jack Swagger defending his ECW Championship against Matt Hardy. The last match was Beth Phoenix defending her WWE Women's Championship against Melina.
450,000 paid to see the event. This was down from 533,000 the year before.
Background
The main match in the Rumble was the yearly Royal Rumble match. The match starts with two wrestlers with another wrestler coming to the ring every 90 seconds until all 30 have entered. The match ends when one wrestler remains in the ring. This is after all 29 other wrestlers have been eliminated by being thrown over the top ring rope and having both feet touch the floor. The winner was given a championship match for the WWE, World Heavyweight, or ECW Championship at WrestleMania XXV.
The main rivalry from the Raw brand was John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) challenging John Cena for the World Heavyweight Championship. JBL earned his championship match against Cena after winning a Fatal Four-Way elimination match on the December 29, 2008 episode of Raw by beating Chris Jericho, Randy Orton, and Shawn Michaels.
Another rivalry from the Raw brand was Melina challenging Beth Phoenix for her WWE Women's Championship in a singles match Melina won the chance to face Phoenix on the December 29, 2008 episode of Raw by winning a battle royal.
The main rivalry from the SmackDown brand going into the Royal Rumble was Jeff Hardy and Edge fighting over the WWE Championship. At WWE's last pay-per-view event, Armageddon, Hardy defeated Edge and Triple H in a Triple Threat match, a match with three wrestlers, to win the WWE Championship. On the January 2, 2009 episode of SmackDown, Vickie Guerrero said that Edge would face Hardy for the WWE title at the Royal Rumble.
ECW's main rivalry was Jack Swagger and Matt Hardy fighting over the ECW Championship. On the January 13, 2009 episode of ECW, Swagger beat Hardy to win the ECW Championship. On the January 16 episode of SmackDown, it was announced that Swagger would defend the ECW title against Hardy in a match at the Royal Rumble.
Event
Opening matches
The first match of the night had Jack Swagger fight Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship. Swagger was the defending champion. The match began having both wrestlers countering (reversing) each other's moves. This continued until Swagger hurt Hardy's shoulder. Swagger targeted this part of the body on Matt for the rest of the match. Swagger won the match by pin after hitting his finisher (the signature move that he used to finish a match) on him, a gutwrench powerbomb. As a result, Swagger remained the ECW Champion.
The next match was for the WWE Women's Championship. The champion, Beth Phoenix was set to defend her title against Melina. The match saw Phoenix in control for a lot of the match with Beth focusing on Melina's legs. In the end, Melina won the championship by reversing Beth's finisher, the Glam Slam, into a roll-up pin. This resulted in Melina becoming the new WWE Women's Champion.
Main event matches
In the third match, John Cena faced JBL to defend his World Heavyweight Championship. JBL's employee, Shawn Michaels, came to the ring with JBL. When the referee was knocked out, Shawn entered the ring and hit his finisher, Sweet Chin Music, on both JBL and Cena leaving them in the ring on the mat (floor of the ring) but with JBL's arm on top of Cena, which is a type of pin. But before the referee woke up Cena got up and hit his finisher, the Attitude Adjustment, to pin JBL and keep his championship.