The 2021 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE, held for wrestlers from the promotion's main roster brands, Raw and SmackDown. It was the 34th annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 31, 2021, from the WWE ThunderDome, a bio-secure bubble that at the time was hosted at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was the sixth Royal Rumble held in the U.S. state of Florida, after 1990, 1991, 1995, 2006, and 2016, and the second in the Tampa Bay area, as 1995 was in Tampa. This was also the final Royal Rumble event to livestream on the American version of the WWE Network, which merged under Peacock in April.
The event was based around the Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-person battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the respective men's and women's winners received a world championship match at WrestleMania. For the 2021 event, the winners received a choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 35. The men could choose to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's Universal Championship, or the NXT Championship, while the women had the choice between the Raw Women's Championship, the SmackDown Women's Championship, and the NXT Women's Championship. This was the last Royal Rumble in which three championships were an option for both winners, as well as the last in which NXT's championships were eligible options, as in September, NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental brand. The Royal Rumble match was created by WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, who died a month before the event, making this the first Royal Rumble held following his death.
Six matches were contested at the event, including one on the Kickoff pre-show. The main event was the 2021 Men's Royal Rumble match, which was won by WWE Hall of Famer and Raw's Edge, who last eliminated Randy Orton, also from Raw, marking Edge's second win, after 2010, thus becoming the eighth two-time winner, the third wrestler to win it as the number one entrant, the fifth wrestler to win it as one of the two starting wrestlers, and the first wrestler to win it after being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. The 2021 Women's Royal Rumble match was won by SmackDown's Bianca Belair, who last eliminated NXT's Rhea Ripley. In other prominent matches, Roman Reigns defeated Kevin Owens in a Last Man Standing match to retain the Universal Championship and in the opening bout, Drew McIntyre defeated Goldberg to retain the WWE Championship. The men's Royal Rumble match also featured the returns of The Hurricane, Carlito, Kane, and Christian, the latter of which wrestled his final match in WWE before signing with rival promotion All Elite Wrestling in March under the ring name Christian Cage.
WWE were looking to host the 2021 Royal Rumble at a venue that could have live fans in attendance, as the promotion wanted fans for the event, even if it was just for this one show. However, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to those plans, and while dismantling the ThunderDome to have live fans in attendance at Tropicana Field was possible, WWE decided that the massive undertaking to do so was not worth doing for just one night. After WWE resumed live touring with full capacity crowds in July, the Royal Rumble returned to Tropicana Field in 2024.
Production Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event, produced every January by WWE since 1988; that first event was a television special before it became a pay-per-view (PPV) event beginning in 1989 and then also available via livestreaming on the WWE Network since 2015. It is one of the promotion's original four PPVs, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, referred to as the "Big Four". It is named after and centered on the Royal Rumble match. The 34th Royal Rumble event was scheduled to be held on January 31, 2021. It featured wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions with a select few NXT wrestlers and WWE veterans also appearing in both the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches.
The Royal Rumble match is a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time, and the match generally features 30 wrestlers. Traditionally, the winner of the match earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2021, the men and women could choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 37; the men could choose Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's Universal Championship, or the NXT Championship, while the women could choose the Raw Women's Championship, SmackDown Women's Championship, or NXT Women's Championship.
The Royal Rumble match was created by WWE Hall of Famer Pat Patterson, and the match was originally tested at a house show in October 1987 before making its televised debut at the inaugural Royal Rumble event in 1988. Patterson died on December 2, 2020, at the age of 79, which made the 2021 event the first Royal Rumble held following his death.
Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic that began affecting the industry in mid-March 2020, WWE had to present the majority of its programming from a behind closed doors set. Initially, Raw and SmackDown's television shows and PPVs were done at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida. A limited number of Performance Center trainees and friends and family members of the wrestlers were later utilized to serve as the live audience. In late August, these programs were moved to a bio-secure bubble called the WWE ThunderDome. The select live audience was no longer utilized as the bubble allowed fans to attend the events virtually for free and be seen on the nearly 1,000 LED boards within the arena. Additionally, the ThunderDome utilized various special effects to further enhance wrestlers' entrances, and arena audio was mixed with that of the chants from the virtual fans. After being hosted at Orlando's Amway Center, the ThunderDome was relocated to Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida in December.
In November 2020, it was reported that WWE were looking to host the 2021 Royal Rumble at a venue that could have live fans in attendance, as the promotion wanted fans for the event, even if it was just for this one show. However, the ongoing pandemic put a stop to those plans, and while dismantling the ThunderDome to have live fans in attendance at Tropicana Field was possible, WWE decided that the massive undertaking to do so was not worth doing for just one night. As a result, this was the sixth Royal Rumble held in the U.S. state of Florida, after 1990, 1991, 1995, 2006, and 2016, and the second in the Tampa Bay area, after 1995 in Tampa.
Several wrestlers were also pulled from the event due to COVID-19 concerns. Retribution's Reckoning was originally booked to appear in the women's Royal Rumble match, however she tested positive for the virus and was replaced by Toni Storm. Keith Lee and Robert Roode were reportedly planned to be in the men's match, but were pulled, as was Jey Uso, who had been advertised for the match.
Storylines The event comprised six matches, including one on the Kickoff pre-show, that resulted from scripted storylines. 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.
On the January 8 episode of SmackDown, Universal Champion Roman Reigns took issue with the recent booking decisions made by WWE official Adam Pearce, including a gauntlet match that Pearce had scheduled for that night to determine Reigns's challenger for his title at the Royal Rumble. Reigns questioned if Pearce booked himself for the match, to which Pearce responded that would have been a conflict of interest. Later, Reigns's special counsel, Paul Heyman, confronted Pearce backstage and stated that he was able to pull some strings and that Pearce would also be competing in the gauntlet match along with Rey Mysterio, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, King Corbin, and Daniel Bryan. Nakamura survived the gauntlet to face final entrant Pearce; however, before the final round began, Reigns's cousin, Jey Uso, taunted Nakamura, which led to Reigns and Jey attacking both Nakamura and Pearce. Jey placed Pearce on top of Nakamura for the pinfall, thus Pearce won the match. The following week, Heyman confronted Pearce backstage and gave him the match contract to sign. The stipulation for their match was originally a no disqualification match; after Heyman gave the signed contract to Reigns, however, Reigns wanted the stipulation changed to a Last Man Standing match. Later in the ring, Pearce and Reigns signed the amended contract, but as Pearce was leaving, he feigned a knee injury, citing that the contract allowed him to choose a replacement for himself in the event of an injury and chose Kevin Owens, who Reigns defeated at TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match thanks to interference from Jey. Owens then made his entrance and signed the contract to become Reigns's opponent for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble.
Following Drew McIntyre's successful WWE Championship defense during the special "Legends Night" episode of Raw on January 4, WWE Hall of Famer Goldberg, in his first appearance since WrestleMania 36 in 2020, appeared to confront McIntyre. After Goldberg praised McIntyre's work and abilities, he stated that McIntyre did not have respect, claiming that McIntyre viewed the legends as being "washed up" and that McIntyre felt he was better than any of them when they were in their prime. Goldberg then formally challenged McIntyre for the WWE Championship at the Royal Rumble. McIntyre responded that Goldberg was not the man he used to be and that facing him would be like facing his own dad. Goldberg then taunted and shoved McIntyre, who rose to his feet and stared down Goldberg. The following week, McIntyre refuted Goldberg's claim and said that he actually did have respect but that he was going to reject Goldberg's challenge until Goldberg pushed him, prompting him to accept the challenge and make the match official. McIntyre had accepted Goldberg's challenge via satellite as during that same episode, he announced that he had tested positive for COVID-19; following the standard 14-day quarantine procedure, McIntyre was cleared for the Royal Rumble, appearing live on Raw on the January 25 episode to have a final face-to-face meeting with Goldberg before their match.
At TLC, Sasha Banks retained the SmackDown Women's Championship against Carmella. Over the next couple of weeks, Carmella continuously taunted Banks, yearning for a rematch. On the January 15 episode of SmackDown, Banks stated that she would give Carmella a rematch only if she faced Carmella's sommelier, Reginald, in a match first. The intergender match occurred the following week, in which Banks defeated Reginald. Banks kept her promise and a title rematch between Banks and Carmella was scheduled for the Royal Rumble.
At TLC, Charlotte Flair and Asuka defeated Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler to win the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship. On January 25, a championship rematch between the two teams was scheduled for the Royal Rumble, and was later scheduled for the Kickoff pre-show.
Event + Other on-screen personnelRole:Name:English commentatorsMichael Cole Corey Graves Tom Phillips Samoa Joe Byron Saxton Jerry Lawler Spanish commentatorsCarlos CabreraMarcelo RodriguezRing announcersGreg Hamilton Mike Rome RefereesDanilo AnfibioJason AyersShawn BennettJessika CarrJohn ConeDarrick MooreEddie OrengoChad PattonRod ZapataInterviewersKayla BraxtonSarah SchreiberPre-show panelCharly CarusoBooker TJerry LawlerJohn "Bradshaw" LayfieldPeter RosenbergSonya Deville