Background in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The
Royal Rumble is an annual
professional wrestling 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". The
concept of the event is based on 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 January 26, 2017, the 2018 event was the 31st Royal Rumble and was scheduled to be held on January 28, 2018, at the
Wells Fargo Center in
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania, and was the third Royal Rumble held at this venue after the
2004 and
2015 events. It featured wrestlers from the
Raw and
SmackDown brand divisions with some
NXT wrestlers and WWE veterans appearing in the Royal Rumble matches. In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view worldwide, the event was available to
livestream on the
WWE Network. Tickets went on sale on July 29. The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a
world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. It was originally only contested by male wrestlers. However, for 2018, Raw Commissioner
Stephanie McMahon scheduled the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match to be held at the 2018 Royal Rumble, which consequently made the 2018 event the first to include two Rumble matches, which is now standard. As a result, the winners of each match received a choice of which championship to challenge for at
WrestleMania 34. The men could choose to challenge for either Raw's
Universal Championship or SmackDown's
WWE Championship, while the women had the choice between the
Raw Women's Championship and the
SmackDown Women's Championship.
Storylines The event comprised nine matches, including three 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,
SmackDown Live, and the
cruiserweight-exclusive
205 Live. On the October 16, 2017, episode of
Raw,
Kane returned from a ten-month hiatus and helped
Braun Strowman to defeat
Roman Reigns in a
Steel Cage match. Kane was then added to Strowman's team at
TLC: Tables, Ladders & Chairs in the
5-on-3 handicap Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. During the match, Kane accidentally hit Strowman with a chair, which caused tension between the two. Later on in the match, Kane turned on Strowman and crushed 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
Brock 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. 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 any more damage, Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon rehired Strowman, putting him back into the Universal Championship match at the Royal Rumble. 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
Stephanie McMahon scheduled the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match for the 2018 Royal Rumble, with the winner receiving a match at WrestleMania 34 for the top championship of their choice: Raw's Women's Championship or SmackDown's 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. Stephanie 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. At
Clash of Champions, SmackDown's Commissioner
Shane McMahon and General Manager
Daniel Bryan both refereed a tag team match pitting
Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn against
Randy Orton and
Shinsuke Nakamura, where Owens and Zayn would have been fired from WWE 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 of 2017, when Bryan scheduled Owens to face WWE Champion
AJ 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 WWE 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 WWE 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-WWE 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 Joe. After the former champions confronted Angle about their contractual rematch, Angle scheduled it for the Royal Rumble. At Clash of Champions,
The Usos (
Jey Uso 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. 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 second was a championship match for the Raw brand where
WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore was scheduled to defend the title against
Cedric Alexander. ==Event==