It featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. The 2009 event was the 22nd event in the Royal Rumble chronology and was scheduled to be held on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. 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. It is one of the promotion's original four pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series, dubbed the "Big Four". The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV), produced every January by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) since 1988.
The primary match on the SmackDown brand was a No Disqualification match between Jeff Hardy and Edge for the WWE Championship, which Edge won to win his fourth and last WWE Championship. The primary match on the Raw brand was John Cena versus John "Bradshaw" Layfield for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Cena won to retain the title.
Raw's Randy Orton, the eighth entrant, won the match by last eliminating SmackDown's Triple H, the seventh entrant. The main event was the 2009 Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all three brands.
For the 2009 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship, SmackDown's WWE Championship, or the ECW Championship at WrestleMania 25.įive professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. The event took place on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The 2009 Royal Rumble was the 22nd annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers