Tonight, WWE will present the 30-superstar, over-the-top-rope Royal Rumble match and it is one of the most fun and most chaotic matches of the year. There is always the unpredictable nature of the match as anyone can win and anything can happen, but there has to be some organization to it all. A former WWE superstar has decided to spill the secrets and inner workings of the Royal Rumble match and how stars know who will win and who is supposed to eliminate who.
With 30 different superstars, outside interference, managers, eliminations, and the ultimate winner of it all, there are a lot of variables that can make the Royal Rumble successful. On the other hand, every single one of those things can make the bout a total failure if things don’t fall into place the right way.
A lot of fans have often wondered just how a match that is more than an hour long and involves so many superstars can be organized. Well, former WWE superstar Matt Morgan was in one of them in the past, and he decided to spill some secrets.
For just a few years, Matt Morgan was a part of WWE in their developmental program, and after being called up, he was on the SmackDown roster. In 2004, he was an entrant in the Royal Rumble, and he actually has decided to spill just how the match works to Wrestling Inc .
“2004. My rookie year. My first full year there. We’re in the locker room, Pat Patterson was the quarterback of it, the producer of it, I guess they would say now. And I remember he had this dry erase board. He would list all of our names and then write out who is eliminating who.”
Pat Patterson is a former wrestler who is now a creative consultant for WWE, and he has been a big part of the backstage workings of the company for a long time. Ahead of time, the promotion will usually reveal which superstars are in the match, but they don’t always let the public know all of them.
As shown on the preview page on WWE’s official website, there are only 22 announced entrants for tonight’s Royal Rumble. That means there are still eight open slots, but while the public doesn’t know everyone in, you can bet that the superstars do know.
Matt Morgan said that after Patterson lets each person know who they are eliminating, it is up to them to figure out how to do it and quickly.
“And then, as he’s doing it, he looked at me and said, ‘alright, Morgan, you’re eliminating Hurricane Helms’ or ‘then, you’re doing this’. And then, really quickly, I’d have to turn to Hurricane and say what I’m going to do to him, like right there on the spot and have an idea right then and there, so they would know. It was really quick thinking, I remember. It was just like, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam, when they’d get to your name, what you would do to eliminate your talent or get eliminated yourself. And you had to keep it moving because there are some many guys in that Rumble.”
Morgan went on to say that the winner of the Royal Rumble is known by the superstars ahead of time. Back in 2004, everyone knew that Chris Benoit would be winning the match about a week before the pay-per-view was to take place.
Matt Morgan went on to say that once the superstars are given their eliminations, many will head out to the ring and try to work things out. They’ll tell each other what their plans are and how they think things should work and practice it a bit before the big event later in the night.
The Royal Rumble really is a hard match to call and one that has to be even more difficult to organize and have it come off looking right. Matt Morgan revealed some things that should seem rather obvious, but may never be thought of by those outside of WWE.
Yes, wrestling is predetermined and the results are known ahead of time by many people, or at least a few people. The Royal Rumble is one of those matches that is really hard to organize because there are so many superstars and countless variables that can play into it coming off looking good. Matt Morgan revealed some of the secrets and how it all works with the winner and eliminations, but it’s the WWE superstars who have to make it look realistic and have it come off as entertaining.
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