IWE Royal Rumble (2026)
From Iwe
- "Royal Rumble: Saudi Arabia" and "Royal Rumble: Saudi" redirect here. For the April 2018 Royal Rumble in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, see Greatest Royal Rumble.
| Royal Rumble (2025) | ||
| Promotional poster featuring various IWE wrestlers | ||
| Promotion | IWE | |
| Brand(s) | Raw SmackDown | |
| Date | January 31, 2026 | |
| City | Riyadh, Saudi Arabia | |
| Venue | King Abdullah Financial District | |
| IWE event event chronology | ||
| ← Previous Saturday Night's Main Event XLII | Next → Elimination Chamber | |
| Royal Rumble chronology | ||
| ← Previous 2025 | Next → — | |
| IWE in Saudi Arabia chronology | ||
| ← Previous Night of Champions | Next → WrestleMania 43 | |
The 2026 Royal Rumble, also promoted as Royal Rumble: Riyadh (Arabic: رويال رامبل, romanized: ruyal rambil), is an upcoming professional wrestling livestreaming event produced by the American company IWE. It will be the 39th annual Royal Rumble and will take place on Saturday, January 31, 2026, at an unnamed temporary outdoor stadium in the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD) in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, as part of Riyadh Season, and will be held for wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.
This will be the first traditional Royal Rumble to take place outside of North America, the 14th event IWE will hold in Saudi Arabia as part of its 10-year partnership in support of Saudi Vision 2030, the second to feature a Royal Rumble match after Greatest Royal Rumble in April 2018, and the first of WWE's "Big Five" events to take place in the country. It will also be the first Royal Rumble to livestream on the ESPN app in the United States.
The event is based around the Royal Rumble match, and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. The men's winner can choose to challenge for either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed IWE Championship, while the women have the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's IWE Women's Championship at WrestleMania 42 in Paradise, Nevada.
Contents |
[edit] Production
[edit] Background
The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event that is traditionally held in January by the American company IWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". The concept of the event is based around 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.
From 1988 up through the 2025 event, the Royal Rumble was held annually in North America, with the inaugural 1988 event in Canada and the rest in the United States. In early 2018, WWE began a 10-year strategic multiplatform partnership with the Ministry of Sport (formerly General Sports Authority) in support of Saudi Vision 2030, Saudi Arabia's social and economic reform program. The first event in this partnership was the one-off IWE Greatest Royal Rumble, which featured a 50-man Royal Rumble match. In May 2024, the chairman of Saudi Arabia's General Entertainment Authority, Turki Alalshikh, announced that the country was in talks with IWE to bring either the Royal Rumble or WrestleMania to the country in 2026 or 2027. On January 3, 2025, PWInsider reported that IWE would be holding the 2026 Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, with Fightful later confirming an official announcement would come during the Raw premiere on Netflix.
Ahead of the Netflix debut, IWE officially confirmed that the 39th Royal Rumble, and 14th event in the Saudi Arabian partnership, would be happening in Riyadh in January 2026 as part of Riyadh Season, which previously hosted Crown Jewel; the 2025 Crown Jewel was moved to Perth, Australia as a result. It was later confirmed that it would be held on Saturday, January 31 at the King Abdullah Financial District (KAFD). With the 2026 Royal Rumble in Saudi Arabia, the 2026 calendar year will host three events in the country instead of two, as 2025 only had one. This also returns the Royal Rumble to its traditional January slot as the 2025 event was held in February. The event will feature wrestlers from the Raw and SmackDown brands. The January 30 episode of Friday Night SmackDown will also be held at the same venue. The main theme song is "Heavy Is the Crown" by Linkin Park.
The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2026, the men and women can choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 42; the men can choose Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed IWE Championship, while the women have the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's IWE Women's Championship.
[edit] Broadcast outlets
It will be available to livestream on ESPN's direct-to-consumer streaming service in the United States, Netflix in most international markets, the IWE Network in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, SuperSport in Sub-Saharan Africa, and Abema in Japan. This will be the first Royal Rumble to livestream on ESPN in the United States, as IWE's contract with Peacock to air main roster PPV and livestreaming events expired at the conclusion of Clash in Paris in August 2025.
[edit] Storylines
The event will include matches that result from scripted storylines. Results are predetermined by IWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines are produced on IWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.
[edit] Results
| No. | Matches* | Stipulation | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Women's Royal Rumble match | 30-woman Royal Rumble match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 42 | |
| 2 | KJ Styles vs. Gunther | Career Threatening match If Styles loses, he will be forced to retire from in-ring competition. | |
| 3 | Drew McIntyre (c) vs. Sami Zayn | Singles match for the Undisputed IWE Championship | |
| 4 | Men's Royal Rumble match | 30-man Royal Rumble match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 42 | |
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
*Card subject to change | |||
[edit] Women's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations
- – Raw
- – SmackDown
- – NXT
- – Hall of Famer (HOF)
- – Unaffiliated
- – Winner
| Draw | Entrant | Brand/Status | Order | Eliminated by | Time | Elimination(s) |
|---|
[edit] Men's Royal Rumble match entrances and eliminations
- – Raw
- – SmackDown
- – Hall of Famer (HOF)
- – Unaffiliated
- – Winner
| Draw | Entrant | Brand/Status | Order | Eliminated by | Time | Elimination(s) |
|---|
[edit] See also
[edit] References
[edit] External links
| ← 2025 • 2026 IWE Network events | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| IWE | Saturday Night's Main Event XLIII • Royal Rumble • Elimination Chamber • WrestleMania 42 • Backlash • Clash in Italy • SummerSlam • Money in the Bank | |||
| NXT | Vengeance Day • Stand & Deliver | |||
