Royal Rumble (1995)

Royal Rumble
Promotional poster
Promotion	World Wrestling Federation
Date	January 22, 1995
City	Tampa, Florida
Venue	USF Sun Dome
Attendance	10,000
Buy rate	225,000[1]
Tagline(s)	30 Men, 1 Winner, Something's Gotta Give!
Pay-per-view chronology
← Previous Survivor Series Next → WrestleMania XI
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous 1994 Next → 1996

The 1995 Royal Rumble was the eighth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE). It took place on January 22, 1995, in the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. The event featured five matches on its card. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 1995 event, the winner received a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at WrestleMania XI.

The main event was the 1995 Royal Rumble match, which Shawn Michaels won after entering first and outlasting the 29 other wrestlers. This was the first time that the first entrant won the match. The event also featured a match for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship, where Diesel defended the title against Bret Hart. The match was stopped when several other wrestlers interfered and the referee lost control of the match. Two other title matches took place; Jeff Jarrett won the WWF Intercontinental Championship from Razor Ramon, and The 1–2–3 Kid and Bob Holly won the final match in a tournament that determined the new WWF Tag Team Champions.

Several storylines from Royal Rumble 1995 were carried over to WrestleMania XI, the WWF's next pay-per-view. Bam Bam Bigelow attacked National Football League Hall of Famer Lawrence Taylor, who was sitting in the crowd; this set up a match between the two at WrestleMania. Pamela Anderson was at ringside and was supposed to accompany the winner of the Royal Rumble match to his WWF World Heavyweight Championship match at WrestleMania. Although Shawn Michaels won the match, Anderson came to the ring at WrestleMania with Diesel. The Undertaker's feud with Ted DiBiase's Million Dollar Corporation also escalated, as DiBiase's men stole the urn that was said to give The Undertaker his power. Jarrett and Ramon continued to feud for several months, and Bret Hart targeted Bob Backlund because Backlund interfered in the WWF World Heavyweight Championship match.