Royal Rumble (2022)

Royal Rumble
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
Promotion	WWE
Brand(s)	Raw SmackDown
Date	January 29, 2022
City	St. Louis, Missouri
Venue	The Dome at America's Center
Attendance	44,390[1]
WWE Network event chronology
← Previous Day 1 Next → Elimination Chamber
Royal Rumble chronology
← Previous 2021 Next → 2023

The 2022 Royal Rumble was the 35th annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions. The event took place on Saturday, January 29, 2022, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri, and was the first Royal Rumble to livestream on Peacock. It was also WWE's first PPV to be livestreamed on Disney+ Hotstar in Indonesia.

Traditionally, the Royal Rumble match winner receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2022 event, the winners of both the men's and women's matches received a choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania 38. The men could choose to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship or SmackDown's Universal Championship, while the women had the choice between the Raw Women's Championship and the SmackDown Women's Championship. NXT's men's and women's championships were dropped from the options after NXT reverted to being WWE's developmental territory in September 2021.

Six matches were contested at the event. In the main event, Brock Lesnar won the men's Royal Rumble match after losing his WWE Championship to Bobby Lashley earlier in the night, becoming the first former world champion to win the eponymous match on the same night he lost the title. This also made him the ninth two-time Royal Rumble winner, first winning it in 2003, and he set a record for the longest time between Royal Rumble wins (19 years) as well as the least time spent in the match before winning it (2:30). The women's Royal Rumble match was won by Ronda Rousey, in her first WWE appearance since WrestleMania 35 in April 2019. In the opening bout, Seth "Freakin" Rollins defeated Universal Champion Roman Reigns by disqualification; however, as titles do not change hands by disqualification unless stipulated, Reigns retained. Notably, Jackass actor/stuntman Johnny Knoxville and reggaeton singer Bad Bunny appeared in the men's Royal Rumble and reigning Impact Knockouts World Champion Mickie James appeared in the women's. This was also the final WWE event for Spanish commentator Carlos Cabrera.

The event received negative reviews from fans and critics, with the men's Royal Rumble being widely panned, while the women's Royal Rumble criticized for its ending. Despite this, however, the match between Rollins and Reigns was widely praised.