Royal Rumble (2008)

Royal Rumble
Promotional poster featuring various WWE wrestlers
Promotion	World Wrestling Entertainment
Brand(s)	Raw SmackDown ECW
Date	January 27, 2008
City	New York City, New York
Venue	Madison Square Garden
Attendance	20,798[1]
Buy rate	575,000[2]
Pay-per-view chronology
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Royal Rumble chronology
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The 2008 Royal Rumble was the 21st annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. The event took place on January 27, 2008, at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York. The event was also the first WWE pay-per-view broadcast in high definition. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2008 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either Raw's WWE Championship, SmackDown's World Heavyweight Championship, or the ECW Championship at WrestleMania XXIV.

Five professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard. The main event was the 2008 Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all three brands. Raw's John Cena, the surprise 30th entrant returning from a torn pectoral muscle, won the match by last eliminating Raw's Triple H, the 29th entrant. The primary match on the Raw brand was Randy Orton versus Jeff Hardy for the WWE Championship, which Orton won to retain the title. The primary match on the SmackDown brand was Edge versus Rey Mysterio for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Edge won to retain the title. The featured matches on the undercard were Montel Vontavious Porter (MVP) versus Ric Flair in a Career Threatening match and John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) versus Chris Jericho.