Nick Piccone
WWE is bringing back a staple of its pay-per-view lineup to Philly, according to a report from philly.com’s Vaughn Johnson. Three years after the company last brought the Royal Rumble to the city, they’ll bring it back to the same city that has recently put in bids to host WrestleMania the last couple of years, but were not successful.
Yes, indeed, the Royal Rumble is returning to Philadelphia on January 28, 2018, and it’s bringing a slew of events with it. In addition to the Rumble pay-per-view itself, the Wells Fargo Center will also host the NXT TakeOver event, Raw and SmackDown Live to round out the weekend.
“WWE has enjoyed a very special relationship with the city and its fans over decades, and that important heritage made Philadelphia a very natural choice to host this unprecedented four-night celebration,” John Saboor told philly.com’s Vaughn Johnson, who also co-hosts The Straight Shooters wrestling podcast Fridays at 6 P.M. with yours truly exclusively on Wildfire Radio. [Subscribe to our podcast here for iTunes or here for Stitcher]. Saboor is WWE’s executive vice president of special events, and also noted that WWE is continuing their effort to grow their four largest annual events, which include the Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and the Survivor Series.
WWE will present the Royal Rumble this Sunday in the Alamodome from San Antonio, Texas.
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The last time WWE was in Philly for the Rumble was in 2015, where Roman Reigns won the Rumble to raucous boos and many fans were disappointed.
Tune in to The Straight Shooters on Wildfire Radio Friday at 6:00 P.M. as we talk about this, along with our Royal Rumble preview for this Sunday.
WWE.com confirmed the report on Thursday morning.
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