Royal Rumble

The Royal Rumble is a professional wrestling pay-per-view event, produced every January by professional wrestling promotion WWE. The event is named after the Royal Rumble match, a Battle royal match whose participants enter at timed intervals.

With the exception of the initial Royal Rumble event in 1988, which was shown as a television special on USA Network, the Royal Rumble has been shown on pay-per-view (first in 1989) and is one of WWE's "Big Four", along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, and Survivor Series. The Royal Rumble is considered one of WWE's most popular pay-per-view events.

History

Event

The Royal Rumble is a pay-per-view consisting of the Royal Rumble match, championship matches, and various other matches. The first Royal Rumble took place on January 24, 1988 and was broadcast live on the USA Network. The following year, the event started to be broadcast on pay-per-view and thus became one of WWE's "big four" pay-per-views, along with WrestleMania, Survivor Series, and SummerSlam.

John Cena

John Felix Anthony Cena (/ˈsiːnə/; born April 23, 1977) is an American professional wrestler, rapper and an actor signed to WWE, but is on hiatus due to injury as of February 2016. Cena is credited by WWE as the public face of that organization, and has served as its franchise player since 2005.

Cena started his pro wrestling career in 1999 with Ultimate Pro Wrestling (UPW), and won its heavyweight title the following year. Cena signed a developmental contract with the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, later renamed to WWE) in 2001, debuting on the main roster in 2002. As of February 2016, Cena has won 24 championships, with 15 reigns as a world champion; he has won the WWE Championship/WWE World Heavyweight Championship a record of 12 times and the World Heavyweight Championship three times (WWE.com has repeatedly described him as a 15-time WWE World Heavyweight Champion), Cena also had five reigns as United States Champion, and four reigns as world tag team champion (two World Tag Team and two WWE Tag Team). Furthermore, he is a 2012 Money in the Bank ladder match winner, a two-time Royal Rumble winner (2008, 2013), and a three-time Superstar of the Year Slammy Award winner (2009, 2010, 2012).

CM Punk

Phillip Jack "Phil" Brooks (born October 26, 1978), better known by the ring name CM Punk, is an American comic book writer, actor, retired professional wrestler, and forthcoming mixed martial artist, who is signed with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) as of February 2016. He is best known for his time in WWE, where he was the longest-reigning WWE Champion of the modern era, having held the title for 434 days from November 20, 2011 to January 27, 2013. His reign is officially recognized as the sixth longest of all time, as well as the longest since 1988.

Brooks began his professional wrestling career on the American independent circuit, primarily with Ring of Honor (ROH) until 2005 when he signed with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). He is a seven-time world champion in professional wrestling: having won the WWE Championship twice, WWE World Heavyweight Championship three times, ECW Championship once and ROH World Championship once. Along with Daniel Bryan and Seth Rollins, he is one of three men to have been world champion in both WWE and ROH. Punk is also a one-time World Tag Team Champion (with Kofi Kingston), and one-time Intercontinental Champion, making him the 19th WWE Triple Crown Champion and the fastest man in WWE history to achieve this feat, doing so in 203 days. In addition, he was the 2011 WWE Superstar of the Year and the first two-time Money in the Bank winner.