Royal Rumble (2010)

Royal Rumble (2010) was the twenty-third annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), which took place on January 31, 2010 at the Phillips Arena in Atlanta, Georgia. This was the sixty-eighth pay-per-view held by WWEbrand.

Royal Rumble was a joint-promotion event, featuring performers from all three WWE brands: Raw, SmackDown and ECW. Five matches were featured on the event's card, which featured a supercard, a scheduling of more than one main bout. The first of these matches was the annual Royal Rumble match. For the third year in a row, WWE increased the number of entrants to forty wrestlers. The match featured wrestlers from all brands. The primary match on the Raw brand for the WWE Championship between John Cena and Shelton Benjamin. The primary SmackDown brand match was Randy Orton defending the World Heavyweight Championship against Batista. The primary match from the ECW brand featured Christian defending the ECW Championship against Mr. Kennedy. Also, The Gatecrashers were challenged by Finlay and Hornswoggle for the Unified WWE Tag Team Championship.

40-Man Royal Rumble match
The pay-per-view featured the annual Royal Rumble match, which has been featured at every Royal Rumble event since its inception. It featured 40 wrestlers, and the match ends when one wrestler remains in the ring, after all 39 opponents have been eliminated via being thrown over the top ring rope and having both feet touch the floor. The winner would earn a world championship match of their choosing at WrestleMania XXVI (either the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship or the ECW Championship).

Royal Rumble qualifying matches

Some of the wrestlers who entered the Royal Rumble match did so as a result of qualification matches held on WWE's television shows.

WWE Champion John Cena vs. Shelton Benjamin
During the dissolution of the talent exchange between the Raw and ECW brands that had been in effect since December 2008, the brands had been warring over brand dominance. One of the main feuds featured the WWE Champion John Cena and the ECW Champion Mr. Kennedy. At Extreme Rules, Cena battled Kennedy in an Extreme Rules Lumberjack match, with Shelton Benjamin and Sheamus acting as "chief lumberjacks" for their brands. During this time, Cena and Benjamin were seen discussing how to combat ECW and teamed against Kennedy and Sheamus on an edition of Raw. Post-Extreme Rules, Raw General Manager William Regal announced that there would be a new challenger for the WWE Championship at Royal Rumble, and would be the result of the "Breakthrough Battle Royal". Eight Raw wrestlers who had never held a world championship would compete to determine Cena's next challenger. Benjamin defeated Matt Hardy, Ted DiBiase, Daniel Bryan, MVP, John Morrison, Jack Swagger and Santino Marella to become the next challenger. After another tag team outing between the opponents, they were on opposite sides on the January 25 edition of Raw in a "Champions vs. Challengers" tag team match as Cena and World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton defeated Benjamin and Batista.

World Heavyweight Champion Randy Orton vs. Batista
At the last SmackDown pay-per-view Breaking Point, Batista defeated Rey Mysterio to become the number one contender for the WWE Championship. However, when the WWE Champion John Cena moved to the Raw brand on December 14, SmackDown General Manager Bret Hart decreed that Batista's number one contender's status could be used for the now-SmackDown branded World Heavyweight Championship. In his title opportunity, Batista picked up a disqualification victory due to Orton intentionally striking the referee, knowing the title cannot switch on a DQ. Losing to Umaga due to interference by Orton on the January 8 edition of SmackDown, Batista would pick up some momentum heading into the pay-per-view with a win over Kane on the January 29 edition of SmackDown. When Orton attempted to gain an upper hand on his opponent again, Batista hit Orton with a spinebuster before Orton retreated.

ECW Champion Christian vs. Mr. Kennedy
Despite not winning the Raw vs. ECW series at Extreme Rules, outgoing ECW General Manager Paul Heyman announced that he would reward the two winners of their matches, Christian and Jeff Hardy, with an opportunity to become the number one contender for the ECW Championship. The match was changed to include Sheamus, who was not wrestling on the card despite having a presence in the main event. Christian won the Triple Threat match and would challenge Mr. Kennedy for the title the following week on ECW. On January 19 edition of ECW, Christian would defeat Kennedy to become the new ECW Champion. Kennedy decided to use his title rematch at Royal Rumble, accepted by new ECW General Manager Tiffany Terrell. On January 26, their bickering cost them a tag team match against Jeff Hardy and Hurricane Helms. It is one of a very few occasions where there has been a "double heel" match for a championship.

Bottom Line
Prior to the pay-per-view, the pre-show Bottom Line featured a non-title match between the WWE Women's Champion Beth Phoenix and Gail Kim.

Match results
Royal Rumble entrances and eliminations