Greatest Wrestling Match Ever Invented Coming to Philadelphia Next Year

The headline is no exaggeration. The greatest wrestling match ever invented is coming to Philadelphia in January of 2015. Last night, at a taping of its WWE SmackDown television show at the Wells Fargo Center, the WWE announced the Royal Rumble was coming to the building on January 25th.

Let me explain the Royal Rumble. The match has 30 entrants. They draw numbers 1 to 30. The wrestlers who drew 1 and 2 start. Another wrestler comes out every two minutes. Competitors are eliminated when they are thrown over the top rope and onto the floor. The winner main-events WrestleMania, the biggest event of the year, in a match for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Fun, right? Right??

The appeal of pro wrestling is that the wrestlers tell stories — through interviews and through matches where they compete in scripted mock combat. And the Royal Rumble is an hourlong match with 30 entrants! It’s an hour straight of the best type of wrestling drama. It’s a soap opera rivaling any others on Sunday nights. The Royal Rumble is up there with the Joffrey’s wedding in Game of Thrones or the penultimate episode of The Sopranos.

The 2015 Royal Rumble is January 25th at the Wells Fargo Center in South Philly. Presale tickets appear to be sold out; the rest go on sale later this week at Comcastix.