![WWE Royal Rumble 2023 had the highest viewership and ticket sales on record. [YouTube/Screenshot/Public — WWE] [Photos: Getty Images)](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Collage-Maker-31-Jan-2023-02.49-PM-e1675194628783.jpg "WWE Royal Rumble 2023 had the highest viewership and ticket sales on record. [YouTube/Screenshot/Public — WWE] [Photos: Getty Images)")
WWE Royal Rumble was a bummer for me, but it was most certainly worthy of the ratings.
Royal Rumble, which is an annual pay-per-view for sports entertainment giant WWE that features a 30-man and 30-woman battle royal match, absolutely killed it Jan. 28 in the ratings, recording the highest viewership ever. And not just that. Rumble also pulled in record-high attendance figures, according to Variety.
At San Antonio, Texas’ Alamodome, WWE Royal Rumble raked in a whopping $7.7 million at the gate, which easily skyrockets over the previous record of $4.9 million that was set in 2017.
On NBC’s Peacock streaming service, which is the home of WWE pay-per-views, ratings were up 52% from the 2022 Royal Rumble. WWE also announced that merchandise sales saw a 135% boost from last year as well.
An incredible way to kick off the Road to #WrestleMania 39. @WWE truly does “spectacle” like nobody else. #RoyalRumble pic.twitter.com/d6RMxPoUEI
— Triple H (@TripleH) January 31, 2023
I absolutely love the Royal Rumble, it’s one of my favorite pay-per-views, if not my favorite, but holy shit … I was so disappointed with how things went with literally the whole night.
Everything was so predictable. I knew Cody Rhodes was going to win the men’s Rumble because it perfectly sets up the “fulfilling the family destiny” bullshit of him taking the belts away from Roman Reigns and destroying The Bloodline (a plan that I despise), I knew Rhea Rhipley was going to win her’s because WWE has clearly been pushing her (Liv Morgan should have won), and Bianca Belair beating Alexa Bliss was also a predictable snorefest.
Then you had the fact that Bray Wyatt didn’t bring back The Field character after (bleeping) teasing it, and just gave us some weird emo beat down of LA Knight (who I have grown to love, by the way, the guy is hilarious), and then some strange looking uncle jumping on Knight with flames bursting out of the ground — it was just corny. (RELATED: WWE Hall Of Famer, Former Executive Eric Bischoff Believes Vince McMahon Might Take Company Private)
The only good thing that happened with me was the fact that my Tribal Chief held on to the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship after beating Kevin Owens, but at the same time, I know he’s most likely going to lose those belts to Cody at WrestleMania — which just outright blows. I can’t stand Cody, absolutely hate the guy. And then you have the whole situation with The Bloodline (Sami Zayn and Jey Uso). I never liked Sami, never wanted him in The Bloodline, and here we go with this, just for that guy to have the crowd screaming, “F**k you, Roman!”
No … F**k you, WWE Universe, for being so damn fickle.