The Rock heads towards the ring at WrestleMania 31 back in 2015. (Photo : YouTube/WWE)
The last time Philadelphia hosted the WWE Royal Rumble was back in 2015, with the event bringing in an estimated 17,164 professional wrestling fans. Now, the City of Brotherly Love is set to once again host the annual competition come next year. The 2018 edition of the Royal Rumble will take place at the Wells Fargo Center.
The WWE holds four big events inside a calendar year, namely Survivor Series, Summer Slam, the Royal Rumble, and WrestleMania. These types of shows used to be held as one-night events, but now they are exhibited as four-night spectacles together with the WWE's other programs. This includes Raw, Smackdown, and the wrestling promotion's developmental scheme turned TV program, NXT.
"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," WWE's executive vice president of special events, John Saboor, said in an exclusive interview with Philly.com. He described the decision to hold the event in Philadelphia as one that would help the Royal Rumble grow even further.
NXT Takeover, a special live edition of NXT, will be held on Jan. 27, 2018, while the Raw and Smackdown events will be held respectively in the two succeeding days. Aside from the additional programming that will be showcased at the Wells Fargo Center next year to coincide with the Royal Rumble, the WWE will also be holding charity and community-driven events.
Philadelphia was also revealed to be a strong bid to host next year's WrestleMania, but unfortunately lost out to confirmed host New Orleans, according to ABC News. The historic Louisiana city last acted a host to the "grandest stage of them all" back in 2014, wherein Daniel Bryan defeated both Batista and Randy Orton to secure the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
In spite of this, Saboor did reveal in his interview that Philadelphia is constantly in the running to host WrestleMania, so it may only be a matter of time before it does. Until then, wrestling fans in Philadelphia can revel in the fact that they will host the thirtieth edition of the historic Royal Rumble.
Watch the 2015 Royal Rumble in full here:
