Royal Rumble (2009)

The 2009 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), held for wrestlers from the promotion's Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brand divisions. It was the 22nd annual Royal Rumble event and took place on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan. The event was based around the men's Royal Rumble match, a modified 30-man battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time and the winner received a world championship match at WrestleMania. For the 2009 event, the winner received their choice to challenge for either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship, SmackDown's WWE Championship, or the ECW Championship at WrestleMania 25. Five professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event was the 2009 Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from all three brands. Raw's Randy Orton, the eighth entrant, won the match by last eliminating SmackDown's Triple H, the seventh entrant. The primary match on the Raw brand was John Cena versus John "Bradshaw" Layfield (JBL) for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Cena won to retain. The primary match on the SmackDown brand was a No Disqualification match between Jeff Hardy and Edge for the WWE Championship, which Edge won to win his fourth and last WWE Championship. The predominant match on the ECW brand was between Jack Swagger and Matt Hardy for the ECW Championship, which Swagger won to retain. This event also marked the first appearance of Rob Van Dam in WWE since One Night Stand in June 2007.