Royal Rumble (2014)



Royal Rumble (2014) featured wrestling matches that were formed from feuds or storylines leading up to the event.

Background
The main feud for Raw heading into the Royal Rumble was between Goldberg and WWE Champion Kane. Goldberg had recently become the Number #1 Contender for the WWE Championship on a Raw, while Kane had recently become WWE Champion, defeating then champion CM Punk in a non-televised PPV, TLC. Since then Goldberg debuted on Raw, losing to Kane in his first match. After losing to Scott Steiner on a Raw, the Raw General Manager decided that a 3rd person should be added to the Title Match, Steiner was unable to go into the match, as he was already in the Royal Rumble match. Neither men were to know who their opponent was, until it was revealed to them in the match, inside a Steel Cage.

The rivalry of NXT was between Europe's Finest and NXT, Sheamus had shown himself to be the leader of Europe's Finest on an episode of NXT, as his colleagues Antonio Cesaro and Wade Barrett, were already the NXT Tag Team Champions, Sheamus decided to go for the NXT Championship, in order for this faction to control the land of NXT. Despite Sheamus losing to NXT Champion, Shawn Michaels at TLC, he demanded a rematch against Michaels at the Rumble, it lead to a point where the NXT General Manager was threatened into making this match, but added a stipulation where 4 other men from NXT were to be added to the match, making it a 6-man Battle Royal, Sheamus' chances of running NXT, had gone downhill.

The rivalry on Smackdown was mainly between World Champion CM Punk and Batista, Batista had just lost his World Heavyweight Championship at TLC after Punk has cashed in on him using the Money In The Bank Briefcase. Batista became irate at this and wanted his rematch for the Title he felt, he never lost. After being un-allowed to have his rematch, he took action by viciously attacking CM Punk during his match with Randy Orton, as Orton became Number #1 Contender, defeating "Stone Cold" Steve Austin and Dean Ambrose in a Triple Threat match. Batista would do anything to get his hands on CM Punk, he even managed to add himself into their match by beating Orton to grant him an opportunity at Punk and, what he believed, was his World Title.

The traditional Royal Rumble match was the main event, with 30 participants from Raw, Smackdown and NXT (Now ECW) entering the match as their numbers were drawn.

Results
(c) - refers to the champion heading into the match (for any of those who don't understand)