10 Fascinating WWE Royal Rumble 2016 Facts

10. It Was The First Rumble To Go Head-To-Head With The NFL Playoffs Since 2003

For ratings reasons, WWE usually schedules the Royal Rumble around the NFL playoffs, using the one-week gap between the Championship round and the Super Bowl to hold their January pay-per-view. In five different years (1991, 1994, 2000, 2002, and 2003), the NFL had no week off between those two playoff rounds, so WWE either had to hold the Rumble on a Saturday (1991 and 1994) or bite the bullet and go head-to-head with the playoffs (the other three years).

In 2016, despite January 31 being an open date with no pertinent NFL playoff games, WWE held the Rumble on the 24th, up against the Carolina Panthers/Arizona Cardinals NFC title game. It's not exactly clear why WWE chose to schedule this way.

Some have theorized that if they held the show on the 31st, fans in the UK (who would technically be watching it early on Monday, February 1, due to the time difference) that were subbing to the Network wouldn't reflect the January subscription totals, thus WWE wanted to pad their numbers before the February stockholders call. But that's just speculative.