10 Things You Didn't Know About Pat Patterson

8. He Created The Royal Rumble

Pat Patterson
WWE.com

To some, the Royal Rumble is the most eagerly-anticipated PPV on the WWE calendar. Sure, WrestleMania has the glitz and glamour, and SummerSlam is always a major spectacle, but there's just so much intrigue and optimism that surrounds WWE's annual January event.

Pat Patterson is the person responsible for the creation of the Royal Rumble match, with him coming up with the idea in 1987.

The first Royal Rumble special took place on January 24, 1988, with the event airing live on the USA Network rather than being on pay-per-view. Before that, though, WWE actually tried the match concept out on a St. Louis live event.

WWE doesn't acknowledge it as such, but the first ever Royal Rumble was on October 4, 1987, and it was One Man Gang who emerged as the winner. For the first 'proper' Royal Rumble, of course, it was 'Hacksaw' Jim Duggan who was the victor.

It's impossible to think of professional wrestling and not think of the Royal Rumble match and PPV as being a part of the furniture these days, and it's all thanks to the genius of Pat Patterson that the Rumble came into existence.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main dayjob, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg.