12 Things WWE Wants You To Forget About The Royal Rumble

11. The First Royal Rumble Match Was Actually In 1987

The first Royal Rumble match that was officially recognized by WWE was the January 24, 1988 special that aired on the USA Network. One year later it became a PPV event and the phenomenon grew from there. However, what WWE doesn€™t want you to know is that WWE held the inaugural Royal Rumble event at a house show in St. Louis in October 1987. It was won by the One Man Gang and it was not televised. There are other stories that they did a Rumble match in Rio, but much like the fake IC Title match in Rio, that's just a myth. WWE sure loves those Rio myths. Perhaps WWE recorded it for their own purposes, but it wasn€™t released. This is one of those interesting bits of trivia that some people know and others have no idea about because if it doesn't happen on WWE TV then to them it never happened.