World Wrestling Entertainment is promising a “faster, more exciting, streamlined Royal Rumble” this year, but wrestling fans and pundits alike believe that the 23-participant over-the-top-rope battle royal match is the result of WWE recently firing too many members of its roster. 

WWE is also promoting the match as the “historic first-ever inter-gender Royal Rumble,” because the match will feature all 23 members of the current WWE roster — 19 men and four women.

In 2021 alone, WWE has fired/released 738 sports-entertainers from its roster, leading to one of the highest rates of unemployment sports-entertainers have seen since the fall of WCW. 

Already confirmed for the upcoming Royal Rumble match: The Miz, R-Truth, Charlotte Flair, Mansoor, T-Bar, Chair-Lyft, and of course, the annual highlight of every Royal Rumble match, with his creative ways of preventing his feet from hitting the floor, Jey Uso. 

Meanwhile, rival wrestling promotion AEW (American Extreme Wrestling) announced that it’s upcoming flagship pay-per-view, Quadruple or Something, will feature a 120-man over-the-top-rope eliminate match called The Regal Rattle.