Get ready to rumble at Minute Maid Park
WWE’s 2nd-biggest event scheduled for January 2020
Having hosted concerts, cricket, boxing and a fishing tournament in addition to Astros games, Minute Maid Park next January will become the second Major League Baseball stadium to host World Wrestling Entertainment’s Royal Rumble.
The annual over the top rope battle royal, which features 30person competitions for men and women, will take place Sunday, Jan. 26, 2020, in Houston, with the winners guaranteed championship matches at WWE’s WrestleMania 36.
Last month’s Royal Rumble was held at Chase Field in Phoenix, drawing an estimated 48,000 fans, and WWE executive John Saboor said Friday that Minute Maid Park offers the same opportunities for the company’s second-largest annual event behind WrestleMania.
“We had a wonderful experience at Chase Field, and that underscored our excitement with the decision to place the 2020 Royal Rumble at Minute Maid Park,” said Saboor, the company’s executive vice president of special events.
“We want to expose the WWE brand and its events to as many people as possible, and the size of facilities in which we present our major events is a key catalyst.”
Saboor said WWE and the Harris County Houston Sports Authority began talks last summer about bringing the Royal Rumble to Minute Maid Park. The event was last held in Houston in January 1989, the second year it was staged, at The Summit.
“This is an opportunity to build upon what has been a very special relationship built over several decades between WWE and Houston,” he said.
Janis Burke, executive director of the Harris County Houston Sports Authority, said Minute Maid Park’s capacity and the authority’s longstanding relationship with WWE helped secure the 2020 event.
“WWE feels comfortable in Houston, and we have a strong partnership,” Burke said. “It’s exciting to be able to us the ballpark for events other than baseball, and the Astros are great partners who are open to having other events there.
“We like to have events like this one because they bring people not only from the U.S. but form all over the world.”
Friday’s announcement came as the WWE prepares for a Sunday night pay per view event, Elimination Chamber, at Toyota Center.
The 2020 Royal Rumble will be the first of WWE’s four major events — Royal Rumble, WrestleMania, SummerSlam and Survivor Series — to be held in Houston since Toyota Center hosted Survivor Series in November 2017.
Houston also hosted WrestleMania in 2001 at the Astrodome and in 2009 at Reliant Stadium and was the site for pay per views in 2003, 2005, 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2015 in addition to the 2017 Survivor Series and Sunday’s Elimination Chamber.
WWE’s weekly televised Raw and SmackDown rosters also have averaged three shows per year in Houston over the last decade.
In addition to the live audience, the Royal Rumble and WWE’s other events are available as part of the $9.99 monthly subscription for the WWE Network streaming service. Viewers also can pay higher fees — $54.99 or Sunday’s card, as an example, via cable and satellite services.
The WWE announcement continues the Astros’ efforts under owner Jim Crane to bring nonbaseball events to Minute Maid Park. The ballpark also hosted a Paul McCartney concert in 2012, an all-star cricket match and a boxing card topped by Canelo Alvarez in 2015 and the Bassmaster Classic weigh-in in 2017.
“The ballpark is an important foundation, but identifying partners who share a vision for the continued growth of our major events fuels the relationship,” Saboor said.
Houston has a long history associated with professional wrestling, now marketed by WWE under the name sports entertainment, dating back before World War I.
Brothers Julius and Morris Sigel were longtime promoters at the City Auditorium, and promoter Paul Boesch staged weekly Friday night cards from the 1950s through the 1980s at the Sam Houston Coliseum.
According to the book Wrestling Title Histories and the website Wrestlingdata.com, world titles have changed hands in Houston on more than a dozen occasions, dating back to a Sept. 14, 1916, win by Clarence Eklund over Elmer “Pet” Brown for the world light heavyweight title.
More recent title changes involved former football great Bronko Nagurski in 1939, WWE Hall of Famers Jack Brisco in 1973 and Stone Cold Steve Austin in 2001 and John Cena at WrestleMania 25 in 2009.