Royal Rumble (2015)

Royal Rumble (2015) is an upcoming professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE. It will take place on February 22, 2015 at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It will be the tenth annual Royal Rumble event. It will be the second pay-per-view in the 2015 lineup.

Background
Royal Rumble will feature professional wrestling matches involving different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that play out on WWE's primary television program, Raw

At New Year's Revolution, Enzo Amore defeated Jake Anderson to win the WWE Intercontinental Championship for the first time. On the following Raw, Anderson would come out and demand a rematch for the championship that same night, but would be denied by Mick Foley and he was later booked into a Lumberjack match with Finn Bálor for the following Raw. A week later, Anderson interfered in Amore's Hardcore Championship title defense and ended up pinning Amore to win the Hardcore Championship for a second time, only to lose it minutes later to Kevin Steen. It was later revealed by Mick Foley that Amore would defend the Intercontinental Championship against Sami Zayn and Anderson in a Triple threat match at the Royal Rumble PPV.

Following a valiant performance inside the Elimination Chamber match at New Year's Revolution, Finn Balor would be rewarded by Mick Foley and named as the #1 Contender for the WWE Championship where it was announced that Ciaran O'Donnell would defend the championship against Balor at the Royal Rumble. On the February 9, 2015 episode of Raw during O'Donnell's match, Balor would interfere and would cause a disqualification win for O'Donnell but not before landing a Pele kick to the champion thus sending a message and standing over him.

On the February 9, 2015 episode of Raw, Mick Foley made an announcement regarding the Royal Rumble match and stated that instead of a regular 30 man Royal Rumble that it would be a 40 man Royal Rumble match. Dolph Ziggler had previously already been announced as the first entrant into the Rumble match as he had approached Foley and requested to be entrant #1. Jake Anderson also announced himself as an entrant into the Royal Rumble on the February 2, 2015 episode of Raw, before later being denied entry by Mick Foley on the February 16, 2015 episode of Raw. That same night, three more matches were made official – the first being between Jervis Cottonbelly and Billy Cassidy in the first ever Mad Hatter's Tea Party, Roman Reigns against Bray Wyatt in a Street fight and Torrie Wilson against Kelly Kelly in a Spanking match.