Royal Rumble (2003)

Royal Rumble (2003) was the sixteenth annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by PlayStation and took place on January 19, 2003 at the Fleet Center in Boston, Massachusetts, was the first Royal Rumble produced under the WWE name and featured talent from the Raw and SmackDown! brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: Wrestlemania XIX) for his choice at either the WWE Championship or the World Heavyweight Championship.

Six professional wrestling matches were featured on the event's supercard, a scheduling of more than one main event. The main event was the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match, which featured wrestlers from both brands. Brock Lesnar, the twenty-ninth entrant, won the match by last eliminating The Undertaker, the thirtieth entrant. The primary match on the Raw brand was Triple H versus Scott Steiner for the World Heavyweight Championship, which Steiner won by disqualification resulting in Triple H retaining the championship. The predominant match on the SmackDown! brand was between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit for the WWE Championship, which Angle won by making Benoit tap out to the Ankle Lock. The featured match on the undercard was a Royal Rumble qualification match between Brock Lesnar and The Big Show, which Lesnar won; he would then go on to win the Rumble match later that night.