Royal Rumble (2003) - Background

Background

Royal Rumble featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that were played out on Raw and SmackDown! – World Wrestling Entertainment's (WWE) primary television programs. Wrestlers portrayed a villain or a hero as they followed a series of events that built tension, and culminated into a wrestling match or series of matches. The event featured wrestlers from WWE's Raw and SmackDown! brands – a storyline division in which WWE employees were assigned to a television program of the same name.

The buildup to the Royal Rumble match began on December 23 edition of Raw, when the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff discussed about the upcoming Royal Rumble match that 15 wrestlers would represent Raw brand and 15 wrestlers would represent SmackDown brand in the match, because it was going to be the first Royal Rumble match to take place after WWE's Brand Extension. The buildup continued on January 2 edition of SmackDown, a vignette aired hyping the return of The Undertaker in the Royal Rumble match. Later that night, Paul Heyman announced that Brock Lesnar and Big Show would wrestle in a Royal Rumble qualification match at Royal Rumble. On January 6 edition of Raw, Chris Jericho and Shawn Michaels argued over who would be drawing #1 entry in the Royal Rumble match. On January 13 edition of Raw, a Royal Rumble qualification match took place in which Jeff Hardy defeated Raven. Later that night, Jericho defeated Batista, Kane and Rob Van Dam in an Over the Top Rope Challenge to earn the right choose an entry number of his choice. Jericho chose #2 because #1 was already given to Michaels.

The main rivalry heading into the event from the SmackDown brand was between Kurt Angle and Chris Benoit over the WWE Championship. At Armageddon, Angle defeated Big Show via interference from Brock Lesnar, to win the WWE title. Prior to the event, Angle had promised Lesnar to get his suspension lifted if he helped Angle in defeating Big Show for the title. Angle had also promised Lesnar to give him the first title shot after winning the title. However, despite helping Angle in winning the title, Lesnar was not given his title shot as on December 19 edition of SmackDown Angle and Big Show's manager Paul Heyman cancelled Lesnar's title shot and Big Show was given his title rematch. Later that night, Angle lost to Chris Benoit in a non-title match by disqualification when Big Show interfered in the match and attacked Benoit. However, Lesnar rescued Benoit from the post-match assault by Angle and Big Show and brutally assaulted Angle, injuring him. As a result of Angle's injury, the SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon cancelled Angle's title match against Big Show and decided that Big Show would wrestle Benoit to determine the #1 contender for the WWE title. Benoit defeated Big Show to become the #1 contender for the title at Royal Rumble.

The main rivalry heading into the event from the Raw brand was between Triple H and Scott Steiner over the World Heavyweight Championship. On October 24, 2002, WWE had announced on its official website that Scott Steiner had signed a three-year contract with WWE. After eight years away, Steiner returned to WWE as a free agent at Survivor Series and attacked Matt Hardy and Christopher Nowinski for insulting New York City. Steiner was approached by the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff and the SmackDown General Manager Stephanie McMahon for their respective brands. He initially decided to join the SmackDown brand but after McMahon rejected Steiner's advances, he moved to the Raw brand. At Armageddon, Triple H defeated Shawn Michaels in a Three Stages of Hell to win the World Heavyweight Championship. On December 16 edition of Raw, Triple H held an Appreciation Ceremony on winning the title but the ceremony was interrupted by Steiner, who announced that his contract said that he would earn a world title shot. As a result, Steiner and Triple H's match for the World Heavyweight Championship was made official at Royal Rumble.

The secondary rivalry heading into the event from the Raw brand was between Lance Storm and William Regal and Dudley Boyz (Bubba Ray and D-Von) over the World Tag Team Championship. On December 23 edition of Raw, the Raw General Manager Eric Bischoff forced Raw commentators Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler to wrestle in a tag team match against Storm and Regal for making bad comments against Bischoff. Ross and Lawler defeated Storm and Regal after interference by Dudley Boyz. As a result, on January 6 edition of Raw, Bischoff forced Dudley Boyz to wrestle 3-Minute Warning (Rosey and Jamal), Rico and Batista in a Handicap match. Storm and Regal avenged their loss by costing Dudley Boyz, the match. Later that night, Storm and Regal defeated Booker T and Goldust for the World Tag Team Championship. This led to a title match between Storm and Regal and Dudley Boyz at Royal Rumble.

The secondary rivalry heading into the event from the SmackDown brand was between Torrie Wilson and Dawn Marie. At Armageddon, Torrie and Dawn did a lesbian segment in the ring. On December 19 edition of SmackDown, Torrie gave bad remarks about her storyline father Al Wilson on getting married with Dawn. On January 2 edition of SmackDown, Dawn and Al had their storyline wedding in their undergarments. On January 9 edition of SmackDown, Josh Mathews announced that Dawn and Torrie would wrestle in a match at Royal Rumble.