I’m more or less a lapsed WWE fan these days. Between the roster cuts and rise of AEW, I hardly watch pro wrestling’s standard bearer.
But there’s one event I watch no matter what each year: the Royal Rumble.
The kickoff to Wrestlemania season is a welcome respite from an avalanche of playoff football. The addition of a women’s Rumble gives us two hour-long marquee events in one night that intertwine wrestling, nostalgia, and in the pure poetry of former champion Big E, “big meaty men slappin’ meat.”
These battles royal are entertaining enough on their own, but there’s a way to add a little bonus incentive to keep watching. Royal Rumble pools are nothing new, but there’s a way to make them more interesting beyond “I drew one lucky number out of 30, I get the cash.” A way to keep you invested rather than instantly tearing up your ticket when the combatant you drew turns out to be Dolph Ziggler.
Here’s the pool I’ve been running the past few years. It works pretty well for both wrestling hardcores and casual fans with no idea what they’re getting into. It’ll keep most everyone invested all the way to the final bell. And, you can add whatever bells and whistles you’d like to cater to your friends.
1. Decide what your buy-in is
Gauge the temperature of your guests on this one. We usually do $10 per Rumble but I also have friends who go $30 per and the winner takes $900 across a nationwide network of wrestling degenerates. If you’ve got a number of participants that doesn’t divide evenly into 30, figure out what you’re going to do with the extra slots — you can charge extra for them, leave them out entirely, or create a dummy player whose winnings carry over to the next match.
2. Draw numbers among your guests
First, you’ll need 30 poker chips and some masking tape. Slips of paper will work fine, too. You’re labeling each chip 1-30 to assign wrestlers (fine, Superstars). Chips work better than paper because they’re easier to keep track of and they’ll be changing hands here.
Then have everyone pick X amount of chips out of a hat/bag/whatever, where X=30/people in the pool. Now everyone knows what numbers they’ve got and, subsequently, the wrestlers who’ll come out at those spots.
3. Start the Rumble
Every time a Superstar walks out from a position you’ve drawn, your chip is activated. If your first chip is No. 3, you’re attached to whichever wrestler walks out after the first two participants hit the ring. If they get eliminated, you give your chip to the person who’s attached to whomever did the eliminating.
So let’s say you’ve got No. 7, which is Bianca Belair, and she eliminates Summer Rae — whomever had Summer Rae owes you a chip. Then Rhea Ripley comes out at No. 20 and tosses Belair. Now you’re obligated to send your No. 7 chip to whomever drew the 20th slot, but you keep the chips from anyone who Ms. Belair had thrown out of the ring before being dumped herself.
You’ll need an impartial arbiter here to determine who gets credit for eliminations involving more than one person, but that’s not too difficult to figure out. Now you’ve got a system that rewards total eliminations instead of just the last person standing. The person with the most chips at the end of the match takes down the main pot.
4. Set side bets and pots
Of course, the best way to truly make things interesting is to include more ways to win. You drew the eventual winner? Congratulations! Here’s 20 percent of the pot. One of your guys is the oldest in the Rumble? Well, that’ll probably take a little Wikipedia research, but once we figure that out it’s worth $5. Your competitor didn’t eliminate many people or win it all, but did last longer than anyone? Here’s 10 percent of the prize pool.
You’ll have to figure these out beforehand and it’ll take a little extra work, but there’s plenty of ways you can figure out how to make each battle royal a little more interesting from a betting perspective.
There’s also, of course, a drinking game variant where you take a sip when your number comes up and when your wrestler’s eliminated. You can also dole out drinks whenever one of your Superstars tosses someone over the top rope, but most of us don’t live in fraternity houses and have no problem drinking without being forced to do so.
Of course, whatever system you roll with is great! It’s the Royal Rumble, which is the opposite of a serious thing. Get creative with it, have fun, and see if you can’t make a little beer money while watching grown men and women perform a ballet of aggression.