The Royal Rumble Experience......

- By Double A

Now whether your a fan of TNA or the WWE, there is a good chance that you are a fan of WWE Royal Rumble event every January. Since 1988, this tradition kicked off the road to WrestleMania. Which is the biggest wrestling show on the planet, without question. While the event features about 6 matches, the highlight of the show has always been the Royal Rumble match. Sometimes dubbed "the 60 most exciting minutes in wrestling". Even though the match always goes over 60 minutes.

However, only a few of us have been lucky enough to witness the event live. I was privileged enough in 2006 to be at the American Airlines Arena in Miami, Florida and saw first hand how exciting the match is live. The event itself was nothing to write home about. Sure, we saw John Cena defeat Edge to regain the WWE Championship. But the Royal Rumble match was it. No matter what else happened during the night, I was there strictly for the Royal Rumble match.

Triple H and Rey Mysterio were the first 2 entrants in. And stayed in the match the entire time. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Every time a new superstar came out, I counted down with the rest of the 17,000 WWE Fans in attendance. And when Rey Mysterio won the match, I cheered with everybody. Sure, I wasn't a big fan of Rey Mysterio. And he won mainly because of the recent death of Eddie Guerrero. But the atmosphere in the American Airlines Arena that was just electric. And it was difficult not to gravitate towards it.

When the 2007 Royal Rumble rolled around, naturally I watched it on television because it was in San Antonio, Texas. And while I enjoyed watching The Undertaker win the Royal Rumble match, something was missing. It was the live atmosphere for such a unique event. Now everybody will tell you, all wrestling fans at one time or another should go to WrestleMania. While that is true, I also will tell them, if you have a chance to witness the Royal Rumble live, go for it. The people in Atlanta, Georgia are quite lucky to be hosting this year's January classic.