Coverage spread: 2 sources — 2 unrated
Lean ratings via AllSides / Media Bias-Fact-Check. How this works.
Where they agree
- WWE’s 2027 Royal Rumble will be held at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, in February 2027.
- The event stems from a three-year deal between TKO Group Holdings and the Arizona Sports & Events Alliance bringing seven TKO-affiliated events (WWE, UFC, PBR, Zuffa Boxing) to the Phoenix area.
- The announcement was made at an Aug. 4 press conference at State Farm Stadium, with WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella in attendance and speaking about the fan-event atmosphere.
- No exact 2027 Royal Rumble date or public ticket sale date has been announced yet.
- ABC15 keeps its report short and defers to a Phoenix Business Journal piece for full details, while Phoenix New Times provides a much more detailed, self-contained account.
- Phoenix New Times includes Royal Rumble history in Arizona (2013 and 2019 editions) and explains how the Royal Rumble match format works; ABC15 omits this context.
- Phoenix New Times names additional attendees at the press conference, including Dana White and Chelsea Green, and details other confirmed TKO events (Noche UFC Sept. 12, PBR World Finals May 20-23); ABC15 does not mention these specifics.
What was announced
WWE will hold its 2027 Royal Rumble at State Farm Stadium in Glendale, Arizona, in February 2027. The announcement came at an Aug. 4 (Tuesday) press conference at the stadium, hosted by the Arizona Sports & Events Alliance. No exact date has been set yet, and WWE has not announced when tickets will go on sale to the public, though fans can register on WWE’s website for an exclusive presale.
The event is part of a three-year agreement between TKO Group Holdings Inc. (NYSE: TKO), WWE’s parent company, and the Arizona Sports & Events Alliance. The deal, first announced in May, brings seven events across TKO’s stable of brands — WWE, UFC, Professional Bull Riders and Zuffa Boxing — to the Phoenix area. Other confirmed dates include Noche UFC at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale on Sept. 12, and the PBR World Finals at the same venue from May 20-23. A Zuffa Boxing event in the Valley has been mentioned as part of the package but has no announced date or venue yet.
At the press conference, UFC President and CEO Dana White appeared alongside WWE stars Nikki Bella — a WWE Hall of Famer and Scottsdale native — and Chelsea Green. Bella compared the atmosphere around a Royal Rumble to a Super Bowl, noting fans will see wrestlers “everywhere” around town doing promotional activities, plus parties tied to the event.
Arizona’s Royal Rumble history
This will be the third time the Royal Rumble has come to metro Phoenix. It was previously held at what is now Mortgage Matchup Center (then US Airways Center) in 2013, and at Chase Field in 2019. That 2019 edition drew more than 48,000 fans, with Becky Lynch winning the women’s Royal Rumble match and Seth Rollins winning the men’s match.
The 2027 event will also be WWE’s first major show at State Farm Stadium since WrestleMania XXVI was held there in 2010, when the venue was known as University of Phoenix Stadium.
The Royal Rumble match itself is a signature WWE format: 30 men and 30 women each compete in separate matches, entering the ring at two-minute intervals, with eliminations occurring when a wrestler is thrown over the top rope and both feet touch the floor. The last wrestler remaining in each match earns a title match at WrestleMania, WWE’s marquee annual event.
How the two accounts differ
ABC15’s report is brief, framing the story mainly as a business development — noting the multi-event deal and pointing readers to a fuller Phoenix Business Journal piece for details, while including a Nikki Bella quote about the fan-event atmosphere. Phoenix New Times offers substantially more depth, laying out the venue’s Royal Rumble history, ticket-access details, an explanation of how the match works, and specifics on the broader TKO-Arizona agreement, including the UFC and PBR event dates. New Times also names Dana White and Chelsea Green as attendees, details ABC15 omits.
Why this matters for the Valley
The deal signals a broader push by Arizona’s sports and tourism boosters to land recurring large-scale events, following the same playbook used for Super Bowl hosting. With Royal Rumble, Noche UFC, and the PBR World Finals all landing in the region within roughly a year of each other, plus a still-unscheduled Zuffa Boxing event, the Phoenix area is positioning itself as a regular stop for TKO’s portfolio of combat-sports and entertainment brands, bringing visitor spending and national broadcast attention to Glendale-area venues.
Sources
Featured photo: DaRealConMan via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)