WWE Royal Rumble match to see major change this year

WWE has announced a major change for the Royal Rumble match in 13 days.  The progressive entry battle royal, which has consisted of 30 wrestlers since its pay per view debut in 1989 (the dry run on a house show and the first Rumble as a USA Network special in 1988 had 20 wrestlers), will now feature 40 wrestlers entering the match "every 90 seconds" (in reality, it's usually less, but can be more depending on when the right moment comes along).

For generating hype, it's a good idea, but the excitement of the match could suffer as a result.  It could be hurt in two different ways:

1. The ring becomes too overloaded too often, with most of the wrestlers just hanging on the ropes.
2. Time has to be shaved too much and nothing gets enough room to develop.

The former has happened too often in recent years.  Part of what makes the Rumble great is that you can keep the ring relatively clear, making it a much better, more focused match than a traditional battle royal.  In a standard battle royal, the action of a more traditional match cannot be done either logically or safely until the late stages of the match when most of the participants are gone.

The latter comes to mind thanks to the 1995 Royal Rumble.  With the gap between entrances offically being "two minutes" through 1993, they were changed to "ninety seconds" in 1994, and the match still went fine.  In 1995, as an experiment, the gap was shortened to "one minute," with the idea that it would be "the most exciting Royal Rumble match ever."  Running just under 39 minutes, the match was too cramped.  It wasn't bad, but if not for the finish (Shawn Michaels seemingly being eliminated by Davey Boy Smith but only letting one foot touch the floor before getting back in the ring and eliminating Smith to win), nobody would remember anything about the match.  They went back to longer gaps in 1996.  I can't find anything with the "official" times, just the real ones since the gaps were always worked.  As best I can tell, '96-'99 was "two minutes," '00 was "ninety seconds," '01-'02 were "two minutes," and everything since has been "ninety seconds."  With 40 wrestlers in the match this year, the length should be close to the older "two minute" Rumbles.

Hopefully, Pat Patterson will be a genius in laying out the match and everything will go fine.