The attendance of 60,477 is the highest recorded live crowd in the Royal Rumble's history with the 2017 edition of the event held at the same venue being the second largest.

In addition to hometown hero Shawn Michaels going for the WWF championship, the WWF was working with the Mexico based Lucha Libre AAA World Wide (AAA) promotion, and had several wrestlers from that company participate in the Royal Rumble match, as well as in a number of undercard matches.

The Royal Rumble is an annual gimmick pay-per-view (PPV) produced every January by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) since 1988.

[8] On July 22, 1996, Faarooq Asad made his WWF debut by attacking Ahmed Johnson, the Intercontinental champion.

[13] When Johnson returned to the WWF, he interfered in several matches involving Faarooq's stable, the Nation of Domination.

[9] By December, Johnson's injury had recovered sufficiently to allow him to resume wrestling,[9] and a match was scheduled for the next pay-per-view, the Royal Rumble.

Vader had joined other heel wrestlers to attack The Undertaker on several occasions, but there was no major storyline behind their match.

[9][19] Sid returned to the WWF on the July 8, 1996 episode of Monday Night Raw when Michaels introduced him as a partner in a six-man match at In Your House 9.

[9] At In Your House 11, Sid defeated Vader to win a WWF Championship match against Michaels at Survivor Series 1996.

[20] During the match at Survivor Series, Sid attacked Jose Lothario, Michaels' manager, with a television camera.

Before the match began, Goldust attacked Helmsley up the aisle, but they then returned to the ring where they continued to brawl back and forth.

Johnson won the match by disqualification after members of the Nation of Domination, who were at ringside, interfered on Faarooq's behalf.

Stone Cold Steve Austin was the fifth entrant and recorded three quick eliminations, taking out Phineas I. Godwinn, Bart Gunn, and Jake Roberts.

While the men in the ring were fighting to determine a winner, a brawl had broken out on the floor between Mankind and Terry Funk.

[22][23] On the episode of Monday Night Raw that followed the pay-per-view, an angry Hart demanded that he be declared the winner of the Royal Rumble due to Austin's methods in winning the match, threatening to quit the company altogether if he was not.

[25] However, three days before the event on a special Thursday edition of Raw, Michaels declared that he would be vacating the WWF Championship he was scheduled to defend that night against Sid due to a severe knee injury and that he had "lost his smile" and needed to find it again.

Hart won the WWF Championship at the pay-per-view, but interference from Austin resulted in him losing the title to Sid on Raw.

[8][28] At WrestleMania 13, Undertaker defeated Sid for the WWF Title, while Hart and Austin battled each other in a Submission match with Ken Shamrock as the special referee.

In this match, Stone Cold Steve Austin tied the record for the most eliminations in a single royal rumble with 10.