Luke Littler has thrown his backing behind a Royal Rumble-style competition for darts. He chose his walk-on song, Greenlight by Pitbull, due to its association with Wrestlemania 33, and has even swapped it out for Cody Rhodes’ Kingdom on occasion.
Speaking to Daily Star, Littler said: “It would be very funny,” when discussing the idea of a darts Royal Rumble. “When it comes to mind it would probably have to be one leg of 501 – and you’d either do top 32 or top 64. It won’t be the longest.
“I think it would be something to do in the future!” The concept gained traction after Littler’s World Darts Championship win in January, when Paul Nicholson called for a similar competition.
“I think this idea of a Royal Rumble has been floated around for a little while now but nobody’s done it before and it’s still something that the public really want to see,” he said. “This idea of starting two players on stage after drawing number one and number two and playing each other in whatever format is chosen whether it’s 101, 201, 501 or even 1001.
“There’s a winner in that small match but at the conclusion of that somebody else comes out at position three and then you have another match – number four – and so on and so on.
“But the thing about this, it’s about audience interaction and it’s about surprises because the person on the stage who remains there after winning, they don’t know who they’re going to play next.
“And the audience haven’t got a clue who’s coming.”
Chris Hammer remarked: “That’s the thing. It’s the element of surprise.”
He went on to suggest a nostalgic element for future events: “I think I would like to see this more invitational. So you could have a legend from the past. Imagine Phil Taylor’s music hits with three players left to come out.”
“You’ve got Rob Cross up there and then, bang, Phil Taylor’s music comes on and he can get revenge for that final.”