Darts is going from strength to the strength with Luke Littler fulfilling his destiny by winning the PDC World Darts Championship at the age of just 17.
The teenager is the new flag-bearer for a sport which provides an unprecedented level of spectacle and theatre, both for sporting reasons and antics away from the oche.
A vociferous crowd makes the perfect fodder for players who adorn larger-than-life nicknames, vibrant jerseys and catchy walk-on songs as seen every Christmas period at the Alexandra Palace in London.
Comparisons to WWE have been made in the past. It is clear that promoter Barry Hearn emulated some elements of professional wrestling that really gets the crowd interested in the performers before them when taking the game to new heights.
Major winner Paul Nicholson had been a little more direct during his playing days too, paiting x's on his hands in tribute to WWE superstar CM Punk, while drawing the ire of Phil Taylor by sitting on the stage during his opponent's entrance - another trait of Punk's - back in 2011.
Paul Nicholson wants WWE 'Royal Rumble' Style Event In Darts
Nicholson - who won the PDC Players Championship Finals in 2010 - believes the sport could take even more inspiration from the world of wrestling.
Every January sees one of WWE's signature events - the 'Royal Rumble' - take place in the lead up to the flagship 'WrestleMania' event in the spring.
The unique Royal Rumble concept sees two wrestlers start the match, before another 28 join them every couple of minutes to complete the line-up. The final survivor wins the match.
There are great surprises, with fans unaware as to who will enter the ring next until said wrestler's music hits. The concept has seen some legends return in the past, drawing huge reactions from the crowd.
Nicholson wants to see a similar event staged in the world of darts, with a two-player match-up following a similar pattern as surprise opponents intermittently replace the loser until there is one man remaining.
As he explained to Sporting Life, "This idea of a Royal Rumble has been floated around for a little while now but nobody has done it before and it is still something that the public really want to see.
This idea of starting two players on stage, drawing number one and two and playing each other in whatever format is chosen, whether it is 101, 201, 501 or even 1001.
"There is a winner in that match but then at the conclusion of that match somebody else comes out at position three and then you have another match - number four - and so on.
"The thing about this; it is about audience interaction and surprises, because the person on stage remains there after winning and they don't know who they're going to play next and the audience haven't got a clue who is coming.
"We have to get one thing straight - this would not be a ranking tournament. This would be a spectacle and nothing else. It would be something for people to look forward to maybe once a year.
"If you think about the way the Royal Rumble works in WWE, everybody looks forward to that every January and I think darts is a sport that lends itself to this."
Fans are certainly on board, with one X user writing: "I've been saying this for years... Would be a great watch, especially if the entrants were genuinely secret/randomly assigned. Get it arranged PDC!"
Imagine a Darts Royal Rumble.
Littler has just beaten Van Gerwen, the crowd is going ballistic.
What’s that?
“I’m bulletproof, nothing to lose..”
Crowd goes wild yet again.
Missing a trick here @paddypower pic.twitter.com/k3InqgVy02
— Smiggy (@SmiggyDesigns) January 7, 2025
The edit below tells its own story
2025 Darts Royal Rumble https://t.co/IpC0n5LSIb pic.twitter.com/chb8hLUJj1
— James ☝️ (@DewsFutbol) January 6, 2025
We are certainly on board.
