It’s an event that has become synonymous with the term “the road to WrestleMania.” The Royal Rumble is the first premier event of the year, and also the event where the tradition has become for the winners of the men and women’s Royal Rumble to celebrates and point to this year’s WrestleMania sign.
This year’s the Royal Rumble filled up the Tampa Bay Rays stadium, Tropicana Field in St. Petersburgh. It was filled with amazing moments, including the United States championship match between Kevin Owens and Logan Paul and the fatal four-way Universal Championship match with Roman Reigns, LA Knight, Randy Orton, and AJ Styles.
The night kicked off with the women’s Royal Rumble and it started with Natalia entering the Rumble at number one and a huge surprise entrant at number two; Naomi, who made her triumphant return to WWE after being gone for nearly a year.
A surprise entrant this year was a huge one, that of Jordynne Grace, the TNA Women’s Champion, showing up as entrant number five in the Rumble. That surprise alone would be enough to write home about, as it shows a small working relationship between WWE and TNA Wrestling.
Once Nia Jax entered the Rumble she put on a showstopping performance, taking out entrant after entrant, showing her dominance. Fans might’ve thought Jax would take the entire Rumble, but then Becky Lynch, The Man, made her entrance and immediately faced off against the Irresistible Force.
R-Truth also made an appearance. Yes, you read that right. R-Truth came out to participate in the Royal Rumble, only to learn that it wasn’t the men’s Rumble yet. Classic R-Truth.
Then it happened. The surprise even bigger than another wrestling promotion’s champion making an appearance at the Royal Rumble, the recently signed Jade Cargill made her debut and went toe-to-to with Nia Jax. And she held her own. So much so that while in the previous year’s Royal Rumble is took eleven other women to eliminate Nia Jax, Jade Cargill did it herself, lifting the monstrous Jax and throwing her over the top rope. What a way to make your debut in WWE!
After the final entrant of the Rumble, Liv Morgan, came out to the ring, it was down to the final competitors: Morgan, Naomi, Jade Cargill, Zoe Stark, Bayley, Bianca Belair, Becky Lynch, Roxanne Perez, and Tiffany Stratton.
After a quick face-to-face between Belair and Cargill, before the women could lay hands on one another, they were broken up and attacked. The fighting was fast and fierce, and for a moment it was any woman’s chance to win the Rumble. But the final three competitors came down to Cargill, Bayley, and Liv Morgan.
The fighting spilled out to the ring apron with all three women on the verge of elimination. In the end, Liv Morgan delivered a move to eliminate Cargill, but that attack left her wide open to an attack from Bayley, who took advantage and eliminated her.
Bayley ends up as the winner of the 2024 women’s Royal Rumble and now she has a decision to make in deciding which champion she was will challenge at WrestleMania.
Next up on the card was the Fatal Four-Way Universal Championship match and I have to admit I was not as excited for this match as maybe I should’ve been. Randy Orton returned to WWE hellbent on taking out the entire Bloodline for what they did to him. AJ Style wasn’t out as long as Randy Orton, but he had the same problem with Roman Reigns and his family. LA Knight was robbed when he faced off against Roman Reigns. All three of those men had very personal reasons to not only fight the head of the table, but to make sure they did everything in their power to beat the champion. But with Roman Reigns title reign, it seems like he’s unstoppable and that’s how I felt going into this match. As good as Orton, Styles, and Knight are, how could they possibly stack up against the one everyone must acknowledge?
Of course, the fatal four-way meant Reigns didn’t actually need to get pinned in the match to lose his championship. All three challengers decided to attack the champion to start the match. After that, the match broke down with different sets of competitors fighting, and the four-way match was in full effect.
After an exchange between all competitors outside of the ring involving the announcers table, it was still anyone’s match. LA Knight hit his finisher on Reigns and everyone thought that was it, but then AJ Styles hit a Styles Clash. After that Randy Orton hit a massive RKO on Reigns and it truly looked like Reigns record-breaking championship reign was over but Solo Sokoa showed up and saved the day once again for Roman Reigns.
Eventually a steel chair got involved in the match and AJ Styles took advantage, hitting both Reigns and Knight with the weapon. Randy Orton got rid of the chair and after a flurry of moves and counters, AJ Styles was almost knocked out by trying to go to for a Phenomenal Forearm, but LA Knight hit the ropes, knocking Styles down and Reigns took advantage of the mistake, delivering a massive spear to retain his championship.
The next match on the show was Kevin Owens taking on Logan Paul for his United States championship. This match had grown more personal as the weeks went by. Both men got under one another’s skin as they faced off both in and out of the ring. The most recent incident happening just a day before their championship bout at the Performance Center while the men were training. Say what you want about Logan Paul, he has wrestling fans both cheering and booing him. The two men unloaded everything they had in their match.
After they both missed high-risk opportunities from the top rope against one another, it looked like Logan Paul might get the upper-hand after a slingshot clothesline. After a near fall, it was Kevin Owens who turned on the offense and nailed a massive top-rope suplex on Logan Paul, only for the champion to kick out of the pinfall.
After another exchange between the two, suddenly pandemonium was ringside. Logan Paul’s associate tried to give him something only to be caught by the referee. Austin Theory and Grayson Waller came out and what Logan Paul was trying to get, brass knuckles, eventually ended up in the ring.
It looked like Logan Paul was going to use them, but they got wrestled away by Kevin Owens who used them instead! He was just about to win the title but the referee saw that Owens used the brass knuckles and disqualified him, giving Logan Paul the win, and letting him retain his championship. Just when you thought it was over, Owens attacked Paul afterward and powerbombed him through the announcer’s table. I don’t think this rivalry is ending any time soon.
The final match of the night was the men’s Royal Rumble. Kicking off the match as entrants one and two, respectively, were Main Event Jey Uso and his brother Jimmy Uso. What a way to start the Rumble!
The first surprise of the men’s Royal Rumble was the return of Andrade El Idolo at entrant four, who hadn’t been in WWE for over three years. The Rumble was pretty much business as usual until Bobby Lashley came out and The Final Testament. Lashley along with the Street Profits devolved into a brawl with the opposing group outside of the ring. That brawl continued all the way through the entrance runway and backstage as the Royal Rumble continued out.
Business really didn’t pick up until halfway through when Cody Rhodes entered the Rumble at number fifteen. He immediately went to work, eliminating Austin Theory before being attacked by members of Judgement Day. The action was fast and furious with quick matchups between Gunther and Bronn Breaker, Ivar and Bronson Reed, all while Jey Uso continued to withstand the onslaught of superstars entering the rumble while he clung to his number one position and tried to outlast everyone else.
R-Truth caught everyone’s attention once again when he didn’t get into the ring immediately. Instead, with Dominik Mysterio still in the match, R-Truth begged for a tag into the match, believing to get into the Royal Rumble one had to get tagged in.
CM Punk was entrant number 27 and immediately got to work, kneeing opponent after opponent in the corner before eliminating Dominik Mysterio. With Sami Zayn being the thirtieth and final entrant to the Royal Rumble, the final participants battling for a shot at the championship at WrestleMania was Zayn, CM Punk, Ricochet, Damien Priest, Drew McIntyre, Cody Rhdoes, and Gunther.
After a flurry of offense from all the competitors, the final four ended up being Rhodes, McIntyre, Gunther, and CM Punk. The four men split off into teams, as it were, with Cody and Punk teaming up against Gunther and McIntyre. The two teams battled back and forth, and they were all pretty even. Everyone in attendance had no idea who was going to be the first of the four eliminated and then it happened. Drew McIntyre hit a Claymore kick on both CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, and it looked like he was in total control. But Punk caught McIntyre off guard and threw him over the ropes. Meanwhile Gunther got the upper hand on Rhodes, then Punk too. But Cody Rhodes ended up eliminating Gunther and that left Cody Rhodes and CM Punk as the final two competitors in the 2024 Royal Rumble.
After an exchange of punches from one another, both men attempted a clothesline and they both hit, dropping them to the mat. They continued to fight and it felt like everyone in the WWE universe wasn’t sure who to root for. Some cheered for Rhodes while others Punk. Battling chants from the crowd for both men rang out.
Punk began to get the upper hand with three suplexes and then called for the GTS. Cody battled out of it and started making his own comeback. “This is Awesome” chants rang out throughout the stadium. The back-and-forth continued and right when CM Punk was going to hit a second GTS, Rhodes countered the move and spun around, throwing CM Punk out of the ring to win the 2024 Royal Rumble.
Overall, I thought the Rumble this year was a great show. A couple of surprises in each of the Royal Rumble matches themselves. The fatal four-way match for the Universal Championship had interference which meant fans around the world were robbed once again. With Cody Rhodes winning the Rumble and immediately pointing at Roman Reigns, right now it looks like fans will get a rematch between the two men. Kevin Owens tried to give Logan Paul a dose of his own medicine and got caught, so who knows when those men will face again, but they most likely will, either at Elimination Chamber or somewhere else down the road. The only real question is who this year’s women’s Royal Rumble winner, Bayley, will choose to face at WrestleMania.
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