Courtesy of WWE
WWE ROYAL RUMBLE REVIEW
- Rob Crowther, Editor In Chief
The 2024 WWE Royal Rumble event took place in front of a capacity crowd, Saturday evening in St. Petersburg, Florida. And what an event it was, with surprise returns and moments aplenty. Tears were shed. History was made. Dreams were fulfilled.
The first match of the night was indeed THE match of night, The 2024 Women's Royal Rumble Match. Surefire first ballot WWE HOF'er, Natalya pulled entry number one, as the second entrant would be the first big surprise of the night. Crowd favorite Naomi, fresh off her TNA Knockouts Championship run, would return to World Wrestling Entertainment to get this crowd hot right out of the gate. "Welcome Back!" chants made for an incredible moment as even Naomi shed a few tears before getting back to business in the WWE. Both ladies looked incredible with their in ring work. Bayley would pull the number three spot and have a large hill to climb to accomplish one of her longtime goals.
Other notable entries included Jordynne Grace from TNA, and current Knockouts Champion at number five. This was so great to see Grace mix it up with the WWE Superstars, and Triple H would briefly address this possible working relationship with TNA at the post-show press conference.
The rumble match itself featured a ton of storytelling internally. Tegan Knox and Natalya seemingly turned on each other. Jade Cargill who looked impressive as ever had a massive teaser stare down with Bianca Belair. R-Truth provided comic relief as always with a cameo appearance, but Chelsea Green absolutely stole the show with so many miscues with her partner Piper Niven that provided so much levity in the match. Green is absolutely brilliant. A lot of the storytelling was based around the dominant Nia Jax, who we were able to chat with last Friday right here on BCP+. Nia dished out a lot of punishment but also took a lot as well. Cargill EASILY lifted Jax to eliminate her in an incredibly impressive outing. Others like Becky Lynch and NXT's Tiffany Stratton impressed as well.
The ending sequence was incredible as Bayley was able to outsmart and essentially eliminate Liv Morgan who had a hand in eliminating Jade Cargill. Go back and watch it for yourself on Peacock, but this was an incredible match, and a monumental win for Bayley.
The next match was the Fatal Four Way for the Undisputed WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship featuring Randy Orton, AJ Styles, LA Knight, and of course the champ, Roman Reigns. This match was exactly what you would expect. Crisp work rate, simple storytelling, and somewhat of a fun spot fest. Interference aplenty from The Bloodline, but Roman held his own at time with multiple spears. Orton also hit RKO's on everyone including and impressive grab on Styles, mid Phenomenal Forearm. "This is Awesome!" chants rang out through the match. At the end of the day Roman picked his spots, and with the help of The Bloodline, was able to retain in a great outing. It's interesting to note here that Roman was the youngest competitor in that match at age 38.
Logan Paul defended his United States Championship against Kevin Owens in the third match of the evening. This was another one that was exactly what we expected. Less of a spot fest, and more of a straight up fight. Owens brought a lot out of Paul here in a solid match. There would be hijinks aplenty to end this one thought as outside interference from some of Logan Paul's crew, a pair of brass knuckles, and a turnabout is fair play moment by Kevin Owens going wrong cost him the victory. Paul retains and I believe is keeping this championship warm for LA Knight.
The final match of the evening was the Men's Royal Rumble. This was a solid Rumble, but not nearly as exciting as the Women's Royal Rumble had been. Not a ton of surprises either outside of R-Truth, and Pat McAfee... sort of. I do however somewhat appreciate WWE relying on its core roster and not leaning on legends and surprises for this one.
The aforementioned Truth, provided one of the most entertaining moments of the night in which he became the first man to ever get the hot tag going into a Royal Rumble match. It was absolutely incredible. Truth provides amounts of levity that clearly so greatly needed in this business. He's a national treasure.
The final four of the Men's Royal Rumble came down to Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, and Gunther. This is honestly when the match really got going. Gunther was the first one out shortly followed by Drew after several amazing sequences. It's worth noting that the ending sequences in both Rumbles were fantastic. The final two were indeed CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, who essentially had something of an eight minute match or so within the rumble, which was actually really cool to see. Ultimately, Cody would block the GTS from Punk and straight up throw him right out of the ring for a historic win.
Rhodes accomplished a feat that hasn't been accomplished in 26 years in winning back to back Royal Rumble Matches. The icing on the cake was the post match celebration when instead of pointing to the WrestleMania sign, he pointed directly at Roman Reigns.