It’s that time for one of the most anticipated shows of the year, the ever so exciting WWE Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, in front of a sold out crowd at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.
In the wake of the massive allegations placed on former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon, it’s been an odd week in the world of World Wrestling Entertainment.
They just signed a 5 Billion dollar deal with Netflix for 2025, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joined the board of directors at TKO, and then this black cloud suddenly came to hover over the world of WWE. Let’s hope in that instance that common sense will prevail.
WWE Royal Rumble
January 27th, 2024
Tropicana Field
St. Petersburg, Florida
Attendance: 48,044
WWE Women’s Royal Rumble Match
Natalya vs. Becky Lynch vs. Asuka vs. Candice LaRae vs. Naomi vs. Bayley vs. Michin vs. Alba Fyre vs. Zelina Vega vs. Kairi Sane vs. Piper Niven vs. Valhalla vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Nia Jax vs. Tegan Nox vs. Zoey Stark vs. Chelsea Green vs. Shayna Baszler vs. Liv Morgan vs. Shotzi vs. Bianca Belair vs. Xia Li vs. Indi Hartwell vs. Katana Chance vs. Kayden Carter vs. Roxanne Perez vs. Ivy Nile vs. Jade Cargill vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Maxxine Dupri
Background:
As we all know, the winner of this match goes to WrestleMania 40 to challenge for one of the WWE Women’s World Titles.
The Match:
I’m not going to give a blow by blow account but I will however just give my general thoughts on the match as well as some highlights.
Recently I have been reviewing a lot of TNA Wrestling and Trinity, now Naomi once again, made her return to WWE in this match up early on, and I have to say, I still feel like she’s having issues with her timing in the ring.
Some may say the different sized TNA ring made her need to take time to adjust, and now she’s back in the bigger WWE ring, perhaps she’s having to adjust again.
One of the most surprising moments of the match was once again having a TNA Knockouts World Champion in the match, as TNA’s Jordynne Grace made her first ever WWE appearance and certainly impressed!
All my friends I was watching the show with we really impressed with her phsyique, as they are casual fans and had never heard of her before.
Props have to go out to R-Truth for his accidental inclusion in the match, the look on his face when he got in the ring and realised he was in the wrong genders Rumble Match was priceless.
I have been covering a lot of NXT over the last few years and I have to admit, I felt a strong pang of pride when I saw Roxanne Perez and Tiffany Stratton go out there and IMPRESS. Which again proves my point that when these NXT ladies get called up, some of those Main Roster ladies better be concerned for their spot, because these women are GOOD. All my mates were very impressed with Tiffany and how crisp she was.
I think the best part was the in ring debut of Jade Cargill, she really looked good out there and the stare down with her and Bianca Belair was very cool. Having Jade eliminate Nia Jax was super impressive.
pIn the end though, it came down to Jade, the returning Liv Morgan and Bayley, and Bayley was my pick the whole time, and she managed to pick up the win and win her first ever WWE Women’s Royal Rumble Match.
Aftermath:
I fully expect Bayley to challenge IO SKY at WWE WrestleMania 40 for her WWE Women’s World Title.
Winner: Bayley by eliminating Liv Morgan in 65:03.
WWE Universal Title / WWE Title Fatal Four Way Match
Roman Reigns (w/Paul Heyman) (c) vs. AJ Styles vs. Randy Orton vs. LA Knight
Background:
AJ, Randy and LA Knight have all been pushing their plight to challenge Roman Reigns on this show, who hasn’t wrestled in months. They recently did battle on WWE Smackdown to find a #1 Contender, but nothing was ultimately decided, making this a Fatal Four Way Match.
The Match:
We knew the result of this ahead of time, but here’s the thing – if they did a Singles Match, this would have packed the Men’s Royal Rumble Match with 2 more big names, which would have made the final parts of the Rumble even more exciting with some extra big names in there.
Nonetheless, this match was exactly what you would have expected, full of twists and turns and suspense. AJ Styles is JACKED right now, and he’s still able to hit all of his usual high flying moves.
LA Knight was over with the crowd of course, but one thing I will mention, what was with the St. Petersburg crowd? Talk about a crowd who sat on their tush’s and didn’t really get overly excited except for moments like somebody winning a Rumble Match.
Roman was never really in any danger of losing here and he managed to get the pin after a Spear on AJ Styles to retain the WWE Universal Heavyweight Championship.
Aftermath:
Roman continues his record breaking title reign, and looks to go into WrestleMania 40 still the Champion, where it’s obvious as to who he’s facing.
Winner: STILL WWE Universal Heavyweight Champion, Roman Reigns in 19:29.
WWE United States Title Match
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens
Background:
Kevin Owens and Logan Paul have been going back and forth for weeks, and it certainly about time for Logan to defend that United States Championship against a heavy hitter like Owens, and it would be interesting to see how the heck he was going to get out of this unscathed.
The Match:
This match was terrific. Logan Paul has proved and continued to prove why he’s worthy of the spot he keeps getting given, because he’s absolutely nailing it as a character. He gets the in ring stuff, he gets the character stuff, he is super athletic and smooth in the ring like he’s been doing it for over 10 years!
Owens was great here too, and one thing that was really noticeable was the fact Logan really looked like he had gone through a war here, as he was bleeding from several different parts of his body.
Austin Theory and Grayson Waller interfered and tried to help Logan by handing him from Brass Knucks, but Owens managed to get ahold of them.
In the moment of the night, Kevin Owens laid Logan Paul out with the Knucks and as the Referee went to count 3, as he got to 2.5, he noticed the Knucks on Owens’ fist and got up and Disqualified him.
All my mates and I burst into laughter, clapping at such a great finish, and the most realistic way Logan Paul could retain the title over Kevin Owens.
Aftermath:
I can’t imagine what is next for Logan Paul, I don’t know if LA Knight is in his sights for WrestleMania 40, or if John Cena is going to come in to work with him, but whatever it is, I am sure it’s going to be great fun.
Winner: STILL WWE United States Champion, Logan Paul via DQ in 14:00.
Royal Rumble Match
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. CM Punk vs. R-Truth vs. Carlito vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Sami Zayn vs. The Miz vs. Finn Balor vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Cody Rhodes vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Ricochet vs. Ivar vs. JD McDonagh vs. Andrade vs. Ludwig Kaiser vs. Santos Escobar vs. Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso vs. Pat McAfee vs. Bronson Reed vs. Carmelo Hayes vs. Karrion Kross vs. Damian Priest vs. Gunther vs. Austin Theory vs. Grayson Waller vs. Omos vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Bron Breakker
Background:
As we all know, the winner of this match goes to WrestleMania 40 to challenge for one of the Men’s WWE World Heavyweight Championships.
The Match:
Well, I guess we weren’t getting any legend cameos in this years Rumble, which is a shame. Opening the Rumble with the Uso’s facing off was a very interesting visual.
One of the highlights here for me was Omos making his return to WWE, but it angers me at the same time that they just don’t do enough with the big man.
It’s ridiculous that they can’t find something for him. His role in the company can NOT just be held to entering Rumbles and Battle Royals and never winning one.
Pat McAfee’s inclusion whilst humerous, was an absolute waste of time, and a waste of a spot that could have gone to a familiar face like Hardcore Holly, or perhaps another NXT guy.
Bron Breakker was the star of the match, my friends had never seen him before and could not believe how fast and explosive he was. He eliminated a lot of people, thus setting himself up to be a star of the future when he finally comes over. I smell a feud with he and Gunther, perhaps?
Andrade made his return to WWE here and it was good to see him back, and good to see him and Santos Escobar interact.
Also, props to Carmelo Hayes coming up from NXT and proving himself.
R-Truth screwed JD McDonagh over again, which was great stuff.
Dominik Mysterio was getting so much of a reaction from everybody in my house, proving he’s meant for the spot he’s in.
I felt like Damian Priest came across like an afterthought here, he totally could have been made to look like more of a threat!
I think Sami Zayn being #30 was a little bit disappointing for my friends and I, because I think we were expecting Brock Lesnar, John Cena or The Rock. That’s on us though.
In the end it of course came down to CM Punk and Cody Rhodes, the two favorites to win the match. I think they made the right move, and Cody won his 2nd Royal Rumble in a row to face I assume, Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 40 and finally ‘complete his story’.
The only complaints I have is I felt it was a little bit drawn out at the end and it took too long for Rhodes to eliminate Punk, and there were a lot of double downs because of it. Nonetheless, the right man won.
Aftermath:
Cody clearly goes to WrestleMania 40 to challenge Roman for the title!
Winner: Cody Rhodes by elimination CM Punk in 68:11.
Final Thoughts:
It was an okay Rumble PLE, there have been better over the years. I think again, the issue with WWE is they plod along so slowly on these PLE’s, this didn’t need to be 4 hours. 3 hours, or 3 hours and 15 minutes would have been enough! Despite this, I am very much looking forward to WrestleMania season.
