The Road to WrestleMania is underway after last night’s Royal Rumble PLE. The event only had 4 matches with a run time of 3 hours, 50 minutes. Per Wikipedia the four matches had the following runtimes:
- Women’s Royal Rumble Match – 1 hour, 5 minutes
- Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Fatal 4-Way Match – 19 mins, 30 secs
- United States Championship Match – 14 mins
- Men’s Royal Rumble Match – 1 hour, 8 mins, 25 secs
The matches themselves had a runtime of 2 hours, 46 minutes and 55 seconds which left over an hour for other vignettes and recaps. Overall I thought both Rumble matches could’ve been shorter by 10+ minutes and it would have been better for it. There were a few lull moments throughout the evening during the 4 matches. It sort of speaks to how WWE didn’t invest a lot of time in developing storylines outside of the Bloodline, Damage CTRL and The Judgement Day.
Let’s look at the matches that unfolded:
Women’s Royal Rumble Match
- Full List of Participants(in order of appearance): Natalya, Naomi, Bayley, Candice LaRae, Jordynne Grace, Indi Hartwell, Asuka, Ivy Nile, Katana Chance, Bianca Belair, Kairi Sane, Tegan Nox, Kayden Carter, Chelsea Green, Piper Nevin, Xia Li, Zelina Vega, Maxxine Dupri, Nia Jax, Shotzi Blackheart, Becky Lynch, Alba Fyre, Shayna Baszler, Valhalla, Mia Yim, Zoey Stark, Roxanne Perez, Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton, Liv Morgan
- Final Four Participants: Bayley, Liv Morgan, Jade Cargill, Tiffany Stratton
- Winner: Bayley
As expected, Bayley would outlast 29 other women to win the Rumble and punch her ticket to WrestleMania. The match itself was a fun ride and the women really worked hard to make it entertaining. It also helped that the match featured some surprises and they started off the match with a surprise:
Naomi made her triumphant return to WWE after spending 2023 serving as the centerpiece, and champion, of TNA’s women’s division. Naomi would last a short-lived record of 1 hour, 2 mins & 18 secs. Naomi had a great showing in the Rumble but she wasn’t the only surprise in the match:
Current TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace surprised the crowd with her addition to the match and she made her presence felt. I would’ve liked to have seen her last a little longer but kudos to Triple H for allowing the door to be open to work with other promotions.
Nia Jax had a dominant performance eliminating 8 women while Bayley had 7 eliminations. The last surprise of the night came at #28 when this Superstar made her long awaited debut:
Jade Cargill looked incredible and her elimination of Nia Jax was the highlight of the match. Another moment that will be talked about was the face to face between Cargill and Bianca Belair as they both had women hoisted above their heads:
Despite some lull moments in the match I thought the women really showed up and Bayley getting to point to the WrestleMania sign at the end was the chef’s kiss. By far I thought this was the best match of the night. Grade: B+
Undisputed WWE Universal Championship Fatal 4-Way
- Participants: Roman Reigns(c), Randy Orton, AJ Styles, LA Knight
- Winner: Roman Reigns
It was interesting that this match went second as I thought the US Title match would be placed here. Kudos to ring announcer Samantha Irvin for making the match feel like a big fight event. Again, all four participants did their jobs and brought forth maximum effort but at the same time you KNEW The Tribal Chief would not leave Tropicana Field without the championship. Reigns was the glue that held the match together as he absorbed the BFT from LA Knight, a clean Styles Clash from AJ Styles and a wicked RKO from The Apex Predator. Orton had Roman dead to rights but once again interference from Solo Sikoa saved Roman’s reign. After a sprint of a finish it would be AJ Styles who would eat a spear and the pin from the champion.
Roman Reigns winning was no surprise as he continues to march on and obliterate the record books. The only question seems to be if WWE will allow him to surpass Hogan’s record of 1474 days as champion. Grade: B
United States Championship
- Participants: Logan Paul(c) vs. Kevin Owens
- Winner: Logan Paul via DQ
This match was just ok to me and that is not a shot at the performers. Owens was as advertised – the prizefighter who doesn’t know the meaning of the word quit. As smooth as Logan Paul is in the ring I just don’t care for his character or his reign so far as US Champion. I also wasn’t that thrilled with the finish of Owens being made to look like an imbecile for not hiding the brass knuckles he took off of Logan.
I don’t see this feud being over and I suspect there will be a blow off match at Elimination Chamber before I believe Paul will get a fresh challenger for WrestleMania(a certain megastar who shouts “Yeah!” comes to mind). Grade: C+
Men’s Royal Rumble Match
- Full list of participants(in order of appearance): Jey Uso, Jimmy Uso, Grayson Waller, Andrade, Carmelo Hayes, Shinsuke Nakamura, Santos Escobar, Karrion Kross, Dominik Mysterio, Carlito, Bobby Lashley, Ludwig Kaiser, Austin Theory, Finn Balor, Cody Rhodes, Bronson Reed, Kofi Kingston, Gunther, Ivar, Bron Breakker, Omos, Pat McAfee, JD McDonough, R-Truth, The Miz, Damian Priest, CM Punk, Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn
- Final Four: Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Gunther, Drew McIntyre
- Winner: Cody Rhodes
Jey & Jimmy Uso being the 1st two entrants was a nice touch that will possibly lay the groundwork for their 1-on-1 match at the Show of Shows. Jimmy Uso being his usual, unserious self was funny throughout the match. Jey Uso lasted the longest as he was in the match for 50 mins, 55 seconds. Unlike the Women’s match, the men’s match featured no surprises other than Sami Zayn returning from injury at #30. No Rock. No Big E. No legends.
Some storylines were covered such as Karrion Kross’ blood feud with Bobby Lashley, the ongoing Judgement Day silliness with R-Truth and Kofi Kingston’s war with Imperium. Most of it was just filler and that took away from the match. There were plenty of lull moments in the match as well which made the match feel longer than it actually was.
Carmelo Hayes had a good showing in the match and Bron Breakker made the most of his appearance as he allegedly was the one who replaced Brock Lesnar in the Rumble. Lesnar was supposed to make his return to set up his WrestleMania match, presumably with Gunther, but was pulled due to him allegedly being involved in the grisly Vince McMahon lawsuit.
The match finally kicked into high drama once the final four participants were revealed. After the eliminations of Drew McIntyre and Gunther, Cody Rhodes & CM Punk put on a thrilling mini-match which saw a drama filled back & forth before CM Punk’s crucial mistake:
Cody Rhodes became only the 4th back-to-back Royal Rumble winner and the 1st since Stone Cold Steve Austin achieved it in 1998. It was also the cleanest way for Cody Rhodes to finally ‘finish his story’ and challenge Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship and main event WrestleMania.
All in all it was a paint by numbers match that ultimately saw the right man win(though I did have CM Punk winning) but other than the final 10-15 minutes there wasn’t much drama in this match. Grade: B-
Post Show Press Conference
For the life of me I don’t understand why WWE would choose to go ahead with the post show press conference given the sickening events surrounding Vince McMahon and the lawsuit brought forth by Janel Grant… yet here we were.
I was also surprised the reporters in the room brought it up and you could tell by host Byron Saxton, Cody Rhodes and WWE CCO Triple H how uneasy the situation was.
While Cody Rhodes was very professional, calm and polished handling the question, Triple H seemed to fumble his way through it:
It would have been in WWE’s best interest to do a post game show & interview the participants instead of having the press conference. That was a dropped ball moment by WWE.
Final Thoughts
Overall it was a decent Royal Rumble. The talented women & men as usual worked hard to entertain those watching but I felt it was lacking something. It could be the matches’ outcomes never really in doubt or the lack of surprises in the men’s Rumble match but for a major 4 PLE it didn’t have that pop that it normally does.
The Road to WrestleMania seems to be clear and it will be up to creative to get the audience to really buy in. As of this moment these look to be the rumored matches for WrestleMania XL:
- Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship
- Seth Rollins vs. CM Punk for the World Heavyweight Championship
- Io Sky vs. Bayley for the WWE Women’s Championship
- Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch for the Women’s World Championship
- Bianca Belair vs. Jade Cargill
The WWE will have a little over 2 months to put the rest of the card together but at least we got some answers following last night’s Royal Rumble.
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