The 2024 Royal Rumble is officially in the books, and to be honest, it was a bit of a mixed bag. The Men’s Rumble was perfectly acceptable. It lacked big returns and memorable moments, but it was without obvious issues and got to where we needed to go with Cody Rhodes winning for a second consecutive year. Roman Reigns’ fatal four way match was overly long and never had any real doubt about the ending, but it was somewhat enjoyable and gave The Tribal Chief a mostly clean win. Kevin Owens and Logan Paul had a screwy finish, but it was a good match and did what it needed to do to extend the feud.
Based on those three matches, this Rumble should be remembered as a below average event, at least when compared against other Rumbles, but thankfully, this one had a fourth match and it was the best on the card by an Andre The Giant sized margin. When I say the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble was the best in history, there’s not a single shred of doubt in my mind. There are not enough positive things I can say. It told a good, coherent story that produced a compelling winner. It was filled with a ton of memorable spots. We got some great surprise returns/ debuts, and it continued and/ or set up a bunch of feuds we’re gonna see moving forward. It was everything you could ask for out of WWE’s second biggest yearly event, and while I would struggle to come up with five moments I loved from the Men’s Rumble, it was honestly hard to narrow down my favorites here to just 11.
So, with all due respect to Natalya who once again showed how capable and steady she always is, Kaire Sane who almost gave us one of the wildest saves in Rumble history, Michael Cole who had way too much fun with Valhalla and her antlers, Liv Morgan who was great in her surprise return and every other woman who contributed in her own way to make this by far the best Women’s Rumble of all-time, here are 11 specific things I loved…
Naomi's Return Was Fantastic
People often think of the later spots as being the prime surprise return positions, but this was the perfect spot for Naomi. It allowed her to do her full entrance, which is among the best in the business, and it let the crowd really show her how much she’s been missed since she left under unfortunate circumstances more than a year ago. Her being overwhelmed by the love felt reminiscent of Zelina Vega in 2023, and she deserved every single cheer. Her performance in the actual Rumble itself was great too, as she lasted over an hour and eliminated two people.
Jordynne Grace Is A Star
I watch more wrestling than anyone I know in my personal life (all five hours of Smackdown and Raw and some AEW every week), but somehow that’s less than like half the wrestling people I follow on Twitter. As such, I was familiar with Jordynne Grace on like a name and face level, but I’d never actually seen her work in the ring. Well, she’s fantastic and seems like an easy person to root for. I cannot say enough positive things. She looks like a main event star that could believably beat any of the top WWE women, and it makes me want to find time to watch some TNA.
Nia Jax Is Having The Best Run Of Her Career
I get it. Nia Jax has been sloppy, caused some in-ring injuries and hasn’t always been believable on the microphone. Twitter’s collective disdain for her was at least somewhat understandable at one point in time, but if you remove your hater glasses and look at the last several months from an unbiased perspective, she’s been doing the best work of her career. Her match against Becky earlier this year on Raw was terrific, and she looked like an unstoppable, Kane-like force in this year’s Rumble. I’m really happy she’s back, and with real heat from the crowd, I wouldn’t be surprised to see her get a short, transitional champion type heel run with one of the two big belts at some point here soon.
Jade Cargill Looks Good In The Ring
All we’ve heard for months is that WWE was holding off on Jade Cargill so she could work on her in-ring wrestling. Well, I’m not saying being in a Rumble is the same thing as wrestling Kurt Angle for forty minutes, but she looked really good here. Obviously the big spot where she picked up Nia Jax and threw her out is going to get the bulk of the press, but outside of that, she looked more than capable in the ring, including in the complicated final spot that had a lot of moving parts. I was pumped to see her in a WWE ring before, and I’m even more pumped now.
WWE Puts So Much Thought Into The Visual Presentation
Everyone had a lot to say about Kevin Dunn when he finally left WWE at the end of last year. During his four decade run in charge of WWE’s camerawork and visual presentation, he did a lot to frustrate fans with his obsessive cuts and outsized influence on creative, but he also set a standard that is unmatched in wrestling and live event production. It is because of him that WWE takes the time to think about the blocking of camera shots and the creation of moments that tell a story and can be used in perpetuity. If you watched the Women’s Rumble, you know exactly what I’m talking about, whether it be Jade and Bianca’s staredown, Becky’s disappointment after being eliminated or everyone staring at Bayley after losing. Just look at this shot below.
Kayden Carter And Katana Chance Have A Bright Future Despite Losing The Tag Titles
Kayden Carter and Katana Chance have been doing some great work on television over the past few months. Their intricate tag team maneuvers and fun choreography have felt almost Rockers-like, and they’ve gone from getting zero crowd reaction to getting genuine support and applause breaks in their matches. They were deservedly rewarded with a one month plus run with the Tag Team Championships that included a few defenses, but after their recent loss to The Kabuki Warriors, I was worried. Well, I can’t predict the future, but Triple H booked them well in the Rumble. They were responsible for eliminating Asuka and Kairi Sane, two huge names, and each lasted at least eleven minutes. WWE needs to give us a lot more of this team, and I think they will.
Chelsea Green And Piper Niven Are Too Much Fun
Alright, full transparency. I was turning in this list and had Chelsea Green and Piper Niven in my honorable mentions, but I had to go back and give these two their own paragraph and change the number of entries to eleven. A great Royal Rumble hits all kinds of different emotional beats, and these two are just fantastic at bringing their own unique vibe to the table. It’s not always about who is going to win, and these two were involved in so many fun moments, whether it be Chelsea getting repeatedly squashed by everyone or Piper and Nia Jax doing some great work together. I hope these two continue to get a lot of screentime moving forward.
It Might Be Tiffy Time Sooner Than We Thought
I don’t watch NXT every week. Those who do brag non stop about Tiffany Stratton. I’ve been impressed with what I’ve seen over the last year or so, but this Rumble makes me believe she’s ready right now. She was presented as a huge threat the entire time she was in the ring, played a huge role in Bianca’s elimination and ultimately finished fourth. I don’t know that we’re going to see her on the main roster starting Monday, but it’s going to be Tiffy Time sooner rather than later.
The Becky Lynch Doubting Herself Storyline Is Gonna Be An A+++++++
The Booker 101 course in wrestling says you need to have the characters you care about look as strong as possible, but sometimes having your biggest names go on a losing streak is a great way to bring something new out of their characters. We saw Becky Lynch go back down to NXT. We recently saw her lose to Nia Jax clean. She gave a promo where she admitted those doubts to Rhea Ripley. She’s clearly suffering from a crisis of confidence, and whether that leads to a match with Rhea at ‘Mania or something else high profile, I can’t wait to see how it plays out.
Bianca Belair Is So Freakin' Good
Some wrestling fans have been hard on Bianca over the last year because her character hasn’t developed a ton. A lot of fans even rooted for Asuka at ‘Mania. I get it. I’d love to see her find a real storyline she can wrap her braid around, but you can’t watch The Rumble and tell me she is not the present and future of the women’s division (along with Rhea). Everything she does looks so good, and while there were a lot of iron women who lasted a long time this year, none did as many power spots and exerted as much energy as she did. She’s a star, and I firmly believe we’ll see her win at least one more Rumble in her career.
Bayley Deserved This Win
Part The Miz, part Kevin Owens, part Cody Rhodes, Bayley is perhaps the most valuable wrestler on the entire women’s card. She’s able to be a believable main event caliber performer when the division needs her to be, and she’s capable of doing mid-card comedy when that’s what the division needs. She’s a professional wrestler’s professional wrestler, a jack of all trades, ace in the hole most valuable player who has always strived to contribute rather than put herself first. I’m so happy for her to get the biggest moment of her career, and I can’t wait for her to show everyone why she’s a first ballot hall of famer.
