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Cody Rhodes continues his story with his second Royal Rumble win

Arin De Castro

So, what do you want to talk about?

Today marks the 37th Royal Rumble in the history of the WWE. The Royal Rumble is has brought so much memorable moments from ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin winning his third royal rumble to Rey Mysterio winning it after drawing entrant number two.

Royal Rumble 2024 didn’t disappoint either, with Cody Rhodes taking a major step towards finishing his story.

Lots to talk about – so let’s get right to it.

 

WWE Royal Rumble Results

The pre-show featured the normal talking heads running down the card, and video segments where various WWE Superstars talked about their favourite moments in Royal Rumble history. Kayla Braxton interviewed Rhea Ripley who warned the winner of tonight’s Women’s Royal Rumble not to “waste” their WrestleMania match by challenging her.

The pre-show ended with Triple H welcoming people to the show. So if you were wondering whether there would be any fallout on him for the Vince situation, it doesn’t seem to be the case. Bringing him out seems to be a clear signal that he’s not going anywhere.

The opening video saw Hulk Hogan hyping up the matches on the show, brother.

The night gets started with the entrance of guest commentator Pat McAfee. Love this.

Match 1: Women’s Royal Rumble match

The woman rumbles starts with the two time world champion Natalya against the returning Naomi. Naomi was greeted with chants of “Welcome back!” I couldn’t agree more. The action in the women’s rumble really picks up when Candice LeRae gets into the ring as entrant number four. Naomi and Jordynne Grace have a moment as they hug in the middle in the ring then both unleash with punches. Yes! They opened the forbidden door. The first pair of allies comes when Indi Hartwell joins LeRae at six, the pair can started right away by Hartwell tossing LeRae on Bayley, but the pair is short lived as Hartwell gets eliminated just before the next entrant. Making her the first person to be eliminated of the women’s rumble Honestly, that was disappointing but that’s the name of the game. Jordynne Grace and Ivy Nile have a double suplex then instantly go for each other. Bianca Belair had the most impressive start in the rumble as took on three WWE superstars at the same time exactly when she enters.

Damage CTRL smartly took control of the rumble once three members were in the ring by picking on one other woman one at a time. Knox and Natalya hug in the ring but that’s when Knox betrays Natalya tossing her out, which lead to her demise and eliminated exactly after. Karma is a real thing.

Both Kabuki Warriors try save one another but it resulted in their elimination letting Bayley be the soul survivor of Damage CTRL.

Belair eliminates Jordynne Grace in fasion by use the KOD on the side of the ring. Piper Niven saved her former tag team parter by catching her outside the ring and carrying her to the staircase. Maxinne Dupri jokingly goes possum in the ring against Piper, which is not something I expected, not because I don’t understand how power house Piper is but playing possum is not a strategy that can win the rumble at all. Nia Jax enters the ring and asserts dominance eliminated two people to start her run in the rumble. Scary sight to see and someone the whole ring should have tried to eliminate right away, which coincidentally what they tried to do but failed miserably. Nia Jax then proceeded to eliminate fellow powerhouse Piper and two in a row.

Becky Lynch entered at 21 and gets started quickly eliminating a competitor. Valhalla starts her entrance but then R-Truth comes out of nowhere and then gets eliminated by Jaxx which then Valhalla proceeded to get eliminated tying Chelsea Grace of the fastest elimination in the Royal Rumble at five seconds. I agree with the commentators, R-Truth will certainly be cursed by the Viking gods.

Roxanne Perez takes control of the ring as entrant giving a piece of herself to almost everyone in the ring. Jade Cargill makes her debut in the WWE by eliminating Nia Jax right away, Jax had eliminated seven people before her exit. What a start for Cargill.

Tiffany Straton followed Cargill by making her own debut but for the rumble. She Swanton Bomb’d every one in the ring to enter. Crazy sequences in back to back entrances. Liv Morgan returns from injury as entrant number 30. She takes someone out right away as well.

The last three entrants was very well executed and entertaining. Cargill and BeLair have a showdown by both picking up two other superstars above the head, dropping them to the ground. It was a great look at a potential future match up. Naomi was finally eliminated after breaking a record for duration in a women’s rumble at one hour and two minutes. She was eliminated by the hands of Cargill who took out Becky Lynch at the same time. Bayley eliminated BeLair who was getting her hair pulled.

Absolute chaos ends the match as all three finalists, Bayley, Liv Morgan and Cargill try to eliminate each other on the outer ring area. Cargill goes down by Morgan who proceeded to get eliminated by Bayley. Chaos wins, Bayley wins. What a rumble and probably the best women’s rumble to date.

Winner: Bayley

Match 2: Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton vs. AJ Styles vs. LA Knight – Fatal four-way match for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship

The challengers grouped together to put a beatdown on Reigns early on, but their alliance was short-lived. Soon, all four competitors were on the floor, where they took turns bouncing one of their opponents’ heads on the announce table.

The match then followed the customary formula of a WWE multi-person match, with two of them fighting in the ring while the others recovered on the floor or on the apron, rejoining the action when someone got sent to the floor.

The match ebbed and flowed, with the pace quickening when that formula broke and there were three or four of them in the ring at the same time. Those times led to some exciting moments, like when LA Knight had Reigns down and nearly pinned him, but Styles broke it up at the very last second. But Knight paid Styles back, breaking up the count after Styles had downed Roman with a Styles Clash.

Orton tweaked his shoulder, but it didn’t stop him from delivering RKOs on all three opponents in succession. The last one was to Roman Reigns, and it looked like the match was over, but just before the referee’s hand hit the mat for the third time, Solo Sikoa appeared outta nowhere, and pulled the referee out of the ring.

Sikoa then came in and flattened Orton with a Samoan Spike, and then stacked up Knight and Orton in the middle of the ring. He then set his sights on Styles, who was on the floor, going for a charging Hip Attack. But Styles moved, and Solo went crashing through the ringside barrier at lightning speed.

As Roman looked down on Knight and Orton and prepared to cover them, Styles hit him with a surprise Phenomenal Forearm, and when Reigns fell on top of the heap, Styles went for the cover – but Orton, who was on the bottom of the pile, kicked out and as a result, everyone’s shoulder lifted off the mat. The crowd loved that kickout, giving the match a ‘This is awesome” chant.

Styles brought a ring into the chair and walloped Reigns repeatedly before turning his attention to Knight and giving him the same treatment. But before he could do the same to Orton, the Viper jabbed him in the eye and that sent AJ to the floor.

Orton turned around and got nailed with a huge Spear by Reigns. Roman tried to grab Orton to cover him, but Orton rolled to the floor. Reigns had forgotten about Knight when going after Orton and paid for that when Knight hit him from behind.

Knight tried for the BFT, but Reigns pushed him off and Knight hit the ropes. When he did, he inadvertently took out AJ, who was going for another surprise Phenomenal Forearm, and Styles landed hard on the top ropes, bouncing off and hitting the mat hard. Reigns hit a stunned Knight with a Superman Punch, and when Styles got up, Reigns Speared him and covered him for the 1-2-3.

Winner, and still Undisputed WWE Universal Champion: Roman Reigns

Match 3: Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens – WWE United States Championship Match

The match starts with Logan with a handshake. Come on now, there’s too much beef to do that, and Kevin Owen agrees by having an onslaught in and out of the ring to start. Kevin Owens was dominant the entire first half as Paul was being cocky. Paul started to turn it up and puts some damage on Kevin Owens. After failed pin, Paul tries a kimura on the injured hand of Owens. Even taking off the wrap padding the hand.

A lot of antics from Paul throughout the match. Paul tried Rey Mysterio’s 619…..as expected he failed.  Momentum changes in favor of Owens. KO with a back to back cannonball followed by a frog splash, impressive stuff from the big man but sadly Paul managed to back out and have a onslaught of his own. Chaos everywhere.

Logan Paul unwraps his hand and lands a major right hand. Logan KO’s Kevin Owen put failed to close the match. Paul then tries to get the brass knuckles but the referee stops it. Paul manages to get the brass knuckles but Owen steals it and hits “The Maverick.” As the count of three was about to hit, the referee notices the brass knuckles and disqualifies KO. Leaving Paul as the WWE United States Champion.

In rage. Owens continues to beat on Paul after the match.

Winner, and still WWE United States Champion: Logan Paul

 

Match 4: Men’s Royal Rumble match

Fireworks started the match when Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso were the first two entrants. The bad blood between brothers led to a brawling battle to kick things off. Grayson Waller was in next, followed by a surprise entrant, the returning Andrade, who the crowd was happy to see. NXT’s Carmelo Hayes was next in, making his Royal Rumble debut – and his first elimination, when he dumped out Waller.

Shinsuke Nakamura came in as number 6 and he was followed by Santos Escobar, with both of them using their signature kicks and knees, respectively. Escobar tried to play nice with fellow luchador Andrade, but Andrade wanted nothing to do with him, leading to those two fighting it out.

Karrion Kross came in next, accompanied by Scarlett and Paul Ellering (but as per traditional Rumble rules, they weren’t allowed to come to ringside), and he formed an alliance with Jimmy Uso to put the hurt on Jey. The building filled with boos as Dominik Mysterio made his way to the ring as the next entrant. Carlito came in to round out the first third of the match participants, and that sent his nemesis Escobar scrambling out under the bottom rope – that’s not cool. But it was cool when he blinded Escobar – who tried to sneak attack him – with some apple spit and then eliminated him.

Bobby Lashley came in next and hit everything that got in his way – including eliminating Carlito – while he tried to seek out and destroy Kross. He eventually did that, throwing Kross over the top. Which brought the Authors of Pain to the ring, and that distraction led to Kross yanking Lashley to the floor – even though Kross was out of the match, it still counted, as per Rumble rules. Lashley’s buddies, the Street Profits ran to the ring and they got into a faction brawl with Kross and the AoP.

As they brawled their way to the back, Ludwig Kaiser headed to the ring to make his Rumble debut, coming in as number 12. Kaiser had no allegiance to anyone in the ring, and went after fellow heels Dominik and Nakamura without hesitation. Austin Theory was lucky 13, and he was followed by Finn Balor, who immediately threw out Carmelo Hayes who had been tussling with Finn’s Judgment Day brother Dominik.

Cody Rhodes rounded out the first half of the entrants as number 15, and he wasn’t so anxious to finish his story that he wouldn’t pause during his entrance for the “Whoa-oa” singalong spot. But when he did get in the ring, he wasted no time, immediately throwing out Theory after a Cody Cutter.

Big Bronson Reed stormed in next and impressed by hitting a double Samoan Drop on both Dom and Finn before he threw Andrade out of the ring. Andrade should have tried to save himself by using some funky moves out of the playbook of the next entrant, Kofi Kingston.

Cody eliminated Nakamura with a Cross Rhodes on the apron. Then Kofi eliminated Kaiser with a Headscissors move. Just in time for Kaiser’s Imperium boss, the Intercontinental Champion Gunther, to make his entrance. Gunther brought a bag full of chops and served them to everyone before dumping out Kofi unceremoniously – Kofi didn’t even have a chance to save himself.

Ivar stormed his way to the ring next and he collided with Reed leading to the two hitting simultaneous Cross Bodies on each other.

Speaking of power, in next was Bron Breakker, who hit the ring with intensity, taking out Jimmy Uso and then Finn Balor in rapid order. Breakker even shocked Gunther with a Spear, taking the big man down hard.

But would he be able to do the same to Omos, who came in as number 21? They did square off, but not until Omos had kicked Reed over the top rope (kind of) and Breakker had thrown out Ivar, after catching him with a Spear during a Flying Viking Clothesline attempt.

As Breakker and Omos stared each other down, they paused while Pat McAfee made his surprise entry into the Rumble match as number 22. They stared at him menacingly, and that was enough to intimidate McAfee to the point where he elected to eliminate himself.

Breakker and Omos finally did throw hands – and Breakker came out on top, eliminating Omos with a huge CLotheseline. But he didn’t have time to celebrate, as Dominik sneaked up from behind and dumped Breakker.

Breakker got a measure of revenge, though, Spearing Dom’s fellow Judgment Day member JD McDonagh as he made his way to the ring, leaving him laying on the floor. With the ring pretty empty, R-Truth ran down as number 24, and tried to lend a hand to JD by throwing him into the ring. But that backfired – as soon as JD got in there, he was Clotheslined over the top by Jey Uso.

Truth was confused and thought he was in a tag team match with Dominik and waited for Dom to tag him in before coming in. He did, and had some initial success against Gunther until he didn’t. But The Miz did, as he immediately went after the I-C champ when he came in as number 25.

Miz tried to recapture their R-Truth chemistry to eliminate Dominik, but Truth was conflicted, still under the impression that he was part of Judgment Day with Dom. Dom took advantage of the confusion, hitting Miz and blasting him with a 619.

Damian Priest came in and clarified things for Truth by immediately going up to him and socking him right in the kisser with a huge punch before throwing him over the top.

Cue the music of Living Color, because number 27 was CM Punk, wrestling his first WWE match 10 years to the day that he originally left the company. Like Mussolini, he took action, throwing Dominik over the top rope.

Ricochet came out as number 28 and hit some quick aerial attacks on a few folks. Which is dangerous, since going up to the top rope can easily get you eliminated. Which is what happened to Miz, who went up top and got caught with a massive, deafening chop by Gunther that sent Miz tumbling to the floor.

The penultimate entrant was Drew McIntyre, who started off by throwing Ricochet halfway across the ring – that looked great.

Jey Uso had looked great for the entirety of his tenure in the match – lasting nearly until the last entrant was announced. But with seconds remaining on the countdown to number 30, he got eliminated by Gunther.

That aforementioned 30th man ended up being Sami Zayn, who made a beeline for McIntyre, attacking him rabidly and nearly eliminating him. With nobody else left to enter, the final eliminations began, starting with Ricochet, who got flipped over the top and to the floor by McIntyre.

The remaining six battled each other, hitting each other with a parade of finishing moves – or finishing move attempts, at least. Because Sami thwarted a Razor’s Edge attempt by Priest and threw him out. Only to get chucked out himself by Drew, leaving Drew, Punk, Rhodes, and Gunther as the final four.

As the four each took a corner to start their final flurry, the camera showed Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns watching the match from their respective VIP luxury boxes, knowing that one of them might have to face the eventual winner.

Gunther and McIntyre focused their attentions on pummeling Rhodes and Punk. McIntyre set up Punk for the Claymore, but Punk dodged it. Punk tried for GTS, but Drew escaped and cracked Punk with the Glasgow Kiss, before handing out Claymores like Oprah handed out cars, giving one to all three opponents.

Drew opted to trash-talk Punk instead of picking him up and throwing him out, and that was his undoing. Punk was able to scramble underneath Drew, pick him up and heave him over the top rope, ending Drew’s night.

With Drew out, there was still one powerhouse left to deal with in the form of Gunther. But, history repeated itself from last year, and Rhodes was able to reverse a throw-out attempt, grab hold of Gunther’s head, and leverage him over the top, much to the big man’s surprise and dismay.

As Reigns looked irritated and Seth looked amused, the 48,000 strong in the building were on their feet as Rhodes and Punk duked it out in the middle of the ring, taking each other down with simultaneous Clotheslines, fighting their way back up to their knees and then eventually to their feet.

They exchanged moves, with Punk edging out with a trio of German Suplexes, but Cody escaped a GTS attempt and hit a Dusty-esque Bionic Elbow to stun Punk. Punk escaped a Cross Rhodes attempt, and tried to throw Rhodes over the top, but Rhodes would not yield.

Rhodes escaped another GTS attempt and this time he did hit Cross Rhodes – but was too exhausted to capitalize, despite Punk being down and out. He finally walked over and picked up Punk, who may have been playing possum, or might have just found a second wind, because picked up Rhodes and hit the GTS.

They jockeyed for position near the ropes and tried to throw each other over, but to no avail. Punk hit a Pedigree and motioned for another GTS, yelling out that he didn’t return after ten years “to lose to Dusty’s kid.”

Them’s were fighting words, though, and sparked new life into Rhodes, who popped off of Punk’s shoulders, grabbed Punk and whipped him over the top rope and to the floor, becoming the first back-to-back winner in 26 years.

After the match, Cody pointed up to Roman Reigns, seemingly confirming his choice of opponent at WrestleMania.

 

Winner: Cody Rhodes

 

WWE Royal Rumble - January 27th, 2024
4.5

Tropicana Field - St. Petersburg, Florida

The Rumble matches were strong, and arguments can be made as to which one was better. The last part of the men’s match was the definite highlight, especially when it came down to the final four – and the last portion with just Punk and Rhodes in particular, was great. Lots of interesting ways to go before WrestleMania, but the first part of the road was a fun trip.

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