Welcome to Slam Wrestling’s live coverage of the 2026 Royal Rumble, WWE’s first Premium Live event of the year. As one of the “Big Four” this is one of the most important shows of the year since it marks the start of the Road to WrestleMania. This year the Royal Rumble emanates from the Riyadh Season Stadium in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. For Canadians, you can watch this show on Netflix and it has a 2pm EST/11am PST start time.
Four matches have been announced: the two eponymous Rumble matches (Men’s and Women’s) plus two singles matches. The first of these will see Drew McIntyre defend his Undisputed WWE Championship against Sami Zayn. The second, though non-title, is still high stakes all the same with AJ Styles taking on GUNTHER in a Career Threatening Match. In other words, if Styles loses he will retire from in-ring competition. Many have expressed doubts over Styles actually retiring before WrestleMania, but given all that has happened over the past few years, it’s fair to say that anything really can happen in WWE.
Back to the Rumble matches, both of them have more than half of their entrants confirmed. On the women’s side, seventeen participants have been confirmed, including Becky Lynch, Rhea Ripley, Iyo Sky, Bayley, Asuka, and Charlotte Flair. On the men’s side twenty-two have been confirmed, including Cody Rhodes, Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, and Logan Paul. Additionally, Brock Lesnar confirmed his participation on The Pat McAfee Show and Matt Cardona (formerly known as Zack Ryder) confirmed his participation yesterday on Instagram. Furthermore, GUNTHER will also participate, meaning that he’ll be pulling double duty on this event.
The Rumble begins…
We begin with the typical showcase of wrestlers arriving to the arena. The ones shown include former men’s and women’s Rumble winners plus McIntyre, Cody, and both Styles and Gunther. Interestingly, Jey Uso doesn’t get as much of a pop as expected and Triple H actually gets a spattering of boos.
Match #1: The 2026 Women’s Royal Rumble
Be sure to check back here at Slam Wrestling for all your Royal Rumble updates…
