WWE Royal Rumble 2024 1/27/2024

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 1/27/2024

Paul Heyman did a good interview on the pre-show where he said the system isn't set up for Roman. He called Nick Aldis a villainous James Bond and complained about how the odds are stacked against him tonight. He said Roman got it done the last time he had the odds stacked against him and said he will defy the odds tonight.  

Pat McAfee is the special commentator for the night.

Women's Royal Rumble

Natalya was the first entrant and Naomi, fresh from TNA, was the 2nd entrant. Jordynne Grace from TNA then came in at #5. Zelina Vega had mecha wings, Chelsea Green wore a dress and Piper wore blue Bill Nakano style face paint. Grace took a KOD from Bianca to get eliminated and Maxxine did a reverse caterpillar. Nia botched a move, dropping Piper on Chelsea Green.

They had R-Truth come out here, thinking he was in this. He was quickly eliminated by Nia Jax. They had Roxanne Perez come in at #27 and had Jade come in at #28. Tiffany Stratton came in at #29 and Liv Morgan came in at #30. Bayley ended up getting the win here, ending her drought and setting up for Damage Ctrl possibly having all the titles. She seemed like one of the favorites along with Nia and Becky. I thought they could have built it up more though.

It was long, the crowd wasn't that interested in it and it was boring. There's nothing that can really be done about it though. At least it didn't have the botches prior Women's Rumble's had. They tried to make it more interesting here with Jade, Grace and Naomi.

Undisputed WWE Universal Title - Roman Reigns (c) vs LA Knight vs AJ Styles vs Randy Orton

Roman takes a group beating to start. Orton caught AJ with an RKO off a springboard. Solo Sikoa came in and stacked LA onto Orton so Roman could pin both. The ref didn't count though despite LA having Orton pinned. Solo went to spear AJ on the rails but ended up going through it.

AJ brought in a chair and hit Roman with it several times. LA went into the ropes while AJ was going to springboard. AJ then went down. Roman then speared AJ to win it.

The first half of this was super boring with the 4 wrestlers pairing off and hitting little but punches. There was no long extended finishing sequence here and Roman won with relative ease. Roman won as expected, but it really hurt the standing of his opponents, especially LA who now has lost twice in a row to Roman. It was a disappointing match with no real major spots or big moments. 

United States Title - Logan Paul (c) vs Kevin Owens

 

KO flurries him with chops and stomps. Paul is thrown into the rails. KO germans him and Paul drives him into the apron outside. KO lariats him on the floor then sentons him there. Paul plancha's him and bangs KO's hand off the post. KO is sent into the steps. Paul top rope crossbodies him then standing moonsaults him.

Paul puts him in an octopus stretch. Paul hits euros then does a split drop on him. Paul pulls his hand on the ropes then kicks it. KO ducks a 619 then lariats him. KO sentons him then hits a fisherman's neckbreaker over the knee. Owens cannonballs him then hits a top rope frogsplash. KO goes for a swanton but Paul gets his knees up. Paul then misses a top rope swanton.

Paul hits a buckshot lariat then top rope splashes him for 2. Paul tells Corey Graves that he said no man can superplex KO and to watch this. KO then twisting fisherman busters him off the 2nd rope.

KO superkicks him off a punch attempt. Paul drops him with a punch for 2. Some guy named Jeff comes out, who they say is part of Paul's entourage. KO and Paul double lariat each other. Security tries to get rid of him. Waller and Theory come out to vouch for him. Paul gets handed brass knuckles and KO nails him with them. The ref sees the brass knucks on the pin attempt and disqualifies Owens.

This whole finish was lame here on a show that desperately needed something good. Jeff's run in didn't work since he hadn't been around lately and nobody knew what was going on.

Owens powerbombs Paul through a table after.

Men's Royal Rumble Match

Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso were the firs two entrants. They fought and Grayson Waller came out at #3 with a mic. He said no one cared about them and ripped Jey. Jey superkicked him before he got in. Andrade El Idolo came out at #4 with a mask with a crowd on it for his entrance gear. Carmelo Hayes came in at #5. Nakamura came in after and the crowd sang his theme song.

Bron Breakker came in at #20. Bron got to eliminate Finn and even speared Gunther. Omos made his return at #21. Bron got eliminated and speared JD McDonaugh as he entered. R-Truth came out at #24 and threw JD back in. JD was then quickly sent out. Truth then tried to get Dom to tag him in, thinking it is a tag match. Dom did tag him in and Truth got some of the 5 moves of doom of Cena in on him.

Truth stopped Miz from throwing out Dom. CM Punk came out at #27. He threw Dom out then took a spinning forearm from Priest. Ricochet came out at #28 for some reason. Drew came in at #29 and Sami Zayn returned after missing for a few weeks at #30.  

Drew caught Ricochet's foot and flipped him backwards out of the ring. Sami eliminated Priest then Drew threw Sami over after. The final four were Punk, Rhodes, Drew and Gunther. Seth and Roman were seen watching from the skyboxes.

Drew grabbed Punk and told him he's not the same guy he was 10 years ago and said Punk belongs to him. Punk then eliminated Drew. Gunther put Cody on the apron then Cody pulled Gunther over the top to eliminate him.

Cody hits punches on Punk then they double lariat each other. Punk hits kicks on Cody then backfists him. Cody goes over him in the corner and powerslams him. Punk germans Cody off a cody cutter then hits two more germans. Punk bulldogs Cody then Cody hits the bionic elbow combo.

Punk high kicks him then Cody hits a cross rhodes. Punk hits a go to sleep on Cody then hit a pedigree on him. Punk says, "I didn't wait 10 years to lose to Dusty's kid". Cody catches a go to sleep and throws Punk out to win it.

It was a long and slow Rumble. If you were looking for big debuts and surprises, all we got was Andrade and two people from NXT. It felt like more things were supposed to happen but it didn't. It was not their best work here and the crowd was dead for most of it. I figured either Cody or Punk were winning here. Neither were super impressive here though.

Cody pointed at the Wrestlemania sign after and at Roman Reigns after.

Overall thoughts: Long and slow. That describes this one. The Women's Rumble started the show and went over an hour. It wasn't an embarrassing effort like it had been in previous years but it wasn't good or interesting. I'd argue that they put more effort into it than the Men's Rumble though. The Undisputed Title match buried everyone in it but Roman as usual. The US Title match had some shenanigans and the finish wasn't good. The Men's Royal Rumble was disappointing with no real big debuts, legends returning or other things that could have spiced it up. It felt like some planned things didn't happen in the Men's Rumble due to the Vince McMahon allegations this week. The show went almost 4 hours and the crowd was done by the first match.