Royal Rumble (2024)

The 2024 Royal Rumble was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming event produced by WWE. It was the 37th annual Royal Rumble event and took place on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, held for wrestlers from all three of WWE's brand divisions. It was the third Royal Rumble held in the Tampa Bay area (following the 1995 and 2021 events), and the second at Tropicana Field after 2021; however, as that event was held without an audience via the ThunderDome due to the COVID-19 pandemic, this was the first Royal Rumble at the stadium to have live fans. This was the first major WWE event not to involve Vince McMahon or any member of the McMahon family at any capacity since his resignation as chairman of TKO Group Holdings a day before amidst the ongoing sex trafficking scandal.

The event is based around the Royal Rumble match, and the winner traditionally receives a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For the 2024 event, the men's and women's winners received a choice of which championship to challenge for at WrestleMania XL. The men's winner could choose to challenge for either Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, while the women's winner had the choice between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship. The women's match, which was the opening bout, was won by Bayley from SmackDown, who also broke the record for longest time spent in the women's match, lasting 1:03:03. The men's match, which was the main event of the card, was won by Raw's Cody Rhodes for a second consecutive year. This made Rhodes the first wrestler since "Stone Cold" Steve Austin (1997 and 1998) to win back-to-back Royal Rumble matches, and fourth overall, after Austin, Shawn Michaels (1995 and 1996), and Hulk Hogan (1990 and 1991).

In addition to the two Royal Rumble matches, two other matches were contested on the card, which were for SmackDown championships. In the first, Roman Reigns retained the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a fatal four-way match against Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles, while Logan Paul defeated Kevin Owens by disqualification to retain the WWE United States Championship. Notably, this is the first WWE Network event since February 2022's Elimination Chamber in which Roman Reigns wrestled in a match that was not the main event.

The women's Royal Rumble match notably marked the WWE in-ring debut of Jade Cargill, who signed with the company in September 2023. TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace from Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) also made a surprise appearance in the women's eponymous match. The event also saw the returns of Naomi, Liv Morgan, Andrade, and Omos in the men's and women's Royal Rumble matches, while the men's match was also notable for CM Punk's first WWE televised match since the 2014 Royal Rumble.

Production

Background

The Royal Rumble is an annual professional wrestling event produced every January by WWE since 1988. It is one of the promotion's five biggest events of the year, along with WrestleMania, SummerSlam, Survivor Series, and Money in the Bank, referred to as the "Big Five". The concept of the event is based around the Royal Rumble match, a modified battle royal in which the participants enter at timed intervals instead of all beginning in the ring at the same time.

Announced on September 13, 2023, the 37th Royal Rumble was scheduled to be held on Saturday, January 27, 2024, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida, and it featured wrestlers from the Raw, SmackDown, and NXT brand divisions. This was the second Royal Rumble to be held at Tropicana Field after the 2021 event, but the first with live fans in attendance as the 2021 event was produced without fans via the WWE ThunderDome due to the COVID-19 pandemic that year. This in turn marked the third Royal Rumble to be held in the Tampa Bay area, but the first with fans in attendance since the 1995 event. In addition to airing on pay-per-view worldwide, it was available to livestream on Peacock in the United States and the WWE Network in most international markets. Tickets went on sale on October 20, 2023, with premium hospitality packages also available.

The Royal Rumble match generally features 30 wrestlers and the winner traditionally earns a world championship match at that year's WrestleMania. For 2024, the men and women could choose which world championship to challenge for at WrestleMania XL in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the men could choose Raw's World Heavyweight Championship or SmackDown's Undisputed WWE Universal Championship, while the women could choose between Raw's Women's World Championship and SmackDown's WWE Women's Championship.

Days before the Royal Rumble event, Janel Grant, a former employee at WWE headquarters between 2019 and 2022, filed a lawsuit against WWE as well as TKO (by proxy of ownership). Grant alleged that Vince McMahon had coerced her into a sexual relationship and, along with the WWE executive John Laurinaitis and a WWE wrestler who was also a former UFC fighter, sexually trafficked her and repeatedly sexually assaulted her during 2020–2021. Grant alleged that she was subjected to "extreme cruelty and degradation" by McMahon, including being defecated upon during a sexual encounter. Grant stated that McMahon had agreed to pay her $3 million in 2022 in return for a non-disclosure agreement, but stopped paying after only $1 million had been paid following the initial public emergence of the sexual misconduct allegations the same year. Federal prosecutors have subpoenaed McMahon, and have taken up the filing in question. One day after the report of the claims, on January 26, 2024, Vince McMahon had resigned from TKO. In a statement, McMahon said the decision was made "out of respect for the WWE Universe, the extraordinary TKO business and its board members and shareholders, partners and constituents, and all of the employees". Ari Emanuel took over as the Chairman of TKO. In response, Slim Jim, the sponsor of the event, temporarily paused its promotional work due to allegations, only to resume the next day after McMahon resigned. The removal of McMahon from the TKO board makes the 2024 edition of the Royal Rumble the first major WWE event without him or any of his family involved at any capacity.

Storylines

The event included four matches that resulted from scripted storylines. Results were predetermined by WWE's writers on the Raw and SmackDown brands, while storylines were played out on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw and Friday Night SmackDown.

Before he went on hiatus in May 2022 due to a back injury, Randy Orton had been feuding with The Bloodline (Roman Reigns, Jey Uso, and Jimmy Uso). The following year at Crown Jewel in November 2023, Reigns defeated LA Knight to retain the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship after interference from the Bloodline. On the following episode of SmackDown, Knight stated that he was not done with the Bloodline until he defeated Reigns for the title. Orton then returned at Survivor Series: WarGames later that same month, and on the December 1 episode of SmackDown, he signed with the SmackDown brand after fending off an attack by the Bloodline (which had since added Solo Sikoa, while Jey had left the group and the SmackDown brand earlier that summer), vowing to get revenge. Two weeks later, the returning AJ Styles helped Knight and Orton fend off the Bloodline before attacking Knight. The following week, Styles explained that he attacked Knight for taking his spot in a tag team match at Fastlane in October 2023. After Orton interrupted and said that he also wanted a title match against Reigns, SmackDown General Manager Nick Aldis announced that Orton, Styles, and Knight would compete in a triple threat match at SmackDown: New Year's Revolution on January 5, 2024, where the winner would face Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble. However, the match ended in a no contest after the Bloodline attacked all three competitors. As a result, Aldis announced that Reigns would instead defend his championship in a fatal four-way match against Orton, Knight, and Styles at the Royal Rumble.

At Crown Jewel on November 4, 2023, Logan Paul won his first WWE title, the United States Championship. Paul made his first appearance as champion on the December 1 episode of SmackDown where he announced that his first challenger would be determined by an eight-man tournament. The tournament was won by Kevin Owens at SmackDown: New Year's Revolution on January 5, 2024, thus earning him a match against Paul for the title at the Royal Rumble.