WWE Royal Rumble 2024 marks the first PLE stop on the road to the milestone making Wrestlemania 40. With both the Women’s and Men’s Rumbles having loaded fields, the unpredictability is absolutely there. While the Rumbles are loaded and unpredictable, so is Roman’s path to success. Roman Reigns has a tough task in LA Knight, Aj Styles and Randy Orton in a fatal four way match.
AMAZING Women’s Royal Rumble Match: WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Opening Match
Fundamentals: 0.50
Atmosphere: 1
Storytelling: 1
Psychology: 0.75
Innovation: 1
The reality of this match is this, it should be a must watch match because it is. The match did everything right that would help set the tone for the Royal Rumble. But there were a large amount of things that were not smooth and looked botched. From Naomi, To Jordynne Grace, To Liv Morgan, To Tiffany Stratton and To Jade Cargill. This was by far the best women’s rumble that they have ever had. We had a lot of stuff regarding Bayley and Damage CTRL in the ring. And for the first half of the match it was a lot of tag team wrestlers. I thought it was effective with the dynamic they were doing for the match. 27 is when the match got so fun because of Roxanne Perez, Jade Cargill’s triumphant debut, Tiffany Stratton and Liv Morgan. Jade Cargill had nearly 50 thousand people on their feet for her debut and it was magical. The final six was very well done from the Tiffany and Bianca spot, to Liv’s Oblivion off of the apron to Jade. Bayley getting the win provided a satisfying ending for the match the crowd was fully behind.
Results: Bayley by Last Woman Standing via Last Eliminating Liv Morgan
Coby Galenzoski WR Star Rating – 4.25 Stars
AMAZING LA Knight Vs Aj Styles Vs Randy Orton Vs Roman Reigns – Undisputed WWE Championship Match:
Fundamentals: 0.75
Atmosphere: 1
Storytelling: 0.75
Psychology: 0.75
Innovation: 0.75
Exactly what this match needed to be. It was a very good four way that built on the dynamics we knew it was going to have. Roman Reigns had the odds against him and just when Randy Orton was about to win, Solo Sikoa was there. Sikoa set up Randy and Knight to be stacked and AJ escaped the barricade hip attack. Styles’ forearm to Roman that had Reigns fall onto LA and Randy was a great spot. While it was a predictable win, everyone looked really good and did in fact have their moments.
Results: Roman Reigns by Pinfall via Spear on Aj Styles
Coby Galenzoski WR Star Rating – 4.00 Stars
GREAT Logan Paul Vs Kevin Owens – United States Championship Match:
Fundamentals: 0.75
Atmosphere: 0.75
Storytelling: 0.50
Psychology: 1
Innovation: 0.50
Two things, this match struggled to tell a story while the crowd treated this as the break. Logan and Kevin were hindered in the roles they were in and it sucks. I do think they did really well in building the match around Kevin’s hand with Logan doing well. I also thought the attention to how Kevin was determined to keep fighting and not fall to Logan’s KO Punch was kept. Logan tries to get brass knuckles once again before Kevin Owens had stolen them but got caught with them. I was shocked they had it end this way, but I am fine with it.
Results: Logan Paul by DQ via Kevin Owens using the Brass Knuckles
Coby Galenzoski WR Star Rating – 3.50 Stars
AMAZING Men’s Royal Rumble Match: WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Main Event
Fundamentals: 0.75
Atmosphere: 1
Storytelling: 0.75
Psychology: 0.75
Innovation: 0.75
I think this match left a lot of stones unturned and while I thoroughly enjoyed the final six, I felt there are some flaws with this Rumble. I felt Jey Usos’ elimination was out of the blue despite being the Iron man. And I don’t know if they did enough to build Jey and Jimmy for Mania if that is the move. I feel there was a point in time where it got predictable once the final four were Cody, Punk, Drew and Gunther. Drew and Gunther were not a choice, and Punk very much was in a heel spot against Cody. While comical for the moment I feel they wasted a spot on Pat McAfee since he literally did nothing. This comedy spot happened very shortly after the R Truth hot tag. Overall I just feel it was a flawed Rumble with a solid final six til end.
Results: Cody Rhodes by Last Man Standing via Last Eliminating CM Punk
Coby Galenzoski WR Star Rating – 4.00 Stars
WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Overall…
WWE Royal Rumble 2024 was a good PPV, with the correct decision to have the Rumble’s bookending it. In hindsight there certainly could be an argument for the Women’s Royal Rumble being the main event, as it was the best match of the night. The Atmosphere was electric from start to finish including commentary having Pat McAfee. Is this going to be the best WWE Event of the year? I do not believe it will be, but it certainly won’t be the worst either. It was a great start to WWE’s 2024.
Matches: 0.75/1 Stars
Show Structure: 0.75/1 Stars
Atmosphere…: 1/1 Stars
Storytelling: 0.75/1 Stars
Production/Theme: 1/1 Stars
Overall Rating. 4.25/5 Stars
Photo Credit: WWE – January 27 2024
For inquiries about the rating criteria check out the article announcing the new system here:
