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 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 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.