Bayley, and Cody Rhodes Win 2024 Royal Rumble
After the 2024 Royal Rumble, we know which two wrestlers have earned a title shot in a little over two months at WrestleMania XL. Bayley, who entered at the third spot, won it all after spending an hour and three minutes in the ring. Cody Rhodes entered the Men’s Royal Rumble at the 15 spot and would take out fan-favorite CM Punk to win back-to-back Royal Rumbles, becoming the first wrestler to do so since ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin did it in 1997 and 1998. We also saw Roman Reigns retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in a fatal four-way match, then Logan Paul retained his WWE United States Championship after Kevin Owens was disqualified. Let’s look into how Bayley, and ‘The American Nightmare’ Cody Rhodes won the 2024 Royal Rumble.
Natalya and Naomi entered the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble as the first and second entry. Just 90 seconds later Bayley would make her way down to the ring. After the ring started to fill up, Bayley got the first elimination of the Rumble, knocking out Indi Hartwell. Bayley also eliminated Candice LeRae, Tegan Nox, and Maxxine Dupri before Nia Jax had her entry called at 19. Jax was an absolute beast in the ring, as she eliminated eight wrestlers’ before being thrown out by free agent Jade Cargill. Once Bayley eliminated Bianca Belair, there were just four women left in the ring. Bayley first eliminated Tiffany Stratton. Then, Liv Morgan knocked out Jade Cargill, and just a few moments after Morgan’s elimination Liv was knocked off the apron by Bayley who then would win the Royal Rumble in one hour and three minutes, breaking the Women’s Record, for the longest time in the ring. The previous record was held by Naomi who had a time of an hour and two minutes. Bayley will now look to get ready and face the mighty Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania XL.
The beginning to this Men’s Royal Rumble, reminded me of the 1989 Rumble, just because two-tag team champion panthers would face off against one another. Coincidentally, it would be the Uso brothers who would face off. At one point, both were the Raw and SmackDown tag-team champions. Many thought that Cody Rhodes would be the Iron Man to this 2024 Royal Rumble matchup, and yes, he was but only to a degree as it was mainly Jey Uso who stayed in the ring for close to 51 minutes. When ‘The American Nightmare’ entered at the 15 slot, the crowd was electrified. Rhodes eliminated Shinsuke Nakamura and Austin Theory. Once CM Punk was called at the 27th entry, the crowd was also hyped up. Punk eliminated “Dirty” Dominik Mysterio, and before we knew it Ricochet, Drew McIntyre, and Sami Zayn would be the last three entries of this Royal Rumble match.
We’d see Rhodes, Punk, McIntyre, and Gunther as the final four men left standing in the ring. CM Punk eliminated Drew McIntyre, while Cody Rhodes knocked off Gunther. It was now the two fan favorites left standing. Both men would go back and forth at each other. Even Punk said to Rhodes, “I didn’t wait, 10 years just to be eliminated by Dusty’s son.” Well, Punk would eat his words, as Cody would finish CM Punk off and eliminate him over the top rope to win his second consecutive Royal Rumble match. While it’s still up in the air whether he’ll face Seth Rollins or Roman Reigns at WrestleMania XL, in my mind it's Rhodes vs. Reigns part two, and perhaps this time Cody will get to finish his story and win the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship.
