On Sunday (3 am Cairo Time), the highly anticipated 2024 WWE Royal Rumble will take place at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. It is the first pay-per-view by the WWE in 2024, and it is one of the 4-big annual shows for the promotion.
The match card of the event includes the highly significant Royal Rumble matches for both men and women.
For the 30-Man Royal Rumble match, only 17 names were confirmed for the Royal Rumble from both brands: Raw, and SmackDown.
The confirmed participants are:
CM Punk (who will have his first Royal Rumble match in more than 10 years)
Intercontinental Champion Gunther
R-Truth
Cody Rhodes
Shinsuke Nakamura
Bobby Lashley
Drew McIntyre
Chad Gable
Otis
Akira Tozawa
Kofi Kingston
Mr. Money In The Bank Damian Priest
Santos Escobar
Carlito
Grayson Waller
Austin Theory
Jimmy Uso
It is expected that some NXT names may be featured in the match like Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker, Trick Williams, and NXT Champion Ilja Dragunov.
Some WWE fans expect that the match may see some returns like Rey Mysterio, and Sami Zayn, or the debut of the former NJPW star Kazuchika Okada.
Andrade, whose AEW contact ended by the end of 2023, is expected to return to the company.
Some reports expressed that Brock Lesnar may return to WWE during the Royal Rumble match, but these planes were canceled after the latest sexual allegations against Lesnar, and former WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
Some voices said that The Rock may make an appearance in the match, referring to the possibility of his win.
Regarding the predictions of the Men's Royal Rumble winner, the majority of the bids go to CM Punk, however, some stacks referred to Gunther to caption the win, especially after Sports Illustrated reported that the winner of the match will face Seth Rollins for the first night of WreslteMania 40 main event and he would be Gunther. While, Rhodes, who would be one of the preferred people to win the match to challenge WWE Universal Champion Roma Reigns in WrestleMania 40, would conflict against Punk, although it was previously expected that Punk-Rollins would go against each other for Mania's Night 1 Main Event.
It seems that the Men's Royal Rumble winner would be from the Red-colored brand as the majority of the build took place in Raw. Punk, Rollins, McIntyre, Rhodes, Priest, and Gunther confronted each other during Raw episodes.
Regarding the 30-Woman Royal Rumble match, only 10 names out of 30. They are:
Bayley
Nia Jax
Becky Lynch
Bianca Belair
Maxxine Dupri
Ivy Nile
Alba Fyre
Shotzi
Zelina Vega
Michin
It is expected that Bayley is the most favorable draw for the win, especially after her story with Damage CTRL. The members of the faction are close to pushing Bayley out of the faction and feuding with her, so, her win of the Royal Rumble could help the story of Bayley to challenge current WWE Women's Champion Iyo Sky.
The women's Royal Rumble match is expected to see more returns and speculated names. Mercedes Mone (FKA Sasha Banks), who is the hottest woman free agent in the market, is among the names that the majority of fans expect to show up tonight.
Trinity Fatu (FKA Naomi) is also among the highly expected names to show up, especially after the end of her TNA contract.
Liv Morgan is also expected to return. Many fans expect that WWE latest woman signing Jade Cargill may make her debut tonight.
Some NXT talents are expected to show up like Lola Vice, Roxanne Perez, Tiffany Straton, Jacy Jayne, Elektra Lopez, Gigi Dolin, Lyra Valkyria, and Nikitta Lyons.
Two more matches were featured for the event. One of them is a highly anticipated one as it is for the WWE Universal Championship between Roman Reigns, Randy Orton, LA Knight, and AJ Styles.
The second is a match for the US title between Logan Paul, and Kevin Owens.
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