Bayley Wins Women’s Royal Rumble

Bayley, much to the delight of St. Petersburg, Fla., won and up-and-down Royal Rumble that had limited surprise appearances. The most notable surprise appearances were by Naomi, Liv Morgan and former AEW star Jade Cargill. Cargill showed well, lasting until the Final 3 and getting a huge ovation from the Florida crowd.

Naomi was the longest-lasting entrant in the Royal Rumble until Bayley won the match as both lasted for more than an hour. Early in the Rumble, Naomi brawled with fellow TNA Knockout Jordynne Grace. Bayley received help early from Damage CTRL in the form of the Kabuki Warriors, but Asuka and Kairi Sane were quickly eliminated.

WWE’s women’s Royal Rumble seemed to have a clear favorite, in the form of Becky Lynch, based on storyline. But the oddsmakers didn’t see it that way. Though Lynch had solid +275 odds to win the Royal Rumble, this didn’t seem like the story WWE was telling to get Lynch to WrestleMania in an inevitable showdown with Rhea Ripley. Instead, it was Bayley with dominant -275 odds as Damage CTRL continues to dominate the WWE women’s division.

Friday night on SmackDown, the Kabuki Warriors won the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championships, hinting that Damage CTRL may be trending to win all the gold. Ultimately, Bayley is likely to challenge Iyo Sky at WrestleMania.

WWE 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble Key Moments

• Naomi entered at No. 2 as the first surprise entrant of the night, and received a huge pop and “welcome back” chants.
• Bayley entered at No. 3 and received huge “Bayley” chants.
• Jordynne Grace entered at No. 5, wearing the TNA Knockouts Championship, and the announce team acknowledged she beat Naomi for the title.
• Grace and Ivy Nile (who came in at 9), both connected with stereo delayed suplexes.
• Natalya saved Tegan Nox from an elimination, only to try to eliminate Nox. Nox turned it around and eliminated Natalya.
• Kairi Sane had an insane elimination save for a while, only to be legit eliminated. Asuka followed soonafter.
• Nia Jax entered at No. 19 and absolutely dominated the match to a ton of heat. In total, she had eight eliminations.
• R-Truth entered in place of Valhalla at No. 24, and was promptly eliminated by Nia Jax. So was R-Truth.
• Jade Cargill did indeed make her debut to “holy s—t” chants and Cargill eliminated Nia Jax by herself.
• The Final 3 came down to Bayley, Liv Morgan and Jade Cargill, with Bayley picking up the win.

Outside of Bayley and Lynch, there were no believable favorites to win the women’s Royal Rumble. The debuting Jade Cargill was listed as the third-biggest favorite, but the only intrigue in her Royal Rumble appearance was her the debut, and how she looked in a WWE ring. It’s safe to say that in her limited showing, she passed her first test with flying colors. Toward the latter stages of the Royal Rumble, Cargill teased a showdown with Bianca Belair—much to the delight of the crowd.

Triple H was recently asked about Cargill’s disappearance from WWE programming, and The Game did not hold back discussing WWE’s big plans for the Florida native.

“I have no less belief in her now than I did then [when she signed with WWE],” he started, adding that her development has taken precedence ahead of her debut. “It’s interesting when she came in, we talked about her development and where she would land. But where the development was, I wanna make sure that no matter what is thrown at Jade Cargill, she’s ready, and at no fault of her own, I think that she was limited in that.”

Outside of Cargill, there were little-to-no darkhorses who could upset the women’s Royal Rumble applecart. Bianca Belair won in 2021, and has cooled off since Iyo Sky cashed in the Money in the Bank briefcase against her. Nia Jax is a monster heel, and monster heels very rarely win the Royal Rumble. In fact, in the young history of the women’s Royal Rumble, no monster heel has ever won.

Lasting for one hour, three minutes and three seconds, Bayley’s win makes for a great story as many expect her to challenge, not Rhea Ripley, but fellow Damage CTRL member Iyo Sky at WrestleMania 40.