WWE Royal Rumble Winners, Debuts & Surprise Entrants

It’s time once again for the WWE Royal Rumble where the road to Wrestlemania truly begins, every year we see surprise entrants, debuts, returns and a wild night of entertainment. All for a chance to face the champion at Wrestlemania, this years Royal Rumble is the 37^th heading into the 40^th edition of Wrestlemania.

In this article we focus on the highlights, the debuts, the returns from both the men’s and women’s Royal Rumble matches as well as the winners of both.

The Winners

For the women’s Royal Rumble Bayley would go on to win the Rumble, Bayley lasted 1:03:03 overall in the Rumble, she and the returning Naomi broke the previous record for the longest time in a single rumble event. The final three for the women’s Royal Rumble were Bayley, Liv Morgan, and the debuting Jade Cargill.

For the men’s Royal Rumble, it was Cody Rhodes that would win the match, becoming the first man to win back-to-back Royal Rumbles since Stone Cold Steve Austin did in 1997-98. It was a fact that the WWE announcers would remind us of the entire night before Cody would win. In his return to the WWE CM Punk who they had also told us all night was in his first televised match in a decade would be in the final two.

Gunther, Drew McIntyre were apart of the final four before they were eliminated leaving Rhodes and Punk.  

Royal Rumble Highlights

Where to start on this? Right at the beginning, the return of Pat McAfee was a major highlight, one of the best announcers out there. He’s able to draw a lot of heel heat without being over the top.

R-Truth not only trying to enter the Women’s Royal Rumble not realising it was the Women’s Royal Rumble, but also his entry into the Men’s Royal Rumble where he thought it was a tag team match and got tagged in by Dom Mysterio.

TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace entering the Women’s Rumble and confronting Naomi after their epic match at TNA’s Hard To Kill where Grace regained the Knockouts Title.

Surprise Royal Rumble Entrants, Debuts & Returns

Women’s

Naomi made her long-awaited return to the WWE; she’d finished up her TNA run just at the Hard To Kill PPV.

Jordynne Grace the TNA Knockout’s Champion made her debut in the WWE Royal Rumble in a partnership between the WWE and TNA.

R Truth made an appearance thinking it was the Men’s Rumble

Liv Morgan made her return to the WWE from injury.

Jade Cargill made her long-awaited WWE debut in the Rumble.

Men’s

Andrade returns to the company after three years in AEW.

Bron Breaker made his debut, the former NXT Champion a late callup to the Rumble to replace Brock Lesnar

Pat McAfee was also surprised that he was being entered into the Rumble, lasted only a few second before he was eliminated by himself.

Sami Zayn made his return from injury to a massive pop; the fans were red hot for the returning Zayn.