In a new interview following her WWE departure, Shotzi confirmed that she was slated to appear in the 2025 women’s Royal Rumble match before being replaced by the returning Alexa Bliss.
Shotzi told Daria & Toni Unwrapped that, the day before the show, she got a last-minute call from WWE about being in the Rumble match. She flew out to Indianapolis and was all set to compete before being informed that she actually would not be participating. Shotzi was getting makeup done when she received the news.
“So I heard mixed messages. Like, a couple producers said that I was always in the Rumble. But then they just told me last minute. Yeah, I don’t know, I was very confused by it. But they didn’t relay anything to me until the day before,” Shotzi said. “It was like 3 p.m. the day before Rumble and they were like, ‘Hey, can you get on a flight in a couple hours?’ And then I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I’m not ready for this.’ Just like packed my bags, I don’t even know what I put in the bags. Got to the airport in like an hour, and then it led to nothing.”
Bliss returned as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble, wrestling for the first time since giving birth to her daughter Hendrix in 2023. But whether Bliss was going to take part in the Rumble was legitimately up in the air until the last minute. There was a contract situation where Bliss’ new five-year deal with WWE was not completed until shortly before the match.
Shotzi noted that Bliss was gracious about the situation and apologized to her over taking her spot.
“Honestly, if you’re going to take me out for anyone, at least make it be the biggest pop of the night,” Shotzi said. “And I have to say that Alexa had no idea that someone was getting replaced. She had no idea any of that was going on. She felt so bad and she came up to me afterwards. And she was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m so sorry. I didn’t even realize they were taking someone out of the Rumble to get me in there.'”
Last month, Shotzi announced that she is departing WWE with the company choosing not to renew her contract. She is taking indie bookings and has been teased for MLW’s Summer of the Beasts show that is being held in New York City on June 26.
The full episode of Daria & Toni Unwrapped is available to watch below. The podcast is hosted by former WWE wrestler Sonya Deville (Daria Berenato) and her wife Toni Cassano.
The Royal Rumble revealed a couple of challengers for WrestleMania. And today on Wrestling Weekly, we discuss Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair’s wins as well as the reception they got on Raw. We’ll also discuss a couple of potential matches that might have been set up this week, and we take a look at the latest edition of AEW Dynamite.
WWE is touting that Saturday’s event was the most financially successful Royal Rumble in history.
In a press release issued today, WWE said Royal Rumble 2025 set a new record for the largest gate in Rumble history. The exact figure was not disclosed, but it’s estimated to be around $17 million. WWE said it only trailed WrestleMania 40 night one and WrestleMania 40 night two for the biggest single-night gate the company has ever done.
The attendance number announced by WWE is 70,342. The show was held at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis and featured Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair winning the respective Royal Rumble matches.
This was also the most-watched Rumble ever with Peacock viewership up nearly 14 percent from last year. WWE said international viewership was up even higher year-over-year due to WWE PLEs now being broadcast on Netflix outside of the United States.
“In partnership with Fanatics, merchandise sales were up more than 95 percent versus the previous Royal Rumble record set last year in 2024, making Royal Rumble 2025 the highest-grossing non-WrestleMania event of all-time,” WWE wrote.
“Sponsorship revenue was up 94 percent versus the previous record set in 2024. Royal Rumble featured 14 total partners, with 100 percent of the matches sponsored.”
WWE said this also set a new record for the most social media video views in Royal Rumble history. The most-watched clip was Bron Breakker spearing IShowSpeed, a popular streamer who has more than 35 million subscribers on YouTube and 29 million followers on Instagram.
Next up on the WWE PLE schedule is Elimination Chamber from Rogers Centre in Toronto on March 1. WrestleMania 41 will then be held at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas on April 19-20.
The new issue of the Observer is up on the site today:
All-time records for WWE business that will be broken at the Royal Rumble
What 38 years old company attendance mark goes down this week
Rumble favorites and news on the show
Things AEW should look to do regarding the creative on Dynamite to avoid things like redundancy, not getting key people over, and examining what the actual purposes of angles are and making them work
Full coverage of Saturday Night’s Main Event from this past week, business numbers and what they mean, Dory Funk Jr., Jesse Ventura and match-by-match coverage.
Paul Levesque goes into the Paul Levesque picked WWE Hall of Fame
One of the most notable pro wrestling arenas in the world closes this year after nearly 50 years of running major shows. A look at some of the biggest matches held there including Inoki, Jack Brisco, Hogan, Andre, Monsoon, Hansen, Dusty Rhodes, Backlund, Volk Han, Nobuhiko Takada and even the Crush Gals.
The life and times of Ed Wiskoski aka Col DeBeers. A look at a 25 year career that went all over the world with a variety of gimmicks, including rises and falls of major territories, the making of his most famous gimmick and its controversial nature.
The GFL draft is basically admitted to be a fraud as to how it was presented and all the major names from the past part of the new team-based promotion.
Bryce Mitchell says some of the dumbest things possible and Dana White counters. But should the company cut ties with him.
The life and times of 50s and 60s star Bill Melby, including the angle that put the Cow Palace on the map as a regular wrestling building, and the most accomplished wrestler/bodybuilders.
The most detailed look at the ratings for all the television shows, as well as WWE shows on Netflix. Quarters, year-to-year comparisons and more. Plus competition and demo numbers
CMLL’s second biggest show of the year coming
Hot Arena Mexico main event
Announcer leaves promotion after 30 years
TripleMania news for 2025
Stardom awards
Dark Side of the Ring 2025 notes
How the major TV cable stations are doing
Former WCW star in jail
AEW international TV notes
Lots of notes on AEW Grand Slam Australia
International TV numbers
Christopher Daniels talks the end of his career
AEW star wants to box and do MMA
Giant fight talked about is for sure not happening
Death of legendary sportswriter Michael Katz
WWE star in one of the top box office movies of all-time
Jordynne Grace talks leaving TNA
WWE injury notes and thoughts about the policy of not stopping matches
Top YouTube numbers for the week
This Week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter Back Issue
— Both of our weekend shows are up on the site right now. The Friday show with Garrett Gonzales talks about the news of the past week and the Observer notes from the week. Last night’s show with Bryan goes heavily into both the Royal Rumble and the Janel Grant lawsuit filing and the new claims, the arguments against arbitration, and more. All the stuff on the Rumble, the Alexa Bliss story, the Drew McIntyre story and more are covered on the show.
— The Rumble attendance ended up funny with a graphic saying 65,407 and then on the air claiming 70,347 and then, the graphic being up with one number and Paul Levesque at the same time claiming the higher number. Either way the number is gigantic. We hope to get an actual real number in the next few weeks but even the smaller number breaks the Hogan-Orndorff 1986 record for the largest non-Mania crowd in North American history. The gate of about $17 million was the third largest in history behind only the two days from last year’s WrestleMania, although it will be fifth place after the two days of this year’s Mania. It’s really a testament of how many people are willing to pay such high prices for major show wrestling tickets. There has never been anything like this in pro wrestling history, adjusted for inflation or not, when it comes to fan willingness in giant numbers to spend so much on tickets when it comes to the major shows.
— The Men’s Rumble match went 80:04. They spaced more time between entrances this year in both Rumbles than any year in history. While there was an August 22, 1964, match in Madison Square Garden with Bruno Sammartino vs. Waldo Von Erich being listed as an 81:00 draw, in those days, they always made up the times of the longest matches and exaggerated them. I don’t know if anyone alive has a real time of that match but I’d be pretty sure it wasn’t nearly that long. Last night was likely the longest match in WWWF/WWF/WWE history.
— The belief right now is Cody Rhodes vs. John Cena and Gunther vs. Jey Uso as the two men’s main events. They teased Seth Rollins vs. Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk, but with the Elimination Chamber coming up, I’d think they would all be in the Chamber and this was just to set up the chamber.
— They are doing chamber qualifying matches starting with Raw tomorrow. Paul Levesque said that because of all John Cena has done, he doesn’t need to qualify and he’s in the men’s match. Cena said he was going to Hungary to film a movie and won’t be back until the Chamber match.
— Jackie Redmond announced Cody Rhodes was injured and they didn’t know how severe. Levesque minutes later said there were no serious injuries. Nobody has said anything about a Rhodes injury since then. IShowSpeed had a nasty looking bruise on his calf but was moving around fine after taking a killer spear from Bron Breakker.
— The Drew McIntyre story was legit. We were told that he was hot, although I believe everyone cooled down. But he was clearly mad when he came through the curtain after being eliminated. We were told others were as well but weren’t as obvious about it. McIntyre and Damian Priest were to start an angle and they felt the momentum was lost when LA Knight got in the way as they were doing the Priest throwing out of McIntyre. The top guys want things to go smoothly and have their story come off as planned, and that mentality is why they’re top guys. I don’t know if that means McIntyre is also headed to Smackdown or not, but that’s a possibility. Bryan went into detail on last night’s show with how it went down.
— We’re looking for your thoughts on the Rumble show itself, you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to [email protected]
— We’re looking for reports from the Jericho Cruise matches the next few days, although I know from experience that Internet and cell service is not the best. The Cruise is probably why they taped Collision on Wednesday. Among those who wrestled there yesterday were Will Ospreay, Curry Man, MxM Collection, Big Bill, Bryan Keith, Harley Cameron, Billie Starkz, Nick Wayne, Daniel Garcia, Jay Lethal, Mark Briscoe, Bandido, The Outrunners, Thunder Rosa, Enzo, Tommy Billington, Elijah (Elias), Nyla Rose, Komander, Lance Archer, Konosuke Takeshita, Brian Cage and others. Curry Man announced that this was his last match.
— Regarding Bliss, those in the company say the thing was settled in the last day or two. My gut was that company worked its own people because of the T-shirt being released, but we were told the T-shirt was actually to be released on 1/13 when she was to debut in San Jose so that’s not proof of anything (unlike the Triple H Hall of Fame shirt being out the day of the announcement). I’m still skeptical as I’m sure everyone is. Mike Johnson actually reported Bliss being there on the show a before the show started so nobody knew the story (which was accurate with Punk in his return) wasn’t actually the case. He had the same story multiple people in WWE told us about an impasse which two sources said had to do with Bliss having a child and we were told last night as others have reported that it was settled in the last 48 hours. I’m very skeptical of that, thinking it was settled earlier and the company told its employees differently, based on the way it was handled on the show. She may have gotten the biggest pop of the night.
— It was noted that Wednesday’s Dynamite show, which airs on Friday night in the U.K. on ITV4, had the highest first-night audience in the history of the show. The number was 190,000 but that doesn’t include people watching after whenever the show aired and the final number in the U.K. doesn’t come out for more than a week as they include DVR numbers in their ratings. I’ve heard people say it had a beneficial lead-in from darts like the big Collision number a few weeks ago after the college football playoff game had, but AEW has been doing strong numbers all month.
— The only match from last night internationally we got a recommendation on was Leon Slater vs. Leon Cage from the RevPro show in London which went 25:00. Cage is only 17 and Slater is 20.
— For Raw tomorrow they’ve announced the qualifying matches for the men and women’s Chambe shows on 3/1, plus appearances by Jey Uso and Charlotte Flair.
— Bryce Mitchell, who has been in the news the last few days (see the story in the last issue), has apologized, writing “I’m sorry I sounded insensitive. I definitely was not trying to offend anybody but I know I did. I know that a lot of people died in the Holocaust, and that’s a fact. Hitler did a lot of evil things. I think we can agree on that. I’m definitely not a Nazi and definitely do not condone any of the evil things Hitler did.” That’s a real sore subject with me having multiple relatives killed in the Holocaust.
— Shara “Bullet” Magomedov, who lost his first pro fight yesterday at the UFC show in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia to Michael “Venom” Page claimed he was suffering from a health issue, saying, “I knew all the risks when stepping in with such a nightmarish health condition and preparation. I felt that despite everything I could still win–but it didn’t work out and that’s it.”
— There were a ton of items relating to combat sports this weekend on Google trends. The Rumble trended higher than any WWE event in years. It had 1 million searches with Charlotte Flair being the most-searched of any WWE topic. That’s the level of the last UFC PPV show and UFC shows usually do better than even the biggest WWE shows. Tons of people finished high, notably the David Benavidez vs. David Morrell boxing match at 200,000, the UFC show at 200,000, Elimination Chamber, Penn State Wrestling, Michael Venom Page and John Cena at 50,000 plus and among those at 20,000 plus included Bliss, Kevin Owens, Trish Stratus, Nikki Bella, IShowSpeed, Jordynne Grace, Israel Adesanya, Janel Grant, Pitbull Cruz, AJ Lee, Rey Mysterio and Sergei Pavlovich. I can’t recall a weekend with so many trending so high in years.
— Stardom legit sold out Korakuen Hall today for the Saya Kamitani World of Stardom title defense over Suzu Suzuki. Actually it was an overflow crowd. This Stardom run booked by Taro Okada with no prior booking experience has been a real success these past several months, especially when the overall wrestling popularity in Japan is not that high.
— Deni Avdija of the Portland Trail Blazers has been doing the Cena “You can’t see me” deal when he scores or is fouled.
— RevPro Epic Encounter on 3/16 at the Hangar in Wolverhampton has Hechicero vs. Zozaya.
Jey Uso was the winner of this year’s men’s WWE Royal Rumble, last eliminating John Cena to win. I did not expect that going in and not many people did, honestly. The most exciting thing about this year’s match was that WWE has done such a good job of building contenders in the men’s division that a lot of people could have won like Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Cena, or even CM Punk.
That made the last few eliminations feel pretty special. A Royal Rumble match is good when there’s an air of unpredictability and this Rumble had that, leading to an entertaining match.
The men’s Rumble also presented the first look at some possible WrestleMania 41 matches. After he was eliminated, Rollins got into it with both Roman Reigns and Punk, setting up the possibility of a three-way match. Logan Paul eliminated AJ Styles, making me feel there will be more on that situation in the next few weeks. And with Uso’s win, it looks like he’ll be going after Gunther’s World Heavyweight title after losing to him one week ago on Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Going with Uso is a…choice. I like him as he’s fun and charismatic and it’s clear that the crowd sees him as a major star. And given that his last World title match was pretty good, I think he and Gunther can deliver a WrestleMania-caliber main event. But is he the guy to go with?
Meanwhile in the women’s Royal Rumble, everyone pretty much assumed that Charlotte Flair, who has been out of action for over a year with a knee injury, would win and, shock of shocks, challenge for another title. And sure enough she did, last eliminating NXT’s Roxanne Perez. This was a fine match and people reacted to big surprises like Alexa Bliss and Jordynne Grace, but Rumble matches are built on moments and there wasn’t anything significantly memorable here. My guess is Flair will challenge Tiffany Stratton who still probably has to go through Nia Jax first.
Cody Rhodes retained the undisputed WWE title and regained the “winged eagle” title by defeating Kevin Owens in a ladder match that had a bunch of sick spots. My own back hurt when Owens landed on the side of that ladder following a Rhodes back body drop. Yikes! The final spot of the match where Rhodes gave Owens an Alabama slam through one of the ladders was also a cool, yet kinda sick, visual. Sami Zayn came out and looked after Owens as Rhodes grabbed the title, so there’s still intrigue as to where the Zayn/Owens relationship goes from here. I wouldn’t say this was a super remarkable ladder match, but the last few minutes were excellent.
DIY retained the WWE Tag Team titles after defeating the Motor City Machine Guns. I was thinking this could be one of the better matches of the show, but surprisingly it was just a match. It was well worked, but no one in Indianapolis saw these two teams as stars and as a result, they simply sat on their hands. Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley lost after interference from the Street Profits who also took out DIY. That may be a three-way match for somewhere down the road.
Next month is the Elimination Chamber from Toronto. Will John Cena overcome the odds and go to WrestleMania? Well I hope so or he, one of the biggest wrestling stars of all time, won’t have a path to WrestleMania…again!
John Cena is competing inside the Elimination Chamber.
During Saturday’s Royal Rumble post-show, Cena appeared in front of media, but said he wouldn’t be taking any questions, instead declaring for the Elimination Chamber on March 1 in Toronto.
Cena explained that he hasn’t headlined a WrestleMania since 2013 as he has always done what is best for business. But now, he said that what is best for business is for him to win the Elimination Chamber. He officially declared he was going after his seventeenth world championship, which would break the record for most world titles held in WWE’s history. He said he was not doing this for himself, but for the person’s hand he will shake when they reach eighteen titles.
In the men’s Royal Rumble match, Cena was the last person eliminated from the match, being shoved off the apron to the floor by the match’s winner, Jey Uso.
Here are highlights from the rest of the press conference where Royal Rumble winners Charlotte Flair & Jey Uso as well as Triple H all took questions from the media.
Denise Salcedo asked Flair about the highs and lows while recovering from her injury. Flair said this was the longest she’s ever been out, and felt she couldn’t go out this way. Seeing all the fans follow her injury updates inspired her to come back not just to win the Rumble, but to do it all over again.
She was asked about the mental preperation of coming back after her injury. She did question what it would be like if she couldn’t be the Charlotte everyone expects. She said that was a hurdle she would have to overcome and said she going to work smarter, not harder.
Jey Uso
On his Royal Rumble win, Uso felt that WWE trusts him now and knows he won’t let them down. He told Cena that his time was now.
When asked about who he was going to challenge, Uso said he looking at both champions. He didn’t confirm his choice, but did say he would like another crack at Gunther and knows that he could beat him.
Triple H
Triple H noted that Saturday’s show had an attendance of 70,347. However, the on-screen graphic showed 65,470. He also said this was the highest-gorssing Royal Rumble in history and drew the third largest gate in WWE history.
He credited Pat McAfee for tonight’s show, saying he is an integral part of who WWE is now.
He plugged WWE Evolve, which will premiere next month on Tubi. He said it will feature talent from WWE’s ID program.
Responding to John Cena, Triple H says he’s earned the right to compete in the Elimination Chamber and Cena will put everything he has into paying back everyone who watched him during his run.
On being inducted into WWE Hall of Fame, he said he has talked to Nick Khan talked many times and Triple H always said he wasn’t going to put himself into the Hall of Fame, but if he had to, he wanted to wait a few years before doing it.
The biggest win of Jey Uso’s career happened at Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis on Saturday night.
Uso will be in one of the top spots at WrestleMania 41 after winning the 2025 men’s Royal Rumble match. Jey entered the match at number 20 and last eliminated John Cena to get the victory. His win was pushed as being the biggest upset in Royal Rumble history by Michael Cole on commentary.
“Ladies and gentlemen, it is no longer just a nickname. It is no longer a moniker. Jey Uso is truly the Main Event at WrestleMania,” Cole said.
It came down to Uso and Cena at the end after Cena eliminated Logan Paul. As they were fighting on the apron, Cena went for an Attitude Adjustment but Uso was able to slip out. He pushed Cena to the floor to eliminate him.
Uso now heads to WrestleMania 41 in pursuit of his first-ever World Championship. Currently, World Heavyweight Champion Gunther and Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes are the title holders. Gunther vs. Uso would be a rematch from the most recent edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event, where Gunther retained his belt.
WrestleMania 41 is being held in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 19 and Sunday, April 20.
Charlotte Flair is back — and she’s already secured a Women’s Championship shot at WrestleMania 41.
In her first match since December 2023, Charlotte won the women’s Royal Rumble on Saturday night. The final three left at the end of the match were Charlotte, NXT star Roxanne Perez, and Nia Jax. After Charlotte dumped Jax out of the ring, she followed up with a big boot on Perez to eliminate her and get the victory.
This was Charlotte’s first time competing since suffering a torn ACL, MCL, and meniscus 13 months ago. Her return was advertised in advance with Charlotte being announced as one of the participants for the Rumble. She entered at number 27 and wore a brace on her left knee for the match.
With her victory, Charlotte is now the first woman to win the Royal Rumble twice. Her previous win happened in 2020.
WWE has not yet confirmed which champion Charlotte will be challenging at WrestleMania. Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley of Raw and WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton of SmackDown are the current title holders.
It was a night of returns and arrivals in the women’s Royal Rumble match.
Alexa Bliss and Nikki Bella made their returns to WWE on Saturday’s show in Indianapolis, while Jordynne Grace made her official WWE debut. Hall of Famer Trish Stratus also made a surprise appearance.
Grace was the first surprise of the night, entering at number 19. Michael Cole on commentary said that while she was a part of TNA when competing in last year’s Royal Rumble, she was now officially a part of the WWE roster. She was eventually eliminated by Giuilia from NXT.
Bliss came in at number 21 after being gone from WWE since early 2023, taking time off due to pregnancy. Arriving with her doll Lily, Bliss was eliminated by Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.
Stratus made her return at number 25 and lasted a while before encountering Nia Jax, who eventually eliminated Stratus thanks to the help of Candice LeRae.
Bella was the final entrant of the women’s Royal Rumble, arriving at number 30. She lasted towards the end of the match, but was eliminated by Jax. The returning Charlotte Flair eventually emerged as the winner, last eliminating Roxanne Perez.
The list of entrants for Saturday’s men’s and women’s WWE Royal Rumble matches grew following the events of Friday’s SmackDown.
Two new entrants declared for the men’s Rumble on Friday’s SmackDown, while four new entrants either declared for the women’s Rumble or were featured in the graphic advertising the bout that aired during a rundown of Saturday’s lineups.
Damian Priest and Santos Escobar both declared their intention to win the men’s Rumble on Friday’s SmackDown. Additionally, Candice LeRae, Chelsea Green, Piper Niven, and Zelina Vega were advertised for the women’s match.
14 competitors are official for the 30-person women’s Rumble, while 15 men have declared for the 30-person men’s match.
The list of entrants for both matches is below, as is the card for the Royal Rumble PLE. The show streams on Peacock on Saturday, February 1 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern time.
Men’s Royal Rumble entrants —
John Cena
Roman Reigns
CM Punk
Seth Rollins
Jey Uso
Drew McIntyre
Sami Zayn
Rey Mysterio
Shinsuke Nakamura
Logan Paul
Chad Gable
Penta
Bron Breakker
Damian Priest
Santos Escobar
Women’s Royal Rumble entrants —
Bayley
Nia Jax
Charlotte Flair
Bianca Belair
Naomi
Liv Morgan
Raquel Rodriguez
IYO SKY
Ivy Nile
Lyra Valkyria
Candice LeRae
Zelina Vega
Chelsea Green
Piper Niven
WWE Royal Rumble, Saturday, February 1, 6 p.m. Eastern time —
Men’s Royal Rumble match
Women’s Royal Rumble match
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Kevin Owens in a ladder match
WWE Tag Team Champions DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) defend against Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) in a two-out-of-three-falls match
Below is a list of confirmed entrants for Saturday’s men’s and women’s WWE Royal Rumble matches.
Lists of this kind vary based on what one source may interpret as a declaration, but another may not.
I have chosen to go by the lists officially posted on WWE.com, as well as new declarations from the body of Monday’s WWE Raw.
New declarations from Monday’s Raw for the women’s Royal Rumble are IYO SKY, Ivy Nile, and Women’s Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria.
On the men’s side, Logan Paul, Chad Gable, Penta, and Bron Breakker newly declared for the match.
Using WWE.com and tonight’s Raw as a guide, the women’s Royal Rumble entrant list:
Bayley
Nia Jax
Charlotte Flair
Bianca Belair
Naomi
Liv Morgan
IYO SKY
Ivy Nile
Lyra Valkyria
The men’s Royal Rumble entrant list:
John Cena
Roman Reigns
CM Punk
Seth Rollins
Jey Uso
Drew McIntyre
Sami Zayn
Rey Mysterio
Shinsuke Nakamura
Logan Paul
Chad Gable
Penta
Bron Breakker
The card for WWE Royal Rumble streaming live on Saturday, February 1 beginning at 6 p.m. Eastern time:
Men’s Royal Rumble match
Women’s Royal Rumble match
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Kevin Owens in a ladder match
WWE Tag Team Champions DIY (Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa) defend against Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) in a two-out-of-three-falls match
A match for the WWE Tag Team titles has been set for the Royal Rumble.
As the two teams confronted one another on Friday, The Motor City Machine Guns told DIY that they talked to Nick Aldis and confirmed they would be facing one another at the Royal Rumble. But not only would it be for the WWE Tag Team titles, but it would also be a two out of three falls match.
Earlier in the night, Chris Sabin and Alex Shelley defeated Pretty Deadly. Later on, they interfered in a match between one half of the Tag Team Champions Johnny Gargano and Apollo Crews, leading to Crews’ win.
Since losing the titles to DIY, Motor City Machine Guns have been picking up wins over the likes of A-Town Down Under and Los Garza.
WWE Royal Rumble, Saturday, February 1 —
Men’s Royal Rumble match: John Cena, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Rey Mysterio, LA Knight, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura
Women’s Royal Rumble match: Nia Jax, Bayley, Charlotte Flair, Naomi, Bianca Belair, Liv Morgan
Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes defends against Kevin Owens in a ladder match
Two out of three falls match for WWE Tag Team titles: DIY defend against The Motor City Machine Guns
Multiple names have declared for the Royal Rumble.
In a video shown during Friday’s SmackDown, Charlotte Flair announced that she would be entering the Royal Rumble match. Return vignettes for the multiple-time Women’s champion started to air on last week’s show.
Following the video, a segment aired inolving Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley meeting face-to-face with Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton. This brought out Nia Jax, who officially declared for the Rumble. Naomi, Bianca Belair, and Liv Morgan all came out and did the same. After Morgan said Raquel Rodriguez would ensure her win, a brawl ensued. That led to a match where Jax, Candice LeRae, and Liv Morgan defeat Belair, Naomi, and Ripley.
Towards the end of the show, United States Champion and previous Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamrua also declared for the Rumble:
