There is a lot to catch up on in the world of the WWE in what has been an eventful and turbulent start to the new year for the company, to say the least. We shall start with all the good that has been happening. The major annual event the “Royal Rumble’ took place over last weekend and was a major success, the company’s highest viewed Rumble in the event’s storied history. The Royal Rumble is one of the most exciting events to watch and one of the hardest to cover, so I made an executive decision to cover the event in this format instead of trying to do a full match breakdown for both of the Rumbles, individually. Bayley cashed her ticket to Mania in the Women’s Rumble for her first ever victory in the match and what a match it was, the best ever Women’s Royal Rumble to date in my humble opinion. We started the match off with the shocking return of one of my favorites, Naomi, and she had a very impressive showing. Lasting over an hour in the match and only outlasted in time by Bayley herself who ended up winning it all, Nia Jax had an impressive showing eliminating 8 other competitors (a Women’s Rumble record), Jade Cargill made her main roster debut body slamming the unstoppable Nia Jax before eliminating her and having an exciting stare down with Bianca Belair. The match was filled with memorable moments from many of competitors and it made for a very fun viewing experience, and Bayley’s win was well deserved and overdue. I’m excited to see where this will lead now as most would assume (me included) that she will end up challenging Iyo for her title at WrestleMania and most likely beating her and breaking away from Damage CTRL.
Cody Rhodes came out on top in the Men’s Royal Rumble for the 2nd year in a row on his path to finish his story, in what was an entertaining and star-studded Rumble match in itself. Omos and Sami Zayn returned, Bron Breakker had an impressive showing in place of Brock Lesnar (more on that situation in a bit), and the match boiled down to the most likely remaining competitors in the end. Drew McIntyre, Gunther, Sami Zayn, Cody Rhodes and CM Punk, in Punk’s return match to the company. In the end there was Punk and Rhodes, the 2 traded blows and back and forth action for what felt like a pretty good while before Cody ultimately dumped Punk over the top rope for a 2nd straight victory in the annual event. In the match itself, CM Punk suffered a tear to his right triceps again (the 2nd time with that same injury in as many years) and will have to be shelfed for the foreseeable future, which will end up coinciding with and through WrestleMania season and the event itself. This obviously throws a big wrench into the company’s Mania plans as every sign pointed to Punk facing Rollins for his World Heavyweight title at WrestleMania, but in a business as physical as this one things like this are going to happen unfortunately. Hell, Rollins is already going to be limping into the event himself with a slight MCL tear and existing back problems, but the bigger story now falls on the 45-year-old CM Punk and his physical durability. It’s no secret that Punk was away from the pro wrestling world for a long time before making his return in AEW a couple years back and since his return he’s faced a myriad of physical injuries and backstage drama that has plagued his grand return to form from ever truly coming into fruition. With his move to WWE in November I was hopeful we’d have a more determined veteran Punk and everything in his backstage presence has seemed to be going ship shape but again, his first match fully back in the ring he suffers an injury that will keep him shelfed for months again, and now I and the rest of the fans are left worried and wondering about the physical condition and durability of the aging veteran. I’m hoping he can get back to form and end his career the way he wants to on his terms, I truly do. All we can hope is that he stays in the gym, rehabs himself and his triceps, and comes back stronger and healthier than ever before, but I think him and the company should maybe reconsider his full time status and give him a Legend’s sort of deal like Edge had, where he is still around and competes in big matches but isn’t necessarily taxing his body on a regular basis like he has been trying to do.
Now, the heavy news, the Vince McMahon lawsuit that broke this week. Not often does this wacky world of professional wrestling break headlines onto regular news outlets and when it does, it isn’t always for the best stuff, but this is maybe the worst and most shocking wrestling news to break news headlines ever. It’s no secret that Vince has always been a bit of a philanderer and an uber wealthy man of questionable character and unfortunately everyone just kind of shook their head at it and wrote it off as your typical old billionaire using his status to his advantage for a very long time. Well in 2024, these old billionaires who’ve regularly used their status and wealth to their advantage at the expense of others with no regard are finally beginning to face their reckoning for their actions and when it comes to Vince McMahon, that is looking like one hell of a reckoning. Initially, news broke last year about Vince refusing to pay promised hush money to 4 women who came forward and accused him of lewd sex acts and at that time he stepped down from the company and sold it off to Endeavor in a billion dollar deal, before weaseling his way back on as an executive member of the board and majority shareholder of the company (can’t make him loosen his grasp on his company that easily). Then things kind of quieted down again for a while but things never felt fully finished or like Vince was ever off the hot seat entirely and then news broke yet again this past week, days before the Royal Rumble event. This time a staffer accused Vince of preying on her financial instability after the loss of her family and hiring her to a made-up position within the company, based solely for sexual satisfaction. I’ll spare the horrid inner details, but along with the accusation came text messages and horrific stories and details from the accuser about Mr. McMahon and other important and prominent figures within the company at the time that he brought into the fold and helped play along, participate in, and actively cover up his sexual deviance. Among the others accused are John Laurinaitis, Brock Lesnar (who is currently wrote off TV now for the foreseeable future), and others. I’ll say for me personally, as a very long-time fan of the company itself and a guy who truly got a kick out of Mr. McMahon as a character in the world of wrestling, this was hard to stomach and really gives me a different and more appalled view now at the man and even the storylines he created around himself and the women in the company, especially during the early-mid 2000s. If these accusations are proven true then Mr. McMahon footage will become just as divisive and hard to stomach, if not harder, than Chris Benoit footage is today. His legal team has denied the accusations and says they will actively fight to restore his integrity, but for the time being Vince has officially stepped away from the company entirely and in my expert opinion, we won’t ever see him play an active role within the company again.
