WWE Royal Rumble 2024: Biggest Winners And Losers

The 2024 Royal Rumble has come and gone. Saturday's show in St. Petersburg, FL was a lopsided event, which saw one Rumble match alive with electricity, and three utterly flat matches, more on that later. It was also the second WWE event since bombshell allegations of sex trafficking were leveled at WWE executives in a lawsuit on Thursday, more on that later. 

Professional wrestling often has very clear-cut winners and losers, which is why this article takes a more holistic approach to the idea of winners and losers. Let the facts and figures speak for themselves, this is all about feelings, this is all about...dare I say it...vibes. To put it bluntly, the vibes for this year's Royal Rumble were all over the place. So let's dive into the winners and the losers from this year's big event...

Former AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill is a star, simply put. Her debut on Saturday was a monumental moment, with Michael Cole shrieking "she's here," the St. Petersburg crowd losing their collective sh**, and the dominant display that Cargill put on, seemingly engaging Nia Jax in a game of "Anything You Can Do, I Can Do Better."

Cargill didn't just toss smaller women around the ring, she picked Nia Jax up like a toddler, and eliminated the dominant superstar. The fact that Nia has been a thorn in the side of bonafide star Becky Lynch adds a very interesting aspect to Jade's elimination of Jax, she did what "The Man" couldn't. Becky may have gloated over her eliminated rival, but it was Cargill who did the heavy lifting. The newly-minted Superstar is simply that, a superstar. Dripping in confidence, effused with an enigmatic aura, the woman simply draws viewers' gaze. She has what Old Hollywood types would call "it," "moxie," "spunk."

And do not mistake this for some kind of tribalistic nonsense. Cargill looked like a star because WWE was able to pay off the hard work that AEW put into making Cargill a "diamond in the rough." Without her AEW run, she is simply a tall, strong woman, but WWE was able to polish her until she shined bright on Saturday. Who won the Royal Rumble? Who cares? The big moment was Jade's debut and the sky is the limit.

The Women's Royal Rumble ruled. An exhilarating start to the show, with a coherent story, lots of twists, lots of turns, and a great ending. It's a shame the rest of the show simply couldn't compete.

Not only was the Universal Title match a drama-free, insignificant moment, and the US Title Match a throwback to 1980s f*** finishes that didn't do much for anyone, but the Men's Royal Rumble, for what feels like the umpteenth time in a row, felt like a flat, listless affair when compared to the women's match. It just seems like the powers that be are far more inspired by the selection of women in the Rumble than they are by the men. The women's matches are often rife with character beats and story developments, while the men's matches tend to be a series of entrances that build to maybe a thrilling last five minutes, but more often than not, those five minutes are not able to salvage the hour-plus that came before it.

Something needs to light a fire under the men's competition in WWE in general. If I have to sit through three-fourths of a show dominated by male talent, they should at least be competing at a level that is worth of 75% of the show, and frankly, tonight they squandered every bit of good will the women won in the opening match.

Cody Rhodes has finally grown into the kind of athlete and personality who can act as the face of a sports franchise. Full stop.

Rhodes not only won the Royal Rumble but during the press conference, handled the media with grace and poise. He even answered a question about the disturbing allegations against Vince McMahon better than the actual corporate face of the company, Paul Levesque. Rhodes was vulnerable, emotional, upbeat, everything you could ask for from a "company man," and he didn't even have to make a spectacle of how much he loves Mountain Dew Pitch Black to do it.

It is a cold hard fact that if Rhodes ever wants to be in a position where he can "finish the story," he needs to be the kind of person who can go on Good Morning America and be a pleasant, welcoming face of WWE, and on Saturday Rhodes showed all of that and then some. He enters rarified air by winning two Royal Rumbles back-to-back, so obviously the company sees what everyone else saw last night. Even if Rhodes doesn't dethrone Roman Reigns, he's already in a position to usurp "The Head of The Table"'s place as WWE's goodwill ambassador.

Paul "Triple H" Levesque had his feet held to the fire on Saturday, and he got burned, badly. So badly so that the WWE Chief Content Officer was forced to drag Saturday's press conference on as long as possible, practically begging for softball questions that could soothe his hurt from the trio of hard-hitting questions Levesque received about the horrific allegations of abuse and sex trafficking against Vince McMahon and unnamed "Corporate Officers" in a new lawsuit. Levesque dodged every question about McMahon, opting instead to focus on what a "good week" WWE had, if ever a thing was possible the week that the company nearly lost major sponsor Slim Jim over the monstrous behavior that was outlined in the 67-page lawsuit that Levesque flatly admitted to not reading. 

Levesque is simply not cut out for scrutiny. He wants to be able to celebrate WWE's wins but has no time for WWE's losses. Levesque even committed something of a verbal slip, admitting that he was hemming and hawing for easy questions because he felt he "owed" the group answers, which is true. There are specific answers the world wants from Paul Levesque. What did he know about McMahon's alleged crimes? When did he know? How is he specifically working to stop those abuses from happening in the future? 

If he doesn't want to give us the answers to those questions, then as far as I'm concerned he can keep his facts and figures to himself.