Royal Rumble (2020) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view and WWE Network event produced by WWE for their Raw and SmackDown brands. It took place on January 26, 2020 at the Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas. It was the thirty-third event under the Royal Rumble chronology.

Eight matches were contested at the event, including two on the Kickoff pre-show. In the main event, Drew McIntyre won the men's Royal Rumble match, while Charlotte Flair won the women's. Other prominent matches saw "The Fiend" Bray Wyatt retain the Universal Championship against Daniel Bryan in a strap match, Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin in a Falls Count Anywhere match, and Becky Lynch defeated Asuka by submission to retain the Raw Women's Championship. The event also featured the in-ring return of Edge, who last wrestled in 2011 before retiring from a neck injury.



Singles Match
Sheamus defeated Shorty G


This went a little longer than I was expecting but ended exactly how I figured it would. This Shorty G nonsense has been career suicide for Chad Gable. Dude, get out of this company whenever you can because you are wasting the best years of your career here. I can't believe that he's gone from American Alpha to this shit.



Singles Match for the WWE United States Championship
Andrade (c) (with Zelina Vega) defeated Humberto Carrillo



This wasn't a bad match at all, but I honestly don't see why WWE is pushing Humberto Carrillo so hard. They better be careful about that before there's a backlash from the fans from WWE forcing this guy down our throats at every opportunity. I get it - he's one of the fresh new Latino stars that they want to get over, but he's definitely not ready to hold that belt anytime soon.




Falls Count Anywhere Match
Roman Reigns defeated King Corbin


I didn't care for the last few months of them feuding back and forth and I sure as hell didn't care to pay attention to this. Enough with this shit already. It's bad enough that as of this posting (2/10/20) that they are STILL feuding, even after Reigns and the Usos made Corbin eat dog food.



30-woman Royal Rumble match for a women's championship match at WrestleMania 36
Charlotte Flair won by last eliminating Shayna Baszler


Brand
     – Raw
     – SmackDown
     – NXT
     – NXT UK
     – Free agent
     – Winner
DrawEntrantBrand/StatusOrderEliminated byTime[40]Elimination(s)
1Alexa BlissSmackDown15Bianca Belair26:343
2Bianca BelairNXT16Charlotte Flair33:208
3Mighty MollyFree agent3Bianca Belair10:210
4Nikki CrossSmackDown5Bianca Belair15:080
5LanaRaw1Liv Morgan02:290
6Mercedes MartinezNXT4Mandy Rose and Sonya Deville08:140
7Liv MorganRaw2Lana[1]00:441
8Mandy RoseSmackDown6Bianca Belair08:491
9Candice LeRaeNXT8Bianca Belair09:010
10Sonya DevilleSmackDown7Bianca Belair05:311
11Kairi SaneRaw9Alexa Bliss05:220
12Mia YimNXT11Alexa Bliss06:300
13Dana BrookeSmackDown14Bianca Belair05:260
14TaminaSmackDown10Bianca Belair00:390
15Dakota KaiNXT12Chelsea Green01:320
16Chelsea GreenNXT13Alexa Bliss00:121
17Charlotte FlairRaw–Winner27:194
18NaomiRaw26Shayna Baszler22:010
19Beth PhoenixNXT28Shayna Baszler23:051
20Toni StormNXT UK25Shayna Baszler18:400
21Kelly KellyFree agent18Charlotte Flair02:290
22Sarah LoganRaw17Charlotte Flair00:280
23NatalyaRaw27Beth Phoenix14:430
24Xia LiNXT20Shayna Baszler10:490
25Zelina VegaRaw22Shayna Baszler09:310
26Shotzi BlackheartNXT23Shayna Baszler07:570
27CarmellaSmackDown24Shayna Baszler06:360
28Tegan NoxNXT21Shayna Baszler03:500
29Santina MarellaFree agent19Self01:010
30Shayna BaszlerNXT29Charlotte Flair04:278
^1 Lana was already eliminated when she eliminated Liv Morgan.

Alexa Bliss and Bianca Belair starting this Rumble just screamed to me who WWE still covets as the future. Bliss never left the title picture and I'm sure if they slotted her against Bayley for WrestleMania that would be the program in a heart beat if they didn't want to go with Sasha or Naomi getting the shot. Belair has on the rise for quite some time in NXT, so that wasn't a surprise either, especially with her match against Rhea Ripley coming up.

All jokes aside, this year's women's Rumble was pretty much dominated by NXT and NXT UK talents. This match had more NXT and NXT UK entrants than any other brand.

Can't even feel sorry for Nattie at this point when it feels like Beth turns on her in almost all of these battle royals/Rumble matches.

The MVP of the night was Beth Phoenix though to me, despite the fact that both Shayna Baszler AND Bianca Belair had a whooping eight eliminations. I don't know how it happened but Beth's hair was a bloody mess at one point of this match, but she kept going regardless how nasty it was looking as the match went on. The Glamazon has a scarier murderface than Ronda Rousey does. That was jarring to see her looking like a beast here then back to looking sweet and innocent on NXT calling commentary a few days later. That's some serious Jekyll and Hyde shit going on there. Beth came into the match about halfway and endured the contest until the end. That was one hell of a performance to say her best years are arguably behind her.

Yikes. I still can't believe Beth competed that entire match with the back of her head a bloody mess like that.

For her sake, I hope that head wound wasn't too serious to say that she was adamant about continuing the match despite bleeding everywhere.


Welcome back, Naomi!

Naomi would make her in-ring return in this match (and would be drafted back to the SmackDown! brand by the time of this posting to join her husband). I died laughing listening to Bryan Alvarez say on Wrestling Observer Live that he thought she was Meng for a second there. I still think Naomi's one of the most gorgeous women of color in the company and actually loved the Beyonce-esque style afro. That's one thing you can't take away from her is her sense of style with this "glow" gimmick that's for sure.

Mandy and Sonya found themselves dumped out and went crashing down like a set of dominoes.

The hilarity of the continued relationship blooming between Otis of Heavy Machinery and Mandy Rose was another highlight of this match where Mandy Rose found herself saved from elimination not once, but two times from Otis at ringside.

https://stopthedamnmatch.tumblr.com/post/190490721963

As of this posting, Otis is set to have a date with Mandy Rose for the Valentine's Day episode of Friday Night SmackDown! and I'm looking forward to that to entertain me more than Viscera and Trish Stratus' date from back in the day.

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to have Santina come back here for a repeat of that Miss WrestleMania Battle Royal debacle, but Beth Phoenix's face said it all. Beth looked like she wanted to rip Santino's nutsack off and feed it to a pack of wolves.

I know that this wasn't the popular decision of the night, but I was honestly fine with this result. Charlotte hasn't won one of these women's Royal Rumble matches and the fact that she can choose any of the three champions from RAW, SmackDown!, and NXT makes this even more interesting. With the way how things are looking as of late, it seems like they are leaning towards confirming the rumors of Rhea Ripley versus Charlotte Flair for WrestleMania as Rhea came to RAW to personally lay down the challenge to the queen herself with Charlotte returning to NXT to confront Bianca Belair and Rhea Ripley on the past week's NXT episode in hilarious fashion. Hell, if we don't get Charlotte vs. Rhea, I want to see Charlotte vs. Bianca just for the promos and segments alone.

All jokes as side though. I'm leery about Rhea vs. Charlotte as I don't think they should be so quick to take the title off of Rhea Ripley yet. I know it has to be killing WWE that AEW is beating them in the ratings wars every week, so the added star power of Charlotte on the brand would definitely put some more eyeballs on that product. The ratings baffle me a lot too as NXT is typically the better booked show of the two on Wednesday nights, but whatever, there's no need to make a decision like this that could blow up in their faces in the long run. On the other hand it would make for much needed downtime for Charlotte. She would be introduced to a wealth of new opponents on the brand and be able to actually rest her body up for returning to the main roster in a few months down the road. On top of that, the main roster would have time to breathe and be able to establish some new contenders on both brands' women's divisions. Let's be honest here, the well has dried up on solid opponents for either Women's Champion over on RAW and SmackDown! outside of like 1-2 people.



Singles match for the WWE SmackDown Women's Championship
Bayley (c) defeated Lacey Evans

Lacey's Moonsault would be more impressive if over half of the roster didn't already do Moonsaults too, if not better in most cases.

I love me some Lacey Evans, but even I can't deny that this was easily the worst match on tonight's card. WWE, stop shoving her into title matches when she's clearly not ready to be in this position. She wasn't ready when they had her feuding with Becky Lynch for months on end and she's still not ready here after they have switched her gimmick up.

Her matching gear with her daughter sitting in the front row was too adorable though. Her husband is a lucky bastard, I swear...

As for Bayley's WrestleMania opponent, I can't see Charlotte challenging her at all. Naomi has returned to the blue brand as of this posting and Carmella won the #1 contender spot for the next title shot, but I can see Sasha Banks turning on Bayley to feud with her for WrestleMania in a role reversal of their feud from NXT. The only big "if" about that is if Sasha Banks gets medically cleared by then.

The other crazy idea I had was that Shayna Baszler debuts in time for the Elimination Chamber and wins the SmackDown! Women's title from Bayley there and Charlotte chooses to face her at WrestleMania. The only thing about that is Becky would be without a WrestleMania opponent, unless they pull the trigger on her versus Nia Jax. I can't speak for anyone else but I'll do a hard pass on that. Shayna versus Becky was pure money from the face-to-face promos in the build to Survivor Series and WWE would be stupid not to do that one for WrestleMania. So yeah... in that regard, I think we're looking at Becky vs. Shayna on RAW, Rhea vs. Charlotte on NXT, and possibly Bayley vs. Sasha on SmackDown! If not Sasha, then I can see them slotting in Naomi as a replacement.



Strap match for the WWE Universal Championship
"The Fiend" Bray Wyatt (c) defeated Daniel Bryan



I can't say that I was too thrilled about this match going in, but this was easily the best Fiend match since the debut of this iteration of Bray Wyatt, despite the fact that it was a losing effort for Daniel Bryan, not that I was expecting a title change here in the first place. Bryan got the job done in the regard that he was able to get an engaging match out of the Fiend and without those distracting red lights too.



Singles match for the WWE Raw Women's Championship
Becky Lynch (c) defeated Asuka (with Kairi Sane) by submission

Out of the two women's title matches on this card, this was easily the better of the two. I thought Asuka and Becky Lynch had a good match the year prior, it was just easily forgotten among the rise of The Man that year and the build to WrestleMania. We can thank Paul Heyman for actually remembering this plot hole that Asuka actually had a victory over Lynch last year and WWE never capitalized on it in the months that followed. When you run out of ideas and capable opponents on the red brand, then you're forced to start thinking out of the box to fill up TV time between PPVs on the road to WrestleMania.

There wasn't any doubt in my mind that Asuka wasn't going to lose here as she was the last opponent that Becky hasn't beat or defended that championship against. Now that's over with, I hope WWE cooks up some strong contenders for the Kabuki Warriors to defend those Women's Tag Titles against at WrestleMania. I'm gunning for Fire & Desire to get a proper shot. Either go with that or let's see Pin Up Strong/Ladies of Doom (Beth Phoenix & Natalya) get a quick run with the belts before putting over one of the newer women's tag teams.

Asuka's poison mist backfiring back onto herself was a nice visual and unique finish to this overall fun match.



Drew McIntyre won by last eliminating Roman Reigns 30-man Royal Rumble match for a world championship match at WrestleMania 36


Brand
     – Raw
     – SmackDown
     – NXT
     – Free agent
     – Winner
DrawEntrantBrand/StatusOrderEliminated byTime[44]Elimination(s)
1Brock LesnarRaw14Drew McIntyre26:2413
2EliasSmackDown1Brock Lesnar01:000
3Erick RowanRaw2Brock Lesnar00:080
4Robert RoodeSmackDown3Brock Lesnar00:410
5John MorrisonSmackDown4Brock Lesnar00:090
6Kofi KingstonSmackDown7Brock Lesnar05:060
7Rey MysterioRaw5Brock Lesnar02:540
8Big ESmackDown6Brock Lesnar00:530
9CesaroSmackDown8Brock Lesnar00:180
10Shelton BenjaminRaw9Brock Lesnar00:370
11Shinsuke NakamuraSmackDown10Brock Lesnar00:200
12Montel Vontavious PorterFree agent11Brock Lesnar00:240
13Keith LeeNXT12Brock Lesnar03:320
14Braun StrowmanSmackDown13Brock Lesnar01:480
15RicochetRaw15Drew McIntyre03:090
16Drew McIntyreRaw–Winner34:116
17The MizSmackDown16Drew McIntyre00:300
18AJ StylesRaw17Edge07:490
19Dolph ZigglerSmackDown22Roman Reigns12:200
20Karl AndersonRaw21Randy Orton09:460
21EdgeFree agent28Roman Reigns23:433
22King CorbinSmackDown19Drew McIntyre04:061
23Matt RiddleNXT18King Corbin00:410
24Luke GallowsRaw20Edge02:000
25Randy OrtonRaw27Edge14:371
26Roman ReignsSmackDown29Drew McIntyre16:012
27Kevin OwensRaw24Seth Rollins, Akam, and Rezar[2]06:590
28Aleister BlackRaw23Seth Rollins05:060
29Samoa JoeRaw25Seth Rollins04:250
30Seth RollinsRaw26Drew McIntyre04:013
^2 Akam and Rezar were not official participants in the match.


Say what you will about Brock Lesnar, but he made this Royal Rumble match with his inclusion of it. You can call it a burial of the talents that he tossed out one by one, but it made Brock's elimination all the sweeter when Drew McIntyre knocked him over the top rope. What's amazing about that is WWE could have had Drew get eliminated from there and went with their Golden Child in Roman Reigns and really pissed people off again, much like with Charlotte Flair winning the women's Rumble match. Instead, they had Drew win the entire Rumble match on top of eliminating Brock. Say what you will but Drew's a made man going into WrestleMania. It seems like WWE doesn't know how to book themselves out of a paper bag sometimes, but on other occasions like this, they definitely get it right in terms of booking and knock it out of the park with a home run. (Applauds) Well done in that regard, WWE.

I thought it was a massive disservice to John Morrison (who recently just returned to the company), Cesaro, and the reigning Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura to get tossed out like common flunkies in this match though. Just wow. Those are three guys who have never faced Brock in a high profile match and they didn't get any sort of rub here. Even Ricochet got a nut shot in for crying out loud.

Thanks for coming, boys.

To Kofi Kingston's credit, I was shocked that he actually lasted the duration before the next entrant came out but I honestly laughed my ass off at him, Rey Mysterio, and Big E all thought they were going to pummel Brock into submission. Mad props for trying though. They were the only ones who hit all of their finishers on him too. I can't speak for anyone else but that imagine of Brock jumping in the air off Big E's back was scary as hell. That's one dude who I do not want to see flying at me in any shape or form. That's like The Big Show when he started doing Goldberg Spears that time.

(Laughs) At the end of the day, Kofi and Rey can blame Big E for putting them through that shit. I don't want to hear this mess about WWE did Kofi wrong for not letting him get revenge on Brock in this match. He lasted longer than anyone else did up to that point so that's another feather in his hat. If they let Kofi toss out Brock then what was going to elevate Drew? Kofi had his moment and let's just move on.


I was glad that Keith Lee was given a moment with Brock too to tease the future. There's absolutely no reason to fast track him to the main roster. NXT has a lot of big guys who can move (Keith Lee, Donovan Dijakovic, Damien Priest, etc.) that I'm sure Brock would have the time of his life working with down the road. Lee versus Strowman was another fun "tease" that we got here too before Brock dumped both of them out.

I marked harder for this than I did for Edge's return admittedly.

MVP rocking the Black Panther inspired ring gear looked freakin' awesome to me, even though he was eliminated faster than a hiccup.


The biggest pop of the night came from the return of Edge without a shadow of a doubt, but I got a ton of shit from people online after saying that I didn't think it was a big surprise when just about every website and social media outlet had confirmed his in-ring return for the Rumble for over a month and I got pummeled with remarks of "Don't read the dirtsheets, bro" like I was intentionally looking for potential Rumble spoilers. I go out of my way NOT to even read anything Rumble related the week or two prior about who was spotted in that city for Christ's sake. I don't go hunting for spoilers. You guys should know that by now. I just thought it was telling when Triple H went out of his way in an interview to shoot down the Edge comeback rumor(s) before the Rumble when he hasn't taken the time to publicly acknowledge dirtsheet reports God knows when. Edge kept denying and denying it - a common trend for people in the wrestling business when their dirty secret got exposed, only drawing more attention to it in the process.

Edge was absolutely shredded though and looked in incredible shape. I guess he's been staying fit for that Vikings show that he's been on too but he had to be motivated for an in-ring comeback too. Too bad the chimps in the production truck with Kevin Dunn had to cut away from the first Spear in roughly a decade though... AJ Styles got injured overselling a bump from one of those Spears from Edge, hence why he was promptly dumped out unceremoniously.


Rollins coming out at the #30 spot was a welcome diversion as we haven't had a big faction try to takeover the Rumble match in a while. That was pretty cool to see everyone join forces in that regard, only for Rollins to get dumped out like the chicken shit heel that he plays so well. I'm glad that WWE turned Rollins back heel as he never clicked as a babyface to me, even during the whole "Burn It Down" phase last year. People just sided with him because they were ready to get that belt off of Lesnar at that point. Rollins' reign fizzled out in a few months and we're right back to square one with Brock holding the title hostage again over on Monday Night RAW.

As of this posting it looks like Brock Lesnar vs. Drew McIntyre is a lock for WrestleMania while it's up in the air currently for who is going to challenge the Fiend for the Universal Championship over on SmackDown!. I would guess that they are going with Roman Reigns winning the Elimination Chamber next month to earn the shot as Vince has done a good job of keeping him far away from that title until now. We should go ahead and prepare ourselves for another Roman Reigns main event for the Grandest Stage of Them All come April.
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