Brock Lesnar Pulled From WWE Royal Rumble 2024
Brock Lesnar was originally scheduled for the Royal Rumble.
With previous rumours and reports that Brock Lesnar could make his WWE return at last night's Royal Rumble, that ended up not happening. However, that was originally the plan before those plans changed.
Via PWInsider, Lesnar was at one point due to return in time for WrestleMania season, with the Rumble an obvious landing spot for that return. Instead, Brock didn't travel to Florida for the Premium Live Event, and the word at SmackDown on Friday was that Lesnar had been "withdrawn" from the Royal Rumble.
Of course, this comes in the aftermath of Janel Grant's recent lawsuit where Vince McMahon, John Laurinaitis and other WWE figures are accused of sexual, physical, and emotional abuse between 2019 and 2022. As part of that lawsuit, a figure referred to as "WWE Superstar" is referenced as a WWE talent and former UFC fighter. The Wall Street Journal believes that the person in question is Brock Lesnar.
This PWInsider report also notes that the belief is the McMahon-led regime of old would've still used Lesnar at the Royal Rumble regardless. With Vince McMahon having now been forced to resign in disgrace for a second time, and with TKO and Paul Levesque steering the WWE ship, clearly there was an awareness of how a Royal Rumble appearance from Brock Lesnar would've been received.
As for Lesnar's spot in the men's Rumble match, it was expected that would go to an NXT talent. Both Carmelo Hayes and Bron Breakker appeared in that bout, although the spot may also have been the one used by Pat McAfee; McAfee making a brief appearance before choosing to eliminate himself.