10 Ups & 6 Downs From WWE Royal Rumble 2026 (Results & Review)

WWE always bills the Royal Rumble as the start of the Road to WrestleMania, but it’s also one of the more difficult and complex events to properly assess.

Unlike a typical PLE with five matches – some singles, some tags – the Rumble consists of two 30-person matches that have countless elements to them, all of which could (and perhaps) should be evaluated on their own merits rather than being considered as part of the totality of each match.

Thus, you end up talking about smaller moments, sequences, and runs for individuals that you did or didn’t enjoy, rather than outright saying whether the Rumble match itself was tremendous or a huge disappointment. And it’s far easier to identify small nuggets of goodness than to call out moments of boredom or “dragginess,” skewing the positives and negatives a bit.

Saturday’s Rumble event accomplished a lot of goals. It produced a few legit shocking moments, debuted several new faces to the main roster (think Royce Keys, Oba Femi, Sol Ruca, Lola Vice, Jacy Jayne, and Kelani Jordan), and crowned a first-time Rumble winner.

The PLE also crowned a part-timer as the other winner, brought Brock Lesnar back, made last year’s men’s Rumble winner look like a clown, and produced a women’s Rumble that managed to drag in the middle section more than it had any right to do.

All told, the Rumble was a perfectly fine show, but there was a time when the Rumble was a can’t-miss hit, a guaranteed incredible match. These days, it feels more and more like entrances, 30 seconds of a showcase flurry, and then a lot of bodies piled up on the ropes until it’s suddenly time to “go home” with a hot finishing sequence.

Let’s get to it…

Downs

6. What The Hell Kind Of Iron Woman Run Was That?

If you were told that Charlotte Flair entered the Royal Rumble at #1, had a memorable showdown with her tag partner Alexa Bliss – and then an unfortunate accident involving Bliss – and put over a rookie on her way out of the match, you’d think she had a great night.

Here’s the problem: that’s all Flair did during the Rumble, and she was in it for an hour. Charlotte and Alexa formed a pact not to fight each other and work together to eliminate others. The problem is that they never tossed a soul. Jordynne Grace eliminated three women in about 30 seconds while the former tag champs spent 10 minutes struggling to get anyone out.

When Nia Jax and Bliss landed on the apron, Flair booted Jax off, but Nia had a grip on Alexa, pulling her to the floor as well. That was a nice touch, as Charlotte looked gutted. She would then float to the background, emerging for short stints with incoming wrestlers and before retreating to the ropes or the apron.

Flair would finally return to the forefront to fight with Tiffany Stratton and ultimately get eliminated by Lash Legend. Charlotte basically had a 10-minute run in the beginning and a five-minute flurry at the end, with 35 minutes of nothing. One of her only two eliminations was her tag team partner, whom she didn’t mean to knock out.

And Charlotte was the Iron Woman of the match? Come on. Do better, WWE.

5. Not A Good Night For The Dungeon

WWE would have you believe that one of the better stories they’re telling right now is the budding feud between Maxxine Dupri, Nattie, and Becky Lynch. They’re lying.

Dupri had a laughable night at the Royal Rumble, looking unconvincing and lost despite being in the match for less than three minutes. Maxxine turned a Nattie slam into an anklelock (allegedly) at one point, but ultimately Dupri got tossed by Becky, who then tried to celebrate with Nattie (don’t call her Natalya), only for Nattie to hoist Lynch up and throw her to the floor, ending the Women's Intercontinental Champion's night.

Nattie then proceeded to not do anything for about 15 minutes before Liv Morgan hit a unique Oblivion on her while she was on the apron, snapping Nattie's neck against the top rope and eliminating her. The End.

If the goal was to make this feud look interesting, they failed. If the goal was to make Nattie look like a killer, they tried for about 90 seconds and then failed.

4. A Very Draggy Women’s Rumble

Here’s the big problem with the modern Royal Rumble: even with 90-second intervals, the Rumble lasts too long and has too many moving parts for WWE’s current crop of writers to book a compelling match from beginning to end. They can chart out a great opening and a solid ending, but they always seem to fall apart in the middle.

The women’s Rumble benefited from a cutesy opening segment with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss, but it very quickly devolved into a morass of humanity. There were more than 10 women in the match for the vast majority. From the time Liv Morgan entered at #14 to when Rhea Ripley made her way down at #22, only two women were eliminated, and there were 13 wrestlers in the ring when Rhea entered. When Tiffany Stratton became the final entrant at #30, the total had ballooned back to 14 women – nearly half the field – still in the match.

When you have that many bodies in the ring at once, it becomes increasingly difficult to do anything to stand out – or to even do anything at all, because there’s only so much space. The common theme throughout was watching women run down to the ring, hit a flurry of offense for 30 seconds, and then disappear against the ropes for 10 minutes until it was time to take a big bump and get eliminated.

The hot ending (more on that later) masked – and very nearly made up for – the dull middle part and lack of anything truly interesting happening. It’s tough to rate the women’s Rumble a negative when there were several positive parts that will get their praise, but in this case, the whole was not greater than the sum of its parts.

3. The Return Of The Beast

There is one – and only one – way for Brock Lesnar to add value to WWE at this stage of his career: put over a couple of wrestlers and get out.

Lesnar generates a pop from a live crowd when he shows up for something like the Royal Rumble on Saturday – then again, Tiffany Stratton’s pop dwarfed Brock’s cheer - but beyond the pop, does Lesnar add anything to WWE? He barely shows up on television anymore, and when he did in recent years, it’s been proven that it doesn’t move the needle. He’s a sideshow, not the main attraction; no one is buying an ESPN subscription to watch Brock suplex someone for five minutes. (His Wrestlepalooza match against John Cena was an abject failure.)

Brock shockingly only spent about five minutes in the Rumble, but managed to no-sell nearly everything every regular performer threw at him, laughing off Ilja Dragunov’s attacks before eliminating Ilja and treating Rey Fenix like the Brooklyn Brawler. Cody Rhodes and LA Knight mercifully eliminated Lesnar before the reign of terror could continue, sparing fans of a Brock/Roman Reigns showdown as well.

The only interesting confrontation that occurred was seeing Brock and Oba Femi have a staredown and brief physical interaction. Now that would be a spectacle of a WrestleMania match… provided Femi actually wins and cements himself as the new Next Big Thing. From there, Lesnar could go on a deep freeze until it’s time for Gunther to retire him at SummerSlam.

2. Jey The Court Jester

One year ago, WWE began a journey with Jey Uso, going all-in on Main Event and turning that moniker into an accurate nickname. He won the 2025 Royal Rumble and defeated the unbeatable Gunther at WrestleMania 41, winning the World Heavyweight Championship.

Fast-forward to Saturday, and Jey entered the Rumble at #25, one-half of the current World Tag Team Champions, taking his sweet time getting to the ring. Once he got there, he decided to play to the fans and run back his theme mid-match. Moments later, his cousin Roman Reigns entered the match and asked him to run the theme back again, only to punch him in the face.

From there, Jey did little more than hit a 1D on Cody Rhodes with Roman, and then he speared and tried to toss Roman in the waning moments of the Rumble, only to get tossed himself. And that was Jey’s night.

The character development of Jey has been abysmal. After he lost his world title, he was frustrated, but he kept trying to get back to that scene. When he kept falling short, he started listening to Reigns and giving in to a darker side… only for that entire angle to get dropped, and Uso became the happy-go-lucky yeeting goof again, this time alongside his brother as a tag team.

When Jey declared for the Rumble, he sounded a bit more serious, but everything he did Saturday was something you’d expect out of a midcard comedy act, not a guy who won the Rumble just last year. Terrible stuff here, making the Jey Uso character an even bigger joke.

1. The Part-Timer Returns And Wins

There is a large contingent of WWE fans who love Roman Reigns and everything he does, and that’s just fine.

But having a guy who has wrestled just 20 matches in the past three years be your standard-bearer heading into WrestleMania season is just a wild concept for a company that had to work hard to shed the proliferation of part-timers in prominent roles throughout the 2010s.

Yes, Reigns is your 2026 Royal Rumble winner, last eliminating Gunther, who had already wrestled a grueling match against AJ Styles earlier in the night. This means Roman, who had a stranglehold on a world title for nearly four years while gradually reducing his schedule to the point of being a special attraction despite holding both of the company’s top prizes, is now poised to do this all over again.

Only 29 men have won a Royal Rumble match. Why did Roman need to pick up his second to call his shot for WrestleMania? Of all the wrestlers out there, he’s the one guy who could walk in and demand a world title match, and it would somewhat make sense.

And look, getting worked up about this might very well be part of the calculation – WWE is counting on some cynical fans to groan about this - and it also could easily be woven into a title feud against someone like CM Punk. Punk would undoubtedly chastise Roman for being a part-timer and mock him for his ridiculously white teeth and permanently wet hair.

In that vein, this could work tremendously and be an incredible feud if Roman shows up and has the feud on Punk’s terms. If this is a Bloodline-adjacent story, with drama and cinema being the order of the day, it will die on the vine.

For right now, this is rating as a major negative, but there is serious potential to turn this around 180 degrees. But we’re just one year removed from being optimistic about John Cena’s heel turn, and look how that played out.

UPS…

10. Welcome, Royce Keys

We would be remiss if we didn’t give a quick praising of the debuting Royce Keys, formerly Powerhouse Hobbs in AEW.

Keys entered the Royal Rumble at #14 and immediately looked like a million bucks. He tossed Damian Priest around before eliminating him and got to show off and show out a bit before a run-in with The Vision, which led to Bronson Reed tossing him.

It was a short run for Royce – maybe 10 minutes – but it was enough for fans to meet him and whet their appetites.

9. Twin Magic

Ever since Nikki Bella returned to WWE, criticisms in this column (and there have been several) have been counterweighted with a possible path forward for the Hall of Famer: in a tag team.

Saturday, we might have gotten that outcome.

Brie Bella returned at the Royal Rumble, dropping in at #29, four slots after Nikki. Brie played up the “Yes!” chants with Yes Kicks (to which Michael Cole desperately twisted himself into a pretzel to avoid saying Daniel Bryan’s name) and reunited with her twin. The two had a brief standoff with the Judgment Day and Bayley and Lyra Valkyria before the sisters eliminated the Role Model and the former Women’s Intercontinental Champion.

Simply put, the women’s tag division is one of the best things going in WWE these days, and adding a Hall of Fame team – even if just for the next couple of months leading into WrestleMania 42 – could be a boon. Plus, it would be something different for Nikki to do rather than struggle in singles matches.

But if this truly for one night only, it still was a fun, inoffensive surprise.

8. Sami Falls Short AGAIN

If it wasn’t for Sami Zayn’s innate ability to play the underdog hero to perfection and get a crowd to rally behind him, Saturday’s Undisputed WWE Championship match would have been a disappointment.

Zayn fell short against Drew McIntyre after being beaten senseless for a good chunk of the match. Drew capitalized on an injury Sami sustained on a dive to the floor and battered the challenger, staying in control throughout much of the contest. However, he couldn’t land the Claymore to put Sami away.

McIntyre did nail three consecutive Futureshock DDTs, but Zayn managed a weak kickout. Drew finally did hit a Claymore, but Sami landed a foot on the ropes. When McIntyre got distracted arguing with the referee, Zayn belted him with a Helluva Kick… for two. That’s when McIntyre turned on the aggression, dropping Sami through a table and countering a Helluva with two consecutive Claymores to vanquish Zayn.

If this were a television main event, it would have been perfectly fine. But as a world title match on one of WWE’s Big Four PLEs, this was merely passable, a “good enough” match carried by Sami’s selling and the desire to see him succeed.

7. Bouncing Bron

When Oba Femi entered at #1, there was a palpable giddiness knowing that Bron Breakker was #2 and we were going to get a collision between two of the biggest homegrown hosses WWE has produced in this generation.

And then a masked man in a hoodie appeared.

The masked man battered Breakker and stomped his head into the ringside floor before tossing him into the ring to get eliminated with ease. (Presumably, the attacker will end up being Seth Rollins, getting his revenge on being bounced out of his own group last year.)

The truth is, if WWE wasn’t going to pull the trigger with Breakker on Saturday, it was going to be difficult to book him, Oba, Roman Reigns, Brock Lesnar, Cody Rhodes, Jacob Fatu, and a host of others to look their best. Having Bron eliminated this way saved a major confrontation between two future world champions and set the table for a likely WrestleMania program with Rollins.

Not the most ideal solution for someone publicly being billed as a future WrestleMania main-eventer, but it probably was a necessary move.

6. Making A Star, Women’s Edition

If you learned nothing else watching the women’s Royal Rumble, you should have gleaned that WWE seriously thinks very highly of Lash Legend.

Entering at #15, Legend was forced to navigate the match without her tag team partner, Nia Jax, who had been eliminated earlier. Lash would last until the final six, and during her run, she would toss Jordynne Grace, both Bella sisters (at the same time), Iyo Sky, and Charlotte Flair, scoring the most eliminations in the women’s Rumble.

Sure, there were some clunky moments, but that’s fast-becoming the accepted norm for these homegrown superstars: they don’t have the depth of experience and improvisation from the independents, so things can occasionally fall off-track.

But Legend had a standout Rumble, even in the moments when she wasn’t tossing former champions from the match. She overpowered numerous wrestlers, including double-teams. Two of her biggest eliminations came from the apron, when she pump-kicked Charlotte Flair to the floor, and later booted Iyo Sky in the face as the Genius of the Sky tried to pull Lash to the floor by her leg.

It’s clear they’ve got something here with Lash Legend, and they felt it was important to capitalize on it now. She might not be main-eventing a WrestleMania next year, but it was impossible to not be impressed.

5. A Hot Closing Segment

The women’s Royal Rumble match might have been dull for long stretches, but it had a fun, hot closing that lifted it out of the doldrums.

After Tiffany Stratton entered at #30, the match started to click together, with several interesting things happening: The Bellas battled two other tag teams, teasing a reunion as a unit. Sol Ruca hit a Sol Snatcher on NXT Women’s Champion Jacy Jayne and eliminated the champ. Lash Legend eliminated both Bellas, Charlotte Flair, and Iyo Sky in short order. Liv Morgan turned on and eliminated Raquel Rodriguez. Liv, Sol, and Tiffany – three women who had never won the Rumble – were the final three.

The three women had a fast and furious battle that spilled onto the apron, where Stratton dumped Ruca and Morgan bounced Tiffany to win. It was a great little ending that certainly left a better taste than the previous 25-30 minutes.

4. Making A Star, Men’s Edition

Holy hell, Oba Femi is a huge star in the making.

Femi, the former NXT Champion, entered the Royal Rumble at #1 and proceeded to toss the next five entrants out in short order (though he did have some help in eliminating Bron Breakker). He made short work of all of them, making Rusev, Matt Cardona, Solo Sikoa, and Rey Mysterio look like nobodies. He actually looked like a dark horse to run the table and win the whole thing.

Oba also would have an intriguing showdown with Brock Lesnar that had “WrestleMania match” stamped all over it. If that comes to fruition, it would be the best use of Lesnar and could potentially launch Femi if he defeats the Beast.

Unfortunately, because this is a Paul Levesque Royal Rumble, that means there was a draggy middle section of the match where Oba essentially dropped into a black hole. He reemerged for confrontations with Cody Rhodes and The Vision before Brock entered at #22.

Still, this was a great showing for the rookie.

3. Main Event Connective Tissue

Say what you will about WWE and their lackluster storytelling in recent years, but there are some actual decent threads developing at the top of their shows, and the men’s Royal Rumble provided a good glimpse into those interwoven tales.

Cody Rhodes might not have the Undisputed WWE Championship, but he’s still the central figure on SmackDown and in the company. He had a staredown with longtime former rival Roman Reigns, battled new rival Jacob Fatu, acknowledged former AEW compatriot Royce Keys (formerly Powerhouse Hobbs), eliminated Brock Lesnar, and got booted from the Rumble by the man who took his championship, Drew McIntyre. He also accidentally hit Randy Orton with a Cody Cutter, potentially setting up that feud.

LA Knight returned and immediately sought revenge on The Vision, eliminating Austin Theory and Bronson Reed. He helped Cody bounce Lesnar, and even dropped Roman with a BFT.

Knight seems positioned to battle The Vision alongside Je’Von Evans, Keys, and/or Oba Femi, who each had confrontations with the trio throughout the Rumble. That would be an interesting combination – and most importantly, it would be different than the Raw main event scene from 2025.

There were a fair number of little details that could be called upon for future matches and angles, and that’s a sign of a successful Rumble.

2. The Right Call

One of the fun parts of the Royal Rumble is fantasy booking different scenarios for different potential winners, charting their paths to a title match at WrestleMania. Some years, there are only a handful of “legit” possibilities, but others, the field is wide open. Still, there often is a consensus candidate to pick up the win and point at the WrestleMania sign.

This year, Liv Morgan was the right call to win the 2026 women’s Royal Rumble. Returning from injury in mid-December, Morgan has slotted right back into the mix, rejoining her Judgment Day teammates and vying for gold (albeit tag gold).

Saturday, Liv entered the Rumble at #14 and proceeded to last until the very end, tossing her Judgment Day stablemate Raquel Rodriguez and finally eliminating Tiffany Stratton to send her to WrestleMania. For Morgan, victory had to taste sweet after so many misses: she has been in all nine women’s Rumbles, finishing as the runner-up in 2023 and 2024, and then lasting 67 minutes last year and still falling short.

Liv’s progress really is amazing. Prior to 2023, she was basically a space-filler in the Rumble, a warm body to get tossed. But she’s climbed the ranks and now is undeniably one of the biggest stars on the roster. Winning Saturday after so many disappointments had to be so fulfilling.

Morgan in the title picture – and facing whatever fallout could come from betraying Rodriguez – could make for fun and compelling television during WrestleMania season. And that’s why she’s your Rumble winner.

1. AJ’s (WWE) Swansong

Wow. They really pulled the trigger.

When AJ Styles announced a while back that 2026 would be his last year in professional wrestling, everyone assumed that meant a yearlong goodbye tour, similar to what John Cena did in 2025. So when he put his career on the line against Gunther at the Royal Rumble, many assumed it just was a clever way to build interest and add stakes and drama to a rematch.

Instead, the two veterans went out and delivered another great little performance in what presumably will be Styles' last WWE match, with Gunther putting the Phenomenal One to sleep.

Following on their Raw over-delivery from a couple of weeks ago, AJ once again targeted the leg and tried to lock in a Calf Crusher repeatedly, but Gunther knew it was coming and kept blocking the submission hold. The Ring General battered AJ repeatedly with chops, kicks, and clotheslines, to the point where the referee thought about stopping the match.

But Styles kept coming, fighting out of numerous sleeper attempts before finally passing out. Afterward, he started to take his gloves off, but he put them back on to pose and say goodbye to the fans.

It’s sadder than John Cena’s farewell tour in many ways because it came suddenly and unexpectedly. AJ also had much more left in the tank to have good matches, and he could have had fun battles with wrestlers like Je’Von Evans, Carmelo Hayes, Bron Breakker, Penta, Jacob Fatu, and others.

Whether this is truly the end of his entire career or just his WWE journey remains to be seen, but at least he went out while he could still deliver in the ring, on his own terms.