Short but sweet, this return from commercial loaded with highlights of the four women that entered the men's Royal Rumble long before such a thing existed for their own division - or in Nia Jax' case in 2019, because she f*cking wanted to.
Ahead of a couple of clunker segments on a show that otherwise raced by, this was a palette cleansing use of WWE's vast archive, not least with Rumble fever starting to gradually permeate throughout the entire organisation. The celebration of Chyna, Beth Phoenix, Kharma and Jax was nice for the sake of being nice, and how often can that be levied at WWE?
As a bonus by-product, Kong was more over by virtue of the clip played of her 2012 Rumble cameo than she's been since sidling up to Brandi Rhodes as part of The Nightmare Collective in AEW - even Backstage can book a better women's division.
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation nearly 8 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years. As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 62,000,000 total downloads. He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has covered milestone events in New York, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live. Follow him on X/Twitter - @MichaelHamflett
