Brock Lesnar Pulled From WWE Royal Rumble 2024

Brock Lesnar was originally scheduled for the Royal Rumble.

by Andrew Pollard
WWE WrestleMania 39 Brock Lesnar
WWE.com

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didn't travel to Florida for the Premium Live Event, and the word at SmackDown on Friday was that Lesnar had been "withdrawn" from the Royal Rumble.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.

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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.

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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.