Ranking Every WWE Title Match At Royal Rumble - From Worst To Best

17. Royal Rumble 2024 - Roman Reigns vs. AJ Styles vs. LA Knight vs. Randy Orton

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Roman Reigns LA Knight AJ Styles Randy Orton
WWE

Known as the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at that time, the 2024 Royal Rumble had Roman Reigns defend his gold against three of SmackDown's top talents. Going up against Roman, we had two-time former WWE Champion AJ Styles, the white-hot rising star of LA Knight, and the legendary 14-time former World Champion and nailed-on WWE Hall of Fame headliner Randy Orton.

While this title match lacked the emotion of the previous year's Royal Rumble event when it comes to Roman Reigns - more on that later - what this had in common with its predecessor was plenty of Bloodline shenanigans. On that front, we notably had Solo Sikoa breaking up a pinfall attempt when Orton looked to have had the match won.

The in-ring action here was good, solid, the sort of work you'd expect when looking at those involved. What the match really suffered from, though, was a lack of stakes. Granted, Randy Orton was made to look strong, but nobody believed the Tribal Chief was dropping the Undisputed WWE Universal Title when so much had been made of the wider story of the likely WrestleMania rematch with Cody Rhodes being on the horizon. As for Styles and Knight, they were just bodies here, designed to help the match chug along, and lay the path for their own one-on-one match at 'Mania.

Decent, well-worked pro wrestling, but ever-so-predictable low-stakes pro wrestling.

Senior Writer
Senior Writer

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/Saints, Jamie Hayter, 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.