WWE Royal Rumble 2026

WWE Royal Rumble 2026

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - January 2026

CHAMPIONSHIP RUNDOWN: Coming into this show, the WWE Champion was Drew McIntyre, the World Heavyweight Champion was CM Punk, the Intercontinental Champion was Dominik Mysterio, the United States Champion was Carmelo Hayes (who I don't think even appeared on the show), Jade Cargill was the Women's WWE Champion, Solo Sikoa and Tama Tonga were the WWE Tag Team Champions, Stephanie Vaquer was the Women's World Heavyweight Champion, Becky Lynch was the Women's Intercontinental Champion, and Giulia was the Women's United States Champion...and the Women's Tag Team Champions were Rhea Ripley and IYO SKY and the WWE World Tag Team Champions were The Usos.

I took a relatively lengthy break from watching any WWE content in 2025, not bothering to download the ESPN app despite having access to it via my Hulu account. Even knowing that the WWE's PLEs were just a click or two and an authentication away, I've just been so turned off by the company, its MAGA affiliation, its ever-increasing role in Saudi Arabia's sportswashing program, the domestic and international live event price gouging, and the overall ick factor that the Netflix Era gives (that first episode starting with The Rock and a bunch of Netflix execs congratulating themselves left a bad taste in my mouth I still can't rinse away). Say what one may about AEW - which is far from a perfect company and has its own problematic elements - it's easier to root for the underdog in most situations and AEW is still that despite Tony Khan's bottomless bag of money. With WWE dominating every major platform and most of the cable landscape, and because they've basically turned TNA into another one of their feeders, it feels like the WWE's monopoly is stronger now than it even was 10-20 years ago. 

But the pull of the Rumble is hard to resist and the WWE very, very wisely had it featured prominently on the launch page of Hulu (or at least mine). This was something new compared to other recent PLEs, which I believe required subscribers to access the ESPN app. My sample size is small, but based on my buddy in NY texting me to ask if I was watching it, I'm going to guess that there were likely many casual fans who tuned in simply because access to the show was much easier than the past few ESPN events. 

Anyway...the Women's Royal Rumble kicked off the show with Charlotte Flair and Alexa Bliss coming in as the number 1 and 2 entrants. Their shtick in the beginning was an early highlight as they teased eliminating each other but mostly worked as partners until Flair inadvertently eliminated Alexa later on (a recurring theme that probably would've been more effective had it happened just once in the match but also happened with the Kabuki Warriors and The Judgment Day). I thought most of this was pretty good aside from the usual moments when everyone else in the match plays dead so that the focus can go on just one or two women, like it did when Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair found themselves face-to-face. Sol Luca looked very good in this match and we got to see her hit the Sol Snatcher a couple times, which is always a good thing. Lash Legend got to look like an absolute beast, lasting a very long time and doing a bunch of eliminations. Rhea Ripley got a huge pop for her entrance and also had a very good showing. Asuka is still great. The Saudi crowd chanting for John Cena during Nikki Bella's showcase was especially hard to stomach coming from a crowd of men who live in a country where women having something resembling equal rights is only a recent phenomenon. Brie Bella got a huge ovation for her return and I liked Michael Cole's verbal gymnastics has he tried to express the homage she paid with her Yes/It Kicks without mentioning her husband. The final three was a fun stretch but I really feel like Triple H missed the boat with Liv Morgan's return and even this Rumble victory was only half-successful because of it. Morgan may not be the best in-ring performer, but her career has followed something of a classic modern WWE pattern that has gotten her over huge with the audience. She started out green in forgettable stables and teams, had her fair share of hot garbage storylines (Wikipedia reminded me she once professed her love for Lana), was booked as something of a joke during her first run with the Women's Championship after cashing in her briefcase against Ronda Rousey, and had some ups-and-downs due to injury in 2023 but had already begun to show chemistry with Raquel Rodriguez and, more importantly, Rhea Ripley. In 2024, that chemistry with Ripley led to probably the best love triangle storylines the WWE has produced this century with Dom Mysterio and, from there, Morgan and Dom were basically the top heels on RAW week-to-week. And, of course, as has been a pattern since at least the rise of Steve Austin 30 years ago, if someone gets hot enough as a heel but consistently is among the most entertaining acts on a show, part of the audience is going to embrace them and that part tends to grow until they're essentially a babyface. With Morgan, the time to make that turn was when she returned and the WWE squandered it by having her immediately re-align with Dom and the Judgment Day. Had she come into this Rumble as a babyface, the stories they could've told with her and Raquel, Roxanne Perez, Rhea, and even Bayley, Becky, and Charlotte (as the locker room veterans one generation "ahead" of Liv) would've given this match much more cohesion. Instead, Liv got the win, but it didn't feel like the next step of a character trajectory as much as just a way to put her in the title mix after time away. She's still the same Liv Morgan she was when she got injured in June 2025 and that's a real shame because she deserved a more meaningful return story than what we got and it was so incredibly easy to do (she was literally replaced in Judgment Day by Perez and they could've also played up Dom Mysterio not being by her side as she rehabbed). Overall, not a terrible Rumble, but it could've been better in front of a crowd that was more engaged beginning-to-end and a throughline that gave us someone to root for. (2.5/5)

AJ Styles took on GUNTHER in the next match with the added stipulation that if AJ lost, he would retire from the WWE (leaving the door open for one last run in TNA, which is where I think this is all going). The crowd was not as into this as I wish they would've been, but according to some reports, it may have been because a portion of the Saudi Arabian audience purposefully arrived late to skip the women's match. I'm not sure of the validity of that claim, but regardless, the audience just didn't seem as emotionally invested in this as they could've/should've been (or would've been had this match happened almost anywhere in the US). This match also suffered a bit from the outcome being a very poorly-kept secret as AJ had all but announced his retirement in various interviews in the weeks and months leading to this match and he's never been known as a guy who purposefully tries to "work" fans the way, say, Chris Jericho would. But, move-for-move, sequence-for-sequence, this was a well-constructed match with a touch of unexpected blood and an awesome bump to the ringside area from a GUNTHER stomp among other cool moments. I liked the psychology and storytelling throughout the contest and, while I understand how much of the final third of the match needed to be built around the referee trying to "protect" AJ before he fought valiantly to inevitable defeat, I think they laid it on a bit thick. AJ keeping his gloves on during the post-match was an interesting twist, but I highly, highly doubt it is a hint that he will be appearing anywhere other than TNA in the future. AJ is a consummate professional and a straight shooter in interviews so when he's said spoken about how much he appreciates the professionalism and opportunities given to him by the WWE, I've always believed him. His friendships with the Bucks aside, I don't see AJ making the jump to the WWE's only true rival promotion but do think he'll get to go on a WWE-approved final run in TNA. Unfortunately, I just don't see who is even left at TNA to give him that great final match. (3/5)

The crowd was much more alive for the next match - Sami Zayn challenging Drew McIntye for the WWE Championship. Sami gave a great performance and there was a bit more of a question mark around who might walk out with the Championship as Zayn was treated like a "hometown hero" despite Saudi Arabia and Syria not being the best of friends until relatively recently. I would've like a bit more heeling out of Drew who has become a bit of a generic heel after a very good feud with CM Punk last year. That's not to say this wasn't a good outing from both guys more that they're both so polished, so routinely good that this didn't feel like it was offering anything especially memorable or special. (3/5) 

The Men's Royal Rumble was the evening's main event and while the match got a fairly negative response online - largely due to its uninspired, "nothing burger" finish - I thought it was fairly strong and much better than its pretty woeful Cagematch rating (a 4.71 as of this writing). Unlike the women's match, which had some quiet stretches, the men's edition had the crowd's interest from beginning to end and did a better job of building up some potential Mania matches (if the writing team bothers to explore some of their own set-ups). The match started with an unoriginal-but-effective angle, for example, as Bron Breakker got taken out before he could even step foot in the ring by yet another masked man. Was it Rollins? Was it one of his own Vision comrades like Theory or Logan Paul? They left themselves some options and protected Breakker while also giving Oba Femi an impressive early run in the match. The other big star-on-the-rise moment came from Je'Von Evans, whose movements and rope-running were unlike anyone else I've seen. He has definite "It" factor but the question will be whether he gets a legitimate push or the kind of half-starts that plagued the careers of the guys he's been compared to (Kofi Kingston, Montez Ford). I didn't mind Mr. Iguana and the two El Grande Americanos squaring off as Rumble matches are long enough to warrant a little bit of comic relief. Less enjoyable was Jey Uso's played-out and annoying entrance and "Yeet" reprise, probably the worst 2-3 minutes of the entire show and maybe of all wrestling I've watched in 2026 so far. Uso's gimmick has "go away" heat from me at this point after at least being willing to stomach seeing his young fanbase having fun in the stands. But this was a stadium of grown Saudi Arabian men losing their minds. So lame. The "losers" of this match, to me, looked to be Damien Priest and Logan Paul, both of whom have really sunken in stature. Paul being associated with the Vision makes little sense as he doesn't benefit from the partnership with Heyman and he shines much brighter as a solo act (even if I do think he has good chemistry with Breakker). Priest hasn't felt like a true main event act in at least a year now and I don't see him being a major factor at Mania this year. Lesnar got to do some of his usual shtick and I'll give credit to the bookers for "underplaying" his exit from the match as he got taken out by Cody and Knight (I think?) before his rumored Mania opponent, GUNTHER, even joined the match. Orton got a huge pop for his entrance and it will be interesting to see how he gets slated into the Mania card, though it does seem like they're building a match with Trick Williams, who also got a solid reaction from the Saudi crowd (much more knowledgeable of the NXT talent this year than in years past). As noted before, Reigns' victory didn't feel super special and I don't think he "needed" the match as much as, say, LA Knight could've benefitted from a big victory like this, but taking big swings hasn't been a "thing" in the WWE for what? A couple decades? (3/5)

With an overall Kwang Score of 2.88-out-of-5, Royal Rumble 2026 wasn't a bad show but will probably be remembered for all the wrong reasons. The WWE played it safe with every booking decision and the show lacked any true surprises aside from the return of Brie Bella. This was not the type of show that has me particularly excited for the "Road to WrestleMania" aside from making me a little curious how they will develop something interesting for the bigger stars on the roster - Orton, Rhea, Becky, Logan Paul, Lesnar - as well as the characters that we were theoretically still supposed to be care about after their "breakout" appearances at last year's WrestleMania (Tiffany Stratton, Jade Cargill, GUNTHER) but don't seem to have clear directions right now. If you're like me and you're general disposition towards the WWE and its product is at an almost all time low, this show will not convince you to tune back in.

FINAL RATING - High Risk Maneuver