WWE 2024 | Renaissance Era

[Selena]

WWE 2024 | Renaissance Era

Hello everyone and a happy 2024 to you all! Touching on the subject of New Year's, one of my resolutions was to give creative writing a second crack. A number of positive changes in my personal life came with the unfortunate drawback of having less time to contribute towards my first story, WrestleMania Tales. This time around I will be using the Real World Chronicles mod, as well as the Super Awesome Modern Picture Pack, with full credit going to Questlove and joemurphy respectively. So with all of that being said, hopefully second time is the charm for me here and I'll be able to create something fun and engaging for you all.

On the surface of things, a WWE 2024 save isn't too dissimilar to a sandbox simulation. Even with intent, it'd be difficult to fail as the WWE, given their huge financials, the star power situated on their roster along with the myriad of television deals they have in place. For me, the last twelve-to-eighteen months have been really excellent for WWE, as well as the wrestling business as a whole. Comparing the here-and-now to shows from four-to-five years ago, it is truly night and day. So while this won't be challenging from a competitive standpoint, we're not vying on the precipice for survival, having so many big pieces on the chessboard should make for an engaging playthrough nonetheless. WWE are on the verge of their fortieth WrestleMania, from top-to-bottom their roster is stacked to the brim, and as has recently come to light, they've had a record breaking year in virtually every department possible. So with the Royal Rumble ahead, there's so many possibilities and roads to explore when it comes to booking a promotion of the WWE's magnitude. YouTuber SuperkickStudios said it best, wrestling is in a boom period and WWE specifically is experiencing a Renaissance Era; it is a great time to be a fan of professional wrestling.

My booking style is a little unorthodox, especially on a site such as this one which hosts a plethora of truly incredible storytellers. The prospect of aesthetics and delivering engaging week-in and week-out posts is a little daunting to me. I will do my best to explain my thought process, I suppose the best way to word it would be I'll be more direct and ratings-centric, explaining the reasoning behind certain decisions opposed to focusing on the decisions themselves. I am also aiming to keep things semi-realistic when it comes to my booking and adhere to the stats given to people by the modmaker. While I won't be fiercely loyal to the happenings of real life, I am also not going to utilise and push people in big spots if I don't firmly believe they're going to perform in those spots.

The preview for the Royal Rumble event will find its way here in the coming days. I am really pumped to get started and tackle this challenge. Feel free to share your ideas, predictions and things of that nature in the comments! Much love and speak to y'all soon. ♡

[Dawn]

There is weirdly a lack of current or even modern era WWE diaries right now, so color me intrigued. I'll be reading!

[Selena]

Royal Rumble 2024 | Preview

In large, we haven't deviated from the gameplan that WWE are exercising in real life. They have some compelling storylines at the moment, and for me, these stories happened to translate well into TEW. So it didn't really make sense to flip the script, we'll transition into making our own feuds deeper into this playthrough, but I'm not one to radically change when there's positive stories being told from the off. Obviously that's going to change after the Royal Rumble. Not only do we have four championship matches taking place, where we could possibly see some titles changing hands, but also the huge decision of picking not one, but two Royal Rumble winners who'll go on to shape how WrestleMania XXXX looks in a few months time. We're going to be booking this show long before its real life counterpart takes place, so soon into this dynasty, things could look drastically different in-game to what's going to happen outside of it, which is exciting. WWE have a wide array of talents they could trust to win both the men's and the women's Royal Rumble matches. It's a good problem to have, too many potential winners, as it means the matches and the subsequent months following should be really, really fruitful. The build-up to the Royal Rumble was productive. We didn't really suffer from popularity losses, something which can be prone to happening early-on in TEW saves with stories not being set-up for success, for large part the majority of our storylines are sitting at great heat, reflective of the talents involved. It could be argued the main event scene, especially on RAW, is a little bloated. Thankfully, following WrestleMania there'll be a draft to re-shape things and move assets around. The only real dilemmas I am facing when it comes to the rosters is SmackDown's women's division is a little light, made all-the-more obvious considering Damage CTRL is a five-woman strong group. With a big injury to Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair is the only babyface over on SmackDown who can deliver semi-decent ratings for a promotion of WWE's level. This hasn't been a problem thus far, but we'll have to be a little sensible with our booking of the SmackDown women's division in the build to WrestleMania to avoid repetitive booking or a decline of the match ratings.

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton - WWE Undisputed Universal Championship

Our main event for the Royal Rumble event features Randy Orton competing for the WWE Undisputed Universal Championship, against long-time reigning champion Roman Reigns. This is one of the biggest matches we could make not only on SmackDown, but across the entire promotion. Randy, recently returning from injury, alongside AJ Styles and LA Knight have been vying with The Bloodline for control of SmackDown, and it's all bound to come to ahead at the Royal Rumble. At the beginning of a save, it's smart to go with two proven main event competitors to headline a show such as this one. As we've already seen Reigns compete against Knight, and with AJ Styles suffering from physical decline, Reigns and Orton was the logical route to explore. Orton has been on a tear, facing the likes of Bobby Lashley and Jimmy Uso in recent weeks, motivated to get back at the stable which took him out of action for so long in the first place. Between Orton's psychology and a number of Reigns' positive attributes, I am expecting this one to be our biggest match so far in terms of rating. Having it headline over the men's Royal Rumble, which I've never been able to get right from a booking perspective to lead to good ratings, I think is a fine choice too.

Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens - WWE United States Championship

Playing a secondary role to the Reigns and Orton storyline, but delivering just as good in-ring segments, sees Logan Paul looking to defend his strap against Kevin Owens, who when it comes to being an in-ring general, is one of the best that the WWE has. I think this storyline works well for a number of reasons. Owens hasn't held a singles championship in a long, long time, and he has something to prove against a guy like Logan Paul, who hasn't been in the business for a long time but is stealing all of the headlines. Owens is very much a company guy, a man who loves the business, so between his underlying feud with A-Town Down Under, and his tournament win to become the contender to Paul's championship, this should be a good match. Logan, while entertaining and charismatic, doesn't have the best in-ring stats, so we'll be depending on Kevin Owens a lot to carry this bout with his psychology and his stellar attributes. I am not expecting fireworks from this match, but it'll tie the show together and will do the job as a good, midcard match to keep things ticking along. The in-ring segments between these two have been really productive, so I am hoping the match can live up to the heat which has been generated from the back-and-forth promos between Logan and Kevin.

Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn - WWE World Heavyweight Championship

On the RAW side of things, Drew McIntyre's rampage following Survivor Series hasn't slowed down, leading to a one-on-one confrontation with Seth Rollins. The two looked poised for a face-off at the Royal Rumble, however things changed when Sami Zayn, a victim of Drew's insatiable anger, returned and was added to the mix! This could perhaps be Rollins' toughest test to date in his reign, as he doesn't have to be pinned to lose his championship. This is a good triple threat, which has similar vibes to the Lesnar, Cena and Rollins match WWE put on nine years ago which is one of my favourite all-time matches. Each man brings a different style to the ring, whilst I don't think this will do as well as Reigns and Orton's match-up, it should still get us a solid rating so soon into our dynasty. Zayn definitely adds a lot of spice to the mix, one year ago he was perhaps the hottest character in WWE regardless of disposition, and one of my goals is to definitely build Sami up and maybe give him that long-awaited championship reign people have been vying for him to get. Seth is that guy, though, and I want to build him up to feature alongside names like Roman Reigns and Cody Rhodes as a Franchise Player for the WWE, at the start of the mod I think he's a little underrated and there's work to be done to get him to that level. The build-up has been alright for this one, these guys don't necessarily have the promo skills of a Kevin Owens, Randy Orton or Roman Reigns. I am expecting it to be our second best match of the night if everything goes to plan.

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven - WWE Women's Tag Team Championships

Keen to earn a rematch for their championships, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven have been on a warpath of their own, until their rematch was granted to take place at the Royal Rumble. Building up the women's tag team division is something I am keen to do, and that means featuring the straps here when a lot of our women will be involved in the Royal Rumble. Having battled in singles action over the course of the month, Chelsea Green and Piper Niven have managed to topple Katana and Kayden individually. But tag team action is a whole other ballgame. The heat for this match and the segments coinciding with it haven't been amazing. With most of the build for the women's division focused on the rumble, Chance, Carter, Green and Niven haven't had many opportunities to shine and within those opportunities, haven't shone whatsoever. This will be our worst-rated match of the night, however, it's important to establish the Women's Tag Team Championships and build up women like these four. I think that the women's division is too big to justify scrapping the belts altogether. It's something that could be revisited down the line but for now I am keen to feature them, furthermore, I think all the women in this match if utilized correctly could be solid hands down the line. Every division has to start somewhere, and I am excited and hopeful of building up a good division to justify keeping these belts around for the long haul, but I am not expecting fireworks from this match whatsoever.

Men's Royal Rumble

Seeing as we touched on it earlier, let's begin with the SmackDown side of things. AJ Styles and LA Knight, keen to wrangle the Undisputed Universal Championship from Roman Reigns' grasp have been feuding with The Bloodline, mainly Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa, with all four men entering the Rumble for different reasons. Should a member of The Bloodline win, one would have to assume they would go over to RAW, looking to take the World Heavyweight Championship from Seth Rollins and stamp utter dominance over WWE for The Bloodline. Outside of that pocket, there's names like Bobby Lashley and Sheamus, each the leaders of their own alliances, who'll look to bring glory to their careers, which could be argued have seen better days. Those with an outside shot include Karrion Kross, who is establishing The End at a steady pace over on SmackDown, as well as Santos Escobar, whose momentum builds from strength-to-strength following a brutal heel turn on the Latino World Order. In relation to RAW, many names are vying for the opportunity to win the Royal Rumble and headline WrestleMania. Cody Rhodes has seen his chances of winning the match back-to-back wind down a tricky road, thanks to a rejuvenated Shinsuke Nakamura taking issue with Rhodes in recent weeks. Nakamura, a former Rumble winner himself, seems hellbent on preventing Cody from finishing his story. But things don't cutoff there, as CM Punk has also found his aspirations of finally headlining WrestleMania hitting a roadblock, a big one in the form of Dominik Mysterio and by extension, The Judgment Day. Keen to add the Royal Rumble to a group that already possesses the Money in the Bank Contract, Dominik has found his footing and has gone from strength-to-strength while feuding with CM Punk. Jey Uso, whose alliance with Cody has seen him clash with Nakamura in recent weeks, has already stated his plans on bringing down The Bloodline once and for all should he win the match, while Gunther, reigning Intercontinental Champion, wishes to win the match and walk out of WrestleMania with the World Heavyweight Championship as well as the Intercontinental Championship around his waist. There are a ton of big names, both talent wise and in terms of popularity, entering the match which should ensure a good rating for us and a chance to springboard into so many stories given the potential to ignite feuds a match like this one possesses.

Women's Royal Rumble

When it comes to the women's Royal Rumble, we're not blessed in relation to how many big names we can throw into the gauntlet. Be it recent departures or injuries, there aren't a ton of names who we could realistically have win and then build up in time for WrestleMania. When it comes to RAW, two big feuds have dominated the women's division and those feuds have seen Becky Lynch and Nia Jax re-ignite their problems of yesteryear. A feud which was formed a little closer to the current date, has a returning, villainous Trish Stratus take issue with Zoey Stark. Outside of these four women, names like Liv Morgan, Shayna Baszler and Raquel Rodriguez have declared their shot at the Royal Rumble. Over on SmackDown, as I mentioned earlier, the division is fairly bleak when it comes to numbers. So, the predominant feud of the women's division has seen Bianca Belair and Shotzi take up their longstanding issues with Damage CTRL, consisting of Bayley, Kairi Sane, IYO Sky and a former Royal Rumble winner in Asuka. Obviously, IYO is the reigning champion over on SmackDown, so Bianca and Shotzi will be fighting it out with Bayley, Asuka and Kairi Sane, should a member of Damage CTRL win they could end up moving over to RAW and taking their shot at Rhea Ripley. For this match, we'll have to call-up a few of the women from NXT for one night, the women's division has a lot of quality, but with Rhea and IYO not in this match and girls like Carmella and Alexa out on maternity leave, we're a few short on sheer numbers to enter the match. The women's division in itself is a project, it has a lot of valuable assets, but is bloated by women who are still fairly green or uninspiring from a creative standpoint. Nevertheless, there's a few fun options to win this match and fun options of what storylines to create from within those potential winners.

I am pleased with the show that I've managed to put together, given how Royal Rumbles work in TEW, I am fully depending on the main event between Roman Reigns and Randy Orton pulling us through in terms of securing a good rating. I think long-term, with the exception of WrestleMania, I'm going to be sticking to the Triple H method of booking events such as this, focusing on smaller cards with bigger explosiveness, opposed to dumping nine, ten or eleven matches on a show. Orton has always been really, really good for me in TEW, so I'm excited for that main event, and as of writing I still don't really know who is going to win the Royal Rumble matches as there's many, many directions we could go with both the men's and the women's matches. We're definitely going to be deviating from the norm further down the line, but at least in the beginning here I'm mostly going to be sticking to the feuds which WWE are putting on at this moment in time. One thing I will definitely clarify is that I have little intention of using The Rock in the short-term. His entertainment skills would make getting a good rating on weekly episodes a little too easy, and in-the-ring I don't think he'd be able to deliver us a satisfactory performance regardless of his insane popularity. It's just one of those dilemmas which wouldn't translate too well to TEW I don't think, furthermore, while it's very exciting in real life, it isn't a direction I want to take WWE into in this playthrough specifically. But all love to The Rock. Anywho, predictions are below. The match card itself isn't the order in which the matches will take place, I haven't figured that out at the time of writing. Feel free to add your own thoughts onto the state of the WWE at the moment along with predicting what'll happen on this show. I am very excited to hear from you all. ^^

Royal Rumble 2024 | Predictions

WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton

WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn

WWE Women's Tag Team Championships
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

WWE Royal Rumble
Winner:

WWE Women's Royal Rumble
Winner:

[CactusHack]

WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton

WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn

WWE Women's Tag Team Championships
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

WWE Royal Rumble
Winner: CM Punk

WWE Women's Royal Rumble
Winner: Sasha Banks : Your comment about being short wrestlers means you gotta do some hiring!

[Number1Leo]

Royal Rumble 2024 | Predictions

WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton

WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn

WWE Women's Tag Team Championships
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

WWE Royal Rumble
Winner: CM Punk

WWE Women's Royal Rumble
Winner: Bayley

[mateitudu]

Royal Rumble 2024 | Predictions

WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton

WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn

WWE Women's Tag Team Championships
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

WWE Royal Rumble
Winner: CM Punk

WWE Women's Royal Rumble
Winner: Naomi

[KazAlmas]

Royal Rumble 2024 | Predictions

WWE Undisputed Universal Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton
No way he drops the title before Wrestlemania.... unless?

WWE United States Championship
Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens

WWE World Heavyweight Championship
Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn
If there is any match that doesn't need a title i think it's the Seth Rollins Wrestlemania Match so i would bet on Zayn or Drew taking the title here

WWE Women's Tag Team Championships
Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven

WWE Royal Rumble
Winner: Cody Rhodes (Now, i don't know why but i just think... maybe this is the year that everything lines up for Cody in the RTWM....)

WWE Women's Royal Rumble
Winner: Sasha Banks (I feel like this is the surprise everyone was waiting to happen this year perhaps before the talks broke down, so i'm Bankin' on Banks making a comeback, but i would not be surprised if i saw someone like... Becky winning this one, could set up a fun match up with Rhea.)

And i totally agree with you that the short match card, more explosive matches is the go-to style of booking that would be best for WWE PLE's moving forward, i think it fits them way better, excited to read the Rumble ^^

[Dawn]

Roman Reigns
Logan Paul
Seth Rollins
Katana Chance & Kayden Carter
CM Punk wins the Men's Rumble
I'll go against the grain and say Liv Morgan is the return that wins the Women's Rumble

[WritenWrestle]

First off, I must say, I am so excited to see where you take the WWE, especially during the Renaissance Era. There're a lot of bumps, curves, and more, as you are on the Road to what may be the biggest WrestleMania of all time, and I am here for all of them.

Now, as for my Royal Rumble predictions, here they are:

Roman Reigns (c) vs. Randy Orton - WWE Undisputed Universal Championship - I do have to go with Roman Reigns on this one, through some shenanigans, but I have a feeling that we might get a staredown with The Rock at some point, by the end of the night.

Logan Paul (c) vs. Kevin Owens - WWE United States Championship - I see a victory for Logan Paul on this one. Maybe, he gets some assistance from Austin Theory and Grayson Waller, or maybe he surprises everyone and pins Owens clean; nah, I don't see that happening, either. :P

Seth Rollins (c) vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn - WWE World Heavyweight Championship - I am going to go with the surprise victory here, and pick Sami Zayn. Now, why would I choose Zayn, you might ask? I feel that he has the most to lose from the match. He wins his first-ever WWE World Heavyweight Championship, and then gets ambushed by Judgment Day, leading to a successful cash-in from Damien Priest.

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter (c) vs. Chelsea Green and Piper Niven - WWE Women's Tag Team Championships - Chance and Carter for the victory in this one, which comes after Piper Niven walks away from Chelsea Green after Green demands too much from her tag team partner.

Men's Royal Rumble - There're so many options in this match! I do have to go out on a limb here, and say, it'll be Cody Rhodes for the second year in a row. I think that Punk's infatuation with Rollins is going to lead to his downfall in the match, which leads to Punk being the heel in his war with Rollins.

Women's Royal Rumble - Again, so many options to choose from; heck, so many potential debuts, too. What if we see Giulia? Mercedes Mone? Or, what about my pick to win it all - Jade Cargill? That's who I think is going to come out on top in this one, and to make it interesting, I think she'll come out at number thirty.

[Selena]

Royal Rumble 2024

Drew McIntyre vs. Sami Zayn vs. Seth Rollins video package ( 85 )

Our show begins with a hype package for the first match of the evening, in which Rollins will defend his World Heavyweight Championship against both McIntyre and Zayn. This segment featured all three men being rated on their entertainment stats, hyping up their odds of winning the match. There's nothing too special to report regarding this segment, a fine way to kick-off the show while giving their upcoming match one last kick in hopes of ramping the rivalry heat that little bit higher.

Seth Rollins defeated Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn to retain the World Heavyweight Championship ( 87 )

I'm really pleased with the rating for this match, considering Rollins' popularity is around the 75 mark whereas McIntyre and Zayn are sitting just shy of 70 themselves. From a booking standpoint there wasn't much we could have done better in relation to this feud, all three men delivered and showed up to perform which is obviously very pleasing. In the match itself, its an open affair with both McIntyre and Zayn scoring multiple opportunities to win the match, as well as the World Heavyweight Championship. But, Rollins capitalizes on the chaos associated with a triple threat match and puts Zayn down with a Curbstomp to retain his championship. Such a finish allows Drew to retain that fiery, monster heel gimmick he's gradually been adopting, while painting the picture that he probably won't be the number one contender anymore, in spite of the fact he wasn't pinned on this occasion. There's one big, big match on RAW that's destined for WrestleMania and such a match involves Rollins with the belt. I'm not going to make it obvious and spell it out, but it's probably the match which instantly comes to mind. So Seth retaining here is the right result, he's the best in-ring out of these three and I want to grow Rollins in relation to his popularity as I see him as one of the WWE's biggest assets.

Kevin Owens backstage interview ( 82 )

In a similar vein to the opening segment, this was simply to hype up the United States Championship match scheduled to take place later on in the night. Kevin Owens was rated on his microphone skills given that it was a promo segment, opposed to a video package. It served its purpose of giving that feud some more fuel, serving also as a barrier between the opening match and the Women's Royal Rumble which takes place next.

Becky Lynch won a battle royal to win the Women's Royal Rumble ( 68 )

Becky Lynch becomes the first-ever two-time Women's Royal Rumble winner, although the rating for this bout was everything but celebratory. When there's women such as Nia Jax, Maxxine Dupri and B-Fab involved in the match, there's definitely a limit on how well a match such as this one can perform. I'm not necessarily disappointed with the rating, more so multiple women were penalized for being off their game which undoubtably dragged the rating down a couple of marks. I have never been the best at booking Royal Rumbles, I'm not certain what I could have done differently for this match to do better than it did. Obviously though, when there's thirty people involved there'll be a wide range of skills and popularities in play. Matches involving so many moving pieces feel like an absolute gamble at times, so perhaps on this occasion we just rolled low. Anywho, let's recap some of the most noteworthy moments from the match.

✰ Becky Lynch won the match, eliminating names like NXT's Lyra Valkyria and longtime rival Nia Jax en route to victory, such a win presents Becky with the opportunity to face either IYO SKY or Rhea Ripley at WrestleMania for the Women's or World Championship respectively.

✰ The biggest headline outside of Lynch's victory was the in-ring debut of Jade Cargill. Cargill amassed the most eliminations over the course of the match, finishing runner-up only to Lynch while picking up sizable eliminations of names like NXT's Tiffany Stratton, as well as multi-time champion Bianca Belair.

✰ Zoey Stark wound-up being the Royal Rumble's iron woman. She would, after quite an effort, eliminate her former partner-and-mentor in Trish Stratus. Moments after, however, Stark fell victim to Jade Cargill's dominance, with Stratus proceeding to blindside Stark following her elimination from the match.

✰ Damage CTRL's dominance for large portions of the bout ensured that, when things were whittled down to the final six women, Asuka and Bayley looked poised to team up and bring the victory home to their stable. But, in an unfortunate turn of events, Bayley accidentally eliminated Asuka before falling victim to Jade Cargill. Later in the night, Asuka and Bayley would get into a backstage argument during an interview, with cracks beginning to formalize in one of wrestling's most dominant all-female stables.

I am happy with the decision to have Becky win this match. Did she need it to set-up a feud with her WrestleMania opponent? Not necessarily. But, in TEW at least, she is leaps-and-bounds ahead of the rest of the field in terms of her popularity and her entertainment skills. To discuss some of the other choices I considered, while Jade Cargill has an incredible look her in-ring stats aren't the most polished, as for Bayley, I really did consider her winning at a point, however I think the story I'd like to tell in regards to Damage CTRL would be better with Bayley not winning the Royal Rumble on this occasion. I don't feel like we had a great amount of options, I went with what I believe WWE might go with in real life.

Becky Lynch post-match celebration ( 92 )

A fairly self-explanatory segment. Becky gets the confetti, the pyro and the headline-making moment. Such a big rating here assures me of my decision to have her win this match.

The Bloodline backstage interview ( 85 )

Jimmy Uso, Paul Heyman and Roman Reigns hype up their respective endeavors for the evening, with Uso and Solo Sikoa positioned in the Royal Rumble match, while Reigns has a big championship defence slated against Randy Orton. Any excuse to have Heyman speak in a segment. But in all seriousness, it wouldn't be WWE without spending a couple of minutes with The Bloodline sat down, serious expressions, addressing what's on their cards tonight. Jimmy and Solo definitely benefit from being around great microphone workers like Heyman and Reigns, as does the heat for both the Men's Royal Rumble and the rivalry between Reigns and Orton.

Logan Paul defeated Kevin Owens to retain the United States Championship ( 81 )

This was a really good match! Logan is definitely a character who is a little difficult to replicate in a game like TEW, where you're punished for a lack of psychology and experience despite being so athletic and good in-the-ring. But, Owens was able to make up for Paul's lack of psychology and they actually overperformed my expectations a little bit. Owens is someone who I'm definitely interested in pushing long-term, but right now, Logan's reign has really not been going on long enough to justify him losing the strap so soon. He has really great charisma and star quality, but with his part-time status I'm not so sure what Logan's purpose will be for us long-term. For now, though, he retains, through tainted methods to continue this storyline rolling forward. One thing about SmackDown is that their midcard is so, so strong. Reigns and Orton I'd argue are far-and-away the two top guys on SmackDown, and there's a big gap between them and the rest of that brand. So the United States Championship, by extension Logan Paul, won't be short of challengers. I am very happy with this rating given Logan's mediocre in-ring performance, and the fact neither guy has amazing popularity either.

Royal Rumble 2024 video package ( 83 )

Before the second Rumble of the night a video package airs essentially recapping the history of the Royal Rumble, as well as some of the feuds we have seen in the build-up to tonight's show. Such as AJ Styles' and LA Knight's clashes with The Bloodline on SmackDown, while names like Gunther, CM Punk and Cody Rhodes are covered over on RAW. I threw a mixture of top end guys into this segment and rated them on a mixture of entertainment and overness, so the rating for the segment is fair game for me. But we have done a good job building this one I think, featuring people like Rhodes, Punk and Knight consistently and even giving a shine to underutilized names like Karrion Kross and Alpha Academy.

Cody Rhodes won a battle royal to win the Royal Rumble ( 80 )

On the subject of two-time Royal Rumble winners, Cody Rhodes follows in Becky Lynch's footsteps and wins the match back-to-back, ensuring that he'll be fighting for either the World Heavyweight or Undisputed Universal Championship in Philadelphia. This rating, I am a little less sad about. The people participating in the match are a little more skilled in-ring than their female counterparts. We just have a fairly old roster, so with inconsistencies comes declining physical abilities which bring down the rating a little. If this event rolled around in the third or the fourth month I'd have had time to sort out everybody's gimmicks, get them some motivation and momentum and maybe the match rating would have improved by a few ratings. Let's look over some of the key events which led to Cody Rhodes getting one step closer to finally finishing his story.

✰ Cody entered the match fairly early, a stark difference to his victory the previous year, last eliminating Solo Sikoa of The Bloodline on his path to victory. Also featuring in the final four alongside Sikoa was Shinsuke Nakamura, a previous winner of the match, and CM Punk, who was the Rumble's iron man.

✰ AJ Styles, LA Knight, Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa have seen plenty of one another on SmackDown in the recent weeks. Such a pattern continued in the Royal Rumble. The Bloodline picked up an elimination a piece on Styles and Knight, but the talking point coming out of the event will have been the long-awaited showdown between Jimmy Uso and his brother, Jey, with Jey dumping his brother out of the match.

✰ Joining Cody Rhodes and CM Punk in the early portions of the match was GUNTHER, reigning Intercontinental Champion, who was looking to replicate his impressive form in last year's match and go one step further in winning the Royal Rumble. Unfortunately, GUNTHER was dumped out awfully early into proceedings by an unlikely source, Brock Lesnar! Lesnar received one of the biggest pops of the night with his entrance, as well as when he dumped GUNTHER out of the ring with a lariat for the ages.

✰ The Judgment Day's attempts of adding the Rumble to their Money in the Bank win fell to tatters mid-way through the match. Balor unceremoniously dumped Priest out of the match following an in-ring argument which left an onlooking Dominik Mysterio baffled. Then, Mysterio and Balor got into an argument. That was until Priest appeared on the apron, dragging an unsuspecting Balor out-and-over with him! Both Priest and Balor had to be escorted to the back, and would butt heads later on in the night leaving the state of the Judgment Day, as well as the Tag Team Championships the duo possess, up in the air regarding their status.

Cody winning this match is something that I am in two-minds about. I was very, very close to having Punk win here. But, I think a Rhodes vs. Reigns rematch, which is what I am working towards, would have been much, much harder to set-up without Rhodes winning here. They were the two people I was only really close to giving the win to. Somebody like a GUNTHER would have been fun but they lack the popularity. At this moment, Rhodes is definitely our second-best full-time guy behind Reigns in terms of popularity and he hasn't all-too behind names like GUNTHER and Rollins when it comes to in-ring performance, too. We definitely played our Rumble winners safe, if this event were happening in three-or-four months in time with other people being built up then maybe it'd be a different outcome. But I'm very happy with Becky and Cody as our winners here.

Damage CTRL backstage interview ( 69 )

A brief segment to feature all the members of Damage CTRL and to further sow the seeds of uncertainty following Bayley's accidental elimination of Asuka. Damage CTRL would have been in a hell of a position had Asuka, Bayley or Kairi ended up winning the Rumble. But, thanks to Bayley, that is no longer the case. IYO does her usual shtick of speaking in Japanese, forcing Dakota to be the one to translate to Bayley and leave her feeling a little isolated. Hopefully Damage CTRL are able to get on the same page soon.

Katana Chance and Kayden Carter defeated Chelsea Green and Piper Niven to retain the Women's Tag Team Championships ( 52 )

I was definitely panicking when setting this match up, because I didn't realise the Tag Titles were an alliance belt, meaning I had to sweat for ten-or-so minutes while I figured out how to borrow the championships for the night. Outside of that, a routine match, this got around the rating which I was expecting it to get. I'm happy to give all four of these women a spotlight, long-term I think they're valuable. Chance and Carter are somewhat unsung heroes when it comes to WWE, they put on entertaining matches and aren't awful on the microphone either. Green and Niven's dreams of capturing their belts back from Chance and Carter are over, meaning in the coming weeks we'll have to find some new, worthy challengers for Chance and Carter's championships. We definitely have to build these women up, but they're decent all-around talents and around the middle of the pecking order in my opinion.

The Judgment Day and The Creed Brothers go back-and-forth ( 76 )

Cameras roll backstage catching Finn Balor and Money in the Bank holder Damian Priest in a hellacious argument with Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley trying to calm things down. Things do eventually relax, not thanks to any member of the Judgment Day, but the Creed Brothers! Brutus and Julius remind Balor and Priest that, while their squabbles are understandable, they're still the reigning Tag Team Champions of both RAW and SmackDown, meaning if their arguments carry over into the ring, it'll be all the more easier for a team like The Creed Brothers to snatch those championships for themselves. The story we're trying to tell here is a little complex given that Priest and Balor indeed do hold the titles. I figured this was a good way to further build the tension within the Judgment Day, as well as give Brutus and Julius, the latter especially given he's a hot prospect, some much-needed airtime.

Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns video package ( 94 )

You're all familiar with my ways by now, a pre-match segment to give the heat of their feud one last push. Orton and Reigns were both rated on entertainment for this.

Roman Reigns defeated Randy Orton to retain the Undisputed Universal Championship ( 89 )

I figured that this would be our best match of the save so far, and I was proven correct. Reigns is just so, so juiced in this mod, rightfully so. He's the top dog of the entire industry, while he doesn't quite have the experience and psychology that Orton does, he was still able to blow the fourteen-time world champion out of the water with his in-ring performance. This feud delivered thankfully given that we only had a couple of weeks to build it up, as the first SmackDown was used to crown Orton as the contender for Reigns' championship. The Bloodline utilise their usual antics in relation to keeping Reigns at the head of the table, with Solo Sikoa involving himself towards the end of the match much to Orton's fury, who levelled him with an RKO. Orton especially interests me, as there's so many directions and ways we can use someone like him. Reigns was never losing here, he's our top guy and the top guy deserves to headline WrestleMania. This result allows us to blossom off into a multitude of interesting stories, all of which will become apparent momentarily.

Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso and Randy Orton and The Bloodline brawl post-match ( 90 )

Following the match, given how close of a fight it was, I'd imagine Reigns would encourage both Solo Sikoa and Jimmy Uso to involve themselves to send a message. It's a three-on-one beatdown of Orton, that is until Jey Uso's music hits and he comes running down to the ring. Jey and Jimmy clashed inside of the Rumble, so there's precedence to this moment not to mention the months-and-months Jey has spent feuding with The Bloodline, still torn up by Jimmy's betrayal of him at SummerSlam. However, the numbers are still odd, so when Cody Rhodes music hits and he comes to even things up and takes it to Roman Reigns, it's obvious where this one and where Rhodes' Royal Rumble victory is heading. There's little point in delaying the inevitable and we send the fans home happy with a monumental moment, setting up not one, not two but potentially three WrestleMania matches here. The six men involved were rated on a mixture of overness, fighting and selling abilities. I couldn't have asked for much more from the main event and the post-match segment.



All things considered, I am thrilled with how good of a show this was. We had limited time to put together our feuds, and with the intricacies of the Royal Rumble matches working against us we were still able to deliver a great main event, multiple great segments and sow the seeds for a number of WrestleMania matches. I am definitely playing on the side of caution in relation to the prospective WrestleMania card I am planning to put on. But, it also speaks to me in terms of realism, and I think for most of the feuds that I have planned, they're really some of the best we can throw together to have a diverse card with explosive potential. WrestleMania is two nights, so there's definitely going to be a lot of feuds to manage over the next eight weeks, including an Elimination Chamber in the middle of those weeks. Thank you all so much for your predictions, I was really blown away with the support and the amount of people who predicted. Now it's time to make a couple of fun signings who'll debut around WrestleMania, as well as sort out the direction we're going to be taking some of our biggest, most popular names in time for the show of shows.

[Dawn]

Awesome Rumble. The two safe picks to win the titular matches don't bother me at all, it helps they're faves of mine but they both make sense and should they happen IRL they wouldn't bother me in the slightest there either. Interested to see which ways you go now with the rest of the RTWM and just wondering where Liv is at

[KazAlmas]

Hopefully the real rumble can be as fun as the one you booked here, i liked the Becky Lynch pick and i said i was not going to be surprised to see someone like her winning in the predictions! Cody Rhodes always seem like the right option here, all around a good "prelude" to the rest of the RTWM, i'm excited how all the branching story lines go from here ^^ (And i'm waiting for the debuts post mania also, hoping and imagining someone like Giulia can be on there :P)

[WritenWrestle]

I have got to say what others have been saying, and tell you, what an awesome Royal Rumble!

Now, while Cody Rhodes and Becky Lynch were so-called safe bets, I personally don't think they were. With Cody and Becky as the winners, it opens up a lot of interesting side streets on the Road to WrestleMania, so you can color me interested in seeing where you go from here.

Now, we're heading to Australia, I believe, for the Elimination Chamber. There're a lot of things that could happen there, some of which, could shock the system. Will we see an appearance from the Most Electrifying Man in Sports Entertainment, Grayson Waller? I can only hope so!

I'd personally love to see a Gold Rush tournament that concludes at the PLE, which leads to someone becoming the number one contender for whatever title Cody doesn't challenge for!

Another question on my mind is, what is The Viper up to, on the Road to WrestleMania? So many questions, so many things to wonder, and we're all so very interested!

[Selena]

Elimination Chamber 2024 | Preview

We are on the road to WrestleMania XL and Elimination Chamber has arrived. It's a strong card, as we figure out the contendership status for some of the biggest championships in the promotion as well as advance subplots and other stories taking place on both RAW and SmackDown. Cody Rhodes, as was established at the end of the Royal Rumble event, is gunning for Roman Reigns and by extension, the entirety of The Bloodline. Becky Lynch meanwhile, has yet to declare which championship she'll be pursuing come WrestleMania, perhaps that will change after Elimination Chamber has wrapped up. I tried my best to feature some talent, and championships, which weren't utilized at the Royal Rumble event. Talent are going to get their biggest popularity changes from big events such as this, so it's important to rotate things around given we're doing our best to stick to a more quality-over-quantity approach with these events. By the time Elimination Chamber is said-and-done, we'll have established some top top feuds that are WrestleMania worthy. In regards to RAW, we have seen Trish Stratus' feud with Zoey Stark grow all-the-more heated in recent weeks and the two look destined to clash on the grandest stage of them all. We have also seen Gunther defend his Intercontinental Championship against Jey Uso, The Judgment Day cheat to come out on top against The Creed Brothers, as well as a short-lived feud between Rhea Ripley and Candice LeRae over the Women's World Championship. SmackDown has been quieter in terms of championship defences, however, many of the feuds we've witnessed when it comes to Friday nights are being advanced at Elimination Chamber. We're definitely building steam in regards to our weekly shows, despite me not utilizing top talents such as Roman Reigns, Cody Rhodes and Seth Rollins all too much on RAW and SmackDown. They're already at the top of the food chain, they don't need to wrestle often to remain at the top, so I prefer to save them for big events which I believe makes this playthrough a little more challenging and realistic. Let's get into the matches that will be taking place at Elimination Chamber, as well as the roads that have led us into booking said matches in the first place.

AJ Styles vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Sheamus - Elimination Chamber Match

Logan Paul is without a contender for his United States Championship and six of the most established names over on SmackDown will be vying inside of the Elimination Chamber for the right to face-off with "The Maverick" at WrestleMania XL. Kevin Owens, feeling cheated out of the championship in question at the Royal Rumble, is hellbent on rectifying the result that took place four weeks ago as well as securing his first singles championship in a long, long time. Joining Kevin Owens are AJ Styles and LA Knight, whose feud against The Bloodline ended with the duo being thrown over the top rope back in the Royal Rumble match. Gradually, their attentions have shifted elsewhere following an in-ring confrontation with Logan Paul himself. Styles and Knight, much like many of the names in this match, have been in the business for a long, long time and want to give the United States of American a champion it can be proud of. Bobby Lashley and a returning Sheamus have been butting heads with one-another, as well as with Karrion Kross, in recent weeks. The Pride, The Brawling Brutes and The End's quarrels have led to multiple in-ring brawls between the three factions, all asserting that they're the best and are primed to take over the SmackDown landscape. Finally, but certainly not of the least importance, is a man who has been on a winning streak in recent weeks, Santos Escobar. After turning his back on the Latino World Order, Escobar has gone from strength-to-strength and perhaps carries the most momentum into the Elimination Chamber match. Whilst all of these men have their differences, there's an obvious common goal shared by all of them, a dislike of Logan Paul and a want to return the United States Championship to somebody who, in their minds, is fitting of the championship.

The Judgment Day (c) w/ Rhea Ripley vs. The Creed Brothers w/ Ivy Nile vs. The Awesome Truth - WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships

At the Royal Rumble, we saw Damian Priest and Finn Balor's relationship deteriorate as the two seemingly couldn't stop getting in one another's way in the Royal Rumble match. This led to a backstage confrontation with Dominik Mysterio and Rhea Ripley trying to ease tensions, all to be interrupted by The Creed Brothers, demanding a shot at the championships seeing that the reigning champions couldn't seem to stay on the same page. Well, that match did take place, and The Judgment Day were able to win albeit through nefarious means. Since that point the squabbling has persisted, The Creed Brothers have been demanding a rematch and the emergence of a reformed The Awesome Truth, consisting of The Miz and oh-so brief Judgment Day member R-Truth, has made the championship scene very complicated. Damian Priest and Finn Balor will have to put their differences aside if they're going to retain the RAW and SmackDown Tag Team Championships once more, although with this being a triple threat bout, they don't necessarily have to be pinned in order to lose the straps. The Creed Brothers have been impressing the world with their athleticism and hunger, whereas The Miz has looked rejuvenated alongside R-Truth, who himself is gradually generating momentum since returning from injury back in December. The cracks are beginning to form within The Judgment Day and they'll have to be at their best to stand any chance of taking down both The Creed Brothers and The Awesome Truth.

IYO SKY (c) w/ Bayley vs. Bianca Belair - WWE Women's Championship

To detail Bianca Belair and IYO SKY's many issues over many, many months would take far too much time. Let's just say that Belair's, as well as the SmackDown women's division's, problems with Damage CTRL haven't simmered in the aftermath of the Royal Rumble event. While Bianca has been dealing with a Jade Cargill-sized problem, and Damage CTRL have had their own issues with Asuka and Bayley dropping losses in recent weeks to allow Belair to have this opportunity, fate seems to bring these two together despite having other fires to put out. IYO SKY has alluded to having a WrestleMania opponent in mind should she retain against Bianca, while Belair wants all eyes on her seemingly inevitable showdown with Cargill at WrestleMania, meaning she wants the Women's Championship in her possession by the time that bout rolls around! Asuka, Dakota Kai and Kairi Sane have been barred from ringside for this match-up, however, IYO SKY insisted that Bayley be present at ringside, to make-up for her recent disappointments, something which Bianca Belair was more than fine with happening! The story here seems less so about the championship bout in question, and more so Bianca encouraging Bayley to do the right thing if she feels disrespected; to turn on Damage CTRL for the betterment of the SmackDown women's division. With the future of Damage CTRL up in the air, and Jade Cargill's momentous debut in WWE still a large talking point, so many potential scenarios surrounding this match could see either IYO retain her strap, or Bianca walk out with the WWE Women's Championship.

Brock Lesnar vs. Ludwig Kaiser w/ Imperium

Remember Brock Lesnar's elimination of Gunther during the Royal Rumble? Well, the reigning Intercontinental champion hasn't let that one go. Gunther has amassed so many defences of his Intercontinental Championship since winning the belt long, long ago. Seemingly, Imperium's leader has a new target on his hitlist, "The Beast" Brock Lesnar! We have witnessed a few back-and-forth conversations between Brock and Gunther, although no further physical confrontations since the Royal Rumble event. Lesnar's challenge for the Intercontinental Championship is already locked-in for WrestleMania, although an interesting twist has been added to the equation here, with Ludwig Kaiser facing down a battle with Brock here at Elimination Chamber. What is that twist? Well, if Ludwig Kaiser somehow is able to topple Brock, then he'll be added to the WrestleMania match making it a triple threat! Both Gunther and Giovanni Vinci shall be situated at ringside for this match. Lesnar will be hoping that he can stop Kaiser nice-and-quickly to emphasise his strengths to the Intercontinental champion, while an interesting dynamic within the match will be created should Kaiser be added into proceedings. Lesnar will be the strong favourite here, but Kaiser will have the motivation of that potential shot at Gunther's championship in the back of his mind, while Gunther's allegiances may be thrown off-kilter should his defence of his crown at WrestleMania become a triple threat match.

CM Punk vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura - Elimination Chamber Match

With Cody Rhodes opting to cash-in his Royal Rumble win against Roman Reigns, Seth Rollins is left without a dance partner for WrestleMania XL, that is, until the conclusion of our second Elimination Chamber match of the night. Let's begin with Drew McIntyre and Sami Zayn, who fought against Rollins at the Royal Rumble, both are looking to redeem their loss inside the Chamber while bettering the other. McIntyre's complaints some could argue are warranted, however if there's one man who knows of the highs-and-lows of professional wrestling it's a man like Sami Zayn. Joining Drew and Sami inside the Chamber are CM Punk and Dominik Mysterio, both who have had run-ins with one another, as well as with Rollins. Punk has obviously come face-to-face with Rollins before, while Mysterio has grown from strength-to-strength in recent weeks, in spite of the tensions within the Judgment Day. Making up the final two spots inside of the Elimination Chamber are Shinsuke Nakamura, who also has had his issues with Rollins in the past, as well as Kofi Kingston, who is looking to replicate the magic of Kofimania from five years ago and bring some fortune and good news to The New Day, who in large have fallen down the pecking order in WWE since Big E's injury. Kingston and Nakamura, while looking as outliers in this match are not to be underestimated. Regardless of the winner, Rollins will be in for a tough time come WrestleMania, with all six men having something to prove.

Jey Uso and Randy Orton w/ Cody Rhodes vs. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa w/ Paul Heyman - No Disqualification Match

The main event is engrossed in The Bloodline drama, with Cody Rhodes and Paul Heyman at ringside as Jey Uso and Randy Orton further their feuds with Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa, all in No Disqualification action! With the Royal Rumble event ending in a huge six-man brawl, and all six of those men only getting deeper-and-deeper entrenched in the hostile environment of their own creation, a match such as this one was inevitable. Roman Reigns won't be present at Elimination Chamber, with the "Wiseman" Paul Heyman overseeing The Bloodline's business for one night. Jimmy Uso and Jey Uso have become a nuisance to one another, as well as Adam Pearce and Nick Aldis as they're constantly invading the other show looking to inflict pain onto one another. The brothers have a long, long history, with Jey still feeling bitter following SummerSlam with Jimmy Uso re-joining The Bloodline and costing him the Universal Championship. Orton and Sikoa's problems aren't exactly as in-depth as Jey and Jimmy's. But, Orton returned and swore vengeance on The Bloodline, he was incapable of dethroning Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble in part to Sikoa's beatdowns in the SmackDown's preceding that match. The Bloodline have made many, many enemies in recent memory, not to mention back-to-back Royal Rumble winner in Cody Rhodes who'll be in the corner of Jey Uso and Randy Orton for this match. The No Disqualification stipulation ensures one thing, this bout will be utter carnage! The Uso brothers look destined to face-off at WrestleMania to squash their issues once and for all, and a similar statement could be said for Solo Sikoa and "The Viper" Randy Orton. That is, if all four men survive what will be the main event of Elimination Chamber.

On the surface of things, Elimination Chamber looks good. I am a little concerned about the main event, only Randy Orton really has "main event" level popularity and stats out of the four men taking part in it. But, I didn't want to use either Cody Rhodes or Roman Reigns and put them in the same ring together prior to WrestleMania, even if they would both boost the potential ratings of the main event by a lot. It's definitely a B-tier event. However I think I've managed to do a good job of interweaving a lot of stories together, especially in the Elimination Chamber matches which I think are both strong. Across both matches, everybody bar Dominik Mysterio has the in-ring abilities and the experience to deliver a good rating. I'm not expecting fireworks, or for things to get as good as they did with Randy Orton vs. Roman Reigns at the Royal Rumble, however, if one of the matches on this show gets into the mid-80s I'll consider that a success. Maybe in hindsight, I could have had someone like Bianca Belair or Bayley win the Royal Rumble, as RAW's women's division is so stacked and we could have featured names like Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez and Zoey Stark on the card, along with Becky Lynch, to determine a contender for Rhea Ripley's Women's World Championship. I think this card is somewhat realistic, I could see WWE replicating or coming close to running similar matches to the ones that I've thrown together here. But of course, that's my opinion. In my mind, I believe this show is a little predictable in relation to the direction's we'll be taking things. I'm just pleased I've been able to include so many stories within the Elimination Chambers, as long as we stay on par in terms of the ratings these matches get I'll be pleased. Thank you for all of your support thus far on this playthrough, it means a lot, I'll post the predictions for Elimination Chamber below. I am excited to hear from you all.

Elimination Chamber 2024 | Predictions

Elimination Chamber Match
AJ Styles vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Sheamus

WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships
The Judgment Day (c) vs. The Creed Brothers vs. The Awesome Truth

WWE Women's Championship
IYO SKY (c) vs. Bianca Belair

Brock Lesnar vs. Ludwig Kaiser

Elimination Chamber Match
CM Punk vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

No Disqualification Match
Jey Uso and Randy Orton vs. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa

[Dawn]

L.A. KNIGHT. YEAH!
Judgment Day 
IYO SKY
Brock Lesnar
CM Punk
Jimmy Uso & Solo Sikoa

I think DIY are next for the tag titles and I smell shenanigans on the other tag match. Real solid card! 

[2Sweet]

Elimination Chamber 2024 | Predictions

Elimination Chamber Match
AJ Styles vs. Bobby Lashley vs. Kevin Owens vs. LA Knight vs. Santos Escobar vs. Sheamus

WWE RAW and WWE SmackDown Tag Team Championships
The Judgment Day (c) vs. The Creed Brothers vs. The Awesome Truth

Love Awesome Truth

WWE Women's Championship
IYO SKY (c) vs. Bianca Belair

Brock Lesnar vs. Ludwig Kaiser

Elimination Chamber Match
CM Punk vs. Dominik Mysterio vs. Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston vs. Sami Zayn vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

No Disqualification Match
Jey Uso and Randy Orton vs. Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa

[Selena]

Elimination Chamber 2024

Becky Lynch and Rhea Ripley go back-and-forth

We kick-off Elimination Chamber with the revelation that Becky Lynch will be fighting Rhea Ripley for the WWE Women's World Championship at WrestleMania! After winning the second Royal Rumble of her career, Becky could have opted to face either of IYO SKY or Lyra Valkyria at WrestleMania XL, however, "The Man" has chosen "Mami" much to the delight of the crowd. This is one of the biggest women's matches that we could run across our promotion, making WrestleMania a worthy event to host such a promising match-up. ( 91 )

LA Knight ( 73 ) defeated AJ Styles (79, ) Bobby Lashley ( 66, ) Kevin Owens ( 81, ) Santos Escobar ( 72, ) and Sheamus ( 74 ) in an Elimination Chamber match

Logan Paul's challenger for the WWE United States Championship at WrestleMania will be none other than LA Knight! Knight triumphed inside of the Elimination Chamber stipulation to secure his shot at WrestleMania with AJ Styles being the final elimination. Bobby Lashley and Sheamus, of The Pride and The Brawling Brutes respectively, couldn't get out of the other's way during the match and arguably cost themselves in their short-sightedness. Meanwhile Santos Escobar's outing inside of the Elimination Chamber was disrupted by the return of Rey Mysterio, whose entrance theme and return distracted Santos long enough for Styles to pick-up the elimination. It was a back-and-forth battle between Knight, Styles and Kevin Owens in the final three; however Knight succeeds inside one of WWE's most harrowing stipulations. This match was mired by Styles, Lashley and Sheamus all in physical decline, as well as Sheamus injuring AJ Styles, fracturing his cheekbone. I was hopeful of a higher rating, towards the ( 80 ) mark however Sheamus' botch prevents us from getting even close to that mark. Knight was always going to win this match, I did toy with the prospect of running a four-way bout at WrestleMania itself, but doing so would have meant only one Elimination Chamber match at this event. I'm not expecting fireworks from Knight's eventual showdown with Paul, nevertheless, that's the direction we're rolling in for now. ( 74 )

LA Knight promo on Logan Paul post-match

A short-and-sweet post-match segment to officialize the match and add some further heat to the rivalry. LA Knight celebrates his Elimination Chamber win and promises to take Logan Paul's championship at WrestleMania. Knight is one of our better microphone workers, and it re-gains the heat that unfortunately was lost in the match preceding this segment. ( 87 )

Cody Rhodes backstage interview

While Cody Rhodes doesn't have a match at Elimination Chamber, he will be in the corner of Jey Uso and Randy Orton as they take on the duo of Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa in the main event. Cody speaks about his history with The Bloodline, with Roman Reigns and of course, puts his support behind Uso and Orton ahead of their big match. I wanted to feature Rhodes in some fashion on the show as he doesn't have a match and using his entertainment skills to put over two other feuds, in Jey Uso vs. Jimmy Uso and Randy Orton vs. Solo Sikoa felt like a practical choice. ( 89 )

The Judgment Day ( 73, 84 ) defeated The Creed Brothers ( 46, 53 ) and The Awesome Truth ( 44, 51 ) to retain the RAW and SmackDown Tag Team Championships

In spite of the in-house squabbling, Damian Priest and Finn Balor get things over the line to defend their RAW and SmackDown Tag Team Championships against not one, but two other tag teams. The Judgment Day have definitely had a mixed couple of months, but what's important is Damian, Finn and Rhea still have their respective championships and Damian also still has the Money in the Bank Briefcase. The decision to have The Judgment Day retain here was a simple one. I don't think The Creed Brothers are quite championship material yet while on the other hand R-Truth is in physical decline and The Miz makes for an awful babyface. There's so, so many ways in which we can take Damian and Finn's reign with both championships, losing here I didn't believe would have made for a realistic decision. The match itself scored the same as the Elimination Chamber bout, which I never foresaw occurring, but I suppose that's the power of Finn Balor in this mod and that's the detriment of using guys in physical decline such as Bobby Lashley and Sheamus. ( 74 )

The End backstage interview

Karrion Kross cuts a promo essentially reminding the world that he, and by extension the Authors of Pain, exist. This was not their finest hour with both Kross and Scarlett being penalized for their microphone skills. Truthfully I want to help the group gain some popularity, but outings like this are seemingly not the way to go about that. ( 46 )

IYO SKY ( 61 ) defeated Bianca Belair ( 71 ) to retain the WWE Women's Championship

Many questions were asked of Damage CTRL leading into Elimination Chamber, but IYO SKY was able to get it done thanks to an unlikely source, Jade Cargill! Bianca Belair had the lion's share of this match-up and came close to putting IYO SKY away many times. Bayley, who was situated on the outside in SKY's corner, couldn't offer up much distraction and seemed to get unlucky regarding when she did try to assist IYO and turn the tide into her stablemate's favour. In the end, it'd take Cargill's entrance music screaming through the arena for IYO to not only turn the tide in her favour, but put the match away altogether! This did fine, IYO SKY was really off her game which impacted the rating quite a bit. We've been very unlucky so far into this event, hopefully our luck can turn around soon. I did consider putting the belt on Bianca at one point, but I believe IYO's opponent, soon to be revealed, and IYO will benefit more with the championship being in the picture. On another night I truly believe this could have gone five-or-six ratings better than it eventually did, with SKY's inconsistencies being the difference maker. ( 73 )

Damage CTRL attack Bayley post-match

Here's the big, very predictable reveal, in that IYO's WrestleMania opponent will be stablemate Bayley! Incensed with Bayley's performance in both the Royal Rumble and hindering IYO's performances tonight, SKY loses her cool and assaults Bayley following the match. Asuka, Dakota and Kairi Sane emerge from backstage, but rather than help Bayley up they join in with the attack and leave Bayley down-and-out. With Bayley unconscious, IYO grabs a microphone and challenges Bayley to a match at WrestleMania, wanting to embarrass her on a bigger stage as well as truly stamp her own authority on Damage CTRL, casting Bayley out into the shadows forever. As I've covered before, SmackDown is really, really struggling in the women's division. Outside of Bianca, there's only one other babyface who is really at a competent level. So turning Bayley not only makes sense from a storyline perspective, but to also balance the division somewhat. These two women should do good things at WrestleMania, they both have good psychology and in-ring performances, even if they could use some work on the popularity side of things. ( 71 )

The New Day backstage interview

Ahead of Kofi Kingston's appearance in the Elimination Chamber, he and Xavier Woods reminisce over Kofimania as well as their careers since that point. This was just a little segment to get Xavier on an event as well as give Kofi some airtime. There's more juice to squeeze out of the New Day, even with Big E out with injury and long-term I want to utilise them as they're great all-around talents. ( 72 )

Brock Lesnar ( 78 ) defeated Ludwig Kaiser ( 65 ) by disqualification

A seven-minute match somehow is our best of the night so far, with Giovanni Vinci interfering before Brock Lesnar could secure a clean win over Ludwig Kaiser. This means that Kaiser won't be joining Lesnar and Gunther, the reigning Intercontinental Champion, in their WrestleMania showdown. This was a simple bout to maximize Lesnar's abilities. Even with stamina issues, Lesnar being in physical decline and both men being heels, it still surpassed expectations in terms of its rating. ( 76 )

Brock Lesnar and Imperium brawl post-match

With Giovanni's interference, he and Ludwig pounce on Brock Lesnar following the match. Obviously, it doesn't take long before Brock turns-the-tables and begins throwing Vinci and Kaiser around. This is all while Gunther is watching on the outside. Kaiser and Vinci retreat, with Gunther and Lesnar trading words before Lesnar encourages the crowd to make some noise. ( 74 )

CM Punk ( 83 ) defeated Dominik Mysterio ( 65, ) Drew McIntyre ( 71, ) Kofi Kingston ( 68, ) Sami Zayn ( 79, ) and Shinsuke Nakamura ( 75 ) in an Elimination Chamber Match

In a good match, Seth Rollins finds out his opponent for WrestleMania XL and that opponent is CM Punk! Punk goes on to win last eliminating Drew McIntyre for the opportunity to fight for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Surprisingly, Sami Zayn was first-out in this match-up. Shinsuke Nakamura and Dominik Mysterio followed, with Kofi Kingston soon joining these names in being dumped out of the Elimination Chamber. Punk and McIntyre have both been vocal regarding wanting their moment, to finish their story, to go on and headline WrestleMania. However on the night Punk was just too good for McIntyre, and while we have seen snippets and a couple of interactions between them, Punk and Rollins are surely going to be bumping into one another a lot, lot more on the road to WrestleMania as they're now opponents at that event. I'm pleased with the outcome of this match, as well as the rating being so good despite inconsistencies from Mysterio, Kingston and Nakamura, who is also in physical decline. With McIntyre and Zayn facing Rollins at the rumble, and neither of Mysterio, Kingston or Nakamura really being popular enough to warrant facing Rollins at WrestleMania, Punk was the obvious choice both in TEW, and probably will be in real life. Punk isn't declining somehow in this mod, too, meaning he could get better than he is performing at right now. It should be a great potential main event for WrestleMania for us and I am excited to book it. ( 82 )

CM Punk celebration post-match

Punk celebrates his big win, with Rollins walking out onto the entrance ramp and staring him down, much like when Punk returned at Survivor Series and the roles were reversed. Punk was rated on entertainment for this one and you can never go wrong with that. ( 99 )

Jimmy Uso ( 56 ) and Solo Sikoa ( 56 ) defeated Jey Uso ( 70 ) and Randy Orton ( 78 ) in a No Disqualification match

Today is the day we learnt Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa have zero chemistry as partners. I imagine this to be a bloody, back-and-forth match, where in the end Solo Sikoa's raw power and explosiveness even after so many minutes is able to put Jey away for good. I definitely toyed with having Jey and Randy win here, but, given that these stories are continuing it's probably best served for Jimmy and Solo to benefit from this win and the hopeful popularity gains that come with it. In hindsight, maybe I should have added Cody and Roman into the mix. But I also feel that would kill expectations and hype for their eventual WrestleMania showdown having them compete in a No Disqualification match. There were no negatives to this one save for the zero chemistry between Jimmy and Solo which definitely knocked this one down a few pegs. It's very disappointing, but we live and we learn and WrestleMania will be much better. ( 76 )

The Bloodline and Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso and Randy Orton brawl post-match, Rikishi interferes

To follow the result, Jey Uso and Randy Orton take further beating from Jimmy Uso and Solo Sikoa. Cody Rhodes involves himself to turn the tide of the beatdown, throwing Jimmy and Solo out of the ring before checking on Jey and Randy. Proceedings are interrupted from an unlikely source, Rikishi! Rikishi stands on the entrance ramp with a microphone in hand and he announces that he is sick and tired of seeing his boys constantly at war with one another. Rikishi says he has done his best to stay out of The Bloodline's business, but it is his bloodline too. Rikishi proposes that Jey Uso and Jimmy Uso settle their issues at WrestleMania, with Rikishi acting as the special guest referee! This adds another complex layer in The Bloodline storyline and adds some genuine depth to both Jey and Jimmy Uso, who at times have been lost in Roman and Solo's shadow. If we're going to have any chance of either Jey and Jimmy breaking out, isolating them in their own storyline away from Roman, Cody, Randy and Solo's business could be a great way to do that. A good end to a otherwise.. Meh event. ( 89 )



Elimination Chamber is an event we're going to quicky put behind us. On paper, it doesn't look so bad. But on another day, we might have been more fortunate to have avoided inconsistencies and injuries, turning some of the lower-performing matches around. Bianca and IYO I feel could have done better, the same sentiments go towards the opening match and the main event. If the Royal Rumble was a step in the right direction, Elimination Chamber undid that step. We took risks, not using names such as Seth Rollins, Cody Rhodes and Roman Reigns in-the-ring, perhaps had we done so and utilized our star players this would have been a much, much better main event. However, it's better to fail here than to underperform at WrestleMania itself. We're pushing some talented names, just in this go around those names in question didn't have their best performances. Thank you to those who predicted, please let me know your thoughts, be that constructive criticism or positive feedback and I'll do my best to get to WrestleMania in a timely manner as we now have the vast majority of matches for those shows penciled in. Thanks so much.