Cody Rhodes eliminates CM Punk to win 2024 WWE men's Royal Rumble; surprise entrants include Andrade, Bron Breakker & Pat McAfee

Originally published at Cody Rhodes eliminates CM Punk to win 2024 WWE men's Royal Rumble; surprise entrants include Andrade, Bron Breakker & Pat McAfee

Rhodes goes back-to-back. 

In the final four of the 2024 men’s Royal Rumble match were Cody Rhodes, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre and WWE Intercontinental Champion GUNTHER. Punk eliminated McIntyre and Rhodes eliminated GUNTHER. After a lengthy back and forth between the two remaining competitors, Rhodes tossed Punk out to win the Rumble match for the second year in a row. Rhodes then pointed at Undisputed WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns who was seated in the suites.

Starting off the match at #1 and #2 were Jey and Jimmy Uso. 

Making his return to WWE at the #4 spot was Andrade. He finished up with All Elite Wrestling at the Worlds End pay-per-view in December. Andrade was eliminated by Bronson Reed. 

Bobby Lashley tossed Karrion Kross out of the match and then the eliminated Kross ended up pulling Lashley out. This led to a brawl between Lashley and The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) and The Final Testament (Karrion Kross, Akam & Rezar). 

Entering at #20 was former NXT Champion Bron Breakker. Breakker’s elimination list included Jimmy Uso, Finn Bálor and Ivar. Breakker was thrown out by Dominik Mysterio.

Making his return to WWE programming was Omos at #21. 

To kick off the Royal Rumble Premium Live Event, Pat McAfee joined commentary. He entered the men’s Rumble but chose to eliminate himself as Breakker and Omos were waiting on him in the ring. 

R-Truth made his way into the ring after initially showing up for the women’s Royal Rumble. Truth threw J.D. McDonagh back in the ring after McDonagh was speared by Breakker. J.D. was immediately thrown out by GUNTHER. Truth went on to hot-tag into the match via Dominik tagging him in to escape GUNTHER. Truth was eliminated by Priest. 

The final entrant in the match was Sami Zayn. 

Only 15 of 60 entrants in the two Rumbles were from Smackdown #FireAldis