Entrant #25 – Asuka (Winner)
Heading into the match, Asuka and Ronda Rousey were the two favourites but Asuka made the most sense. She was undefeated at the time and having her win was definitely the correct decision. She lasted in the Rumble for almost 20 minutes before winning the whole thing. Asuka went on to challenge Charlotte Flair at WrestleMania 34 where she suffered her first loss in WWE when she tapped out to the Queen. Luckily for Asuka, this wasn’t her only shot at the SmackDown Women’s Championship in 2018. At TLC, she defeated Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch in a triple threat match to win her first Women’s Championship in WWE. She was going strong and was looking to head into WrestleMania 35 as the SmackDown Women’s Champion but due to a last-minute change in plans, she had to drop the belt to Charlotte just two weeks before WrestleMania. However, this was just a minor setback for Asuka as she formed the Kabuki Warriors with Kairi Sane and went on to win the Women’s Tag Team Championship. They dropped the belts at WrestleMania 36 but Asuka soon won the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match and the next night, she was handed the RAW Women’s Championship because Becky had to relinquish it due to her pregnancy. Asuka then also won the Women’s Tag Team Championship from Nia and Shayna last month at TLC. Currently, she is a double champion and holds both the RAW Women’s Championship and the Women’s Tag Team Championship. Asuka and Charlotte set to defend their tag titles against Nia Jax and Shayna Baszler at the Royal Rumble this Sunday.
Entrant #26 – Mickie James
Mickie James is also one of the old-timers but at the time she entered the Royal Rumble, she was already a full-timer in WWE and was in the title scene before the Royal Rumble. She didn’t play a significant role in the Royal Rumble match. She soon turned heel after the Rumble and united with Alexa Bliss whom she helped win matches through underhanded tactics. James got a chance to win the RAW Women’s Championship when she was selected as the challenger for Ronda’s title but the match was a squash match. James floated around in the midcard before she suffered a torn ACL in 2019 which put her out of action. She assumed the role of a commentator on Main Event in the meanwhile. She did return to action after a bit over a year in 2020 starting a feud with Natalya and Lana’s team and even got an opportunity to challenge for Asuka RAW Women’s Championship but that effort was unsuccessful. Her last match was against Zelina Vega in September last year and from the looks of things, her full-time days might be over. She most recently was one of the “Legends” on RAW: Legend’s Night
Entrant #27 – Nikki Bella
One-half of the Bella Twins, Nikki Bella made her way to the Royal Rumble match as many fans watched in awe. Nikki made it to the final two against Asuka but at the time fans knew that Asuka was winning the Rumble. She lasted sixteen minutes in the match. Nikki Bella along with her sister Brie made her full-time return to wrestling in September of the same year landing in a rivalry with the Riott Squad. However, Nikki was elevated to a higher level as she challenged Ronda Rousey in a one-on-one match for the RAW Women’s Championship at Evolution. Her last match for WWE was at a Live Event against Ronda Rousey which she lost as well. In July of last year, Nikki gave birth to a baby boy. She is currently retired and lives with her family. She will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame whenever the next ceremony takes place. The Bella Twins also host a podcast called The Bellas Podcast.
Entrant #28 – Brie Bella
Obviously, these two had to come out in quick succession. Brie pretty much has the same progression as Nikki apart from the fact that Nikki was successful in eliminating her sister from the Rumble. In August of that year, she got into a feud with The Miz and Maryse alongside her husband Daniel Bryan. A mixed tag match took place at Hell in a Cell where Miz and Maryse were victorious. Brie had also partially returned to full-time action where she feuded with the Riott Squad with her sister but unlike Nikki, she did not get a shot at the RAW Women’s Championship. In August of last year, she gave birth to a boy. She lives with her and Nikki’s family in Napa Valley and the twins have their own podcast too as mentioned earlier.
Entrant #29 – Bayley
Bayley has been at the forefront of Women’s wrestling for quite a while and her entering the Rumble at number 29 sparkled a touch of doubt in many people if she was actually going to win. Unfortunately for Bayley, she didn’t but she did take out Nia Jax from the match albeit with the help of five other wrestlers. Interestingly enough, Bayley was eliminated by her long time best friend Sasha Banks. Going deeper into 2018, Bayley and Sasha had a rivalry but the result of that feud was them forming the Boss n Hug connection. The team saw success but it was dissolved when Bayley was drafted to SmackDown. Bayley’s climb up the ladder didn’t stop there. She won the Money in the Bank match in 2019 and at the same night, she cashed in the briefcase defeating Charlotte Flair for the SmackDown Women’s Championship. By late 2019, Bayley had turned heel and found herself again aligned with Sasha Banks on SmackDown. Bayley lost the belt for a week in October to Charlotte Flair but regained it less than a week later. She held the title for a combined five-hundred and nineteen days. During her title reign, cracks formed between herself and Sasha and soon Bayley turned on the Boss setting up a match for Hell in a Cell 2020. Bayley lost the SmackDown Women’s Championship to Sasha at Hell in a Cell. Bayley is currently feuding with Bianca Belair and has declared her entry in this Sunday’s Women’s Royal Rumble match.
Entrant #30 – Trish Stratus
It had to be Trish Stratus. The final wrestler to enter the Women’s Royal Rumble received arguably the loudest pop of the night. Trish made her way to the ring to a loud ovation and she eliminated three wrestlers from the match before being eliminated by Sasha Banks. This sparked another appearance for Stratus at Evolution later that year. She wrestled alongside Lita defeating Mickie James and Alicia Fox in a tag team match at evolution. She made a return to WWE a year later to feud with Charlotte Flair and both of them competed at SummerSlam 2019 where The Queen picked up the win. This happened to be Stratus’ retirement match. She lives her retired life in peace often interacting with fans on social media now. She also frequently does interviews for various shows and currently has no intentions of coming back.
I hope you enjoyed knowing what all these wrestlers who competed in the first women’s Royal Rumble were up to. If you want more wrestling related news and features head on over to TWM.news and enjoy.
You can read Matthew Roberts review of the 2018 Royal Rumble here
You can watch this year’s Royal Rumble over at the WWE Network, new subscribers get the first month free, the pre-show is included in the free version of the network or over at their YouTube channel.