INARI PLEASE

07. Royal Rumble (2024)

Chapter Seven, Royal Rumble (2024)

Inari walked into the arena holding hands with Joe and their children. It was the 37th annual Royal Rumble event at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Since the event was taking place so close to home, Joe wanted Inari and the kids there.

"You guys are staying backstage with me until my match," Joe told Inari.

Inari nodded. "Uhh, the kids can stay back here with you but I want to watch the women's Rumble at ringside," Inari said.

"Me too," Isla added.

"Okay, I'll just make sure the boys are out there before my match then," Joe said.

"Alright," Inari said.

They made their way into the crowded hallway and went to Joe's private dressing room. Inari started filming Joe as he got ready. She had taken over managing his social media accounts as his content manager, which was suggested by their counselor as a way to help improve their relationship.

After a short TikTok video went viral and gained him thousands of new followers overnight, Joe began to grasp the immense reach of Inari's social media presence and the full extent of the work she did to build such a vast audience.

He still had a long way to go with understanding her career but he was proud of what she accomplished by using social media.

"Okay, Isla and I are leaving now so we can catch the first entrant," Inari said after editing and posting Joe's content for tonight.

"Okay, be safe," Joe said.

Inari and Isla walked out of the private dressing room and once again made their way into the crowded hallway.

They ran into a few people like Joe's other cousins, talking for a few minutes before they had to go do something.

Inari and Isla made it to ringside toward the back and sat down with Joe's cousins, Jacob, and Isayah.

"Oh, y'all finna be lit tonight," Inari said as she watched how hyped they were getting with their section of the crowd.

"Hell yeah!" Isayah exclaimed.

The show opened with the Women's Royal Rumble match. The first two entrants were Natalya from Raw, who continued her streak of being in every Women's Rumble, and Trinity, who returned to WWE after walking out of the company in May 2022 and after performing in Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) the preceding few months.

Inari stood up, screaming in excitement at Trinity's return. "My boo is back!" Inari shouted, clapping her hands.

She was followed by SmackDown's Bayley at number three. TNA Knockouts World Champion Jordynne Grace entered at number five as a surprise entrant and briefly reignited her feud with Naomi, whom she defeated in Trinity's final TNA match for the title.

"Oh, this is looking good," Isla said.

"Right," Inari said, and excitedly watching the match.

Past Women's Rumble winners Asuka (2018) and Bianca Belair (2021), both from SmackDown, later entered at numbers seven and 10, respectively. As the ring filled up, Savelina entered at number 19 and went on a run of eliminations.

2019 winner Becky Lynch from Raw entered at number 21. As Raw's Valhalla was making her entrance as the 24th entrant, R-Truth (who was assigned as the 24th entrant for the Men's match) also tried to enter the match, not realizing that this was the Women's Rumble.

Jade Cargill was another surprise entrant at number 28, making her WWE in-ring debut, and eliminated Savelina and Trinity (who lasted for over an hour).

Raw's Liv Morgan was the final entrant, making her return after over six months due to injury, and also continuing her streak of being in every Women's Rumble.

Bayley, Cargill, and Morgan were the final three, and after Morgan eliminated Cargill, Bayley then eliminated Morgan to win the Rumble, and in the process set the new Women's Rumble longevity record at 1:03:03. She was also the second woman to win the match from the #3 position after Belair in 2021 and third person overall.

Leo came with his younger brothers as Joe got ready to make his entrance for his match. The family was screaming and cheering the whole match. Inari swore her kids were ready to get in the ring and help their father. She recorded it a little bit so she could show Joe the kids' reaction later.

Joe defended the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Randy Orton, AJ Styles, and LA Knight in a fatal four-way match. Knight received a specialized ring entrance for event sponsor Slim Jim.

All three challengers started the match by triple-teaming Joe, then eventually paired off into their own battles. Orton hit his RKO finishing move on all of the other participants and attempted to pin Joe before Joseph attacked Orton on Joe's behalf.

Joe eventually hit the spear on Styles to score the pinfall, winning the match and retaining his title.

The penultimate match saw Logan Paul defend the United States Championship against Kevin Owens. Paul spent much of the match attacking Owens' injured right hand. One of Paul's friends tried to give Paul a pair of brass knuckles, but he was ejected by the referee.

Austin Theory and Grayson Waller–who had been feuding with Owens as well as forming an alliance with Paul–then came out during this moment with Theory instead giving Paul the brass knuckles. Owens, however, got a hold of them and knocked out Paul, but during the pin, the referee saw the knuckles on Owens' hand, resulting in Owens being disqualified and giving Paul the victory to retain. After the match, Owens powerbombed Paul through the announcers' table.

The main event was the Men's Royal Rumble match. It began with Joshua at number one and his brother Jon from SmackDown at number two.

"Oh snap!" Inari said as she cheered at Joshua and Jon wrestling each other.

Andrade, who returned to WWE after leaving the company in March 2021 and then worked for All Elite Wrestling, entered as a surprise participant at number four, as did Carmelo Hayes from NXT, who made his Rumble debut at number five, followed by 2018 Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura from Raw at number six.

SmackDown's Bobby Lashley (#11) eliminated seventh entrant Karrion Kross also from SmackDown, but Kross' Final Testament stablemates Authors of Pain (Akam and Rezar) stormed the ring, leading to Kross coming back in to eliminate Lashley, resulting in a ringside brawl between the Final Testament, Lashley, and his associates The Street Profits (Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford).

As the ring filled up, 2023 Rumble winner Cody Rhodes from Raw entered at number 15. NXT's Bron Breakker made his Rumble debut at number 20 and scored several rapid eliminations.

Omos was next at number 21, followed by surprise entrant Pat McAfee (#22), who had earlier made a surprise return as a commentator for the event.

After coming face to face with the over seven-foot tall Omos, McAfee backed away and eliminated himself by climbing over the top rope and returned to commentary. Raw's CM Punk, who returned to WWE at Survivor Series: WarGames in November 2023, entered at number 27, marking the first WWE televised match since the 2014 Royal Rumble match.

2020 Rumble winner Drew McIntyre entered at number 29 followed by Sami Zayn as the number 30 and final entrant, both from Raw.

Joshua was eliminated after a stint of 50 minutes and 50 seconds. The final four were Rhodes, Raw's Gunther (#18), Punk, and McIntyre.

"They could have had him in the final four," Leo said, irritated that they eliminated his favorite relative.

After Punk and Rhodes eliminated McIntyre and Gunther, respectively, Punk and Rhodes engaged in a lengthy back-and-forth exchange of attempted eliminations, before Rhodes finally threw him over the top rope to win the match for a second consecutive year, and subsequently became the 10th wrestler to win multiple Rumbles.

"Alright, my crew let's go," Inari said, standing up.