411 Wrestling Fact or Fiction: 30 Questions for the 2024 Royal Rumble

Welcome back to the 411mania Wrestling Fact or Fiction. I’m your host Jake Chambers.

This week I’ve got 30 statements in celebration of the upcoming 30-person Royal Rumble matches. I’ve done this a few times before, and who better to make his surprise return to the 411 Wrestling Zone than the original FoF Ironman!

So the clock is ticking… let’s all do the countdown together…

Statement #1: Bayley will win the 2024 women’s Royal Rumble.

Dino Zee: FACT – I like this. Like, she either wins and Damage Control turns on her, or they’re going to cost her the Rumble then and there, right? I’m rooting for Bayley because I think it’d be cool for her to get that Rumble win, and there’s plenty to do with her and Damage Control once she has the win. Plenty of other good choices, obviously, but yes, I’m with the “Bayley wins the Rumble” crowd.

Statement #2: You spell battle royale with an “e”.

Dino Zee: FACT – It just makes the match seem more important! Nothing brings out the hidden snootiness in wrestling fans like a good old battle royale!


Statement #3: There should be a Tag Team Royal Rumble match.

Dino Zee: FICTION – Too many unknowns, and none of them sound that much better. Do we do 15 teams or 30 teams? Do both have to be eliminated, or is the team eliminated when one is thrown out? The Rumble event would basically just be three Royal Rumbles with no other matches, too. I think I’m good off this. I’d rather root for someone in a tag team to win the actual Rumble and get a shot at one of the World Titles.

Statement #4: For Cody Rhodes to “finish the story” he must defeat Roman Reigns for the WWE Title in a Wrestlemania main event.

Dino Zee: FACT – I almost went Fiction, because the story is just that he wants to win the title that Dusty never held. So, he could beat any WWE Champion and it’d still count. But I personally feel that Roman’s inclusion adds to the entire “Wrestling has more than one royal family” idea, and unseating The Head of the Table of one of wrestling’s biggest dynasties adds so much more to the story than just beating a Drew, or a Rollins, or even a Lesnar. To me (and I could be wrong!), it’s about cementing the Rhodes family legacy as much as it is about winning a WWE World Title, so he’s got to unseat Reigns for this story to truly be finished.

Statement #5: You will consume alcohol while watching this year’s Royal Rumble match.

Dino Zee: FACT – Mainly because of how cool it makes me seem to my friends! Not trying to get destroyed or anything, but yes, some light drinking will most likely take place during the Rumble! 


Statement #6: Draymond Green has a WWE career waiting for him after he retires from the NBA.

Dino Zee: FACT – This is only here because I’m a Warriors fan, right? I’m sure he’d do all right, and the fans would most likely overrate his performance like we do most any celebrity that gives the ol’ rasslin thing a try. At the very least, I think he’d make a great manager for people struggling on the microphone.

Statement #7: You recognize The Big Show as the real winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble match.

Dino Zee: FICTION – Look, referees make mistakes all the time. Steve Austin got eliminated from the 1997 Rumble and still ended up the winner, so that’s par for the course. But even if you want to ignore that and just point at the video footage, then I’d say Rock defeating Big Show at No Way Out 2000 the next month – with the #1 Contender status earned from winning the Rumble on the line – settled that. Rock was declared the winner, Rock earned the #1 Contender slot, Rock is the real winner of the 2000 Royal Rumble match.


Statement #8: An “Even Greater” Royal Rumble with 60 entrants would be fun.

Dino Zee: FACT – Especially if we go with 2 minutes between entries to drag this out for 2 hours! As long as the pacing is all right, this would allow for a bunch of face-offs we’ve not yet seen, plenty of returns, and maybe even a winner no one had expected! Even something like a WWE vs. NXT Rumble would allow for this many participants with ease. Yeah, I’m in.

Statement #9: Jinder Mahal’s WWE championship run was underrated.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I definitely think it’s properly rated by the majority of the fans. He was a pretty standard “heel that needs help to win” champion, defeated people who were incredibly popular, and didn’t deliver the highest quality of matches. He was a serviceable champion in an overall unremarkable reign in my mind, and I don’t think I’m selling him short in my memory. There’s definitely been worse.

Statement #10: Tony Khan’s tweets are fun.

Dino Zee: FACT – They at least give me lots of takes from people I didn’t expect to see pipe in. They’re something!

Statement #11: Santino Marella’s “I wasn’t ready!” elimination from 2009 Rumble match is the funniest moment in Royal Rumble history.

Dino Zee: FACT – Everything Santino did was the best ever, so this holds. And he should have won the 2011 Rumble, too!


Statement #12: You are more interested in what Nic Nemeth does post-WWE than Matt Riddle. 

Dino Zee: FICTION – I’m pretty sure Nemeth is going to go on a “have a great match with ______” tour, maybe win a championship along the way. But I have no idea what Riddle’s up to (though I did catch him at New Japan’s Battle in the Valley last week), so, yeah… between these two, less interest in what Nemeth does, but only because I think it’s easy to figure out.

Statement #13: Here’s a good idea, a TLC Royal Rumble: entrants can be eliminated by going over the top OR by being put through a table, chairs are ladders are legal, and after all 30 entrants have entered then the remaining wrestlers are able to go after a Wrestlemania main event contract hanging above the ring.

Dino Zee: FACT – Yep, again, I’m here for the zaniness! Give me an Extreme Rumble like this and I’d love it! Would there be tables set up at ringside so that you can throw someone through the ropes and the table? Or would they be set up in the ring at the start? Or would people have to leave the ring to get the tables themselves? Ah, who cares, it’ll be violent and rad!

Statement #14: In pro-wrestling, a good punch is better than a good chop. 

Dino Zee: FACT – A good punch can look like you’ve broken a man; a good chop will get people to yell “WOOOO!” I lean punches every time. Less shushing with punches, too. IF YOUR CHOP IS SO DAMN POWERFUL THEN I SHOULD HEAR IT EVEN IF I’M TALKING TO THE PERSON NEXT TO ME!!

Statement #15: In the next 20 years, someone will break Stone Cold Steve Austin’s record of 3 Royal Rumble match wins.

Dino Zee: FICTION – It’s definitely possible, but I’m going to say Austin hangs onto the record a little longer than 20 more years. I do think it happens at some point, but unless John Cena wins this year and next, it’s only a lot of people with 1 win right now on the roster, and I don’t see them winning 3 more before calling it a career. 3 Rumble wins will stand as proof of how badass Steve Austin truly was.

Statement #16: Kazuchika Okada should go to the WWE.

Dino Zee: FICTION – Would it be cool to see him there? Of course. Big matches awaiting him? Yes. But in no way do I think he “should” go to WWE. Just in the sense that its’ something he needs to do for his career. There’s a chance it happens and I’m against it exactly, but no, “should” is not a part of this equation.

Statement #17: WCW’s three-ring World War 3 battle royale concept should be brought back.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I liked those matches a lot way back when, but I’m fine with them never coming back. I don’t have much more to add, unfortunately. Just not that into a return of World War 3.


Statement #18: If The Rock wrestles at Wrestlemania 40 it will NOT be his last match.

Dino Zee: FACT – It seems like the perfect place to have the last match, but something tells me it won’t be. The Rock wrestles again after WrestleMania 40!


Statement #19: You prefer to watch actual wrestling over movies about wrestling, like The Iron Claw.

Dino Zee: FACT – Sure, but I don’t think that’s some kind of slight to movies about wrestling. Plenty of great movies about wrestling that I love, but if forced to choose between one or the other, actual wrestling wins every time.



Statement #20: Playing the Royal Rumble mode on the early ’90s WWF WrestleFest arcade game is history’s greatest wrestling video game experience.

Dino Zee: FICTION – Sounds like someone was never told that “A winner is you!” Sad. I also loved discovering that I could use eye rakes to rip the masks off in WCW//NWO: World Tour more. 

Statement #21: If the top rope breaks during a battle royale, wrestlers should still be legally eliminated by being throw over the 2nd rope.

Dino Zee: FACT – If the top rope breaks, the middle rope by default becomes the new top rope, so this holds. What else do you do? Stop the match and fix the rope?! Easy FACT here.

Statement #22: 2x Royal Rumble winner John Cena is the greatest wrestler of all time.

Dino Zee: FICTION –  It’s Bret Hart. I don’t care what you or anyone else says. Bret Hart is the greatest wrestler of all time!!!!

Statement #23: Here’s another good idea – a Reverse Royal Rumble: the match starts with all 30 entrants in the ring and every 2 minutes someone is randomly eliminated, but you can can be safe from the random countdown eliminations if you eliminate someone else first.

Dino Zee: FICTION –  I thought we established that Reverse Battle Royals weren’t good, and now you wanna try it with a Rumble?! I’m *usually* down for anything, but this one… you know, I’d watch it, but I’m still going FICTION because this is not “another good idea,” haha.

Statement #24: No one ever retires – the Undertaker will wrestle again.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I think he knows that his body is done, and I do believe this retirement sticks. He respects his career and legacy too much, and I think he knows the risk for a big injury is ever-present at this point.

Statement #25: IMPACT Wrestling changing their name back to TNA will make you watch again.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I don’t get AXS TV so no name change would help, but as someone who pleaded with them for years to change from TNA to Impact Wrestling in the first place, I’m a little disappointed that nostalgia won out. Still like the company and the talent, just would’ve advised against the name change. Ah well!

Statement #26: WWE should bring back the ECW brand again.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I just don’t see a place for it in the current landscape. Only a few of The Originals can still go in any respectable way, and WWE doesn’t embrace the extreme violence anymore. If the 2006 revival was underwhelming, I don’t want to picture what it’d look like in 2024.


Statement #27: You would be excited to see Shane McMahon as a surprise entrant in the Royal Rumble match this year.

Dino Zee: FACT – It’d be a hell of a recovery, and then we’d all wince with every jump and bounce that he’d perform until being eliminated.

Statement #28: WWE already has too many international PLEs scheduled for this year.

Dino Zee: FICTION – I’m fine with the international shows, no qualms at all. “Too many” seems mean to international fans – they deserve shows, too!!

Statement #29: It’s sad that one year ago Sami Zayn was the hottest wrestler in the world, but now no one talks about him, he has no chance of winning the Royal Rumble or ever main event-ing a Wrestlemania again.

Dino Zee: FACT – That is sad. A bit hyperbolic, but yes, the difference of where he was then vs. now is sad to think about. But man, what a freaking run he enjoyed last year, too. Nothing lasts forever, Chambers.


Statement #30: CM Punk will win the 2024 men’s Royal Rumble.

Dino Zee: FACT – It’s my pick for sure. Then we get him and Seth at Mania, which seems to have been the goal forever. Plus, am I to believe he didn’t negotiate a Rumble win for his return?! NO WAY!!!

Boom, he’s done it again!

Massive thanks to the masterful Dino Zee for coming back and lasting through all 30 statements. You just can’t throw this man over the top!