Alpha Academy & The Meta-Four Backstage

Backstage, we see Noam Dar with The Meta-Four talking about his match tonight against “One Trick Pony” Williams. In comes Akira Tozawa, Otis and Maxxine Dupri from Alpha Academy. Otis admits to Lash Legend that he’s jealous over she and Trick. We head to a break.

As we settle back in from the break, we see The Wolf Dogs duo of Bron Breakker and Baron Corbin goofing off and talking about finding out which teams they’ll be defending their gold against at Stand & Deliver. In comes Alpha Academy and they clown around a bit.

Maxxine Dupri suggests that if Alpha Academy duo Otis and Akira Tozawa can defeat The Wolf Dogs next week on NXT, they’ll be in the tag title bout at Stand & Deliver.

Akira Tozawa & Maxxine Dupri vs. Ivar & Valhalla

The theme for Alpha Academy hits and out comes Akira Tozawa and Maxxine Dupri for scheduled mixed tag-team action. On that note, we shift gears and head into a quick pre-match commercial break.

When we return, Ivar and Valhalla make their way out. Valhalla isn’t wearing the deer antlers, and for some reason that led to Cole babbling for about two or three minutes about the role those antlers play in her success in the ring.

From there, the bell sounds and we get this one officially off-and-running. Maxxine Dupri does well early on & For some reason she chose then to do the “THANK YOU!” self-congratulatory crowd-call, and they all boo her. Ouch. Seconds later, Valhalla and Ivar pick up the win.

Winners: Ivar & Valhalla

Women’s Royal Rumble Match

Samantha Irvin begins the official pre-match ring introductions for the opener, which will be the Women’s Royal Rumble match. Natalya’s theme hits and out she comes as the number one entrant for this year. Naomi’s theme hits second and out she comes as the first surprise entrant of the evening. She and Nattie kick things off for a few minutes and then Bayley comes out at number three. At number four was Candice LeRae.

Out at number five as cops sirens sounds, is current TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace. The commentators explain who she is to the viewing audience at home and a good portion of the crowd seems to be aware of who she is. Pat McAfee puts over Grace as an “absolute weapon” for TNA. They mention how she defeated Naomi for the TNA Knockouts title. She and Naomi hug and then duke it out. Indi Hartwell comes out next and then Asuka.

Hartwell ends up being the first person eliminated. Bayley keeps trying to high five Asuka, who wants nothing to do with her. Coming in next is Ivy Nile. Katana Chance comes in at number nine after that. Number ten comes out and is Bianca Belair. She gets a big pop coming out. Kairi Sane comes out as the next entrant. All three members of Damage CTRL in the ring work together to eliminate Candice LeRae.

The countdown clock appears again and out as the 12th entrant is Tegan Nox. Grace looks to eliminate Nox, but Nattie saves her friend. The two hug and then Nattie tries to sneak and throw her out, only for her to throw Nattie out. Bayley then eliminates Nox so they both end up tossed out anyways. The countdown clock appears again and out at number 13 is Kayden Carter. We see Kairi Sane nearly pull a Kofi Kingston, but slips and ends up eliminated.

Seconds later, Asuka gets thrown out. Bayley is now the only Damage CTRL member still alone in the ring. She yells to them, “What do we do about the plan now?!” The countdown clock appears again and when it expires, Chelsea Green’s theme hits and out she comes with an insanely oversized skirt as part of her entrance attire. She takes it off and heads to the ring as Cole reminds everyone she was eliminated in 5 seconds last year.

This year she is nearly thrown out in 2 seconds, but hangs on. Belair throws her over again but again she hangs on. She hits a big move on Belair and over-celebrates, but then gets spinebuster-slammed down to the mat by Grace. Bianca ends up KOD’ing Grace to eliminate her. Piper Niven comes out as the next entrant and she and Green go to work on everybody with double-team action. Xia Li comes out as the next entrant.

Zelina Vega comes out as No. 17 with an even wilder entrance attire than Chelsea Green. Maxxine Dupri comes out next and gets a big response from the crowd, who also loudly does the “SHOOSH!” bit with her once she gets in the ring. She immediately eliminates Xia Li and Ivy Nile with ease. The fans boo like crazy. Green tries sneak attacking her, but she sees it coming.

Niven goes to splash her but Jax moves and she splashes Green on accident. Niven then spears Jax over and over again into Green in the corner. Shotzi comes out and hits some high spots off the top. Becky Lynch comes out after that and the crowd goes wild. “The Man” hits the ring and immediately starts getting some eliminations, including Chelsea Green. Out at no. 22 next is Alba Fyre. At no. 23, out comes Shayna Baszler to a non-reaction.

Out at number 24 is Valhalla. She comes out with the antlers on and Michael Cole goes unbelievably nuts. Like for a while. As she walks to the ring, R-Truth’s theme hits and out he comes walking past Valhalla and sliding into the ring to an enormous pop. He looks confused. Nia Jax grabs him and throws him out in seconds. The fans boo. Adam Pearce runs down and tells Truth it’s the Women’s Rumble. He tells Truth he’s out and Valhalla she’s in. Valhalla goes in but is immediately thrown out.

At number 25, out comes Michin. At number 26, Zoey Stark comes in. Roxanne Perez comes out at no. 27. We see some more eliminations and then Perez hits a cool spot rolling around the body of one of the other entrants for what seems like forever. Jax ends up power bombing Baszler out and then Michin for two more eliminations. The commentators continue to sing her praises for her performance thus far tonight. She also power bombs Shotzi out of the ring to eliminate her.

The countdown clock hits again and out at number 28 is former AEW TBS Women’s Champion Jade Cargill to easily the biggest sustained roar of the evening thus far. Like really, really loud. She hits power spots on Nia Jax and eliminates her. Tiffany Stratton comes out at no. 29. At no. 30, out comes Liv Morgan to make her long-awaited WWE return. A bunch of eliminations take place, including Becky Lynch and Bianca Belair, after a cool stare down between Belair and Cargill.

We’re down to Cargill, Morgan and Bayley. Bayley and Morgan try together to eliminate Cargill. They eventually do. Bayley then kicks Morgan out to eliminate her. She is the last person standing. Bayley has won the 2024 Women’s Royal Rumble and will now go on to challenge for the title she chooses at WrestleMania 40.

Akira Tozawa vs. Ivar

The Alpha Academy theme hits and out comes Akira Tozawa for singles action. As he heads to the ring, we head to a quick pre-match commercial break.

As we settle back in from the break, we see Xavier Woods backstage when he is attacked by Ludwig Kaiser. “Main Event” Jey Uso shows up to make the save and run Kaiser off. The theme for Ivar hits and out he comes accompanied by Valhalla. The bell sounds and we’re officially off-and-running with this one.

Ivar dominates from the word “go,” however when Maxxine distracts him on the top-rope, Tozawa takes advantage and pulls off the upset. After the match, Valhalla attacks Maxxine Dupri while Ivar beats down Tozawa.

Winner: Akira Tozawa

On that note, we head to another commercial break. When we return, we see The Creed Brothers and Alpha Academy when Ivy Nile says she’ll talk to Adam Pearce about everything. Chad Gable talks to Tozawa about what Ivar did. He says next week he’s gonna get taught a lesson by him.