WWE Royal Rumble: Nia Jax Stole The Men’s Rumble

The Men’s Royal Rumble was filled with surprises. Undoubtedly, the biggest surprise of the match – and arguably the whole night – came in the form of the match’s unexpected 30th entrant.

As we should all recall, as per his Mixed Match Challenge Tournament win with Carmella, R-Truth won the right to hold the coveted #30 spot in the Royal Rumble.

Well, Truth came out, but he never made it to the ring.

He barely made it up the ramp before being blindsided by Nia Jax. Jax entered the Men’s Rumble in Truth’s place and proceeded to clean house. The former Raw Women’s Champion eliminated Mustafa Ali and ate three finishers – Superkick, 619 and RKO – before being eliminated.

Needless to say, this was awesome!

via WWE.com

I have to admit, as much as I love myself a good healthy dose of R-Truth every now and again, I wasn’t looking forward to his Royal Rumble appearance.

Not because I don’t like R-Truth, but because I didn’t expect much from him – performance-wise – going into the match. I sure didn’t expect him to win. I think a lot of people would share my sentiment. I would’ve much rather seen the #30 spot have been saved for a big jaw dropping surprise.

Enter Nia Jax; the biggest surprise WWE could have given us.

Even those who expected Truth to get his spot stolen never would’ve guessed that ‘The Irresistible Force’ would be the one taking it.

In fact, with the women having their own Royal Rumble now, many of us assumed that the days of women – like Chyna, Beth Phoenix and Kharma – entering the Men’s Rumble were long behind us. It’s also worth mentioning that Jax lasted longer in a Men’s Rumble than any other woman before her has in history.

Speaking of, Jax had already cleaned house in the Women’s Rumble earlier in the night. Jax lasted 12 minutes, eliminated two women and making it to the Final Three. Two hours later, she entered the Men’s Rumble and shared staredowns with the likes of Rey Mysterio, Randy Orton and Mustafa Ali.

Seeing her eliminate the latter was a big shock and all the more impressive considering that Ali spent a solid half hour in the match by this point. It might have been his own disbelief that left him wide open for a Samoan Drop to the outside, but an elimination is an elimination.

Beyond just a single elimination, Nia Jax held her own against some of today’s best male athletes and future Hall of Famers. Not only because she was knocking guys out left and right, but because she was able to ward off the best offense each guy was able to dish out.

More from Royal Rumble

• CM Punk will return to WWE after 10 years at Royal Rumble 2024 (Prediction)
• Early predictions for WWE Royal Rumble 2024 winners
• Top three moments from the 2023 Royal Rumble
• Listing 5 wrestlers who should have won a Royal Rumble match
• Top five Iron Man (and Woman) performances in the WWE Royal Rumble

She blocked an RKO and laid out The Viper momentarily. Afterwards, it took three finishers to slay the giant, but even after Mysterio and Orton tossed her over the top rope, Jax survived on the apron. It took a sneaky dropkick from Mysterio to finally eject Jax from the match.

For a moment at least, ‘The Irresistible Force’ was an Immovable Object.

Nia Jax kind of cleaned house in the Men’s Rumble. To see her do so two hours after totally cleaning house in similar fashion for the Women’s Rumble made for a gnarly sight to see.

Speaking of sights worth seeing, the word “surreal” comes to mind when trying to describe what it felt like for all of us to see Jax put her hat into the Men’s Rumble race. This was our first real taste of intergender wrestling in ages.

Sure, we saw Becky Lynch and Asuka respectively take on James Ellsworth in the last year, but these were merely comedy matches. Nia Jax’s presence in the Men’s Rumble was established as if it was meant to be taken seriously; as if she truly had a shot at winning the whole thing.

We’d be lying if we said that we didn’t think for a moment at least that she could win it all.

We’d also be lying if we said that Jax’s day in the sun was all sunshine with no imperfections. Admittedly, intergender wrestling like this isn’t for everyone. Even if intergender wrestling is up your alley, you may not view this instance as a good example. Mostly because she only lasted just over three minutes.

For that reason, some may perceive her time in the Men’s Rumble as underwhelming. On the other hand, although her time was brief, she made the most out of those three minutes.

Love it or hate it, as divisive as her main event outing may be, we all have to at least give Nia Jax props for hanging in there with some big dogs in her second match of the night.

We also have to give credit where credit is due for making Jax out to be a possible winner that we not only believed it, but we wanted to see win.

In the Women’s Rumble, a lot of us were hating on Jax, especially when she was beating on Becky Lynch. Two hours later, some of us were cheering her on hoping she’d actually win the Men’s Rumble. That’s saying something.

There’s a lot to love about Nia Jax’s surprise Men’s Rumble appearance, but if we had to sum it up in layman’s terms, it was just plain awesome.

By becoming the biggest talking point of the match and overshadowing winner Seth Rollins, Nia Jax effectively stole the match. It’s debatable whether or not Jax stole the whole show – especially keeping in mind the pop Becky received in winning the Women’s Rumble – but she certainly made an impression that we won’t soon forget.