Rating the 33 Women’s Royal Rumble Matches

As we prepare for Saturday’s Royal Rumble, it’s time for a look back at exactly 33 matches from the event’s past. Today I’m rating the women’s matches of Rumbles, from the first Rumble in 1998 to last year’s Rumble match.

First, qualifiers of what I’m counting. This includes all of the women’s matches of course, but also includes one mixed tag match as women were technically part of the entire match. This also includes pre-show/kickoff matches and, in one case, a Sunday Night Heat match as they happened to be attached to the show in front of the crowd waiting for the show to start.

This does NOT include the men’s Rumble matches that had a woman make an appearance, as I feel it’s unfair to rate an hour match that had two minutes of a woman in them.

Of course, this is all my personal opinion. All my favoritism towards the women and select performers could shine through. I’m sure the beloved comment section favorite of “the women don’t even need a Rumble match’ will pop up in the comments, and I’m not engaging with y’all on that one. What doesn’t mean anything to you or doesn’t have the five-star performers YOU want in it doesn’t mean the modern match doesn’t mean the world to others. I am including Scott’s rating and the Cagematch rating just for informational purposes. As I tell you every Vault column, form your own opinions. My rating could vary greatly from yours and that’s perfectly okay. Imagine if we all liked the same thing. What would we even talk about here?

Alright, are we ready to rumble?

#33 – 2003: Torrie Wilson vs Dawn Marie Wilson (Scott -*, Cagematch N/A)

I’ll be one of the few to share love of the Al Wilson story forever, because Al Wilson ruled and Dawn Marie played her part well. It did not translate well to a Rumble match, but neither were really at the level to pull off a good singles match.

#32 – 2010: WWE Women’s Title – Michelle McCool vs Mickie James (Scott DUD, Cagematch N/A)

Sweet Jesus, we’ve hit Piggy James. The weird ass old men who ran WWE at the time thought it would be so funny to say that Mickie James, a gorgeous woman with a body a lot of women would dream of having,, was fat. They tried to work with it – Layla especially put all her humor into it – but it sucked. This was the payoff, which was short and featured Mickie getting her revenge and win.

#31 – 2001: WWF Women’s Title – Ivory vs Chyna (Scott DUD, N/A)

This was all storyline which also means it wasn’t very good. Chyna injured her neck, giving Ivory the easy pinfall, and then did the stretcher job out. Oh no, I hope she’s able to make it in time for WrestleMania! There wasn’t much to this to rate.

#30 – 1989: WWF Women’s Title – Rockin’ Robin vs Judy Martin (Scott .5*, Cagematch 3.29)

This would be the last women’s match the Rumble would have until ten years later in the days of Sable. The best part of the match was Sherri Martel, who was not a participant in the match. It’s fine, I’m sure WWF will care about the women again one day.

#29 – 2004: Victoria vs Molly Holly (Scott N/A, Cagematch N/A)

This is our one Sunday Night Heat women’s match of the Rumbles. It didn’t get much time and meant as little as the time it received. Victoria and Molly are both good and did what they could, but this was just a warmup to fill time on Heat.

#28 – 2006: Mickie James vs Ashley, special guest referee Trish Stratus (Scott .5*, Cagematch 1.66)

This is more build for Mickie’s obsessed love of Trish Stratus than anything else, which is probably for the best. Ashley was not on Mickie’s level at the time, bless her soul, and this went on longer than it should’ve.

#27 – 2012: Beth Phoenix, Natalya & Bella Twins vs Kelly Kelly, Eve Torres, Tamina Snuka & Alicia Fox (Scott .5*, Cagematch 3.60)

It’s 2012, so we’re throwing all the divas together in random combinations of matches… perhaps even in sexy costumes! No specialized sexy costumes this time. I’m not one to push hard on the divas era talents’ actual talent because you’re only as good as the training and matches you get sometimes, and we all know the crap they got to work with. That said, this wasn’t great.

#26 – 2011: WWE Divas Title – Natalya vs Eve Torres vs Michelle McCool vs Layla (Scott .5*, Cagematch 3.48)

Remember the Anonymous Raw GM? I do too, unfortunately. Well, right before the match he changed this from Natayla vs LayCool to adding Eve and making this a fatal four way. Eve hadn’t really won the crowd over, so they didn’t care about her entrance or her winning the title here. There was a neat double Sharpshooter on the LayCool girls, but that’s about the one highlight.

#25 – 2015: Bella Twins vs Natalya & Paige (Scott *, Cagematch 3.81)

The 2015 Rumble undercard was filled with tag matches, this being the third tag match in a row. You’d be shocked to learn it wasn’t the worst (hi, Ascension vs New Age Outlaws). This stemmed from Total Divas stuff. The crowd spent a period of it chanting for Sami Zayn, if that tells you anything. The Bellas hadn’t quite gotten to the next gear in-ring yet.

#24 – 2017: Naomi, Nikki Bella & Becky Lynch vs Alexa Bliss, Mickie James & Natalya (Scott N/A, Cagematch N/A)

Ah, the pre-2018 days where they loved a good multi-woman tag. This was a good heat-up match for the crowd as the first thing they saw, though it wouldn’t even be the best women’s match on the preshow. It is six women who were very familiar with each other though, so it was fine.

#23 – 2022: Beth Phoenix & Edge vs Miz & Maryse (Scott **, Cagematch 4.48)

I hope you can COPE with this being on the list. I’m always happy for a Maryse return and I love Beth, but this was a thing that happened before we learned to cut down the cards. In the world of 2025, it’d probably be on the big SmackDown before the Rumble or the Raw after that is in the same arena. It’s a decent enough match. It didn’t do a lot to hook me and make me want to revisit it though.

#22 – 2020: WWE SmackDown Women’s Title – Bayley vs Lacey Evans (Scott *, Cagematch 3.66)

Bayley would go into 2020 running the SmackDown side, something she’d continue to do with Sasha for a good bit of the year (one of the highlights of Pandemic-Era WWE). Lacey Evans, however, was not much of a challenge for Bayley or someone the fans believed would beat her. This was a match and it happened.

#21 – 1999: WWF Women’s Title Strap Match – Sable vs Luna Vachon (Scott .75*, Cagematch N/A)

The Sable/Luna pairing always intrigued me because Sable was better than a lot thought and Luna was game to give her a chance. This is another example of that, with Sable favoring her back but doing moves on Luna. Tori, obsessed Sable admirer, would interfer and help Sable win. It wasn’t great, but it was good for the time and good for Sable.

#20 – 2009: WWE Women’s Title – Beth Phoenix vs Melina (Scott .5*, Cagematch 5.09)

Maybe it’s on a sliding scale because it’s the Divas era, but I dug this one. Melina was good at taking the rough bumps from Beth, and Beth was the company’s best hand at the time. There are a few cool spots in this one thanks to the mix of Melina’s flexibility and Beth’s power. Melina wins the title in a surprise rollup, though that wouldn’t mean much for long.

#19 – 2017: Nia Jax vs Sasha Banks (Scott N/A, Cagematch N/A)

Nia has a lot of detractors here, but in reality she has come so far. This is before she came so far, way back in 2017. Things were still a little… rough. At the same time, Sasha was doing good work. Together, they pulled through a pretty enjoyable match for the five minutes they were given.

#18 – 2021: WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles – Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs Charlotte Flair & Asuka (Scott N/A, Cagematch 3.93)

This was our Kickoff match and a way to tease tension between Charlotte and Asuka, who were wacky tag partners that didn’t like each other. I know, what a shock! They went ten minutes and it wasn’t a bad tag match, but it went a little long probably. Nia and Shayna won the tag belts, which they’d carry for a bit.

#17 – 2002: WWE Women’s Title – Trish Stratus vs Jazz, special guest referee Jacqueline (Scott *, Cagematch N/A)

I know, I read “Trish vs Jazz” and thought I was in for a treat too! And then they got under four minutes. They tried. They did. And what they did was fine, even very good. There just wasn’t much to it.

#16 – 2023: Raw Women’s Title – Bianca Belair vs Alexa Bliss (Scott *, Cagematch 3.44)

For some reason, Alexa Bliss matches feel like they happened ten years ago to me when this was really two years ago. This one had the pleasure of following the Pitch Black Match and leading into the women’s Rumble match, so it had a lot going against it to begin with. They tried, but it kind of clashed to me and it was one of those results that didn’t seem to be in doubt.

#15 – 2019: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott **.25, Cagematch 6.46)

After the previous year’s first Rumble for the women relied heavily on the legends, this one leaned hard on the NXT crew. That’s not a bad thing necessarily, but there was a LOT of nothing happening in this match. Luckily there was poor Becky Lynch, who squirelled her way in due to Lana’s ankle injury. We could have had Lana winning the whole thing had she not been injured. Becky found victory and moved onto Mania. Probably the most subpar of the Rumbles.

#14 – 2022: WWE Raw Women’s Title – Becky Lynch vs Doudrop (Scott ***, Cagematch 3.87)

Facing the tough task to follow both Roman/Seth and the women’s Rumble, Becky and Doudrop held things up well. The crowd didn’t necessarily give it the love it deserved, but it was in the cooldown spot. This is another one where the result wasn’t really in question, as most of us did not think they were throwing Becky out of the WrestleMania title picture in exchange for Doudrop – especially after Ronda won the previous match. It was a well-wrestled match.

#13 – 2021: WWE SmackDown Women’s Title – Sasha Banks vs Carmella (Scott **.5, Cagematch 5.61)

Carmella was a bit underrated in this time period (and in general), and she was an interesting “flavor of the month” challenger for Sasha. This was the time period when Reginald was with Carmella, even having his first-ever match on SmackDown against Sasha. I liked this one. Sasha flows well with the right opponents and Carmella was game. There were Reginald hijinks to overcome and Sasha overcame them in about ten minutes.

#12 – 2022: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott **.5, Cagematch 4.42)

This kicked off the 2022 show and was the first of three matches involving women. This was a hit-and-miss Rumble match for me, but I was set off by #1 entrant Sasha Banks being eliminated much earlier than I would have liked. The key to this one was the surprise(ish) return of Ronda Rousey, and once she appeared there was no doubt who was winning. The cameos were enjoyable this year – Mickie James complete with Knockouts Title, Ivory, and Cameron amongst others. A mid-tier Rumble match.

#11 – 2020: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott ***, Cagematch 6.61)

This would set the stage for WrestleMania, which would face a wild road and end up in an empty arena and prerecorded thanks to COVID-19. This Rumble was fine – just fine – and relied more on NXT upstarts than legends (fully ignoring Santina), which was nice even though the crowd didn’t know faces like Mercedes Martinez and Chelsea Green yet. With Charlotte entering early in the 20s and not much of a lineup of others, it was pretty clear cut that she was winning… and she did, last eliminating Shayna Baszler. Just a Rumble, but an interesting one due to some of the names that appeared.

#10- 2020: WWE Raw Women’s Title – Becky Lynch vs Asuka (Scott **, Cagematch 7.18)

The Scott rating and the Cagematch rating are your sign enough that opinions vary. I lean closer to the high side. It’s Becky and Asuka having a sixteen minute match. They can have a good one in their sleep. The two would get better together over time as their chemistry grew, but I enjoyed this one. That said, it didn’t come close to their match from the previous year.

#9 – 2016: WWE Divas Title – Charlotte Flair vs Becky Lynch (Scott **.75, Cagematch 5.93)

These two had battled numerous times before and man would they do it more after this. If you’ve seen a Charlotte/Becky match over the years, you’ve seen this one – which is fine! They’re both very good at this and work well together. This one featured Ric Flair, mushroom energy drink salesman, ringside distracting Becky. This was just as much about the post-match return of Sasha Banks, setting her up as Charlotte’s next opponent. This is a good one.

#8 – 2023: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott ***, Cagematch 6.61)

The main event of the 2023 show, this one delivered well for me. Is there some Rhea Ripley bias? Yes. But I think without it, I’d be around the same spot. This ended with Rhea and Liv, which would be another chapter in something we are finally moving past in 2025 (let me not say that too loudly). Outside of Rhea, I enjoyed the chapter of the match with Damage CTRL working together to eliminate multiple others. There should be more of that.

#7 – 1988: WWF Women’s Tag Team Title 2-out of-3 Falls Match – Glamour Girls vs Jumping Bomb Angels (Scott ***.25, Cagematch 7.03)

The first women’s match in Rumble history, and what a match it was. The women ended up getting fifteen minutes, which would hold the standard for longest women’s Rumble match until the late 2010s. The Women’s Tag Titles were the basis of some pretty cool matches at the time, and this was one of them. This was different than anything else on the show in a very good way. Recommend!

#6 – 2024: 30-Woman Royal Rumble Match (Scott: **, Cagematch 7.4)

Our most recent Rumble and the 2024 show opener is one I really enjoyed. A Rumble match to me is often about the moments, and this one delivered several. We had the gigantic surprise of Jordynne Grace. Jade Cargill made her in-ring debut with WWE and looked strong in it. We had the return to WWE of Naomi. And of course we had Bayley taking down the field to get her WrestleMania title match. There were slow moments, a lot of which I’ll blame as usual on WWE not building up the talents in the match enough to make people care, but it’s more up than down for me.

#5 – 2017: WWE Raw Women’s Title – Charlotte Flair vs Bayley (Scott ***, Cagematch 6.15)

This is a pure scene from 2017: Charlotte Flair, dominant champion and Bayley, newbie who just couldn’t win often. That’s not to say this isn’t a good match. It’s a very good match! However, we were just as much “Charlotte wins LOL” in 2017 as we are today. Bayley would eventually have her day and nowadays is all over all the shows, but there were firm A and B levels and Charlotte was hard to destroy in 2017.

#4 – 2021: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott ***.25, Cagematch 7.19)

One of the better women’s Rumbles I think, though it was plagued – much like this year – by a lack of build. I think it’s also a Rumble of two sides: the first 3/4ths and the final few minutes, which turned into a big one for me. The match ended with Bianca Belair eliminating Rhea Ripley after quite the little mini-match and that was a great sign for both women. Otherwise, it’s the usual mix of legends and random people like Santana Garrett.

#3 – 2019: WWE Raw Women’s Title – Ronda Rousey vs Sasha Banks (Scott ***.5, Cagematch 7.51)

2019 might have been one of the best years for the women at the Rumble, as they had two strong title matches and a notable Rumble. Of course, 2019 had FAR too many matches – ten including the preshow, and that’s a ten match card with two hour-plus length matches. Help. This was probably Ronda’s best non-Becky match. Sasha was game and was a very good foil for Rousey. I’d recommend this one back. For the “Sasha was never good” crowd, I recommend this one.

#2 – 2019: WWE SmackDown Women’s Title – Asuka vs Becky Lynch (Scott ****.25, Cagematch 7.88)

A hell of an opening match (excluding three kickoff matches, sorry cruiserweight division and Bobby Roode). This was just a nonstop battle with hard hit after hard hit and it ruled. Asuka would win by submission and end Becky’s title dreams… or WOULD SHE.

#1 – 2018: 30-Woman Royal Rumble (Scott ****.25, Cagematch 7.19)

The first and probably the best of the women’s Rumbles, but there’s a lot of specialness to this that brings it to that spot for me. This was half roster and half random legends, but it was fun for the first one and the crowd really dug it. I think it really picks up in the final six or so, with Asuka winning and moving onto WrestleMania. And of course, Ronda Rousey appeared after to point at the sign for five minutes.

And there you have it, my friends: all 33 women’s matches at Royal Rumble events. 2025 looks like it’ll just have a women’s Rumble match, so we’ll have to see where the 34th match falls on the list next year.

Enjoy the Rumble!