WWE: More on Jordynne Grace’s WWE Royal Rumble Appearance, Naomi & Andrade WWE Returns Update, More News

Jan 30, 2024

More on Jordynne Grace’s WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Appearance

As noted before, TNA Wrestling talent Jordynne Grace made a surprise appearance at Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event in St. Petersburg, Florida as part of a deal made between TNA and WWE for the Women’s Royal Rumble match.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that one WWE source spoken to stated that Grace’s appearance was believed to have been an idea from WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque as part of WWE’s plans to surprise everyone with an “outside the box ides” for the match.

Johnson reported that no TNA officials were in attendance backstage at this past Saturday’s event. TNA President Scott D’Amore reportedly was at Chris Jericho’s Cruise over this past weekend while TNA official Tommy Dreamer was in Tampa over the weekend for Busted Open Radio but was not at the event’s venue.

In regards to Grace’s recent comments teasing more TNA and WWE crossovers in the future, Johnson reported that those spoken to have not heard of any definitive plans for future collaborations between the two companies.

Johnson reported that Grace’s performance generated a lot of praise backstage and “blew a lot of people in WWE away.”

Update on Naomi & Andrade’s WWE Returns & Brand Destinations

This past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event featured Naomi, former Trinity in Impact/TNA, and Andrade, former Andrade El Idolo in AEW, making their official returns to WWE. Monday’s WWE RAW show featured the official announcement of Andrade joining the RAW brand roster.

Prior to Monday’s RAW show, Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Andrade was scheduled to be working for the RAW brand going forward. It was reported that one reason for this decision was due to WWE officials not being in a rush to have Andrade be on the same brand as his wife Charlotte Flair due to her currently being expected to be out of action for most of 2024 over her recovery from knee surgery.

In regards to Naomi, it was reported that Naomi is currently scheduled to be working for the SmackDown brand going forward. It was also reported that one reason for this decision was to reunite Naomi with her husband Jimmy Uso, who is a current member of the SmackDown brand.

WWE News & Notes

TKO Group’s stock closed Monday’s regular trading hours at $82.73 per share, down $3.81 (4.4%) compared to its value at the start of this week’s trading. TKO’s stock increased to $82.80 for after hours trading that day.

Fightful Select reported that Michael Hayes and Chris Park, former Abyss in Impact/TNA Wrestling, were the producers of CM Punk’s injury announcement and promo segment with Drew McIntyre during Monday’s RAW show in Tampa, Florida.

This past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event in St. Petersburg, Florida reportedly generated around 500,000 searches on Google for that night, according to the Wrestling Observer.

The Vince McMahon sex trafficking lawsuit reportedly generated around 200,000 searches and a #4 ranking on Google for this past Thursday, according to the Wrestling Observer.

Alexa Bliss reportedly was in attendance backstage at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event in St. Petersburg, Florida, according to PWInsider.

WWE recently announced that Rhea Ripley granted her first ever Make-A-Wish request over this past Royal Rumble 2024 weekend.

Otis, real name Nikola Bogojević, announced on Twitter that his mother recently passed away. Otis stated “Rest Now Forever. Where Now there is no more Pain. Because of you growing up I’ve Memorized every John Candy Movie Introduced and Jam to Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers and Stevie Nicks. Rest In Peace Gaisan.“

In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Rhea Ripley gave her thoughts about this year’s Women’s Royal Rumble match at this past Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event. Ripley stated “It was surprise after surprise after surprise. I was just standing there watching it, and I’m like, yo, all of these women, they’re competitors. I could easily step in the ring with any one of them, and you would think that I’m in danger, and I love that. That’s the way that the women’s division is thriving, and it’s all about competition. I live for that. So I was so over the moon and thrilled to see these women going in there and getting the opportunity to shine.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

As noted before, Dakota Kai has been out of action for WWE since this past May due to an ACL injury. In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Kai provided an update stating that she is close to being able to make her in-ring return. Kai stated “Yeah, one step. We’re so close. We’re so close, you guys.” Kai also gave her thoughts about her goals for her career in 2024. Kai stated “The goal for me, honestly I’m just excited to get back in the ring. I loved watching the Rumble, and obviously Bayley winning, I can’t even explain the emotions. I was so overwhelmed with happiness. I want to get back in the ring so bad. Just watching them all fun, I’m like, ‘Oh god.’ But we’re so close, so I just want to get back into the mix of things physically as a wrestler and just aim high.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

WWE announced one new match for the card of their February 5th RAW show in St. Louis, Missouri: