WWE Royal Rumble 2024 Post-Show Media Scrum: Cody Rhodes & Bayley on Winning Rumbles, Triple H on Vince McMahon Allegations & Not Reading Lawsuit

WWE held a post-show media scrum following Saturday’s Royal Rumble 2024 event at the Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Some of the notable highlights included:

• During his portion of the media scrum, Cody Rhodes gave his thoughts about winning the Men’s Royal Rumble match for the second year in a row and going after Roman Reigns for a rematch for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship at WrestleMania 40. Rhodes stated “I feel like everyone knew that, right? I’m very glad he decided to take the sky box seat. It could make it really clear where we’re at. All due respect in the world to Seth Rollins. That title gains more prestige every single day, but WrestleMania 39 did happen. If you’re me, you can’t look at that and you can’t run from it. I want to be back in the ring with Roman Reigns and I want to finish the story. I detest the statement now because, apparently, everyone has a story. Punk wanted a story, Drew has a story, everyone has a story. A big part for me, I’m very big on keeping my word. If I say something silly on TV, but it’s a promise, I intend to keep the promise. I don’t know if two times is the charm with Roman, we’ll see.“
• On the topic of the recent sex trafficking allegations and lawsuit against now former TKO Executive Chairman Vince McMahon, Rhodes stated “I know as far as the news is concerned, we were finding out and reading the same things you guys were reading. You said a dark cloud, certainly. As far TKO, Nick Khan, and the board, clearly took it very seriously, acted immediately, and looking at the future, I don’t know the answer to that and I think somewhere is a really probably basic tenant of this crew, more than ever, from a roster standpoint, is very family. Never seen anything like this. Most of the time, wrestling locker rooms are fighting, talking trash about each other, making fun of each other, sandbagging each other in the ring and all that nonsense. This crew is very team-based. Perhaps that’s the ingredient, everyone looking out for everyone, being accountable. For me as a performer, I’ve been through dark periods on our industry. It might sound cheesy, but it’s very reinforcing if you’re in my position, that it’s a time when, ‘Hey, we have 50,000 people out here, I want to give them something else from this weekend that isn’t a terrible situation, terrible news.’ I think we were able to do that. Obviously, as more news comes out, we’ll be seeing it like you do.“
• During her portion of the media scrum, Bayley praised Natayla and Naomi, former Trinity in Impact/TNA, as being legends and being glad to be in the ring with them to start off the Women’s Royal Rumble match. Bayley also praised Jade Cargill and TNA talent Jordynne Grace as well. Bayley also stated that she felt happy to win a Women’s Royal Rumble match during her career.
• During his portion of the media scrum, WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque praised Bayley for her victory in the Women’s Royal Rumble match and stated that she was a selfless performer and her having a big role in the company that is often overlooked.
• On the topic of Naomi’s return to WWE, Levesque stated that it had been a long time coming.
• On the topic of Liv Morgan’s return from injury, Levesque stated that it is great to have Morgan back.
• On the topic of Nia Jax, Levesque stated that Jax gets a lot of flack but praised her current run in the company stating that she is on a different level now as a performer.
• On the topic of Jordynne Grace’s surprise appearance at the event, Levesque thanked Grace for working at the event and stated that she was an amazing talent. Levesque also stated that he feels that she had a great showing in the Women’s Royal Rumble match. Levesque also gave a dig at AEW and their “Forbidden Door” phrase stating that he is not going to use terms about what door people go through because it is stupid and silly in reference to WWE and TNA working together for Grace’s appearance.
• On the topic of Jade Cargill’s official in-ring WWE debut, Levesque stated that he is glad people are using the word “aura” because she has it as a star.
• On the topic of Andrade’s return to WWE, Levesque stated that Andrade is phenomenal and is excited to see what he does in the company this time around.
• On the topic of Cody Rhodes winning the 2024 Men’s Royal Rumble, Levesque praised Rhodes stating that no one is more dedicated to the business than him. Levesaque also stated that Rhodes is the right human being and person for this role and dubbed him as the future of the business.
• On the topic of WWE’s new television deal with Netflix for RAW, Levesque stated that his first reaction when it happened was “holy shit.” Levesque also stated that this will be a game changer and claimed that WWE was always at the forefront when it came to having the foresight for the streaming market and industry.
• On the topic of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joining TKO Group’s Board of Directors, Levesque stated that he feels that Johnson is an expert at branding and marketing. Levesque stated that he can talk to Johnson about what WWE exactly needs and that being a blessing for the company.
• On the topic of the recent sex trafficking allegations and lawsuit against McMahon, Levesque was asked several questions related to it and each included a non-answer or vague answer of sorts with one being a potentially troubling response.
• In response to Fightful’s Jon Alba’s question about McMahon’s return to WWE’s Board of Directors in January of 2023 and what degree of knowledge WWE’s Board had about the allegations and how it could impact sponsorships going forward, Levesque stated “I’m going to do exactly what you would expect me to do here. We just had an amazing week. Ten-year, $5 billion Netflix deal. The Rock joining our board. Just sold out the Royal Rumble and put 48,000 people in Tropicana Field. I choose to focus on the positive. Yes, there is a negative. I want to focus on that and keep it to that.“
• In response to The Ringer’s Cameron Hawkins’ question about what procedures are being put in place by WWE to ensure employees are safe and feeling that they are not being taken advantage of by people in power, Levesque stated “I’ll give you the most generalized answer I can. Everything possible. That is a very important thing to us, a very important topic to us. It’s as simple as everything possible.“
• In response to Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston’s question about if he has read the lawsuit filed against McMahon, Levesque stated “I did not. I did not. Cody mentioned it, we all found out real time when you were. That’s the truth. I’ll go back to what I said before. It’s an amazing week for us. I don’t even want to get bogged down in the negatives of it. I just want to focus on the positives and where we’re going. We’re at the most exciting time of the year for us and the most exciting point, to me, business-wise, that we’ve ever had.“

WWE Royal Rumble 2024 post-show media scrum full video:

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com, Fightful.com 1, 2, & 3