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What’s the story?
Following the announcement of the first-ever Women’s WWE Royal Rumble match, Naomi made history by being the first SmackDown Women’s wrestler to announce their entry into the Rumble match.
In case you didn’t know....
The Monday Night Raw Women’s Division broke out into chaos following a tag team match between Bayley, Mickie James, and Sasha and Absolution, but the violence would cease once Stephanie McMahon made her way to the ring and announced the first all-women Royal Rumble match.
The heart of the matter
Naomi came down to the ring after Charlotte Flair thanked fans for their continued support of women’s wrestling. Naomi congratulated Flair on retaining her SmackDown Women's Championship against Natalya at Clash of Champions and informed her that she would be entering the first-ever Women’s Rumble Match.
This marks the first official announcement of a Rumble entrant from the SmackDown Live Women’s Division with the other announcements likely to come in the next few weeks.
The announcement of the Women's Royal Rumble was made on Raw, but there were no details revealed about the match that would give fans a sense of what they should expect regarding the rules.
WWE could have either a 20-person or a 30-person Women’s Rumble match, but the total number of main roster women’s wrestlers, excluding the champions, is 20 superstars. NXT debuts and surprise returns could give WWE more women to work with, but that depends on how many women the company wants to participate in this match.
What’s next?
Expect more rumble entrants to be announced as the weeks draw closer to this historic event.
If this Royal Rumble is open to the women of NXT, then an announcement from one of their women’s wrestlers or General Manager William Regal might be planned for tomorrow.
Author’s take
The WWE of today has a lot more women’s wrestlers than ever before, but their numbers aren’t big enough to warrant official announcements – especially when there doesn’t seem to be any rules regarding how someone enters these Royal Rumble matches.
