Charlotte Flair completed a sensational return to WWE by winning the Women's Royal Rumble. It's the 38-year-old's second Rumble win and punches her ticket to the main event of WrestleMania where she can either face Tiffany Stratton or Rhea Ripley. Flair had been out of action for over 700 days and missed the entirety of 2024 with a bad ACL injury. Now, Flair returns to her lofty spot in WWE and will compete for a world title in Las Vegas.

The Rumble itself was choc-full of surprises and debuts, Mail Sport breaks down the action below:. Charlotte Flair was the obvious choice, but it does set up exciting possibilities for WrestleMania. IYO SKY and Liv Morgan kicked off the Royal Rumble for the women and the entire pay-per-view with the latter finishing runner-up in each of the past two years. Roxanne Perez made quite the impression with a bunch of hurricanranas next before Lyra Valkyria - who had to battle a wardrobe malfunction - made a similar high-impact entrance.

B-Fab was the first woman to exit the match at the hands of the United States Women's champion Chelsea Green. Seconds after B-Fab's elimination, Bianca Belair made her way to the ring to a huge ovation. Zoey Stark did well to save a top rope botch into a running lariot when the ring was full. Valkyria was on the receiving end of that move and she was next eliminated to thanks to Ivy Nile. Bayley was the next big name to enter the fray and her showdown with former stablemate SKY halted her momentum.

Maxinne Dupri got rid of Ivy Nile before the Pure Fusion Collective immediately dumped out Dupri. The next three people who were elimnated? You guessed it - the Pure Fusion Collective of Sonya Deville, Zoey Stark and Shayna Baszler. Jaida Parker represented yet another entrance from NXT, but fellow NXT favourite Lash legend was promptly chucked out by Green. Sadly, Green's Rumble would come to a close shortly after after Belair and Naomi suckered Niven into steamrolling her own partner.

Jordynne Grace made her second Rumble appearance - first as a WWE star - and quickly got rid of Parker before nailing a Death Valley Driver on Niven that nearly blew the roof off the building. Grace would then embrace Naomi in a callback to their TNA runs, but Belair did not appreciate that one bit, unsuccessfully attempting to chuck out Grace. Alexa Bliss made her stunning return at number 21 after over-700 days away and was quite rightly given one of the biggest pops in recent memory.

Trish Stratus was next to make a surprise return before Charlotte Flair made her long-awaited, albeit heavily promoted return at number 27. The Queen, in amazing shape it has to be said, chopped the hell out of the field on return from her ACL injury and got ride of Niven in the process. NXT Champion Guilia arrived at number 28 with 14 superstars still in the ring. She made an impression by eliminating Grace before staring down another international star in Vaquer.

They ended up standing side-by-side with Roxanne against Bayley, Flair and Belair, a cool moment showing the future and the present of WWE. Nia Jax entered number 29 and eliminated Stratus to the chagrin of pretty much every fan everywhere. However, Nikki Bella made a stunning return to WWE at number 30 and led the charge of superstars against Jax. That move would backfire after Jax managed to get rid of six superstars as they teetered on the edge leaving just six.

Jax then got rid of Bella and Bayley to record the record for eliminations in one Rumble at nine. Jax, Flair and Roxanne were the final three, but Flair managed to get rid of Jax as she battled with Roxanne and Flair kicked out the flailing NXT prodigy to complete the dream comeback. What a comeback for CHARLOTTE FLAIR!The QUEEN is going to #WrestleMania!#RoyalRumble pic.twitter.com/vDgWoVdJKc. 1. IYO SKY.

2. Liv Morgan. 3. Roxanne Perez. 4. Lyra Valkyria. 5. Chelsea Green. 6. B-Fab. 7. Ivy Nile. 8. Zoey Stark. 9. Lash Legend. 10. Bianca Belair. 11. Shayna Baszler. 12. Bayley. 13.  Sonya Deville. 14. Maxinne Dupri. 15. Naoimi. 16. Jaida Parker. 17. Piper Niven. 18. Natalya. 19. Jordynne Grace. 20. Michin. 21. Alexa Bliss. 22. Zelina Vega. 23.  Candice LeRae. 24. Stephanie Vaquer. 25. Trish Stratus. 26. Raquel Rodriguez. 27. Charlotte Flair. 28. Guilia.