Backstage News On The Women’s Royal Rumble Match, Who Replaced Alicia Fox In The Match

WWE went through a number production changes over the course of Sunday before the Royal Rumble. While the first-ever Women’s Rumble Match was always slated to close the event, the order of matches kept changing during the day, according to a report by PWInsider.com.

A number of the former female WWE Superstars were booked partially because the company wanted the inaugural Women’s Rumble Match to have a celebration of all the women who had helped build the Women’s Division to what it has become, but also because many of them reached out to the company wanting to be involved. Some names were booked weeks ago, but others weren’t officially booked to appear until organization officials saw them at Raw 25.

As reported earlier, Alicia Fox was unable to wrestle in the match because of a broken tailbone she suffered during a rehearsal for the match on Saturday night. WWE used Kairi Sane as Fox’s replacement in the match.

The only other competitor in the match from NXT was NXT Women’s Champion Ember Moon. According to Wrestling Observer Newsletter editor Dave Meltzer, WWE had planned three weeks earlier for the Women’s Rumble Match to have a much larger NXT presence. He said the plan was to feature nine wrestlers from NXT and only three former WWE Superstars in the 30-Woman Match. The match ended up featuring nine former WWE Superstars.

According to Meltzer, the reason so many women from the past were booked, more than originally planned, was because WWE is filming a documentary on women’s wrestling. He says they are going to heavily push women, even more so than before, since at least right now the company’s biggest mainstream star is Ronda Rousey.