It was the 35th annual Royal Rumble and took place on Saturday, January 29, 2022, at The Dome at America's Center in St. Louis, Missouri.

The event aired via pay-per-view (PPV) and livestreaming and featured wrestlers from the promotion's Raw and SmackDown brand divisions.

The women's Royal Rumble match was won by Ronda Rousey, in her first WWE appearance since WrestleMania 35 in April 2019.

[12] At Day 1, Jackass actor and stuntman Johnny Knoxville announced that he would be participating in the men's Royal Rumble match.

Additionally, Flair declared that she would also participate in the match, stating that she would be the first reigning women's champion to win the Royal Rumble.

[14] On the January 10 episode of Raw, Rollins confirmed that he would be challenging Reigns for the Universal Championship at the Royal Rumble in an interbrand matchup.

Bianca Belair interrupted, also wanting a championship match due to her unsettled rivalry with Lynch that began at the 2021 SummerSlam.

Later backstage, Doudrop confronted WWE officials Adam Pearce and Sonya Deville, demanding a title match herself as she was tired of Belair and Morgan always receiving opportunities.

Pearce and Deville scheduled a triple threat match between Belair, Morgan, and Doudrop for the following week with the winner facing Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at the Royal Rumble.

One half of the WWE Women's Tag Team Champions, Queen Zelina (#7), kicked Banks through the ropes to eliminate her.

Brie Bella (#19) entered next followed by Impact Knockouts World Champion Mickie James, who eliminated McCool.

Summer Rae (#23), who appeared on SmackDown prior to the event, returned to the ring for the first time in over 6 years and reignited her rivalry with Natalya, who eliminated her.

During the match, while the referee was focused on The Miz, Maryse struck Phoenix from behind with her purse for a nearfall and also managed to perform a Hurricanrana on Edge from the top rope.

The other half of the Raw Tag Team Champions, Otis (#25), dominated Ziggler, McIntyre, and Riddle before Big E entered at #26.

In his first appearance since WrestleMania 37 the previous year, reggaeton singer Bad Bunny entered at #27 as a surprise entrant.

[20][21] Writing for Sports Illustrated, Bryan Alvarez described the match as "boring", calling it a "pretty by-the-numbers generic Rumble" as "the most notable thing about the match was how quickly they were rushing everything to get the show off the air by midnight ET even though the history of the Royal Rumble has shown that fudging the intervals is not something WWE has ever avoided, and doing it here would have left more time for the big moments at the end.

Roesch stated that Paul Heyman joining Roman Reigns was "a nice twist," but Brock Lesnar's loss to Bobby Lashley led to the men's Royal Rumble match being "the most disappointing match of the night," stating that once Lesnar lost to Lashley, "everyone knew that Lesnar would enter and win the Royal Rumble," which he described as having "a lack of surprises and dull or botched spots," making that match "one of the worst in years.

"[23] Brent Brookhouse of CBS Sports gave praise to the Universal Championship match, giving it a grade of A−, stating that the match was "outstanding," but the finish was "polarizing but it does a lot of things well," and Rollins "stays as a fresh and compelling challenger moving forward since he didn't eat a clean loss."

"[20] Chris Mueller of Bleacher Report gave the Universal Championship match a grade of A, stating that "Rollins using his Shield gear and entrance music was a brilliant way to bring him into this match and get the crowd in the right mindset for the night," and that the disqualification ending "actually worked for the story being told, especially if this feud is going to continue past the Rumble."

He said that the women's Royal Rumble match had "some fun spots and featured standout moments for several competitors," but it was "disappointing we didn't get to see Bayley or anyone from NXT like Io Shirai or Dakota Kai."

He stated that the finish was "convoluted and is one issue some will call out, but this gave Lashley back the WWE title and set up Lesnar vs. Reigns down the line," and that it "was a fun way to accomplish two things at once."

Mueller criticized the men's Royal Rumble match, giving it a grade of C−, stating that it "never quite hit its stride," and that "the crowd was clearly tired and WWE has changed quite a lot of entrance themes lately, so there weren't too many big pops to be heard."

He also stated that Kofi Kingston's failed save "deflated things even further," and that after Lesnar lost the WWE Championship, "speculation about him winning the men's Rumble began to run rampant on social media."

Mueller said that another person could have won the match and Lesnar still could have faced Reigns at WrestleMania 38, but WWE management "clearly thought this was the right call."

[25] On the following episode of Raw, Ronda Rousey pondered which title to challenge for as she had heated history with both reigning champions.

[30] Also on the following episode of Raw, Brock Lesnar revealed that he would be challenging Roman Reigns for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania 38.

However, he also challenged Bobby Lashley to a rematch for the WWE Championship that night due to the controversial finish of their Royal Rumble match.

Seth "Freakin" Rollins was also added to the Chamber match due to technically defeating Reigns at the Royal Rumble.

[32] As Ronda Rousey was leaving the ring, Lita appeared and challenged Becky Lynch for the Raw Women's Championship at Elimination Chamber, which was made official.

[31] The following episode of SmackDown showed footage of Sami Zayn inviting himself to the red carpet premiere of Jackass Forever, for which he was kicked out by Johnny Knoxville.