TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace Reveals How WWE Royal Rumble Appearance Came Together (Exclusive)

Jordynne Grace has stepped through the banished passageway. The reigning TNA Knockouts Champion competed at WWE Royal Rumble this past Saturday, entering the Women's Royal Rumble Match. Hitting the ring complete with her TNA entrance theme and the TNA Knockouts Title, Grace went on to spend 19 minutes in the match, eventually being eliminated by Bianca Belair. Grace's involvement represents the second time that an active TNA wrestler has competed in a Royal Rumble Match, as the 2022 bout saw then-Impact Knockouts Champion Mickie James join the field. That said, James was already a familiar face to the WWE audience, as she had previously spent a cumulative decade in WWE. On the contrary, Grace is essentially a "homegrown" TNA star, making her appearance all the more unprecedented.

Jordynne Grace Details WWE Royal Rumble Appearance

It all came together very quickly.

Speaking to ComicBook.com, TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace opened up about her appearance at WWE Royal Rumble, revealing she found out about the opportunity just days before.

"I got a call from (TNA President) Scott [D'Amore]. They had called him and asked him if they could loan me for the Women's Royal Rumble. He had asked me if I want to do it, and obviously I'm not going to say no. That's a huge event, huge opportunity," Grace said. "The next day I had to go get my physical. I had to go get all my medical done.

"It was a couple days of a waiting game, waiting to see if it was actually going to happen, because it's wrestling. Things change in an instant. It didn't really start to feel real until I got my flight to Orlando to go down for the rehearsal," Grace continued. "I went to the PC for the first time ever on Thursday. The rehearsal happened, and then I drove to Tampa the next day, hung out on Friday and did all the pre-show stuff that you have to do for a big show like that. Then Saturday was the day."

Grace entered the Women's Royal Rumble in the No.5 spot to a big reaction from the Tampa crowd. Commentators Michael Cole and Corey Graves spoke glowingly of her as she made her entrance. WWE Chief Content Officer Paul "Triple H" Levesque gave her her flowers at the post-show press conference.

"We didn't chat, but we did have an introduction very briefly, and then I had shot him a text saying thank you afterwards, and he thanked me," Grace said of her brief interactions with Triple H. "Neither one of us are trying to get in trouble in the legal aspect of those kind of things. It was more of a, 'Thank you for being here.'"

Rumors have swirled for months that WWE and TNA could begin a working relationship, but as of now, nothing is official.

"Hopefully we can do something again when the time is right," Grace added. "Fingers crossed that that's going to be a thing at some point."

Grace competes on TNA iMPACT! every Thursday at 8 PM ET on AXS TV.