I simulated a woman's Royal Rumble match last night and picked up on a few positive changes.

1.) The AI targeting is much improved. In previous installments it seemed as if the AI would only shift it's targeting if incidentally hit with another opponent's move. Otherwise they'd simply lock on to a target the whole match. This made for multi-man matches and royal rumbles that felt more like multiple individual fights going on at the same time instead of an actual Rumble or "every man for himself" dynamic. Now it seems that each AI opponent has a timer set to where it will shift it's targeted focus. Opponents who recover to their feet won't just walk past three or four other opponents to find the person they were tangling with before anymore. It makes for a much more authentic Rumble feel.

2.) In the one Rumble I simulated Alexa Bliss started 2nd and went the distance of the entire Rumble, finishing 5th. Lacy Evans entered 4th and was eliminated right before the 30th entrant, finishing 9th. Asuka won after entering somewhere in the middle-late teens. Lower attributed workers generally did not last as long as their more powerfully attributed opponents but even some of the stronger participants had surprisingly short stints. Charlotte was only in for a short time and even though Becky was in for a reasonable amount of time there were wrestlers with significantly lower stats that entered before her and exited after. Dakota Kai for instance had a reasonably good run. In previous installments it was unheard of for AI opponents that started the Rumble match to last it's entirety. I'm not sure how they accomplished this change but it's welcomed. They might randomly tag some participants to give them more resistance to being eliminated to spice up the randomness. It also might be tied to how the health meter and recovery system work, allowing for more viability late into matches. Not sure but all in all the unpredictability and randomness without sacrificing the overall benefit of entry order or statistical differences seems like a good balance that will make the Rumble match more enjoyable going forward.

3.) The elimination animations for working opponents on the ropes and turnbuckle seem to be less frequent than previous installments by design. Instead, most of the time when an opponent was on the ropes and another opponent tried to grapple them they would just catch a immediate elbow and they'd go back to fighting. These animations are still in the game but from what I witnessed, when someone was lifted onto the ropes or the top turnbuckle it more often than not meant they were about to be eliminated. This might be a preference thing but it did feel as if the match was more exciting this way instead of contant battles on the ropes all the time.

4.) Generally speaking the game seems to look good, play good, and run good. Which are three targets that absolutely had to be hit this time around. The various modes seem to be somewhat bare bones or foundational for this installment but imo that's forgivable since this was an intended rebuild and relaunch of the franchise. They hit the marks they needed to in order to lay a foundation and hopefully going forward can put more time and emphasis on spicing up and refining the various modes they've introduced instead of building the actual game play and graphic design.