Hiya!

It looks like the WWE started their annual road trip to Wrestlemania a little bit this year as the Royal Rumble happened on the 1st of February this time around. It usually takes place on the last week of January. Oh well. Better late than never!

I do find it amazing how lean the 2025 Royal Rumble is as, this time around, the show only has 4 matches. I do hope this equates to the WWE really focusing on the quality and not the quantity then. The only way to see if this is true is to just watch them. So, let’s go see what went down at this year’s Royal Rumble pay-per-view, shall we?

The first match on the card was the Women’s Royal Rumble with the winner earning a title shot of her choosing at Wrestlemania. First off, let’s talk about the surprises as, while there were hardly any WWE Legends who participated in the Women’s Royal Rumble, they were at least notable… for better or worse. It was nice to see Trish Status return to a WWE ring. Too bad they had to juxtapose that with Nikki Bella taking the coveted #30 spot! I really like Trish Status as I grew up watching her do fantastic things in the ring but all my love for that was cancelled out with how much I dislike Nikki Bella even after all these years.

There was only one really surprise entrant during the Women’s Royal Rumble but it was a doozy! At #21 came in a returning Alexa Bliss! It was great to see her back in the ring because, although the WWE hasn’t really used her properly for quite a while, hopefully they can make up for all the lost time with her return. I mean, based on how loud the live audience was, it would be a shame to waste all of Alexa Bliss’ return potential, right?

The in-ring action was just mostly fine. They didn’t stray away from the tried-and-true formula of having the next entrant come in and wreck the ones who were already in the ring. There were a few fun moments and a few wasted spots. Regarding the latter, they really should have done something more when all members of Pure Fusion Collective were in the Royal Rumble. They should’ve dominated the action and started doing eliminations left and right! All Sonya Deville, Shayna Baszler and Zoey Stark did was bully Maxxine Dupri for a while and, even then, they backed down the instant Ivy Nile interjected herself into the proceedings! I also didn’t like the mass elimination by Nia Jax at one point. They should’ve spaced out the eliminations better as there was a good chunk of time when the ring was just too stuffed with people.

Thankfully, there were more good things than bad as there were some spots I loved. Lyra Valkyrie nearly had a wardrobe malfunction and, thanks to some quick thinking from Liv Morgan by knocking her to the far side of the ring, Lyra and an official fixed things up outside of the camera’s view. I cannot forget to mention Chelsea Green‘s comedic antics, which prove wrestling doesn’t have to be serious all the time to be entertaining. Jordynne Grace looked awesome with some amazing feats of power, such as lifting up Piper Niven into a rolling fireman’s carry slam!

Eventually, the 30 women participants got whittled down to the final 6. These were Nikki Bella (ugh!), Roxanne Perez, Nia Jax, Giulia, Bayley and a returning Charlotte Flair. Giulia and Roxanne Perez started fighting on the ring apron and Charlotte tried to take advantage with a big boot but missed. They then tried to toss Charlotte out but the returning Queen rolled back. Roxanne shoved Giulia into the ring post and eliminating her. Nia Jax ducked under an attempted forearm strike by Nikki Bella. This led to Nikki knocking Bayley to the outside, eliminating the Role Model. Jax then snuck up from behind and toss Nikki Bella over the top rope.

We’re down to 3 women now. Charlotte started chopping at Nia Jax but Roxanne Perez hit Charlotte’s bad knee from behind. The Prodigy started attacking the Queen’s knee by wrapping it around the bottom rope. Nia Jax tried to hit an avalanche splash to both of them but the Irresistible Force hit the corner turnbuckle instead. Jax recovered enough, however, and tried to toss out Roxanne but Charlotte tossed them both over the top rope, with Jax hitting the floor but Roxanne managing to save herself. The Prodigy tries to toss Charlotte out with a headscissors grab but Charlotte blocked it. Roxanne tried to climb in the ring but Charlotte hit a big boot, knocking her to the floor, punching Charlotte Flair’s ticket to Wrestlemania.

Okay, I’m not the biggest fan of Charlotte Flair. In fact, I do hate that she won as she just returned! In fact, the Royal Rumble was her debut match! I just dislike it when a returning WWE Superstar gets an immediate title opportunity instead of building up to it. Then again, I can’t think of anyone I would’ve wanted to be in the title hunt at Wrestlemania. At least Charlotte is a big name. I do think this year’s Royal Rumble was pretty good. I just wish the WWE had someone better than Charlotte to win it.

The next match of the night was for the Smackdown Tag Team Championships. This had the reigning champs, DIY, taking on the Motor City Machine Guns. I expected this to be a really good match but I had no idea how good it was going to be! When it comes to tag team matches, I expect the pairs to be working like well oiled units, with their movements coordinated to look like they’re working using one mind. Thankfully, both teams excelled at doing just that! Heck, that opening sequence where the Motor City Machine Guns and DIY kept switching positions from the center of the ring to the corners was outstanding!

One specific thing I loved is how crafty Johnny Gargano and Tommaso Ciampa were throughout the match. I really like the trick they pulled where they faked a tag so they could blindside Alex Shelley to get the first pinfall. The Motor City Machine Guns were no slouches here either. That powerbomb and sliced bread #2 move to Tommaso was gorgeous!

Unfortunately, as good as the match was, I will have to ding it a few points as I didn’t like the screwball finish. The Motor City Machine Guns set up Johnny Wrestling for their Skull and Bones finisher when a hooded man climbed to the ring apron to distract the official. This allowed Angelo Dawkins to smack Shelley with a crutch. This allowed DIY to recover and smack Chris Sabin with their Meeting in the Middle finisher to get the final pinfall victory and retain their Smackdown Tag Team Championships. After the match, The Street Profits, Angelo Dawkins and Montez Ford, to beat down on DIY.

Simply put, this was an amazing match! Both DIY and the Motor City Machine Guns put out a clinic on what an incredible tag team match is supposed to look like. Although the screwball finish did hurt it a little as I would’ve liked it if it didn’t involve outside parties, the match itself was a blast to watch.

The next match was for the highest prize of the Smackdown brand. This had Cody Rhodes defending the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship against Kevin Owens in a Ladder match. This one was a brutal match and I’m not totally sure how both Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens didn’t get stretchered out of the match! Things like Kevin Owens hitting his fisherman buster to Cody Rhodes through a ladder and Kevin Owens’ lower back landing squarely on the edge of the ladder made me squirm! They did balance it a little bit with some humor with the little ladder spots.

The finish was pretty brutal as it all started with that fisherman buster through a ladder. Sami Zayn went out to check on Kevin Owens as well as Cody Rhodes. Owens had enough strength to try to deliver a stunner to Cody but the American Nightmare countered with his Cross Rhodes finisher. Cody tried to climb the ladder but KO was still conscious enough to grab Cody and stop him. A seething Rhodes then went to the outside and beat on Owens but Owens managed to retaliate with a low blow. Owen then set Cody up for his package piledriver through the announcer’s table but Cody reversed and hit an Alabama Slam on Owens through a ladder. Owens was KOed, allowing Rhodes to climb the ladder and retrieve the belts to retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

This match had a lot of intensity and rightfully so as they really needed to show this to be a blood feud. Some of the spots were a little gratuitous as I started to feel for both Rhodes and Owens’ well-being. Hopefully, they weren’t beat up too bad from this. I do have to appreciate both of them going all out here.

The final match of the night was the Men’s Royal Rumble with the winner having his choice on who to face at Wrestlemania. As he was one of the first participants in the Royal Rumble, I have to give my unpopular opinion on how Penta doesn’t seem like a good fit in the WWE right now. It’s not that he’s not a good wrestler. I’ve seen some of his matches when he was part of the Lucha Bros in AEW. He does need to slow his pace and overall antics down now that he’s in the WWE. Heck, I’m pretty sure both of his feet touched the floor near the start of the Rumble. However, that would’ve thrown a massive wrench into the proceedings as he was there for a very long time!

I will say the Men’s Royal Rumble felt better paced than the Women’s version mostly because the eliminations were spread out much better throughout. This meant the ring didn’t look like a deluge of people inside, which would lead to some inadvertent blocking of the main action. It also made it easier to keep track of who was still in the match.

Like the most recent couple of Royal Rumbles, this year didn’t really have any big returns from any Legends. However, there were a few surprises, such as including TNA‘s World Heavyweight Champion, Joe Hendry. They also did include the obligatory celebrity-type entrant in iShowSpeed. Personally, I don’t really care for IRL bloggers like iShowSpeed but I do understand he does have a lot of fans. I did love how him being a participant was a “surprise” as he was in the middle of doing a vlog when he was unceremoniously ushered in to replace Akira Tozawa. I love a good comedy bit and this one was pretty good.

This Royal Rumble also was the best time to showcase both Bron Breakker and Jacob Fatu as the monsters they can be and the WWE did a good job on that. They were able to show off their power in wondrous ways throughout their respective stays. However, I can’t really say anything big happened until the big guns started entering the match during the halfway mark.

This is when the guys most people assumed would win the Royal Rumble started rolling in. Roman Reigns and Drew McIntyre came in quick succession. They were followed soon after by John Cena, CM Punk and Seth Rollins. By the way, I do have to mention that really pregnant pause right after John Cena entered the match because it just looked like they were standing around and waiting for the next big name to come in before they started brawling. I guess this was a simple way to give fans the ideas something huge was going to happen. Not me, unfortunately. I just started screaming for them to do something in my brain.

The final 6 participants were a little bit surprising once you see what happens at the end. The final 6 were Roman Reigns, CM Punk, John Cena, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso and Logan Paul. Almost immediately, 3 of them were eliminated as CM Punk tossed out both Reigns and Rollins while they were grappling near the ropes. Logan Paul took advantage while Punk has his back turned and dumped the Second City Savior out soon after. Reigns starting shouting at Punk for the unceremonious elimination. An irate Rollins hit a curb stomp to the OTC, leading to a brawl between Punk and the Visionary. Further chaos erupted when Rollins broke free and hit another curb stomp to Reigns to the steel steps.

We are now down to 3 people: John Cena, Logan Paul and Jey Uso. A punching match evolved between Jey and Logan with Jey Uso getting the upper hand. Jey then tried to hit an avalanche splash to Cena but Cena dodged it and he tossed Logan into Jey Uso. Cena then stacked both of them and set them up for an Attitude Adjustment. Jey Uso escaped and hit Logan Paul with a superkick while he was still on top of Cena. Cena then knocked Logan Paul out of the ring with a clothesline.

We’re now down to John Cena and Jey Uso. Jey Uso got the quick advantage but Cena rallied with is Five Moves of Doom^TM. Cena then set up Jey for an Attitude Adjustment but Jey Uso gets out of the hold and knocks Cena to the ropes with a superkick. Cena tries to counter but eats a spear for his troubles.

Jey tries to toss Cena over the top rope but the Doctor of Thuganomics reverses it and send the Yeet master to the apron. Cena charges in but Jey Uso low bridges him. Both men are on the ring apron now but Cena sets up Jey Uso for an Attitude Adjustment. Miraculously, Jey Uso slips back into the ring and kicks Cena. John Cena slips and falls to the outside… Jey Uso is your 2025 Men’s Royal Rumble winner!

This was a surprise and I don’t think anyone had this on their bingo card! As this was a very stacked Royal Rumble, seeing Jey Uso get a title shot at Wrestlemania is shocking to say the least! The Royal Rumble itself was great for the most part but I am of two minds when it comes to Jey Uso winning it all. I mean, him winning gives me flashbacks to his match with Jimmy Uso at last year’s Wrestlemania, which was boring as all heck! Hopefully, they can make the buildup to who he picks worth the surprise win.

All-in-all, this was a very good Royal Rumble. The matches themselves were excellent but 3 of the 4 matches have finishes I don’t exactly agree with. All of them will have repercussions in futures WWE shows but I just don’t like them as they stand right now. Maybe if the WWE does something really good with these results, I’ll be okay with what happened in the future.

Byee!

What did you think of this year’s Royal Rumble? Do you think Charlotte Flair and Jey Uso were the best choice to get the title shots at Wrestlemania later this year? Let me know in the comments section below!