2025 Royal Rumble Review

This past Saturday was the Royal Rumble where one of the battle royals was predictable and the other was unpredictable to put it mildly. Overall, the show was good, so here are some of my takes from the big event and the good old dependable RHR rating (1-5) for each match and the show overall. Starting the rumble with Stephanie McMahon seemed to be a way book end this week with Triple H heading this year’s hall of fame. It only made sense to have Pat McAfee narrate the cold open, and I fully expect McAfee to be extra on the cans Saturday night.

• Women’s Royal Rumble
  Iyo and Liv starting off was a good start, Roxanne Perez continues to prove she is main roster ready. Chelsea Green is absolutely over; Ivy Nile is the best kept secret for the female division on Raw and I may have been wrong about Lash Legend she can be something in the future.

• Jaida Parker had good but short outing the rumble, then Jordynne Grace finally came out and is officially in WWE where she is going to shine. Alexa Bliss returns was easily one of the loudest moments of the whole night, awesome surprise. I am sorry but Candice Lerae coming out a couple of spots after the Alexa Bliss return felt sort temu/great value like.

• I love Stephanie Vaquer! Trish Stratus still looks amazing and can still deliver in the ring. I  don’t understand what happened with Raquel Rodriguez but it’s impossible to not notice with the fans, Liv eliminating  Alexa Bliss with help Big Mami Cool hopefully means something to come between on Monday nights.

• Finally at 27 the queen arrived, Charlotte Flair had nice response not equal to Bliss as much as commentary tried to sell it. Charlotte was in superwoman right away especially when she eliminated Piper Niven easily.

• Giulia deserved a better reaction but following Charlotte was a tricky situation. Giulia and Iyo Sky squaring off is a match I now want to see in the future. Giulia, Roxanne, and Vaquer facing off against Bianca, Bayley and Charlotte was a cool moment with the next generation vs. current.

• Is it me or does Nia Jax always enter Royal Rumble matches from 26-30? Nikki Bella at #30 got a louder reaction than Charlotte, did anyone have that on their bingo card? Nia Jax of had her monster giant moments, then eliminated multiple people at once including my pick, Bianca Belair. Which left Jax, Charlotte, Bayley, and Roxanne Perez remaining.

• After Bayley’s elimination, Flair eliminated Nia Jax leaving her and Roxanne Perez where I thought for a moment Roxanne would have a huge upset and moment but Charlotte Flair easily dispatched Perez to win the women’s rumble to a mix response overall.  Personally, if this does not set up Flair vs. Ripley III then it is puzzling because there are several ways to potentially lead to Charlotte Flair vs. Tiffany Stratton without the queen winning on Saturday night.

RHR Rating: 3 out of 5

Two out of three falls WWE Tag Team Championship
I figured this match was going to be in the bad spot of the show but hoped this match would get a chance and not the bathroom/concession break. It is hard to not feel for FTR not being part of this potential revival of tag team wrestling in WWE (No pun intended I promise).

MCMG having a match on the Royal Rumble still seems unreal, the machine guns got the crowd going in the third fall because of their teamwork. The Street Profits come out to cost MCMG the match but attack #DIY after which hopefully means a new and more aggressive version of the Profits that could lead to them being champions again.

RHR Rating: 3.25 out of 5

Ladder Match for the WWE Undisputed Championship

Kevin Owens is the t-shirt god! I need those shirts, and Cody Rhodes is still the guy despite the complaints of his title reign from the lovely IWC. This crowd sounds like they are ready for a KO upset and you could not ignore that because Owens is an awesome heel, The dueling chants were interesting.

Some of the moves done off or involving the ladders were insane! But this ladder match actually like a match compared to most other ladder matches that happen in wrestling currently. Having Nick Aldis, Sami Zayn and the agents check on them was a good touch, but Owens bleeding was perfect. Cody putting Owens through a ladder with that Alabama slam folding him on the broken ladder to win the match was a great ending.  Overall, it was a good match, certainly better than what we normally see because it is often just a chaotic mess, but this was not and felt like the end of this feud between them.

RHR Rating: 4 out of 5

Men’s Royal Rumble
Now to the main event! Where Rey Mysterio and Penta started this rumble, which was the only way to start, and have get this match at Wrestlemania or Summerslam period. I like the start of this rumble displaying all this luchador talent certainly gives some hope that there is something more to come. I cannot stand Otis; I just do not get it, as much as the IWC complained about Jey Uso being corny. How is that not the case with Otis? Regardless, Chad Gable is a monster had another impressive outing, then business picked up with Bron Breakker coming in.

The Tozowa / IShowSpeed bit was also corny but Bron Breakker cutting IShowSpeed in half was absolutely worth it. Then Jacob Fatu’s music hit, and the energy of this rumble changed as he destroyed the competitors in the ring.  Someone said this man’s name and he appeared; Joe Hendry entered the rumble next for that awesome fan moment briefly when the OTC Roman Reigns was next and was insane to think it had been 5 years since his last rumble appearance.

Reigns cleans house until Breakker and him faced off (Talk about one of many potential Wrestlemania main events in this year’s Rumble) then Breakker destroyed Reigns with a spear but was eliminated by Reigns. Then we finally got the big money showdown with Reigns vs. Fatu that absolutely will be a huge main event match someday.

Drew McIntyre was next and man this rumble from this point was only going to be main event/top tier guys coming out. Finn Balor was next with new music that hopefully means much desired relaunch to make the main event guy he is, then Lucas Oil Stadium went nuts with main event Jey Uso and that entrance is just surreal every time you see it. AJ Styles is back WITH THE OLD THEME SONG! Styles looked amazing as always and is going to be interesting to how fits into the road to Wrestlemania this year.

Braun Strowman was where eliminated Jacob Fatu which was a letdown. Then the moment we waited for but were ready to fully absorb, John Cena was next, and I cannot lie, when Cena said it was the last time it got me emotional watching him run down to the rumble.  CM Punk was next, and that crowd was ready for that moment until the next entrant was Seth Rollins! Punk, Cena, Reigns, Rollins, Jey, AJ, and Drew in the ring at the same time was magical. Of course, Logan Paul entered #30, Paul is unlikable, but he is athletic as hell and knows the assignment.

McIntyre, Priest, Knight, and Styles were eliminated that would be the last four any other year. Roman and Seth finally facing off only for Punk to eliminate them was a big moment until, Logan Paul eliminated Punk pissing off the crowd. Rollins, Punk, and Reigns interaction after being eliminated was great, that Rollins two-foot stomp on Reigns was insane, Rollins unhinged was interesting and leads to much need switch. John Cena, Logan Paul, and Jey Uso left in this match was curveball, Cena eliminating Paul picked the crowd up leaving Cena and Uso to decide who will go Vegas for Wrestlemania.

They had a fun little match where a lot of the close eliminations made the ending so tense when Cena made a mistake at the wrong time leading to Jey Uso eliminating him in a huge upset and surprise which had that crowd going wild. Cena enters the ring to congratulate Uso and give him the seal of approval of Jey Uso being a main star (Much to the majority of fans chagrin apparently) But Jey pointing at the sign with that crowd was cool visual where he was celebrating this huge moment with his son was the perfect way to end the show.

RHR Rating: 4.5 out of 5

The aftermath/ backlash from this rumble was shocking but may be reinforced the notion that wrestling can be fickle, while I understand some fans not being for Jey Uso winning because of what happen the previous weekend on Saturday Night’s Main Event but at the same time whether that portion of fans  like it or not, Jey Uso has special connection a kin to Daniel Bryan/ Bryan Danielson in 2014, where he won and gets another chance to defeat the Ring General in April.

When it came to the show it was a good show where some desired results did not happen, but the men’s rumble this year was one of the more exciting and unpredictable ones in an exceptionally long time. The road to Wrestlemania is going to have a good number of twists and turns that started last night, that we hope shapes up an exciting Wrestlemania.

Overall Show RHR Rating: 3.7 out of 5