My Thoughts on WWE Royal Rumble (2025)

      Hey guys, Chuck here. One thing I want to do a lot more of this year is share my thoughts on a few of the WWE premium live events. And, yes, this will include the forthcoming WrestleMania. But, before we get to the Showcase of Immortals, we have the annual Royal Rumble. So, here are my thoughts on the 2025 edition of the WWE Royal Rumble. 

      So, the way the Royal Rumble match works is as such: thirty WWE Superstars will enter the match, starting with two Superstars at the beginning, and subsequent Superstars enter at intervals of two minutes. The way for a Superstar to eliminate an opponent is to throw them over the top rope. But, both feet must hit the floor for the elimination to count. The last WWE Superstar standing wins the match, and is guaranteed a main event spot at WrestleMania, with a title shot for one of two WWE Titles: the World Heavyweight Title or the Undisputed WWE Title for the Men's Royal Rumble, and the Women's World Title or the WWE Women's Title for the Women's Royal Rumble.

      Before, we get to the matches, I gotta give a shout out to the commentary crew for the Royal Rumble: Michael Cole, Pat McAfee, and Wade Barrett. I have really come to appreciate Cole's professionalism as a commentator, and I have also grown to enjoy Wade Barrett and Pat McAfee's skills on commentary as well. Also, I want to shout out some of the folks in the crowd, such as actor Stephen Amell, and WWE icons Rob Van Dam, Ron Simmons, The Godfather, Mickie James, Rick Steiner, and Kurt Angle. 

      So, I think we'll save the two Royal Rumble matches for later, as there were a couple of other matches to fill out the run time. First was the WWE Tag Team Title Match between DIY and Motor City Machine Guns. Now, the match was a two-out-of-three falls match, which means that the team to score a total of two pinfalls or submissions wins. Both DIY and the Motor City Machine Guns put on one hell of a match, keeping the match neck-and-neck for the most part. However, there can only be one winning tag team, and that team was DIY, who retain their titles. The only reason they retained was because of another tag team, the Street Profits, who want payback against DIY.

       The other match was a ladder match for the WWE Title between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens. And, there were two belts up for grabs, as Cody was given a classic version of the WWE Title, referred to as the "Winged Eagle Belt," to carry for the December 2024 edition of Saturday Night Main Event, and after beating Kevin Owens that night, Owens stole the Winged Eagle Belt, and began proclaiming himself as the "true WWE Champion," while Cody continued to hold the current version of the WWE Title. Again, both Owens and Rhodes put on a hell of a match, with plenty of back-and-forth in and out of the ring. Now, I've mentioned in the past the insane amount of punishment professional wrestlers put themselves through, and both Owens and Rhodes put themselves through probably more punishment than ever in this match, to the point where I almost had to look away. But, at the end of a brutal and grueling match, Cody Rhodes was triumphant and retained the Undisputed WWE Title. 

      And now, we get to the two Royal Rumble matches. First, we have the 30 woman Royal Rumble match, which saw a number of surprises. The match started off with Iyo Sky and Liv Morgan, and would see a number of entrants show up. There were entrants that we already knew about, such as the likes of Bianca Belair, Nia Jax, Women's U.S. Champion Chelsea Green, Women's Intercontinental Champion Lyra Valkyria, and, and a few interesting and surprising entrants like NXT's Roxanne Perez, NXT's Lash Legend, and WWE icons like Trish Stratus and Nikki Bella. I was, personally, impressed with the performances of Roxanne Perez, Jordynne Grace, and Iyo Sky, and was really happy to see the likes of Shayna Baszler, Natalya, the returning Charlotte Flair, and the long-awaited return of Alexa Bliss. Shout out to Jaida Parker, Stephanie Vaquero, and Giulia from NXT, all three of whom made their Royal Rumble debut and both did really well. I also want to give some props to Nia Jax for having the most eliminations tonight. But, the big winner of the women's Royal Rumble match was Charlotte Flair.

       Finally, we have the 30 man Royal Rumble match. Much like with the women's Royal Rumble match, this one also has a few surprises. Now, this Royal Rumble match marks the final time John Cena, who is on his farewell tour this year and intends to retire from in-ring action at the end of the year, is an entrant in the Royal Rumble. In addition to John Cena, other entrants included the likes of Rey Mysterio, The Miz, CM Punk, Sheamus, Roman Reigns, both Jimmy AND Jey Uso, WWE U.S. Champion Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Damian Priest, Seth Rollins, and LA Knight. Tonight also marked the first Royal Rumble match for such wrestlers as Penta and Jacob Fatu. And, there was a massive ovation when Penta and Rey Mysterio, two of the best luchadores in the business, were face-to-face in the ring. A couple surprise entrants included YouTube sensation IShowSpeed and TNA World Champion Joe Hendry. In the end, though, the big winner was, surprisingly, Jey Uso, who won by last eliminating John Cena. And, believe me, the back-and-forth between Jey Uso and John Cena was intense. 

       One thing that was new to the Royal Rumble matches this year was a ticker on the bottom of the screen that showed how many entrants in the Rumble were active, how many were eliminated, and which entrants was next. I kind of like the idea, as it allows viewers to keep up with how many entrants have come and gone during the Rumble, as well as some other information that is a lot of fun for fans to keep up with. 

      Overall, the 2025 edition of the Royal Rumble was pretty fun, and a great way to kick off the Road to WrestleMania. So, just to recap, the Undisputed WWE Champion is still Cody Rhodes, the WWE Tag Team Champions are still DIY, and both Charlotte Flair and Jey Uso are set to headline WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas. It's just a matter of which champions Charlotte Flair and Jey Uso want to go after at WrestleMania. And, I'm sure we'll find that out fairly soon. 

      Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I'll see you guys in the next review, and we'll be diving into more WWE content next month with the Elimination Chamber.