Warning: The following copy has SPOILERS for WWE Royal Rumble (Feb 1st, 2025)
WWEkicked off their PLE year with the 38th annualRoyal Rumblefrom Indianapolis’s Lucas Oil StadiumThe men’sRoyal Rumbleis a crowded and unpredictable match, as Roman Reigns has declared he wants his belt back, CM Punk looks to headlineWrestleManiafor the first time, and pretty much the whole of the Raw locker room is hell-bent on stopping him. Motor City Machine Guns will also look to regain their WWE Tag Team titles from DIY in a 2-out-of-3-falls match.
Cody Rhodes defends his WWE Championship in his bitter feud with Kevin Owens, and the women’s Royal Rumble match was stacked and included the return of Charlotte Flair as well as a couple of other surprises. It is a night often loaded with new stories and shock returns, as WWE’s year begins to take shape.The road toWrestleManiastarts now.
Jey Uso Will Headline WrestleMania 41
A Shock Win For One Of WWE’s Most Popular Superstars
As the final seconds of the Royal Rumble match took place, only John Cena and Jey Uso remained. It doesn’t matter that Cena hasn’t won a singles match since 2018, it’s a brave person who favors Jey Uso over Big Match John. With Roman Reigns, CM Punk, and Seth Rollins back in the locker room,WWE strapped the rocket to Jey Uso on merit.
It feels like a bizarre and perhaps silly thing to say when he’s just made an entire stadium of people lose their minds, butJey Uso is a controversial Royal Rumble winner to some. All fans are passionate, but some of the more serious fans have a hard time accepting Jey Uso as a top guy. Here’s a counterargument. As WWE move onto Netflix and want to get families invested in WWE, who is more suitable for that role that Jey Uso? This is the Yeet Era and Jey Uso deserves his flowers.
Charlotte Flair Returns To Rule Once More
The Woman Is The First Two-Time Women’s Rumble Winner
As sure as night follows day,Charlotte Flair is back to winning ways in emphatic fashion, as she won the Royal Rumble for the second time. Her vignettes have radiated importance and a sea change in the women’s division. After marveling at the top the women’s mountain for the last 12 months, it now remains to be seen if they can meet Charlotte at her level.
There is an inevitability about her victories that are designed to irk fans, but if you don’t like Charlotte winning, 2025 may not be for you. Press rumors suggest the audience should expect her to carry a title “sooner rather than later”. This is a new dawn for Flair, and her new cast of challengers is going to make this a hell of a ride, butCharlotte reaffirming this is her ring felt inevitable.
Cody Rhodes And Kevin Owens Engage In A War
A Violent Exchange Sees Cody Retain, But At What Cost?
It was always going to be a bitter match, and yetCody Rhodes and Kevin Owens raised the bar of violence in contemporary WWE. Cody went to the darkest place since rejoining WWE, breaking Kevin Owens in half with an Alabama Slam. KO being attended to by medics as Sami Zayn looked on with concern at the hands of the company’s top babyface was a shocking turn of event.
Reports surfaced on the post-match show thatCody Rhodes is injured with no timeline on his return. Marvel at Kevin Owens' Fisherman Buster to Cody Rhodes through a ladder. This wasnoticeably more extreme than WWE’s average Ladder Match, and maybe even more so than the majority of it’s Extreme Rules matches.
Seth Rollins Spirals Out Of Control
After Months On The Edge, Seth Rollins Snaps
It’s been obvious if you’ve been paying attention, but Seth Rollins has not been himself in recent months. The Architect is usually laser-focused on achieving championships and WWE’s richest prizes. This has not been the case asRollins' hatred of Punk has driven him to madness, and Roman Reigns has always been a point of contention for him. This was the night that it all boiled over.
If you were to dig deep into Seth’s psyche, Rollins being dumped out alongside Roman Reigns by CM Punk is his worst nightmare. Even the sight of Punk having hisWrestleManiadreams dashed by a YouTuber couldn’t stop everything getting too much for Rollins.Seth will lose fan support over this evening, brawling with Punk and engaging in extreme violence towards Reigns, Stomping him multiple times outside the ring, including on the steel steps. There will be consequences, and Seth is responsible for igniting the road toWrestleMania.
John Cena Held Everyone In His Palm
The 2025 Farewell Tour Is Destined to Be An Emotional Rollercoaster
As the clock counted down for Entrant 23 to hit the ring, Cena’s music playing sent an emotional tsunami over the WWE universe. Tears in his eyes as he spoke to Stu the camera man before his last Royal Rumble match,the global goodwill towards John Cena is beautiful. The miles he has traveled, the matches he has given the world, and his determination to give back to the fans who love him so fervently.These moments between Cena and his fans are specialand, thoughit was definitely the right decision for WWE, his agonizing Rumble defeat showed 2025 is going to be a special year.
Showing respect to Jey Uso for his win, Cena walked out of the stadium with his path to his 17th Championship uncertain.John’s post-match press conferenceis essential viewing, as he delivered “a statement” instead of fielding questions. His defiance and guts as he digs deep to find the “you want some, come get some”, Cena buzzes with passion and determination. John Cena promises to win the Elimination Chamber, and only a fool would bet against him.
John Cena came almightily close, butJey Uso’s Royal Rumble win is sure to get people talking, in what will go down as one of the most shocking Rumble moments of all time. Less shocking (but no less impressive) was Charlotte Flair returning to book her spot atWrestleMania, and Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens took each other to their physical limits, pushing the envelope of what level of violence is acceptable in WWE. Street Profits are another fascinating and talented Tag team to add to SmackDown’s growing and exciting Tag team scene, and the road toWrestleManiahas taken a number of surprising but satisfying turns on a shocking night in WWE.
