TJRWrestling WWE Royal Rumble 2025 Preview

It’s WWE Royal Rumble featuring two big Rumble matches, Cody Rhodes facing Kevin Owens in a Ladder Match, and more.

I am a big fan of the Royal Rumble PLE and the history of the event. I have reviewed them all and I can probably recite more Rumble related stats than most people just because I enjoy it a lot. I couldn’t tell you the birthdays of some family members who I love, yet I can tell you who won every Royal Rumble by year. It’s just one of those things I’m always going to remember. The match concept is a lot of fun. I think in future years, the Royal Rumble is going to be a two-night event with the Women’s Rumble headlining night one and Men’s Rumble headlining night two, but for now, it’s all on the same night. I like this year’s lineup in the men’s match while the women’s side is solid too. There is the potential for a lot of surprises on both nights.

The two non-Rumble matches should be very good with Cody Rhodes facing Kevin Owens in a Ladder Match and #DIY facing Motor City Machine Guns in a 2/3 Falls match. The match quality on this show is going to be very strong, that’s for sure.

They have sold over 60,000 tickets at Lucas Oil Stadium (home of the NFL’s Colts) and it should be one of the biggest crowds WWE has this year. I’ve been to dozens of WWE shows in my life including five WrestleManias, but never a Royal Rumble, so that’s something I want to go to in the future.

As a reminder, you can watch the Royal Rumble on Saturday, February 1st, streaming live at 6 p.m. ET/3 p.m. PT on Peacock in the United States and on Netflix for many of us internationally including me in Canada. The early start time is fine with me and certainly better for fans in Europe too.

Here’s a handy graphic from WWE showing the start time of the Royal Rumble in different time zones around the world.

That’s enough rambling from me. Let’s get to it.

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Women’s Royal Rumble Match

I am writing this before SmackDown and these are the women who are listed on WWE’s website for this match: Bayley, Liv Morgan, Bianca Belair, Naomi, Nia Jax, Charlotte Flair, Lyra Valkyria, Ivy Nile, Raquel Rodriguez and IYO SKY. That’s 10 out of 30. A lot of other full-time women in WWE will be in this match and there will be some surprises as well.

For this match, I’m going to break it down with a lot of point form thoughts and I’ll start with surprises. I think there will be a lot of them in the women’s match.

* Welcome back, Becky Lynch. She has been away from WWE since last May and she’ll probably get a huge ovation. It wouldn’t surprise me if she was in at #1 or #2 just to get a huge pop out of the way early.

* I think Trish Stratus and Lita will both be in the match. Trish said in an interview recently that this year is 25 years since she started in WWE (Lita too), so I can see both of them being in the Rumble and having some more matches throughout the year. I’m all for it because I like both of them, especially my fellow Canadian-Greek Trish.

* AJ Lee would be an awesome choice as a surprise entrant about ten years after last wrestling in WWE. She’s 37 years old, healthy after not taking bumps in a ring for a decade, in great shape and she would get a massive ovation.

* I hope future WWE Hall of Famer Mickie James is in. I don’t know if she is, but I think with her being a coach/mentor on the new WWE LFG show debuting on A&E, it makes a lot of sense for her to be in it. Also, Mickie started with WWE 20 years ago so I would love to see her in there.

* WWE Hall of Famer Nikki Bella seems like a lock to be in it. She said recently she missed WWE and wanted to be back in it. She has a young son, so I’m sure she’ll want to be able to show him what his mom used to do. Good for her if she’s back in WWE after having a tough year in 2024 with a divorce. Nikki is my favorite Bella Twin, after all.

* I know Jordynne Grace posted on social media that she won’t be in the Royal Rumble due to her mom’s birthday, but wrestlers are encouraged to lie about it to avoid ruining a surprise. Grace signed with WWE recently and I think putting her in the Rumble makes a lot of sense. Grace also doesn’t need to be in NXT because she has a lot of TV experience.

* TNA Knockouts Champion Masha Slamovich may be in the match due to WWE working with TNA now. We saw Mickie James and Jordynne Grace in the Rumble in the past as Knockouts Champions, so it makes sense. Masha isn’t as big of a name as those two, but I think it’s possible.

* This seems like a good spot to bring back Jade Cargill, who has been off for over two months due to a mystery attack. We still don’t know who attacked her in the mystery attack, so that’s a story that needs to play out.

* There might be some NXT women in the match. I think NXT Women’s Champion Giulia should be in there and I also think Roxanne Perez is likely due to her feud with Bayley, who will be in there.

* I’m going to leave Alexa Bliss off the surprise list, but she is a possibility as well.

Moving away from the surprises, I have some more thoughts on the Rumble match itself.

* My pick for the woman who lasts the longest is Bianca Belair. I think she’s going to get a big singles push again this year and I’m all for it.

* It will be cool to see Bayley working with Iyo Sky in the Royal Rumble. A year ago, Bayley won the Rumble and beat her former friend Sky at WrestleMania for the Women’s Title. Now they are both babyfaces, so I would expect to see a Damage CTRL reunion of sorts during the match.

* If Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch are in the match then I hope they interact just because of all the history there. I think fans will want to see them face off.

* I think Nia Jax will be in there late in the match and probably get thrown out by Jade Cargill showing off her power. Jade is my pick for most eliminations, but it could be Jax.

* Another thought on Jade Cargill is it will be interesting to see if she is mad at Bianca Belair for continuing her Tag Team Title reign with Naomi or if they work together. Maybe Cargill is jealous of Naomi and takes Naomi out. There are a lot of ways that can go.

* Liv Morgan has made it into the final four in the last couple of years, so I can see that happening again.

* Regarding Charlotte Flair, I understand WWE advertising her and pushing her return as a big deal, but if it was up to me I wouldn’t do it. My guess is WWE is only doing it because they have other surprises like Becky Lynch so they probably felt like it was okay to announce Flair for the match.

* There have been rumors that two women’s matches that WWE is considering for WrestleMania are WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair and Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley vs. Bianca Belair. I think both of them make a lot of sense as big matches to do and are very possible. I think of the two, Stratton-Flair seems more likely. The backstory is that Stratton saw Charlotte in WWE, signed with WWE after college and now about four years later, Tiffany can get her dream match against Charlotte, who is back fresh after missing over a year with a Torn ACL that required a lengthy rehab process. I think Flair is going to win. She has been my pick for this match for a few months now. I think it’s very likely.

Wrestler That Lasts The Longest: Bianca Belair

Most Eliminations: Jade Cargill

Final Four:Charlotte Flair, Bianca Belair, Nia Jax, Liv Morgan

Winner:Charlotte Flair

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WWE Tag Team Championships 2 Out 3 Falls Match: #DIY – Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs. Motor City Machine Guns – Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin

I’m happy for both teams being in this spot because I like them a lot and I enjoy tag team wrestling. It’s also really cool that the Guns first WWE PLE match is at the Royal Rumble in front of 60,000+ fans. There may be moments in the match where the crowd isn’t that hot because it’s tough having a match when there are Royal Rumble matches on the same show, but I think these four guys are all talented veterans who will do a nice job of telling a story throughout the match.

I doubt the Guns win and that’s okay. They’ve already been champions. I think if this match gets 15-20 minutes it should be great. I think #DIY should get the first fall, the Guns get the second fall and then #DIY cheats to win to get the third fall to retain.

As for the result, I think the heel champions #DIY should retain. I’ve enjoyed the heel antics of Gargano & Ciampa over the past couple of months and I want to see it continue. I feel like The Street Profits are the babyface team that should take the title from #DIY and I’d like to see that at WrestleMania 41. The Profits have been forgotten/ignored for several weeks, so I think they’re going to bounce back strong and get that title push.

Winners: #DIY – Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa

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Undisputed WWE Championship Ladder Match: Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens

This should be an excellent match that could put an end to this story with Cody getting the win. I think there will be a lot of twists and turns throughout the match. Perhaps we see somebody help Kevin Owens and maybe it’s Sami Zayn, who has been conflicted about doing the right thing or helping his best friend. Randy Orton could make his triumphant return here after Owens took him out with a piledriver two months ago and Orton has been home ever since. If Orton shows up to prevent Owens from winning it would generate a huge pop for Orton making his return. That should set up Owens against Orton as a WrestleMania 41 match.

I think Cody retaining his WWE TItle is a logical result here. I’m not sure if Cody will be against John Cena at WrestleMania 41 or maybe it will be Cody against CM Punk, which was teased heavily on Raw this past Monday. I know Cody against Cena and Punk against Reigns have been rumored, but sometimes things change.

The match quality should be great. Cody always has awesome matches during his WWE Title reign while Owens can go in the ring. I’m excited to watch the match. I’m going with a Cody win and if he doesn’t win then I would be very surprised.

Winner: Cody Rhodes

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Men’s Royal Rumble Match

I am writing this before Smackdown and here’s the listing of the wrestlers in the Men’s Rumble match on WWE’s website: John Cena, Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Seth “Freakin” Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Sami Zayn, Shinsuke Nakamura, Logan Paul, Jey Uso, Penta, Bron Breakker, Chad Gable and Rey Mysterio. There are 13 names listed there. Is the winner listed there? I think so.

Like I did with the women’s match, I’ll start off with the potential surprises.

* I think Pat McAfee being in the match makes a lot of sense since he lives in Indy, played for the Colts and he’ll get a huge reaction.

* TNA World Champion Joe Hendry will probably be in the match. I think it would be a cool moment to see Joe make his entrance with the TNA World Title and the fans will likely know who he is too.

* The NXT Champion Oba Femi being in this match seems likely to me. I think Trick Williams may be a part of it too.

* Big E being in the Rumble would make me so happy because he’s been out of the ring for three years due to a serious neck injury. The New Day guys Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods turned on Big E, so if Big E were to return that would generate one of the loudest pops of the night. I’m not predicting it, but I’d love to see it happen.

* Randy Orton makes sense as somebody who could come back for this show since he’s been gone for a few months. Perhaps Orton will show up during the Cody Rhodes-Kevin Owens match instead and cost Owens the match.

* My feeling is that The Rock won’t be in it. I could be totally wrong on that. I’m just saying I think he’s off the WrestleMania card this year although he should appear at the show.

That’s it for surprise thoughts, so now I’ll add more thoughts on the Rumble match itself.

* The John Cena story will be the best part of the match. Can the old gunslinger get it done one more time in his last Rumble match? It’s a great story. I want to see Cena interact with guys from his past like AJ Styles (I hope he’s in it), Rey Mysterio and CM Punk to name a few. I also want to see Cena mix it up against younger, newer opponents like Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes. It would be a wonderful thing for those guys. Anyway, I am guessing Cena enters after #20 because it would be silly to expect him to work the majority of the match when he hasn’t wrestled in a long match in a long time.

* I would love to see Bron Breakker have a showdown with Roman Reigns. It’s the battle of the Spears, but Bron is about a decade younger than Reigns and Bron has a bright future in WWE just like Reigns did a decade ago. That’s a future match I want to see.

* I’m excited to see guys like Jacob Fatu and Penta in their first Royal Rumble matches. I think WWE is going to want both of them to look impressive, so I think we’ll see some eliminations from them.

* Logan Paul will likely do some memorable things to show off his athleticism. I don’t know who Logan will be matched up with at WrestleMania although I would imagine that we get a tease of that in this match.

* Sami Zayn is the guy I’m looking at somebody who is going to be in there early in the match and lasts near the end. It makes for a good story. I also think Zayn will eliminate Drew McIntyre since Zayn has never beaten McIntyre in a match, so at least they can say Zayn eliminated Drew from the Rumble.

* I think the Men’s Royal Rumble will come down to two guys in their late 40s: John Cena and CM Punk. I think whoever doesn’t win the Rumble will win the Men’s Elimination Chamber, so I believe both guys are going to be in the WWE Title and World Heavyweight Title matches at WrestleMania. I picked CM Punk to win last year and not Cody Rhodes because I thought Cody would win Elimination Chamber. This year I’m going with Punk again and I think John Cena will win Elimination Chamber. However, if Cena wins the Rumble then I think Punk will win Elimination Chamber. Anyway, I’m going with Punk here just because he’s never won a Rumble and it’s a cool story.

Wrestler That Lasts The Longest: Sami Zayn

Most Eliminations:Roman Reigns

Final Four:CM Punk, John Cena, Roman Reigns, Sami Zayn

Winner: CM Punk

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BONUS TOPICS FOR WWE ROYAL RUMBLE

The Match I’m Looking Forward To The Most

Men’s Royal Rumble. More star power than the women’s match and I’m very interested to see how it’s booked.

The Match I Care About The Least

Nothing really. Only four matches and I like them all. I’m going to bail on picking this.

Longest Match

Men’s Royal Rumble going about 65 minutes.

Shortest Match

#DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns going around 20 minutes. I think Cody-Owens will be longer.

Excitement Level on a Scale of 1-10 (1 being low, 10 being high)

I’m at 8 out of 10 for this show. I love the Royal Rumble and I think most WWE fans enjoy it, so there’s a lot of anticipation for this show. The surprises will likely lead to big reactions and I think the quality of the Rumble matches will be high. The two non-Rumble matches will be great too. I expect an awesome show.

I’ll be back with a review of the WWE Royal Rumble on TJRWrestling.net on Saturday, so check that out live or after it’s over. You can also tweet me on X/Twitter at @johnreport as well.

If you want to send an email, send it to me at mrjohncanton@gmail.com. Thanks for reading.