One Royal Rumble match feels as unpredictable as ever and the opposite seems to have one actually logical selection for who punches their ticket to a world championship likelihood in a important occasion at WrestleMania.
Careers with be made at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday (6 p.m. Peacock) because the street to WrestleMania 41 in Las Vegas begins.
Royal Rumble winners might be one of many probably most polarizing — or typically universally liked selections WWE could make.
The Submit’s professional wrestling columnist Joseph Staszewski tries his finest to foretell the way it will all play out when the bell rings.
2025 WWE Royal Rumble full match card
DIY (Johny Gargano and Tomas Ciampa) over Motor Metropolis Machine Weapons (Alex Shelly and Chris Sabin) to retain the WWE tag group championships (Two-Out-Of-Three Falls)
Motor Metropolis Machine Weapons have been a breath of contemporary air to the WWE tag group division and simply the truth that a two-out-of-three falls championship match is on a serious premium stay occasion is a giant step ahead over the previous year-plus within the division.
DIY took the belts off MCMG in early January as Gargano deceived them with kindness earlier than in the end turning heel with Ciampa for the primary time. Since then, DIY has been utilizing Fairly Lethal to run interference to maintain MCMG away from their championships — together with them crashing the group’s final match on the Dec. 6 SmackDown.
Whereas Fairly Lethal retains getting warned they’re being performed — with DIY dangling an eventual title shot for them — they moved nearer to totally accepting it on SmackDown.
This might go both method primarily based on no matter determination Fairly Lethal makes to probably determine the match within the third fall. The story nonetheless seems like has legs and locations to discover so WWE gained’t take the titles for DIY but.
Cody Rhodes over Kevin Owens to retain the Undisputed WWE championship (Ladder match)
It’s a disgrace Kevin Owens’ fantastic work gained’t be rewarded with a official world title run — although he’s gotten to masquerade as one with the famed Winged Eagle championship for greater than a month since claiming he beat Rhodes at “Saturday Night time’s Essential Occasion.”
You don’t pull the set off on a title change to the heel within the third match of the trilogy earlier than Rhodes can go into WrestleMania 41 with a full 12 months as champion. What’s essential right here is how Rhodes wins and so many issues are potential in a ladder match — with the “American Nightmare” seemingly in a heel flip spiral.
Owens has already, in so many phrases, instructed Sami Zayn he expects him to have his again and assist him win to allow them to face one another at WrestleMania. It’s also potential Randy Orton — whom Owens piled drive to take him off TV within the storyline for months — comes again and value his former tag group accomplice the match. No matter occurs, Owens might be off to his subsequent feud — towards both Zayn or Orton.
Charlotte Aptitude wins the Girls’s Royal Rumble
Betting Favorites: Charlotte Aptitude 1/2, Iyo Sky 2/1, Becky Lynch 3/1, Bianca Belair 4/1, Jade Cargill 5/1 Jordynne Grace 15/2 (Paddy Energy)
WWE solely appeared to start out caring in regards to the Girls’s Royal Rumble when it had Liv Morgan, Raquel Rodriguez, Bianca Belair, Naomi and Nia Jax — for a second time — declare for the match in a single phase on SmackDown final week in entrance of each world champions as they be a part of Bayley and Iyo Sky within the match.
Charlotte Aptitude did get a particular vignette calling herself the GOAT to announce her return for the Royal Rumble from a severe knee damage after greater than a 12 months out of motion. WWE Girls’s champion Tiffany Stratton hasn’t been shy about wanting a dream match with Aptitude that’s completely WrestleMania worthy.
Belair, who gained the Royal Rumble in 2021 and went on to beat Sasha Banks at WrestleMania, seems like one in every of two wild playing cards on this match as a result of followers have wished to see her versus Girls’s World champion Rhea Ripley for years at WrestleMania and WWE has teased it every so often. She additionally can be a incredible opponent for Stratton because the champ could make the case she is greater, quicker and stronger than the EST. The opposite is former TNA Knockouts champion Jordynne Grace. She can be a incredible contemporary face for Ripley to sq. off with.
Outdoors of the thought of Jax or Morgan profitable to get their title rematches, the checklist of viable candidates feels skinny. Becky Lynch — if she returns — has already feuded with Stratton and Ripley. Bayley seems headed for a program for Roxanne Perez. Jade Cargill going through her thriller attacker really feel like her WrestleMania story.
Aptitude is the logical selection after WWE known as her The GOAT in her vignette, re-establish that and capitalize on the great emotions round her return to set as much as dream match with Stratton.
John Cena wins the Males’s Royal Rumble
Betting Favorites: CM Punk: 1/1, John Cena 7/4, Roman Reigns 10/3, Seth Rollins 5/1, The Rock 9/1, Drew McIntyre 9/1 (Paddy Energy).
The boys’s Royal Rumble is stacked and might be John Cena’s to lose.
The 16-time world champion is on the star-studded checklist of wrestlers who’ve declared for the match, together with Roman Reigns, CM Punk, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins, Jey Uso and Sami Zayn. All of them can be fantastic WrestleMania important eventers — with Cena because the betting favourite as he begins his retirement tour.
As important as it could be to beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight championship, the Royal Rumble ought to be about happening to problem for the extra prestigious title in Cody Rhodes’ Undisputed WWE championship. In the event you take a look at the checklist, actually solely Cena, Punk and Reigns make sense to try this — except The Rock or Randy Orton make an surprising look.
Rhodes considers Cena a mentor and the 2 are shut, So the protegee standing between the mentor Cena and breaking Ric Aptitude’s document with a seventeenth world reign can be very intriguing. Rhodes’ character seems to be within the early phases of a heel flip and perhaps an interplay with Cena accelerates that.
Punk and Rhodes superbly laid out the stress among the many two mates that might carry their story to shut Uncooked this week. Reigns profitable would give us the identical WrestleMania important occasion for 3 straight years — although perhaps Punk forces it to change into a triple-threat match through the favor he’s owned by Paul Heyman.
Additionally regulate the facet plots happening between McIntyre, Rollins, Punk, Uso and Zayn — all have been linked somehow over the previous 12 months as an attention-grabbing Bloodline subplot has been brewing.
If there are surprises, I anticipate them from the TNA facet after the introduced partnership between the 2 manufacturers earlier this month. Nic Nemeth, Joe Hendry and Moose all really feel like potential names to look out for as is a possible A.J. Kinds return.
A match between the WWE’s two largest babyfaces previously 20 years feels too good to move up and lets the opposite items — Punk vs. Roman Reigns and Gunther vs. Logal Paul — simply fall into place at WrestleMania.