WWE kicked off it’s biggest year ever with the 2025 Royal Rumble, broadcast to most of the planet on Netflix. This year’s Rumble was more controversial than most, with Jey Uso earning the greatest achievement of his career so far by winning the most stacked men’s Rumble match for generations. A loathed superstar arrived back in WWE to eliminate legends and some of the match’s favorites, and there were plenty of break-out performances to boot. Charlotte put every woman on notice, and her Rumble match was littered with new superstars and game-changing returns.
It wasn’t good news for everybody though: WrestleMania‘s Main Event only has so many slots and only one winner, but some of the competitors lost their dignity and others lost their cool. Title matches happened and failed to stand out on the night, and the Royal Rumble as a whole wasn’t perfect, but it was an overall fun and satisfying evening that met high expectations. The sign has been pointed at, and that means that WrestleMania 41 is starting to take shape.
Winners
Jey Uso
The Face Of WWE’s New Era Emerges
Jey Uso’s Royal Rumble win was significant for an almighty number of reasons, not least that his victory kept John Cena feeling like an underdog. I fully believe that WWE have made the decision that the Netflix audience that they have acquired needs to be brought up to speed. Jey Uso is WWE’s most popular family entertainer and has been for at least 9 months, but to a sizable chunk of the people watching, Jey is still a tag team wrestler. This victory obliterates that notion, never to return. After all, who calls Shawn Michaels a Tag Team wrestler in 2025? And he had exactly the same start as Uso.
If you spend any time doom-scrolling wrestling memes (and I do), you’ll already know the idea that you’re only a serious wrestling fan if you don’t enjoy Uso’s schtick is out there, and frankly, it is complete nonsense. It’s cynical, it’s misplaced, and it’s a quite impressive misread of Uso’s position in WWE right now.
Winning the Royal Rumble at WWE’s first PLE on Netflix, at the pinnacle of the best line-up for a 30-man Rumble in a generation, means WWE are confirming Jey Uso is the future of WWE. Cynical people posting their hot takes on social media might hate it, but WWE’s live audiences adore Main Event Jey Uso. The love of – and, crucially, merchandise sales to – kids and families, and the fact that this is another milestone in The Bloodline story make the booking far more sensible than the online hordes would have you believe.
Charlotte Flair
The Women’s Division Is About To Be Addressed
The talent and personality in the WWE women’s locker room is currently at an all-time high, especially when you factor in the influx of NXT stars who made the women’s Rumble such a blast this year. While there are no gripes with the in-ring performances, presentation, mic work or personalities involved, there has long been criticism that WWE struggles to write compelling television with their women’s division.
What the women’s division needs is a story that gets everyone talking, just as The Bloodline has captured a generation. What this division needs is its answer to Darth Vader – its Roman Reigns. What this division needs is Charlotte Flair.
It is human nature to dislike a sporting dynasty and to root for any underdog trying to take down The Empire. We’ve seen it almost endlessly with Tom Brady’s New England Patriots, Mahomes’ Chiefs, or Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United. Charlotte Flair falls very firmly in that bracket.
But at the same time, Flair monstering the women’s division is good business on all fronts, because she has it all. Her physique and superb in-ring psychology was on display during her regal entrance and knife-edge chopping every woman in sight after entering the Rumble. She is the right choice to lead this part of WWE’s roster, no matter how galling “Charlotte wins” might feel in the years ahead, and putting her immediately back into her rightful position is WWE’s statement of intent.
Logan Paul
Effortlessly Sending Global Audiences Into A Rage
If you were to assemble your Mount Rushmore of the best Indy wrestlers of all time, AJ Styles and CM Punk are two names likely to be on it or at least in the conversation. Naturally, the narrative now is that Logan Paul eliminated two of the most credible wrestlers in history, but context here matters.
To return to mention of that global Netflix casual audience, a lot of people only learned that Logan Paul is a wrestler, or that he can hold his own with the elite, during the Royal Rumble. After all, to much of the world, Paul is just a controversial YouTuber and a canny entrepreneur responsible for flooding the market with Prime.
WWE has 33.7M followers on Instagram, and Logan Paul has 27.2 million followers alone with very probably a similar number of people who think he’s a jackass. But all of those data points mean that he is also a massive deal for TKO and WWE, because Logan Paul is big business as a villain to everyone involved. Some might say that his heat is illegitimate, rather than heel heat, but I see it differently: the Rumble was an arrival point, and a springboard for Paul, and he took the opportunity well.
My bet is he is going to cross over and face Conor McGregor in an MMA fight that enables TKO to serve both the UFC audience and WWE’s for the first time (probably on Netflix). Logan will get a banner match at WrestleMania, we just need to find out who his opponent is.
Jacob Fatu
A Main Event Star Ascends In The Rumble
There are few more exhilarating experiences in modern wrestling fandom than getting your first look at the Samoan Werewolf, Jacob Fatu. WWE have booked Fatu like a menace since his arrival, but they’ve used him sparingly in singles competition. For so many, last night showed the world why Jacob Fatu brings invaluable street cred to WWE. He’s big and mean enough to Samoan Drop two men simultaneously, he’s athletic, and he has both a cool look and a good catchphrase, can talk and he is a breathtaking showman. Fatu has it all, WWE knows it and now so do those who watched the Rumble.
As Roman Reigns dominated everyone who stood before him in OTC fashion, he briefly came nose-to-nose with Fatu. Honestly, it almost made me explode with anticipation of them throwing hands, and I’m sure it did the same for a lot of the audience. In the moment, Michael Cole called Fatu vs Reigns “a future WrestleMania Main Event” and those are rare words, even in the hyperbloic landscape of the WWE. Fatu showed out, and I’m convinced we can expect something similar at WrestleMania when Fatu is finally let off his leash fully.
Chelsea Green
The US Champion Shines As The Rumble’s Joker
Every competitior brings something different to the Royal Rumble match; it’s what made both Rumbles such great advertisements for their respective division. In a key role, Chelsea Green dazzled as this year’s star comedic performance. Involved in multiple spots where she was the butt of the joke and the recipient of an ass-kicking, Green was eventually accidentally eliminated by her own “Secret Hervice”, Piper Niven. It was a fantastic end to a performance that shows why she’s such a valuable commodity in WWE’s Women’s division.
Jordynne Grace And The Mid-Card Scene
The Women’s Roster Continues To Gather Momentum
After an incredible amount of NXT talent made it to the final stages of the Rumble, the likes of Roxanne Perez and Giulia will be looking for gold sooner rather than later when they hit the Main Roster. And while Charlotte may have strode to victory, Jordynne Grace was the women’s Rumble’s standout performer. Her feats of strength, instant connection with the crowd, and a look that screams “powerful” made her shine in a ring full of stars. She and her class are so talented that the returns of Nikki Bella and Trish Stratus seemed almost flat in comparison.
WWE employing a mid-card title for the women’s division will enable them to elevate the stars of tomorrow with greater effectiveness. Chelsea Green and Lyra Valkyria are much more reasonable targets for new stars than Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton. This is the start of something even greater with WWE’s Women’s scene, and NXT call-ups and the return of Alexa Bliss is great news for the Intercontinental and US Championship scenes.
Losers
CM Punk
The Road To WrestleMania Just Got Way More Complicated
Ultimately, it wasn’t to be for Punk. One year on from the match that kept him out of WrestleMania 40, the Royal Rumble seemed set for Punk to win and punch his ticket to WrestleMania‘s Main Event and finally get the albatross from around his neck. He dumped Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns out in one swoop, but didn’t get to even enjoy it as Punk was dumped unceremoniously out of contention by “a YouTuber” he’d mocked on SmackDown less than 24 hours earlier.
It seems fated that John Cena vs Cody Rhodes will take one of WrestleMania‘s headline slots, and his victory means Jey Uso will be in the other. So Punk now has to beat Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship or win the Elimination Chamber between now and WrestleMania weekend.
That said, he is on incredible form in singles competition, so maybe don’t bet against Punk finding a way to WrestleMania‘s Main Event just yet. But Seth Rollins lost his mind and won’t stop coming for him, and Punk having to face Logan Paul on Raw is going to sting more than an incensed beehive.
One Night Royal Rumble Events
Title Matches Are Being Sacrificed, While Big Spots Lost
The unique nature of the match is why so many people’s favorite event is the Royal Rumble. It celebrates the diversity in skillset and presentation of WWE’s roster like no other event. Everyone gets a chance to show who they are and what they’re about, and it’s a rollercoaster of emotions for at least one straight hour. This is why the current Royal Rumble format has to change.
After a women’s Royal Rumble match that featured 5 NXT call-ups, the return of 2 Hall Of Famers, a former TNA champion and the shock return of Alexa Bliss, came an action-packed 2-out-of-3-falls war between Motor City Machine Guns and DIY (with another return) and a violent ladder match between Kevin Owens and Cody Rhodes. And then the men’s Royal Rumble match started. It was all rather breathless, even with two hour-long matches.
For the Royal Rumble to keep its magic, it has to be given time to breathe. These title matches need to be more than just a blitz of action between Rumble matches, where a minimum of 60 performers perform across two matches.
These rosters deserve their Royal Rumble appearances to matter and be the sole focus of the audience’s attention for one night. For the Royal Rumble to keep its magic, it has to be given time to breathe. Of all the events that are getting an expansion, the Royal Rumble has to become a two-day event.
