MR. TITO: Who Will Win the 2025 WWE Royal Rumble Matches for Both the Men and Women?
WWE’s annual Royal Rumble Premium Live Event (PLE) is just a few weeks away, as the event, this year, will be on Saturday, February 1st, 2025. Regardless of how good Wrestlemania and SummerSlam usually is, I’m ALWAYS game for the 30 man (and now women) Rumble match. Even during BAD years during the mid 1990s and throughout the 2010s, the Rumble match got you pumped. As I’ve always said, if aliens came to our planet and watched the Rumble match, they’d understand it more than other types of wrestling matches or other combat sports. Speaking of sports, it is my opinion that the Rumble match makes the WWE resemble a sport than anything else in pro wrestling.
The real question for 2025 is WHO will win the Royal Rumble matches?
On the men’s side, we reportedly have the following 3 matches scheduled for Wrestlemania 41:
– John Cena versus Cody Rhodes for the WWE Title
– Bill Goldberg versus Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship
– Roman Reigns vs. CM Punk
HOWEVER, there are rumors that Logan Paul will be pushed to potentially challenge Gunther for the World Heavyweight Championship.
Regardless of whether Gunther wrestles Logan Paul or Bill Goldberg at Wrestlemania 41, this creates quite the dilemma because the winner of the Rumble match gets to choose the World Champion to challenge for a spot on Wrestlemania (used to say “main event” Wrestlemania, but that’s loosely used now).
If Goldberg, Cena, or Paul are getting spots on the Wrestlemania 41 card against World Champions, that means one of them HAS to win the 2025 Rumble match, right?
Well, I’d argue this for Bill Goldberg or John Cena… Do you really want a part-time veteran winning the Rumble match, particularly OLDER veterans who are even more part-time than your typical part-time wrestlers (like Logan Paul)?
The Rumble match should be about elevating the next pushed guy to the very top, hence why it made 100% sense why Cody won the 2023 Rumble to challenge Roman and why it made sense for him to win the 2024 Rumble (even though WWE almost fumbled that by shoehorning Rock into Wrestlemania following the Vince McMahon allegations). Cody was red hot and never was World Champion before. He was the chaser, and therefore made it gratifying when he won the Rumble match.
While John Cena has the Ric Flair record to chase, that’s all he has, long-term, with the company. Sure, if he won the title, he’d defend it and probably announce “I’ll retire when I lose the belt”, but you’ll still be pushing a 47 about to be 48 year-old to the World Title, especially a John Cena who clearly isn’t as good as he once was.
Sorry, but it would be STUPID to have Bill Goldberg win the Rumble match. HE DOESN’T DESERVE IT with the terrible efforts shown in his last few matches. If you’re going to wrestle 2-3 times per year, you have 362 other days to actually train for a match. Plent of time to work on cardio, take a few trips to the Performance Center to learn how to work, etc. But no, Goldberg has shown ZERO effort to work on his craft despite the millions WWE has paid him since 2016 while providing him favorable booking to protect his character.
Logan Paul winning the Rumble is very interesting… Look, I’d argue that he needs some more experience, but all things considered, he’s a good worker for the low wrestling mileage he actually has. On top of that, Paul has amazing intangibles, personality-wise, that you just cannot teach someone. Hence why he and his brother Jake have amassed an incredible financial empire from YouTube to Boxing to WWE. Both have talents to cause people to react one way or another, and that feeds perfectly into pro wrestling.
As a John Cena fan, I’d be personally happy that he won but I’d get the argument against why an older veteran should win it.
Bill Goldberg should wrestle Gunther at Elimination Chamber for his Retirement Match. Sorry, but Goldberg’s last few matches have SUCKED and he doesn’t deserve the Wrestlemania payday for that. Older WCW fans can elevate Elimination Chamber instead, as Wrestlemania doesn’t need the WCW nostalgia bump as an event that draws no matter what.
If WWE goes the older veteran route, they are selling to fans that there’s Roman, Cena, Rock, and Goldberg and then there’s everybody else.
If you go back into time, overpushing veterans without any plans to let the youth get a try towards the top will kill a wrestling promotion.
Territory times before the 1990s allowed wrestling veterans to simply move on to another territory once they wore out their welcome. After a great World Title run, there’s only so much you can do and then you just start fresh in another region. Hence why I think Roman Reigns could see an expiration date once he vanquishes the Rock because he has nobody else left to wrestle. What’s next, another World Title run? Well, how would that be any better than his magnificent 2020-2024 World Title run? Impossible to replicate that as he gets older.
Everyone talks about how “STACKED” the 1991-1992 WWE roster was, as WCW began to crumble through early 1991 while promotions like AWA and World Class were finished. All of the bigtime veteran wrestlers were now in the WWE and if you watch the 1992 Royal Rumble, it’s an incredible ALL TIME group of veterans. Wrestlemania 8 was great, too, because of that “stacked” veteran WWE roster… However, business declined throughout 1991 and 1992. That “stacked” veteran roster didn’t draw WWE money even close to prior years, as Hulk Hogan was losing steam and we saw all of those other veterans for years.
Fast forward to WCW through 1994 and up and until 1998. Hulk Hogan and Macho Man felt fresh in a new environment but then they became even more fresh when the New World Order storyline began. Suddenly, you had a HEEL Hulk Hogan and a Macho Man who was conflicted between fighting or joining the NWO (Macho’s 1997 feud with DDP was freakin’ amazing!). Scott Hall and Kevin Nash took their Razor/Diesel gimmicks as far as they could in WWE and freshened up their careers in WCW with the NWO, too.
By 1998, though, the veterans started to wear out their welcome but Eric Bischoff demanded to keep the NWO strong. The only fresh face that he truly pushed was Bill Goldberg who was a great attraction but even he wore out his welcome quickly from too much hype and winning the WCW Title early. Once the chase was over for Goldberg, he had nothing left to prove in WCW. Conversely, WWE thrived because they heavily pushed NEW names to the top such as Steve Austin, the Rock, Mick Foley, Triple H, Kane, and they freshened up the Undertaker.
WWE kept re-treading the Attitude Era through 2000 and 2001, along with recycling the NWO during 2002… But they launched a long-term plan starting during 2002. They began to unload their Ohio Valley Wrestling developmental system which included Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Randy Orton, Batista, Shelton Benjamin, Charlie Haas, and many others. While Austin, Rock, and Triple H held on firmly to their main event spots, they soon gave way to the new generation of wrestlers. By Wrestlemania 21 during 2005, you had John Cena and Batista becoming World Champions.
Cena held onto his top spot and drew for 10 freakin’ years, and the WWE tried to run with an inexperienced Roman Reigns as his replacement during 2014-2020. Vince McMahon was actually right that Roman was the right guy, but just poorly used him as a scripted babyface. Brock Lesnar coming back made things interesting, as he was a dominating main eventer with mass appeal and he really helped ease the pain of non-stop Roman pushes back then.
As a wrestling promotion, though, you need to formulate PLANS to build up the younger wrestlers. Hence why Royal Rumble is very important to highlight and up & coming star to the public, just as having credible midcard titles (IC & US) are important to build up the stars of tomorrow. WWE pissed away YEARS of having a built-in farm system by disregarding the United States and Intercontinental Titles on their brands. Guys like Macho Man, Bret Hart, Shawn Michaels, Steve Austin, Triple H, the Rock, and John Cena benefitted heavily by having great midcard title runs to PROVE that they could draw chasing and then holding a title.
I just don’t know if having John Cena or Bill Goldberg win it is the answer…
Maybe Logan Paul is, but damn, I really think that Drew McIntyre deserves consideration to win the Rumble and then go after Gunther. If Roman vs. Punk and Cena vs. Cody are happening and likely headlining each night in Las Vegas, then Drew vs. Gunther would KILL IT as an opening match or middle-of-the-night match that would cause any match to struggle following that. Sorry, but Drew proved something to me during 2024 and if CM Punk wasn’t so valuable as a Wrestlemania opponent for Roman Reigns, Drew should have won that feud.
I could see a good scenario where Drew wins the Rumble, defeats Gunther at Wrestlemania 41, and then gets revenge on CM Punk after Wrestlemania 41 once Punk likely loses to Roman Reigns. Then, you are capitalizing on Drew McIntyre’s great new character that was founded during 2024 once more.
But I’m just wondering what are the plans with someone like Bron Breakker or other recent NXT call-ups… Seems like WWE is VERY dependent on OVW and FCW developmental system guys, as their roster is still full of them… But they are each getting up there in age.
Now, for the Women’s side…
Rhea Ripley and Tiffany Stratton are the Champions… I’m going to be totally honest: I’m so excited for both of them.
Rhea is an absolute star and I’d argue one of the most talented females to ever grace the WWE ring. Awesome in-ring talent, tough as nails, strong as heck, full of charisma, full of personality, and obviously beautiful. Maybe too many tattoos for my liking, but I can look the other way and stop yelling that the clouds about that. Honestly for me, I think she should hold the title for maybe 1-2 years and just dominate the roster UNTIL maybe Wrestlemania 42 or 43 when a big match against Bianca Belair happens. HOWEVER, I’d be 100% OK with Bianca Belair getting the shot at Wrestlemania 41 against Rhea, losing because Jade Gargill turned on her, and then getting a rematch for Wrestlemania 42.
Tiffany Stratton needs a strong opponent for her to get a 100% clean win against, even if she’s the heel. I’d be 100% OK with Charlotte Flair or Becky Lynch wrestling her, but I’m very leery about letting either veteran just appear suddenly and win the 2025 Rumble match. Again, re-read what I said above: the Rumble match SHOULD help springboard an up & coming talent.
The dirt sheets are suggesting Rhea Ripley vs. Becky Lynch and Tiffany Stratton vs. Charlotte Flair will be the Wrestlemania 41 matches.
Who should win the Rumble between those 2 veterans?
Now, I could be lenient with Goldberg, Cena, Charlotte, and Becky winning the Rumble as long as Gunther, Cody, Rhea, and Tiffany each win-out because they vanquished the veteran challengers. That will make the younger wrestlers look stronger. Thus, the “springboard” becomes Wrestlemania 41 for making the younger champions elevate their championship run. I could buy that.
Who else is ready for prime time in the Women’s division?
I really enjoyed Liv Morgan’s 2024 and felt it was a highlight of that year. Does she have more stories to tell after Rhea Ripley vanquished her and Dominik Mysterio?
And I don’t know if Alexa Bliss ever wants to return full-time or not. It’s been a year since we’ve seen her and I’m perfectly fine with the career she had and encourage her to enjoy being a Mom. I’d love to have late 2010s Bliss back, through, and would be happy to see a big comeback from her.
All of the other former Women’s Champions, we’ve already seen your best…
I just don’t know who is next on the WWE roster or on NXT who is as good as Rhea Ripley and Bianca Belair, and Tiffany Stratton will grow into being nearly as good as them.
If you’re going to push part-time veterans to win the Rumble match, require them to put over the younger current champions. Don’t repeat 2014 where Randy Orton was tired as a World Champion with his existing character and was going to headline Wrestlemania 30 against a returning part-time Batista.
I realize that WWE is KILLING IT right now with their top stars, but they’ve got to start putting in plans to elevate stars, PARTICULARY on the men’s side who come from NXT. The wrestlers signed to join OVW and FCW are getting older and the amount of “dream matches” for them to accomplish is shortening.
The next few years will be a good test for Triple H to see if he’s learned any Talent Relations lessons from the 2010s when he struggled to groom future Main Eventers with his system. That, or we’ll have to see if his Creative Team management will overcome any weaknesses from talents coming from his developmental system.
If it were up to me, I’d have Drew McIntyre win the 2025 Rumble match and challenge Gunther, while I’d have Bianca Belair win the Women’s Rumble match and challenge Rhea Ripley.
BUT, I have faith and trust in what Triple H has been doing since June 2022 and will give him the chance to impress me.
The WILD CARD through all of this would be if The Rock or even Roman Reigns winning it… I just have this feeling that the WWE is up to something with the Rock and I’m looking forward to whatever surprise that might be.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
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